Russian boxer Maxim Dadashev has died from injuries sustained in a fight in Maryland, the Russian boxing federation announced Tuesday. “Maxim Dadashev has died in the United States following injuries sustained during his fight with Subriel Matias,” the federation said in a statement.The 28-year-old underwent emergency brain surgery in Washington after his super-lightweight bout with Puerto Rican Matias on Friday was stopped in the 11th round by his cornerman James “Buddy” McGirt.Dadashev, known as “Mad Max,” was unable to walk to the dressing room and was immediately hospitalized.Doctors operated to relieve pressure from swelling on his brain.”Right now, he’s in critical condition, but the doctor told me that he’s stable,” Dadashev’s strength and conditioning coach, Donatas Janusevicius, had told ESPN after the operation.McGirt said after the fight he “couldn’t convince” his fighter to stop, but opted to throw in the towel when he saw him “getting hit with more and more clean shots as the fight went on.””One punch can change a whole guy’s life,” McGirt said.Russian boxing chief Umar Kremlev told Russian media that Dadashev’s body would be repatriated home and that his family would receive financial aid.Dadashev took an unbeaten 13-0 record into the 140-pound non-title fight.
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Month: July 2019
Justice Department Indicts 4 Chinese Nationals for N. Korea Sanctions Violations
Four Chinese nationals and a Chinese company were indicted Tuesday for conspiring to evade sanctions on North Korea, according to the U.S. Justice Department.”Through the use of more than 20 front companies, the defendants are alleged to have sought to obscure illicit financial dealings on behalf of sanctioned North Korean entities that were involved in the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction,” said Assistant Attorney General John Demers in a statement.The indictment charges Ma Xiaohong and her company, Dandong Hongxiang Industrial Development, as well as Zhou Jianshu, Hong Jinhua and Luo Chuanxu with conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and to defraud the United States, along with conspiracy to launder monetary instruments. The indictment alleges that Ma, alongside Zhou, Hong and Luo “established front companies in offshore jurisdictions such as the British Virgin Islands, the Seychelles, Hong Kong, Wales, England, and Anguilla, and opened Chinese bank accounts held in the names of the front companies at banks in China that maintained correspondent accounts in the United States,” in order to engage in financial activity with North Korea, according to the release.The defendants are each facing decades in prison if found guilty.
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Slain Russian LGBT Activist Reportedly Had Been Threatened
Russian activists confirmed Tuesday that a woman found dead of stab wounds in Saint Petersburg earlier this week was a well-known human rights activist who had been threatened over her work for LGBT rights and opposition causes.Yelena Grigoryeva, 41, was active with Russia’s Alliance of Heterosexuals and LGBTQ for Equality and other activist causes, according to the Russian LGBT Network.”An activist of democratic, anti-war and LGBT movements Yelena Grigoryeva was brutally murdered near her house,” opposition campaigner Dinar Idrisov wrote on Facebook. He said she had recently reported threats of violence to the police, but they took no action.Friends and fellow activists said Grigoryeva’s name was listed on a Russian website that identified LGBT activists and called for vigilante action against them.Saint Petersburg online newspaper Fontanka said Grigoryeva was found with knife injuries to her back and face and had apparently been strangled. A 40-year-old male suspect from the region of Bashkortostan has been arrested, it reported.
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‘Havana Syndrome:’ Scans Show Differences in Affected Diplomat’s Brains
Brain scans show “significant neuroimaging differences” in 40 U.S. embassy employees affected by mysterious neurological symptoms in Cuba in late 2016, according to a study released Tuesday.The diplomats had significantly smaller amounts of white brain matter, and markedly lower levels of connectivity between parts of the brain responsible for sight and hearing, said the study, published by the Journal of American Medicine. Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania performed the magnetic resonance imaging scans on the personnel between August 2017 and June 2018. They then compared the images to results from 48 controls.Employees at the time reported hearing loud buzzing, “piercing squeals” and “mechanical-sounding” noises, in what the Trump administration termed a “sonic attack.” Diplomats said they suffered persistent ear pain, headaches and problems with memory, concentration, balance, sleeping and more.Many were out of work at least briefly, with half going on sleep or headache medication and three receiving hearing aids, according to CNN. Weapons or crickets?Some theorized the symptoms’ source were weapons emitting damaging sound or microwaves, though some scientists later argued the strange sounds were simply the loud species of cricket commonly found in Cuba. Another group of researchers found the sounds could be caused by ultrasound signals from everyday devices crossed with signals from a surveillance system.During the uproar, the State Department cut staff at the embassy by more than half.The researchers couldn’t link the results to any specific health impacts, emphasizing that the results weren’t consistent with any known brain disorders.The study’s small sample size and unclear results have prompted skepticism from other scientists.’Half baked’Sergio Della Sala, a cognitive neuroscience professor at the University of Edinburgh, called the study “half-baked,” in an email to Reuters, noting that 12 of the employees had histories of concussions and none of the controls did.According to the study, the employee’s concussion symptoms had faded by 2016, when reports of illness began.Diplomats at the Canadian embassy complained of similar afflictions. Five of them and their families are now suing the Canadian government, saying it “downplayed the seriousness of the situation, hoarded and concealed critical health and safety information, and gave false, misleading and incomplete information to diplomatic staff.”In addition to the Penn study, the National Institutes of Health is conducting its own “brain injury research study” involving the Cuba patients with help from the U.S. Energy Department supercomputers and national laboratories capable of processing massive amounts of neurological data. The Defense Department has also been engaged to look into technologies that could have been used to harm the diplomatic staff.
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Anglophone Prisoners Riot in Cameroon Amid Separatist Crisis
Cameroonian security forces moved Tuesday to quell uprisings in two prisons by inmates protesting the government’s crackdown on the Anglophone separatist movement and poor conditions of incarceration.Scores of people from English-speaking regions of the central African country have been arrested over the last two years during a conflict between the mostly French-speaking government and separatist rebels seeking to form an independent state called Ambazonia.The United Nations estimates the conflict in the English-speaking Northwest and Southwest regions has killed about 1,800 people and displaced over 500,000 since late 2017.A Cameroonian security source confirmed that a riot took place in the central prison of the capital Yaounde and said several people were injured. Government spokespeople did not immediately respond to requests for comment.Videos filmed by inmates and uploaded to Facebook showed protesters there crying “Ambazonia rising!” as they hurled debris at security forces inside the Kondengui prison in Yaounde.Loud crackles that sounded like gunfire could be heard in the background and fires could be seen burning in parts of the prison, sending thick plumes of smoke billowing into the air.”Our brothers are slaughtered, children killed,” said one unidentified man, speaking in English. “We are tired of being in prison. We want to go home,” said another.A second riot erupted in the prison in Buea, one of the main cities of the Anglophone Southwest region, a local journalist who was present said. The journalist, Kum Leonard, added that he had heard gunfire from the jail throughout the late afternoon.Cameroon’s state television channel CRTV reported that the inmates in Yaounde were protesting conditions in the prison and had burned down the library and a workshop for female inmates.The report said several prisoners had been injured and that the army and police were working to restore calm.Cameroon’s main opposition party, the Cameroon Renaissance Movement, said Tuesday it was worried it did not have any news about its members held in the prison, including its first vice president, who is being held in connection with a protest distinct from the separatist campaign.Amnesty International called for an investigation into reports that security forces fired live ammunition in the prison and said authorities should address overcrowding.English speakers regularly complain about marginalization by Francophone-dominated institutions. Cameroon’s linguistic divide harks back to the end of World War I, when the League of Nations divided the former German colony between France and Britain.
