Comparing the struggle of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protesters to the role of Berlin during the Cold War, activist Joshua Wong told an audience in the German capital that his city was now a bulwark between the free world and the “dictatorship of China.”The 22-year-old activist, who was in Berlin for a newspaper-sponsored event at the German parliament celebrating human rights activists around the world, pledged that protests would not be lulled into complacency by the decision of the city’s government to drop a contested new extradition law.”If we are in a new Cold War, Hong Kong is the new Berlin,” he said in a reception space a stone’s throw from the Berlin Wall on the roof of the Reichstag building, which for decades occupied the no-man’s land between Communist East Berlin and the city’s capitalist western half.Hong Kong has been convulsed by months of unrest since its government announced attempts to make it easier to extradite suspects to China, a move seen as a prelude to bringing the pluralistic autonomous region more in line with the mainland.Wong, leader of the Demosisto pro-democracy movement, has become a prominent face of the protests.”We urge the free world to stand together with us in resisting the Chinese autocratic regime,” he added, describing Chinese leader Xi Jinping as “not a president but an emperor.”FILE – Hong Kong’s Chief Executive Carrie Lam addresses a news conference in Hong Kong, Sept. 5, 2019.The city’s leader, Carrie Lam, announced concessions this week to try to end the protests, including formally scrapping the bill, but Wong said protesters would not be lulled into complacency.He said they would try to hold the city’s government responsible for what he said were human rights violations committed against protesters, adding that Lam’s climb-down was a ruse to buy calm ahead of China’s Oct. 1 national day.He had briefly been detained by Hong Kong authorities before his departure earlier in the day for breaching bail conditions following his arrest in August when he was charged along with other prominent activists with inciting and participating in an unauthorised assembly.German Chancellor Angela Merkel has just returned from a trip to China, during which she faced criticism from Germany for not engaging more directly with the Hong Kong protesters, whose cause is popular in Germany, though she did call for a peaceful solution to the Hong Kong unrest.
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Month: September 2019
North Korea Fires Projectiles Hours After Calling for Talks
North Korea fired two unknown projectiles Tuesday, hours after Pyongyang said it is willing to reopen denuclearization talks with the United States.The projectiles were fired from South Pyongan Province toward the sea off North Korea’s east coast, according to a statement from South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff.No other details were immediately available about the apparent weapons test — North Korea’s 10th such launch since early May.FILE – North Korean Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Choe Son Hui attends the welcome ceremony of North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un (not pictured) at the Presidential Palace in Hanoi, March 1, 2019.Choe Son Hui, North Korea’s vice foreign minister, said Monday that Pyongyang is willing to talk with the U.S. but warned that Washington needs to come up with fresh ideas or risks jeopardizing the negotiations.”We are willing to sit face-to-face with the U.S. around late September at a time and place that we can agree on,” Choe said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.But Choe said the United States has to produce an “acceptable calculation” or risk the end of the talks, apparently a statement aimed at pushing the United States toward making concessions to North Korea, such as on the economic sanctions.”If the U.S. side fingers again the worn-out scenario which has nothing to do with the new calculation method at the DPRK-U.S. working negotiation to be held with so much effort, the DPRK-U.S. dealings may come to an end,” she said, referring to North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea.Stalled talksTalks between Pyongyang and Washington have stalemated since a second summit in February between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi ended abruptly without a deal. Trump rejected Kim’s demand for relief from the debilitating U.S. economic sanctions in return for partial denuclearization.FILE – U.S. President Donald Trump shakes hands with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as they meet at the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas, in Panmunjom, South Korea, June 30, 2019.The two leaders agreed at a short meeting in June at the Demilitarized Zone separating North and South Korea to restart staff level talks, but they have yet to start.Trump was asked about the offer while speaking to reporters at the White House.”I just saw it as I’m coming out here, that they would like to meet. We’ll see what happens,” Trump said. “I always say having meetings is a good thing, not a bad thing.”At their first summit more than a year ago in Singapore, Trump and Kim adopted a statement calling for the “complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.”Trump returned from Singapore to Washington tweeting, “There is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea. Sleep well tonight!”Missile testsBut nothing has occurred since then to indicate that North Korea has been dismantling its nuclear arsenal. To the contrary, a United Nations report last week said the North’s development of nuclear warheads has not stopped.North Korea has launched a series of missile tests since late July in protest of joint military exercises between South Korea and the U.S. Trump has dismissed the importance of the tests, but other key U.S. officials have voiced concern that the missiles could be used to attack South Korea and U.S. troops stationed there.”We’re disappointed that he is continuing to conduct these short-range tests. We wish that he would stop that. But our mission set at the State Department is very clear: to get back to the [negotiating] table,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told the ABC News show This Week on Sunday.
