As the United States and China tussle over tit-for-tat tariffs, another trade spat between West and East is quietly playing out, one pitting Malaysian palm oil against European fighter jets.When the European Union announced in March that it would phase out the use of palm oil as a transport biofuel by 2030 over environmental concerns, the world’s two largest palm oil exporters — Indonesia and Malaysia — were quick to react, threatening to lodge complaints with the World Trade Organization.Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad told Reuters that the EU risked starting a trade war over “grossly unfair” policies that smacked of protectionism, then named the first potential casualty. He said that if the EU went through with the phase-out, Malaysia would turn away from European defense contractors and look to China to fill its order for new fighter jets, a deal likely worth upwards of $1 billion.It remains to be seen how Malaysia’s brinkmanship will play out.The Malaysia Palm Oil Council warns that the new EU rules could deliver a “significant” blow to the industry, which it says contributed 6% to the country’s GDP in 2017. Upwards of 12% of the palm oil it exports goes to the EU, its second largest market after India. China comes in a close third.The EU rules mean member states will not be able to count biofuels derived from palm oil toward their renewable energy targets because of the deforestation the crop is driving. Malaysia says the forest-loss reports are overblown.Either way, Malaysia’s gambit was not likely to change EU policy, said Peter Mumford, head of Southeast Asia coverage for the Eurasia Group, a political risk consultancy.”First, European countries will not want to be seen to be arguing against a policy which, in Europe at least, is seen as positive in terms of promoting environmental sustainability,” he said.”Second, even if one or two of the countries which might wish to sell jets to Malaysia decided to argue for a change in EU policy, it is not clear how much impact they could have as the issue is being promoted by the European Commission and European Parliament.”And barring some exceptions, Mumford said, Indonesia’s and Malaysia’s threats to shun EU products — fighter jets and otherwise — will carry only modest weight with the many bloc members who sell relatively little to the Asian neighbors.Fight for palm oilShankaran Nambiar, a senior research fellow at the Malaysian Institute of Economic Research, said Mahathir might still want to play hardball as a matter of principle.He said Malaysia’s palm oil exports to the European Union “are not trifling figures. But I think beyond the quanta that is at stake, it is the perception that the EU is biased against palm oil.”Nambiar said Malaysia could also count on China, Russia and others to pick up some of the slack from the EU and that they were more likely to agree to offsets — to barter their products for Malaysia’s.Malaysian Defense Minister Mohamad Sabu has told reporters that China, Russia and others might be willing to trade defense equipment for Malaysia’s palm oil. A faltering economy and heavy public debt make a swap all the more attractive for Malaysia.With that in mind, Nambiar said, “the prime minister probably thinks that a tit-for-tat strategy is not out of place.””If the EU won’t buy Malaysian palm oil, then Malaysia will not buy European jets unless they are financed by palm oil offsets. This implies payment through palm oil. The logic runs as follows — If the EU wants to do business with Malaysia, it will, one way or the other, have to buy palm oil from Malaysia. If the EU won’t, it doesn’t matter because there are other countries that will.”Offsets have been part of Malaysia’s trade playbook for decades, but no so much with the European Union.Jon Grevatt, an Asia-Pacific defense industry analyst at Jane’s, said Malaysia may find it hard to get its hands of European fighter jets if it insists on swapping palm oil but added that the country has proven willing to barter with a wide variety of products and commodities in the past.Trade with other countriesChina and Russia have also proved willing to barter, and their jets would come far cheaper than Europe’s. But Grevatt said there was little talk of buying from China in March at the latest Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace exhibition, one of the premier events of its kind in the region. And he said the catch with Russia was the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), a U.S. law that imposes penalties on countries that make major defense purchases from Russia.But Grevatt said Malaysia was probably five to 10 years away from actually buying the light fighter aircraft it was looking for, about the same time the EU’s phase-out of palm oil will truly start to bite. And if Malaysia still insisted on trading with palm oil, he added, there would likely be ways around the new EU rules.Palm oil is used in a broad range of products, from instant noodles to soap. And the EU rules do not bar its import per se, only its use in biofuel to meet renewable energy targets, and even then with caveats.”If you were to go to countries like Sweden — and also SAAB, which is obviously from Sweden — as I have done, and ask SAAB, ‘So obviously, that would rule you out, then, wouldn’t it, SAAB? You cannot trade with Malaysia on palm oil.’ They will tell you that they will find a way. They will tell you that there are ways and means of … agreeing to requirements in terms of palm oil without it stopping major defense deals,” he said.”There is so many ways of getting these things done that no one is going to die in a ditch over palm oil if it means that Malaysia could go ahead and buy a major defense system such as a light fighter aircraft from Europe. There will be ways around it, there is no doubt about that.”
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Month: June 2019
Trump and Kim Exchange Letters, But Will They Meet at DMZ?
Lee Juhyun contributed to this report.The latest exchange of letters between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un may have raised hopes of restarting stalled nuclear talks. But don’t expect it to necessarily result in a third summit between Trump and Kim during the U.S. president’s brief visit to South Korea later this week.That’s the message from U.S. officials, who insist there is no plan for a summit during Trump’s stop in South Korea, which begins late Saturday and is expected to last just 24 hours.“He’s there to see (South Korean) President Moon (Jae-in),” a senior administration official told reporters ahead of the trip. “They’ve got a lot of ground to cover in two days, and then (Trump) is coming back to DC.”That hasn’t stopped speculation that Trump, who values unpredictability and routinely overrules his advisors, may meet Kim during the visit. The rumors intensified after the two men’s latest correspondence.“Just a nice letter back and forth,” Trump said Tuesday of his exchange with Kim. “He wrote me a beautiful letter on my birthday.” Asked whether the letters mentioned another summit, Trump replied: “Maybe,” adding he will meet again with Kim “at some point.” Kim last week said he was “seriously contemplating” the “interesting” and “excellent” content of Trump’s latest letter, according to North Korean state media. Raising further intrigue, South Korea’s President Moon said earlier this month that Trump’s letter to Kim contained a “very interesting part,” though he refused to reveal any details. South Korean President Moon Jae-in, left, confers with U.S. President Donald Trump in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, April 11, 2019.Talks stalled Both Trump and Kim have said they are open to an eventual third meeting, even while hardening their stances following a failed second summit in February in Hanoi, Vietnam.Trump is looking for a “big deal” under which Kim would agree to completely abandon his nuclear weapons. Kim, eager to receive sanctions relief, prefers an incremental approach and has given the U.S. until the end of the year to become more accommodating.Neither side has publicly softened their stance. And with working level talks stalled, it’s not clear what another Trump-Kim summit could accomplish, says Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul.“Absent working-level negotiations for a verifiable freeze in fissile material production, further summits with Kim run the risk of appearing to accept North Korea as a nuclear state and normalizing its sanctions violating behavior,” says Easley. In an interview with Fox News earlier this week, the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, Lt. Gen. Robert Ashley Jr., said the U.S. intelligence community continues to assess that Kim “is not ready to denuclearize.”U.S. officials have also acknowledged that the U.S. and North Korea do not share a common definition of “denuclearization.” That, despite Trump and Kim agreeing in Singapore last June to “work toward the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.”“The hypothesis that a ‘top-down approach’ can realize denuclearization has been tested,” says Easley. “North Korea has more nuclear capabilities today than it did a year ago.”A DMZ visit?But if Trump wants to push ahead with another summit, his upcoming visit to Korea could provide a dramatic backdrop. South Korean officials say Trump is considering a stop somewhere along the demilitarized zone that separates the two Koreas. An aerial view of the DMZ (the Demilitarized Zone)Visiting U.S. presidents often tour the Joint Security Area, or JSA. It is the only place along the DMZ where North and South Korean soldiers can stand face-to-face. The area, also known as the Panmunjom truce village, has long been mentioned as a possible venue for a Trump-Kim summit. “If they meet in Panmunjom, the location will deliver a powerful message,” says Yun Jiwon, professor of international politics at Seoul’s Sangmyung University.Under President Moon, South Korea has tried to convert the JSA from a symbol of separation into one that celebrates unity. Guard posts and weapons have been removed, and the JSA now includes memorials marking the spot where Moon and Kim first met in 2018.While the odds of a Trump-Kim meeting are “very low,” Yun says, Trump could still use a DMZ visit “to provide a message about permanent peace in the Korean peninsula, the momentum of peace.”It wouldn’t be the first time Trump tried to visit the border with North Korea. During a 2017 visit to South Korea, Trump canceled a surprise stop at the DMZ after heavy fog complicated what would have been a short helicopter ride. That visit, Trump’s first to South Korea as president, came as Kim and Trump routinely exchanged personal insults and threats of nuclear war. This time, the mood is much different. Both men tout their close relationship and are apparently eager to continue high-level talks. Senior delegationTrump, who is stopping in South Korea after attending the G-20 summit in neighboring Japan, is bringing along a high-level delegation, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, National Security Adviser John Bolton, and Special Representative for North Korea Steve Biegun.While such a presidential delegation is not unprecedented, it has drawn the attention of some Korea watchers.Of Turmp’s forthcoming trip to Seoul, I now understand that:- John Bolton will join in ROK- Mike Pompeo, a day or two before – Steve Biegun (according to Yonhap) from Thurs.Quite a cast of characters ahead of a post-G20 POTUS trip to South Korea, en route home to the U.S.— Chad O’Carroll (@chadocl) June 24, 2019 “Quite a cast of characters ahead of a post-G20 POTUS trip to South Korea, en route home to the U.S.,” said Chad O’Carroll, the CEO of Korea Risk Group, on Twitter. Others shrugged off such speculation, saying Trump is purposefully dangling the possibility of another summit in order to get attention. This is like the buildup to The Apprentice finale. A lot of intrigue and drama, but that was ultimately an extreme letdown. We actually play right into Trump’s hand by tuning in and hanging on to every word. Someone let us know how it ends. https://t.co/5BZKwsdhMN— Vipin Narang (@NarangVipin) June 25, 2019“This is like the buildup to The Apprentice finale,” tweeted Vipin Narang, a Korea watcher and nuclear expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “A lot of intrigue and drama, but that was ultimately an extreme letdown. We actually play right into Trump’s hand by tuning in and hanging on to every word. Someone let us know how this ends.”