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Hopes Dashed as Ethiopia-Eritrea Peace Process Stagnates
In the heady days after longtime foes Ethiopia and Eritrea signed a peace deal a year ago, Teklit Amare’s Peace and Love Cafe near the newly-opened border overflowed with customers.Now, he paces among empty tables, wondering aloud how to keep his business open as optimism fades, with borders again sealed and hopes of progress dashed.The Zalambessa border crossing closed at the end of last year without explanation as leaders have remained silent. Others crossings followed suit.”When they shut the border so soon after opening it, that was the saddest moment,” said Teklit, a former teacher who now struggles to pay his rent.The feeling is widely shared in Zalambessa, a town where battered buildings highlight the damage wrought by the Ethiopia-Eritrea border war, which erupted in 1998 and left tens of thousands dead.During the stalemate that followed the end of active hostilities in 2000, Zalambessa was all but abandoned, deprived of infrastructure and other investments.”After the opening it was very obvious that everybody was happy. They want to trade, to have these connections,” said Hadush Desta, Zalambessa’s top municipal official.”But now, because of no reason, it’s closed. People are emotional about it. They say, ‘Why is this happening to us?'”‘Devil in the details’The border opening was just one breakthrough in the whip-fast rapprochement between Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki that began just over a year ago.Following Abiy’s initial overtures, the two sides embarked on a rapid mending of ties that caught even close observers by surprise, re-opening embassies, resuming flights and taking meetings across the region.But enthusiasm for the deal has given way to frustration — and not just near the border.On other goals too — from inking new trade deals to granting Ethiopia access to Eritrea’s ports — high initial hopes have gone unmet. The lack of communication from both governments makes it difficult to pinpoint why the peace process appears stuck.Abiy paid a two-day visit to Asmara last week and pledged to “further enhance” the peace process, but no detail was given of their discussions.”As they say, the devil is in the details. We are not so clear what is going on,” said Abebe Aynete, an Addis Ababa-based senior researcher with the Ethiopian Foreign Relations and Strategic Studies think tank.Many analysts and diplomats suspect Eritrea is guilty of foot-dragging.Opening up to Ethiopia would force Isaias to surrender a measure of control, something his critics say he is unlikely to do.”I personally believe that as long as the current group in Asmara stays in power, I don’t think the border will open and the two countries will not proceed to normal relations,” said Mehari Tesfamichael, chairperson of the opposition Eritrean Bright Future Movement. Isaias’ notoriously iron-fisted government has long cited the standoff with Ethiopia in justifying harsh policies like compulsory national service, which forces citizens into specific jobs at low pay and bans them from traveling abroad.Last October, the UN refugee agency noted a seven-fold increase in refugees fleeing Eritrea after the borders opened, with around 10,000 refugees registered in one month.The peace deal “provided some hope that restrictions on national service would be lifted, but so far there has been little change” in Eritrea, said Human Rights Watch.Abiy’s woesEthiopia’s domestic politics could also be part of the problem.Abiy’s ambitious reform agenda has run into roadblocks, a fact underscored by the assassination last month of five government and military officials. The changing landscape has inflamed tensions between Abiy and the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the party that dominates the northern Tigray region and was the strongest political force in the country before Abiy came to power. Tigray’s administration of Ethiopian border areas means the TPLF should be a major player in normalizing ties with Eritrea, provided it plays along.”Solving issues related to the border ideally needs the full cooperation of Tigray and the TPLF. That isn’t what we have right now,” said William Davison, senior analyst at the International Crisis Group think tank.”We have significant rifts between TPLF and its ruling coalition partners and also disputes between the Tigray region and the federal government in Addis.”‘A better place’ However observers say it’s important not to lose sight of the progress that’s been made.”Up front we have to acknowledge that we’re in a much better place than we were before the rapprochement, when the possibility of state-on-state conflict was quite high,” said Michael Woldemariam, an expert on the Horn of Africa at Boston University.Even at the border, the news is not all bad.Though the Zalambessa crossing closed completely in December, soldiers on both sides have since loosened restrictions. Ethiopian traders say that on some days they cross into Eritrea unimpeded, and on others they can often get through using unofficial crossings.Back at the Peace and Love Cafe, owner Teklit said he is not giving up just yet.He said he is encouraged by the fact that ties between the two countries are still officially warm.”There are rumors that the Eritrean government is fixing the road,” he said. “This gives us hope that they might one day reopen again.”
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US Envoy to Sudan Lays Out Long Path to New Government
Sudan’s path to a civilian government will be a long and complex one, says the United States’ top envoy to the nation, a week after military rulers and opposition parties inked an agreement that outlined a three-year power-sharing government.
That agreement follows seven months of political protests, the ouster of longtime leader Omar al-Bashir, and many rounds of negotiations involving power players in the oil-rich nation.But there is much, much more work to be done, says Donald Booth, the U.S. special envoy to Sudan. Since being appointed to the post six weeks ago, Booth has shuttled to negotiations in Khartoum, Brussels and Addis Ababa, where different sides are trying to present their concerns and visions for a new Sudan.In a conference call from Brussels on Tuesday, Booth pointed out the agreement left key details to be negotiated.“We welcomed the agreement on that, but there are still a lot of negotiations to be conducted on what the Sudanese are calling their constitutional declaration, which is a document that will be more detailed and will have to address what the functions of the different parts of the transitional government will be,” Booth said.FILE – Then-U.S. special envoy to South Sudan Donald Booth speaks to the media in Juba, South Sudan, Dec. 31, 2013. Booth was appointed U.S. special envoy to Sudan six weeks ago.”And it’s in that document where issues of relative roles and powers of the sovereignty council, the prime minister and the Cabinet and ultimately of the legislative council will be addressed. And then after that is agreed there’s still the issue of who will actually be in the transitional government.”It has been an eventful three-plus months since Bashir’s ouster and arrest by military authorities. Protesters filled the streets after his arrest to demand that the transitional government be led by civilians. Talks began, but then stalled, over who would fill seats in a sovereign council meant to steer the transition.Then, on June 3, security forces killed at least 61 people who attended a sit-in at the defense ministry. The opposition claims that 128 people were killed. Booth put the figure at 150 deaths, and says he is pressing leaders to conduct a credible investigation into the events of that day. Some analysts have expressed concerns that, in this tense environment, the political declaration may not hold for long. And Chatham House researcher Ahmed Soliman says he’s concerned that so many of the current negotiations appear to focus on the “who,” and not on the “what.”Sudanese protesters take part in a vigil in the capital Khartoum to mourn dozens of demonstrators killed in a brutal raid on a Khartoum protest, July 13, 2019.”At the moment we’re seeing a lot of focus on representation, and maybe there is less focus on actually the governing and the policies that need to be carried forward. You still have real fundamental issues in Sudan,” he told VOA. “You know, peace in the regions, and with the armed groups, economic reform and the restructure of the economy and particularly, security sector reform, which will be a big challenge in the country and in the current context.”Booth urged the various parties to resolve the issues quickly so that, in his words, the country can begin to address issues of reform and move forward to a better future.“We believe, and I have communicated this to everyone I met in Khartoum, that they need to focus on resolving the issues so that they can get a civilian-led transitional government established in Sudan. [The country] has been operating really without an agreed government since the fall of President Bashir. The transitional military council has, in effect been running things de facto with the old ministries and personnel from those ministries in place. So the sooner that Sudan can establish a civilian-led transitional government it can begin then to address issues of reform and moving forward to a better future.”Booth did not reply to VOA’s question on what should happen to Bashir. In June, Sudan’s public prosecutor charged him with corruption. Since 2009, he has been on the wanted list of the International Criminal Court, on charges of crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide.
