This year, 700 leaders from Sub Saharan Africa participated in the Young African Leaders Initiative, or YALI fellowship, across the U.S. Launched in 2014, YALI’s flagship program – the Mandela Washington Fellowship — is funded by the U.S. Department of State. The program brings young African leaders between the ages of 25 to 35 who excel in business, public management, or civic engagement to the U.S. Sahar Majid has more about the program and the YALI fellows in this report narrated by Kathleen Struck.
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Month: August 2019
In South Korea, a Small But Notable Backlash Against Trump
It’s no secret U.S. President Donald Trump can sometimes be nicer to his country’s perceived enemies than its friends. But Trump’s unorthodox negotiating style appears to be wearing thin in South Korea, especially among conservatives, who are increasingly willing to criticize the U.S. leader. In recent weeks there has been a small but notable backlash among South Korean conservatives, traditionally the most reliably pro-U.S. contingent, as Trump continues to flatter North Korean leader Kim Jong Un while pressuring South Korea’s government over military cost-sharing negotiations. It’s not a new strategy. Trump has praised his “friend” Kim for more than a year, as he tries to convince the North Korean leader to give up his nuclear weapons. But with talks stalled yet again and Kim intensifying provocations against Seoul, some in South Korea are losing patience. Earlier this month, South Korean human rights activists accused Trump of ignoring North Korean human rights abuses when he praised Kim’s “great and beautiful vision for his country.” Some conservatives express concern that Trump is giving Kim too much latitude to develop weapons by saying he has “no problem” with North Korea’s recent ballistic missile launches. Though short-range, the missiles can reach anywhere in South Korea. Others were alarmed when Trump again agreed with North Korea’s characterization of U.S.-South Korean military exercises, calling them “ridiculous and expensive.” U.S. President Donald Trump shakes hands with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as they meet at the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas, in Panmunjom, South Korea, June 30, 2019.‘He does not know…his enemy from his friend’But the tipping point for some came earlier this month when Trump reportedly used an Asian accent to mock South Korea for allegedly agreeing to pay more for protection from the North. “It was easier to get a billion dollars from South Korea than to get $114.13 from a rent-controlled apartment in Brooklyn,” Trump boasted, according to the Manhattan-based New York Post newspaper. “And believe me, those 13 cents were very important.”The conservative Chosun Ilbo, South Korea’s largest newspaper, was furious, running an editorial titled: “Trump’s Attitude to U.S.-Korea Alliance Is Alarming.” “No other U.S. president has insulted South Koreans like that,” the editorial read. “Certainly not by alluding to his grubby past as a slum landlord.”Rep. Cho Kyoung-tae, a senior member of the main opposition Liberty Korea Party, told a local radio station Trump’s comments raise questions about whether the United States is a trustworthy, friendly country, according to the Yonhap news agency.“With the mindset of a merchant, a businessman, he does not know his ass from his elbow, his enemy from his friend,” Cho said. Rep. Ha Tae-keung of the minor opposition Bareunmirae Party, which is made up of both liberals and conservatives, recently called Trump “totally thoughtless,” saying his “reckless” remarks threaten the U.S.-South Korea alliance, Yonhap reported.South Korean conservatives generally support a tougher posture toward Pyongyang. They have long been skeptical about Trump’s talks with North Korea, since they believe Kim is unlikely to surrender his nuclear weapons, says Park Won-gon, a professor at South Korea’s Handong Global University.“In spite of that, Trump keeps saying positive things about Kim, which makes conservative groups angrier,” Park says. Human rights concernsOthers are concerned Trump is neglecting North Korean human rights abuses, and question the wisdom of praising a leader who oversees a vast network of political prisons and forced labor camps. “A beautiful vision for his country…are you out of your mind, @realDonaldTrump?” tweeted Yeonmi Park, who fled North Korea in 2007 and is now a human rights activist. A beautiful vision for his country.. Are you out of your mind, U.S. President Donald Trump gestures during his visit to U.S. troops based in Osan Air Base, South Korea, June 30, 2019.Earlier this month, in an apparent attempt to preempt cost-sharing negotiations with Seoul, Trump tweeted that South Korea agreed to pay “substantially more money” for the cost of the U.S. military presence. Seoul shot back, saying cost-sharing negotiations hadn’t even yet begun. South Korean officials have also expressed confusion about Trump’s inaccurate statements regarding the most basic aspects of the U.S.-South Korean alliance.In February, Trump said there are 40,000 U.S. troops in South Korea. Earlier this month, Trump put the number at 32,000. In reality, there about 28,500 U.S. troops in South Korea, according to the Pentagon.This month, Trump complained the United States gets “virtually nothing” from South Korea, even though Washington has been helping Seoul “for about 82 years.” It’s not clear where Trump got the figure, as the Korean War was from 1950-53.Despite those comments, lower level U.S.-South Korean ties remain strong, with South Korean and U.S. officials regularly stressing the vitality of the relationship.The U.S.-South Korea alliance “is ironclad and remains the linchpin of peace and security on the Korean Peninsula and in Northeast Asia,” U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said during a visit to Seoul this month. Trump, too, insisted in an early August tweet that the “relationship between the countries is a very good one!” Trump an anomaly — for nowFor now, Trump is an anomaly — the main disruptive influence in an otherwise solid relationship.But there may come a point where more South Koreans begin pushing back on Trump, says Jeffrey Robertson, a professor who specializes in South Korean diplomacy at Yonsei University.“Anti-Americanism has deep roots in South Korea. It swings like a pendulum and will return sooner or later – on both the progressive and conservative side,” Robertson says.There may come a point where more South Koreans say “enough is enough,” says Robertson. “And the recent comments may be the start of that point.”
