The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority says more than 15,000 people in Los Angeles County in the state of California live in their cars. It’s not just uncomfortable, it’s also unsafe. To make their life a little easier, a nonprofit called Safe Parking LA was founded in 2016 and is creating what they call “Safe Parking Lots.” Angelina Bagdasaryan has the story narrated by Anna Rice.
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Month: August 2019
300 Migrants Released on Humanitarian Grounds After Mississippi Raids
Hundreds of immigrant workers detained in Mississippi were released Thursday, a day after federal agents arrested 680 undocumented migrants in raids on food-processing plants, the largest such operation in the United States in 10 years.At a news conference, officials from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Mississippi said more than 300 people, including pregnant women and juveniles, had been released on humanitarian grounds.Those released on their own recognizance were served with notices and at some point will have to appear before immigration judges. Others were transported to detention facilities in Louisiana and Mississippi.Nearly all of the 680 migrants picked up were from Latin America.According to officials, the operation, which had been in the planning stage for about a year, was executed when a judge agreed that law enforcement officers had “sufficient probable cause” to get search warrants and execute them. Business continues at this Koch Foods Inc., plant in Morton, Miss., Aug. 8, 2019, as chickens are shipped in for processing following Wednesday’s raid by U.S. immigration officials.Expedited guidelinesImmigration officials said no one arrested was processed under new expedited removal guidelines that ICE issued in July, because agents are “still in the process of doing the training.”The new interpretation of the expedited removal guidelines accelerates the deportation of undocumented immigrants anywhere in the United States who are not able to prove they have been in the country continuously for two years. The potential result is deportation before the undocumented immigrant is given a chance to see an immigration judge.Federal officials said those detained Wednesday were asked if they had children at school or at child care who needed to be picked up. Detainees were offered cellphones so they could make the necessary arrangements for their children.ICE agents said migrants were initially taken to a military base for processing. Some were given electronic ankle monitors to wear as they wait for court dates.About 600 ICE agents were involved in the operation. They raided chicken- processing plants owned by five different companies in Bay Springs, Canton, Carthage, Morton, Pelahatchie and Sebastopol, all in Mississippi.Business continues at this Koch Foods Inc., plant in Morton, Miss.,, Aug. 8, 2019, following Wednesday’s raid by U.S. immigration officials. More than 300 of the 680 people arrested have been released from custody.Companies quietNone of the food companies involved in Wednesday’s raids have yet commented.Many migrants, including those found to be in illegal status, are hired by companies of all sizes because they are considered willing to take jobs many U.S. workers do not want. Immigration advocates say such employment is essential for the economy.U.S. Attorney Mike Hurst told reporters that those who want to come to the United States “have to follow our laws. … They have to come here legally, or they shouldn’t come here at all.”Hurst also had a strong message for companies that he says knowingly hire undocumented immigrants “for competitive advantage or to make a quick buck.”“If we find that you have violated federal criminal law, we’re coming after you,” he said.Gabriela Rosales, right, confers with friends outside the employee entrance to the Koch Foods Inc., plant in Morton, Miss., Aug. 8, 2019, that was raided Wednesday by U.S. immigration officials.Immigrant advocatesAlso Thursday, immigration advocates were joined by pastors and civil rights attorneys calling for an end to ICE raids like the one in Mississippi.Luis Espinoza, an organizer with Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance, said those affected need legal assistance. An emotional Espinoza, who has been visiting the communities where people have been detained, urged people to help.“I don’t see illegals. I don’t see bad people. It is only families — fathers, mothers who want something better for their kids. So, they come here and just work. They are not criminals,” he said.The American Civil Liberties Union of Mississippi, the Mississippi Center for Justice and a coalition of groups across the state have come together to help those in detention. Attorneys are monitoring the situation and exploring options to assist those affected by the raids.Cliff Johnson, director of the MacArthur Justice Center, said what happened Wednesday was not the response of Mississippians.“This doesn’t come from the people. It doesn’t even come from those people who on the larger scale might chant, ‘Build that wall.’ Because in Mississippi, we know each other. … We’ve got our problems. We’re a hot mess at times, but this is not our choice,” he said.
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Experts: US-South Korea Pare Military Exercises as North Korea Remains Threat
Dialing back annual joint summer U.S.-South Korea military drills runs counter to North Korea’s continued missile launches and lack of denuclearization, said experts pointing to the computer simulation training unaccompanied by field combat exercises that is underway.“If there were no North Korean threat, maybe I wouldn’t be as concerned,” said Bruce Bennett, a senior defense analyst at the Rand Corp.“But North Korea keeps building its nuclear capabilities so they’re increasing their threat. They’re testing more missiles, which is increasing their threat. Scaling back the U.S. and South Korean preparations to deal with that threat doesn’t make a lot of sense,” Bennett continued.South Korean protesters shout slogans during a rally demanding withdrawal of the U.S. troops from Korea Peninsula near the U.S. embassy in Seoul, South Korea, July 31, 2019.Following the launch Tuesday, North Korean leader People watch a TV showing an image of North Korea’s rocket launch during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Aug. 1, 2019.‘Ramping up’ exercisesThis year’s drills are not a proportional response to Pyongyang’s continued provocations and military buildup, Bennett said, because the U.S. Army soldiers are seen during a military exercise in Yeoncheon, South Korea, near the border with North Korea, South Korea, Feb. 27, 2019.The annual exercise dubbed Ulchi Freedom Guardian, usually scheduled for August, was canceled last year following the Singapore Summit. Foal Eagle and Key Resolve, the allies’ biggest annual spring exercises, were also canceled. The computer-simulation Key Resolve was replaced with the scaled-down Dong Maeng (which means alliance in Korean) in March.David Maxwell, a former U.S. Special Forces colonel and current fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said Pyongyang’s complaints about the joint drills reveal “Kim Jong Un’s hypocrisy.”Maxwell said while the allies have significantly cut back the joint exercises in good faith, “the North has not responded in any positive manner, either with working-level negotiations or a reduction of its own offensive exercises in its winter and summer cycles.”North Korea has about 70% of its combat forces deployed along its side of the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas, Maxwell said, even as it protests allies’ exercises designed to defend against potential North Korean attacks.Computer-simulated exercisesAmerican and South Korean forces will exercise defensive war plans through computer-generated attack scenarios to enhance their coordination and “try to prepare to deal with North Korean threats,” Bennett said.Multiple giant screens would display computer simulations of friendly and enemy forces as well as lots of maps, displays, tables and weather reports, among other things, that they would see in a real crisis, according to experts.“The commanders and staff take the intelligence reports of enemy operations [based on intelligence knowledge of how the North Korean military would fight] and the status reports of friendly forces and fight the battles just as if they were real and there were actual troops on the ground and ships and planes at sea and in the air,” Maxwell said.Bennett said, “The computer would take airstrikes that are ordered and adjudicate what the effects of those airstrikes would be … on stopping an enemy offensive, for example.” Crews operating tank simulators would see an enemy tank on the screen, Bennett said, and, “they could fire their tank rounds” that simulators would execute “as if they were in a real tank.”What they learn from the training is then transferred to operating procedures of field combats, said Maxwell, adding computer-simulated exercises are “the most effective way to train commanders and headquarters’ staffs on the plans to defend South Korea.”“This allows the commanders and staffs to train using multiple North Korean attack scenarios and lets them conduct training in two or three weeks that would normally take months if they were actually maneuvering full units on the ground, in the air and at sea,” he said.Bennett said there are downsides, however, such as unexpected situations and coping with weather and physical terrains like details of rain or tanks slipping in mud that simulators might not capture like drills in the field would.Nevertheless, Maxwell said, “even though the exercises appear to be scaled back, I have trust and confidence in [South Korean] and U.S. military leadership that they will conduct sufficient training in new, creative ways to sustain readiness.”