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UAE Crown Prince Ben Zayed Visits China to Boost Ties
China is playing host to Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Zayed, who is in Beijing on a state visit. Like the UAE, China aspires to increase its role as a maritime trading player.Arab media played up Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Zayed’s state visit to Beijing, where he met with top Chinese leaders and discussed trade and security ties. China was the UAE’s second largest trading partner in 2017, with bilateral trade of $60 billion.Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, left, gestures to Chinese President Xi Jinping, right, after reviewing the Guard of Honor, at the Presidential Palace, July 20, 2018.Sky News Arabia reported that more than 500 businessmen from Chinese and Emirati firms Monday attended a joint economic conference, where numerous business deals were discussed and signed. The report noted that the UAE and China began strengthening ties during a state visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping to Abu Dhabi in 2018.Mohammed Bin Zayed stressed the importance of stronger ties with Beijing, while thanking Chinese leaders for their warm welcome.Bin Zayed said he is grateful for the cordial reception by his Chinese hosts and that Abu Dhabi was proud to host President Xi in July 2018, a visit which he said showed the depth of ties between the two countries.The National newspaper, based in Abu Dhabi, reported that Crown Prince Mohammed and President Xi were due to “witness the signing of at least 10 agreements in the fields of economy, oil and environment.” The newspaper added the two also would “discuss regional and international issues of common interest.”Paul Sullivan is an adjunct professor of security studies at Georgetown University. He tells VOA that China “is becoming a more important player in the region, every day,” while the U.S., he suggests, is losing some of its traditional clout.Sullivan said tensions in the Gulf are of major importance to both the UAE and China. “There could be some quiet discussions,” he suggests, ” to create a back door to Iran via China to help resolve the tensions.””A war,” he argues, “is an all-will-lose proposition, and both countries’ leaders know this.”Tensions between Iran and the West have been stoked by Tehran’s announcement that it had captured 17 U.S. spies and sentenced some of them to death. Iran alleged they had been collecting information “from sensitive sites” for the Central Intelligence Agency.U.S. President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have rejected the Iranian claims. Trump said in a tweet Monday the report of Iran capturing CIA spies is “totally false.”A British-flagged oil tanker Stena Impero which was seized by the Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, is photographed in the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas, July 20, 2019.Separately, tensions have risen over President Trump’s decision to pull the United States out of the Iran nuclear deal and Iran’s seizure of a British-flagged oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz. Britain had seized an Iranian tanker off the coast of Gibraltar earlier this month.The Saudi-owned Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper reported that Crown Prince Mohammed is expecting a “strong and effective Chinese role in the Gulf,” and that the UAE believes in “freedom and security of navigation in the Gulf and the region.””Abu Dhabi,” he added, “is working with China and other major countries to protect that freedom.”Washington-based Gulf analyst Theodore Karasik also tells VOA the UAE is “further cementing its relations with China as part of its ‘Look East Program,’ which seeks to boost trade and other sector development over the next decade.”The goal, he adds, is to make the UAE “a major hub or lily pad for Beijing’s (Belt and Road) Initiative.” China’s Belt and Road Initiative, which he refers to, is a major infrastructure initiative to expand land and sea trade routes.
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Why Philippines President, Criticized Abroad, Has Record High Approval
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s approval rating hit a new high because of his anti-crime work and populist appeal across class lines, a survey shows.
While many nations and groups around the world criticize him, Duterte earned a net satisfaction rating of 68 in the second quarter of 2019, according to a July 8 public opinion survey by Manila area research institution Social Weather Stations. The rating marked a new “personal record high,” the president said on his office website. He had scored 66 in March as well as in June 2017.
The president fared well in the heavily watched survey of 1,200 adults because his anti-crime campaign has made people feel safer in urban neighborhoods, common Filipinos and scholars in the country say. Duterte, elected in 2016, got there in part by letting police shoot drug crime suspects on the spot, outraged overseas rights groups believe.
Duterte also makes sense to common people because of speech and demeanor that cast him as a political outsider, analysts say. Fast economic growth has given him a boost, they observe.
“The way he presents himself is that he speaks street language,” said Maria Ela Atienza, political science professor at the University of the Philippines Diliman. “He looks like a person who does things immediately, even of course at the expense of rule of law.”Anti-crime waveDuterte vowed after taking office to eradicate major crimes within three to six months. The 74-year-old leader has acknowledged personally killing criminal suspects while mayor of the second-largest Philippine city, Davao.On the presidential office website, Duterte once swore he would “eradicate everyone involved in the illegal drug trade.”
Crime decreased to 115,539 incidents logged in the first quarter this year, down 3.3% from the same period of 2018, domestic media outlet BusinessWorld says, citing police figures.Populist aura
The Middle class resents the failed promises of previous presidents, adding to their satisfaction with Duterte, Atienza said. Past administrations were lighter on crime, including corruption.
The middle class is solid, thanks to economic growth of more than 6% every year since the president took office.
“Duterte has created an aura for himself. It’s probably quite difficult to knock down,” said Eduardo Araral, associate professor at the National University of Singapore’s public policy school. “He is seen as an ordinary guy, (an) outsider.”
Criticism from domestic political opponents tends to raise his popular appeal, casting him as an “underdog,” Araral said.Condemnations offshore
New York-based advocacy group Human Rights Watch has estimated there have been more than 12,000 extrajudicial killings under Duterte, nearly double an official figure of 6,600. Teenagers are among the dead. “The Philippine government’s brutal ‘war on drugs’ has devastated the lives of countless children,” the group said in a June 27 report.
Western governments as well as the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights have questioned the extrajudicial killings since 2016, sparking sharp rebuttals from Duterte.
He called former U.S. President Barack Obama, for example, a “son of a whore” in 2016 over Obama’s comments about the Philippine anti-drug campaign. Duterte later apologized for the remark.