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Hong Kong Leader Hails Peaceful March as Reset of Political Crisis
Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam says she hopes Sunday’s peaceful march through the streets of the Chinese territory marks a turning point in the nearly two month anti-government protests.The protests began over a proposed extradition bill that would have sent suspected criminals to mainland China, but escalated into violence and plunged Hong Kong into its biggest political crisis since Britain returned control to Beijing in 1997. Demonstrators have put forth a list of demands, among them a complete withdrawal of the extradition bill, an independent probe into allegations of police brutality during the protests, exoneration for the more than 700 people arrested during the demonstrations, the long-stated goal of direct elections of the city’s leader, and Lam’s resignation. Lam told reporters Tuesday that Hong Kong’s police force will launch an internal probe into the 174 complaints of excessive force by police, including complaints of tear gas and rubber bullets fired at protesters. She also stopped short of formally withdrawing the controversial extradition bill as demanded by the protesters, saying simply the matter was “dead.”Fears are growing in Hong Kong that the city is steadily losing its autonomy to China, promised until 2047 under the handover agreement with Britain. Citizens are currently protected by the Basic Law, a set of civil and political rights considered Hong Kong’s mini constitution.
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Spanish Charity Ship Threatens to Defy Italian Authorities
The Open Arms charity says it is willing to defy Italian authorities and dock their migrant ship at Lampedusa.The boat with about 100 migrants is stationed in the Mediterranean Sea off the Italian island, demanding permission to dock after 18 days at sea.”We have exhausted physically, morally and technically the few resources that this organization has in this moment,” Open Arms founder Oscar Camps told Reuters on Monday.Open Arms founder Oscar Camps is photographed as he is interviewed by reporters on the Sicilian island of Lampedusa, southern Italy, Aug. 19, 2019.Many of the migrants on board are sick, suicidal and close to mental breakdowns, the charity said.The group has rejected offers from Spain to sail to one of its ports. France, Germany, Luxembourg, Portugal and Romania have offered to give the migrants refuge.Under international law, a distressed ship is supposed to head to the first safe port. Open Arms says the ship and migrants could not withstand the journey to a Spanish port. “While our boat is 800 meters off the coast of Lampedusa, European states are asking a small NGO like ours to face three days of sailing in harsh weather conditions,” the organization said.While some onboard the rescue ship have been allowed to enter Lampedusa, Italy’s hard-line anti-immigrant Interior Minister Matteo Salvini is refusing to let the boat dock there.He said Italy has done enough in accepting African migrants and is demanding other EU nations do more to help. He also called private charity migrant ships “taxis” for human traffickers.Some of migrant minors allowed to disembark the Open Arms vessel, anchored off the Sicilian vacation and fishing island of Lampedusa, southern Italy, wait to be taken to the Sicilian port of Porto Empedocle from Lampedusa, Aug. 19, 2019.Spanish Defense Minister Margarita Robles said what Salvini is doing is “a disgrace to humanity as a whole … putting human lives at risk for electoral reasons.”A second ship, the Ocean Viking — operated by French charities Doctors Without Borders and SOS Mediterranean — is also at sea with 356 mainly Sudanese migrants looking for a safe port.Lampedusa is the closest EU port from Libyan shores, where thousands of migrants looking to escape war and poverty try crossing the Mediterranean in search of safety, often aboard rickety vessels and flimsy rafts.Those not rescued by charity ships are left to drown. Migrants picked up by the Libyan coast guard are returned to Libya and housed in migrant detention centers near Tripoli.Some of those centers are caught in the fighting between rival Libyan governments. Two missiles slammed into one detention center last month, killing 53.