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Trump Says He Could Meet with Iranian President Rouhani
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday he could meet with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and that he had no problem with such an encounter.”It could happen. It could happen. No problem with me,” Trump told reporters at the White House.Trump has stepped up sanctions against Iran since he withdrew from a 2015 nuclear pact between Iran and six world powers, saying the agreement left open a path for Iran to acquire nuclear weapons and did not address what the United States calls Iran’s malign activities in the region.Rouhani has said Iran, which denies seeking nuclear weapons, would not talk to the United States until Washington lifted the sanctions it has reimposed on Tehran after pulling out of the nuclear deal.”Iran should straighten out because frankly they are in a very bad position right now,” Trump said.Last week Trump said a meeting with Rouhani was possible at the U.N. General Assembly in New York later in September.”Sure, anything’s possible. They would like to be able to solve their problem,” Trump told White House reporters on Wednesday, referring to inflation in Iran. “We could solve it in 24 hours.”Brian Hook, the U.S. special representative for Iran, said last week more sanctions against Iran were coming and the United States was committed to its campaign of “maximum pressure.”Rouhani told an open session of the Iranian parliament on Thursday: “No decision has ever been taken to hold talks with the U.S. and there has been a lot of offers for talks but our answer will always be negative.””If America lifts all the sanctions then, like before, it can join multilateral talks between Tehran and parties to the 2015 deal,” Rouhani added.
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Pompeo Looking Forward to Completed US-Japan Trade Deal at UN General Assembly
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Monday he was looking forward to a completed U.S.-Japan trade agreement at the United Nations General Assembly in New York later this month.In a posting on Twitter, Pompeo said, “Progress made on the U.S.-#Japan trade deal at the G7 Summit will further our strong economic partnership: a huge win for both nations.”He said the two countries had reached consensus on agricultural, digital and industrial issues, adding, “Looking forward for a completed deal at UNGA.”Pompeo’s tweet expanded remarks made Friday by White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow, who told Fox Business Network that the trade accord reached with Japan “may be finished and announced in its entirety at the U.N. meetings coming up in a couple of weeks.”The United States and Japan last month agreed in principle on core elements for a trade deal that U.S. President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said they hoped to sign in New York on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly meeting.U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer last month said the deal covered agriculture, industrial tariffs and digital trade. Auto tariffs would remain unchanged.
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South Sudan Opposition Leader Makes Return Visit to Capital
South Sudan opposition leader Riek Machar returned on Monday to meet with President Salva Kiir and held talks in preparation for the formation of a coalition government in November.The two men shook hands and said goodnight after an afternoon of discussions at State House, the president’s official residence, in their first face-to-face meeting in the capital, Juba, since October. The talks focused on speeding up the screening and reunification of forces in order to create a united national army ahead of Machar’s expected return in two months, where he’ll once again serve as Kiir’s deputy.South Sudan is slowly emerging from five years of civil war that killed almost 400,000 people and displaced millions. A fragile peace deal was signed last September, but so far it’s been marked by delays and continued fighting in parts of the country.Machar’s trip to Juba is seen by some South Sudan observers as a last attempt to move the agreement forward.”This is crunch time for South Sudan’s peace deal. Either the two main leaders find a way to make the peace deal work, or South Sudan will slip back into crisis,” Alan Boswell, senior analyst with the International Crisis Group told The Associated Press. The technical process has gone as far as it can without resolving the outstanding political deadlocks, which only the two leaders can agree upon, he said.The talks will continue Tuesday and possibly Wednesday where outstanding issues will be discussed, such as the number of states that South Sudan will have, said Martin Elia Lomuro, minister of Cabinet affairs. However, the government’s made it clear that even if everything isn’t in place before November, it will move ahead with forming a new government.”We have said clearly we will form the government in November, come what may,” said Lomuro.Deputy chairman for the opposition, Henry Odwar said he hoped the current challenges would be overcome.Machar, who’s been staying in Khartoum, Sudan, was accompanied to Juba by Mohammed Hamadan Dagalo, a member of Sudan’s sovereign council and leader of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and the Sudanese Revolutionary Front, an alliance of rebel groups.In addition to talks with Machar, President Kiir has offered to mediate between Sudan’s government and the rebel groups, saying that it’s in the best interest of his country.”If there’s no peace in Sudan there’ll be no peace in South Sudan,” said Kiir.
