Few public officials are as close to the ground as America’s mayors and, in general, they seem to agree on what needs fixing in the country today. Not surprisingly, economic development and infrastructure top the list. Downtown development is a consistent theme across U.S. cities, big and small, with an eye toward people-based strategies.“Primarily targeting the people who live in cities and leveraging them as an asset for economic growth,” says Christiana McFarland, research director at the National League of Cities (NLC). “So thinking about arts and culture, whether it’s new art installations that can bring additional quality of life to the city that helps attract and retain trained people who want to live in the city and then also become the workforce for the city.”Each year, the NLC analyzes examines speeches given by the nation’s mayors in order to gain insight into the state of American cities. This year, NLC says it looked at America’s mayors are focused on expanding parks and other recreation-related facilities and activities.The environment is an emerging trend on the list of priorities for the nation’s mayors. In 2019, 41% of U.S. mayors discussed the environment, up from 25% last year. They are looking at issues related to recycling, trash and sustainability.There is renewed focus on the issue now that China — which used to recycle half the world’s waste plastic, paper and metals — has banned the import of several categories of solid waste, including plastics and unsorted scrap paper. This year, America’s mayors continue to talk about housing. “We’re seeing issues around blight and fair housing as well as eviction prevention and tenant protection,” McFarland says. “There’s some emerging issues in the housing space when it comes to affordable housing.”When it comes to the opioid crisis, McFarland says there’s been a big transition in how mayors approach the epidemic. One hundred and thirty people die each day in the United States from opioid-related drug overdoses, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.“We’ve noticed that mayors began talking more about longer term solutions, understanding that this isn’t just an immediate drug problem, but there are a whole host of issues involved in making this the crisis that it is today,” McFarland says.
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Month: August 2019
China Accuses G-7 of ‘Meddling’ in Hong Kong’s Affairs
VOA’s Mandarin Service contributed to this reportChina voiced “strong dissatisfaction” Tuesday with a joint statement by G-7 leaders calling for Hong Kong’s autonomy in line with Britain’s handover of control of the territory to Beijing in 1984.The leaders of the industrialized nations at their just completed summit called for calm in the wake of 12 weeks of pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, but Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang accused them of “meddling” and “harboring evil intentions.”At a news briefing in Beijing, Geng said, “We express our strong dissatisfaction and resolute opposition to the statement made by the leaders of the G-7 Summit on Hong Kong affairs.”He added, “We have repeatedly stressed that Hong Kong’s affairs are purely China’s internal affairs and that no foreign government, organization or individual has the right to intervene.”Policemen clash with demonstrators on a street during a protest in Hong Kong, Aug. 25, 2019.Protesters have plans to continue the demonstrations, which represent the biggest threat to peace in the Asian finance center since Britain handed over control of Hong Kong to China in 1997. The protesters say they are demonstrating against what they see as an erosion of rights.Police arrested more than 80 people during protests Saturday and Sunday that included clashes with officers.The police blamed protesters for “escalating and illegal violent acts,” while a group of pro-democracy lawmakers said it was police actions that were “totally unnecessary.”Lawmaker Andrew Wan said police had provoked protesters to occupy a road already blocked by officers, and that government and police actions during the weeks of protests have caused a “hatred among the people.””I think the ultimate responsibility should be on the police side. That is what I observed,” Wan said at a Monday news conference.The vast majority of the thousands of protesters marched peacefully Sunday, but police at times fired bursts of tear gas at wildcat demonstrators who broke away from the largest groups. Officers also used water cannons for the first time in responding to protesters.Some of the protesters threw bricks at police, attacked them with sticks and rods and sprayed detergent on streets to make it slippery for police.
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The Forgotten Rohingya: Stuck in Limbo in Myanmar’s Prison-Like Camps
Independent human rights groups and journalists are blocked by the government from entering the camps or to investigate alleged human rights abuses in northern Rakhine State, Myanmar. But VOA managed to speak to women inside the internally displaced camps.Maw Mura* wrings her hands constantly as she describes her difficulties living as a Rohingya woman, in one of Myanmar’s forgotten segregated camps.“Living in the camp is like living in a prison or a chicken coop, it’s not appropriate for teenagers, married parents and elders to live inside a small room,” pointing to the clutter of tin roofed shelters. Her eyes are empty, there’s no anger or fire, just resignation.Thirty-seven-year-old Maw Mura has been forced to live in the barbed wire confined camps since 2012, after violence erupted in the town of Sittwe in western Myanmar. Buddhist mobs took to the streets with machetes, burning down houses where Maw Mura’s shop was also looted. A few months after arriving in the camp, Maw Mura’s husband died, leaving her to raise her children on her own.Some 128,000 Rohingya and other displaced Muslims have been left here in the Sittwe camps.“I want to go home, we want freedom of movement,” says Maw Mura, when asked what she wants in the future. Her home inside the camps is a small tin and bamboo shelter that has only one room which she has to share with another family. This is a situation not uncommon inside the camps.“Closure of camps” without citizenship breeds permanent segregation fearsThis month marks the two year anniversary since more than 700,000 Rohingya fled to Bangladesh after a brutal military crackdown. For those who have remained in Rakhine, they face severe movement restrictions and many are confined to a life behind barbed wire fences in the Sittwe camps, heavily patrolled by police.FILE – A Myanmar guard patrols outside a fenced-in camp during a government-organized media tour to a no-man’s land between Myanmar and Bangladesh, near Taungpyolatyar village, Maung Daw, northern Rakhine State, Myanmar, June 29, 2018.The Myanmar government has begun “closing” down the camps — a policy of building modular housing blocks next to the existing make-shift shelters. But to date, Rohingya still aren’t allowed to leave these sites.Minister of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement Dr. Win Myat Aye says the government is acting on the recommendations made by the Kofi Annan-led commission that was tasked with producing an independent report for Myanmar’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi that focused on rebuilding peace in Rakhine State.Yet the government is accused by rights groups of skirting around the heart of the problem — recognizing them as citizens. Instead they are selecting only some of the recommendations to implement, rather than implementing the steps outlined in the report as a whole. And the Rohingya are being denied their most pressing request: citizenship so they can freely return home to their place of origin.Without a citizenship card they can’t access health care, education or open a business.Presenting camp closures as progress?In the lead up to the 2020 election Aung San Suu Kyi’s government is in a scramble to show the international community that they have acted on the 88 recommendations made by the Kofi Annan-led Rakhine Advisory Commission.The International State Crime Initiative, based at Queen Mary University of London, released a report last year again warning that genocide is a process still ongoing, so presenting the camp closure as progress or a positive step must be questioned.Alicia de la Cour Venning, executive board member at the International State Crime Initiative explains: “The closure of the camps alongside persistent failures to address the state-driven processes of dehumanization, isolation, and systematic weakening, which are central to the perpetration of genocide, will only exacerbate the already bare life existence of the Rohingya.”“It’s not ok to create a different kind of camp. Unless we are resettled in our original places, we will be separated forever. Like in Israel and Palestine, they are separated, this apartheid is unacceptable. It will keep people separated. Government and powerful people want to get benefit from this,” Mohammad Noor, a father who has lived inside the camps since 2012 added.Since 2017 the grip on international humanitarian groups providing food rations, basic sanitation programs has been tightened.The Rohingya that VOA spoke to, urgently raised their one hope to live again in the community, to live an independent, dignified life. Not reduced to helpless victims.For many Rohingya women interviewed, their biggest concern after citizenship was that their children would grow up illiterate.Hla Hla, a mother of two children, states simply, “we want to have a similar life again where our children have education and we have job opportunities.”*The names of the Rohingya women have been changed to protect their identity.
