The U.N. migration agency says migrant children have died or gone missing at the rate of nearly one per day worldwide over the past five years, with treacherous journeys like those across the Mediterranean or the U.S.-Mexico border continuing to take lives.In its latest “Fatal Journeys” report, the International Organization for Migration has released findings that some 1,600 children – some as young as 6 months old – are among the 32,000 people who have perished in dangerous travels since 2014.
The Mediterranean remains the most fatal crossing, with over 17,900 people dying there –many on the hazardous trip between Libya and Italy.
The IOM also pointed to rising deaths every year along the U.S.-Mexico border since 2014, totaling more than 1,900 over five years.
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Month: June 2019
May Tells Putin Russia Must End Irresponsible Activity
British Prime Minister Theresa May told Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday that Russia must end its “irresponsible and destabilizing activity” for normal relations between the two countries to be restored.May also told Putin that the two Russians responsible for the attack on Sergei Skripal in Salisbury last year must be brought to justice, her office said in a statement.It said May said “the use of a deadly nerve agent on the streets of Salisbury formed part of a wider pattern of unacceptable behavior and was a truly despicable act that led to the death of a British citizen, Dawn Sturgess.”The comments came as May held talks with Putin on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan.
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May Tells Putin Russia Must End Irresponsible Activity
British Prime Minister Theresa May told Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday that Russia must end its “irresponsible and destabilizing activity” for normal relations between the two countries to be restored.May also told Putin that the two Russians responsible for the attack on Sergei Skripal in Salisbury last year must be brought to justice, her office said in a statement.May said “the use of a deadly nerve agent on the streets of Salisbury formed part of a wider pattern of unacceptable behavior and was a truly despicable act that led to the death of a British citizen, Dawn Sturgess.”The comments came as May held talks with Putin on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan.
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Trump Lightheartedly to Putin: Don’t Interfere in US Election
U.S. President Donald Trump gave Russian President Vladimir Putin a light-hearted warning not to interfere again in American elections.Appearing before reporters during his bilateral meeting with Putin on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Osaka, Japan, Trump was asked whether he would tell the Russian leader to not meddle in the U.S. electoral process.“Yes, of course I will,” replied Trump who then, with a smile on his face, turned to the Russian president to say: “Don’t meddle in the election, president.” He then repeated “don’t meddle in the election,” while pointing a finger at Putin.The exchange is likely to reinforce a perception among many that Trump does not take the issue seriously.First post-Mueller report meetingIt was the first meeting between the two leaders since special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation concluded there was no conspiracy or coordination between Trump’s 2016 presidential election campaign and Russian government officials.Three U.S. intelligence agencies, however, jointly stated they were highly confident that Moscow orchestrated a sophisticated campaign to influence the election.
Russians Have Low Expectations of Latest Putin-Trump Encounter video player.
Embed” />CopyWATCH: Russians Have Low Expectations of Latest Putin-Trump EncounterThe White House says Trump and Putin, in their Friday meeting in Japan, reviewed the state of relations between the two countries and agreed they will continue discussion on a 21st century model of arms control, which Trump said should also include China. The White House says Trump and Putin also discussed the situations in Iran, Syria, Venezuela and Ukraine.Last November, Trump canceled a meeting with Putin at the G-20 in Argentina after Russia seized two Ukrainian vessels and their crew members in the Sea of Azov, but the continued detention of those crew members does not appear to be deterring the leaders from meeting this time.
Iran to be Discussed at G-20 Meeting in Japan video player.
Next stop, South KoreaAfter the summit, Trump flies to Seoul to discuss with South Korean President Moon Jae-in ways to ease tensions with North Korea.There has been speculation that the U.S. president will make a visit to the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas, but U.S. officials have ruled out a meeting between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un while the U.S. president is on the peninsula.Trump and Kim have met twice — in Singapore and Vietnam — but failed to reach any significant agreements.The United States and North Korea have never signed a peace treaty. A three-year war on the peninsula in the early 1950s was halted with an armistice.
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Kenya’s Avocado Farmers Eye Chinese Market, But There’s a Catch
MURANGA COUNTRY, KENYA – Kenyan farmer Alexander Muchiri tends 30 avocado trees he planted seven years ago on his farm in Muranga County.In previous years, most of his avocados were sold locally, providing a modest income for him, his wife and five children.Then in April, Kenya signed a deal to export avocados to China, making Kenya the only African nation to sell the fruit to the huge Chinese consumer market.With that in mind, Muchiri says he will scale up production by planting more trees.He says if they plant more avocados, there will be a market for them. In previous years, brokers would come, pick the larger fruits and leave the smaller ones on the farms with no one to sell to, Muchiri said, wasting lots of fruit.Potential buyers visitAbout 2 kilometers from Muchiri’s farm, Beatrice Mugure inspects her 300 avocado trees. She used to grow coffee on her eight-acre farm but switched to avocados a few years ago as the price of coffee dropped and the market for avocados expanded.Her avocado trees are about three years old, Mugure said, and are giving her their first fruits. She says potential buyers have come to her farm several times to check the avocados and pick samples, and they will be coming back for the harvest.The potential buyers Mugure is talking about are private exporting companies.
Kenya’s Avocado Farmers Scaling Up Production, Eyeing Chinese Market video player.
