One day after the U.S. imposed a full economic embargo on Venezuela, National Security Advisor John Bolton says the U.S. can now sanction anyone who supports the government of President Nicolas Maduro. Maduro’s government denounced the sanctions as a “grave aggression” that will lead to “the failure of political dialogue.” VOA’s Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine has more from the State Department.
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Month: August 2019
Volatility, Uncertainty as US-China Trade War Escalates
U.S. financial markets struggled to rebound Tuesday after their biggest drop since December. U.S. President Donald Trump’s top economic adviser says the White House has the upper hand in deepening trade and monetary disputes with China — an assertion made after Beijing announced it will no longer buy U.S. agricultural products. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi reports.
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Groups Sue to Block Trump Administration’s Expansion of Rapid Deportations
Advocacy groups sued the Trump administration on Tuesday in an effort to block a rule published last month that expands the number of migrants who can be subject to a sped-up deportation process without oversight by an immigration judge.The rule, published in the Federal Register on July 23, broadened the practice of “expedited removal” to apply to anyone arrested anywhere nationwide who entered the United States illegally and cannot prove they have lived continuously in the country for at least two years.Previously, only migrants caught within 100 miles of a U.S. border and who had been in the country for 14 days or less were subject to the fast-track process.Under expedited removal, migrants are not entitled to a review of their cases in front of an immigration judge or access to an attorney.The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., by the American Civil Liberties Union and the American Immigration Council on behalf of three immigration rights groups, claims the government did not go through the proper procedures in issuing the rule and says it violates due process and U.S. immigration laws.The U.S. Department of Justice declined to comment on the filing.President Donald Trump has struggled to stem an increase of mostly Central American families arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border, leading to overcrowded detention facilities and a political battle over immigration that is inflaming tensions in the country. In El Paso, Texas, last weekend a gunman killed 22 people after apparently posting an anti-immigrant manifesto online.Nearly 300,000 of the approximately 11 million immigrants in the United States illegally could be quickly deported under the new rule, according to the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute.”Hundreds of thousands of people living anywhere in the U.S. are at risk of being separated from their families and expelled from the country without any recourse,” Anand Balakrishnan, an attorney with the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, said in a statement.The government has said increasing rapid deportations would free up detention space and ease strains on immigration courts, which face a backlog of more than 900,000 cases.People in rapid deportation proceedings are detained for 11.4 days on average, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. People in regular proceedings are held for 51.5 days and are released into the United States for the months or years it takes to resolve their cases.
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A Heightened US-China Financial War Imperils Global Economy
Just what the fragile global economy didn’t need: An unpredictable escalation in President Donald Trump’s trade war with China, one that spreads the conflict to currency markets, threatens to involve other countries and raises the risk of a global recession.At a time when growth in the United States and the world is already weakening and Trump has said he’ll impose new taxes on hundreds of billions of dollars of Chinese imports, Beijing is halting purchases of U.S. farm goods and the two sides are trading punches over the value of the U.S. dollar against the Chinese yuan.The heightened hostilities could hobble world economic growth by depressing financial markets, discouraging trade and elevating uncertainty for businesses trying to decide whether and where to situate factories, buy supplies and sell products.When companies across the world lose confidence or certainty about global trade policies, they tend to postpone plans to invest, expand and hire. Spread across the global economy and over time, those trends can trigger a severe economic downturn.”President Trump is playing with fire here, and recession risks are very high,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics.Barely a month ago, Trump and President Xi Jinping had announced a truce in their rancorous dispute over allegations that Beijing steals and forces foreign companies to hand over trade secrets, unfairly subsidizes Chinese companies and engages in cyber-theft of intellectual property.The cease-fire broke last week when Trump, professing frustration that 12 rounds of negotiations had failed to break the impasse, said he would impose tariffs Sept. 1 on the $300 billion of Chinese imports that he’d previously left untouched. On Monday, China hit back. It revealed that it had stopped buying U.S. farm products _ a severe blow to Trump supporters in rural America. Beijing’s central bank also allowed the yuan to sink to an 11-year low against the dollar.A woman walks by a money exchange shop decorated with different countries currency banknotes at Central, a business district in Hong Kong, Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2019.The fall of the yuan drew fire from Trump, who accused China of allowing it to give its exporters an unfair price advantage. On Monday evening, the Treasury Department declared China a currency manipulator for the first time since 1994.The rapid-fire sequence of events “shatters confidence, trust and expectations,” said Sung Won Sohn, an economist at Loyola Marymount University in California. World stock markets tumbled Monday – the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 767 points or 2.9% – before rebounding Tuesday on signs that China was stabilizing the yuan.Despite Tuesday’s respite, the prospects for a trade deal, which appeared bright as recently as mid-May, have dimmed to near-invisibility. “They are all moving in the wrong directions,” Sohn said. “I don’t think the Chinese are looking for a trade deal during the current term of President Trump. They have decided he is too unpredictable to negotiate with.”The world economy hardly needs the strain. The International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and other forecasters have all downgraded their forecasts for global growth this year.It isn’t just the trade war. Manufacturers around the world have allowed their inventories to build up and now are slowing production to bring their stockpiles closer to customers’ demand. J.P.Morgan’s global manufacturing index fell in July for the third straight month to the lowest level since 2012. Moody’s Investors Service predicts that global auto sales will drop 3.8% this year.The prospect that Britain will leave the European Union without a trade deal – a risk that seemed to rise after Boris Johnson became prime minister last month – is imperiling Europe’s economic prospects. Japan is preparing to raise its consumption tax in October, threatening to stifle an economy that’s already gasping for growth.”The timing could not be worse,” said Paul Sheard, senior fellow at Harvard University’s Kennedy School. “Japan is the third-largest economy in the world.”Trump’s decision to impose tariffs on foreign steel, aluminum, dishwashers, solar panels and hundreds of Chinese imports – and the retaliation it’s drawn from other countries – has chilled global trade investment. Companies are waiting to see whether and how the disputes work out.China Shipping Company containers are stacked at the Virginia International’s terminal in Portsmouth, Va., Friday, May 10, 2019.”There are considerable downside risks with an escalation of protectionism,” said Sara Johnson, executive director of global economics at the research firm IHS Markit. “We’re disrupting supply chains, and tariffs ultimately lead to less efficient global production.”Oxford Economics says business pessimism has risen sharply: 56% of the companies it surveyed July 12-Aug. 1 said the risk of a sharp global slowdown has risen, up from 32% in the spring.”Once you lose economic confidence, it takes a very long time to build it back up,” said Harry Broadman, chair of Berkeley Research Group’s emerging markets practice and a former White House economic adviser. The tit-for-tat exchange Monday over China’s currency brought a new, dangerous element into the mix.”We haven’t been on this terrain since the 1930s,” said Joe Brusuelas, chief economist at the consultancy RSM. Trump has made clear he wants to see the U.S. dollar drop against the yuan, the euro and other currencies. That’s one reason he’s applied relentless pressure to the Federal Reserve to cut U.S. interest rates – a move that tends to drive the dollar lower. (The Fed last week cut its key interest rate for first time in a decade.)”The president has signaled that he has no problem with a weaker dollar,” said Joe Manimbo, senior market analyst at Western Union Business Solutions. “This is certainly unprecedented in modern times.”Turning a trade war into a currency war heightens the danger. It shifts the battlefield to currency markets, where policymakers have much less control.”Currency wars take on a life of their own,” Brusuelas said. In the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis, traders dumped Asian currencies and delivered devastating recessions to Thailand, Indonesia and South Korea, where borrowers struggled to repay U.S. dollar-denominated loans and left local banks drowning in bad debt.Indeed, a dollar-versus-yuan fight is unlikely to remain confined to the United States and China. If other countries see Chinese or U.S. exporters gaining a currency advantage, they’ll feel pressure to respond by pushing their currencies lower, too. “The idea that the U.S. is going to be able to engage in dollar devaluation that adversely impacts (the yuan) without adversely impacting other trading partners is sheer fantasy,” Brusuelas said. “Currency wars are guaranteed not to stay two-party affairs.”In the past, the notion that the United States might intervene in the markets, buying foreign currencies and pushing down the dollar to gain an advantage, would have been farfetched. “We’re in a new ballgame here,” Sheard said. “The old rules are not necessarily going to be respected anymore.”