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New Democratic Bill Aims to Cancel Some 1.5 Trillion in Student Debt
Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders and Representatives Ilhan Omar and Pramila Jayapal have joined together to introduce a bill that promises to cancel all $1.6 trillion of student debt by taxing stock, bond and derivative transactions on Wall Street. The legislation, called the College for All Act, would also eliminate tuition and fees at public, four-year universities. More in this report from Sahar Majid for VOA News.
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Kenya’s Ice Hockey Team Determined to Qualify for 2022 Winter Olympics
Kenya’s only ice hockey team is still trying to earn a bid for the 2022 winter Olympics, being held in Beijing. In a two-day friendly event held in Nairobi last weekend, the team qualified for the finals but fell to team USA in a nail biter. In eastern Africa’s only ice rink – Kenya’s only ice hockey team, the Ice Lions, took on their first opponents in a home tournament. Team member Hassan Ali Shah says the Ice Lions got off to a great start even though the matches didn’t count.”It’s a great feeling, especially for Team Kenya, since this is our first game we are hosting here in Kenya,” Shah said.The team has come of age since the beginning of last year when it was created. Eric Landberg, who represented the European diplomats’ team has this assessment of its growth.“It’s a young team but it’s already playing an excellent game and I must say that I have been very impressed by the development lately. I had a chance to play them before and I think they are developing all the time and they are already now a very good team, I like their team spirit it’s really good,” Landberg said.There is no ice hockey league in the country so Team Kenya plays challengers made up of Western diplomats. It is these friendly tournaments with foreign teams the Ice Lions use to prepare for the 2022 Winter Olympics, which they hope to qualify for. Kenya sees the game as a way to market itself as an ice hockey destination. South Africa is ranked number one on the continent among the six African countries that play hockey. On the last day of the tournament, Team Kenya fell 10 to nine to Team USA.
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Denmark Becomes Third Nordic Country to Form Leftist Government This Year
Denmark on Wednesday became the third Nordic country this year to form a leftist government after Social Democratic leader Mette Frederiksen finalized terms for a one-party minority government, making her the country’s youngest-ever prime minister.While the new left-leaning government is unlikely to fundamentally change Denmark’s economic policy, Frederiksen, 41, has promised to increase welfare spending after years of austerity.A bloc of five left-leaning opposition parties led by Frederiksen’s Social Democratic Party won a majority in a June 5 election, prompting center-right leader Lars Lokke Rasmussen to resign as prime minister.”It is with great pleasure I can announce that after three weeks of negotiations, we have a majority to form a new government,” she said.Ageing populations have prompted Nordic governments to chip away at the cradle-to-grave welfare state, but the June 5 election showed clear support among Danish voters for leftist parties. It also dealt a blow to right-wing nationalists, who lost more than half of their votes compared with 2015.While the leftist opposition bloc received a convincing majority, support for the Social Democratic Party declined slightly compared with the 2015 vote. But it remained the country’s biggest party.Despite differences among left-leaning parties over issues such as welfare and immigration, Frederiksen got their backing to form a one-party minority government, a common arrangement inDenmark.Frederiksen’s Social Democrats will have to rely on the Socialist People’s Party, the Red-Green Alliance and the Social-Liberal Party – formerly headed by European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager – to pass laws in the 179-seat parliament.The four parties agreed to soften some tough measures on immigration, including abandoning a plan by the previous government to hold foreign criminals on a tiny island.The parties also said they agreed on a plan to allow more foreign labor, on further measures to eliminate rising inequality and on a plan to create a binding law on the reduction of emissions.Following spending cuts by successive governments to reduce the public deficit, which has resulted in an erosion of traditional welfare services, the Social Democrats campaigned for an increase in spending and making businesses and the wealthy pay more toward welfare through higher taxes.Many Danes, who like counterparts in other Nordic states pay some of the highest taxes in the world to underpin their welfare system, worry that further austerity will erode the universal healthcare, education and elderly services long seen as a given.Economists have said there is some room within the country’s sound public finances to increase spending.In Finland and Sweden, the Social Democratic parties formed governments earlier this year.
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US House Passes Emergency Funding Bill for Migrant Care Crisis
It took last-minute changes and a full-court press by top Democratic leaders, but the House passed with relative ease Tuesday a $4.5 billion emergency border aid package to care for thousands of migrant families and unaccompanied children detained after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.
The bill passed along party lines after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi quelled a mini-revolt by progressives and Hispanic lawmakers who sought significant changes to the legislation. New provisions added to the bill Tuesday were more modest than what those lawmakers had sought, but the urgent need for the funding — to prevent the humanitarian emergency on the border from turning into a debacle — appeared to outweigh any lingering concerns.
The 230-195 vote sets up a showdown with the Republican-led Senate, which may try instead to force Democrats to send Trump a different, and broadly bipartisan, companion measure in coming days as the chambers race to wrap up the must-do legislation by the end of the week.
“The Senate has a good bill. Our bill is much better,” Pelosi, D-Calif., told her Democratic colleagues in a meeting Tuesday morning, according to a senior Democratic aide who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the private session.
“We are ensuring that children have food, clothing, sanitary items, shelter and medical care. We are providing access to legal assistance. And we are protecting families because families belong together,” Pelosi said in a subsequent floor speech.
The bill contains more than $1 billion to shelter and feed migrants detained by the border patrol and almost $3 billion to care for unaccompanied migrant children who are turned over the Department of Health and Human Services. It seeks to mandate improved standards of care at HHS “influx shelters” that house children waiting to be placed with sponsors such as family members in the U.S.
Both House and Senate bills ensure funding could not be shifted to Trump’s border wall and would block information on sponsors of immigrant children from being used to deport them. Trump would be denied additional funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention beds.
“The President’s cruel immigration policies that tear apart families and terrorize communities demand the stringent safeguards in this bill to ensure these funds are used for humanitarian needs only — not for immigration raids, not detention beds, not a border wall,” said House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Nita Lowey, D-N.Y.
Three moderates were the only House Republicans to back the measure. The only four Democratic “no” votes came from some of the party’s best-known freshmen: Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ihan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan.