A lot of people in the Philippines want the U.N. Human Rights Commission to investigate the extrajudicial killings even if Duterte himself gets high satisfaction ratings, said Renato Reyes, secretary general of the Manila-based Bagong Alyansang Makabaya alliance of leftist causes.
“We would rather look at how people stand or at how people rate the policies of the government rather than look at the overall quote, unquote, ‘satisfaction and approval ratings,’” Reyes said.Three-year honeymoons
Three previous Philippine presidents also posted high net satisfaction ratings in the first half of their terms. They were Fidel Ramos, Corazon Aquino and later, her son Benigno Aquino. Ratings for all three fell in the second half of their terms, Social Weather Stations data show.
Duterte acknowledged the second-quarter approval figure without suggesting a reason. He must step down in 2022 due to the country’s limit of one term per president.
“As always… if you are satisfied with my work, then I’m happy. If you are not satisfied, then I’ll work more,” Duterte said July 9 in a statement on the presidential website.
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US Senate Confirms Mark Esper as Secretary of Defense
The U.S. Senate on Tuesday confirmed Army Secretary Mark Esper to be secretary of defense, ending the longest period by far that the Pentagon has been without a permanent top official.As voting continued, the Senate overwhelmingly backed Esper, a former lobbyist for weapons maker Raytheon Co., to be President Donald Trump’s second confirmed leader of the Pentagon.Esper, 55, received strong bipartisan support despite some sharp questioning during his confirmation hearing by Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren about his ties to Raytheon and his refusal to extend an ethics commitment he signed in 2017 to avoid decisions involving the company.Warren, a 2020 presidential hopeful, was the only member of the Senate Armed Services Committee to voice opposition to Esper’s confirmation during the hearing.Raytheon is the third-largest U.S. defense contractor.There has been no confirmed defense secretary since Jim Mattis resigned in December over policy differences with Trump.Many members of Congress from both parties have urged the Republican president to act urgently to fill the powerful position.Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell called on members to support Esper as he opened the Senate on Tuesday morning.”The nominee is beyond qualified. His record of public service is beyond impressive. His commitment to serving our service members if beyond obvious. And the need for a Senate-confirmed secretary of defense is beyond urgent,” McConnell said.An Army veteran, Esper had served as a congressional aide and a Pentagon official under Republican President George W. Bush, before working for Raytheon. He has been Army secretary since November 2017.Trump’s previous pick to be secretary of defense, Patrick Shanahan, withdrew from consideration on June 18 after reports emerged of domestic violence in his family.
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Search Warrants Issued in Puerto Rican Texting Scandal
A judge in Puerto Rico has issued search warrants for the phones of the U.S. territory’s governor, Ricardo Rossello, and 11 of his political allies in connection with a texting scandal.The search warrants were issued for individuals who had not yet given up their phones as part of an investigation, a spokesperson for Puerto Rico’s Department of Justice told the Associated Press.The warrants were issued a day after protestors mobilized for a 10th straight day against embattled Governor Ricardo Rossello. Demonstrations ended late Monday with police using tear gas to disperse demonstrators who had gathered near the governor’s mansion in the capital, San Juan.A massive crowd estimated at 500,000 people, including pop singer Ricky Martin and other Puerto Rican-born entertainers, filled the streets of the earlier Monday demanding Rossello quit.The public fury erupted nearly two weeks ago when the island’s Center for Investigative Journalism published nearly 900 pages of online group chats between Governor Rossello and several top aides and associates that included profane messages laced with contempt for victims of 2017’s Hurricane Maria, as well as misogynistic and homophobic slurs against Rossello’s political opponents. The publication of the chats unleashed long-simmering anger among Puerto Ricans who were worn down by years of public corruption and mismanagement that left the U.S. territory under the control of a congressionally-mandated oversight board to guide it out of a multi-billion-dollar debt crisis. Rossello stepped down as leader of the New Progressive Party during a televised address Sunday and said he would not seek re-election in 2020.U.S. President Donald Trump slammed Rossello Monday for his “totally grossly incompetent leadership” of Puerto Rico. Trump clashed with Rossello and other Puerto Rican officials over the administration’s response to Hurricane Maria, which killed 3,000 people and left the island without power for months.
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Boris Johnson: Britain’s ‘Do or Die’ Prime Minister
Boris Johnson was announced Tuesday as the winner of a weeks-long Conservative leadership race to replace Theresa May as party leader, paving the way for Britain’s monarch to invite him Wednesday to become the country’s new prime minister.The ambitious former journalist and onetime London mayor has hungered his entire political life for the top job, but he won’t enjoy a honeymoon and his premiership is already balanced on a knife edge. If he gets things wrong he could beat Lord Rockingham, who lasted just 96 days at Downing Street in 1782, to emerge as Britain’s shortest-lived prime minister.FILE – British Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond attends an interview during the G-7 finance ministers and central bank governors meeting in Chantilly, near Paris, France, July 18, 2019.Rebels in his party, led by the outgoing chancellor of the exchequer, Philip Hammond, are making it clear that if he tries to take Britain out of the European Union without a deal having been agreed to with Brussels, they will vote with opposition parties to bring down the government to sabotage a so-called “hard Brexit.” That would trigger a snap election the Conservatives would be unlikely to win.The taste of things to come on his pledge to lead Britain out of the EU on October 31 “do or die” was delivered Monday on the eve of his leadership win. Alan Duncan quit as a Foreign Office minister to launch an attempt to force Johnson to face a vote of confidence in the House of Commons even before being invited by the queen to enter Downing Street as prime minister.The Speaker of the House blocked Duncan’s effort.Limited challengersOnly a handful of pro-EU Conservative lawmakers would be able to upset Johnson. Half-a-dozen have been in talks with Liberal Democrats to defect, according to party insiders. Up to a dozen ministers are expected to quit the cabinet before Johnson even becomes prime minister — although his loyalists say they are only falling on their swords to deny Johnson the opportunity to fire them.The Conservatives are ruling as a minority government and are dependent on a quirky and easily-offended Northern Ireland Unionist party to give them a working majority of just two in the House of Commons. That could drop to just one, if a Conservative lawmaker is found guilty of committing sexual offenses in an upcoming trial.With the opposition factions, aside from Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party, opposed to Brexit, Johnson faces exactly the same parliamentary dilemma that undid the leadership of his predecessor, Theresa May, a deadlocked parliament.FILE – Theresa May leaves 10 Downing Street in London, to attend Prime Minister’s Questions at the Houses of Parliament, June 19, 2019.May herself warned recently that her successor will face the same hard parliamentary arithmetic she did. But some argue he will face even tougher mathematics. She was opposed by hardline Brexiters in her party when trying to get the withdrawal agreement