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Polish Opposition Unites in Bid to Wrest Senate From Ruling Nationalists
Polish opposition parties have joined forces to try to win a majority in the upper house of parliament, the Senate, in parliamentary elections on Oct. 13, as they struggle to oust the ruling nationalist Law and Justice party (PiS) from power.Opinion polls show PiS winning a second four-year term with more than 40 percent of the vote for the more powerful lower house, the Sejm, which is elected on a system of proportional representation based on party lists.But the Senate is chosen on a system of first-past-the-post, whereby the candidate who wins most votes in a given constituency is duly elected. By agreeing not to put up rival candidates, the opposition parties increase their chances of defeating PiS.”We believe that a list of jointly agreed candidates for the Senate offers us an opportunity to win the Senate elections,” Krzysztof Gawkowski, secretary-general of the leftist Wiosna party, told private Radio Zet on Sunday.The Senate scrutinizes, debates and can reject legislation passed by the Sejm.Critics say PiS has used its current majority in both the Sejm and the Senate to rush through bills without proper oversight or time to analyze their impact.PiS, a socially conservative, eurosceptic party but which leans to the left on economic policy, hopes to win a two thirds majority in the Sejm in the October election, which would allow it to change Poland’s constitution.But the opposition could block such a move if it held a majority of the Senate’s 100 seats.The opposition groupings involved in the Senate deal include the centrist Civic Coalition and several leftist parties.”If the opposition parties don’t compete with each other (in the Senate race) and unite behind one candidate in each district, they have a chance to win a Senate majority,” said Anna Materska-Sosnowska, a political scientist at Warsaw University.PiS was quick to dismiss the opposition initiative. One PiS senator, Jan Maria Jackowski, told the Wyborcza.pl portal that according to his party’s analysis, PiS was still on track to win more than half of the seats in the Senate.”On that side there are only negative emotions, their only program is that they are anti-PiS. We are a party that has a real program,” Joachim Brudzinski, an MEP and the head of PiS’ campaign team, told reporters on Monday.
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Memorial to Victims of Boston Marathon Bombing Completed
Three stone pillars were placed Monday near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, marking the final step in a $2 million effort to memorialize the bombing that killed three people.The understated monument of granite and bronze, which took four years to plan and develop, was supposed to be ready last year for the fifth anniversary of the April 15, 2013, attack, but underwent significant redesigns and other delays.”We hope that this will help demarcate the sacredness of this spot and give people the opportunity to slow down when they’re here,” said Bolivian-born sculptor Pablo Eduardo as he put finishing touches on the monuments Monday.Nichola Forrester, a Milton, Massachusetts, resident who completed the 2013 race long before the bombs detonated, was among those pausing to reflect on their lunch break.”I said a prayer for them,” she said after asking a bystander to take a photo of her beside one of the pillars. “I’m pretty sure these three victims had cheered for me when I was going through the finish line, so the least I could do was come out and show my support.”Patricia Campbell, the mother of bombing victim Krystle Campbell, said she was grateful her daughter hasn’t been forgotten.”I hope that this memorial will be a reminder to anyone out there who feels upset about their life and that they will stop and think,” she said by email.Inscriptions ring the base of two of the stone pillars completed Aug. 19, 2019, in Boston to memorialize the Boston Marathon bombing victims at the sites where they were killed.The memorial — two distinct pieces separated by about a city block — marks the spots where two pressure cooker bombs detonated near the finish line, killing the three victims and wounding more than 260 others.The two pieces each feature granite pillars ringed by towering bronze and glass spires meant to bathe the sites in warm white light.Cherry trees to bloom each April have also been planted at the sites, and two modest bronze bricks have been set in the sidewalk to honor the police officers killed in the bombing’s aftermath, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Officer Sean Collier and Boston police Officer Dennis Simmonds.The stone pillars, which range in height from about 3 to 5 feet (1 to 1.5 meters), were gathered from places around Boston significant to the bombing victims.One representing 8-year-old Boston resident Martin Richard was taken from Franklin Park in his family’s Dorchester neighborhood. Another that is fused to it honors 23-year-old Boston University graduate student Lingzi Lu and was donated by her school.Around the base of the two pillars is an inscription etched in bronze: “Let us climb, now, the road to hope.”And the third pillar for Campbell, a 29-year-old Medford, Massachusetts native, comes from Spectacle Island in Boston Harbor, where she’d worked.Its inscription reads: “All we have lost is brightly lost.”
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Bangladesh, UNHCR to Survey Rohingya Regarding Return to Myanmar
Bangladesh will work with the United Nations refugee agency to determine if more than 3,000 Rohingya refugees will accept Myanmar’s offer to return home, an official said Monday, nearly a year after a major repatriation plan failed.More than 730,000 Rohingya fled Rakhine for camps in Bangladesh after a military-led crackdown in August 2017 that the United Nations has said was perpetrated with “genocidal intent,” but many refugees refuse to go back, fearing more violence.”It will be a joint exercise led by UNHCR,” Abul Kalam, Bangladesh’s Refugee Relief and Repatriation commissioner, told Reuters by telephone Monday, referring to the refugee agency.The United Nations Security Council is due to discuss the latest repatriation plan behind closed doors Wednesday at the request of France, Britain, the United States, Germany and Belgium, diplomats said.FILE – Rohingya refugees gather at a market inside a refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, March 7, 2019.Myanmar has cleared 3,450 people from a list of more than 22,000 refugees provided by Bangladesh, government spokesman Zaw Htay told a news conference in the capital Naypyitaw on Friday.”We have already negotiated with Bangladesh to accept these 3,450 people on August 22,” he said, adding they would be divided into seven groups for repatriation.A foreign ministry spokesman previously gave Reuters a figure of 3,540 refugees verified under the plan.Zaw Htay said officials had scrutinized the list to determine whether the refugees had lived in Myanmar and whether they had been involved in attacks on the military.The 2017 crackdown was preceded by attacks on security forces by insurgents calling themselves the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, which Myanmar has classified as a terrorist organization.Previous attempts at persuading Rohingya to return to Rakhine have failed due to opposition from refugees. An effort in November sowed fear and confusion in the camps, and finally failed after refugee protests.