The White House has threatened to veto the House bill, saying it would hamstring the administration’s border security efforts, and the Senate’s top Republican suggested Tuesday that the House should simply accept the Senate measure — which received only a single “nay” vote during a committee vote last week.
“The idea here is to get a (presidential) signature, so I think once we can get that out of the Senate, hopefully on a vote similar to the one in the Appropriations Committee, I’m hoping that the House will conclude that’s the best way to get the problem solved, which can only happen with a signature,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
A handful of GOP conservatives went to the White House to try to persuade Trump to reject the Senate bill and demand additional funding for immigration enforcement such as overtime for border agents and detention facilities run by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to a top GOP lawmaker who demanded anonymity to discuss a private meeting. Trump was expected to reject the advice.
House Democrats seeking the changes met late Monday with Pelosi, and lawmakers emerging from the Tuesday morning caucus meeting were generally supportive of the legislation.
Congress plans to leave Washington in a few days for a weeklong July 4 recess, and pressure is intense to wrap up the legislation before then. Agencies are about to run out of money and failure to act could bring a swift political rebuke and accusations of ignoring the plight of innocent immigrant children.
Longtime GOP Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma said Democrats were simply “pushing partisan bills to score political points and avoiding doing the hard work of actually making law,” warning them that “passing a partisan bill through this chamber won’t solve the problem.”
Lawmakers’ sense of urgency to provide humanitarian aid was amplified by recent reports of gruesome conditions in a windowless Border Patrol station in Clint, Texas, where more than 300 infants and children were being housed. Many were kept there for weeks and were caring for each other in conditions that included inadequate food, water and sanitation.
By Tuesday, most had been sent elsewhere. The incident was only an extreme example of the dire conditions reported at numerous locations where detainees have been held, and several children have died in U.S. custody.
The Border Patrol reported apprehending nearly 133,000 people last month — including many Central American families — as monthly totals have begun topping 100,000 for the first time since 2007. Federal agencies involved in immigration have reported being overwhelmed, depleting their budgets and housing large numbers of detainees in structures meant for handfuls of people.
Changes unveiled Tuesday would require the Department of Homeland Security to establish new standards for care of unaccompanied immigrant children and a plan for ensuring adequate translators to assist migrants in their dealings with law enforcement. The government would have to replace contractors who provide inadequate care.
Many children detained entering the U.S. from Mexico have been held under harsh conditions, and Customs and Border Protection Chief Operating Officer John Sanders told The Associated Press last week that children have died after being in the agency’s care. He said Border Patrol stations are holding 15,000 people — more than triple their maximum capacity of 4,000.
Sanders announced Tuesday that he’s stepping down next month amid outrage over his agency’s treatment of detained migrant children.
In a letter Monday threatening the veto, White House officials told lawmakers they objected that the House package lacked money for beds the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency needs to let it detain more migrants. Officials also complained in the letter that the bill had no money to toughen border security, including funds for building Trump’s proposed border wall.
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UN Drug Report: Opioid Use Booming as Tramadol Crisis Emerges in Africa
Synthetic opioid use is booming, the United Nations said on Wednesday in a worldwide drug report that showed deaths in the United States from overdoses still rising and a “crisis” of tramadol use emerging in parts of Africa.The estimated number of people using opioids – an umbrella term for drugs ranging from opium and derivatives such as heroin to synthetics like fentanyl and tramadol – in 2017 was 56% higher than in 2016, the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime said.While that surge, to 53.4 million people worldwide, was due to more data being available thanks to surveys in Nigeria and India, it also highlighted the scale of the problem despite a drought-related fall in opium production last year in the world’s biggest producer, Afghanistan.Synthetic opioids like fentanyl continue to be the main cause of opioid overdose deaths in the United States, which rose 13% to more than 47,000 in 2017, further illustrating what President Donald Trump has declared a public health emergency.”The opioid crisis that has featured in far fewer headlines but that requires equally urgent international attention is the non-medical use of the painkiller tramadol, particularly in Africa,” the UNODC 2019 World Drug Report said.”The limited data available indicate that the tramadol being used for non-medical purposes in Africa is being illicitly manufactured in South Asia and trafficked to the region, as well as to parts of the Middle East,” it said.Seizures of tramadol globally have surged from less than 10 kg in 2010 to almost 9 tonnes in 2013 and 125 tonnes in 2017, the report showed, adding that the problem was particularly severe in West, Central and North Africa.Several West African countries have reported that tramadol is one of the most widely used drugs for non-medical purposes after cannabis, which remains by far the most popular globally, the report said, adding that reasons for using tramadol vary.”Some consume tramadol for its calming, analgesic and anti-fatigue effects in order to improve intellectual, physical and working performances, and to lessen the need for sleep and decrease appetite,” the report said.”In farming communities, there are reports of tramadol being used by humans and fed to cattle to enable them to work under extreme conditions. Others use tramadol as a recreational drug on account of its stimulant and euphoric effects, or to improve sexual stamina.”
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San Francisco is First US City to Ban E-Cigarettes
San Francisco has become the first U.S. city to ban the sale of electronic cigarettes until their effects on human health are clearer.The city’s legislature on Tuesday unanimously approved the ban on sales of the vaporizers, which deliver nicotine in an inhalable form, until the products are approved by federal health authorities. Backers of the ban say it is necessary because of the “significant public health consequences” of a “dramatic surge” in vaping among youths.But critics claim the ordinance will only make things more difficult for adults seeking an alternative to traditional tobacco products. The city in Northern California is home to Juul Labs, the most popular e-cigarette producer in the U.S. The company said the ban would only drive smokers back to cigarettes and “create a thriving black market”.The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has said that the use of e-cigarettes among American teens has hit “epidemic proportions.” E-cigarettes have been promoted as a powerful tool to help adults break their habit of conventional tobacco products. But research has found little evidence that this is the case. According to the data cited by the FDA, in 2017 more than 2 million middle school and high school students used the devices.
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Tokyo 2020 Olympics’ Domestic Sponsorship Tops $3B as Companies Pile In
The Tokyo 2020 Olympics have generated record domestic sponsorship revenues of more than $3 billion, the International Olympic Committee said on Tuesday – three times more than any previous summer Games.There is huge enthusiasm among the Japanese for the Tokyo Games, and the public have rushed in their millions to buy tickets.The IOC’s Coordination Commission chief for Tokyo, John Coates, said local sponsorship agreements were up to 62 companies for all three tiers of sponsorship arrangements.”This equates to revenues exceeding 3.0 billion dollars from national partnerships. That is an amazing amount of money,” Coates told the IOC session.”This does not include the partnerships with (Japanese companies) Toyota, Bridgestone and Panasonic and their contribution to the TOP program.”The three companies have separate deals with the IOC as major sponsors of the organisation, worth hundreds of millions of dollars in total.Coates told Reuters revenues currently stood at $3.1 billion and Japanese organisers had filled most categories in their three-tier sponsorship plan.”Not much more,” Coates said when asked if more domestic deals were expected in the coming months.Tokyo now has 15 gold partners, 32 official partners and 15 companies that have signed up as official supporters.FILE – Construction workers and passersby are seen through Olympic rings in front of the construction site of the New National Stadium, the main stadium of Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics, in Tokyo, Japan, June 13, 2019.In comparison, the London 2012 Games raised roughly $1.1 billion from domestic sponsors – a record at the time – while Rio de Janeiro in 2016 claimed it had slightly surpassed London, although that is unlikely with final accounts inaccurate given ongoing corruption probes linked to those Olympics.The IOC has been struggling to attract new cities to bid for the Games and awarded the 2026 Winter Olympics on Monday to Milan and Cortina D’Ampezzo after four other cities dropped out and Stockholm was left as the only other bidder.But in Japan, the Games have generated great enthusiasm with 7.5 million citizens registering to apply for tickets through a lottery system, many of whom ended up without any.Tokyo’s bid file had said some 7.8 million tickets would be available for Games but 20-30 percent of those are reserved for international customers and sponsors.”7.5 million ticket (requests). This is an indication of this strong support and high level of interest among the Japanese public,” Coates said.