Embed” />CopyThe catchKenya’s Ministry of Trade says that the Chinese market will take in more than 40 percent of Kenya’s avocado crop, putting Kenya in the top rank of avocado exporters.But there is one catch, says Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for Trade and Industrialization Peter Munya.“Usually when you want to export something outside, there are standards you have to meet and when they came to assess the situation of avocados, there were found to be some flies, which made it difficult for us to be allowed to export raw avocados, and a decision was made to have frozen avocados exported,” Munya said.Farmers or traders are required to freeze the fruits to minus 30 degrees Celsius to get rid of the pests and minus 18 degrees for transit. Many farmers worry that the strict requirement will prevent them from directly exporting the produce.Munya says they will help Kenyan farmers who do not have facilities to freeze their crops for export to China.“We are looking at building capacity for Kenya National Trading Cooperation to support small-scale farmers to aggregate and that’s already in the budget,” he said. “We have resources to support KNTC to upgrade its warehouses and then export.”Kenyan exporters say they are also planning to make investments in cold storage to meet the requirements for accessing the Chinese market.In the meantime, Kenyan avocado farmers will rely on farmer cooperatives to find other markets willing to buy their produce fresh from the farm.
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Vietnam Gets Tougher on YouTube as Citizens See Anti-Government Content
Vietnam is squelching YouTube’s business activity after the service posted thousands of videos that the government considers inaccurate, offensive to the Communist leadership or a mechanism to lure children to gangs, official media and tech industry sources say.Parent company Google has tried to shut down about 8,000 YouTube videos as ordered, but YouTube software doesn’t go far enough to remove others, state-controlled news outlet VnExpress International reported Wednesday. About 55,000 videos with “toxic, illegal” content remain on the site, the report says, citing the Authority of Broadcasting and Electronic Information.Bystanders peer into barricades and umbrellas attached to an entry to the police headquarters in Hong Kong, June 27, 2019. Hong Kong protesters marched Thursday as they called on G-20 nations to confront China over sliding freedoms in Hong Kong.Case by caseGoogle does not comply with all of Vietnam’s requests, considering each case individually, a source close to the company said for this report. The source said Vietnamese authorities want more content removed, faster or before being posted.“It must be there’s probably some content on YouTube, probably to do with either Vietnamese leaders or China, and it would completely increase the country risk for Google,” said Adam McCarty, chief economist with Mekong Economics in Hanoi.Leaders are sensitive about their public image. Many Vietnamese citizens also dislike China, a territorial rival going back centuries, and the government in Hanoi hopes to head off violent anti-China protests like a series in 2014 that targeted Chinese-owned businesses.Steps to throttle YouTubeThe Vietnamese government will block payments that Google makes for YouTube content that it considers illegal and will push Google to develop algorithms that can stop controversial videos from going live, VnExpress International said.The Ministry of Information and Communications further ordered 60 companies, including foreign ones, to quit advertising on YouTube videos with “antigovernment content,” the news website adds. Among the would-be advertisers are Samsung, Yamaha and Huawei.Authorities will face “challenges” in following up the advertisement ban, since YouTube places that ad automatically via its software, said Lam Nguyen, country manager with the market research firm IDC.Google spokespeople in Asia declined comment this week.Cybersecurity LawVietnam, different from its communist neighbor China, blocks neither YouTube nor other Google services. YouTube was the second-most accessed website in Vietnam last year, behind only Facebook, the news outlet says.“There won’t be any restrictions, and that’s something they’re proud of,” said Tai Wan-ping, Southeast Asia-specialized international business professor at Cheng Shiu University in Taiwan.But in January the country implemented a Cybersecurity Law that lets the government target specific offensive content using evidence provided by email services and social media networks including Facebook. Efforts to stop YouTube fall under that law, Nguyen said.“It is a next step of enforcement initiatives that follow the Cybersecurity Law that went into effect early this year,” he said. “Google and YouTube among other cross-border digital platforms will begin to start feeling pressure to do compliance.”Demonstrators rally ahead of the G-20 summit, urging the international community to back their demands for the government to withdraw the extradition bill in Hong Kong, June 26, 2019.What’s in the videosOfficials in Hanoi have not said publicly which videos it dislikes. Naming specific content would motivate more people to watch it, McCarty said.Some videos may have shown the million-person, antigovernment street demonstrations in Hong Kong since June 9, Tai said. Vietnamese authorities do not want disgruntled people in their own country to launch protests, he added.“They care a lot about the Hong Kong situation, because they wonder whether the matter in Hong Kong could happen in the future in Vietnam,” Tai said.Vietnamese officials probably objected to content they felt had “libeled” the government, to so-called “fake news” and to videos posted by a charismatic male Vietnamese “gangster” who was influencing children to like him, said Trung Nguyen, international relations dean at Ho Chi Minh University of Social Sciences and Humanities.“He became so notorious in Vietnam, and many young people follow him, and the government asked YouTube to block the channel,” Trung Nguyen said.The government believes it has a right to demand cooperation from YouTube, since the video service gets “financial benefits” from Vietnam, he added.
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Small Virginia Town Raises Big Bucks for Charity
A small-town charity wanted to feed hungry homeless people and support the arts that feed people’s hungry souls. So to meet these needs and others, the Community Foundation in Harrisonburg, Virginia, set an ambitious fundraising goal of more than $300,000 and cranked up an online campaign to encourage donations. VOA’s Yahya Barzinji tells us what happened next in this report narrated by Bezhan Hamdard.
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Iran to be Discussed at G-20 Meeting in Japan
Iran is expected to be one of the major topics at the G-20 meeting in Japan, where leaders of industrialized nations are meeting Friday and Saturday for an annual summit. Meanwhile U.S. and Iranian diplomats met with European counterparts in an effort to find a solution to the political crisis that rose after the United States abandoned the 2015 international nuclear deal with Iran. U.S. tensions with Iran were also addressed at a NATO meeting in Belgium on Thursday. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports.