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Heat Headache for 2020 Planners as Tokyo Swelters Year Before Games
Soaring temperatures in Japan have killed at least 57 people since late July, authorities said on Tuesday, highlighting the health threat to athletes and fans that Olympics organizers must tackle before next year’s Tokyo games.Temperatures have been stuck above 31 Celsius (88 Fahrenheit) in and around Tokyo since July 24, the date the Summer Games will open next year in Japan’s capital and run for 17 days.The sweltering heat killed 57 people across Japan in the week from July 29 to Aug. 4, the Disaster Management Agency said on Tuesday. More than 1,800 were taken to hospitals in Tokyo.Last summer temperatures hit a record 41.1 C just north of Tokyo, which first hosted the Olympics in 1964 when the games were held in October to avoid the heat. Four years later, the Mexico City Games were also moved to October.Since 1976 most summer games have been held in the Northern Hemisphere summer due to international broadcasting and sports schedules — forcing Tokyo organizers to find ways to keep athletes and tens of thousands of fans cool and hydrated.”Weather conditions were often organizers’ challenges in past Olympic and Paralympic Games. We also understand that top-tier competitions can sometimes be observed in cities with even tougher weather patterns than in Tokyo,” said Tokyo 2020 spokesman Masa Takaya.People walk at Ueno Park during a scorching afternoon in Tokyo, Aug. 6, 2019.The 2004 Athens Games and 2008 Beijing Games were also held in cities known for their summer heat.”In this respect, input and expertise from the IOC and the sports federation from their past experiences are extremely valuable,” he said, referring to the International Olympic Committee.Tokyo organizers are evaluating heat-fighting measures from mist sprays and ice packs to shaded rest areas and tents at security checkpoints.”We will keep working closely together with the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, the national government and relevant stakeholders to ensure the successful delivery of the Games,” Takaya said.Hot and hotterJapanese summers are hot and getting hotter.Though there have been scorching hot days in the past — temperatures hit 32.6 C on July 24 in 1964 — Japan is seeing more of them and nights no longer cool down as much, Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) data shows.It coined a new word — “Ferociously Hot Days” — in 2007 because of more days with temperatures above 35 C.Tomoyuki Kitamura, a JMA scientific officer, said Tokyo suffers from a “heat island effect” where concentrated heat in cities prevents them from cooling off at night.”But the bigger impact is from global warming. There’s no doubt about this at all,” he said.In the past two decades, Tokyo has had an average high of 32 C in the last 10 days of July and first 10 days of August, according to JMA data.The heat is made worse by a relative lack of shade in the concrete jungle home to 9.2 million people.Japan is also among a handful of major economies that shun daylight savings time. As a result, the sun is up — and baking the city — before 5 a.m. for most of the summer.With that in mind, the Olympic marathons will start at 6 a.m. local time, an hour earlier than scheduled. The women’s event will be on Aug. 2 and men’s on Aug. 9, the last day of competition.The 26.2-mile (42-km) marathon course and other major roads will be paved with more than 100 km of a resin-based surface that reflects infrared rays and lowers the pavement temperature by as much as 8 degrees C, organizers said.Other heat countermeasures are being tested this summer.Last month’s beach volleyball event — where two people needed medical treatment as temperatures hit 35 C — tested shaded or air-conditioned rest areas and water vapour sprays for fans. Organizers also handed out water and ice packs to athletes and spectators.Given that Japan’s heat and humidity can persist through the end of September, the Rugby World Cup — which starts in under 50 days — could also be affected.After Tokyo 2020, Paris could face similar challenges. The host of the 2024 summer games saw a record 40.6 C on July 25, in a month that was the hottest recorded on earth.On a recent Tokyo afternoon, residents said the heat would also be a challenge for 2020 volunteers, especially those working at outdoor events.”The (marathon) athletes can finish in two hours but the volunteer staff will be there longer than that,” said 69-year-old Yuki Ooka, who runs every day.”So they have a lot of ice packs with them — and I hope the government has a better strategy,” she added.
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Director Wants Thai Seafood Slavery Film to Act as Warning in Cambodia
The maker of a new film about a Cambodian boy enslaved on a Thai fishing trawler said on Tuesday he wants to use it to raise awareness and stop people from falling victim to traffickers.”Buoyancy” director Rodd Rathjen is planning a series of screenings in remote Cambodian villages of the film, which shines on the plight of thousands of migrant workers trapped in slavery in the Thai seafood industry.Shot in Cambodia in the Khmer and Thai languages, it follows the story of Chakra, a rural Cambodian boy who sets off to escape his family’s poverty but later discovers he has been sold by a broker and trapped at sea.”It can hopefully educate them about what is at stake if they do decide to migrate to Thailand,” said Rathjen by phone from Australia, where the film will be screened at the Melbourne International Film Festival on Friday.”Despite how desperate they were for work, it’s obviously not worth losing their lives or being exposed to that level of trauma,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.Thailand has come under scrutiny in recent years after investigations found labor abuses in its multibillion-dollar seafood sector, one of the world’s largest.In response, authorities have introduced a raft of measures to crack down on labor abuses, including banning the use of underage workers and requiring that fishermen are given contracts.There are about 4.9 million migrants in Thailand, according to the United Nations. Most are from poorer neighboring countries, including Myanmar and Cambodia, and work in sectors such as seafood and domestic work.”Buoyancy” had its world premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival in February, when it won a prize.”I think this movie is important because it portrays the real lives of Cambodians,” said Sarm Heng, a 16-year-old Cambodian newcomer who played the lead role.”My reason for acting in this movie is to help children of the next generations… so that other boys and girls don’t get tricked or trapped and have to suffer like Chakra did.”