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Italy’s Salvini Says Government Is Finished, Wants Elections
The leader of Italy’s ruling League party, Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, declared the governing coalition to be unworkable on Thursday after months of internal bickering and said the only way forward was to hold fresh elections.The shock announcement follows a period of intense public feuding between the right-wing League and its coalition partner, the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement, and it throws the eurozone’s third-largest economy into an uncertain political future.Salvini said in a statement he had told Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, who belongs to neither coalition party, that the alliance with 5-Star had collapsed after barely a year in power and “we should quickly give the choice back to the voters.”Parliament, which is now in its summer recess, could reconvene next week to carry out the necessary steps, Salvini said, referring to the need for a no-confidence vote in the government and the resignation of the premier.Tensions came to a head on Wednesday when the two parties voted against each other in parliament over the future of a project for a high-speed train link with France.5-Star has more parliamentary seats than the League, but Salvini’s party now has twice as much voter support, according to opinion polls, and it has often threatened to try to capitalize on that surge in popularity with new elections.However, it remains to be seen if things will go as Salvini plans. Pushing the nation back into election mode in August, when Italians are on holiday and parliament is closed for the summer recess, is unusual and could be unpopular and risky.President Sergio Mattarella is the only person with the power to dissolve parliament, and may be unwilling to do so ahead of preparatory work in September for the 2020 budget, which must then be presented to parliament the following month.Italy, which has Europe’s second-largest sovereign debt burden after Greece, has already angered the European Union with an expansionary 2019 budget and Salvini wants to make major tax cuts next year, setting up the prospect of another EU clash. Italy has not held an election in the autumn in all the postwar period.‘We are ready’If Mattarella decides not to dissolve parliament, he could try to install an unelected “technocrat” administration, of which there have been several examples in Italy’s recent history, though an alternative parliamentary majority appears elusive.5-Star Leader Luigi Di Maio said his party did not fear elections.”We are ready. We don’t care in the least about occupying government posts and we never have,” he said in a statement. He accused Salvini of “taking the country for a ride” and said sooner or later Italians would turn against him for it.Speculation about a government crisis mounted late on Wednesday when Salvini, speaking at a rally south of Rome, peppered his speech with hints that he had had enough of 5-Star, accusing it of stalling the League’s key policies.Markets sold off Italian government bonds early on Thursday and the day proceeded with closed-door meetings between Salvini and Conte and between Conte and Mattarella.The League issued a statement listing a raft of areas in which it had a “different vision” from 5-Star, including infrastructure, taxes, justice and relations with the EU.The two parties were fierce adversaries ahead of an inconclusive election in March 2018, before forming their unlikely alliance that has often ruffled the feathers of financial markets and the European Commission.5-Star was the largest party at last year’s elections but it has struggled since the government was formed, while Salvini has prospered thanks to his popular hard line on immigration and a charismatic and informal “man of the people” public image.
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Jon Huntsman, US Ambassador to Russia, Resigns
U.S. Ambassador to Russia Jon M. Huntsman Jr. will resign from his post effective Oct. 3 — capping a tumultuous two-year tenure in Moscow defined by sinking bilateral relations, despite efforts to stem the damage.”American citizenship is a privilege and I believe the most basic responsibility in return is service to country,” wrote Huntsman in a FILE – Russian President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with U.S. Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman as U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stands behind prior to their talks in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi, May 14, 2019.Hopeful days early onHuntsman came to Moscow as Trump’s surprise choice for the Russian ambassador’s post — a political appointee and elder Republican statesman with little knowledge of Russia.Moreover, he had little history with a president who seemed to value trusted family and insiders above all else.”The good news is Huntsman doesn’t bring any negative baggage when it comes to Russia,” noted foreign policy analyst Vladimir Frolov in an interview at the time. “But the reality is, he doesn’t have much of a relationship with Trump. He’s not in Trump’s inner circle.”Indeed, Huntsman — a centrist Republican who was ambassador to China in the Obama administration — seemed by nature out of step with the slashing partisan politics of the Trump era.Early on, Huntsman embraced Trump’s calls to improve relations with Moscow — even pushing to open doors in Washington for his Russian counterpart, Anatoly Antonov. “I made it clear when I started this job that I wanted to make sure that wherever the Russian ambassador [had access], then I had similar access, and where I get access, Ambassador Anatoly Antonov should get access,” Huntsman said in FILE – White House national security adviser John Bolton, left, and U.S. Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman wait to begin talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin in Moscow, June 27, 2018.Search for next ambassador Huntsman is widely rumored to be eyeing a gubernatorial run in Utah.Meanwhile, attention turns to whom Trump may nominate next, with intrigue already in tow.A recent CNN report raised eyebrows when it reported Trump and Putin discussed Huntsman’s departure — and possible successor — during a phone call last week in which Trump offered U.S. assistance to help combat raging wildfires in Siberia. Yet some observers say the charged political environment in Washington means the Moscow post may stay vacant for some time.”Before the U.S. presidential elections in 2020, it’s unlikely we’ll see a new ambassador in Russia,” said Nikolai Zlobin, president of the Center for Global Interests, a Russian think tank based in Washington, in an interview with Moscow’s Business FM radio. “There are not many candidates,” he said, “and not many in Washington are interested in the position.”