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Former Pentagon Chief Mattis: US Should Side With Hong Kong Protesters
Former U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Monday anti-government protests in Hong Kong were “not an internal” Chinese matter and that the United States should offer at least moral support to the demonstrators.The retired U.S. Marine general, speaking at a Reuters Newsmaker event in New York, said the United States should generally side with those standing up for human rights, which he said included the Hong Kong protesters.“When people stand up for those (rights), I just inherently think we ought to stand with them, even if it’s just moral,” said Mattis, who abruptly resigned as Pentagon chief in December over disagreements with President Donald Trump’s foreign policy.“This is not an internal matter,” Mattis said in remarks likely to irritate Beijing, which has denounced the sometimes violent protests and accused the United States and Britain of fomenting unrest in the former British colony.Trump has previously described the protests as riots, but has also called on China to end the discord in a “humanitarian” way. He said a crackdown could make his efforts to end a damaging trade war with China “very hard.”Mattis said China’s effort to pass a law to allow people in Hong Kong to be extradited to mainland China was in breach of the “one country, two systems” formula under which British control of Hong Kong was ended in 1997.“They said it would be two systems, and the extradition law was a violation of that,” said Mattis, who is promoting a new memoir about his role in the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.Although the extradition bill was withdrawn last week after months of unrest, the mass protests in streets and public places across Hong Kong continue, having grown into a broader pro-democracy backlash against the Chinese government.Protesters marched outside the U.S. consulate in Hong Kong over the weekend, urging Trump to help “liberate” the city. Hong Kong police fired tear gas to disperse the crowds.“We have to be careful: We don’t want to say we’re going to land the 82nd Airborne Division in Hong Kong to do this,” he said. “But morally? Yeah, I think we have to stand with them.”In his nearly two years as defense secretary, Mattis had tried to forge a relationship with the Chinese military, worried that tense relations between the two countries could boil over into conflict.Mattis resigned from Trump’s administration a day after Trump’s plans to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria became public. His resignation letter was widely seen as a sharp critique of Trump’s approach to national security, including what Mattis saw as a failure to value American allies around the world.Although there had been speculation that Mattis might enter the political arena, he has since declined to share his views on Trump, saying it is inappropriate for military figures to pontificate on politics.Mattis also said he was surprised by the news last weekend that Trump had invited Afghanistan’s Taliban leaders for peace talks in the United States. Trump said he canceled the talks after the insurgent group claimed responsibility for an attack in Kabul that killed an American soldier and 11 other people.“I salute people who try to bring wars to an end,” Mattis said. The Taliban, however, had repeatedly failed to break with al Qaeda, the militant group behind the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, he said.“The Taliban was offered: If you break with al Qaeda, we have no problem with you,” Mattis said. “President (George W.) Bush offered that, President Obama offered that, President Trump has offered that, and they’ve declined. So yes, I was very surprised that we were at that point.”Asked on Monday whether he had confidence in Trump’s leadership, he said only that he had “great confidence” in American voters and in the U.S. Constitution.“If we will employ our constitutional checks and balances correctly, this big experiment will continue,” Mattis said.
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Egypt Wants Sudan Off US Terror List
Egypt’s foreign minister on Monday called for more support for neighboring Sudan’s new civilian-led government, including getting it off the U.S. list of countries sponsoring terrorism.The U.S. named Sudan as a state sponsor of terrorism in 1993. In one of its last acts, the Obama administration began a formal process to de-list Sudan. However, this was put on hold when mass protests erupted in December against President Omar al-Bashir’s three-decade rule, which ended when the military ousted him in April.Sameh Shoukry said Egypt is now working with Washington to end Sudan’s international pariah status. The country has a newly installed government under a power-sharing agreement between the pro-democracy movement and the military, which many feared would cling to power.Shoukry was the first foreign official to visit Sudan after its new cabinet was sworn in Sunday.“What the Sudanese people have achieved is a role model,” Shoukry told a joint news conference at the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, alongside the country’s first woman foreign minister, Asmaa Abdalla.He said Egypt has been working with regional and Western allies to build support for the transitional government and that efforts “to coordinate strongly with the Sudanese government will continue.”He also met with Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, the head of the sovereign council, and the new prime minister, Abdalla Hamdok.Sudan says getting off the U.S. state sponsor of terror list is crucial to rebuilding the country and readmitting it into the international economy after years of sanctions.Prime Minister Hamdok said last week that he’d already held a “long discussion” with the Trump administration on the matter.He also told a local TV station in August that Sudan needs up to $8 billion in foreign aid in the next two years and another $2 billion deposited as reserves to shore up the plunging local currency.For years, Egypt’s ties with Sudan were frayed by repeated failures to reach a deal over an upstream Nile dam being built by Ethiopia, and the revival of a longstanding dispute over a border territory held by Cairo and claimed by Khartoum.Ahmed Hafez, a spokesman for Egypt’s foreign ministry, said negotiations with Ethiopia over its $5 billion Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam were “at the forefront” of Shoukry’s talks in Sudan.Egypt accused al-Bashir of siding with Ethiopia in the dispute over the soon-to-be-completed dam. Egypt fears the dam could reduce its share of the Nile River which serves as a lifeline for the country’s 100 million people. Previous attempts at resolving the lasting dispute have failed.Sudan’s Foreign Minister Abdalla said talks did not touch on the dispute over the Egyptian-held border territory known as the Halayeb Triangle, which dates back to British colonial times.