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Have an Old Car? You’re Not Alone. Vehicle Age Hits US Record
The average age of cars and trucks in the U.S. has hit a record 11.8 years, as better quality and technology allows people to keep them on the road longer.The 2019 figures from data provider IHS Markit show that the rate of increase is slowing, but the average age is still expected to go over 12 years early in the next decade. The average age is up 0.1 years from 2018.People are feeling comfortable keeping vehicles longer because they’re built better than in the past, said IHS Markit Director of Global Automotive Aftermarket Mark Seng.“The quality is higher, lasting longer, withstanding the weather,” Seng said.Financing longerPlus, original owners are keeping their vehicles longer and maintaining them better because they’re financing them for longer, six or even seven years in many cases, he said.“That helps improve the overall life of the vehicle,” he said.Western states have the oldest vehicles at 12.4 years, while in the Northeast the average age is only 10.9 years. That’s largely because of less stop-and-start traffic that wears on a vehicle. Weather conditions also play a part.Montana has the oldest average age at 16.6 years, while the youngest is Vermont, with an average age of 9.9 years.The aging vehicles should be a boon to repair shops, which may want to change strategies to cater to owners of older vehicles who may want to spend less on parts, Seng said.The number of light vehicles in use in the U.S. also hit a record of more than 278 million this year, according to IHS, which tracks vehicle registrations nationally.
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Trump Meets Abe, Modi and Merkel on G-20 Sidelines
VOA’s White House Bureau Chief Steve Herman in Osaka, Japan, contributed to this report.U.S. President Donald Trump met Friday morning with several world leaders on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Japan. Trump started his day with summit host Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan, followed by short discussions with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and German Chancellor Angela Merkel — all of whom Trump criticized just hours before he landed in Osaka.”We’ll be discussing trade, we’ll be discussing military,” Trump said as he met with Abe before heading to the talks. Trump, recently, had publicly criticized the U.S.-Japan defense alliance, that has been in place since World War II.”If Japan is attacked, we will fight World War Three. We will go in and protect them with our lives and with our treasure,” Trump said during a telephone interview with Fox Business News on Wednesday. “We will fight at all costs … but if we are attacked, Japan doesn’t have to help us at all. They can watch on a Sony television.”The White House said Trump and Abe had “reaffirmed their commitment to U.S.-Japan coordination on shared security challenges, including on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and Iran.”In Trump’s meeting with Modi, “the leaders acknowledged the unprecedented breadth and depth of bilateral ties, including economic, trade, energy, defense and security, counterterrorism and space,” according to the White House.President Donald Trump, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi share a fist bump during their meeting on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Osaka, Japan, Friday, June 28, 2019.Trump also met jointly with Abe and Modi. The three leaders did a joint fist bump for the reporters. Despite earlier complaining about India, Trump said he and Modi have become “great friends” and the two countries “have never been closer.” As for Germany, Trump complained once again that Berlin was not contributing enough toward the costs of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.Merkel and Trump discussed issues “including Iran’s dangerous activity in the Middle East, stabilizing Libya and the Sahel region, and supporting economic reform in Ukraine. The two leaders also reviewed ongoing negotiations with China and establishing fair standards for global trade,” the White House said.Trump added, “She’s a fantastic person, a fantastic woman and I’m glad to have her as a friend.” The most attention Friday, however, will likely be paid to the meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. As he left the White House Thursday, Trump told reporters that he expects a “very good conversation” with Putin but added that “what I say to him is none of your business.”President Donald Trump and other leaders gather for a group photo at the G-20 summit in Osaka, Japan, June 28, 2019.The two leaders are expected to discuss how to contain Iran, which has threatened to very soon breach uranium enrichment limits set in the 2015 nuclear accord. They will also likely take on the subjects of Syria and Venezuela. It is the first meeting between the two leaders since special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation failed to find evidence that the Trump campaign had criminally conspired with Russia during the U.S. presidential election in 2016.Last November, Trump canceled a meeting with Putin at the G-20 in Argentina after Russia seized two Ukrainian vessels and their crew in the Sea of Azov, but the continued detention of those crew members does not appear to be deterring the leaders from meeting this time. On Saturday, Trump is scheduled to meet with China’s Xi Jinping when they are likely to discuss trade after a breakdown in negotiations and an escalation of tariffs by both sides.After the summit, Trump flies to Seoul to discuss with South Korean President Moon Jae-in ways to ease tensions with North Korea. There has been speculation that the U.S. president will make a visit to the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas, but U.S. officials have ruled out a meeting between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un while the U.S. president is on the peninsula.
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Australia Says No Progress in Finding Student Feared Detained in N. Korea
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Friday Canberra has yet to establish the whereabouts of an Australian man missing in North Korea for several days.The family of Alek Sigley said on Thursday they had not heard from the 29-year-old university student in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, since Tuesday.Australia’s foreign affairs department said on Thursday it was seeking urgent clarification about reports that an Australian had been detained in North Korea.Australia has no diplomatic presence in North Korea and relies on third-party countries such as Sweden to act on its behalf. Morrison said Australia has been unable to establish what happened to Sigley despite the help of its allies.”We don’t have any further information,” Morrison told Australia’s Channel 9 in Osaka, where he is attending the G20 summit of world leaders.”It’s very concerning, I’m very concerned,” he said.The treatment of foreign citizens, most usually from the United States, by the secretive North has long been a contentious issue. Some have been held as prisoners for years.The death of American student Otto Warmbier in 2017 after he was detained in North Korea for 17 months sparked a long period of tension between Washington and Pyongyang, with the United States and North Korea even trading threats of war.Warmbier was detained in 2016 and sentenced to 15 years of forced labor for trying to steal a propaganda poster in his hotel. He was returned to the United States in a coma and died soon after.The United States imposed a ban on its citizens traveling to North Korea in September 2017, with a few exceptions for humanitarian workers or journalists.Those tensions were relieved somewhat by an historic meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore a year ago to discuss the North’s nuclear and missiles programs.The problems remain unresolved, however, after a failed second summit in Hanoi this year.