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Uganda Airlines Launches New Operations With Kenya Trip
Uganda’s national airline has launched commercial operations with a flight to the Kenyan capital.
Uganda Airlines’ inaugural flight to Nairobi on Tuesday carried mostly government and airline officials following a ceremony to re-launch the carrier that collapsed in 2001.
Uganda Airlines owns two planes. Four more have been ordered, including two Airbus jets.
The carrier will fly to regional destinations such as the Somali capital, Mogadishu.
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni championed the revamped airline as a symbol of national pride, calling it “a new baby” in June.
Authorities acknowledge the airlines faces challenges but hope it will survive as the East African nation becomes an oil producer.
Uganda Airlines is expected to face competition from carriers such as Kenya Airways, which operates regular flights between Nairobi and Entebbe.
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Kenyan Vets Turn to IVF to Save White Rhino From Extinction
A team of veterinarians in Kenya’s Ol Pejeta Conservancy is trying to save the Northern White Rhino from extinction by using in vitro fertilization, or IVF. The last two known Northern White Rhinos on Earth are living at the conservancy, but since they are both females they cannot procreate. Vets have succeeded in extracting ova from both females and hope to fertilize them using Northern White Rhino sperm collected earlier to produce viable embryos. Ruud Elmendorp reports from Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya.
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Thai Palace Shares Photos of king, Newly Named Royal Consort
Thailand’s royal palace has released photos of King Maha Vajiralongkorn and his recently anointed royal consort, though the official website hosting the images became inaccessible within a few hours.The photos released Monday show the 67-year-old monarch and Sineenatra Wongvajirabhakdi in formal regalia as well as in casual settings. She was named Chao Khun Phra Sineenatra Bilasakalayani last month on the king’s birthday, becoming the first to receive the title of royal noble consort since 1921, during an era of absolute monarchy.The king married longtime companion Suthida Vajiralongkorn Na Ayudhya in May a few days before his coronation and named her his queen. Like Sineenatra, she has been serving as a senior officer in palace security units.Vajiralongkorn was married three times previously, fathering seven children.Vajiralongkorn assumed the throne after the 2016 death of his father, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who reigned for 70 years. During his decades as crown prince, Vajiralongkorn’s personal life was often the subject of hushed gossip, though public discussion was hampered by the country’s harsh lese majeste law, which mandates prison terms of up to 15 years for those found guilty of insulting some members of the royal family.Some of the new palace images show 34-year-old Sineenatra, who holds the army rank of major general, engaging in activities in uniform such as piloting a fighter jet, aiming a rifle on a firing range and preparing for what appears to be a night-time parachute jump.Others show her and the king holding hands, unusually intimate photos for members of the royal family.Unflattering unauthorized photos of the king and his consort taken by paparazzi in Germany, where the monarch maintains a residence, have circulated widely on social media. The most recent such pictures were published by the German tabloid Bild earlier this month.Although there were no details accompanying Monday’s official photos, the palace also posted a biography of Sineenatra, who was born in the northern province of Nan.It said that after serving as an army nurse from 2008-2012, she joined the Royal Household Bureau, working at the palace’s handicraft store. She later transferred to the offices of Vajiralongkorn, then the crown prince. Vajiralongkorn assumed the throne after the 2016 death of his father, King Bhumibol Adulyadej.Sineenatra was said to have undergone rigorous military training as well as taking flying lessons, and holds several positions in the palace bureaucracy.