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Ebola Outbreak in East Congo’s Main City Tests Flexibility of Response
Deo Bakulu has been washing his hands every chance he gets since Ebola reached eastern Democratic Republic of Congo’s main city of Goma last month.But the washing station set up by local authorities near his home is only open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., from Monday through Saturday, and he doesn’t have running water.”Does Ebola only spread during the day?” he asked ironically as a health official at a different station aimed an infrared thermometer at his temple. “What about on Sundays?”Goma, a city of nearly 2 million people, is on high alert after the first transmission of the virus within it was confirmed last week. That raised fears the outbreak could spread within the densely-populated city and beyond via its border with Rwanda and the international airport.A gold miner carried the virus from the epicenter of the epidemic, which is several hundred kilometers to the north. He spent a week at home ill with his wife and 10 children before being transferred to hospital, where he died the next day. His wife and daughter then tested positive for the disease.Goma has had time to get ready for Ebola, given a nearly year-long head start as the disease raged near the cities of Beni and Butembo. Most residents appear to have taken the latest developments in stride, queuing up at the dozens of washing stations set up on sidewalks by the government and private businesses and avoiding shaking hands.FILE – A health worker checks a man’s temperature in Goma, July 31, 2019.Still, there are shortcomings in the preparations, and medics are encountering some of the same suspicion and hostility they have faced in other outbreak hotspots. In the current epidemic, the virus has killed more than 1,800 people, the second-highest toll ever.Whether health authorities can successfully apply lessons from those hotspots will go a long way toward determining if they can claim an important victory in Goma or if, instead, the epidemic will hurtle toward the grim record of more than 11,300 deaths registered by West Africa’s 2014-16 Ebola outbreak.”The system was there before, which is good, so that we’re not starting from scratch,” said Kate White, medical emergency manager for French medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF). “But it definitely needs to be reinforced and scaled up.”Ebola, a hemorrhagic fever first discovered in Congo in 1976, spreads through direct contact with body fluids and typically kills roughly half of those it infects, although the mortality rate is closer to two-thirds during the current outbreak because many people are not seeking treatment.PreparationThe three cases in Goma set off a scramble to find and vaccinate more than 800 direct and indirect contacts. As of Tuesday, all but five had been vaccinated, said Tresor Amiri, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) vaccination chief in Goma.Officials were cautiously optimistic about their chances of containing the virus in Goma. No additional cases have been identified, and the miner’s wife and daughter are recovering.FILE – A woman reacts as a health worker injects her with the Ebola vaccine, in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, Aug. 5, 2019.”We hope they will become the first people cured in Goma,” said Jean-Jacques Muyembe, the head of the Ebola response across Congo, adding their survival would show people that “if you show up for treatment early the chances of survival are relatively good.”The one previous case in Goma led the WHO to declare the outbreak an international health emergency three weeks ago, but it did not result in any further transmission inside Goma.Authorities chalk up those successes to elaborate preparations since the outbreak was declared last August.Ferdinand Tangenyi, 23, is one of scores of volunteers going door-to-door with illustrated flipbooks warning against handling bloodied clothes or cleaning up vomit. Public service announcements also run repeatedly on the radio.At the border with Rwanda, crossed by an estimated 45,000 people each day, travelers have their temperatures taken twice on either side. Rwanda briefly closed the border last week but re-opened it as experts warned the move would encourage illicit crossings.Officials established protocols to handle cases, which they isolated in a special ward at the main hospital. After two months of construction, a 72-bed center built by MSF exclusively for Ebola received its first suspected cases on Friday.ThreatsBut steep challenges remain. On Saturday, relatives of a boy who had been referred to the MSF center from a local hospital with fever and diarrhea showed up to demand he be released.One male relative threatened to burn the facility down.”They were right in Butembo,” he said, referring to how unidentified assailants torched MSF’s treatment center there in February, leading the charity to suspend activities in the city.FILE – A health worker dressed in a protective suit talks to medical staff at the newly constructed MSF (Doctors Without Borders) Ebola treatment center in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, Aug. 4, 2019.”We have had fevers and diarrhea since I was a child,” said one female relative. “Why does a fever now equal Ebola?” An MSF official was eventually able to defuse the situation, and the relatives left.MSF says it is taking additional steps to reassure the population in Goma and avoid the conspiracy theories that have undermined the response near Beni and Butembo. The Goma center, for example, was built with see-through fencing to pre-empt rumors that anything nefarious is happening inside, said Alexis Touchais, the construction manager.Francine Mulangala, who goes door-to-door informing people about Ebola in the Goma neighborhood where the gold miner lived, said she was also threatened last Friday by more than a dozen people demanding to see his body.”If anyone gets sick, we are going to kill you,” she recalled them saying.The local government has limited ability to deliver crucial services. Only about 10% of the population has access to running water and many rely on communal latrines. The population is also highly mobile, with many traders crossing into Rwanda every day, some outside the official checkpoint.One driver of a special Ebola ambulance in Goma, who asked not to be named, said drivers had not been paid in six months.The provincial health ministry, which employs the drivers, could not be reached for comment.Many residents said they were eager to be vaccinated, but could not be because only those exposed to Ebola patients or their contacts are currently eligible. A decision on whether to deploy a second vaccine that would cover a wider population has been bogged down by wrangling inside the Congolese government.”The population accepts that Ebola is real,” said Joseph Mumbere, a money changer. “But it is very hard to get the vaccine.”
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Pact Reached in Mozambique But Prospects for Peace Uncertain
With a handshake and a hug, Mozambique’s leaders hoped Tuesday to close the book on a decades-long conflict. But an election in October and new causes of violence mean lasting peace is far from assured.After fighting on opposite sides of a civil war that erupted following independence from Portugal and killed more than one million people between 1977 and 1992, the ruling Frelimo party and former guerrilla movement Renamo signed a cease-fire that ended the worst of the bloodshed.However, violence has flared periodically in the years since, especially around elections.President Filipe Nyusi and Renamo leader Ossufo Momade smiled broadly and embraced after signing the deal, which encompasses a permanent end to hostilities and constitutional changes, as well as the disarming and reintegration of Renamo fighters into the security forces or civilian life.Mozambique’s President Filipe Nyusi, left, and Renamo leader Ossufo Momade sign a cease-fire agreement in Gorongosa, in this handout photo taken and released by the office of the President of Mozambique on Aug. 1, 2019.”With this agreement we are saying that we may disagree, but we always use dialogue to settle our differences,” Nyusi said at an event in Maputo’s Praca da Paz (Peace Square), in front of dignitaries including South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa and presidents of other neighboring states. “Never again should election results dictate the state of peace in Mozambique.”Analysts say the new accord offers the best hope yet for a lasting solution to the conflict.”All of us have to be optimistic, because if nobody believes in peace, there will be no peace,” said Felipe Donoso, head of mission for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Mozambique.New pageNyusi and Momade both hope the deal will score them political points ahead of presidential, parliamentary and provincial elections on Oct. 15.The poll could make or break the agreement, experts said. It will be the first time Renamo, now the country’s main opposition party, can compete for provincial governorships, satisfying demands for political inclusion and control over areas they dominate.The governorships offer a chance for Renamo to demonstrate it is a functioning political party with the capacity to govern effectively, said Edward Hobey-Hamsher, senior Africa analyst at British-based risk consultancy Verisk Maplecroft.He and other experts interviewed by Reuters cited this as a main reason the agreement might succeed where its predecessors had failed.A woman waits for Mozambique President Filipe Nyusi and Renamo leader Ossufo Momade to arrive for a peace accord signing ceremony at Gorongosa National Park, about 170 kilometers from Beira, Mozambique, Aug, 1, 2019.However, if Renamo does not achieve its election goals of winning governorships and feels cheated by Frelimo, the accord could quickly come undone.”Then the whole thing will collapse,” said Joseph Hanlon, a visiting professor at the London School of Economics.Already, there have been accusations of voter registration fraud.Renamo’s Momade said at the ceremony that the deal sealed a future of peace and reconciliation, but noted that changes in government through free and fair elections should be the rule rather than the exception.”We have just opened a new page in the history of our country,” he said.The disarmament process will be far from complete by the time of the election. So far about 50 out of more than 5,000 Renamo fighters have been registered, a process that started last week in Gorongosa, where Renamo’s headquarters are located.But only a handful of guns were handed over and Renamo will likely hang onto its heavier and better weapons, at least until after the poll, and could sell some them to other groups, analysts said.Both Frelimo and Renamo contain groups of hardliners unenthusiastic about the process. A Renamo general and an uncertain number of other fighters have in recent weeks disavowed Momade, threatening violence and refusing to give up their weapons while he remains in charge.”They are now completely outside of the peace agreement,” said Johanna Nilsson, a Sweden-based academic. “The fact Renamo cannot control them is of course problematic.”Peace with benefitsThe split between Renamo and Frelimo has defined Mozambique since the 1970s, when the country was a front in the Cold War.But while a lasting peace deal has been a long time in the making, analysts say the rivalry between the former foes is no longer the primary conflict threatening the country.An Islamist insurgency in the impoverished north is stretching the government’s military resources and increasing the imperative for an accord with Renamo.Since 2017, Islamist attacks have killed more than 250 people. The roots of that crisis could hold lessons for the government as it attempts to deal with Renamo.Located on Southern Africa’s Indian Ocean coast, Mozambique is one of the world’s least-developed nations, but is starting to tap huge coal and natural gas deposits.Residents in the Cabo Delgado region remain mired in poverty, even as a growing number of multinational corporations head there to develop one of the biggest offshore gas finds in a decade — estimated to be worth at least $30 billion.”Poverty is the fuel of the present violence in northern Mozambique,” said Eleanor Beevor, a research analyst at the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies.”The grievances around this inequality could become much worse if ordinary people don’t benefit from the growing oil and gas industries in northern Mozambique.”A lack of economic opportunities in Renamo’s central heartland could also fuel violence, much as it has in the north, said Adriano Nuvunga, director of the Center for the Study of Democracy and Development (CEDE) in Maputo. “This peace, it needs to bring benefits,” he told Reuters.Mirko Manzoni, the United Nations special envoy for Mozambique, who has been closely involved in the negotiations, said most Renamo fighters just want a way to provide a future for their families.”We would like to make sure this is the last reintegration,” he said. “So we are really trying … to make sure the reintegration will provide a prospect better than guns.”