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Experts: Step-by-Step Approach Needed in Denuclearization Deal With North Korea
Christy Lee contributed to this report which originated on VOA’s Korean Service.As a door opens slightly for U.S.-North Korea diplomacy to resume, the Trump administration should consider adopting a flexible step-by-step approach toward the full denuclearization of North Korea starting with freezing its fissile material production, said experts.“I think it’s important Washington become more realistic,” said Robert Einhorn, a former special advisor for nonproliferation and arms control at the State Department and a current senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. “I think it is necessary to compensate North Korean at each step of the way, but the compensation should only be worth what the North Koreans would [be prepared] to put on the table.”After months of stalled talks between Washington and Pyongyang, U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un have been exchanging letters this month.Positive response to lettersBoth leaders responded positively to each other’s letter, planting hope that there may be a break in the deadlocked talks. On Monday, Trump said he sent a “very friendly letter” to Kim in response to what he described as Kim’s “beautiful letter” he received earlier this month.Over the weekend, Kim said he received an “excellent” letter from Trump and would “seriously contemplate” the content of the letter, according to North Korean state media KCNA. The contents of the letters have not been made public.Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Sunday the U.S. is “literally prepared to begin at a moment’s notice” to restart talks with North Korea when Pyongyang indicates it is prepared to discuss denuclearization.Talks between Washington and Pyongyang have been stalled since their Hanoi summit held in February. Trump denied Kim’s demand to end sanctions for offering to dismantle the Yongbyon nuclear facility. Trump instead requested Kim to take full denuclearization prior to sanctions relief.For the nuclear stalemate to break, experts said Washington needs to take more flexible approach than it had at Hanoi.“There’s always some possibility for dramatic summitry, but to be reasonably successful, the Trump administration would have to soften its position considerably,” said Douglas Paal, vice president at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.For the consummation of a denuclearization deal, Einhorn said Washington should take a step-by step approach or incremental, phased approach toward North Korea. The approach, favored by North Korea, involves matching each of Pyongyang’s denuclearization steps with some corresponding reward until full dismantlement of its nuclear program is completed.Larger requestTo begin, he said, the U.S. should ask North Korea to do something larger than just dismantling Yongbyon and instead Pyongyang to freeze its fissile material production. Dismantling Yongbyon is too small a step to generate a meaningful reward from the U.S., according to Einhorn.“It would be desirable to go back to the North and ask for something beyond Yongbyon, not something as grandiose as complete elimination of its [weapons of mass destruction] programs, but a step to put a cap on their production of fissile material, a ban on their production of fissile material nationwide,” said Einhorn.Fissile material is the key ingredient in nuclear bombs. Nuclear explosions are created when fissile material releases energy in an incredibly fast chain reaction. Yongbyon is a site for North Korea’s major nuclear reactors capable of producing fissile material. North Korea is believed to have other fissile producing reactors spread throughout the country.Einhorn said step-by-step denuclearization talks need to take place within working-level meetings initiated by a presidential letter.He said one positive use of presidential letters is for Trump to write to Kim saying, “‘I’m sending my representative, Steve Beigun, to meet with his counterpart, and you can be assured that the ideas that Mr. Biegun will put on the table are the ones I personally endorse.’” The letter would continue, “’And I hope that you give them favorable consideration.’”North Korea has been reluctant to hold working-level talks and Kim prefers to deal with Trump directly.Traveling to SeoulU.S. Special Representative Steve Biegun will travel to Seoul on Thursday to meet with South Korean officials ahead of Pompeo and Trump’s arrival later in the week. After attending the global leadership gathering at the G-20 summit this week in Japan, Trump plans to have a two-day meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in starting Saturday.Earlier in the month, Biegun said Washington and Pyongyang both understand the “need for a flexible approach” when he gave a speech at the Atlantic Council, a Washington-based think tank. He said, “This is the only way to move forward to diplomacy.”It is not clear whether his statements imply that Washington will compromise its Hanoi position, but Robert Manning, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, said it could be a hint of “movement toward breaking the diplomatic stalemate.”Prior to the Hanoi summit, Biegun suggested that Washington could take a step-by-step denuclearization toward North Korea during a speech at Stanford University in February. He said the U.S. is prepared to take commitments it made with North Korea at the Singapore summit last year “simultaneously and in parallel” fashion.The approach, however, did not materialize at the Hanoi summit.
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Europe Set to Experience Scorching Heat Wave This Week
A heat wave is set to descend upon Europe this week, weather so intense that a forecaster in Spain warned, “El infierno (hell) is coming.”El infierno is coming. pic.twitter.com/j0iGEYF0ge— Silvia Laplana (@slaplana_tve) June 24, 2019The heat wave is expected to peak between Wednesday and Friday when temperatures are expected to top 40 degrees Celsius from Spain to Poland.Authorities warned early summer heat waves are especially dangerous because people have not had to adapt to the higher temperatures.French Health Minister Agnes Buzyn said more than half of France is on alert for high temperatures. Public service announcements on TV, radio, and on buses and trains urged the French to keep an eye out for older family members and neighbors.Most of France is under an orange alert, the second-highest level on the country’s heat scale. The scale was established after the 2003 heat wave killed some 15,000 people. The French Education Ministry ordered the national school exams to be postponed to next week. Paris city officials mobilized teams to hand out water to the homeless. The city also extended the hours for city pools, and set up thousands of misting tents and cooling rooms.Authorities in Switzerland also raised that country’s alert to its second-highest level, especially for regions along the southern and northern borders with Italy and Germany.Germany’s meteorological agency said temperatures Wednesday could break the current record in June of 38.5 Celsius.Temperatures also soared in the Baltics, sending scores of people to lakes and rivers to cool down, leading to a spike in drownings. In Lithuania, where the highs reached 35.7 degrees Celsius, 27 people were reported to have drowned.Heat waves are becoming more common across Europe and are expected to double in frequency by 2050, the French meteorological agency says.
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Pompeo Hopes for Afghan Peace Deal Before September
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Tuesday during a visit to Afghanistan that the Trump administration is aiming for a peace deal in the war-ravaged country by September.His visit came as American and Taliban negotiators are scheduled to meet in Qatar later this week (June 29) for the next round of talks in their months-long dialogue aimed at finding a political settlement to the Afghan war.“I hope we have a peace deal before September 1st. That’s certainly our mission set,” Pompeo told reporters at the U.S. embassy in Kabul after his meetings with Afghan leaders. The country is due to hold presidential elections on September 28.The U.S.-Taliban dialogue process is primarily focused on working out a timeline for the withdrawal of American and NATO forces from Afghanistan in return for assurances international terrorists will not be allowed to use Taliban-controlled areas for attacks against other countries.The insurgent group controls or contests more than 50% of the Afghan territory and continues to inflict battlefield losses on U.S.-backed Afghan security forces,“We have made real progress and are nearly ready to conclude a draft text outlining the Taliban’s commitments to join fellow Afghans in ensuring that Afghan soil never again becomes a safe haven for terrorists,” Pompeo noted.He said discussions with the Taliban regarding foreign troop withdrawal have begun. Pompeo also said insurgent claims that Washington has agreed to pull out of Afghanistan are not true.“While we’ve made clear to the Taliban that we are prepared to remove our forces, I want to be clear we have not yet agreed on a timeline to do so,” Pompeo explained. He acknowledged the U.S.-Taliban discussions will be the basis for intra-Afghan peace and reconciliation talks.Pompeo visited Kabul on a day when members of opposition groups held a large public gathering in the city to protest against extension given to President Ashraf Ghani by the country’s Supreme Court. They insisted Ghani’s constitutional five-year term ended in May and demanded the president must step down. The incumbent president is seeking re-election.“We call upon the former president (Ghani) to withdraw his candidacy if he should continue to hold office as a caretaker president for the purpose of realization of the principles of justice and impartiality,” said a post-rally statement by the Council of Presidential Candidates (CPC).Pompeo also emphasized the need for a credible Afghan presidential election.“I urge the Afghan government, the Independent Election Commission, and all political stakeholders to take all necessary steps to ensure that the elections are credible,” Pompeo stressed.