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Iranian President: First Lift Sanctions, Then Let’s Talk
Iran’s president back-pedaled Tuesday on possible talks with Donald Trump, saying the U.S. president must first lift sanctions imposed on Tehran, otherwise a meeting between the two would be a mere photo op.Hassan Rouhani’s change of heart came a day after Trump said Monday that there’s a “really good chance” the two could meet on their nuclear impasse after a surprise intervention by French President Emmanuel Macron during the G-7 summit to try to bring Washington and Tehran together after decades of conflict.“Without the U.S.’s withdrawal from sanctions, we will not witness any positive development,” Rouhani said in a televised speech on Tuesday, adding that Washington “holds the key” as to what happens next.“If someone intends to make it as just a photo op with Rouhani, that is not possible,” he said.Trump May Meet With Iran’s Rouhani Earlier on Monday, Rouhani expressed readiness to negotiate a way out of the crisis following America’s pullout from the nuclear deal.“If I knew that going to a meeting and visiting a person would help my country’s development and resolve the problems of the people, I would not miss it,” he had said. “Even if the odds of success are not 90% but are 20% or 10%, we must move ahead with it. We should not miss opportunities.”Rouhani also shielded his foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, against criticism from hard-liners over his surprise visit Sunday to France’s Biarritz, where leaders of the Group of Seven rich democracies were meeting.Iran’s English-language Press TV issued a vague, anonymous statement later on Monday, rejecting Macron’s initiative.Macron said he hoped Trump and Rouhani could meet within weeks in hopes of saving the 2015 nuclear deal that Tehran struck with world powers, but which the U.S. unilaterally withdrew from last year. Under the deal, Iran agreed to limit its enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.On Tuesday, Macron acknowledged his efforts to bring Iran and the U.S. together are “fragile” but said he still sees a “possible path” to rapprochement between the two.Inviting Zarif to the G-7 summit as a surprise guest was a risky diplomatic maneuver but it helped create “the possible conditions of a useful meeting,” Macron said.It’s France’s responsibility to play the “role of a balancing power,” Macron said, adding that his efforts allowed hope for a “de-escalation” of tensions.Since the U.S. pullout from the nuclear deal, Iran has lost billions of dollars in business deals allowed by the accord as the U.S. re-imposed and escalated sanctions largely blocking Tehran from selling crude abroad, a crucial source of hard currency for the Islamic Republic.Rouhani’s U-turn can be seen as a result of pressure from hard-liners in the Iranian establishment who oppose taking a softer tone toward the West.But it could also reflect that the paradigm of grand photo op summits in exotic locations — such as Trump’s meetings with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un — while stringent sanctions remain in place, does not necessarily appeal to Rouhani, whose signature accomplishment was the nuclear deal, which started unravelling with Trump’s pullout.The hard-line Javan daily, which is close to Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard, warned Rouhani in large font on its Tuesday front page: “Mr. Rouhani, photo diplomacy will not develop the country.”
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Italy Bans German Rescue Ship With 100 Migrants
Italy’s hard-line interior minister, Matteo Salvini, has banned a German humanitarian ship carrying migrants rescued off Libya from entering Italian territorial waters.Decrees such as the one signed Tuesday have become routine in Salvini’s bid to prevent humanitarian rescue ships from bringing migrants to Italy.
This one targets a vessel operated by the German group Lifeline that picked up about 100 people Monday in a rubber lifeboat some 50 kilometers (31 miles) off the Libyan coast. Lifeline has urged the German government to help identify a safe harbor.
While Italy and Malta are the closest European ports, Italy has constructed a policy to exclude humanitarian rescue ships. Malta generally has accepted migrants rescued in its area of responsibility. The positions have led to numerous standoffs.
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Tropical Storm Dorian Heads toward Windward Islands
The government of Barbados urged residents of the eastern Caribbean island to remain vigilant Tuesday even as Tropical Storm Dorian appeared to have done little damage as it heads toward the northern Windward islands and Puerto Rico.Minister of Home Affairs Edmund Hinkson said the storm “is said to be weakening and that is great news, but we are not out of danger yet.”The U.S. National Hurricane Center on Tuesday had tropical storm warnings in effect for Martinique, St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Tropical storm watches were in force for Dominica, Grenada, Saba and St. Eustatius and the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico.The center says the storm has maximum sustained winds near 50 miles per hour (85 kph) and is forecast to strengthen during the next 48 hours as it moves toward Puerto Rico.“Dorian is forecast to be a hurricane when it moves near Puerto Rico and eastern Hispaniola,” the center said.The storm was expected to dump between 3 to 8 inches (8 to 20 centimeters) of rain in the Windward islands, with isolated amounts of 10 inches (25 centimeters).Much of Barbados shut down Monday as Dorian approached and authorities urged residents to remain indoors amid reports of electrical outages and other minor incidents.
In St. Lucia, Prime Minister Allen Chastanet announced that everything on the island of nearly 179,000 people would shut down by 6 p.m. EDT on Monday, with the hurricane expected to hit around 2 a.m. EDT on Tuesday.“We are expecting the worst,” he said.Some were still boarding up windows and buying food and water, but not Joannes Lamontagne, who lives in the island’s southwest region. He said by phone that everything at his hotel, Serenity Escape, was already protected.“I don’t wait until it’s announced,” he said of the storm. “We’re always prepared no matter what.”In Puerto Rico, hundreds of people have been crowding into grocery stores and gas stations to prepare for Dorian, buying food, water and generators, among other things. Many are worried about power outages and heavy rains on an island still struggling to recover from Hurricane Maria, a Category 4 storm that hit in September 2017. Some 30,000 homes still have blue tarps as roofs and the electrical grid remains fragile and prone to outages even during brief rain showers.Forecasters said the storm could pass near or south of Puerto Rico on Wednesday and approach the Dominican Republic on Wednesday night.On Monday, Puerto Rico Gov. Wanda Vazquez signed an executive order declaring a state of emergency and provided a list of all the new equipment that public agencies have bought since Hurricane Maria.“I want everyone to feel calm,” she said. “Agency directors have prepared for the last two years. The experience of Maria has been a great lesson for everyone.”She said public schools will close Tuesday afternoon and that at least one cruise ship canceled its trip to Puerto Rico. She said those without a proper roof can stay in one of the 360 shelters around the island.Also on Monday, a new tropical depression formed between the U.S. eastern coast and Bermuda. It was located about 320 miles (515 kilometers) southeast of Cape Hatteras in North Carolina and was moving east at 3 mph (6 kph) with maximum sustained winds of 35 mph (55 kph). It was expected to become a tropical storm by Tuesday night.
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Trump May Meet With Iran’s Rouhani
U.S. President Donald Trump says there is a good chance he will meet with his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani in the near future. Speaking at a joint press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron at the G-7 summit in Biarritz, France, on Monday, Trump said he does not want Iranians to suffer under the economic sanctions but that the United States “can’t let them have a nuclear weapon.” VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports.