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Zimbabwean Bank Alleges Loan Defaults by 26 Public Figures
The Zimbabwean president’s son, a former first lady and 24 prominent politicians are accused of abusing their positions to acquire loans without collateral from a leading bank in the southern African country.
The Commercial Bank of Zimbabwe (CBZ) says it has been forced to assume debt totaling at least $160 million after Emmerson Mnangagwa Jr., Grace Mugabe and others defaulted on loans made from 2010 to 2014. Zimbabwe’s government, overseeing the country’s worst economy in a decade, has a 16% stake in CBZ. CBZ released a list of alleged defaulters this week. Most of those on the list also allegedly defaulted on additional loans totaling $200 million from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe — loans that must be covered by taxpayers.
Zimbabweans are struggling to cope with soaring prices for food, medicine and other staples as wages fall and the government cuts electricity for up to 18 hours a day to try to contain costs.
Mnangagwa, whose father replaced longtime President Robert Mugabe in late 2017, allegedly defaulted on a $400,000 loan from the commercial bank. Grace Mugabe, who led the ruling Zanu-PF party’s women’s wing and had indicated interest in the presidency for herself, is accused of failing to repay $4.5 million to the bank. She is in Singapore with her ailing husband and could not be reached for comment.
But the younger Mnangagwa told VOA he owes nothing to CBZ.
“I do not currently hold, or have held, an account with the Commercial Bank of Zimbabwe, nor have I ever transacted with them,” he wrote in an email Thursday. FILE – Obert Mpofu, then Zimbabwe’s minister of home affairs, is pictured at a meeting in Harare, Zimbabwe, Nov. 19, 2017.Other prominent alleged borrowers include Obert Mpofu, a former Cabinet minister in the Zanu-PF; Ignatius Chombo, another former Cabinet minister; Mabel Chinomona, former Senate president; and Job Sikhala, a member of parliament and the only opposition member on the list.
Zimbabwe’s education minister, Paul Mavhima, who borrowed $120,000 from CBZ, told VOA he had reached a repayment agreement with the bank.
CBZ management has contracted with Tendai Biti, a former finance minister and vice president of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, to recover the debts. The opposition group is led by Nelson Chamisa, runner-up to the elder Mnangagwa in last summer’s presidential election. Biti confirmed to VOA’s Zimbabwe service that he would work for the bank.
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Rosie Ruiz, Boston Marathon Course-Cutter, Dies at 66
Rosie Ruiz, the Boston Marathon course-cutter who was stripped of her victory in the 1980 race and went on to become an enduring symbol of cheating in sports, has died. She was 66.Ruiz, who was also known as Rosie Vivas, died in Florida of cancer on July 8, according to an obituary that made no mention of her Boston Marathon infamy. Running magazine first made the connection this week, a fitting end to one of the oddest chapters in the history of the race.”It’s a colorful part of the Boston Marathon history, that’s for sure,” said Bill Rodgers, who won the men’s race that year and was immediately suspicious of the woman sitting next to him on the awards podium. “Poor Rosie, she took all the brunt of it.”FILE – Rosie Ruiz, controversial first-place woman finisher in the 1980 Boston Marathon,speaks during a news conference in New York, April 24, 1980.An unknown who didn’t look or act like she had just run 26.2 miles, Ruiz finished first in the women’s division in Boston in 1980 in a then-record time of 2 hours, 31 minutes, 56 seconds. Even as she was awarded her medal and the traditional olive wreath, her competitors wondered how a woman they hadn’t ever heard of — or seen on the course — could have won.”We knew that she had jumped in. We, who knew what the marathon was, we got it,” Rodgers told The Associated Press on Thursday. “She wasn’t sweating enough; she had on a heavy shirt; she didn’t know about running.”I was with her the next day on TV, and she was just crying her head off,” Rodgers said, adding that he thought Ruiz wanted to confess. “If she had just said, ‘I’m sorry. I made a mistake.’ Runners — we all drop out of races — we would have understood.”In an era before tracking chips and electronic checkpoints, race organizers used spotters to scribble down the bib numbers of runners going by. (They focused mainly on the men’s race.) Ruiz did not show up there, on videotape or in any of 10,000 photographs taken along the first 25 miles of the course. Grilled by the Boston Athletic Association about her training methods and pace, she had no answers and did not seem to recognize terms that would be common for elite marathoners; she also could not identify landmarks she would have passed on the course. Two Harvard students soon came forward to say they saw her join the race near Kenmore Square, about a mile from the finish.Rightful winnerRuiz was stripped of her title eight days after the race. Canadian Jacqueline Gareau was declared the rightful winner and brought back to Boston the next month to receive her due.”People, they’re still sorry for me. But at the same time I think they should feel sorry more for her,” Gareau, who also came in second in Boston twice and had two other top-10 finishes, told the AP. FILE – Jacqueline Gareau of Montreal has her hand held high by runner Bill Rodgers on May 14, 1980, in Boston, three weeks and two days after the Boston Marathon.”Like everybody says, she’s part of my life. I cannot separate from her because of that story. She’s not a friend, but she’s been there so long. “I wish she would have contacted me some time and said ‘I’m so sorry,’ but no,” Gareau said. “She would have probably had a better life and felt better.”It was never established how Ruiz got to Kenmore Square, but the ensuing investigation showed she took the subway during the 1979 New York Marathon to obtain her qualifying time for Boston.The B.A.A. declined to comment on her death.Standing firmRuiz always maintained that she won the race fairly and never returned the medal she received on race day. (Gareau was given a substitute.) Ruiz vowed to run Boston again, to prove that she could do it.She never did. Gareau said she bumped into Ruiz at a 10K run in Miami in 1981, about nine months after Boston.”She presented herself to me, she said ‘Hi, I’m Rosie Ruiz.’ I just said, ‘Hi,”‘ Gareau recalled. “She still told me she won. So I didn’t really discuss it with her.”Other transgressionsBorn in Havana, Cuba, Ruiz came to the United States as an 8-year-old and settled with relatives in the Miami area. According to the obituary posted by the Quattlebaum Funeral, Cremation and Event Center in West Palm Beach, Florida, she studied piano at Wayne State College in Nebraska, moved to New York for five years and then back to Florida, where she worked as an accounts manager for a medical laboratory and as an accreditation specialist for the Better Business Bureau.FILE – Rosie Ruiz, who was accused of cutting corners to win the Boston Marathon two years ago, leaves Central Booking at Police Headquarters in New York, April 20, 1982, where she was charged with stealing $60,000 from the firm where she worked.She married Aicaro Vivas in 1984 and the couple divorced 2 1/2 years later. According to the obituary, she is survived by her domestic partner, Margarita Alvarez, and a brother, Robert Ruiz.The marathon shortcuts were not Ruiz’s only — or most serious — transgressions: The Boston Globe reported that she was arrested in New York on charges of stealing $60,000 in cash and checks from her employer in 1982. A year later, she was sentenced to three years of probation for cocaine trafficking.”She had a family. She was a loving person. She studied music, which tells me she did some good stuff in her life. But then this part of her life was a little bit weird. Never admitting it, too,” Gareau said. “I would not like to be in her place.”