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Trump Begins Busy Round of Meetings With World Leaders
U.S. President Donald Trump is set to begin a series of one-on-one meetings with at least eight world leaders on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Japan. His first meeting Friday was with summit host Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan, followed by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and German Chancellor Angela Merkel — all of whom Trump criticized just hours before he landed in Osaka.”We’ll be discussing trade, we’ll be discussing military,” Trump said as he met with Abe before heading to the talks. Trump, recently, had publicly criticized the U.S.-Japan defense alliance, that has been in place since World War Two.”If Japan is attacked, we will fight World War Three. We will go in and protect them with our lives and with our treasure,” Trump said during a telephone interview with Fox Business News on Wednesday. “We will fight at all costs … but if we are attacked, Japan doesn’t have to help us at all. They can watch on a Sony television.”U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, left, talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during their meeting at the Prime Minister’s Residence, June 26, 2019, in New Delhi, India.Trump met jointly with Abe and Modi. The three leaders did a joint fist bump for the reporters. Despite earlier complaining about India, Trump said he and Modi have become “great friends” and the two countries “have never been closer.” As for Germany, Trump complained again that Berlin was not contributing enough toward the costs of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.The most attention Friday, however, will likely be paid to the meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. As he left the White House Thursday, Trump told reporters that he expected a “very good conversation” with Putin but added that “what I say to him is none of your business.” The two leaders are expected to discuss how to contain Iran, which has threatened to very soon breach uranium enrichment limits set in the 2015 nuclear accord. They will also most likely take on the subjects of Syria and Venezuela. Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during an annual nationwide televised phone-in show in Moscow, June 20, 2019.It will be the first meeting between the two leaders since special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation failed to find evidence that the Trump campaign had criminally conspired with Russia during the U.S. presidential election in 2016.Last November, Trump canceled a meeting with Putin at a G-20 summit in Argentina after Russia seized two Ukrainian vessels and their crew in the Sea of Azov, but the continued detention of those crew members does not appear to be deterring the leaders from meeting this time. On Saturday, Trump is scheduled to meet with China’s Xi Jinping when they are are likely to discuss trade after a breakdown in negotiations and an escalation of tariffs by both sides.After the summit, Trump will fly to Seoul to discuss with South Korean President Moon Jae-in ways to ease tensions with North Korea. It is speculated that the U.S. president will visit the Demilitarized Zone separating the Koreas, but U.S. officials have ruled out a meeting between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un while the U.S. president is on the peninsula.
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Two Years After Legal Release, Mauritania Blogger Remains in Detention
Nearly six years after his arrest, and two years after he was legally set free, Mauritanian lawyers and international rights groups are calling for authorities to release blogger Mohamed Ould Cheikh Mkhaitir.Citizen journalist and blogger Mkhaitir was arrested in 2013 and sentenced to death for what the state called blasphemy after he wrote a blog post condemning the use of religion to justify racial discrimination. In 2017, a Mauritanian court commuted Mkhaitir’s sentence to two years — which he had already served, legally liberating him. However, he has remained detained in an undisclosed location.”He is no longer officially, legally in prison,” Fatimata M’Baye, Mkhaitir’s lawyer, told VOA. “Today, since November 9th, 2017, he is detained in an undisclosed location — a location even we, his lawyers, don’t know.”Fatimata M’Baye, Mohamed Ould Cheikh Mkhaitir’s lawyer, says she has not been allowed to speak with her client. (E. Sarai/VOA)M’Baye said that multiple requests to see her client have been denied. Mkhaitir, 35 and a father of one child, has not had any communication with his family either.”The only people who have spoken with him are the people who bring him his food,” M’Baye said.Numerous human rights organizations have called on Mauritania President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, who is due to step down in coming months, to release him. But Arnaud Froger, head of the Africa desk at Reporters Without Borders, says the case is indicative of declining press freedom in the Sahara desert country.”This case of Mohamed Mkhaitir is very symbolic of what’s happening in Mauritania as far as press freedom is going,” Froger told VOA. “The country’s ranked 94 in our press freedom index and registered a very huge drop in places in the last index, mainly because the outgoing president has refused to release Mohamed Mkhaitir.”Mkhaitir’s first trial in 2013 sparked protests by Islamists in the capital calling for his death. The post for which he was arrested criticized the use of religion to defend a rigid caste system in Mauritania.Mkhaitir is of the Haratin ethnicity, sometimes referred to as black Maurs. The Haratin face systematic discrimination as severe as modern slavery — a problem the Mauritanian government asserts no longer exists.Protecting Mkhaitir?Since the court commuted Mkhaitir’s sentence in 2017, the president has argued that Mkhaitir must be kept in detention for his own safety, and for the safety of the Mauritanian people.”We’ve been told, no, it’s not just for his security, it’s for the security of the 3 million or 4 million people of Mauritania — that his release would be a threat to the stability of the country,” M’Baye said. “I say that … I don’t understand. I don’t understand.”Her disbelief is shared by rights organizations.”That you keep a blogger behind bars to ensure his own safety and the safety of Mauritanians is both outrageous and false. That the pressure put by Islamists on this case cannot justify to keep someone in detention no matter the court’s decision,” Froger said.Reporters Without Borders is one of 11 organizations, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, that signed a letter to Abdel Aziz last week calling for Mkhaitir’s release.Incoming president Mohamed Ould Ghazouani has said nothing about the case.
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Botswana’s Growing Elephant Population Creates Conflict with Humans
The small town of Gobojango, 500 kilometers (310 miles) northeast of the capital, Gaborone, is fighting an increasing elephant problem.Residents say they support President Mokgweetsi Masisi’s decision to lift the ban on elephant hunting, as more than 250 of the large mammals have moved into human settlements.Masilo Matsapa says the elephants drive people away and threaten the cattle. “They disturb our lives because we are now forced to collect our livestock early as we are afraid of the elephants,” he said. “In the cattle posts, people have deserted, it’s only empty homes. By 4 p.m., we have rounded off the animals and they are already in the corral, so that by the time the elephants come, they do not find anyone. We wake up in the morning only to find their tracks. The elephants are too many. They should be reduced.”