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Hong Kong Leader Open to Dialogue, Vows to ‘Stamp Out’ Violence
Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam said Tuesday she is open to dialogue with protesters, but that the government will not tolerate violence.”If violence continues, the only thing that we should do is to stamp out that violence through law enforcement actions,” Lam said.She said it would be inappropriate for the government to accept the demands of protesters who resort to violence and harassment.”We want to put an end to the chaotic situation in Hong Kong through law enforcement,” Lam said. “At the same time, we will not give up on building a platform for dialogue.”Lam has made few public comments through several months of demonstrations that began with a call for stopping an extradition bill and expanded to include demands for full democracy.Protesters have plans to continue the demonstrations, which represent the biggest threat to peace in the Asian finance center since Britain handed over control of Hong Kong to China in 1997. The protesters say they are demonstrating against what they see as an erosion of rights under the “one country, two systems” arrangement under which Beijing assumed control of the territory.Students and others gather during a demonstration at Edinburgh Place in Hong Kong, Aug. 22, 2019.Police arrested more than 80 people during protests Saturday and Sunday that included clashes with officers.The police blamed protesters for “escalating and illegal violent acts,” while a group of pro-democracy lawmakers said it was police actions that were “totally unnecessary.”Lawmaker Andrew Wan said police had provoked protesters to occupy a road already blocked by officers, and that government and police actions during the weeks of protests have caused a “hatred among the people.””I think the ultimate responsibility should be on the police side. That is what I observed,” Wan said at a Monday news conference.The vast majority of the thousands of protesters marched peacefully Sunday, but police at times fired bursts of tear gas at wildcat demonstrators who broke away from the largest groups. Officers also used water cannons for the first time in responding to protesters.Some of the protesters threw bricks at police, attacked them with sticks and rods and sprayed detergent on streets to make it slippery for police.In France, leaders of the Group of Seven countries meeting in Biarritz backed Hong Kong’s autonomy and called for “avoiding violence.” “The G-7 reaffirms the existence and the importance of the 1984 Sino-British agreement on Hong Kong,” according to a joint statement, referring to a deal between Britain and China that calls for Hong Kong to be part of China, but autonomous.British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told reporters that the leaders of the G-7 all expressed “deep concern” about the situation in Hong Kong.
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Will US Congress Admit Delegate From Cherokee Nation?
Native American representation in Congress made great strides with the 2018 election of two American women to Congress. Now, the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma says it will send its own delegate to Congress, a move that will not only test the tribe’s sovereignty and the willingness of the U.S. to meet its treaty promises.Cherokee Nation principal chief Chuck Hoskin, Jr., announcing his intention to send a delegate to U.S. Congress, in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, Aug. 22, 2019.Newly-elected Cherokee Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin, Jr., FILE – U.S. Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., shown at a town hall meeting in Moore, Oklahoma, in Aug. 2015.”There’s a lot of questions that have to be answered,” Republican representative from Oklahoma Tom Cole said in a town hall meeting that took place August 20 in Norman, Oklahoma. “Number one, I don’t know that the treaty still is valid. They’re basing it on something that is 185 years ago.” Stacy L. Leeds, a Cherokee citizen, dean emeritus and professor of law at the University of Arkansas, expressed surprise at Cole’s remark.”Many of these treaties have been upheld by the federal courts — two this last Supreme Court term alone, and the treaties that the Cherokees are talking about have been held to be in full force and in effect by federal courts within the last five years,” she said. Leeds cited the example of the Mariana Islands, whose population of 55,000 is significantly smaller than that of the Cherokee Nation”When the Mariana Islands seated non-voting delegates, that took congressional action, approval by the House and Senate,” she said. “A similar act of Congress would have to take place now. In terms of overall population, the Cherokee Nation is much larger and has a much longer diplomatic relationship with the United States.”She sees no reason why the Senate, which historically approved these treaties, would fail to recognize them now.‘Ready to defend’Teehee is no stranger to Washington. She served as the first-ever senior policy advisor for Native American affairs in the White House Domestic Policy Council for three years under President Barack Obama. Earlier, she was senior advisor to the U.S. House of Representatives Native American Caucus Co-Chair, Rep. Dale Kildee of Michigan. Teehee said Hoskin’s nomination comes as a great honor.”This is a historic moment for Cherokee Nation and our citizens,” she said. “A Cherokee Nation delegate to Congress is a negotiated right that our ancestors advocated for, and today, our tribal nation is … ready to defend all our constitutional and treaty rights.”
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Australian Writer Arrested in China Facing Espionage Charge
A Chinese-born Australian writer held in China since January has been formally arrested on suspicion of espionage, the Australian government said on Tuesday, amid growing tension between Canberra and its largest trading partner.Yang Hengjun, a former Chinese diplomat turned online journalist and blogger, was detained in the southern city of Guangzhou while waiting for a transfer to Shanghai, after flying in from New York. He was later moved to the capital Beijing.”Dr. Yang has been held in Beijing in harsh conditions without charge for more than seven months,” Foreign Minister Marise Payne said in a statement, adding Yang was formally arrested on suspicion of spying last Friday.Espionage is punishable by death in China.The arrest of Yang, 53, whose legal name is Yang Jun, comes as Beijing struggles to contain anti-government protests in Hong Kong, the semi-autonomous Chinese city.There was no immediate response from China’s Foreign Ministry. The Chinese embassy in Canberra was not immediately available for comment.China has not allowed Yang access to his lawyers or family since his detention, Payne said. However, Australian embassy officials have visited Yang seven times since January, the government said.Yang’s Australian lawyer, Robert Stary, was not immediately available for comment.Feng Chongyi, an academic at the University of Technology in Sydney, said the allegations against his friend were very serious.”It is absolutely outrageous they can provide no evidence for these politically motivated charges,” Feng told Reuters.Although Yang’s recent writing has mostly avoided Chinese politics, he became prominent in the early 2000s when he earned the nickname “democracy peddler.””China has been looking to clamp down on democracy efforts.This is a clear message against those efforts,” said Alex Joske, an analyst at the International Cyber Policy Center, a think-tank.Several Australians have faced jail time in China over the past decade, including the former head of global miner Rio Tinto’s China iron ore business, Australian citizen Stern Hu, who served eight years after a conviction in 2010 for corruption and stealing commercial secrets.His arrest in 2008 came after tension flared between the world’s top user of iron ore and its biggest supplier, Australia.More recently, 16 staff from Australia’s Crown Resorts , including three Australians, were jailed for between nine and 10 months in 2017 and fined 8.62 million yuan ($1.2 million) for promoting gambling to lure Chinese high-rollers to its casinos.Their jail time included the several months they were detained ahead of what was a swift trial, part of a wider crackdown on gambling in China.($1 = 7.0928 Chinese yuan renminbi)