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US Plays Down Expectations of Trump-Xi Meeting
Top U.S. officials are saying no one should expect any major deals when President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping meet later this week at the G-20 summit in Osaka, Japan.The officials say the main purpose of the meeting is to reach agreement to restart trade negotiations that broke off in May.Eleven rounds of talks have failed to ease U.S. concerns over China’s massive trade surplus with the U.S. and alleged intellectual property theft. Trump has already threatened another $325 billion in tariffs on Chinese goods, which would cover just about everything China exports to the U.S. that is not already covered by the current 25% tariff on $250 billion in Chinese imports.China has slapped its own tariffs on U.S. products, including those produced by already financially strapped American farmers.FILE – In this April 8, 2019, file photo, Boeing 737 Max aircraft are parked near a Boeing Co. production facility in Renton, Wash. From airplanes to fruit to wheat no other state will feel the effect of tariffs like Washington.Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said Tuesday in Beijing the meeting will hopefully “promote mutual trust” and “resolve some of the outstanding issues we are facing now.”A senior U.S. official said Monday the meeting will provide Trump the chance to get China’s position on the escalating trade war. The official added Trump would be “comfortable with any outcome” of the meeting.The U.S. has accused China of building a huge trade surplus with the U.S. while stealing technological and trade secrets. It alleges China demands U.S. businesses operating in China to give up some of that information if they want access to the Chinese market. China denies the charges and says the U.S. is trying to deny a competitor a piece of the global marketplace.
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In NATO Debut, New Pentagon Chief Aims to ‘Internationalize’ Iran Effort
Acting U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said on Tuesday he aimed to recruit support from NATO allies for U.S. efforts to deter conflict with Iran and “open the door to diplomacy,” as he made his international debut as Pentagon chief.Esper emphasized diplomacy over military action as he briefed reporters for the first time since taking the helm of the U.S. military on Monday. The former Army secretary was thrust into the position after the surprise resignation of Patrick Shanahan as acting defense secretary the previous week.Ahead of talks with European defense ministers, Esper said he would tell allies that the United States was not seeking war with Iran.FILE – U.S. Secretary of the Army Mark Esper speaks during a House Armed Services Committee budget hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, April 2, 2019.His remarks came just days after U.S. President Donald Trump narrowly called off strikes against military targets in Iran over Tehran’s downing of a U.S. drone. But Trump threatened on Tuesday to obliterate parts of Iran if it attacked “anything American.””We need to internationalize this issue and have our allies and partners work with us to get Iran to come back to the negotiating table,” Esper said shortly before landing in Brussels, home to NATO headquarters.Washington’s European allies, critical of Trump’s decision to withdraw from a 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, have reacted with alarm in recent weeks, repeatedly warning both sides of the danger that a small mistake could lead to war.U.S. officials said on Monday that the United States was building a coalition with its allies to protect Gulf shipping lanes following recent attacks on oil tankers that Washington blamed on Iran.But Esper suggested the plan was still in its early stages and played down the idea that U.S. allies would offer up the majority of ships, saying: “Nobody’s counting ships or compositions at this point in time.”Asked what he wanted U.S. allies to do on Iran, Esper said: “Express with us the concern, outrage … with regard to Iran’s activities in the region. That would be a good first step.””And then secondly, to support any range of activities we may think merit participation to help, again, deter conflict and show that we’re resolute. What we’re trying to do, what we want to do, is to close the door to conflict and open the door to diplomacy.”NATO “speed dating”Esper is now the third person in six months to work at the defense secretary’s desk, stoking fresh questions about leadership at the Pentagon.For many NATO allies, this week’s NATO defense ministerial will be a unique chance to get an early sense of Esper, who has deep roots in the U.S. military, Congress and even the U.S. defense industry.It will be a similar opportunity for Esper, who said he aimed to emphasize to NATO allies that the change in leadership at the Pentagon did not represent a change in policy.”A NATO ministerial is a good way to get to know key partners, kind of like diplomatic speed-dating,” said Derek Chollet, a former senior Pentagon official during the Obama administration.FILE – General James Mattis testifies before the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, July 27, 2010.Chollet said allies would be closely watching for hints about the kind of role Esper will play, including whether he might be like Jim Mattis, Trump’s first defense secretary who was a strong advocate for NATO and was seen as a moderating influence on the U.S. president.Mattis, who resigned in December over policy differences with Trump, brought Esper into the job.One European diplomat joked: “Jim Mattis is not someone we can clone, as much as we’d like to, but Esper is talked about positively.””Everyone will want to make a good impression and to get some time because he is the new face of the Pentagon,” the diplomat said.
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In World First, Facebook to Give Data on Hate Speech Suspects to French Courts
In a world first, Facebook has agreed to hand over the identification data of French users suspected of hate speech on its platform to judges, France’s minister for digital affairs Cedric O said on Tuesday.O, whose father is South Korean, is one of French President Emmanuel Macron’s earliest followers, and has been influential in shaping the president’s thinking on Big Tech as an advisor at the Elysee palace in the first two years of Macron’s presidency.The decision by the world’s biggest social media network comes after successive meetings between Zuckerberg and Macron, who wants to take a leading role globally on the regulation of hate speech and the spread of false information online.So far, Facebook has cooperated with French justice on matters related to terrorist attacks and violent acts by transferring the IP addresses and other identification data of suspected individuals to French judges who formally demanded it.Following a meeting between Nick Clegg, Facebook’s head of global affairs, and O last week, the social media company has extended this cooperation to hate speech.”This is huge news, it means that the judicial process will be able to run normally,” O told Reuters in an interview. “It’s really very important, they’re only doing it for France.”O, who said he had been in close contact with Clegg over the last few days on the issue, said Facebook’s decision was the result of an ongoing conversation between the internet giant and the French administration.Since his nomination as minister in March, O has made the fight against hate speech online a key priority through regular contacts with Facebook’s top executives, including founder Mark Zuckerberg.Facebook declined to comment.Strong signal”It is a strong signal in terms of regulation,” said Sonia Cisse, a counsel at law firm Linklaters, adding that it was a world first. “Hate speech is no longer considered part of freedom of speech, it’s now on the same level as terrorism.”With Facebook’s latest move, France is now a clear frontrunner in the quest to regulate big social media outlets, and other platforms might follow suite, Cisse said.The discussions on how to best regulate tech giants began with a Zuckerberg-Macron meeting last year, followed by a report on tech regulation last month that Facebook’s founder considered could be a blueprint for wider EU regulation.Facebook had refrained from handing over identification data of people suspected of hate speech because it was not compelled to do so under U.S.-French legal conventions and because it was worried countries without an independent judiciary could abuse it.France’s parliament, where Macron’s ruling party has a comfortable majority, is debating legislation that would give the new regulator the power to fine tech companies up to 4% of their global revenue if they don’t do enough to remove hateful content from their network.O also signaled his openness to seeing French startups being snapped up by larger U.S. companies, in a spite of recent measures taken by Macron’s government to bolster anti-takeover rules to protect the country’s strategic companies.”My only goal is to spur the creation of a lot of companies,” he said. “I have no problem with the fact that some of them are bought by U.S. companies, as long as they don’t have critical technology.”Too bigThe minister is also reluctant to support the idea of breaking up companies like Facebook or Google, whose size, weight on the Internet and financial firepower have turned them into systemic players just as much as big banks.Facebook has been called a social media monopoly by co-founder Chris Hughes, and calls for a break-up of the group have intensified.”We cannot impose very tough obligations on Western companies and dismantle them because they are very big, and not do the same thing with Chinese companies that enter the Western market,” he said, referring to groups like Alibaba and Tencent.A graduate of France’s top business school, HEC, O combines political experience – he was an aide to Dominique Strauss-Khan, like many of the tight group of “Macron Boys” who propelled him to power – and a stint in the private sector, at engine maker Safran.At the Elysee, he was in charge of advising Macron on the French government’s vast portfolio of stakes in French companies, having to deal with hot corporate sagas such as Renault-Nissan, as well as handling relations with Big Tech.