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Shooting Attacks Renew Debate Over Domestic Terrorism in US
VOA’s Jeff Seldin contributed to this report. WASHINGTON — One of the two recent mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, is being treated as a case of domestic terrorism by U.S. federal authorities. The El Paso attack, which has left 22 people dead, has renewed debate over how to combat domestic terrorism in the United States. The FBI has expressed concerns that such attacks could inspire more homegrown extremists to carry out further violent attacks in the future. “The FBI remains concerned that U.S.-based domestic violent extremists could become inspired by this weekend’s attacks and previous high-profile attacks to engage in similar acts of violence,” the FBI said in a statement on Sunday. Domestic terrorism on the rise Domestic terrorism “has become increasingly more of a threat with the resurgence of white supremacists groups, as well as some acts from left-wing extremists, though these account for much fewer incidents,” said Randall Rogan, a terrorism expert at Wake Forest University in North Carolina.Peter Bergen, a national security expert and vice president at New America, a Washington-based think tank, says that attacks motivated by far-right extremists have increased in recent years. “Right-wing terrorism has been around in the United States for a long time, but what’s a little bit different in the last couple of years is that we have seen more mass casualty attacks like we saw in El Paso and Pittsburgh (synagogue shooting in 2018),” he told VOA. According to New America, since the 9/11 terror attacks, terrorists motivated by far-right ideology, including white supremacy, antigovernment and anti-abortion views, have killed 107 people in the U.S. During the same period, 104 people have been killed in the U.S. by homegrown terrorists linked to foreign terror groups, according to the same study. Mourners bring flowers to a makeshift memorial, Aug. 6, 2019, for the slain and injured in the Oregon District after a mass shooting that occurred Aug. 4, 2019, in Dayton, Ohio.’Alarming connection’There is “a very alarming connection between domestic terrorist attacks here in the United States and domestic terrorist attacks abroad,” former FBI Acting Director Andrew McCabe told CNN on Monday. “It’s not uncommon to see attackers referencing (other attackers abroad) in their manifesto.”The El Paso shooter, in fact, referenced in his four-page online manifesto the terror attack in New Zealand in March that killed dozens of Muslim worshippers. “These connections between acts of similar like-minded folks are going to further exacerbate this problem and kind of add fuel to the fire,” McCabe added. Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe sits with a folder marked “Secret” in front of him while testifying on Capitol Hill in Washington, May 11, 2017.Increased cooperationTo tackle domestic terrorism more effectively, experts say the U.S. needs to expand on the work being done by law enforcement agencies to combat right-wing terrorism.There should be “increased cooperation and collaboration among all law enforcement and Department of Homeland Security and other agencies,” Rogan said. Federal law enforcement officials say they have stepped up their communication level with state and local partners in the wake of this weekend’s attacks. “FBI headquarters is in constant communication with FBI field offices to ensure the threat from domestic terrorism and hate crimes is continually being assessed, and the FBI will continue to share pertinent information with law enforcement partners going forward,” an FBI spokesperson said on Monday. Patriot Act The Patriot Act, passed in 2001 after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, defines domestic terrorism as activities on U.S. soil that “involve acts dangerous to human life” and “appear to be intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination or kidnapping.”The Patriot Act primarily grants the Justice Department the authority to investigate an individual or a group affiliated with a group that the State Department has listed as a foreign terrorist organization. According to federal law, in order to be charged with terrorism, a person must be suspected of acting on behalf of one of those listed groups.”If a far-right organization in Europe was designated as a terrorist group by the State Department, and somebody in this country was in touch with them in some shape or form, then that would allow a prosecution under some kind of terrorism,” Bergen told VOA. There is a federal statute that defines domestic terrorism, but it carries no penalties. Americans who are regarded as domestic terrorists are charged under laws related to hate crimes, guns and conspiracy. “The challenge is not the laws, but rather the intervention and strategies needed to combat the threat,” Rogan said. “For instance, it is a crime to provide support to ISIS. It’s not a crime to provide support to a neo-Nazi group in the United States,” he said, using an acronym for Islamic State. Rogan added that IS is a federally designated terrorist organization by the State Department. “Providing money and services, that’s all illegal. But it’s not illegal to be a member of a neo-Nazi group in this country because of the First Amendment. However, it is illegal to be a member of a neo-Nazi group and carry out violence. That’s the distinction.”
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Trump Sues California Over Tax Return Law
U.S. President Donald Trump sued California on Tuesday over a new law requiring presidential candidates to release their tax returns to run in the state’s primary elections.The lawsuit, filed by Trump’s personal lawyers in federal court in Sacramento, argues the statute signed into law last week is unconstitutional because it sets up illegal new rules governing who can seek the presidency.The complaint also alleged that the law retaliates against Trump for his apolitical beliefs and therefore violates his right to free speech under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.The lawsuit follows a similar one filed by Judicial Watch, a Washington-based conservative legal group, on behalf of four voters registered in California – two Republicans, a Democrat and an independent.The Republican Party also filed a similar case on Tuesday.The measure requires presidential candidates to release five years of tax returns in order to appear on a nominating ballot in California, the most populous U.S. state. The bill passed both houses of California’s Democrat-controlled legislature and was signed by Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom last week.California Gov. Gavin Newsom addresses a news conference in Sacramento, Calif., July 23, 2019.Trump refused to release his tax returns during the 2016 campaign, bucking a practice followed by every presidential nominee for decades.Last month, the Democrat-controlled Ways and Means Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives sued the U.S. Treasury Department to force the release of Trump’s tax records.Democrats want the tax returns as part of their inquiry into possible conflicts of interest posed by Trump’s continued ownership of his extensive business interests.In New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo, also a Democrat, signed an amendment last month to a law requiring the state’s Department of Taxation and Finance to release any returns sought by the congressional committees.Both efforts have been rebuffed by Trump’s team. The president sued to block the New York law, and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin has refused to hand Trump’s returns over to the Ways and Means Committee.An earlier version of the California law had been vetoed by Newsom’s predecessor Jerry Brown, a Democrat who expressed concerns over its constitutionality.”These are extraordinary times and states have a legal and moral duty to do everything in their power to ensure leaders seeking the highest offices meet minimal standards, and to restore public confidence,” Newsom said in a statement when he announced the bill signing last week.
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Ukraine Calls for More Peace Talks After 4 Die in Eastern Donbass
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged the leaders of Russia, Germany and France to resume talks on a peaceful solution to the separatist conflict in Ukraine’s eastern Donbass region after four soldiers were killed in shelling Tuesday.Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said this was the highest death toll in a single day since last October. The shelling happened despite a cease-fire agreement reached with Russia-backed separatists last month.”The cease-fire lasted for 17 days. Today’s incident is aimed at undermining not only this truce but also the negotiation process as a whole,” Zelenskiy posted on his Facebook account.FILE – Russia-backed separatist fighters stand on artillery pieces, part of a unit moved away from the front lines, in Yelenovka, near Donetsk, Ukraine, Feb. 26, 2015.Conflict between Ukrainian troops and Russian-backed forces has killed 13,000 people since 2014. The Minsk agreement, involving Russia and Ukraine and brokered by France and Germany, ended major conflict in eastern Ukraine in 2015, although regular small-scale clashes have still cost lives.The four countries last met in 2016, but a definitive peace has proved elusive with Ukraine and Russia trading blame.Ukraine says the Kremlin does not want to fulfill its commitments to withdraw military staff and to stop providing separatists with weapons, money and forces. Russia also says that Ukraine is not honoring commitments.The Minsk agreement states that after a sustained cease-fire is in place the two sides should move toward a peaceful resolution, but one cease-fire after another has been violated.New President Zelenskiy came to power this year promising to end the conflict and offered talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in a neutral venue.”Today the whole world has seen who does not want peace,” Zelenskiy said. “That is why I call on … Emmanuel Macron, Angela Merkel and Vladimir Putin to come together as soon as possible to resume negotiations.”