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US to Seek Death Penalty for Accused Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooter
U.S. prosecutors will seek the death penalty for a Pennsylvania man accused of bursting into a Pittsburgh synagogue last year with a semi-automatic rifle and shooting 11 people to death, according to court papers filed on Monday.Robert Bowers, 46, shouted “all Jews must die” as he fired on congregants gathered for Sabbath services at the Tree of Life synagogue on Oct. 27, authorities said.Bowers, who is from a Pittsburgh suburb, has pleaded not guilty in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh to a 63-count indictment and is awaiting trial though a trial date has not been set. The charges include using a firearm to commit murder and obstruction of free exercise of religious belief resulting in death, the court filing said.FILE – This undated Pennsylvania Department of Transportation photo shows Robert Bowers. a truck driver accused of killing 11 and wounding seven during an attack on a Pittsburgh synagogue in Oct. 2018.”Robert Bowers expressed hatred and contempt toward members of the Jewish faith and his animus toward members of the Jewish faith played a role in the killings,” prosecutors said.The massacre at the Tree of Life synagogue was the deadliest attack ever on Jewish Americans in the United States.The synagogue is a fixture in Pittsburgh’s historically Jewish neighborhood of Squirrel Hill, which is home to one of the largest and oldest Jewish populations in the United States.Bowers targeted that location “to maximize the devastation, amplify the harm of his crimes and instill fear within the local, national and international Jewish communities,” prosecutors said in court papers.An attorney for Bowers, death penalty specialist Judy Clarke, did not return calls or an email seeking comment.’Drawn out and difficult’The Tree of Life synagogue hosted multiple Jewish congregations and, according to the New York Times, some people who worshipped there have opposed the possibility of the death penalty for Bowers.According to the newspaper, Rabbi Jonathan Perlman of New Light congregation, which met at Tree of Life, said in a letter to U.S. Attorney General William Barr that “a drawn out and difficult death penalty trial would be a disaster with witnesses and attorneys dredging up horrifying drama and giving this killer the media attention he does not deserve.”Perlman did not immediately return an email seeking comment.Among those killed were a 97-year-old woman and a married couple in their 80s. Two civilians and five police officers were wounded before the gunman, who was armed with an assault-style rifle and three handguns, was shot by police at the synagogue and surrendered. He has been held in jail since then.The mass shooting followed a rise in the number of hate crimes and the number of hate groups in the United States, according to separate reports from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Southern Poverty Law Center.
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US Official: US Increasingly Disappointed with Zimbabwe Government
U.S. disappointment with Zimbabwe’s government keeps growing amid the heavy-handed response of authorities to any form of opposition, a senior State Department official said on Monday following a crackdown last week against protesters.”The disappointment just keeps getting worse and worse, unfortunately,” said the official, speaking on background to reporters. “The government seems to be getting even more violent in their response to any form of opposition.”The official said Washington had made clear to the government of President Emmerson Mnangagwa what it would take to improve relations between Zimbabwe and the United States. U.S. officials have previously called on Mnangagwa to change Zimbabwe’s laws restricting media freedom and allowing protests.Mnangagwa’s government last week banned anti-government protests by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, which accuses the authorities of political repression and mismanaging the economy. Police fired tear gas to disperse crowds and barred access to the MDC’s Harare offices.Anger among the population has mounted over triple-digit inflation, rolling power cuts and shortages of U.S. dollars, fuel and bread.In March, President Donald Trump extended by one year U.S. sanctions against 100 entities and individuals in Zimbabwe, including Mnangagwa, saying his government had failed to bring about political and economic changes.
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US Closely Monitoring Sudan’s Commitment to Human Rights
The United States said Monday it will closely monitor the commitment of Sudan’s transitional government to human rights, democracy and peace before Washington decides to remove Khartoum from the U.S. list of countries that sponsor terrorism.”If both sides are fully engaged, you know, we will proceed as quickly as possible,” said a senior State Department official.Sudan’s new Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, a well-known economist, was sworn in to head Sudan’s transitional government. His appointment came four months after the ousting of former leader Omar al-Bashir, who had ruled for nearly three decades. “Prime Minister Hamdok has said all the right things, and so we look forward to engaging with the government,” said another senior State Department official, adding the U.S. will begin to measure the seriousness of the transitional government’s commitments.FILE – Sudanese deputy chief of the ruling miliary council Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo delivers a speech after inking an agreement with protest leaders in Khartoum, July 17, 2019.”We want to see how the government begins to deliver on its full commitment as a civilian government, respecting human rights, respecting freedom of speech, respecting access for humanitarian access,” added that official.U.S. officials said Washington is encouraged by initial contact with Hamdok and his government. But the U.S. said there were concerns about Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, commonly known by his nickname Hemedti, and his role in Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces. “We understand that he has a mixed history and people in Sudan who do not feel he’s an appropriate interlocutor,” said a senior State Department official, adding that Hemedti is not on the U.S.’s sanction list. So, “we have no legal obstacle preventing us [from] interacting with him.”Hamdok said in an interview that ending Sudan’s international pariah status and cutting military spending are prerequisites for recusing a floundering economy.As Sudan expressed the need for $8 billion in foreign aid over the next two years to cover its struggling economy, U.S. officials said there is “an obstacle,” and Washington can neither support Sudan in international financial institutions nor provide bilateral assistance, because the country has been labeled as a state that sponsors terrorism. Bashir chargesFILE – Sudan’s former president Omar Hassan al-Bashir sits guarded inside a cage at the courthouse in Khartoum, Aug. 19, 2019.Earlier this month, Bashir appeared in court to face corruption charges, four months after he was ousted by the military.Bashir, who ruled Sudan for 30 years, is charged with illegally possessing foreign currency and receiving gifts in an illegal manner. Human rights organizations said the corruption trial should not overshadow the war crimes committed by Bashir.The International Criminal Court has charged the former president with war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide for his actions during the long-running war in Sudan’s Darfur region.”We want to see accountability for atrocities committed in Sudan and all parts of Sudan. But that is up to the people in Sudan to decide how they want to see justice dispensed,” said a senior State Department official. “And so, we’ve not been prescriptive, we’ve not been dictating, not at all been pushing in any particular direction.”