negotiated with the EU through the House of Commons. Johnson, the face of Brexit, has even less room for maneuvering — he has to deliver for his fellow Brexiters at the same time as finding a way to woo or neutralize pro-EU Conservative rebels, say analysts, and to do this with a wafer-thin and diminishing majority.Jeremy Hunt, left, congratulates Boris Johnson after the announcement of the result in the ballot for the new Conservative party leader, in London, July 23, 2019.The ever-upbeat Johnson appeared undaunted Tuesday in his speech marking the conclusion to a month-long leadership campaign in which both he and rival Jeremy Hunt, the current foreign secretary, crisscrossed Britain in their bid to win the support of Conservative members in a series of hustings as mail-balloting was underway. In the ballot, Johnson won 92,153 votes (66 percent) and Hunt won 46,656 votes (34 percent).Johnson said it was an “extraordinary honor and privilege” to be elected leader, and he pledged to “energize the country.””The campaign is over and the work begins,” he added. In his trademark optimistic style Monday, Johnson promised to invigorate the country and help Britain to rediscover its “sense of mission.” Throughout his leadership campaign he attacked “pessimists” talking Britain down and took aim at what he said was a sense of defeatism.Brexit hurdleBut cheery rhetoric won’t be enough to convince his party rebels — nor EU leaders and their negotiators. In the last few days, EU leaders have warned that they will not roll over to accommodate Johnson. They insist the withdrawal agreement they negotiated with Theresa May and which parliament has declined to endorse three times remains their final word.FILE – European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, right, walks behind British Prime Minister Theresa May prior to addressing a media conference at EU headquarters in Brussels, Dec. 4, 2017.“If the approach of the new prime minister is that they’re going to tear up the withdrawal agreement, then I think we’re in trouble,” warned Ireland’s foreign minister, Simon Coveney, just hours before Johnson celebrated his win. EU leaders opened back-channels with Johnson last week.Johnson’s allies argue that he is inventive and that if anyone can find a way through the Brexit mess, he is the politician to do so. Conservative lawmaker Jacob Rees-Mogg, a hardline Brexiter, welcomed Johnson’s victory Tuesday saying it was a “terrific result” and presented Britain with a “great opportunity” to “make Brexit a success.”Johnson’s foes acknowledge his star quality and say that he might light up a room, attract crowds and possesses a startling ability to recover from frequent gaffes and blunders, but he’s too tumultuous to occupy Downing Street — especially at a time Britain is facing its thorniest and potentially biggest policy challenge since the 1954 Suez crisis, which risked Britain’s important ties with the U.S.Time will tell who’s right. That is if he gets time.Johnson’s other over-arching challenge is to overcome claims that he will be morally and politically an “illegitimate prime minister.” He will be the first prime minister to enter Downing Street to head a minority government on the basis of just an internal party vote.Daunting tasksBritain’s main opposition party, Labor, has targeted his legitimacy. Its leader, Jeremy Corbyn, tweeted Tuesday: “Boris Johnson has won the support of fewer than 100,000 unrepresentative Conservative party members by promising tax cuts for the richest, presenting himself as the bankers’ friend, and pushing for a damaging No Deal Brexit. But he hasn’t won the support of our country.”Johnson will have to decide quickly his strategies when it comes to Brexit, and to an escalating and risk-filled diplomatic quarrel with Iran over the seizing by Tehran of a British-flagged oil tanker.On Brexit, even before he won the leadership race, he was dealt a heavy blow with parliament voting to block him from suspending the legislature in order to try to prevent him from taking Britain out of the EU without a deal. And his options in the Gulf are equally as limited.Few prime ministers have entered office with such immediate daunting tasks awaiting them. Brexit has created a deep constitutional malfunction, pitching a system built on parliamentary democracy against a mandate thrown up by a referendum, an expression of direct democracy at odds with traditional British politics.If Johnson can square the Brexit circle, while dealing with a Gulf crisis that risks spiraling out of control, then he could go down in history, say his friends, as one of Britain’s finest prime ministers. He also would be the savior of a Conservative party facing the very real possibility of being wiped out, when it eventually faces the voters in a general election.
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Pope Gives West Virginia Diocese New Leader After Scandal
Pope Francis named Baltimore Auxiliary Bishop Mark Brennan to lead West Virginia’s Catholics on Tuesday following a scandal over the former bishop’s sexual harassment of adults and lavish spending of church money.The 72-year-old Brennan replaces Bishop Michael Bransfield, who resigned in September after a preliminary investigation into allegations of sexual and financial misconduct.Last week, Francis barred Bransfield from public ministry and prohibited him from living in the diocese, while also warning that he will be forced to make amends “for some of the harm he caused.” Brennan will now help decide the extent of those reparations as he seeks to restore trust among the Catholic faithful.Coming on the heels of a new wave of sex abuse allegations in the U.S., the Bransfield scandal added to the credibility crisis in the U.S. hierarchy. Several top churchmen received tens of thousands of dollars in church-funded personal gifts from Bransfield during his tenure in Wheeling-Charleston, which is located in one of the poorest U.S. states.In his first comments after his appointment, Brennan said he would work to bring “true healing and renewal” to West Virginia. And in comments to the Catholic Review of the archdiocese of Baltimore, he said a main focus would be on rural poverty and victims of the opioid crisis, which has hit West Virginia particularly hard.”There is immense need which is matched by immense desire and determination to reinvigorate the church here in West Virginia and across our nation,” he said, according to a statement from his new diocese.Brennan, a Boston native who was ordained in Washington D.C., in 1976, spent time studying Spanish in the Dominican Republic and completed his theology studies at the Jesuit-run Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. He was named auxiliary bishop of Baltimore in 2016 and has ministered to the city’s Hispanic community.After Bransfield’s resignation, Francis asked Baltimore Archbishop William Lori to oversee the diocese temporarily and complete a full investigation. The findings, first reported by The Washington Post, determined that Bransfield spent church funds on dining out, liquor, personal travel and luxury items, as well as personal gifts to fellow bishops and cardinals in the U.S. and Vatican.Lori has said that Bransfield was able to get away with his behavior for so long because he created a “culture of fear of retaliation and retribution” that weakened normal checks and balances in the diocese. The diocese’s vicars have all resigned and been reassigned to parish work, and Lori recently announced new auditing and other measures to ensure church funds are properly administered.Bransfield had been investigated for an alleged groping incident in 2007 and was implicated in court testimony in 2012 in an infamous Philadelphia priestly sex abuse case. He strongly denied ever abusing anyone and the diocese said it had disproved the claims. He continued with his ministry until he offered to retire, as required, when he turned 75 last year.He has disputed the findings of Lori’s investigation, telling The Post “none of it is true,” but declining detailed comment on the advice of his lawyers.The Wheeling-Charleston diocese includes nearly 75,000 Catholics and 95 parishes and encompasses the entire state of West Virginia.