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PM: Croatia President Will Run for Second Term
Croatia President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarevic will run for a second five-year term on behalf of her ruling party, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic, who also heads the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), said on Tuesday.Plenkovic confirmed Kitarevic’s candidacy for the job after she informally announced it to local media on Monday, state news agency Hina reported.Kitarevic’s current term will expire on Feb. 19, 2020 and the government is expected to call for the election at least 30 day before.Her biggest rivals for the job are Zoran Milanovic, the former prime minister from the Social Democratic Party (SDP), and Miroslav Skoro, a popular singer who will run as an independent candidate, according to polls published in Croatia.
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Drought Reveals Lost Temple in Thailand Submerged by Dam
Thousands are flocking to see a Buddhist temple in central Thailand exposed after drought drove water levels to record lows in a dam reservoir where it had been submerged.As the reservoir reaches less than 3% of capacity, the remains of Wat Nong Bua Yai, a modern temple submerged during construction of the dam 20 years ago, have became visible in the middle of dry ground.Some Buddhist monks were among the hundreds of people who walked through broken temple structures on cracked earth littered with dead fish last week to pay respects to a headless 4-meter (13-feet) -tall Buddha statue, adorning it with flowers.”The temple is normally covered by water. In the rainy season you don’t see anything,” said one of the visitors, Somchai Ornchawiang, a 67-year-old retired teacher.He regretted the temple flooding but is now worried about the damage the drought is causing to farmland, he added.The dam, with capacity of 960 million cubic meters, normally irrigates more than 1.3 million acres (526,000 hectares) of farmland in four provinces, but drought has cut that to just 3,000 acres (1,214 hectares) in the single province of Lopburi.The meteorological department says Thailand is facing its worst drought in a decade, with water levels in dams nationwide having fallen far short of the monthly average.People walk and take pictures at the ruins of a Buddhist temple which has resurfaced in a dried-up dam due to drought, in Lopburi, Thailand, Aug. 1, 2019.Yotin Lopnikorn, 38, headman of the Nong Bua village that used to be near the temple, recalls visiting it with friends as a child, before dam construction forced the villagers out.”When I was young, I always came to meet friends at the elephant sculptures in front of the main building to play there,” Yotin said.At the time, the temple was the center of the community, used to conduct rituals, festivities and educational activities, besides functioning as a playground and recreational area.Next to the temple compound are the remains of 700 households of the village.The ruins have reappeared before, after a drought in 2015.”This is the second time I have seen this temple in this condition,” said Yotin. “Now I think we need to save this place.”
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China Plans to Use New Tech Like AI To ‘Win Wars’ Amid US Concerns
China’s military says it is focused on harnessing new technologies to “fight and win wars” in the future and is competing with the United States in boosting the regional influence of its People Liberation Army.A new government “white paper” highlights how new technologies like artificial intelligence and cloud computing are essential for the military, saying new capabilities under development are “long-range precision, intelligent, stealthy and unmanned.” At the same time, the paper laments that China still lags behind other countries in terms of military technology.
“While it is true the PLA still lags behind other militaries, in particular the United States’, in some technologies, Beijing has launched a major campaign to close this technological gap with the West. Policies and strategies like civil-military integration or Made in China 2025, among others, are helping the Chinese military to quickly catch up with or surpass foreign militaries,” said Johannes Heller of Mercator Institute of China Studies (MERICS) in Berlin.The PLA has made huge strides over the past decade-and-a-half in terms of technological catch-up, said Sourabh Gupta, senior fellow at the U.S. China Institute in Washington. “That said, from a strictly military-technological perspective, the PLA is still clearly out-matched by key Western militaries as well as by the Russians. So while they have downplayed in the White Paper how competitive they have become, it is true that still lag quite-some-way behind the leaders in this space,” Gupta said. FILE – Military vehicles carry Wing Loong drones, a Chinese-made medium-altitude long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicle, past spectators during a parade commemorating at Tiananmen Gate in Beijing, China, Sept. 3, 2015.In the paper, China claimed that it has reduced military spending as a share of gross domestic product.A different view was provided by defense think tank, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), which said China is the second-largest spender of defense after the United States. Beijing increased its military expenditure by 5.0 per cent to $250 billion in 2018, it said. By comparison, the U.S. spent about $639 billion on its defense the same year.US tech concernsBeijing’s emphasis on high-tech military solutions is significant because the U.S. government this past year has voiced increasing concerns over China’s involvement in cutting-edge technologies such as ultra-fast 5G data networks. Washington has effectively barred Chinese companies such as Huawei from building 5G networks in the U.S. and argued U.S. allies should enact similar bans.U.S. officials say China’s trade and foreign policies are aimed at boosting Chinese influence overseas and stealing foreign technology to enhance Chinese capabilities.“Many of these emerging technologies are inherently dual-use, meaning that they have both civilian and military uses,” Heller said adding, “Therefore, it is likely that the Trump administration is considering how these sensitive technologies could give China an economic advantage, but also how they may aid in the modernization of the PLA,” Johannes Heller said.FILE – A boy watches a video depicting the flow of digital information during an exhibition at the Military Museum in Beijing, China, May 24, 2019.China’s trade and defense policies were highlighted by the new U.S. defense secretary during his first trip to Asia this past week.“We also stand firmly against a disturbing pattern of aggressive behavior, destabilizing behavior from China. This includes weaponizing the global commons, using predatory economics and debt for sovereignty deals, and promoting state-sponsored theft of other nations’ intellectual property” the new U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said in Sydney during his first ever overseas trip on Sunday.Foreign military basesBeijing’s policy paper also argues that China should build military facilities in foreign locations, signaling that Beijing would continue with efforts in this direction. China has already established a military support base in Djibouti in the Horn of Africa.
“The PLA actively promotes international security and military cooperation and refines relevant mechanisms for protecting China’s overseas interests,” said the white paper titled ‘China’s National Defence in the New Era’, which was released by the Information Office of the State Council, China’s cabinet.
“To address deficiencies in overseas operations and support, it builds far seas forces, develops overseas logistical facilities, and enhances capabilities in accomplishing diversified military tasks,” the ministry said trying to justify its program of building overseas facilities.Military experts including Chinese academics have been debating for some time whether China would try to create more military bases in different foreign locations as it has done in Djibouti.FILE – A section displaying replica of various types of missiles used by the Chinese military, is seen at the Military Museum in Beijing, China, Aug. 1, 2019.“While there is no official information on this, it seems very likely that China is already considering where it will set up its new overseas military facility,” Heller said. “Potential locations include somewhere near the South China Sea, Gwadar in Pakistan or other places in the Indian Ocean”.There have been reports that China is close to obtaining access to a naval base in Cambodia, although the Cambodian government has denied it.
“Much like we have seen in Djibouti, tensions and conflicts between the two countries are likely to emerge if China builds another base near a U.S. military facility,” Heller said.
Gupta thinks such attempts by China might result in conflicts with the host country concerned rather than with the U.S.
“Already there have been tensions with host countries, Australia being an example, which have allowed Chinese bidders to make private acquisitions near sensitive facilities,” he said.
He pointed out that U.S. and Chinese military representatives have operated at the same time out of Karachi’s naval air station on piracy matters.