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France, Africa Launch $300 Million Initiative for African Women Entrepreneurs
Peter Clottey contributed to this report.French President Emmanuel Macron and the African Development Bank have launched a $300 million initiative to boost businesses owned by African women. The initiative was announced at the G-7 summit in Biarritz, France, and is aimed at increasing credit access to African businesswomen across the continent over a five-year period.FILE – Singer and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Angelique Kidjo attends an event in Los Angeles, April 21, 2016.Popular Benin singer Angelique Kidjo, a UNICEF goodwill ambassador who has been promoting the African Development Bank’s initiative, has been instrumental in working with Macron to coordinate the project. Kidjo told VOA that she has been talking with Macron about the initiative for the last two years, saying the project is crucial because many women “have given up [on] investing” because they have no collateral and banks do not take them seriously.”In order for us to reduce poverty — to put our children to school and to build a future for the youth of Africa, for them not to be dying in the Mediterranean — we need the women of the market to get access to credit,” she said.The African Development Bank says that 77% of African women do not have access to the financial sector. It says the loss to the economy due to gender inequality in sub-Saharan Africa is estimated to be $2.5 trillion.”Women have to be treated seriously. That’s what I want. I want to see the transformation of those women that have wonderful ideas,” Kidjo said.
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US Wants to Disrupt China’s Rare Earth Dominance
The U.S. military wants to partner with Australia to disrupt China’s dominance over the global supply of rare earths — the minerals essential to high-tech products from cellphones to sophisticated weapons.Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Ellen Lord told reporters Monday the Pentagon’s “highest potential avenue” is to build a rare earths processing facility with Australia in order to take care of the Pentagon’s needs and the needs of other international allies.”The challenge is really the processing of them [rare earths] and having the facilities to do that, because quite often China mines them elsewhere and brings them back to China to process them,” Lord said.About 80% of rare earth minerals imported by the United States come from China, and in 2017, China accounted for 81% of the world’s rare earth production, according to data from the U.S. Geological Survey.Rare earth minerals are needed in U.S. military jet engines, satellites, missile defense systems and night vision devices.”We’re concerned about any fragility in the supply chain, especially when an adversary controls the supply,” Lord said. Earlier this year, China’s state economic planner issued a veiled threat to withhold the strategic minerals as part of the ongoing trade war between Washington and Beijing.”If anyone were to use products that are made with the rare earths that we export to curb the development of China, then the Chinese people would be unhappy,” the official said.
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Pentagon Accuses China of ‘Bullying Tactics’ in Waters Off Vietnam
China is carrying out “coercive interference” in oil and gas activities in waters claimed by Vietnam, the Pentagon said Monday, accusing Beijing of using “bullying tactics.”A Chinese survey vessel on Saturday extended its activities to an area closer to Vietnam’s coastline, ship tracking data showed, after the United States and Australia expressed concern about China’s actions in the disputed waterways.”Recently, China resumed its coercive interference in Vietnam’s longstanding oil and gas activities in the South China Sea,” a Pentagon statement said.The Pentagon said Beijing’s activities were contradictory to Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe’s pledge in a speech in Singapore earlier this year that China would “stick to the path of peaceful development.””China will not win the trust of its neighbors nor the respect of the international community by maintaining its bullying tactics,” the statement added.The Haiyang Dizhi 8 vessel first entered Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) early last month where it began a weeks-long seismic survey, triggering a tense standoff between military and coast guard vessels from Vietnam and China.FILE – Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi attends a press conference in Beijing, Aug. 21, 2019.Vietnam, which has developed increasingly close ties with Washington given shared concerns about China, has demanded that Beijing remove the vessel amid a month-long standoff in waters seen as a potential global flashpoint.Vietnam and China have for years been embroiled in a dispute over the potentially energy-rich stretch of waters and a busy shipping lane in the South China Sea.Beijing’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, said last month that maritime problems involving Vietnam should not interfere with their ties.Last week, the U.S. State Department said Chinese actions were “an escalation by Beijing in its efforts to intimidate other claimants out of developing resources in the South China Sea.”The Pentagon statement came as U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday predicted a trade deal with China after positive gestures by Beijing, calming global markets that have been roiled by escalating tensions between the world’s two largest economies.
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US Justice Ginsburg Makes First Appearance Since Latest Cancer Scare
Liberal U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg appeared alert and in good spirits on Monday as she made her first public appearance since completing a three-week course of radiation therapy to treat pancreatic cancer.The 86-year-old justice, who has had several previous cancer scares, was escorted onstage but at times stood unassisted as she was awarded an honorary the degree at the University at Buffalo of the State University of New York.Ginsburg, who received several rounds of exuberant applause from the audience, gave a short speech then spent about 30 minutes answering questions about her career posed by the dean of the university’s law school, Aviva Abramovsky. Ginsburg’s only reference to her health came when she noted she had decided against withdrawing from the event “when my own health problems presented challenges.”The court announced on Friday that Ginsburg had undergone radiation therapy after a malignant tumor was identified following a biopsy performed on July 31 at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York.A court statement said the tumor was “treated definitively” and that there was no evidence of disease elsewhere in Ginsburg’s body.Ginsburg spoke on Monday of her latter-day cult status among liberals, including her nickname “Notorious RBG,” which was based on the name of the late rapper Notorious BIG.”It was beyond my wildest imagination that I would one day become the Notorious RBG. I am now 86 years old and yet people of all ages want to take their picture with me. Amazing,” she said.Ginsburg said the two women who inspired her as a youngster were groundbreaking aviator Amelia Earhart and the fictional teenage detective Nancy Drew.As the oldest justice, she is closely watched for any signs of deteriorating health. The court is currently in recess until October.Pancreatic cancer is one of the hardest cancers to treat.According to the website of the Columbia Pancreas Center at Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York, the percentage of people still alive five years after a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer that has not spread beyond the pancreas is 27.1%Ginsburg, appointed in 1993 by Democratic President Bill Clinton, had two cancerous nodules in her left lung removed last December. She was previously treated for pancreatic cancer in 2009 and colon cancer in 1999. Ginsburg also broke three ribs in a fall last November. The nodules on her lung were found as part of the tests the justice underwent after that fall.In January, she missed oral arguments in cases for the first time in her lengthy career on the court. She returned to the bench in February and was an active participant in the remaining oral arguments of the court term, which ended in June.If Ginsburg, one of the nine-member court’s four liberal justices, were unable to continue serving, Republican President Donald Trump could replace her with a conservative, further shifting the court to the right. Trump has added two justices since becoming president in January 2017, cementing its 5-4 conservative majority.