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S. Korean Claims of Warning Shots to Russian Jets Disputed by Moscow
South Korean air force jets fired 360 rounds of warning shots Tuesday after a Russian military plane twice violated South Korea’s airspace off the country’s east coast, Seoul officials said in an announcement that was quickly disputed by Russia.South Korea said three Russian military planes — two Tu-95 bombers and one A-50 airborne early warning and control aircraft — entered the South’s air defense identification zone off its east coast before the A-50 intruded in South Korean airspace. Russia said later that two of its Tu-95MS bombers were on a routine flight over neutral waters and didn’t enter South Korean territory.According to South Korean government accounts, an unspecified number of South Korean fighter jets, including F-16s, scrambled to the area and fired 10 flares and 80 rounds from machine guns as warning shots.Seoul defense officials said the Russian reconnaissance aircraft left the area three minutes later but later returned and violated South Korean airspace again for four minutes. The officials said the South Korean fighter jets then fired 10 flares and 280 rounds from machine guns as warning shots.South Korea said it was the first time a foreign military plane had violated South Korean airspace since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.South Korea’s Foreign Ministry and the Joint Chiefs of Staff summoned Russia’s acting ambassador and its defense attache to protest.Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a statement that its planes did not enter South Korean airspace. It also said South Korean fighter jets didn’t fire any warning shots, though it said they flew near the Russian planes in what it called “unprofessional maneuvers” and posed a threat.”If the Russian pilots felt there was a security threat, they would have responded,” the statement said.South Korea’s presidential national security adviser, Chung Eui-yong, told top Russian security official Nikolai Patrushev that South Korea views Russia’s airspace violation “very seriously” and will take “much stronger” measures if a similar incident occurs, according to South Korea’s presidential office.The former Soviet Union supported North Korea and provided the country with weapons during the Korean War, which killed millions. In 1983, a Soviet air force fighter jet fired an air-to-air missile at a South Korean passenger plane that strayed into Soviet territory, killing all 269 people on board. Relations between Seoul and Moscow gradually improved, and they established diplomatic ties in 1990, a year before the breakup of the Soviet Union.The airspace that South Korea says the Russian warplane violated is above a group of South Korean-held islets roughly halfway between South Korea and Japan that have been a source of territorial disputes between the two Asian countries. Russia isn’t part of those disputes.Japan, which claims ownership over the islets, protested to South Korea for firing warning shots over Japanese airspace. South Korea later countered that it cannot accept the Japanese statement, repeating that the islets are South Korean territory. Japan also protested to Russia for allegedly violating Japanese airspace.South Korea said the three Russian planes entered the South Korean air defense identification zone with two Chinese bombers. South Korea said the Chinese planes didn’t intrude upon South Korean airspace.The Russian statement accused South Korean aircraft of trying to hamper the flights of Russian jets before “a vague missile defense identification area” that it said South Korea unilaterally defined. Russia said it had raised its concerns about the zone before.Before their reported joint flights with the Russian planes, the Chinese warplanes entered South Korea’s air defense identification zone off its southwest coast earlier Tuesday, South Korea’s Defense Ministry said. Seoul says Chinese planes have occasionally entered South Korea’s air defense identification zone in recent years.South Korea’s Foreign Ministry and Joint Chiefs of Staff registered their official protests with Beijing when they summoned China’s ambassador and defense attache.Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said she was not clear about the situation but noted that the air defense identification zone is not territorial airspace and others are entitled to fly through it.She took issue with a reporter’s use of the word “violation” to ask about China’s reported activity in South Korea’s air defense identification zone. “I feel that given China and South Korea are friendly neighbors, you should be careful when using it, because we are not clear about the situation,” she said.
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Facebook-Style App Launches in Vietnam Amid Tightening Internet Rules
A Facebook-style social network was launched in Vietnam on Tuesday, Gapo, a mobile app that lets users create personal profiles and share posts to a Facebook style “news feed”, has received 500 billion dong ($21.55 million) in funding from tech corporation G-Group, its chief executive, Ha Trung Kien, said.”Vietnamese users and enterprises are relying too much on Facebook as there are not so many social networks for them to choose from,” Kien said, adding that Gapo plans to reach 3 million users in 2019 and 20 million by January 2021.Despite economic reforms and increasing openness to social change, the ruling Communist Party retains tight media censorship in Vietnam and does not tolerate dissent.An increasing number of activists and dissidents have been arrested or tried over the last year for posting online content considered to be “anti-state”.Nearly 10% of the 128 prisoners held in the Southeast Asian country for expressing dissenting views were jailed for posting anti-state comments on social media platforms such as Facebook, Amnesty International said in May.Vietnam has also ramped up pressure on firms such as Google and Facebook with a controversial cybersecurity law that took effect in January.Global technology firms and rights groups have pushed back against the law, which requires companies to set up offices in Vietnam and store data there.In September 2018, Information Minister Nguyen Manh Hung urged Vietnamese companies to create viable domestic alternatives to foreign social media platforms.Last month, Vietnam asked companies not to advertise on videos hosted by Google’s YouTube that contain “anti-state” propaganda.Domestic social platforms built prior to Gapo, such as VietnamTa and Hahalolo are also similar to Facebook, although neither has managed to build a large user base.Gapo has teamed with Sony Music Entertainment as a strategic partner to feature music content on the app, it said in a statement.
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Boris Johnson to Be Britain’s Next Prime Minister
Britain’s Conservative Party announced Tuesday that Boris Johnson has won the election to be its new leader and become the country’s next prime minister.Johnson defeated British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt in the voting that ended Monday night by a margin of 66% to 34%.”We are going to unite this amazing country and we are going to take it forward,” Johnson told party members after he was announced as the winner.He pledged to deliver Britain’s exit from the European Union on October 31 and to unite and energize the country with efforts to improve education, infrastructure and police.Johnson will officially replace Prime Minister Theresa May on Wednesday as she steps down following repeated failures to deliver Britain’s exit from the European Union.He thanked May in his address for “extraordinary service” to the party and the country.In Washington, U.S. President Donald Trump congratulated Johnson and said “He will be great!”Congratulations to Boris Johnson on becoming the new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He will be great!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 23, 2019The Brexit process was meant to be concluded in late March, but while EU officials have indicated no interest in renegotiating the divorce terms that Britain’s parliament has rejected three times so far, they did agree to push the deadline to October 31.Johnson, a populist former foreign secretary under May and mayor of London, has expressed a willingness to withdraw Britain from the EU at that time with or without an agreement in place. Many members of parliament oppose a no-deal Brexit, saying such a move would be economically chaotic.
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Immigrant Teacher Adjusts to American Teens and Life in Rural Colorado
Charmaine Teodoro is a Filipina recruited to teach math at a rural school in Colorado experiencing a teacher shortage. Now in her second year and on a J1 visa, Charmaine talks about her future plans, the challenges she faced in her first year, and the cultural differences between the two countries, especially when teaching teenagers.