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Wife of US Student Jailed in Iran Wants Trump’s Help
The wife of a U.S. student imprisoned in Iran on spy charges is reaching out to President Donald Trump to do more to get him out.
“I implore Iran, the U.S., my own country, China, and other members of the international community to come together and find a way to secure the release of this innocent man,” Hua Qu said Thursday on the third anniversary of Xiyue Wang’s arrest. “My husband and our family have become innocent victims in an apparently ever-intensifying quarrel between world powers.”
Hua said Trump should give Wang’s case as much attention as he gave the case of U.S. rapper A$AP Rocky, who was released from a Swedish jail where he was being held for alleged assault.
Iran has proposed a prisoner swap with the U.S. for Iranians it says are being held in the United States. But Washington has demanded that Tehran immediately free all those Americans in Iranian prisoners it says are innocent.
“This case will not be automatically resolved. They definitely need to come to the negotiating table and to speak to each other,” Hua said.
The Chinese-born Wang is a doctoral student in history at Princeton University. He was in Iran in 2016 as part of his academic research into Iranian history when authorities arrested him. He was convicted on espionage charges, and a court sentenced him to 10 years in prison.
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US, Ukraine Diplomats: West Underestimated Russian Threat in 2008
This story originated in VOA’s Georgian and Ukrainian services.Eleven years after Russian tanks rolled through a mountain tunnel in the Greater Caucasus mountains to invade neighboring Georgia, State Department officials say the U.S. underestimated the geopolitical implications for all of Western Europe.
“What happened 11 years ago today, when Russia invaded Georgia, is that actual war came back to Europe in ways that none of us anticipated,” George P. Kent, deputy assistant secretary in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs at the U.S. State Department, told reporters from VOA’s Eurasia division.
“Russia, a member of the U.N. Security Council, invaded its neighbor. It did so in Georgia in 2008 and, as many Georgians warned, did so in Ukraine in 2014,” he said. “In retrospect, the events in Georgia 11 years ago today changed the geostrategic realities in Europe and across the Eurasian continent.” FILE – Graves are seen at the memorial cemetery for Georgian soldiers killed during the war with Russia over the breakaway region of South Ossetia in 2008 in Tbilisi, Georgia, Aug. 8, 2017.Russian forces swept into Georgia on Aug. 8, 2008, bombing targets and occupying large swaths of territory. In a battle that lasted five days, Russia defeated Georgia’s small military, and the hostilities ended with a cease-fire mediated by France’s then-president, Nicolas Sarkozy, who at the time held the European Union’s rotating presidency.
After the war, Moscow recognized South Ossetia and another separatist enclave, Abkhazia, as independent states, where it then stationed permanent military bases.
Attending a Georgian Embassy event marking the 11th anniversary of the invasion, Kent also suggested that it is not too late to apply those lessons to the ongoing battle between Ukraine and Russian-backed separatists, but that the onus is also on Russia. Lessons for Ukraine
His host, Valeriy Chaly, Ukraine’s outgoing ambassador in Washington, said the Russian invasion of 2008 presaged a new era in international relations where diplomatic strategy would become secondary to military strength.
“We Ukrainians understood that,” he told VOA. “When Georgia was attacked … we supplied our equipment, because we understand that if Georgia was first, we are the second. And it happened.
“All the world will wait for compromise, wait for some change in behavior, but nothing changes,” he said, adding that Ukraine has drawn two lessons from witnessing the attack on its eastern European neighbor.
“What you should do are two things,” he said. “Find a diplomatic solution, but base it on strength, on capabilities of your military forces — navy, army and air force. And then prepare to fight for your freedom, for independence.”
FILE – Russian President Vladimir Putin addresses the crowd during a concert marking the fifth anniversary of Russia’s annexation of Crimea, in Simferopol, March 18, 2019.Earlier this year, five years after annexing Ukraine’s Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree simplifying the procedure for people living in parts of eastern Ukraine held by Russia-backed separatists to obtain Russian citizenship.
While the Kremlin says the decree serves to “protect human and civil rights” in the spirit of “universal principles and norms of international law,” Ukraine and the West have decried it as an illegal attempt to undermine Ukrainian sovereignty. U.S. official optimistic
Kurt Volker, the U.S. special representative for Ukraine negotiations, said he remains optimistic that the U.S. and Ukraine have absorbed lessons of the last decade.
“Georgia was the first step, Ukraine was the second step, but it did fundamentally change perceptions of how Putin is acting in the world and what the U.S. needs to do in response,” he said.
Both Kent and Volker said the U.S. is resolved to restore Ukraine’s territorial integrity.
“Our commitment to Ukrainian territorial integrity and sovereignty is unwavering, and we believe that Donbass is entirely a part of Ukraine, as is Crimea,” said Kent. “And that will remain our policy.” FILE – People pass by a shop window on a street in Tbilisi, June 4, 2013.Despite dark lessons of the 2008 invasion, Volker said Georgia in 2019 offers a valuable lesson of its own.
“Right now, the story in Georgia is that Georgia’s thriving. Georgia is a democracy, it’s a prosperous economy. They’ve made great progress against corruption. They’ve developed a very strong relationship with Europe, with NATO, with the United States,” he said.
“So, even though Russia occupies 20% of the territory, Georgia as a country is thriving,” he said. “And I think that’s the real lesson — that a country like this can make it.”