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Romania’s Ruling PSD Party Loses Majority After Ally Quits
Romania’s ruling Social Democrats (PSD) lost their small parliamentary majority on Monday after a junior ally quit government over policy, leaving them vulnerable to a confidence vote.Liberal party ALDE withdrew from the alliance two days after leader Calin Popescu Tariceanu lost a bid to become the sole pro-government candidate in a presidential election scheduled for November. The PSD instead picked its leader, Prime Minister Viorica Dancila, to challenge incumbent Klaus Iohannis.ALDE’s move, a year before a parliamentary election, would normally raise the prospect of an early ballot. But a fragmented opposition may prefer to wait the full term out, analysts say.”I don’t see many (other parties) rushing to take over now,” said political commentator Cristian Patrasconiu. “(Waiting for the election) is the most rational political stance.”Himself a former prime minister, Tariceanu said the PSD had performed poorly in government and failed to take the necessary steps to restructure the cabinet. ALDE’s decision to pull out however not been easy, he added.EU and U.S. authorities have strongly criticised the governing alliance for an overhaul of Romania’s judiciary that they say threatens the rule of law, and for watering down anti-graft legislation.A man kisses the hand of Romania’s Prime Minister Viorica Dancila while she arrives at a party congress organised by the ruling Social Democrats (PSD) in Bucharest, Romania, Aug. 24, 2019.Dancila said the PSD would continue to govern. “The important thing is to not disappoint our voters who trusted us in 2016 (national) elections,” she said on her Facebook page.Monday’s divorce, which leaves the PSD 25 seats short of a parliamentary majority, could hamper policymaking, however, forcing her to negotiate legislation on a bill-by-bill basis.Dancila has 45 days to ask parliament for a vote of confidence and, in the meantime, needs to find new appointees for three ALDE-held ministerial posts and will seek to ally with other political groupings, probably including the ethnic Hungarian UDMR.Voters turned on the government in European parliament elections in May, with the PSD’s support almost halving while ALDE was unable to reach the threshold to enter the assembly.
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Oklahoma Judge Fines J&J $572M for State’s Opioid Crisis
An Oklahoma state judge has ordered U.S. drug manufacturer Johnson & Johnson to pay $572 million in damages to the state for fueling its opioid crisis.Addiction and overdoses of the synthetic painkillers have killed more than 10,000 Oklahoma residents since 2000, lawyers argued, asking for a record $17 billion in damages.”The opioid crisis has ravaged the state of Oklahoma. It must be abated immediately,” Judge Thad Balkman said before announcing his verdict.Johnson & Johnson is the first company to be put on trial for what the state said was a “cynical, deceitful multibillion-dollar brainwashing campaign.” The state said J&J marketed opioids as a “magic drug” to doctors, caregivers and other prescribers.Attorneys cited Oklahoma’s “public nuisance” law, which is intended to protect the public from people and companies looking to harm others.J&J’s lawyers argued the company’s claims about its painkillers are backed by science. They pointed out that J&J’s products make up a tiny fraction of opioids prescribed in Oklahoma and less than 1% of all those used across the country.Appeal plannedJ&J said it will appeal the ruling. The company said Oklahoma’s state attorneys used a “radical” interpretation of the public nuisance law.Johnson & Johnson was one of three pharmaceutical houses sued by Oklahoma, but the only one to come to trial.The state made multimillion-dollar settlements with Perdue Pharma and Israeli-owned Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries earlier this year.The Trump administration has declared opioid addiction a national health crisis.According to the Centers for Disease Control, opioids have killed nearly 400,000 people over the last 20 years.
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Fears Grow Over Heat Dangers at Tokyo 2020 Olympics
There are growing concerns that the heat and humidity at the Tokyo Olympics next summer may pose a danger to athletes. The Japanese capital, one of the biggest and most densely populated cities in the world, regularly sees summer temperatures exceed 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit), with humidity exceeding 80% and strong sunshine.Earlier this month, a worker at an Olympic construction site in the city died from heat stroke. Across the country, a heat wave beginning in late July killed at least 57 people. George Havenith, an expert on the effects of temperature and climate on athletes at Britain’s Loughborough University, says the combination of heat and humidity could prove dangerous. “When it gets warmer, of course the skin gets warmer and doesn’t lose that much heat to the environment and the sweat evaporation then is the main factor for cooling,” he said. “Now if we also push up the humidity as it would happen in Tokyo, that means that that sweat evaporation gets even more difficult. So it gets more and more difficult to lose the heat.”Heat strokeHeat stroke is a big danger, especially for endurance events, adds Havenith.FILE – Mexico’s Cecilia Perez, center, collapses after competing in a women’s triathlon test event at Odaiba Marine Park, a venue for marathon swimming and triathlon at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, Aug. 15, 2019.”About 15 percent of athletes even in a cool environment have body temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius,” he said. “Now if you push the temperature higher and the cooling gets more of an issue, we get more and more athletes in that whole cohort going into these temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius, bringing them closer and closer to the level where we can expect an exertional heat stroke.”Tokyo has hosted several test events in recent weeks, including a mixed triathlon relay and a swimming marathon — among the endurance sports seen as posing some of the biggest dangers to athletes. Japanese swimmer Yumi Kida, who hopes to compete in the Games next summer, says conditions in Tokyo Bay were difficult.”The sunlight was strong and the water temperature was high. When I joined the race, I worried I might suffer from heat stroke,” she said.PrecautionsGames organizers have shifted the start times of several endurance events to begin early in the morning — and say they are taking other measures to mitigate against the heat.”The International Triathlon Union is taking a variety of measures against heat, such as increasing water-supply points and cooling areas. I also hear they are deploying medical staff every 500 meters of the marathon course,” Yasuo Mori of the Tokyo 2020 Games Operations Bureau told reporters recently.Havenith says additional measures may be needed.”Having ice baths available for the athletes to cool them down quickly if they have an exertional heat stroke is the advised method,” he said. “And it’s very important to have that, because if you decide to transport them to the hospital before you do the cooling, you put them at risk. And with the ice bath, the success rate is very close to 100% in terms of people recovering from an exertional heat stroke.”The last time Tokyo hosted the Olympics in 1964, the Games were moved to October to avoid the summer heat. With a packed sports calendar and demands from global broadcasters, that’s no longer possible.Scientists say it’s vital athletes acclimatize themselves well in advance of the start of the Games in July 2020.