Botswana’s Growing Elephant Population Clashes with Humans video player.
Embed” />CopyHorticulture farmer Shadreck Mapetla said he was forced to abandon his trade because elephants constantly invaded his farm, and the compensation for loss of crops from the government was insufficient.The only way to address the invasion of elephants is to reduce their numbers, he said.”This is not a normal life. When our president … speaks about killing elephants, people refuse, but people want food from us in the village. Those who say they don’t want the elephants to be killed should come, take and keep them,” Mapetla said.Local farmers’ association chairperson Davidson Mapetla led a march in 2017, calling on the government to act. He said the villages gain no benefits from the elephants, as they are not within a game reserve and do not generate income from tourism.”The only thing that sustains our village is farming, so if we don’t get farming, then we should do away with tourism,” he said. “We want to farm. Reduce the elephants to the required numbers that the government can be able to manage. That will be wise.” Human deaths caused by elephants have increased, as the mammals move away from their historic range into human territory.One family from neighboring Semolale is still mourning the death of their son, Balisi Sebudubudu, who was trampled to death by an elephant while out in the bush to look for a cow to slaughter during his brother’s funeral. Critics of elephant huntingHowever, not everyone supports the killing of elephants as a solution to the human-wildlife conflict.Isabel Wolf-Gillespie runs programs to alert communities of ways to co-exist with elephants without killing them.”I love people, I love elephants. My view will be that co-existence is something to strive for. I like the idea of looking for solutions that nurture co-existence,” she said. In another proposed solution, Botswana’s government has offered to give some of the elephants to neighboring countries where elephant populations are in decline.
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US Indicts 2 Venezuelan Ex-Officials for Money Laundering
The U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday indicted two former influential figures in Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s government on money laundering and corruption charges.Minister of Electric Power Luis Motta Dominguez — whom Maduro replaced following nationwide blackouts in March — was charged along with Eustiquio Jose Lugo Gomez, a top official from the same ministry, according to a statement from Treasury.”Rather than use their official positions to serve the Venezuelan people, Motta and Lugo illegally enriched themselves and contributed to the electricity crisis,” the statement read.Both men are accused of taking bribes in exchange for awarding contracts for electrical infrastructure equipment, some of which was incompatible with the network, “rendering them useless and contributing to the ongoing deterioration of the electrical system.”The two allegedly laundered their bribes through banks in south Florida.The Treasury Department also slapped sanctions on Motta and Lugo, meaning all their U.S. property and interests in property have been blocked.However, the sanctions “need not be permanent,” the statement said.”Sanctions are intended to bring about a positive change of behavior,” the Treasury statement read, meaning they could be lifted if these officials turn on the Maduro regime and take “concrete and meaningful actions to restore democratic order.”The United States opposes Maduro and recognizes opposition leader Juan Guaido as the country’s interim president.
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US House Democrats Move to Back Senate Plan for Border Funding
U.S. House Democrats dropped opposition on Thursday to a bill passed by the Republican-controlled Senate that would release $4.6 billion in emergency funds to address worsening humanitarian conditions for migrant children and families on the U.S.-Mexico border, lawmakers said.Leading Democrats in the House of Representatives said the chamber was likely to vote later Thursday on a spending bill, approved by the Senate on Wednesday.A photo of two drowned migrants and reports of horrendous conditions for detained children have spurred efforts to craft compromise legislation to send to President Donald Trump before Congress breaks this week for the U.S. Independence Day holiday.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi gave in to pushback from moderate Democrats and dropped plans to add migrant protections to the Senate bill.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., center, walks to the House floor from her office on Capitol Hill, June 27, 2019.”At the end of the day, we have to make sure that the resources needed to protect the children are available,” Pelosi said in a statement. “In order to get resources to the children fastest, we will reluctantly pass the Senate bill.”Pelosi and liberal Democrats had earlier planned to amend the Senate bill to set health standards for facilities holding migrants, establish a three-month limit for any child to spend at an intake shelter, and reduce spending for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.Trump has made cracking down on illegal immigration a centerpiece of his administration but officials are saying they will soon run out of money for border agencies.Border apprehensions hit their highest level in more than a decade in May, straining resources and creating chaotic scenes at overcrowded border patrol facilities. Many of the migrants are either children or families, mostly from Central America.”Children are suffering at the border and we must act now to stop it,” Representative Ben McAdams wrote on Twitter.Lawmakers in the House stood for a moment’s silence on Thursday out of respect for migrants trying to cross to the United States.The conditions of unaccompanied children crossing the border has become a key issue in the 2020 presidential race. During a debate Wednesday night, many of the Democratic candidates called for an overhaul of U.S. immigration laws and about 12 of them are set to visit a Florida facility this week.A photo of Salvadoran father Oscar Alberto Martinez and his toddler daughter Angie Valeria who drowned attempting to cross the Rio Grande added urgency on both sides of the aisle to reach a funding deal.’Deplorable’ conditionsLawyers and human rights workers said they found sick and hungry children when they visited the Border Patrol facility in Clint, Texas.”Many had been detained for weeks, one even up to a month in really horrific conditions,” said Clara Long, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch.Activists hold a protest against the treatment and conditions of children in immigration detention outside U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Border Patrol station facilities in Clint, Texas, June 27, 2019.Attorneys representing migrant children filed papers Wednesday in federal court in Los Angeles asking that the U.S. government be held in contempt of court for “flagrant and persistent” violations of the terms of a 1997 agreement that governs the treatment of children in immigration detention. They requested immediate action be taken to remedy the “deplorable” conditions.The renewed focus on conditions on the border has also galvanized opposition in recent days to a Trump administration policy that sends asylum-seekers to some of Mexico’s most violent cities.In an open letter to Trump and other political leaders, a coalition of evangelical churches said it was “deeply troubled” by the policy which it said left children vulnerable to violence and trafficking, as well as by reports of “inhumane” conditions in U.S. federal immigration facilities.The Catholic diocese of El Paso, Texas, separately denounced a critical lack of shelter, food, legal aid and basic services for asylum-seekers returned to Mexico under the program and “distressing detention conditions” in the United States before they are returned.In court papers filed Wednesday, a union that represents asylum officers at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services described the program as “fundamentally contrary to the moral fabric of our nation,” citing the American tradition of sheltering the persecuted stretching back to the arrival of “Pilgrims onto a Massachusetts shore in November 1620.”