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Ebola Fears Slow Crossings at Rwanda-DRC Border
Witnesses say fears of the Ebola virus have brought border traffic between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo to a virtual standstill. Long lines and lengthy delays at the border crossings have left many traders frustrated, but officials say health checks are necessary to stop the spread of the deadly virus. Beatrice Irunga, a 35-year old Congolese trader, says no one can cross the border without washing hands and being checked for fever.The measures are necessary to prevent people from carrying the virus across the border. But trade-wise, Ebola fears have hit hard.Jemima Ibrahim, a Congolese trader who sells rice and oil in Rwanda, says the long delays at the crossing are costing her time and money.FILE – Women wash their hands in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, July 31, 2019.”The loss is huge,” she said. “We buy goods here in Rwanda. To export them to Congo is becoming very hard.”Rwandan Claudine Irunga says she owns a shop in Goma, on the Congolese side, but can’t reach it because of the delays.”I left Goma in the morning,” she said. “My shop is open now, and here they are not allowing us to go regardless of every document you can have. I am so sad. They say the border is open, but just look.”The Rwandan government estimates that 80,000 people cross between Goma and the Rwandan city of Gisenyi each day.The government has not said the border is closed. However, it is urging its people not to enter the eastern DRC, where the Ebola virus has killed more than 1,800 people over the past year.Dr. Diane Gashumba, Rwanda’s Minister of Health, is encouraging Rwandans not to go to DRC, and instead to find other ways to do their business in the country.This stance goes against advice from the World Health Organization.Dr. Kasonde Mulenga Mwinga, WHO country director, supports a flow of people to the member country to be able to address the response that is needed there.The Rwandan and Congolese health ministers met Tuesday to discuss measures to stop the Ebola outbreak from spreading.Afterward, they said they resolved to enact ways that allow for smoother border crossings while taking “very strong measures to keep the epidemic at bay.”
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Babies Born to Venezuelan Parents in Colombia to be Granted Citizenship
U.N. agencies have welcomed Colombia’s decision to grant citizenship to children born in the country to Venezuelan parents who were forced to flee their homeland to escape the political repression and economic hardship of President Nicolas Maduro’s government. The U.N. refugee agency, International Organization for Migration and U.N. children’s fund have hailed Colombia’s action as a major step in combating statelessness. The measure, which was announced by the Colombian government earlier this week, will confer citizenship upon 24,000 children born in Colombia to Venezuelan parents since August 2016.Without this decision, the agencies note, these children would have great difficulty acquiring Colombian citizenship as many families are unable to obtain the necessary documentation. Also, they note registering the child at the Venezuelan consulate in Colombia is not possible as services are unavailable.Measure good for two yearsThe UNHCR reports this exceptional and temporary administrative measure will be valid for two years. During this time, the Colombian authorities will provide documentary proof of Colombian nationality of children born to Venezuelan parents.UNHCR spokesman Charlie Yaxley says the measure will guarantee and protect the birth rights of these children and provide them with a viable future.”Stateless people can face a lifetime of exclusion and discrimination, often denied access to education, health care, and job opportunities,” Yaxley said. “Colombia’s decision is hugely positive for these children and their families. Worldwide, statelessness affects millions of people, leaving them without the basic rights and official recognition that most of us take for granted.”The UNHCR says some 3.9 million stateless people are reported in 78 countries, although it believes the true number is much higher.Millions have left VenezuelaThe agency reports more than 4 million Venezuelans have left their country, making this one of the biggest displacement crises in the world. Colombia is hosting 1.4 million of them.The three U.N. agencies are pooling their resources to financially support the Colombian government’s implementation of the new measure. They are encouraging other countries in the region to follow Colombia’s example by taking measures that guarantee the rights and protection of migrant children and their families.
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US Mayors Call for New Gun Control Measures
More than 200 U.S. mayors demanded Thursday that the Senate return from its summer recess to approve gun control legislation in the aftermath of two mass shootings last weekend that killed 31 people in Texas and Ohio.The U.S. Conference of Mayors, representing 214 cities with both Republican and Democratic leaders, told Senate Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Democratic leader Chuck Schumer that it was urgent for the Senate to approve the measures already passed by the House of Representatives in February.That legislation calls for background checks for all gun purchasers and would extend the waiting period for gun transactions from three to 10 days when instant checks raise questions about would-be buyers.Schumer has also urged Senate approval, but McConnell has blocked a vote because he opposes the measures.”Already in 2019, there have been over 250 mass shootings,” the mayors said in a letter to the lawmakers. They said the “tragic events” in the U.S.-Mexican border city of El Paso, Texas, and Midwest city of Dayton, Ohio, “are just the latest reminders that our nation can no longer wait for our federal government to take the actions necessary to prevent people who should not have access to firearms from being able to purchase them.”U.S. President Donald Trump, who visited Wednesday with survivors of the two shootings, first responders and health care workers in both Dayton and El Paso, said there is a “great appetite for background checks.” But he also voiced the same sentiment a year ago after 17 students and teachers were gunned down at a Florida high school before backing off in the face of opposition by the country’s top gun lobby, the National Rifle Association.The NRA voiced its opposition to Trump again this week, The Washington Post reported, and told the U.S. leader that background checks would not be popular among his core base of political supporters, many of them gun owners in the country’s heartland.Trump also supports “red flag” legislation that would allow local authorities across the U.S., after a judicial review, to confiscate guns of those believed to be a danger to themselves or others. But the U.S. leader said he sees “no political appetite” for a ban on the sale of assault weapons like those the gunmen deployed in the country’s latest carnage.Trump largely stayed out of public sight during the visits to Dayton and El Paso, where some supporters gathered on the streets, but protesters also carried signs attacking his anti-immigrant views and lack of action on gun control.In Dayton, police killed the attacker, a 24-year-old community college student, within 30 seconds of the start of his barrage of 41 shots with an assault rifle that killed nine, including his sister, and wounded 27. In El Paso, authorities have charged a 21-year-old man with targeting Hispanics in a hail of gunfire that killed 22 and injured two dozen.Trump critics say his rhetoric against migrants helped foment the El Paso massacre. But he has dismissed the attacks, while criticizing those who have disparaged his immigration views.The U.S. leader suggested that Beto O’Rourke, a former congressman from El Paso who has often attacked Trump as he seeks the Democratic presidential nomination to run against him in 2020, “should respect the victims & law enforcement – & be quiet!”While Trump visited with survivors at an El Paso hospital, video footage shows him comparing the size of the crowd he drew at a rally in the city in February compared to a gathering where O’Rourke appeared the same night.”That was some crowd,” Trump said of his event. “We had twice the number outside. And then you had this crazy Beto. Beto had like 400 people in a parking lot, and they said his crowd was wonderful.”