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Zimbabwe Official Defends Crackdown on Protests, Urges Patience with Economy
Zimbabwe’s minister of foreign affairs and international trade on Monday defended crackdowns on anti-government demonstrations and urged patience in turning around the country’s foundering economy.Though “everybody’s got the right to demonstrate,” there have “been a lot of insinuations and campaigns of violence,” Sibusiso B. Moyo told VOA in an interview. Citing public safety, he endorsed a Zimbabwe court’s ruling hours earlier to uphold a police ban on a protest organized by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) alliance.Former Major General Sibusiso Moyo, center, who was appointed Foreign Affairs and International Relations Minister speaks with a fellow minister, before taking the oath of office, Dec. 4, 2017, in Harare.Alliance leaders are pressing President Emmerson Mnangagwa and the ruling ZANU-PF party for a role in a transitional government. They had organized a demonstration Monday in Bulawayo, the country’s second-largest city, but police authorities banned it hours before its intended start. Two other opposition demonstrations still are planned this week: for the central city of Gweru on Tuesday and the southeastern city of Masvingo on Wednesday. Police also had pre-emptively banned a demonstration in Harare last Friday, a decision upheld by a Zimbabwe court. Hundreds of MDC supporters ignored the ban, leading to Riot police arrest and forcibly apprehend protestors during protests in Harare, Aug. 16, 2019.A young man in Bulawayo, identifying himself only as James, told VOA that negotiations between the government and opposition leaders were even more important than demonstrations. “Honestly, to demonstrate, we can end up being hurt by being beaten, being chased around. There’s really nothing that we see coming out of it,” James said. “But these men should sit down and see what they can do for us, especially us, the youth. … We have been affected a lot, and we are getting old just running.” Moyo, the foreign minister, told VOA the administration is “undertaking economic reforms [that] are fundamental and they are key to ensuring that even the youth would finally have jobs created for them, so that we can create an environment where investors and the capital will find it easy to come into this country, where jobs will be created, and the youth will be part and parcel of economic activity.” Moyo said Zimbabwe is midway into a two-year “transition stabilization program” to revive the country’s devastated economy: “We have got one year to go and we are saying we should by then be out of the doldrums.” The southern African country of nearly 16 million is experiencing its worst financial crisis since 2008, beset by hyperinflation and the fallout of decades of corruption. Many struggle to buy basics such as food and medicine. With the poor economy and crops devastated by drought and a spring cyclone, the UN World Food Program anticipates that 5.5 million people will Zimbabwe’s Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube delivers a speech to present his mid-term budget statement on Aug. 1, 2019, in Harare.Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube, who had predicted 3.1% growth for 2019, offered a sobering update to Zimbabwe’s parliament in early August. “The revised 2019 GDP growth is expected to be negative,” Reuters news service reported him as saying.Ncube did not provide any updated figure.
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Presidents of France, Russia Meet to Discuss World Conflicts
Updated 9 pm, Aug. 19.French President Emmanuel Macron and Russian President Vladimir Putin held talks in southern France where they made progress on boosting peace talks for Ukraine but disagreed on other issues, including Syria and Russia’s crackdown on opposition protesters.Macron told a news conference ahead of the meeting at his summer home on the French Riviera Monday that there is now a “real opportunity” for peace in Ukraine after the election of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.Putin told reporters that phone conversations with Zelensky, who has offered an olive branch to the Russian president, had given him cautious grounds for optimism.France is seeking to play the role of mediator in Russia’s conflict with Ukraine.The two leaders also expressed hopes to improve Moscow’s relations with the European Union and seek cooperation on arms control issues. However, they also disagreed on other matters.
During the press conference, Macron called for the respect of free speech and free elections in Russia, where authorities have been cracking down on anti-government protesters in Moscow.Putin said Moscow does not want protests like the” yellow vest” ones that have taken place in France, but that peaceful demonstrations were welcome.”We would not want such a thing to happen in the Russian capital,” Putin said, referring to the French demonstrations against economic injustice and the presidency of Macron. He said those guilty of breaking Russia’s protest laws should be held responsible.”We all know about the events linked to the so-called yellow vests during which, according to our calculations, 11 people were killed and 2,500 injured,” Putin said.France has strongly criticized Russia’s arrests of more than 2,000 demonstrators and the “clearly excessive use of force” against protesters.Russian President Vladimir Putin’s helicopter, right, lands at the Fort de Bregancon before his meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, Aug.19, 2019 in Bormes-les-Mimosas, southern France.The two leaders also disagreed about the conflict in Syria. Macron expressed “profound worry” about the bombing of the Syrian town of Idlib, and said “it’s vital that the ceasefire agreed in Sochi is put into practice.”However, Putin said that Moscow supports attacks by the Syrian army against “terrorists” in the northern province of Idlib.”We never said that in Idlib terrorists would feel comfortable,” he said.Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government, which is backed by Russia, has been carrying out a military offensive in Idlib, a rebel-controlled area of Syria. France has been pushing for a truce in fighting that could prevent more civilian deaths.Monday’s bilateral meeting in Macron’s summer home comes ahead of a meeting of the Group of Seven nations in Biarritz, France at the end of the week. Russia was excluded from the group after it annexed Crimea in 2014.