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US Senate Approves New North Korea Sanctions
The U.S. Senate on Thursday approved a massive yearly authorization for America’s armed forces that includes a new round of sanctions against North Korea and comes amid fulsome debate on President Donald Trump’s latitude to take military action against Iran. The vote was 86-8.The National Defense Authorization Act budgets $750 billion for the Pentagon for the 2020 fiscal year, which begins in October, up from $716 billion this year.The bill allows for the full universe of activities conducted by the branches of America’s armed forces. In addition, it authorizes the creation of a U.S. Space Force at the behest of the Trump administration, mandates cybersecurity initiatives and sets forth a 3.1% pay raise for military personnel.”It would be difficult to overstate the importance of this legislation to the ongoing missions of our nation’s men and women in uniform,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, calling the NDAA “a declaration to both our allies and adversaries of America’s strategic resolve.”Folded into the bill are numerous provisions relating to national defense but separate from the Pentagon, such as new economic pressure against North Korea in hopes of forcing Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear ambitions.Under the bipartisan measure, entities doing business with North Korea would be blocked from the U.S. banking system. In 2010, Congress approved similar sanctions against Iran that were widely believed to have compelled Tehran to the negotiating table over its nuclear program.”We’re sending a very clear message: You can do business with North Korea or you can do business with the United States,” Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland said. “But if you choose North Korea, you can’t do business here and you will be held to account.””For decades, negotiations with the North Korean regime have been gamed by the North Koreans,” Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Pat Toomey said. “They are developing nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, and they have become a direct and growing threat to the U.S. mainland as well as, obviously, our allies.”Toomey added, “In my view, the only way we can hope to change North Korea is with crippling sanctions. The sanctions currently in place are not sufficient.”Congress took up new punitive measures as on-again, off-again nuclear discussions between the Trump administration and North Korea’s regime appear in limbo.FILE – North Korean leader Kim Jong Un reads a letter from U.S. President Donald Trump, in Pyongyang, North Korea, in this picture released by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency, June 22, 2019.Trump recently acknowledged receiving a personal letter from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. On Thursday, however, Pyongyang’s central news agency lashed out at the United States, hinting that nuclear talks might be halted.Toomey said he did not expect resistance from the White House over the sanctions.”My sense is that the administration recognizes that tougher sanctions against North Korea are a good thing and will strengthen their hand in the negotiation, should the day come when we have meaningful negotiations [with North Korea],” he said.The punitive measure was named after Otto Warmbier, an American college student imprisoned in North Korea in 2016. He died shortly after being returned to the United States in a vegetative state in 2017.Consideration of the NDAA has coincided with weeks of congressional debate over possible military confrontation with Iran, a debate made more heated after the Islamic nation shot down a U.S. military drone over the Strait of Hormuz earlier this month and Trump ordered additional U.S. troops to the Middle East.Senate Democrats, joined by a few Republicans, had pressed for an amendment to the NDAA stipulating that Trump would need congressional authorization to order military action against Iran.McConnell agreed to a vote on the measure, but not as part of the NDAA. The Senate is expected to vote on the proposal Friday.The Senate’s NDAA differs from a House version, likely requiring the formation of a bicameral committee to craft a unified bill that can pass both chambers.
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Archbishop Describes Kidnapping by Separatist Fighters in Cameroon
Separatists in Cameroon’s restive English-speaking regions have freed a prominent Catholic archbishop they kidnapped Tuesday. Archbishop Cornelius Fontem Esua says he was abducted by separatist fighters in a locality called Njinikejem while on a trip to preach peace in regions where a separatist war has raged for the past two years.”The road was blocked,” he said. “I stood there for sometime, some boys came in and said, ‘No, you cannot go, you should go back.’ They gave me the number of a certain general [commander of separatist fighters]. They called and said, ‘Let me talk to him.’ He said, ‘No, you cannot pass, it has been blocked.’ I came down, I removed the barrier and I passed. The boys came, about 5 or 6 of them very aggressively shouting, ‘Who do you think you are,’ mishandled my driver. ‘No, we are taking you to our camp.'”Esua says he was taken to the bush with four of his companions. He says they were not physically assaulted while in captivity.The archbishop says he told the hundreds of youths and the man who called himself the general commanding separatist forces in the area that they should stop killing, maiming and abducting people whom they say they are trying to liberate.”I told them, ‘You are making people to suffer.’ I said we cannot achieve anything good with evil. Thou shall not kill, thou shall not make other people to suffer. People whom you pretend to be fighting for are suffering. I told them a lot about education. Get the schools open,” he said.Esua says they listened to him, and replied that they were fighting to save their land and people. He says he was asked to leave after more than 13 hours in captivity; he did not say if a ransom was paid for his release.Previous abductionsIt was not the first time clergy have been abducted by the English-speaking separatists, who want to break away from Cameroon’s French-speaking majority. The Catholic Church says dozens of its nuns and priests have been kidnapped and released. Many believe the church paid to secure their release, an allegation the church denies. Security analyst Eugene Ongbwa, a consultant with Cameroon’s NGO Ecumenical Service For Peace, says the separatists have not been killing priests because the Catholic Church has preached against abuses by the government, and has called on the central government to listen to the fighters.When the crisis began, separatist fighters kidnapped and killed missionaries and foreign workers to put pressure on the international community to force the government of Cameroon to grant their requests, Ongbwa said, adding that separatists seem to have dropped that option. The archbishop’s life may have been spared because he has been neutral, though vocal, about the need for the government to listen to the separatists, Ongbwa said.The Catholic Church says at least nine clergy members have been killed, including American-born Charles Wesco, who died in Bamenda in crossfire with separatist fighters, and Kenyan-born Cosmas Omboto Ondari, who was shot in the southwestern town of Mamfe in a crossfire incident last November.