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Breastfeeding Lawmaker Sparks Uproar in Kenyan Parliament
The Kenyan parliament’s ejection of a female lawmaker for bringing her five-month-old baby to a session Wednesday has sparked debate on breastfeeding mothers in the workplace. Kenya’s parliament in 2017 passed a motion compelling employers to provide safe spaces for mothers and their children. Proponents of the legislation say little progress has been made since. The drama ensued early Wednesday morning in the country’s parliament building when Zuleika Hassan, a female lawmaker, walked into a legislative session with her five-month-old baby.The presence of both mother and child brought parliamentary proceedings to a standstill, as several male lawmaker demanded that both leave the debating chamber.“Mr. Speaker, this house has a stranger and it has never happened since 1963. Mr. Speaker, this is an abuse of the house and that member must be cited for gross misconduct. We must protect the dignity of the house,” said lawmaker Aden Duale.Acting House Speaker Christopher Omulele ruled that Hassan was out of order and directed the sergeant-at-arms to remove her from the chamber.“As much as she might want to take care of her child, this is not the place for it and I therefore direct that she immediately withdraws and she may return to the chamber after she withdraws the child,” said Omulele.Saida Ali, a Kenyan gender rights activist, said in her view, it was the speaker who was out of order.“This is an example of how patriarchy sends out a message that certain spaces are male spaces, certain spaces, certain leadership, certain decision making institutions are not spaces for women, and for me that is problematic because we are basically saying patriarchy as a system continues to assert male authority and legitimizes the oppression of women,” said Ali.Speaking to reporters after her ejection, Hassan said she had been presented with two options on Wednesday, either come to work without the baby or not show up at all. She chose the latter.“The parliamentary services commission in 2013 passed that we should have a room, a crèche, where we can put our babies for breast feeding, for members and other parliamentary staff, so for now as we ask for more women to come into parliament, you need to provide a family-friendly atmosphere at work. Other companies are doing it in the country, parliament is not doing unfortunately,” Hassan said.Kenya’s parliament in 2017 passed a motion demanding employers to provide safe spaces for breastfeeding mothers and their children. However, only a handful of local companies have complied.
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Italy’s League Party Mulls New Election to Break Deadlock
Tensions are rising fast in Italy’s populist coalition, with Interior Minister Matteo Salvini’s party signaling Thursday it’s considering holding an early election due to deepening policy disagreements with its governing partner, the 5-Star Movement.The right-wing League party issued a statement complaining of deadlock on a variety of issues, most recently a vote Wednesday in parliament over the future of a European Union-funded high-speed rail link between Turin and the French city of Lyon. The statement said “it is useless to go on,” adding that “the only alternative to this government is to give the word back to Italians with new elections.”The 5-Star Movement, which opposes the high-speed train link as too costly and unnecessary, replied that the League’s note was “not comprehensible,” and asked the party to clearly state what it wants.Salvini was meeting Thursday with Premier Giuseppe Conte, who had postponed a news conference planned for Thursday after a Senate vote Wednesday defeated a 5-Star motion to force parliament to block the high-speed train. The vote laid bare the deep divisions in the 14 1/2-month-old government.After the vote, Salvini told supporters in the coastal town of Sabaudia “that something broke in the last months” in the governing coalition.While analysts have speculated that Salvini would seek a government shake-up and possibly more power to reflect the League’s 38% voter approval, Salvini has insisted that is not the case. The 5-Stars, meanwhile, have slipped to 17% voter approval.Besides the high-speed rail-link, which Salvini wants for his core constituency of northern Italian entrepreneurs, the League listed other areas of contention between the two parties, including fiscal policies, energy, justice reform, regional autonomy and relations with Europe.In his comments Wednesday, Salvini noted that the 5-Star’s pet electoral promise, basic income, which the government passed, was a handout that did not create jobs.Salvini is coming off another victory this week with the passage of a new security law that fines humanitarian rescue ships up to 1 million euros ($1.1 million) if they enter Italian waters with migrants. Preventing such ships from docking has been Salvini’s main goal as interior minister.Despite Salvini’s protests, speculation persists that he is seeking Cabinet changes to secure backing for closing Italian ports to humanitarian boats, which requires the support also of the transport and defense ministries.Political analyst Wolfgang Piccoli said the 5-Star Movement may accept the ousters of two of its ministers “especially when confronted with the alternative of facing snap polls.”
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Russians Look at Future Without INF Treaty
With the United States now officially out of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty or INF with Russia, there are big questions about what the death of the landmark missile accord is signaling to the world. Washington withdrew from the pact, after accusing Moscow of violating it. Now many are wondering what’s next. VOA’s Yulia Savchenko reports from Moscow.
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Myanmar Nationalists Look to Stoke Anti-US Anger over Travel Bans against Military
Former lieutenant colonel Hla Swe wore camouflage fatigues as he mounted a stage in front of protesters in Myanmar’s main city of Yangon last week to begin an anti-U.S. diatribe.Amid chants of “Americans, get out!” he lambasted a recent U.S. decision to slap four of Myanmar’s top generals with travel bans for their role in atrocities committed against the country’s Rohingya minority.“We don’t care about the sanctions, just do it,” he declared before the crowd, which included Buddhist monks and diehard nationalists. “If American troops are coming to the country, it will be worse than Vietnam for them.”
The prospect of a U.S. invasion of Myanmar in the near future may be practically non-existent, but Hla Swe is well-known for employing extreme rhetoric to rile Myanmar’s nationalists.
“We cannot tolerate them sanctioning military leaders,” said Aung Nyi Nyi Soe, one of the protesters and a member of Myanmar’s pro-military opposition party, the USDP. “Our government should call for action… against any outsiders insulting us.”
The rally is part of efforts by the military’s supporters to stoke animosity against the U.S. and other foreign governments in response to growing calls for international action against Myanmar’s generals.
In a report released Monday, a United Nations fact-finding mission called on governments, businesses and consumers to completely sever financial ties with the Tatmadaw, as Myanmar’s military is known locally.
And the mission reiterated an earlier call for top generals, including commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing, to be prosecuted for genocide for overseeing a vicious 2017 crackdown that killed thousands of Rohingya and sent some 730,000 fleeing to Bangladesh.
The military says its crackdown was a legitimate counterinsurgency operation. Several calls from VOA seeking comment from the military on Monday’s report went unanswered.
Myanmar’s civilian-controlled foreign ministry said in a statement Tuesday that the establishment of the fact-finding mission “was based on unfounded allegations”.
“The Government of Myanmar categorically rejects the latest report and its conclusions. We regard the report as an action intended to harm the interests of Myanmar and its people,” it added.
Khin Zaw Win, director of the Yangon-based Tampadipa Institute, a think tank, said the backlash against the U.N.’s report is likely to grow.