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US Denounces China’s Justification of Uighur Re-Education Camps
The United States has condemned efforts by China at the U.N. Human Rights Council to justify its incarceration of a reported million Uighurs and other ethnic minorities in ‘re-education’ camps in Xinjiang Province. After introducing himself as an ethnic Uighur, the vice governor of Xinjiang province in China, painted an idyllic picture of life there. Aierken Tuniyazi told diplomats at the U.N. Human Rights Council that 25 million people, encompassing many ethnic groups and religions, lived in solidarity, harmony and mutual assistance. He said people in Xinjiang are united as closely as the seeds of a pomegranate. He said China had lifted 2.3 million people out of poverty in the province. He said religious beliefs were protected by law and ethnic minority languages were taught in schools and widely used in social and public forums.Despite the progress, he noted China was confronted by many challenges from ethnic separatism, terrorism and religious extremism. He said that has led to thousands of terrorist attacks, many deaths and immeasurable property damage. In the face of those threats, he said China has been forced to crack down on violent and terrorist crimes and take preventive measures. He spoke through an interpreter. “By setting up vocational, education and training centers in accordance with the law, we aim to educate and save those who are influenced by religious extremism and committed minor legal offenses…The centers provide courses on the country’s common language, legal knowledge and vocational skills and integrated de-radicalization throughout the entire education and training process,” said Tuniyazi.The United States called China’s vice governor’s remarks an embarrassment to the council. A statement issued by the U.S. Mission here in Geneva accused the council of once again granting a representative of one of the world’s worst human rights abusers a platform for propaganda.The U.S. expressed alarm at China’s highly repressive campaign against the Uighurs and other ethnic groups in Xinjiang. It accused the Chinese government of subjecting more than one million people in so-called re-education camps to torture, pervasive, high-tech surveillance, and measures to efface their cultural and religious identities.
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UN Women Releases Report on Equality, Families
The United Nations says women’s rights have advanced over the past decades but gender inequality and violence still exists within families.
U.N. Women, also known as the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, released its annual “Progress of the World’s Women” report on Tuesday,
The report identifies ways in which “families can be places of care, but can also bring conflict, inequality and, far too often, violence.”
Three million women live in places where rape in marriages are not criminalized, one in five countries have different inheritance laws between men and women, and women are required to obey their husbands in 19 countries, according to the report. “Around one third of married women in developing countries report having little or no say over their own healthcare,” the report adds.
In a press briefing on Tuesday, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, the U.N. Women executive director, told reporters “Families in all their diversity can be physical drivers of gender equality but only if decision makers deliver policies rooted in the reality of how people live today, with women’s rights at the core.”
The report noted progress on many issues. It said the ages at which women are getting married has risen internationally, whereas the birth rates have fallen.
“This has enabled increasing numbers of women to stay in education longer to gain a foothold in the labor market and to be able to support themselves financially for a longer period of time,” said Shahra Razavi, Chief of Research and Data at U.N. Women.
Additionally, the report said that same sex families are becoming “increasingly visible” globally.
On labor issues, the report spotlights some disparities, with married women participating significantly less in the labor force. The report alleges that this disparity is because “women continue to do three times as much unpaid care and domestic work as men in the absence of affordable care services.”
U.N. Women put forth an eight-point policy agenda that includes non-discrimination laws, accessible public services, a path for a woman to generate their own income. According to U.N. Women, most countries could enact the recommended policies for less than 5 percent of national GDP
“The report calls on policymakers, activists and people in all walks of life to transform families into places of equality and justice,” said a statement issued on Tuesday.
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House Looks Set to Pass Emergency Funding Bill for Migrants
Democratic leaders in the House proposed somewhat tighter requirements for the care of unaccompanied refugee children as they sought to pass a $4.5 billion emergency funding bill to address the humanitarian crisis involving the thousands of migrant families detained after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.Lawmakers and aides said the concessions – and a full court press by top leaders such as Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. – were likely to result in a winning tally when the measure comes to a vote later on Tuesday, despite lingering reservations among Hispanic and liberal Democrats.The Senate hopes to vote on a different, and bipartisan, companion measure as early as Tuesday as the chambers race to wrap up the must-do legislation by the end of the week. Many House Democrats say the Senate version’s provisions aimed at helping migrant children are not strong enough. House Democrats seeking changes met late Monday with Pelosi, and lawmakers emerging from a morning caucus meeting were supportive of the legislation.Rep. Darren Soto, D-Fla., said the Democratic measure would fully fund migrant care and “make sure that we are treating these immigrant children with dignity like any other great country would.”The White House is threatening to veto the House bill, saying the measure would hamstring the administration’s border security efforts and raising fresh questions about the legislation’s fate.Changes unveiled Tuesday would require the Department of Homeland Security to establish new standards for care of unaccompanied immigrant children and a plan for ensuring adequate translators to assist migrants in their dealings with law enforcement.Many children detained entering the U.S. from Mexico have been held under harsh conditions, and Customs and Border Protection Chief Operating Officer John Sanders told The Associated Press last week that children have died after being in the agency’s care. He said Border Patrol stations are holding 15,000 people – more than triple their maximum capacity of 4,000.Congress plans to leave Washington in a few days for a weeklong July 4 recess. While lawmakers don’t want to depart without acting on the legislation for fear of being accused of not responding to humanitarian problems at the border, it seems unlikely that Congress would have time to send a House-Senate compromise to Trump by week’s end.In a letter Monday threatening the veto, White House officials told lawmakers they objected that the House package lacked money for beds the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency needs to let it detain more migrants. Officials also complained in the letter that the bill had no money to toughen border security, including funds for building Trump’s proposed border wall.”We’ve got lives at stake,” said Rep. Tony Cardenas, D-Calif. He said the U.S. has been “the gold standard” for treating refugees fleeing dangerous countries, “and I don’t think we should compromise that at all.”The meeting may have helped ease Democratic complaints. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., told reporters before the meeting that she would oppose the bill but left the door open afterward, saying, “I oppose the situation we’re in, but my main goal is to keep kids from dying.”Much of the legislation’s money would help care for migrants at a time when federal officials say their agencies have been overwhelmed by the influx of migrants and are running out of funds.”This is strictly a supplemental that’s in response to a humanitarian crisis that is taking place right now,” said Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard, D-Calif., one of the authors of the bill. She said language in the measure limits the use of the funding to “food, clothing, better shelter facilities and so on.”The back-and-forth on the spending measure came as Congress’ top Democrats criticized Trump for threatening coast-to-coast deportations of migrants.Over the weekend, Trump tweeted that he would give Congress two weeks to solve “the Asylum and Loopholes problems” along the border with Mexico. “If not, Deportations start!” he tweeted.The president had earlier warned that there would soon be a nationwide sweep aimed at “millions” of people living illegally in the U.S., including families. The sweeps were supposed to begin Sunday, but Trump said he postponed them.Pelosi said the threatened raids were “appalling” when she was asked about them at an immigration event Monday in Queens, New York.”It is outside the circle of civilized human behavior, just kicking down doors, splitting up families and the rest of that in addition to the injustices that are happening at the border,” she said.On the Senate floor, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., described Trump’s “chilling, nasty, obnoxious threats” and said the president “seems far more comfortable terrorizing immigrant families” than addressing immigration problems.”I mean, my God, to threaten separating children from their parents as a bargaining chip? That’s the very definition of callousness,” Schumer said.It is not clear exactly what Trump, who has started his 2020 re-election bid, means regarding asylum and loophole changes. He’s long been trying to restrict the numbers of people being allowed to enter the U.S. after claiming asylum and impose other restrictions, a path he’s followed since he began his quest for president years ago. His threatened deportations came as authorities have been overwhelmed by a huge increase of migrants crossing the border into the U.S. in recent months.For years, Democrats and Republicans have unable to find middle ground on immigration that can pass Congress. It seems unlikely they will suddenly find a solution within two weeks.