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Kenyan Activists Celebrate Halt to Coal Plant in World Heritage Town
Kenyan activists are celebrating after a Chinese-backed plan to build East Africa’s first coal-fired power plant near the World Heritage site island town of Lamu has again been halted. Ruud Elmendorp reports from Lamu on the continuing controversy.
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Erdogan Seeks Out Trump to End Dispute on Russian Missile System
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is looking forward to a meeting with President Donald Trump to end the escalating crisis over Ankara’s procurement of Russia’s S-400 missile system. The expected meeting on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Osaka, Japan, is seen as the last chance to avoid a rupture in ties between the NATO allies.”The [presidents’] meeting is a turning point,” said former senior Turkish diplomat Aydin Selcen who served in Washington. “Why, because we have a deadline, for the first time we have a delivery date by the end of July, and the sanctions from Washington are ready to kick in. They are concrete; they are ready.”Erdogan is playing down the threat of sanctions. “I don’t know if NATO countries began to impose sanctions on each other. I did not receive this impression during my contact with Trump,” Erdogan said Wednesday to reporters before leaving for Japan.Erdogan is expecting a breakthrough with Trump. “I believe my meeting with U.S. President Trump during the G-20 summit will be important for eliminating the deadlock in our bilateral relations and strengthening our cooperation,” Erdogan told the Nikkei Asian Review, in an interview published Wednesday.Washington says the advanced S-400 missile system threatens to compromise NATO defense systems, especially the United States’ latest F-35 fighter jet. Ankara faces exclusion from the consortium building the F-35 along with the purchasing of the plane.The first step in U.S. sanctions over the S-400 system saw Turkish pilots removed this month from training on the advanced jet.Erdogan is banking on his relationship with Trump to end the impasse. “Yes, Mr. Erdogan is reportedly one of Mr. Trump’s favorite leaders around the world,” said Selcen, who is now a regional analyst. “But then on various issues what Mr. Trump says on the phone or bilateral talks, does not necessarily coincide with what happens on the ground,” he added.However, Wednesday acting U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper warned his Turkish counterpart, Hulusi Akar, of the consequences of the S-400 purchase.Acting U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper, right, greets Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar prior to a meeting of NATO defense ministers at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, June 26, 2019. “If they accept the S-400 they should accept ramifications not only to the F-35 program but also to their economic situation,” a U.S. official said, speaking on condition of anonymity after a defense ministers meeting on the sidelines of a NATO gathering in Brussels.The U.S. Congress is threatening to hit Turkey with wide-ranging economic sanctions under the Counter-Anti-American Trade Sanctions Act (CAATSA.)Trump does have the power to block some of the sanctions, but International relations expert Soli Ozel of Istanbul’s Kadir Has University questions whether Trump would be prepared to use precious political capital defending Ankara.
“Yes, he (Trump) does defy Congress,” said Ozel, “but that usually happens when the Republican party is solidly behind him. However, when it comes to Turkey the S-400 and F-35, the Republicans in Congress are not at all with him, nor the Pentagon.”Erdogan is also due to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G-20 summit. The meeting could be an opportunity for the Turkish president to seek a way out of the S-400 purchase without damaging ties with Moscow. With the two countries sharing a wide range of interests economically and regionally, analysts say there is room for a possible deal.”Putin is key to a solution. The S-400 deal is a marriage of sorts only he can free Erdogan from,” said international relations professor Huseyin Bagci of Ankara’s Middle East Technical University.However, Turkish domestic politics could be a new obstacle leading to Erdogan backing down. The Turkish president is reeling from a landslide defeat of his candidate in Sunday’s crucial Istanbul mayoral election.”Due to the heavy loss in the mayoral election Erdogan may try and consolidate his base,” said Selcen. “If there is more catering to the nationalist and Islamist base, then yes, the S-400 can become part of domestic politics. Then it will be harder to solve.”FILE – Russian servicemen drive S-400 missile air defense systems during the Victory Day parade in Moscow, May 9, 2018.In Erdogan’s first speech since his bruising Istanbul defeat, he played the nationalist card, underlining that the missile purchase was more than just a defense matter. “The issue of the S-400 is an issue directly related to our sovereignty, and we will not backtrack from that,” he said to his parliamentary deputies.Erdogan’s parliamentary coalition partner backed his position. “Turkey is at a crossroads. Either we submit to these threats, lose our honor, or get the S-400s and deploy them to the designated homeland,” said MHP leader Devlet Bahceli, Wednesday.
“I fear that this has become a matter of honor for both (Turkey and the U.S.) sides, making compromise difficult,” said Bagci “At the end of the day there will be no winner. Turkey will have economic problems, militarily problems, and that is a price Turkey is ready to pay. Turkish psychology is important to understand; this is a country with an imperial past and won’t be dictated to.”