“There are more trouble brewing,” he told VOA. “And the rocky relationship with the international community will continue. But whatever ill will there is will not be directed against the U.S. alone.”
Barack Obama’s decision in 2016 to lift most remaining economic sanctions against Myanmar was an important milestone in the thawing of relations between the two countries.
Rights advocates supported the lifting of broad sanctions but decried the decision to remove restrictions against the military and its top cronies, arguing that it would remove a key form of leverage to help bring an end to army abuses.
Monday’s U.N. report identified dozens of local businesses that investigators said had helped to fund the military’s abuses. Some were blacklisted by the U.S. before 2016.
U.S. embassy staff in Yangon were advised to avoid last week’s rally and “exercise caution” if they unexpectedly found them themselves near a protest.
The warning came after the embassy angered nationalists and others by sharing to its Facebook page an image of a piece of environmentalist artwork featuring the Buddha wearing a gas mask.
The post drew hundreds of negative comments, and prompted a prominent anti-Rohingya monk to try to sue the U.S. ambassador to Myanmar, Scot Marciel, for defaming Buddhism.
U Parmaukha’s defamation suit, which also targeted the local artist behind the image and the embassy staffer who posted it, was thrown out by a Yangon court last week.
“I knew the lawsuit was going to be rejected but I would just like people to know that there’s no rule of law,” the monk told VOA.
The embassy removed the post from its Facebook page in response to the criticism, a move which failed to appease Buddhist nationalists while alienating supporters of freedom of expression.
Embassy spokesperson Aryani Manring told VOA “We stand for freedom of expression, and we hope that this art may have stimulated some deep thinking about the serious environmental problem the work was intended to address.”
She added “Our goal is also to promote friendship between the peoples of Myanmar and the United States, and we reiterate our respect for all religions and cultures.”
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China Decries US Ban on Chinese Firms As ‘Abuse of State Power’
China on Thursday denounced rules unveiled by the U.S. that ban technology giant Huawei and other Chinese firms from government contracts as “abuse of state power” in the latest move in the escalating China-U.S. trade war.The interim rule, which will preclude any U.S. federal agency from purchasing telecom or technology equipment from the firms, is part of a sweeping effort by Washington to restrict Huawei, which officials claim is linked to Chinese intelligence.”The abuse of state power by the United States to unscrupulously and deliberately throw mud at and suppress specific Chinese enterprises seriously undermines the image of the United States and its own interests,” said Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying.”We firmly support the relevant Chinese companies in taking up legal weapons to safeguard their legitimate rights and interests,” she said in an online statement.The ban on Chinese tech firms comes amid a heated dispute between the two economic powers over international trade rules.Last week, U.S. President Donald Trump announced new tariffs on another $300 billion in Chinese imports and formally branded Beijing as a currency manipulator on Monday, in response to a drop in value of the yuan.Huawei also faces moves from Washington to blacklist the Chinese tech firm citing national security concerns, cutting it off from American-made components it needs for products — though it was issued a 90-day reprieve in May.That ban could prevent Huawei from getting key hardware and software including smartphone chips and elements of the Google Android operating system.The latest restrictions unveiled on Wednesday also bar contracts to Chinese firms ZTE, Hytera Communications Corporation, Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Company and Dahua Technology Company.The rules, which require a 60-day comment period, implement a ban included in the defense authorization act Congress approved earlier this year.Huawei said it would challenge the move in federal court.
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China Demands that US Diplomats Stop Meddling in Hong Kong’s Affairs
China has demanded that U.S. diplomats based in Hong Kong stop meddling in matters involving the city after a diplomat reportedly met with pro-democracy activists.The foreign ministry said Thursday it expressed “strong dissatisfaction” with U.S. officials over a U.S. consulate official’s reported meeting with a local “independence group.”The ministry called on the the U.S. consulate to “immediately make a clean break with various anti-China rioters” and to “stop interfering in Hong Kong’s affairs immediately.”The Hong Kong newspaper Takungpao reported U.S. Consulate General political counselor Julie Eadeh met with members of the pro-democracy political party Demosisto, including prominent activist Joshua Wong.A U.S. State Department spokesperson told AFP representatives of the U.S. government “meet regularly with a wide cross section of people across Hong Kong and Macau.”China has claimed the anti-government protests in Hong Kong are funded by the West, but has failed to produce evidence other than supportive statements from some Western politicians.Tensions in the semi-autonomous region are high after two months of protests that have sometimes turned violent.The unrest was initially triggered in June by a planned bill that would have allowed suspects to be extradited to China to face trial.The protests have since evolved into a movement for democratic reforms.Demosisto maintains it is fighting for more self-determination for Hong Kong and not independence.
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Turkey Kills Two More Suspects in Diplomat’s Slaying in Iraq
Turkey’s state-run news agency says an operation by the Turkish military and its intelligence agency has killed two more suspects and alleged planners in last month’s assassination of a Turkish diplomat in Iraq.
Anadolu Agency said on Thursday that Turkish forces targeted a vehicle carrying the two men in Iraq’s semi-autonomous northern Kurdish region in an aerial operation last week.
It was the latest Turkish attack against the alleged masterminds of the July 17 assassination of diplomat Osman Kose at a restaurant in the Iraqi city of Irbil. Other suspected planners were killed in similar operations on July 18 and July 24.Iraqi Kurdish officials have arrested the lead suspect in the shooting. He was identified as a 27-year-old who hails from Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir.
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Japan OKs First Export to S. Korea Under New Trade Curbs
Japan said Thursday it has granted the first permit for a South Korea-bound shipment of chemicals for use in high-tech materials under Tokyo’s new export requirement that has increased tensions with Seoul.Trade Minister Hiroshige Seko made a rare announcement of such approval, saying that officials determined the transaction raised no security concerns. The move is apparently meant to calm South Korean anger over Tokyo’s export curbs and show there is no trade ban in place.Trade controlsJapan imposed stricter controls on three key materials — fluorinated polyimides, photo resists and hydrogen fluoride — that are used mainly for South Korea’s semiconductor industry as of July 4. The rules also downgrade South Korea’s trade status beginning later this month.Japanese chemical manufacturers have expressed concerns that case-by-case inspections may prolong approval process and may hold up production lines for their customers.The first approval came after about a month, much faster than the standard 90 days.“The permit merely demonstrates that export licensing by the Japanese government is not arbitrary, and is granted to any legitimate transactions that pass strict inspections,” Seko told reporters. “The step we took recently is not an export ban.”Moon cautiousSouth Korean President Moon Jae-in remained cautious while expressing hope that the impact of Japan’s measures won’t be as severe as Seoul had feared.“Our government has planned for worst-case situation since Japan converted export approvals of the three materials to a case-by-case basis and has been preparing and announcing both short-term and long-term measures,” he said. “Of course, Japan may not proceed with export restrictions and there might not be any actual damage caused (to South Korean companies). But what hasn’t changed is that uncertainty is still alive.”South Korea says Japan is using trade to retaliate against its court decisions ordering Japanese companies to compensate Korean forced laborers before and during World War II, when the Korean Peninsula was under Tokyo rule.Japanese officials have denied the export controls were retaliation for the court rulings, insisting that South Korean export controls were insufficient and may not be able to include shipments of sensitive materials to third countries.Seko stood by Tokyo’s position and warned of a possibility of adding more items in addition to the three chemicals if export control officials suspect Seoul of inappropriate shipments.