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Planned Parenthood Pulls Out of Federal Grant Program
The country’s top reproductive services group, Planned Parenthood, is pulling out of a federal family planning program to avoid abiding by new Trump administration rules on abortion.The new rule under the Title X program bans grant recipients from referring patients for abortion.”We will not be bullied into withholding abortion information from our patients,” Planned Parenthood CEO Alexis McGill Johnson said. “Our patients deserve to make their own health care decisions, not to be forced to have Donald Trump or Mike Pence make those decisions for them.”Planned Parenthood says its clinics will stay open, but they will have to scramble to make up the loss of federal grants.Along with providing abortions, Planned Parenthood also provides patients access to birth control, testing for sexually transmitted diseases, cancer screening, infertility treatment, and other services. Many of its patients are low-income and minority women. McGill Johnson says they will be the ones to suffer most.But a Health and Human Services statement says it is Planned Parenthood that is “abandoning their obligations” to their patients by choosing to reject the regulations for accepting grants.A federal appeals court is considering whether to overturn the restrictions on abortion referrals.
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At Least 10 Burkina Faso Soldiers Killed in Militant Attack
Unidentified militants killed at least 10 soldiers and wounded many others in an attack on a military unit in northern Burkina Faso on Monday, the army said.Burkina Faso has been overrun by Islamist violence this year that armed forces have been unable to contain. Hundreds of civilians have died and more than 150,000 have fled as the influence of jihadist groups with links to al-Qaida and Islamic State spreads across the Sahel region.Monday’s attack occurred in the early hours of the morning in Koutougou in Soum province, an army statement said, without providing much further detail.”In reaction to this barbaric attack, a vast air and land search operation is seeking to neutralise the many assailants,” the statement said.Once a pocket of calm in the Sahel, Burkina has suffered a spillover of Islamist violence from its neighbors, including the kind of ethnic attacks that have destabilized Mali in recent years.Deteriorating security prompted the Ougadougou government to declare a state of emergency in several northern provinces bordering Mali in December, including Soum.
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As World Watches Hong Kong, Twitter and Facebook Take Down Accounts Associated with Chinese Government
After Hong Kong saw one of its biggest protests yet over the weekend, a social media war has broken out between China and U.S. technology companies over how Chinese state-sponsored media is using social media to spread misinformation and false news about the protesters. On Monday, Twitter and Facebook, which are both blocked in China but are freely available in Hong Kong, removed accounts they said originated in China that characterized the Hong Kong protesters as violent. Twitter said many of the accounts used virtual private networks, or VPNs, to access Twitter.Twitter said it took down more than 900 accounts that were “deliberately and specifically attempting to sow political discord in Hong Kong.” The company said it had evidence the accounts were part of “a coordinated state-backed operation.””All the accounts have been suspended for a range of violations of our platform manipulation policies,” Twitter said in the blog.Facebook said it had been tipped off by Twitter and had removed accounts and pages “associated with the Chinese government.” The Hong Kong protests have shed light on the chasm between how news about Hong Kong is portrayed inside China and outside.FILE – The Twitter logo is displayed on a screen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City.Silence, then social media campaignAt first, the Chinese government and state-sponsored media made rare mention of the protests over the past months. That switched in the past few weeks.Where much of the world saw Hong Kong protesters peacefully gathering over the weekend, the top trending item on Weibo, China’s version of Twitter, showed a Shanghai tourist allegedly beaten during the same protest, wrote the South China Morning Post. It had more than 500 million views.Meanwhile, the protest organizers have been using social media to spread the word of events, using encrypted sites such as Telegram as well as Twitter and Facebook.Banning state-sponsored advertisingTwitter also said it was banning state-sponsored media advertising on its platform after Chinese state media placed ads on Twitter. Buzzfeed News found 50 ads placed by Chinese state-run outfits on Twitter that portrayed protesters as violent and anti-China. One paid for tweet from China Daily showed a protester with a Molotov cocktail and a U.S. flag. One observer in Hong Kong called on Twitter to stop accepting ads for state-sponsored media in China.As the social media battleground continues, all sides will likely keep changing tactics to keep the other side guessing. Already Twitter said it has seen new accounts created after it began suspending accounts. What’s certain is that as the social media battle continues, all sides will likely keep changing tactics to keep the other side guessing.