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Bolton: New Sanctions Allow US to Sanction Supporters of Venezuelan Government
U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton said one day after the U.S. placed a full economic embargo against Venezuela the U.S. can now sanction anyone who supports the government of President Nicolas Maduro.U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday to freeze all Venezuelan government assets in the U.S. — the toughest sanctions on Maduro’s government so far.In a speech Tuesday in Lima, Peru at a summit on Venezuela, Bolton said the U.S. is “sending a signal to third parties that want to do business with the Maduro regime: proceed with extreme caution. There is no need to risk your business interests with the United States for the purposes of profiting from a corrupt and dying regime.”Bolton called on world leaders at the International Conference on Democracy in Venezuela to take tougher action to oust Maduro, whom he accused pretending to negotiate in good faith in order to buy time.”The time for dialog is over. Now is the time for action,” Bolton said. “Maduro is at the end of rope.”Bolton also touted the success of previous economic embargoes in Panama and Nicaragua and denounced China’s and Russia’s support for Maduro.”We say again to Russia, and especially to those who control its finances: Do not double down on on a bad bet. To China, which is already desperate to recoup its financial losses, the quickest route to getting repaid is to support a new legitimate government.”The Venezuelan government responded to the new sanctions Tuesday, describing them as a “grave aggression” that will lead to “the failure of political dialog.”Maduro’s government also said the economic embargo is meant to “formalize the criminal economic, financial and commercial blockade” of Venezuela and “strangle” its population.The head of Russia’s upper house international affairs committee, Konstantin Kosachev, said the U.S. action amounts to “international banditry” and represents an “open meddling into Venezuela’s international affairs.”With the tougher sanctions, Venezuela joins Cuba, Iran, North Korea and Syria as the only other countries under a similar full U.S. embargo.The U.S. has been increasing the economic and diplomatic pressure on Maduro, who has refused to give up power despite a popular uprising against his authoritarian government.Trump said last week he is considering a blockade or quarantine of Venezuela. He gave no details of such plans but has always said military action in Venezuela remains on the table.Russia and Cuba have already sent forces to Venezuela in support of Maduro.The U.S. was the first of about 50 countries to recognize opposition leader Juan Guaido as the legitimate president of Venezuela, after he used his constitutional power as National Assembly leader to declare Maduro’s presidency illegitimate.Guaido claimed Maduro’s re-election last year was fraudulent. He led a popular uprising against Maduro earlier this year.The collapse in world energy prices, corruption and failed socialist policies have wrecked oil-rich Venezuela’s economy and millions have fled the country amid severe shortages of fuel, quality medical care and many food staples.
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Can Turkey Be a Trusted NATO Partner?
Can Turkey be reeled back in as a trusted NATO partner? A growing chorus of policy-makers and foreign-policy analysts fear it can’t.The threat this week by Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to launch a military incursion into Kurdish-majority areas in northern Syria is setting the stage for yet another fierce dispute between Ankara and the rest of NATO — including the U.S., which partnered with Syrian Kurds to rout the Islamic State terror group.Erdogan’s warming ties with Russia’s Vladimir Putin and his purchase of an advanced Russian air-defense system — as well as his pursuit of strategies in Syria that conflict with those of other NATO partners and his support for Islamist causes— are straining Turkey’s ties with the West to the point of rupture, say analysts.Pentagon officials also have expressed frustration with signs of an Erdogan rapprochement with Iran.FILE – Presidents Hassan Rouhani of Iran, Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey and Vladimir Putin of Russia hold a joint news conference after their meeting in Ankara, Turkey, April 4, 2018.The crisis in Turkish-NATO relations is now as grave as in 1974, when Turkey invaded the Mediterranean island of Cyprus. There’s no formal mechanism for a NATO member to be expelled from the defense organization. Nonetheless, in Washington and European capitals, talk is mounting among policy-makers and influential foreign-policy analysts about whether Turkey has any future in NATO and whether the time is coming for it to leave or for its membership to be suspended.“It’s time to throw Turkey out of NATO,” opined British newspaper columnist Con Coughlin, a commentator who often reflects the views of Britain’s intelligence establishment.Last month, European Union foreign ministers suspended about $164 million in aid to Turkey and shelved talks on an aviation accord in retaliation for Turkish drilling and gas exploration in the waters off Cyprus. The island has been partitioned since 1974 between the ethnically Greek south and ethnically Turkish north.The administration of northern Cyprus is recognized only by Ankara. The EU foreign ministers also asked the European Investment Bank to review lending to the country, which amounted to nearly $434 million in 2018.The EU measures came just days after the first shipments arrived in Turkey of a Russian-made surface-to-air missile system to Turkey.FILE – First parts of a Russian S-400 missile defense system are unloaded from a Russian plane near Ankara, Turkey, July 12, 2019.President Erdogan shrugged off Washington’s warnings that it would penalize Turkey for the purchase and went ahead with deal anyway. U.S. defense chiefs say the S-400 system the Turks bought is not compatible with NATO defenses and poses a potential threat to U.S. F-35 stealth fighter. Responding to the delivery of the Russian system, U.S. President Donald Trump said he would withhold sales of advanced F-35 jets to Turkey, but refrained from further sanctions.Erdogan said Tuesday that he is confident Trump won’t allow ties between the two NATO allies to become captive to the dispute over Ankara’s purchase of the S-400 defense system. Speaking to Turkish ambassadors gathered in Ankara, Erdogan said he remained committed to NATO.“There is no concrete evidence showing the S-400s will harm the F-35s or NATO, nobody should deceive each other. Many NATO member states have purchased from Russia. We don’t see this being turned into a crisis,” Erdogan said. “Turkey made a business decision for its security.”Analysts say Erdogan is banking on Western leaders having to balance their disapproval of his foreign-policy steps, as well as their disdain for his increasingly authoritarian actions domestically, with their need for Turkish assistance to curtail migration and for help with counter-terrorism. But they say Erdogan risks miscalculating and that the host of serious issues now straining Turkey’s ties with the West is nearing the point of rupture.An incursion into Kurdish areas of northern Syria would add considerably to the strains.FILE – Turkish troops head to the Syrian border, in Karkamis, Turkey, Aug. 27, 2016.The crisis has long been in the making. Since 2013 Erdogan has pulled against NATO and the West. He was indignant over the refusal by the U.S. and the EU to condemn the toppling by the Egyptian army of Egypt’s elected President Mohamed Morsi, an Islamist, and scolded the West for perceived double standards. He accused Israel of playing a role in Morsi’s ouster.He turned increasingly cool to the idea of Turkey joining the European economic bloc, something the country has aspired to for half-a-century despite repeated rebuffs from some key European states including Germany. His chief negotiator with the EU said Turkey would likely never join, blaming the “prejudiced” attitudes of current EU members, and sneering the EU is in a “process of dissolution” anyhow.In a Brookings Institution report last year, analyst Amanda Sloat noted the West has a “Turkey conundrum.” While it wanted Turkey to remain a NATO member, partly because it occupies an important geo-strategic space, “the country’s president is growing more authoritarian, using virulent anti-Western rhetoric, and making foreign policy choices contrary to the interests of the trans-Atlantic alliance,” she noted.Erdogan, analysts and Western diplomats say, has proven himself in the past as master-manipulator of the West, astutely knowing when to pull back and when to shrug off Western warnings, betting that what Turkey has to offer the West, including the important NATO air-base at Incirlik in the south of the country, would persuade the U.S. and Europeans to overlook his warming ties with Russia.FILE – Turkish soldiers carry a huge national flag and a portrait of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of modern Turkey, during a military parade in Ankara, Turkey, Aug. 30, 2015.But how long can that continue? Doug Bandow, an analyst with the Cato Institute, a Washington think tank, noted this week that “the only serious potential security threat to Europe today is from Russia. Yet Turkey cannot be trusted to take NATO’s side in a conflict.” He argues NATO has little choice but to suspend Turkey’s membership, as Ankara’s foreign policy now diverges so greatly from that of the Western states. “In practice, Turkey has already been ‘lost’ to the alliance,” he argues.