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Trump Ratchets Up Verbal Attacks on Iran
Mark Bowman on Capitol Hill contributed to this report.WHITE HOUSE — U.S. President Donald Trump is ratcheting up his threats against Iran, saying an attack by Tehran on “anything American” would “be met with great and overwhelming force” — adding that in some instances, “overwhelming will mean obliteration.”In a series of Tuesday morning tweets, Trump dismissed as “very ignorant and insulting” Iran’s statement hours earlier saying it was ending the possibility of diplomatic talks with the U.S.Iran leadership doesn’t understand the words “nice” or “compassion,” they never have. Sadly, the thing they do understand is Strength and Power, and the USA is by far the most powerful Military Force in the world, with 1.5 Trillion Dollars invested over the last two years alone..— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 25, 2019 ….The wonderful Iranian people are suffering, and for no reason at all. Their leadership spends all of its money on Terror, and little on anything else. The U.S. has not forgotten Iran’s use of IED’s & EFP’s (bombs), which killed 2000 Americans, and wounded many more…— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 25, 2019The statement from Tehran was issued after Trump stiffened economic sanctions the previous day against the Islamic republic, specifically targeting the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.An Iranian government official is quoted saying that sanctions on Khamenei equal an attack on the nation.Trump also cast aspersions on two U.S. political figures, saying, “No more John Kerry & Obama!” again rejecting the international pact negotiated by former Secretary of State Kerry and former President Barack Obama to restrain Iran’s nuclear weapons development…..Iran’s very ignorant and insulting statement, put out today, only shows that they do not understand reality. Any attack by Iran on anything American will be met with great and overwhelming force. In some areas, overwhelming will mean obliteration. No more John Kerry & Obama!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 25, 2019Trump withdrew from the 2015 agreement last year and reimposed sanctions aimed at debilitating Iran’s economy in an effort to force it to engage in one-on-one nuclear negotiations with the U.S. The U.S. says it could also add sanctions targeting Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, but Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, in a televised address, said, “You sanction the foreign minister simultaneously with a request for talks?”FILE – Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.Shortly prior to Trump’s tweets, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, Abbas Mousavi, tweeted that sanctions on Khamenei and Zarif would mean “the permanent closure of the path of diplomacy.”
On the floor of the U.S. Senate on Tuesday morning, minority leader Chuck Schumer termed the tension between Washington and Tehran “a dangerous situation,” adding, “Even if the president doesn’t intend war, his erratic, inconsistent and off-the-cuff policies could lead us to bumble into war.”Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell defended the president and criticized opposition Democrats “afflicted by Trump derangement syndrome that they repeat Iranian talking points and advertise the absurd notion that our country, our administration, our president are somehow to blame for Tehran’s violent aggression.”The Republican senator added, “Clearly the president wants to avoid war, hence the deliberate and judicious approach he has taken since the shootdown” last week of a U.S. Navy drone by Iran.Head of the Revolutionary Guard’s aerospace division Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh looks at debris from what the division describes as the U.S. drone which was shot down on Thursday, in Tehran, Iran, Friday, June 21, 2019.Trump has called the new sanctions order a “strong and proportionate” U.S. response to the downing of the un-manned U.S. military aircraft, which Washington says occurred in international airspace near the Strait of Hormuz, and Iran claims occurred over its airspace.The U.S. leader said he imposed the sanctions because of a series of “belligerent acts” carried out by Iran, which U.S. officials say include Iran’s targeting of Norwegian and Japanese ships traversing the Strait of Hormuz with mine explosions days before the attack on the drone.U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton said during a visit to Jerusalem on Tuesday that Trump “has held the door open to real negotiations,” and Iran has responded with what he called “deafening silence.”Iran has repeatedly denied it was working to develop nuclear weapons, and the U.N. nuclear watchdog charged with monitoring the 2015 agreement has certified Iran is in compliance with the terms of the deal.As the Trump administration has increased pressure on Tehran in recent months, and as Iran has complained that the other signatories to the nuclear deal have not done enough to help it maneuver around the U.S. sanctions, Iranian officials have pledged to stop abiding by some certain restrictions it had agreed to, such as the amount of highly enriched uranium it can have.
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Analysts Unsure Why General Killed Amhara Region President
As Ethiopia observed a national day of mourning following what the Prime Minister’s office called an attempted regional coup in one of its regions, questions remain about the alleged mastermind of the attack and his motives.On Monday, state media announced that Brigadier General Asaminew Tsige was captured and killed in Zenzelima in the country’s Amhara region. Security forces shot the general dead as he tried to escape, state media reported.Brig. Gen. Asaminew is well known in the country. He had a strong following among the Amhara ethnic group and had been serving as head of the Peace and Security Bureau of the Amhara region in the country’s north.The Ethiopian federal government has accused him of plotting attacks that killed the president of Amhara state, an adviser and the state attorney general in the regional capital, Bahir Dar, on Saturday.In a separate, but related attack according to the Prime Minister’s office, Ethiopia’s Army Chief of Staff Seare Mekonnen was killed by his bodyguard in Addis Ababa, 500 kilometers away.በወቅታዊ ሁኔታዎች ላይ የተሰጠ ዝርዝር ጋዜጣዊ መግለጫ::Press release regarding current issues. #PMOEthiopiapic.twitter.com/dSEC2qx0EE— Office of the Prime Minister – Ethiopia (@PMEthiopia) June 23, 2019In an interview with VOA, Zecharias Zelalem, an Ethiopian journalist who writes about and studies the country, said Asaminew has a long and complicated history. In 2009 he was arrested by security forces under then-Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and accused of plotting a coup. He was one of about 20 military officers arrested and was sentenced to life in prison.His sentence was later commuted and, earlier this year, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed restored his military pension and allowed him to work in the government.Although Zecharias said there was a rift between Asaminew and the government in recent months, nothing foretold the dramatic and violent actions that unfolded Saturday. In fact, Zecharias said, he’s not sure what the true objective of the attacks was.“I don’t see how the narrative of a coup in a regional government could be legitimate,” he said. “Taking over the regional capital would not guarantee you any sort of control of the region whatsoever. You still have to deal with the fact there are federal army bases in the region.”Felix Horne, a researcher for Human Rights Watch, sees the attacks in the context of broader ethnic tensions. In an interview with Foreign Policy magazine, he pointed to the rising disaffection of the Amhara ethnic group with the government of Abiy who is Oromo.Horne sees Asaminew’s appointment as a bid to bolster support of the government in the eyes of the Amhara ethnic group.The Amhara Democratic Party (ADP) which holds power in the region is part of Ethiopia’s ruling coalition, but is not seen as strong enough in the eyes of the most strident Amhara nationalists.Relatives mourn in front of the coffin of the country’s Army Chief of Staff Seare Mekonnen, who was shot by his bodyguard, during a memorial ceremony in Addis Ababa, June 25, 2019.“A lot of people ascertain that the appointment of Asaminew to his position as head of the peace and security bureau in the Amhara region was to appease the rising Amhara nationalists,” Horne told AFP. “And as part of an effort to make the ADP more appealing to a broader swath of the population.”This plan may have backfired and, Horne said, in recent months Asaminew has been fanning the flames of anger against the federal government.“He has been engaging in a lot of really strong rhetoric, saying that Amharas need to arm themselves—that they are facing a lot of threats,” Horne said. “There’s been a lot of negativity toward the federal government. He’s also been actively recruiting people to join local militias.”As of Tuesday, details about Asaminew and his motives were still hazy. The military arrested 182 people Monday for participating in violence in the Amhara region, including four high-ranking officials with ties to the alleged coup attempt, the Associated Press reported. Amid the uncertainty, internet access was disconnected, even though it was recently restored after days of shutdown.Zecharias said these events indicate something that goes beyond the work of one renegade general. “It points to something far, far larger, far greater than just a plot to take over the Amhara region,” he said. “But of course as I repeated several times now it would be speculation to guess what that could be.”