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Romney Says Climate Change Happening, Humans Contribute
U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney said Monday that he believes climate change is happening and human activity is a significant contributor.During a speech at the conservative Sutherland Institute in Salt Lake City, the senator acknowledged that the position is rare among his fellow Republicans, but one that younger people seem to respond to more strongly than older conservatives.”In some respects, (by speaking with newer conservatives), I’ll be able to make inroads with some of the young people coming along,” he said.The former GOP presidential nominee has acknowledged climate change before, and said during his 2018 campaign for U.S. Senate in Utah that “climate realities” will make wildfires more common and destructive in the West. His comments Monday took that stance a step further.Still, Romney said he’s opposed to the Green New Deal economic package intended to fight climate change, calling it “silliness” in part because much of the growth in emissions is coming from developing countries such as India and Brazil rather than the U.S.The U.S. should instead provide incentivizes for entrepreneurs to develop cleaner energy sources while also helping people who work in industries that could be left behind, such as coal mining, he added.”I’m not willing to sit by if there are major sectors that are losers … and watch people and communities suffer because of that change,” he said.Romney discussed the benefits of a carbon tax, a fee based on each ton of carbon dioxide emissions produced by fossil fuels that some major oil companies have adopted. He suggested a portion of the tax revenue could go to coal workers in rural communities that would suffer financially from the move to cleaner power alternatives.The former Massachusetts governor also criticized “Medicare for All” proposals supported by candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination that would put the government in charge of most health benefits.Romney said the “deeply discounted” Medicare payments would cripple the revenue of “virtually every hospital in rural America.”On immigration, Romney said he shared the angst of Democrats over family separations at the U.S.-Mexico border, calling it a “very dark chapter” in the country’s history. He stressed the need for tougher border security and a “merit-based system” of legal immigration, but added that Republicans need to agree on a stance before negotiating immigration policies with Democrats.The senator has yet to endorse a candidate in the 2020 presidential election but has said that Trump will likely win re-election in 2020 as an incumbent presiding over a strong economy.
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Radiation Monitoring Stations Offline After Mysterious Russian Blast
Four radiation monitoring stations in Russia have gone offline after a mysterious blast at a Russian missile testing facility on Aug. 8, according to the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization.CTBTO, an independent group that operates an international network of radiation monitoring stations, said two Russian stations closest to the blast site went offline two days after the unexplained explosion and reports of radiation spikes. Two other stations went silent on Aug. 13. It is not clear what caused the outage or whether the stations were tampered with by Russia. Russian officials told the CTBTO they were having “communication and network issues,” a spokeswoman for the organization said Monday.Russia’s state nuclear agency has acknowledged that five nuclear workers were killed in the explosion, which occurred during a rocket engine test near the White Sea in far northern Russia.FILE – In this grab taken from a footage provided by the ROSATOM press service, a Russian military band prepares to attend the funerals of 5 Russian nuclear engineers, Aug. 12, 2019.Moscow has been vague about whether the explosion was the result of a test on a new nuclear-powered missile, as some U.S. analysts have said. In its initial statement on the incident, the Defense Ministry said that liquid rocket fuel was the cause of the blast, but that “no harmful chemicals were released into the atmosphere.”In the hours that followed the explosion, city emergency officials in Severodvinsk reported a spike in radiation levels.The levels were 20 times higher than normal, according to Greenpeace, which prompted the environmental group to call on federal authorities to identify exactly what kind of radiation had been released and if it was any danger to nearby residents.SpeculationU.S. analysts have focused on a possible nuclear-powered cruise missile that was being tested, something that President Vladimir Putin last year announced was under development.In a post to Twitter on Aug. 12, U.S. President Donald Trump also asserted the incident was a failed test of a missile prototype nicknamed Skyfall by NATO experts, though he gave no evidence.The scattered and contradictory information about what happened has led to speculation in and out of Russia that the mishap was far worse than officials have revealed.Emergency officials, meanwhile, said that radiation levels posed no risk to people nearby, and did not exceed annual norms for humans.
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US Tests 1st Ground Missile Previously Banned in Dissolved Arms Treaty with Russia
The Pentagon says the U.S. military has tested a ground-based cruise missile with a range that would have been banned just three weeks ago. The missile, launched Sunday at San Nicolas Island, California, “accurately impacted its target after more than 500 kilometers of flight,” the Pentagon announced in a news release Monday.”Data collected and lessons learned from this test will inform the Department of Defense’s development of future intermediate-range capabilities,” it added.The United States previously was unable to pursue ground-based missiles with a range of 500 to 5,500 kilometers because of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, a decades-old arms control pact with Russia. Washington withdrew from that pact on Aug. 2, citing years of Russian violations.The Pentagon stressed that the cruise missile was configured to carry a conventional payload, not a nuclear weapon.New FILE – U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper briefs the media in Sydney, Australia, Aug. 4, 2019.”It’s about time that we were unburdened by the treaty and kind of allowed to pursue our own interests, and our NATO allies share that view as well,” Esper said.He declined to discuss when or where in Asia the missiles could be deployed until the weapons were ready, but said he hoped the deployments come within months.While analysts have primarily focused on what the INF treaty withdrawal means for signatory nations Russia and the United States, the change also allows the United States to strengthen its position against China.Esper said more than 80 percent of China’s missile inventory has a range of 500 to 5,500 kilometers.