Reporter/Camera: Deepak Dobhal
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Moroccan Lawmakers Vote to Bolster French in Education System
Moroccan lawmakers passed a draft law on Monday evening that would pave the way for strengthening the place of French in Moroccan schools, overturning decades of Arabisation.The legislation was adopted in the lower house by 241-4, with 21 abstentions. Most members of the mainly Islamist co-ruling PJD and conservative Istiqlal lawmakers abstained from voting on the articles stipulating the use of French as a language of instruction.The text will enter into force after a second reading in the upper house and its publication in the official bulletin.The country’s official languages are Arabic and Amazigh, or Berber. Most people speak Moroccan Arabic — a mixture of Arabic and Amazigh infused with French and Spanish influences.French reigns supreme, however, in business, government and higher education, giving those who can afford to be privately schooled in French a huge advantage over most of the country’s students.Two out of three people fail to complete their studies at public universities in Morocco, mainly because they do not speak French, according to education ministry figures.To curb the number of university dropouts and equip people with the language requirements needed for jobs, the government proposed reintroducing French as a language of teaching science, mathematics and technical subjects.Such classes are taught in Arabic up to high school – a disconnect with French-dominated higher education.The adoption of the draft law irked advocates of Arabisation, including the former secretary general of the PJD party, Abdelilah Benkirane, who described the reintroduction of the language of the former colonial power as a betrayal of the “party’s principles.”Two parliamentarians from a coalition of leftist parties, Omar Balafrej and Mostafa Chennaoui, voted against the draft law after the rejection of their amendments to enshrine a tax on wealth and a progressive inheritance tax to fund education reform.Morocco increased the education budget by 5.4 billion dirhams ($561 million) in 2019 to 68 billion dirhams ($7 billion) as it seeks to boost access and improve infrastructure notably in hard-to-reach areas.
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Massive Protests in Puerto Rico Demanding Resignation of Embattled Governor
A tenth day of protests in Puerto Rico against embattled Governor Ricardo Rossello ended late Monday with police using tear gas to disperse protesters who had gathered near the governor’s mansion in San Juan.A massive crowd estimated at 500,000 people, including pop singer Ricky Martin and other Puerto Rican-born entertainers, filled the streets of the capital earlier in the day demanding Rossello resign. The public fury erupted nearly two weeks ago when the island’s Center for Investigative Journalism published nearly 900 pages of online group chats between Gov. Rossello and several top aides and associates that included several profane messages laced with contempt for victims of 2017’s Hurricane Maria, which killed 3,000 people and left the island without power for months, as well as numerous misogynistic and homophobic slurs against Rossello’s political opponents. The publication of the chats unleashed a long-simmering anger among Puerto Ricans worn down by years of public corruption and mismanagement that left the U.S. territory under the control of a congressionally-mandated oversight board to guide it out of a multi-billion dollar debt crisis. Rossello stepped down as leader of the New Progressive Party during a televised address Sunday and said he would not seek re-election in 2020. President Donald Trump slammed Rossello for his “totally grossly incompetent leadership” of Puerto Rico Monday at the White House. Trump clashed with Rossello and other Puerto Rican officials over the administration’s seemingly tepid response to Hurricane Maria.
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Seoul: Russian Jets Violate South Korea Airspace
This story was last updated at 4:30 am.South Korean jets fired flares and warning shots Tuesday after a Russian warplane violated its territorial airspace, according to Seoul’s defense ministry. South Korea scrambled multiple jets, including F-15Ks and F-16Ks, after the Russian plane entered South Korea’s territory over the East Sea, South Korean officials say.After the South Korean jets fired warning shots, the Russian plane left South Korean territory. However, it returned a short time later, prompting the South Korean jets to fire more warning shots. Two other Russian planes, along with two Chinese military aircraft, were also operating within South Korea’s air defense identification zone on Tuesday, Seoul officials say. Air defense identification zones, which are not recognized by international treaties or laws, are meant to help countries identify and communicate with approaching foreign planes, in order to prevent miscommunication and accidental clashes.Chinese and Russian planes have occasionally entered South Korea’s air defense identification zones. But South Korean officials say this is the first time that a Russian plane has violated its territorial skies. Seoul will lodge an official protest with Chinese and Russian embassy officials, South Korea’s defense ministry says. Moscow and Beijing have not commented on the incident.
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South Korea Says Russian Military Airplane Violated Its Airspace
South Korea says it fired warning shots at a Russian military aircraft after the plane breached South Korea’s airspace.South Korea’s Defense Ministry says three Russian aircraft entered its air defense identification zone early Tuesday morning off its east coast before one of them breached the airspace. South Korean air force jets were deployed to intercept the plane and forced the Russian plane to leave the airspace. But the aircraft violated the airspace 20 minutes later, and stayed briefly before South Korean fighter jets fired another warning shot.The ministry says it was the first time a Russian military aircraft violated South Korean airspace. Two Chinese aircraft also flew into the South’s air defense identification zone off the east coast hours earlier. The ministry says it will summon both Russian and Chinese embassy officials later Tuesday to lodge a formal protest.The violation happened near a disputed group of islands claimed by both South Korea, which calls it Dokdo, and Japan, which calls it Takeshima.
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Trial to Open for Philippine Journalist Critical of Duterte
High-profile Philippine journalist Maria Ressa’s libel trial opens Tuesday in a case that press freedom advocates see as government retaliation for her news site’s critical reporting on President Rodrigo Duterte.Ressa, who leads online outlet Rappler and was named a Time Magazine “Person of the Year” in 2018 for her journalism, is out on bail and faces years in prison if convicted.This case is among a string of criminal charges that have hit Ressa and Rappler over the past year, prompting allegations that authorities are targeting her and her team for their work,The news portal has reported extensively and often critically on Duterte’s policies, including a deadly crackdown that rights groups say may be a crime against humanity.”The message that the government is sending is very clear,” Ressa told reporters in February as she posted bail after spending the night in jail over the libel case: “Be silent or you’re next.”FILE – Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte gestures during the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-LakasBayan (PDP-LABAN) meeting in Manila, May 11, 2019.The case that opens Tuesday centers on a Rappler report from 2012 about a businessman’s alleged ties to a then-judge of the nation’s top court.Government investigators initially dismissed the businessman’s 2017 complaint about the article, but state prosecutors later decided to file charges.The legal foundation of the case is a controversial “cybercrime law” aimed at online offenses ranging from stalking to child pornography.Ressa, 55, argues the law did not take effect until months after the story was published.Government lawyers say it is effectively a new article since Rappler had updated it in 2014 to fix a typographical error.While the plaintiff is a private citizen, like all criminal cases in the Philippines the suit is prosecuted by government lawyers.Ressa and Rappler also face tax and corporate fraud cases.Ressa’s presence in court is not mandatory and she is not expected to attend the hearing, according to Rappler. The libel case has drawn international attention, with Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland and former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright expressing concern over democratic rights.Prominent rights lawyer Amal Clooney, who joined Ressa’s legal team this month, said the case echoed a recurring theme in her work, where “journalists who expose abuses face arrest while those who commit the abuses do so with impunity”.Duterte, who denies being behind the case, has singled out Rappler for criticism, also banning it from covering his public events and forbidding government officials from talking to Rappler reporters.