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Press Freedom Deteriorating In Albania
A mission of seven international press freedom organizations has published a preliminary report on the difficulties faced by journalists in Albania.The report says press freedom in Albania has deteriorated and the government is not transparent, while politicians use harsh language against the media.The joint mission in Tirana was comprised of the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF), ARTICLE 19, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), the International Press Institute (IPI), Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and the South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO).Sarah Clarke with the advocacy group “ARTICLE 19″ said in a press conference that the mission members are worried about self-censorship and expressed shock by the close ties between politicians, media owners and interest groups, as well as the way media in Albania is funded, which she says makes journalism difficult when reporting against corruption and legal violations.After a series of meetings with media and government representatives, they noted that Albania is not fulfilling the obligations of domestic law, as a member of the Council of Europe, the OSCE and aspiring candidate for EU membership.”We think that with regard to press freedom, Albania is one of the countries with the greatest problems in the region,” said Oliver Vujovic from the SEEMO organization.The report notes that physical attacks on journalists have gone unresolved, while top public officials regularly use language that belittles and smears critical journalists.Attila Mong of the Committee for the Protection of Journalists said the mission also noticed a reluctance of Albanian journalists to denounce cases of pressure on them for fear they may suffer worse consequences if they do so.Scott Griffen from the International Press Institute said that in Europe and the Balkans, governments are trying to hamper free reporting and impose their own messages on journalists.”We have noticed that in Albania, too. This should not be accepted because it is not normal. Governments can give their views, but the reporter is free to cover the story from their own point of view, without being influenced,” Griffen said.The press freedom organizations reported that “the public administration, including the office of the prime minister and the mayor of Tirana, are not transparent in their interactions with the media and restrict access to critical journalists.”“Recently proposed media-related legislation, including a draconian regulation scheme for Albanian and foreign online media outlets, is not in line with international human rights standards,” the organizations say in their report.The delegation gathered information and held meetings with journalists, editors, representatives of civil society, international organizations, embassies in Tirana and senior government officials and Prime Minister Edi Rama. The mayor of Tirana Erjon Veliaj refused to meet with the delegation.”Although prison sentences for defamation were repealed in 2012, defamation and insult remain criminal offenses punished by a criminal fine, and recent years have seen proposals to reintroduce criminal laws against defaming top state officials,” the organizations said.The delegation expressed concern about what journalists described as a rising number of politically motivated defamation cases against journalists filed by politicians, often requesting disproportionate sums in damages.”Even without the threat of jail sentences, the potential of facing a criminal conviction for their work can lead journalists to practice self-censorship. We strongly recommend Albania to fully repeal all criminal defamation and insult laws,” the coalition said.
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Thousands of Refugees Flee as Inter-Ethnic Violence Flares in DR Congo
The United Nations refugee agency reports around 7,500 Congolese refugees have fled to Uganda this month to escape escalating inter-ethnic violence. Officials are screening them closely, not only for wounds and injuries, but for any who might be carrying the deadly Ebola virus.UNHCR reports Congolese refugees are crossing into Uganda at the rate of about 300 a day, more than twice as many as in May. Most are fleeing across Lake Albert from Ituri province, where renewed clashes between the Hema and Lendu groups have displaced a massive 300,000 people this month.UNHCR spokesman, Andrej Mahecic, said refugees arriving in Uganda speak of escaping vicious and extreme brutality in their homeland.“Armed groups are said to be attacking villages, torching and looting houses, and killing men, women and children,” he said, “… Some refugees are arriving with significant belongings, fearing they may not be able to return to their homes. Others who have fled imminent danger have little more than the clothes on their backs. Nearly two-thirds are children, i.e., they are below the age of 18.”Mahecic said Ugandan transit and reception facilities are overwhelmed by this huge influx of refugees. He said all those who arrive undergo a health screening. He added that many of the refugees need medical care for wounds and injuries they may have received while fleeing violence.A woman and her child arrive for an Ebola-related investigation at the health facility at the Bwera hospital near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo in Bwera, Uganda, June 14, 2019.They also are screened for the Ebola virus. Ituri along with North Kivu province in the northeastern DRC is in the midst of a devastating Ebola epidemic.“The screening is in place obviously at the points where the refugees are crossing in order to check their condition and to obviously identify those who might be potentially infected by the virus. We have had no such cases,” he told VOA.Mahecic said shelter and basic relief items are urgently needed. He said many refugees also need immediate psycho-social counseling to help them deal with their traumatic experiences.Unfortunately, he said humanitarian agencies are unable to provide the needed assistance because they are broke. He said the international community has donated only 17 percent of the $150 million U.N. appeal for refugee aid in Uganda.
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Kenyan Ice Hockey Team Hosts First Exhibition Tournament
A Kenyan ice hockey team, the only one in East Africa, has hosted an exhibition tournament with teams made up by foreign diplomats. The Kenya Ice Lions hope to bring more attention to the sport and its bid to qualify for the 2022 Winter Olympics. Sarah Kimani reports from Nairobi.
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Trump to Hold at Least 8 Bilateral Side Meetings at G-20
Just a month after a state visit to Japan, U.S. President Donald Trump this week heads to the East Asian country again.
In Osaka, Trump will attend the Group of 20 leaders’ summit, during which he is scheduled to meet one-on-one on the sidelines with such fellow world leaders as Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“The president is quite comfortable his position going into the meeting” with Xi following the breakdown of U.S.-China trade talks and increased tariffs on Beijing by Washington, a senior administration official told reporters on Monday.
U.S. officials say there is no fixed agenda for Trump’s meeting with Putin although they acknowledge issues involving Iran, Ukraine, the Middle East and Venezuela are almost certain to be discussed.
US-Iran
Casting a pall over the G-20 discussions will be nervousness about the deteriorating situation between Washington and Tehran. Leaders in both capitals have been reiterating they want to avoid war but have also repeatedly stated they will not hesitate to defend their interests if provoked.Trump is to reiterate to his fellow leaders at the G-20 that the United States intends to continue to increase economic pressure on Iran, which finds itself under escalating U.S. sanctions, and eliminate all of the country’s petroleum exports.Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga (C) inspects the G-20 leaders summit meeting venue, INTEX Osaka, in Osaka, Japan, June 22, 2019.“I don’t think Iran is a distraction,” according to James Jay Carafano, vice president of the Heritage Foundation’s national security and foreign policy institute. “I think that’s under control. Trump should strive for a no drama G-20.” The G-20 itself no longer has the significance it did after the group’s first several summits late in the previous decade when it cooperated to avert a meltdown of the global economy.
Trump prefers bilateral discussions and agreements over multinational events. Administration officials, however, are attempting to counter the notion that they no longer see these types of meetings as vital, pointing to U.S. leadership on advancing 21st century economic issues
“We believe that G-20 economies need to work together to advance open, fair and market-based digital policies, including the free flow of data,” a senior administration told reporters Monday on a conference call, also stressing promotion of women’s economic empowerment.
Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter and a White House adviser, is to give a keynote address on the latter topic at a G-20 side event in Osaka.
G-20 host Shinzo Abe, as prime minister of Japan, and many European participants are trying to maintain the international system and its principles.
“This is where the absence of the U.S. is really harming it,” says Heather Conley, a senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and director of its Europe program. “We’re seeing the slow death of multilateralism in many respects. It’s a death by a thousand cuts.”
While the U.S. pulls back from such groups, the world is witnessing “the Chinese using international organizations so effectively to shape agendas,” Conley, a former deputy assistant secretary of state, said.
Trump-Xi meetingsSome analysts expect the Trump-Xi meeting in Osaka to be a repeat of their previous dinner last year in Buenos Aires, when the two leaders agreed to trade talks and tasked their trade ministers with reaching a deal within 90 days.FILE – U.S. President Donald Trump and China’s President Xi Jinping meet business leaders at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, Nov. 9, 2017. “I think that that is the most likely outcome, that they’re going to reach some sort of accommodation, a truce like that and push this forward,” predicts Matthew Goodman, a CSIS senior vice president and senior adviser for Asian economics.
“It’s not going to solve the immediate problems,” contends Goodman, who previously served as director for international economics on the National Security Council staff, helping then-President Barack Obama prepare for G-20 and G-8 summits. “Even if we get a deal, it’s unlikely to solve some of the deep structural differences between us in the role of the state in the economy, the governance of technology and data.”
Much attention will also be on the Trump-Putin encounter.
“Whenever President Trump and President Putin meet there is a very strong (U.S.) domestic backlash after that meeting,” notes Conley. “In part, it’s because there’s a total lack of transparency about the topics of discussion and what the agenda is, and I think the president would have a better policy approach domestically if, again, there was clarity of what the agenda would be, that there would be people participating in that meeting – secretary of state, national security adviser and others.”
Trump is also scheduled to hold talks in Osaka with leaders from Australia, Germany, India, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.
From Japan, Trump flies to Seoul, where he will be hosted by South Korean President Moon Jae-in to discuss how to further ease tensions with North Korea.
White House officials brush off speculation Trump could meet on the Korean peninsula with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, which would be their third encounter after summits in Singapore and Hanoi. And U.S. officials are not commenting on a possible presidential visit to the Demilitarized Zone, which separates the two Koreas.There is little pressure on Trump to make any breakthroughs during his visit to Japan and South Korea, according to Carafano.“I think the U.S. in the driver’s seat with regards to both North Korea and China negotiations,” Carafano tells VOA. “If they come to the table now, fine. If not, fine. Trump can wait until after the 2020 election.”
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