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Ugandan Coach Scouts Major League Baseball Talent in Africa
In Uganda, a coach’s passion for baseball is getting schools to embrace America’s favorite pastime. But a lack of government support means baseball in Uganda is heavily dependent on donations. Halima Athumani reports from Kampala.
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Trump Calls on Federal Reserve to Cut Interest Rates
President Donald Trump is calling on the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates by at least a full percentage point “over a fairly short period of time,” saying such a move would make the U.S. economy even better and would also “greatly and quickly” enhance the global economy……The Fed Rate, over a fairly short period of time, should be reduced by at least 100 basis points, with perhaps some quantitative easing as well. If that happened, our Economy would be even better, and the World Economy would be greatly and quickly enhanced-good for everyone!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 19, 2019In two tweets Monday, Trump kept up his pressure on the Fed and its chairman Jerome Powell, saying the U.S. economy was strong “despite the horrendous lack of vision by Jay Powell and the Fed.”
He says Democrats were trying to “will” the economy to deteriorate ahead of the 2020 election.
Trump administration officials in recent days have sought to calm worries about a potential U.S. recession that were heightened by last week’s steep stock-market decline.
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Ugandan Coach Scouts for Major League Baseball Talent in Africa
George Wilson Mukhobe has worked as a baseball coach in Uganda for the last decade, and for the last three years as a Major League Baseball scout in Africa.He says there is impressive talent in Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda.But Mukhobe says few sports shops sell baseball equipment and there is a lack of facilities and support.“Baseball faces a big challenge. Because, since people have little knowledge about baseball and is damn expensive game, they say, maybe next time,” he told VOA. “They run for quick sports like soccer, athletics and volleyball, you know, basketball. But with baseball, it’s really tough, even the coaches themselves need to have enough knowledge, to convince the kid that yes, you know the game, so that he can teach them.”Need donations
Uganda’s baseball players are heavily dependent on donations from the U.S. and Japan, where Americans introduced the sport. Uganda’s National Council of Sports says baseball is not among their priorities.“One of the things that lack currently, that you could think that they could do much better, baseball and as government, is to give the team the chance to compete,” said Ismael Kigongo Dhakaba, the council’s spokesperson. “Today, they only compete largely against Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa. So, maybe if they were many more countries competing, they would raise a kind of awareness.”Despite the limitations, baseball has come a long way in Uganda.Historic run
In 2012, Uganda became the first African country to play in the Little League Baseball World Series in Pennsylvania. America’s favorite pastime is attracting Ugandan converts such as 21-year-old Arago David, who plays for Uganda’s national team and is an assistant coach.“First day I came, they told, we have the gloves, this a bat, baseball. I said, I’ll try it and see. When I trained for a month, they called me and said, you know what? We are taking you to the national team, under 12. I said okay,” he told VOA.In May, Uganda’s national team came in second, after the host, at the Olympics pre-qualifier in South Africa.Inspiration
The success of Ugandan baseball is inspiring more players.15-year-old Wenene Specioza became a fan after watching boys play and decided she too could play baseball.“I know what I want. The coach loves me. And I got interest in my first base, because I play first base. It’s so interesting if you get to know it, really,” Wenene said.While Ugandan baseball looks for more support, its young players will depend on coaches like Mukhobe to take them out to the ball game.
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With Eyes On Election, Netanyahu Calls For Closer Ties With Ukraine
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, locked in a tight election campaign, has kicked off a two-day visit to Ukraine highlighting the significance of post-Soviet emigres who are likely to be a factor in the vote.More than a million people from ex-Soviet countries now call Israel home — making up a fifth of its population – prompting Netanyahu on August 19 to call for closer ties with Ukraine.”We can seize the future separately, but we can do it better together,” Netanyahu said during the first visit to the country by an Israeli prime minister in two decades.Earlier in the day, Netanyahu received the traditional bread-and-salt gesture of hospitality from young Ukrainians dressed in embroidered attire after he and his wife, Sara, landed in Kyiv.Netanyahu met on August 19 with recently elected President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Prime Minister Volodymyr Hroysman, both of whom are Jewish.He will also head to the Babyn Yar memorial, where the Nazis killed more than 33,000 Jews in 1941.By the end of World War II, some 100,000 people considered “undesirables” or regarded as a threat to German authority, including Soviet prisoners of war, partisans, Ukrainian nationalists, and Roma, were executed at the site.Zelenskiy was quick to point out after their meeting that Ukraine, locked in a five-year war with Russia-backed separatist forces, “could learn from Israel, especially in matters concerning security and defense.”Netanyahu also will commemorate the victims of the Holodomor, a man-made famine in the 1930’s orchestrated by Soviet dictator Josef Stalin and his henchmen that killed millions of Ukrainians, according to The Times of Israel.Kyiv has in the past asked Jerusalem to formally recognize the famine as a genocide.Zelenskiy stressed after talks with Netanyahu that Israel was his country’s main economic and trade partner in the Middle East and he called on Israeli companies to work and invest in Ukraine.The two countries signed a free-trade pact in January aimed at canceling duties for approximately 80 percent of Israeli industrial goods and 70 percent of Ukrainian industrial products. It has been ratified by Ukraine but not by Israel.Trade turnover between the two countries last year equaled $1.34 billion, consisting mostly of grain, ferrous metals, chemicals, and mineral fuel.Israel will hold general elections to its national legislature, the Knesset, on September 17.