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Pompeo Hails Improved US Ties with Latin America Following Trip to Region
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is hailing a new chapter in U.S. relations with Latin America following a whirlwind trip to four countries in South and Central America. The top U.S. diplomat, who stopped in El Salvador, Mexico, Ecuador, and Argentina during his trip, said countries that commit themselves to fighting crime and corruption and promoting democracy will reap the benefits. VOA’s Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine traveled with the U.S. secretary of state and filed this report
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Chris Kraft, 1st Flight Director for NASA, Dies at 95
Behind America’s late leap into orbit and triumphant small step on the moon was the agile mind and guts-of-steel of Chris Kraft, making split-second decisions that propelled the nation to once unimaginable heights.Kraft, the creator and longtime leader of NASA’s Mission Control, died Monday in Houston, just two days after the 50th anniversary of what was his and NASA’s crowning achievement: Apollo 11’s moon landing. He was 95.Christopher Columbus Kraft Jr. never flew in space, but “held the success or failure of American human spaceflight in his hands,” Neil Armstrong, the first man-on-the-moon, told The Associated Press in 2011.Kraft founded Mission Control and created the job of flight director — later comparing it to an orchestra conductor — and established how flights would be run as the space race between the U.S. and Soviets heated up. The legendary engineer served as flight director for all of the one-man Mercury flights and seven of the two-man Gemini flights, helped design the Apollo missions that took 12 Americans to the moon from 1969 to 1972 and later served as director of the Johnson Space Center until 1982, overseeing the beginning of the era of the space shuttle.Armstrong once called him “the man who was the ‘Control’ in Mission Control.”FILE – Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong waves to well-wishers on the way out to the transfer van, Cape Canaveral, Florida, July 16, 1969. Mike Collins and Buzz Aldrin follow Armstrong down the hallway.”From the moment the mission starts until the moment the crew is safe on board a recovery ship, I’m in charge,” Kraft wrote in his 2002 book “Flight: My Life in Mission Control.””No one can overrule me. … They can fire me after it’s over. But while the mission is under way, I’m Flight. And Flight is God.”NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine Monday called Kraft “a national treasure,” saying “We stand on his shoulders as we reach deeper into the solar system, and he will always be with us on those journeys.”Kraft became known as “the father of Mission Control” and in 2011 NASA returned the favor by naming the Houston building that houses the nerve center after Kraft.”It’s where the heart of the mission is,” Kraft said in an April 2010 AP interview. “It’s where decisions are made every day, small and large … We realized that the people that had the moxie, that had the knowledge, were there and could make the decisions.”That’s what Chris Kraft’s Mission Control was about: smart people with knowledge discussing options quickly and the flight director making a quick, informed decision, said former Smithsonian Institution space historian Roger Launius. It’s the place that held its collective breath as Neil Armstrong was guiding the Eagle lunar lander on the moon while fuel was running out. And it’s the place that improvised a last-minute rescue of Apollo 13 — a dramatic scenario that later made the unsung engineers heroes in a popular movie.Soon it became more than NASA’s Mission Control. Hurricane forecasting centers, city crisis centers, even the Russian space center are all modeled after the Mission Control that Kraft created, Launius said.Leading up to the first launch to put an American, John Glenn, in orbit, a reporter asked Kraft about the odds of success and he replied: “If I thought about the odds at all, we’d never go to the pad.””It was a wonderful life. I can’t think of anything that an aeronautical engineer would get more out of, than what we were asked to do in the space program, in the ’60s,” Kraft said on NASA’s website marking the 50th anniversary of the agency in 2008.Flight controllers at the Mission Operations Control Room in the Mission Control Center at the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston, celebrate the successful conclusion of the Apollo 11 lunar landing mission, July 24, 1969.In the early days of Mercury at Florida’s Cape Canaveral, before Mission Control moved to Houston in 1965, there were no computer displays, “all you had was grease pencils,” Kraft recalled. The average age of the flight control team was 26; Kraft was 38.”We didn’t know a damn thing about putting a man into space,” Kraft wrote in his autobiography. “We had no idea how much it should or would cost. And at best, we were engineers trained to do, not business experts trained to manage.”NASA trailed the Soviet space program and suffered through many failed launches in the early days, before the manned flights began in 1961. Kraft later recalled thinking President John F. Kennedy “had lost his mind” when in May 1961 he set as a goal a manned trip to the moon “before this decade is out.””We had a total of 15 minutes of manned spaceflight experience, we hadn’t flown Mercury in orbit yet, and here’s a guy telling me we’re going to fly to the moon. … Doing it was one thing, but doing it in this decade was to me too risky,” Kraft told AP in 1989.”Frankly it scared the hell out of me,” he said at a 2009 lecture at the Smithsonian.One of the most dramatic moments came during Scott Carpenter’s May 1962 mission as the second American to orbit the earth. Carpenter landed 288 miles off target because of low fuel and other problems. He was eventually found safely floating in his life raft. Kraft blamed Carpenter for making poor decisions. Tom Wolfe’s book “The Right Stuff” said Kraft angrily vowed that Carpenter “will never fly for me again!” But Carpenter said he did the best he could when the machinery malfunctioned.After the two-man Gemini flights, Kraft moved up NASA management to be in charge of manned spaceflight and was stunned by the Apollo 1 training fire that killed three astronauts.Gene Kranz, aerospace engineer, fighter pilot and the most prominent of the Apollo era flight directors and later Director of NASA Flight Operations, at the console where he worked during the Gemini and Apollo missions, June 17, 2019.Gene Kranz, who later would become NASA’s flight director for the Apollo mission that took man to the moon, said Kraft did not at first impress him as a leader. But Kranz eventually saw Kraft as similar to a judo instructor, allowing his student to grow in skills, then stepping aside.”Chris Kraft had pioneered Mission Control and fought the battles in Mercury and Gemini, serving as the role model of the flight director. He proved the need for real-time leadership,” Kranz wrote in his book, “Failure Is Not An Option: Mission Control from Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond.”Born in 1924, Kraft grew up in Phoebus, Virginia, now part of Hampton, about 75 miles southeast of Richmond. In his autobiography, Kraft said with the name Christopher Columbus Kraft Jr., “some of my life’s direction was settled from the start.”After graduating from Virginia Polytechnic Institute in 1944, Kraft took a job with aircraft manufacturer Chance Vought to build warplanes, but he quickly realized it wasn’t for him. He returned to Virginia where he accepted a job with the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, not far from Phoebus.Kraft’s first job was to figure out what happens to airplanes as they approach the speed of sound.After his retirement, Kraft served as an aerospace consultant and was chairman of a panel in the mid-1990s looking for a cheaper way to manage the shuttle program.Later, as the space shuttle program was being phased out after 30 years, Kraft blasted as foolish the decision to retire the shuttles, which he called “the safest machines ever built.”Kraft said he considered himself fortunate to be part of the team that sent Americans to space and called it a sad day when the shuttles stopped flying.”The people of Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo are blossoms on the moon. Their spirits will live there forever,” he wrote. “I was part of that crowd, then part of the leadership that opened space travel to human beings. We threw a narrow flash of light across our nation’s history. I was there at the best of times.”Kraft and his wife, Betty Anne, were married in 1950. They had a son, Gordon, and a daughter, Kristi-Anne.
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