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Zimbabwe Opposition Plans Demonstrations Over Economy Next Week
Zimbabwe’s main opposition party is planning street demonstrations next week to protest against the government’s handling of the economy, which is mired in its worst crisis in a decade and has plunged most citizens into poverty.The southern African nation is enduring shortages of foreign currency, fuel and bread as well as 18-hour power cuts. The power outages threaten mining and industrial output and have upended lives.The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) will hold marches in the capital on Aug. 16 against corruption, unemployment and power and fuel shortages and a deteriorating economy, the party said in a notice to the police dated Aug. 5.”The national challenges are a result of a governance and legitimacy crisis arising primarily out of the disputed election of July 2018,” national organizing secretary Amos Chibaya said in the notice, seen by Reuters.The departure of long-time leader Robert Mugabe after a coup in 2017 was greeted with euphoria and hope, but this has gradually turned to despair as his successor, President Emmerson Mnangagwa, has failed to revive the economy or usher in meaningful political reforms.Chibaya said demonstrators would present a petition to parliament after next week’s march.Luke Tamborinyoka, the MDC deputy spokesman, confirmed the party had notified the police, adding that “we hope the police will allow us to exercise our constitutional right.”Police spokesman Paul Nyathi said he could not immediately comment.The MDC does not recognize Mnangagwa’s presidency and maintains that he rigged last year’s vote, charges that the 76-year-old leader denies. Last week, MDC legislators boycotted the mid-term budget statement in parliament because Mnangagwa was present.The last big protest in Zimbabwe, organized by the main labor union in January against a sharp fuel hike, turned deadly after it spilled onto the streets and was met by an army clampdown in which more than a dozen people died.Everyday life is getting increasingly tough, with the prices of basic goods spiraling and medical supplies in short supply. Motorists wait for hours to fill up at fuel stations despite fuel prices having gone up more than 500% this year.
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US-African Trade Lagging Despite Free Access, Forum Hears
Trade between the United States and sub-Saharan Africa is in the doldrums despite a 2000 U..S law designed to boost access the American market, a conference in Ivory Coast has been told.The African Growth and Opportunity Act, which in 2015 was extended to 2025, provides tariff-free access on 6,500 products to 39 countries, ranging from oil and agricultural goods to textiles, farm and handicrafts.Trade quadrupled in value from 2002 to 2008, a year when it reached $100 billion, but fell back in 2017 to just $39 billion, according to figures compiled by the U.S. agency USAID.The surplus is widely in Africa’s favor, but most exports to the U.S. are in oil or petroleum-based products, not the industrialized goods that provide a value-added boost to local economies.”I do not think that AGOA has been the game-changer for many countries on the continent that we hoped it would be,” Constance Hamilton, assistant U.S. trade representative for Africa, told the 18th AGOA Forum, ending in the Ivory Coast’s economic capital Abidjan on Tuesday.”AGOA has not led to the trade diversification for which we originally hoped,” she said in remarks on Monday.”Petroleum products continued to account for the largest portion of AGOA imports, with a 67 percent share,” Hamilton said.”And the volume of AGOA trade remains modest. In the AGOA clothing sector, for example, we get about $1 billion per year from Africa,” he said, adding that this amounted to just one percent of all US clothing imports.The United States is Africa’s third biggest trade partner after the European Union and China. But Africa attracts only about one percent of all US foreign investment.Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Curtis Mahoney said Washington had drawn up a “variety of new initiatives” to “lay the groundwork for an even closer trade and investment partnership”.”We will combine the promise of the AfCFTA with these new U.S. initiatives and help maximize the potential of U.S.-Africa trade,” he said.The AfCFTA — the African Continental Free Trade Area — is a scheme for demolishing trade barriers among the 55-member African Union.The long-negotiated agreement was ceremonially launched at a summit in July, but will need a year to become operational, the AU says.According to the conclusions of a pre-forum meeting of ministers ahead of the Abidjan conference, only 18 out of 39 countries have set down a national strategy for exploiting the benefits of the AGOA.Many African companies either do not know of the advantages that are on offer, or they do not know how to use them, the ministers found.
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Philippines Rejects Dengue Vaccine as Outbreak Leaves Hundreds Dead
The Philippines stood firm Tuesday on its ban on the world’s first dengue vaccine while declaring a nationwide epidemic from the mosquito-borne disease that it said has killed hundreds this year.Dengue incidence shot up 98% from a year earlier to 146,062 cases from January 1 to July 20, causing 662 deaths, Health Secretary Francisco Duque told a news conference in which he announced a “national dengue epidemic.”Manila banned the sale, import and distribution of the Dengvaxia vaccine in February following the deaths of several dozen children who were among more than 700,000 people given shots in 2016 and 2017 in a government immunization campaign.Duque said Thursday the government is studying an appeal to allow French pharmaceutical firm Sanofi to put the vaccine back in the Philippine market, but ruled out using the drug to combat the ongoing epidemic, which has hit small children hard.”This vaccine does not squarely address the most vulnerable group which is the 5-9 years of age,” Duque said.The vaccine, now licensed in 20 countries according to the World Health Organization, is approved for use for those aged nine and older.Duque said the United Nations agency also advised Manila that the vaccine was “not recommended” as a response to an outbreak, and it was anyway “not cost-effective” with one dose costing a thousand pesos (about $20).Dengue, or hemorrhagic fever, is the world’s most common mosquito-borne virus and infects an estimated 390 million people in more than 120 countries each year — killing more than 25,000 of them, according to the WHO.The Philippines in 2016 became the first nation to use Dengvaxia in a mass immunization program.But controversy arose after Sanofi disclosed a year later that it could worsen symptoms for people not previously infected by the dengue virus. The disclosure sparked a nationwide panic, with some parents alleging the vaccine killed their children.The controversy also triggered a vaccine scare that the government said was a factor behind measles outbreaks that the UN Children’s Fund said have killed more than 200 people this year.Duque on Tuesday called on other government agencies, schools, offices and communities get out of offices, homes and schools every afternoon to take part in efforts to “search and destroy mosquito breeding sites”.
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Japan PM Says WWII Labor Row is Biggest Issue With S. Korea
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says the main cause of escalating tensions between Japan and South Korea is a loss of trust over court rulings ordering Japanese companies to compensate South Koreans for forced labor during World War II.Japan has imposed export controls on key materials for South Korea’s semiconductor industry and moved to downgrade the country’s trade status. It has insisted that the measures were related to national security concerns and were not in retaliation for the court rulings.Japan ruled the Korean Peninsula as a colony until the end of the war, and insists that all compensation issues were settled under a 1965 agreement normalizing ties.Abe, responding to a question Tuesday about the escalating tensions, urged Seoul to take appropriate actions to stop the court procedures.
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Ugandan Activist Bobi Wine Condemns Killing of His Follower
Ugandan musician and opposition leader Bobi Wine is urging police to investigate the death of one of his supporters who died from injuries sustained during torture by unknown abductors.Wine said the victim, an entertainer whose stage name was Zigy Wyne, was missing an eye and two fingers when he was found dumped outside a hospital. He was hospitalized for a week before his death Sunday.Wine’s statement said that supporters of his People Power movement have been targeted by state agents.Joel Ssenyonyi, a spokesman for People Power, said Tuesday that until police find contrary evidence the group presumes the torture was politically motivated. Police spokesman Fred Enanga told reporters that police are investigating and urged the victim’s relatives to provide information to authorities.
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EU Open to Brexit Talks But Refuses to Modify Divorce Deal
The European Union says its door remains open should British Prime Minister Boris Johnson want to discuss his country’s departure from the bloc but it insists that the Brexit divorce agreement cannot be renegotiated.EU Commission spokeswoman Annika Breidthardt said Tuesday that the Brexit agreement “is the best possible deal” that Britain is going to get.Johnson says he will take Britain out of the EU on Oct. 31 with or without a deal, raising fears of a damaging no-deal exit.He says the backstop arrangement to keep goods flowing smoothly between EU member Ireland and Northern Ireland in the U.K. would bind his country to European trade rules and must be dropped from the Brexit agreement.Breidthardt says Brussels is available should Britain “wish to hold talks and clarify its position in more detail.”