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NY Police Fire Officer Involved in 2014 Chokehold Death
The New York police department has fired a white police officer who used a fatal chokehold during the 2014 arrest of a black man.James O’Neil, the New York Police Commissioner, made the announcement Monday concerning officer Daniel Pantaleo and the actions surrounding the death of Eric Garner.His death led to protests over abusive treatment of African-Americans by law enforcement.Garner, who was 43, collapsed and stopped breathing when he was being arrested for allegedly selling untaxed loose cigarettes on a street. Panteleo put Garner in a chokehold and other uniformed officers wrestled him to the ground.In a cellphone video taken of the incident, Garner could be heard saying “I can’t breathe” 11 times before he lost consciousness. The New York police department prohibits officers from using chokeholds because of the risk of suffocation.Garner’s death was ruled a homicide by the city’s medical examiner, but a grand jury declined to bring charges against any police officers.Earlier this year, the U.S. Justice Department also declined to bring any criminal charges against Pantaleo.
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Russian Panel Eyes Alleged Foreign Interference in Protests
Russia’s lower house of parliament has set up a commission to examine alleged cases of foreign interference in connection with a series of protests against the Moscow city election.
The commission established Monday by the State Duma holds its first session on Aug. 30.
Thousands of people have marched to protest the election board’s exclusion of some opposition and independent candidates from the Sept. 8 Moscow city council election. Two of the unauthorized demonstrations were harshly broken up by police, who detained more than 2,000 people.
Andrei Isayev of the dominant United Russia party in the Duma said the interference includes a U.S. Embassy travel warning that publicized the time and venue for the unauthorized protests. He also cited alleged calls by German broadcaster Deutsche Welle on social media to participate in the protests.
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Few Demonstrators Turn Up for Zimbabwe Protest in Bulawayo
Few people have turned up for an opposition protest in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second city, on Monday as armed police maintained heavy presence on the streets and at a courthouse where the opposition is pressing to be allowed to hold the demonstration.Business in Bulawayo’s usually bustling downtown was subdued with the most traffic from police trucks, water cannons and dozens of police officers patrolling on foot.The opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, had called the protest as part of a planned series of demonstrations to push President Emmerson Mnangagwa to agree to a transitional government amid a rapidly deteriorating economy and rising political tensions.But the police banned the protest in the southern city, citing security concerns. A Bulawayo magistrate is hearing the opposition party’s challenge to the ban.The protest was planned as a follow up to demonstrations held in the capital, Harare, on Friday when several hundred demonstrators marched in defiance of a police ban that was upheld by the High Court. Police used tear gas and beatings with batons to quell the Harare protest.
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8,000 People Evacuated as Wildfire Sweeps Spain’s Canary Islands
Authorities on Spain’s Canary Islands have confirmed the evacuation of more than 8,000 people Sunday and Monday as a massive wildfire swept across Gran Canaria.No fatalities have been reported, so far, but the fire is not yet under control.Canary Islands President Angel Victor Torres said 1,100 firefighters are battling to contain the flames, adding that 14 water-dropping aircraft are joining the battle against blaze.In this photo issued by Cabildo de Gran Canaria, flames from a forest fire burn close to houses in El Rincon, Tejeda on the Spanish Gran Canaria island on Sunday Aug. 18, 2019.Extreme weather conditions with strong winds and high temperatures and making the mission difficult.The wildfire started Saturday close to the town of Tejeda and spread to the mountainous Cruz de Tejeda, a region that attracts large numbers of tourists for its breathtaking views.More than 3,400 hectares were reported burned and 11 roads closed on Gran Canaria, the second most populous island of Canary Islands in the Atlantic off the northwest coast of Africa.More than 13 million foreign visitors vacationed on the Canary Islands last year, over half of them from Britain and Germany.
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Sudan’s Bashir In Court for Start of Corruption Trial
Former Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir appeared in a Khartoum courtoom Monday for the start of his trial on corruption charges.Bashir, who was ousted by military leaders in April after 30 years in power, is facing charges of illegally possessing foreign currency and receiving gifts in an illegal manner.Bashir told investigators he had received millions of dollars in cash from Saudi Arabia, according to a detective who addressed the court.Sudanese Celebrate Political Agreement After Months of ProtestsThe 75-year-old Bashir, dressed in traditional white robes, watched the proceedings from a cage inside the court.Rights group Amnesty International said the corruption trial should not distract from more serious charges that Bashir faces at the International Criminal Court.The ICC has charged the former president with war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide for his actions during the long-running war in Sudan’s Darfur region.In May, Bashir was also charged with incitement and involvement in the killing of protesters who challenged his rule.
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