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US Supreme Court Faults Trump Bid to Add Census Citizenship Question
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that President Donald Trump’s administration did not give an adequate explanation for its plan to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census, delivering a victory to New York state and others challenging the proposal.The justices partly upheld a federal judge’s decision barring the question in a win for a group of states and immigrant rights organizations that challenged the plan. The mixed ruling does not definitively decide whether the question could be added at some point.The Republican president’s administration had appealed to the Supreme Court after lower courts blocked the inclusion of the census question.
A group of states including New York and immigrant rights organizations sued to prevent the citizenship question from being included in the decennial population count. Opponents have said the question would instill fear in immigrant households that the information would be shared with law enforcement, deterring them from taking part.The census, required by the U.S. Constitution, is used to allot seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and distribute some $800 billion in federal funds. The intent of the citizenship question, opponents said, is to manufacture a deliberate undercount of areas with high immigrant and Latino populations, costing Democratic-leaning regions seats in the House, benefiting Republicans and non-Hispanic whites.The administration argued that adding a question requiring people taking part in the census to declare whether they are a citizen was needed to better enforce a voting rights law, a rationale that opponents called a pretext for a political motive.Manhattan-based U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman ruled on Jan. 15 that the Commerce Department’s decision to add the question violated a federal law called the Administrative Procedure Act. Federal judges in Maryland and California also have issued rulings to block the question’s inclusion, saying it would violate the Constitution’s mandate to enumerate the population every 10 years.Furman said the evidence showed that Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross concealed his true motives for adding the question and that he and his aides had convinced the Justice Department to request a citizenship question.Businesses also rely on census data to make critical strategic decisions, including where to invest capital.Citizenship has not been asked of all households since the 1950 census, featuring since then only on questionnaires sent to a smaller subset of the population.The Census Bureau’s own experts estimated that households corresponding to 6.5 million people would not respond to the census if the citizenship question were asked.While only U.S. citizens can vote, non-citizens comprise an estimated 7 percent of the population.Evidence surfaced in May that the challengers said showed that the administration’s plan to add a citizenship question was intended to discriminate against racial minorities.Documents created by Republican strategist Thomas Hofeller, who died last year, showed that he was instrumental behind the scenes in instigating the addition of the citizenship question.He was an expert in drawing electoral district boundaries that maximize Republican chances of winning congressional elections.Hofeller concluded in a 2015 study that asking census respondents whether they are American citizens “would clearly be a disadvantage to the Democrats” and “advantageous to Republicans and Non-Hispanic Whites” in redrawing electoral districts based on census data.Hofeller suggested the voting rights rationale in the newly disclosed documents.The Trump administration called the newly surfaced evidence “conspiracy theory.”A federal judge in Maryland is reviewing the Hofeller evidence.Most people living in the United States will be asked to fill out the census, whether online or on paper, by March 2020.
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Court Rules Against Challenge to Indonesia Election Result
Indonesia’s top court ruled Thursday against a challenge to the country’s election results that alleged massive and systematic fraud, paving the way for Joko Widodo’s second term as president.The Constitutional Court, which took a marathon nine hours to publicly read its reasoning on all aspects of the case, said the legal team of the losing candidate, former Gen. Prabowo Subianto, had failed to prove allegations that included millions of fake voters and biased state institutions. The court’s ruling is final.Thousands of police and soldiers were deployed to boost security in Jakarta on Thursday as authorities strove to avoid a repeat of deadly riots last month.The legal challenge’s failure was widely expected after documents filed with the court showed that much of the evidence for the alleged fraud in the April 17 election was printouts of news articles.The evidence purporting to show police bias in favor of Widodo included allegations from an anonymous Twitter account. The hearings were broadcast on national TV and showed the testimony of some witnesses disintegrating under questioning from the panel of judges.The legal challenge appeared to be partly an attempt to strengthen the hand of Subianto’s party, Gerindra, which has been negotiating with Widodo’s governing coalition for Cabinet positions.Minutes after the ruling, Subianto said he had “respect” for it, reducing the risk of more violent protests but also raising the possibility of his party joining Widodo’s government and leaving the world’s third-largest democracy without a significant parliamentary opposition.“The ruling is very disappointing for us and our supporters, but we have committed to obey the constitution and we respect the Constitutional Court’s decision,” he said.Subianto, linked to human rights abuses during the authoritarian rule of Suharto, also lost to Widodo in 2014 and has now made four unsuccessful bids for the presidency.The official election results showed Widodo won 55.5% of the vote but also revealed a polarized electorate. Subianto, who allied himself with groups that want Islamic rather than secular law to prevail in the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation, won big victories in conservative provinces.Nine people died in what police said were orchestrated riots in Jakarta after the official results were released May 21. Amnesty International has said police used disproportionate force against protesters that resulted in unlawful killings and other human rights violations.
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Twin Suicide Attacks Target Police in Tunis; 1 Dead, 8 Hurt
Twin suicide attacks targeting security forces struck Tunisia’s capital on Thursday, killing a patrol officer and injuring at least eight people.One attacker detonated explosives in a busy commercial district near the French embassy shortly before 11 a.m., apparently targeting a police patrol. One of the officers died from his injuries, and another was injured along with three bystanders.At nearly the same time, a second bomber struck at an entrance to the anti-terrorism brigade on the outskirts of the city. Four officers were hospitalized with injuries.Tunisia has been struck repeatedly by terror attacks. In October a female suicide bomber struck the city center, killing only herself.
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Tunisia’s Aging President Hospitalized With Serious Illness
Tunisia’s 92-year-old president has been taken to a military hospital after falling seriously ill.
President Beji Caid Essebsi’s office announced the hospitalization on Thursday. Essebsi had been briefly hospitalized last week as well.
Tunisia’s first freely elected president, Essebsi won office in 2014. He recently announced he wouldn’t run again in elections this November, saying a younger person should lead the country.
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