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Hajj Trip May Help Christchurch Mosque Victims Heal
The scars from the nine bullets the gunman fired into Temel Atacocugu run down his left side like knotty rope. But it’s the recurring mental images from that day at the mosque that he often finds hardest to cope with: The gunman’s face. The puff of smoke from his gun. The worshippers falling as they clamored to escape.After coming so close to dying nearly five months ago, Atacocugu feels he has been “reborn.” And this week he plans to express his gratitude to God for being given the chance for a new life when he participates in the hajj, the holy Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca.The 44-year-old kebab shop co-owner is among 200 survivors and victims’ relatives from the Christchurch mosque shootings who are traveling to Saudi Arabia as guests of King Salman. The king is paying for their airfare, accommodation and travel costs, a bill that will run well over $1 million. The group will also travel to holy sites in Medina.All able-bodied Muslims are required to perform the hajj once in their lifetime, with many saving for years to make the journey. The annual pilgrimage draws nearly 2 million Muslims from around the world to Mecca and sites around it to perform a series of ancient rites and prayers meant to cleanse the soul of past sins and bring people closer to God.The Saudi ambassador to New Zealand, Abdulrahman Al Suhaibani, says King Salman was shocked by the March 15 attacks at two mosques in which an Australian white supremacist has been charged with killing 51 people.The Christchurch shootings have been cited as inspiration by other white supremacists, most recently in an attack at a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas, that left at least 22 people dead.Each year, the king invites several hundred people to perform the hajj as his own guests, often selecting those most touched by tragedy that year. Al Suhaibani said this is the first time the king has invited anyone from New Zealand on his annual program to help get people to the hajj who otherwise may struggle to make it.Two weeks ago, the ambassador traveled to Christchurch to hand out the simple white garments the male pilgrims will wear. The terry cloth garments worn by men are meant to strip pilgrims down of adornment and symbolize equality of mankind before God.“It’s a wonderful time and this is a golden chance for people to get spiritual elevation,” says Gamal Fouda, the imam at the Al Noor mosque, one of the two mosques that were attacked.Fouda, who also survived the shootings, is travelling with the group as a spiritual leader. He says that while all Muslims want to do the hajj, many tend to delay their trips due to the expense, especially from distant New Zealand.Fouda says the memories of the shooting remain fresh in everybody’s minds and his mosque hasn’t yet returned to normal.“The most important thing is that the New Zealand community, including Muslims, they stood together against hate,” Fouda says. “And we are still saying that hate is not going to divide us. We will continue to love each other.”Atacocugu says he was feeling good on March 15 when he entered the Al Noor mosque for Friday prayers after finishing a final session with an acupuncturist, who was treating him for a sports injury.When he saw the gunman walk into the mosque, he thought at first he was a police officer because of his paramilitary clothing. Then the man started shooting and Atacocugu found himself looking right at him as he fired a bullet into Atacocugu’s mouth, shattering his jaw.“And then I said, ‘Oh my God, I am dying.’ When I see he’s shooting, when I see the smoke, I said, ‘Yeah, I’m dying.’ That’s the first thought,” Atacocugu says.After falling to the floor, his left arm ended up protecting his vital organs as the gunman continued firing bullets into him.Recovering at the Christchurch Hospital after the shooting, Atacocugu couldn’t eat for a week and couldn’t walk for three weeks. But after several surgeries, he’s now able to walk unassisted and get some use from his left hand. He has more surgeries ahead and is being helped in Saudi Arabia by his 21-year-old nephew, who is traveling with him.Another of those traveling to the hajj is 33-year-old Aya Al-Umari, whose brother Hussein, 35, was among those killed at the Al Noor mosque.“We had a very typical sibling relationship,” she says. “So you have your nagging elder brother, nagging little sister. But at the end of the day you love each other, even though you don’t verbally say it. But you just telepathically know that.”She says witnesses and video taken by the gunman indicate her brother stood up to the attacker, allowing others to escape.“So he fought to the very last minute,” she says. “And this is Hussein, in his nature. He’s always the type of person who would want to see if there is danger, he’d face it, he wouldn’t escape from it.”When visiting Mecca, Al-Umari says, she’ll pray for her parents and herself to have the patience to cope with the loss of Hussein. She also plans to pray for the other families from her mosque who lost loved ones. And she says she feels her brother will be with her in Saudi Arabia.“I will carry his presence with me the whole time when I’m in Mecca,” Al-Umari says. “He is with us every day. But in the journey, I will feel like he will accompany me.”Al-Umari says she wants to return to the hajj another year.“I will do my level best to make sure I fulfill my duty first, and then I will do it on his behalf next time,” she says.The hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam. During the five-day pilgrimage, Muslims circle Islam’s most sacred site, the cube-shaped Kaaba, and take part in rituals intended to bring about greater humility and unity.Fouda, the imam, says that while he has been to Mecca before, he has never been there during the hajj, so it will be a special journey for him as well.“I will pray for God to forgive my sins, because every human is sinful,” he says.“And I will also pray for the peace of the world. Peace for the people of Christchurch. Peace for the people of New Zealand. And peace for the whole world,” he says. “We ask God that we find a better world than we live in, rather than spreading hate.”
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Inspirational Teen Aviation Project Ends in Tragedy
A South African group of teenage pilots who flew a self-assembled aircraft across Africa are back in South Africa after tragedy struck the expedition. The two experienced adult pilots manning the support airplane accompanying the teens died in an accident in Tanzania. The group left South Africa in June as part of nonprofit U-Dream Global’s inspirational Cape To Cairo crowdfunded project that saw a group of teens build an aircraft and fly it from South Africa to Egypt and back.Safety has been an extremely high priority since the beginning of the U-Dream Global Cape to Cairo initiative. On the bitterly cold mid-June morning of departure, Des Werner and Werner Froneman made very sure everything was packed. Just over a month and a half later, the two directors of the nonprofit U-Dream Global were killed during the organization’s Cape to Cairo expedition. Their “Sling 4 plane” reportedly went down shortly after taking off in Tanzania en route to Malawi over the weekend.Athol Franz, editor and owner of the African Pilot magazine, has been following this initiative ever since the founder of U-Dream Global, 17-year-old Megan Werner, pitched the idea of teens building a plane and flying it from Cape Town to Cairo to the Commercial Aviation Association of South Africa.“It’s difficult to speculate on what happened, why it happened, other than I understood they had an engine failure. My take of Des Werner is that he was a highly qualified airline transport pilot. I understand he had something like 15,000 hours under his belt. I was really looking forward to the homecoming party in which we would celebrate the achievements of Megan and her friends. And I’m just so sorry that it’s ended in this tragedy,” Franz said.According to U-Dream Global, Werner and Froneman were on their way to join up with the U-Dream Global teen pilots and their self-built plane in Malawi. They were all on their way back to South Africa.“It’s from packing boy to flight management, to photographer, to videographer… And somewhere along the line I have to fly the plane as well.,” Froneman said.Officially, Froneman was the U-Dream Global project director and coach, but he wore many more hats during the expedition. In June, Froneman said he signed up for the mission because the initiative changes lives, but the journey was not always easy. “You need to have a positive attitude. You need to take the right positive actions. And take action and not just sit back. And have faith, because there is no way that we could have seen the problems that came up. There’s no way that we could’ve known the solutions when we started,” Froneman said.“I was too lazy to study biology. And then my imagination started going. And then I was like, OK, let’s fly a plane across Africa….”U-Dream founder and teen pilot Megan Werner is also Des Werner’s daughter. She initiated the project to show other young people that dreams can come true.At the maiden flight event of the self-assembled U-Dream Global plane in South Africa, shortly before the journey to Egypt started, Belinda Werner and her husband, Des, talked about their expectations for the trip.“I think any mom is concerned — or any mom and wife is concerned…But you know, me being in aviation, as well and being exposed to all sides of aviation, I think I’m happy that they’ve chosen this industry to get the message out there that anything is possible. Because that is what we belief as a family, as well,” Belinda Werner said.
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