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Solar-Irrigated Farms Face Unexpected Threat in Zimbabwe: Hungry Elephants
When one of Zimbabwe’s first solar mini-grid systems was installed in this drought-prone village near the Botswana border in 2016, residents thought their problems were solved.Cheap, clean power ran irrigation pumps that kept the community’s wheat, maize and vegetable fields a sea of green even as climate change-fueled droughts parched the surrounding landscape.But the verdant fields have attracted a new problem to Mashaba: herds of hungry elephants.As drought makes grass and other fodder harder to find, elephants have begun invading the village’s tempting irrigated fields, destroying crops and irrigation canals and exasperating farmers.”We have to stand guard in our fields all night from 6:30 pm till 3:30 in the morning. We beat pots, tins, pans, drums or anything that makes noise to chase away elephants,” Daniel Nyathi, a farmer in Mashaba, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.As well, “every night we make bonfires on the edge of our fields, shine torches and rev a tractor all night, hoping that might scare the elephants,” said Nyathi who heads the 42-hectare (104-acre) Rustlers Gorge irrigation project, which serves 2,800 local households.According to Mashaba residents, up to 60 elephants now appear to see the village’s irrigated fields as one of their main sources of food.Elephants have been an occasional problem in the village’s fields, especially since 2017, as conditions have grown drier, they said. But the invasions have intensified dramatically as the solar irrigation project has taken off, they said.Win Sibanda, one of the Mashaba village leaders, said he feared the near-daily elephant invasions into the community’s fields mean farmers won’t get much of a harvest next month if the problem isn’t addressed.Right now, “the only practical solution is for the farmers to keep guard and chase them out,” he said.”If the elephants number less than five, villagers can easily deal with them. But the challenge is when the whole herd enters the field. No one dares provoke them because that is more dangerous,” he said.Less rain, more fightsAs worsening droughts lead to more challenging conditions for farmers and wildlife in southern Africa, such confrontations are expected to become more problematic as irrigation projects pop up to help communities adapt to drier conditions.Sithokozile Nyathi, 36, whose farm with her husband Daniel lies within the Rustlers Gorge irrigation project, said the village had been transformed into a “green belt” with the introduction of the solar mini-grid.The $3.2 million solar project was funded by the European Union in conjunction with the OPEC Fund for International Development and Global Environment Facility as part of efforts to promote universal access to modern energy in rural areas.The grid’s 400 solar panels power several irrigation projects, Mashaba’s primary school, a local clinic and a small business center with four shops and an energy kiosk, said Shepherd Masuka, a project officer with Practical Action, a development charity that supervised the project’s construction.Sithokozile Nyathi said the system has allowed farmers to earn a steady income from their crops, rather than simply depending on increasingly unreliable rainfall.”Each morning we walk 2 miles from our homesteads to the irrigation scheme to work the whole day in the fields,” she said.But now farmers are having to work nights as well, just to try to keep elephants away, she said.Looking for solutionsTo try to find a solution, residents are working with the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (ZimParks), which oversees the country’s wildlife.Kwanele Manungo, who helps manage work by the authority in southern Zimbabwe, said a team of game rangers were dispatched to Mashaba in July to address the elephant problem.The rangers advised digging one-meter-deep trenches around the irrigated fields and using a traditional technique of putting piles of smoldering cow dung along their perimeter.Manungo said the team, which was in the area for a month, “ended up leaving the place because elephants did not come back.” Community members were advised to call again if they had further problems.”In the worst scenario, we shoot down a leader of the menacing elephants or scare them off using firecrackers,” she said.But Practical Action officials said more “lasting solutions” to elephant invasions of irrigated farmland needed to be worked out.Tinashe Farawo, a spokesman for the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority, said the authority sometimes runs short of government funding for its wildlife management programs and is forced to self-fund.That can mean farmers seeking help have to spend their own money to transport and feed game rangers, he confirmed.Zimbabwe made $2.7 million selling 90 elephants to China and Dubai between 2012 and 2018, in an effort to reduce the numbers and earn income, Farawo said.”We believe in sustainable utilization of our resources, and these elephants must pay for their upkeep,” he said in a telephone interview with the Thomson Reuters Foundation.According to ZimParks data, the country can accommodate about 55,000 elephants but now has about 85,000. The rising numbers are likely one driver of the increasing farm invasions, officials said.Farawo said conflicts between people and animals had led to 200 people losing their lives in Zimbabwe over the past five years.At a May elephant summit in Botswana, southern African countries whose land is part of the Kavango-Zambezi transfrontier conservation area – which includes parts of Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia and Zambia – said their countries are home to the largest population of African elephants.Officials at the summit said they would coordinate efforts to survey elephant populations to monitor them.They noted that as elephant numbers grow in the region, conflicts between the animals and people are increasing as a result of climate change pressures and increasing competition for limited resources.
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