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Uganda Para-Badminton Players Strive for Paralympics Despite Limitations
Uganda’s Para-Badminton team is preparing for the World Championships in Basel, Switzerland, later this month. The team has the second-highest ranked player in Africa and aims to compete at the 2020 Summer Paralympic Games in Tokyo, when Para-Badminton will make its debut. But limited resources make their participation uncertain.Elizabeth Mwesigwa is Uganda’s para-badminton champion and the second highest-ranking player in Africa.The team is doing its best to prepare for the Para-Badminton World Championships in Basel, Switzerland, starting Aug. 20.Equipment and travelBut Mwesigwa says they are sorely under-resourced, have to buy their own equipment, and often train themselves.“Getting shuttles, getting everything, plus the shoe(s), clothes, everything; it’s somehow expensive,” she said. “Plus, the coaches, sometime(s), we reach at the court, we train without coach.”Para-players need specialized equipment such as wheelchairs.But for travel to the World Championships in Switzerland, they will get support.Mugabi Simon is the chief executive officer of the Uganda Badminton Association.“Our team as Uganda is prepared, because we have come a long way. As you have seen them today, it’s not that they have just started training. They have been, in various trainings before this,” he said.Uganda’s players look forward to the international exposure, despite the challenges they face at home.Kasirye Paddy is Uganda’s No. 2-ranked para-badminton player.“Like, for me am working, then after then I come for training, because the government cannot pay you,” he said. “But I like the game. So, that’s what gives me confidence that am getting challenges from people who are better than me.”Para-Badminton’s debutPara-Badminton will make its debut at the 2020 Summer Paralympic Games in Tokyo. The event in Basel will be the first Paralympic qualifier.Although Mwesigwa’s high-ranking position in Africa qualifies her for the Tokyo games, it’s not yet clear if the team will get enough support to travel to Japan.
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Researchers Call for Action to Stem Online Hate
As Americans reflect on two mass shootings that claimed 31 lives last weekend, they’re asking how to stop the carnage.Researchers at a Los Angeles center devoted to tolerance say part of the answer lies in ending hate online. Political leaders and social media companies, they add, must help to tone down the hateful rhetoric.Rick Eaton, senior researcher at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish human rights organization, studies online hate. He points to an internet game that encourages players to shoot people crossing the border. Another site created with the popular gaming site Minecraft shows an animated crematorium for Jews. On a third blogging site called Gab, some users applaud hate crimes.
Researchers Call for Action to Stem Online Hate video player.
FILE – A person pauses in front of Stars of David with the names of those killed in a deadly shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Oct. 29, 2018.Victims of intoleranceThe center’s Museum of Tolerance, which tells the story of the Holocaust and other genocides, highlights the faces of victims of atrocities, including survivors of shootings at a Sikh temple and a Jewish school.Mass killers today are often inspired by and communicate on social media sites, including the gunman who killed 11 people at a Pittsburgh synagogue last year, and the perpetrator in the El Paso killings.“The shooter in El Paso posted a manifesto online consumed by racist hate,” noted President Donald Trump on Monday. The manifesto appeared on 8Chan, a site that extremists posted to in three recent mass shootings. Technical providers have stopped support for the site.Trump condemned white supremacy in remarks after the weekend shootings, calling for stronger background checks for prospective gun owners and reforms in mental health law. He did not call, critics noted, for sweeping gun restrictions, although he said Sunday that perhaps more is needed on gun control.Trump also condemned “racist hate.”President Donald Trump speaks to members of the media on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Aug. 7, 2019.“His speech, in terms of denouncing white supremacy, was extremely welcome,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, the Wiesenthal Center’s associate dean. “Will he be more thoughtful on his tweets?” he asked.Democrats have criticized Trump’s statements on Twitter concerning minority members of Congress, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and three of her colleagues who are also women of color.Setting the toneThe Wiesenthal Center’s founder and dean, Rabbi Marvin Hier, offered a prayer at Trump’s inauguration in January 2017, and the center has the ear of many in Washington. Cooper says both Trump and leading Democrats must set the tone.“We’re about to go into the presidential (election) season again with, I would say, an almost hysteric level of demonization of the other,” he said. “We need a cease-fire.”Cooper said more action is also needed from social media companies, which researchers at the Wiesenthal Center grade annually on their efforts against hate speech. The lowest grade for a major media site went to vk.com, which is based in Russia.He said online sites provide a sense of validation for lone wolves — isolated individuals who engage in acts of violence.“What social media has provided for the lone wolf is a sense of community, a sense of empowerment, because there are other people out there cheering you on,” he said.Cooper argues that social media companies must do more or face demands for government regulation, which he said few would welcome.He pointed to a letter on display at the Wiesenthal Center, signed by a young Adolf Hitler, which he said shows what can happen when hatred is unchecked and goes viral. That occurred, he noted, in the age of typewriters, before the internet and social media.
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Researchers Call for Action to Stem Online Hate
As Americans reflect on two mass shootings last weekend that claimed 31 lives, they’re asking how to stop the carnage. Researchers at a Los Angeles center devoted to tolerance say part of the answer is ending online hate. They say political leaders and social media companies must also help to tone down the rhetoric. Mike O’Sullivan reports from Los Angeles.
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Huntsman Resigns After ‘Historically Difficult’ Term as US Ambassador to Russia
U.S. Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman has stepped down after two years in his post as the top U.S. envoy to Moscow, calling it a “historically difficult period in bilateral relations.” VOA’s diplomatic correspondent Cindy Saine looks at what his departure might mean for U.S.-Russia relations.
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