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North Korea: Willing to Restart Nuclear Talks with US
North Korea said Monday it is willing to reopen denuclearization talks with the United States in late September, but warned that Washington needs to come up with fresh ideas or risks jeopardizing the negotiations.Talks between Pyongyang and Washington have stalemated since a second summit in February between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi ended abruptly without a deal. Trump rejected Kim’s demand for relief from the debilitating U.S. economic sanctions in return for partial denuclearization.The two leaders agreed at a short meeting in June at the Demilitarized Zone separating North and South Korea to restart staff level talks but they have yet to start.In the new overture, Choe Son Hui, the North’s vice foreign minister, said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency, “We are willing to sit face-to-face with the U.S. around late September at a time and place that we can agree on.”But Choe said the United States has to produce an “acceptable calculation” or risk the end of the talks, apparently a statement aimed at pushing the United States toward making concessions to North Korea, such as on the economic sanctions.There was no immediate response from the U.S. on the North Korean statement, although Washington has expressed a willingness to resume talks and has set a goal for the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula by the end of Trump’s first term in office in January 2021.At their first summit more than a year ago in Singapore, Trump and Kim adopted a statement calling for the “complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.”Trump returned from Singapore to Washington, saying, “There is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea. Sleep well tonight!”FILE – North Korea test-fires a weapon in this undated photo released Aug. 16, 2019, by the Korean Central News Agency.But nothing has occurred since then to indicate that North Korea has been dismantling its nuclear arsenal, and to the contrary, a United Nations report last week said the North’s development of nuclear warheads has not stopped.North Korea has launched a series of missile tests since late July in protest of joint military exercises between South Korea and the U.S. Trump has dismissed the importance of the tests, but other key U.S. officials have voiced concern that the missiles could be used to attack South Korea and U.S. troops stationed there.”We’re disappointed that he is continuing to conduct these short-range tests. We wish that he would stop that. But our mission set at the State Department is very clear: to get back to the (negotiating) table,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told the ABC News show “This Week” on Sunday.
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US Treasury Chief: No Recession on Horizon
U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Monday he sees no threat of a U.S. recession, even as several indicators appear to be signaling that the world’s largest economy is slowing.Job growth in the U.S. slowed to 130,000 in August, well below the 223,000 average monthly gain in 2018. The U.S. economy advanced at a yearly rate of 2% in the April-to-June period, down from the 3.1% expansion in the first three months of the year.The data, along with falling business investment and ongoing trade disputes with China and Europe, have fueled talk of a U.S. economic downturn. But Mnuchin told Fox News, “I don’t see in any way a recession.”He said, “There’s no question there’s been a considerable slowdown in the world economy both in China and in Europe. But as you look at the U.S., we continued to be the bright spot. We have not seen any impact on the U.S. economy.” he added.While U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping have engaged in a tit-for-tat tariff war on hundreds of billions of dollars of exports heading to each others’ shores, Mnuchin held out hope of progress in reaching a trade deal with Beijing when the two sides resume trade talks in the coming weeks in Washington. “They’re coming here. I take that as a sign of good faith that they want to continue to negotiate,” Mnuchin said. “And we’re prepared to negotiate. If we can get a good deal, a deal that’s good for us, we’ll sign it. If not, the president is perfectly fine with continuing the tariffs.”He said the two countries have a “conceptual agreement” on how to enforce the terms of any deal.But contentious issues remain. The U.S. is seeking changes in how China protects intellectual property, an end to the forced transfer of U.S. technology to Chinese companies and a reduction in China’s annual trade surplus with the U.S. in which it sells hundreds of billions of dollars more of goods to the U.S. than it buys from American companies.
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Will Trump-Like Behavior Backfire on Britain’s Boris Johnson?
After Boris Johnson won the Conservative party contest in July to succeed Theresa May as Britain’s prime minister, U.S. President Donald Trump welcomed his victory, praising him as “Britain Trump.”Since entering Downing Street, Johnson seems to be paying the American leader the highest form of flattery by imitating Trump’s political and media tactics, echoing his populist campaign memes and embracing political disruption as a key tactic to wrong-foot opponents, galvanize core supporters and maneuver Britain out of the European Union, which May failed to do.But Britain isn’t the United States. Will adopting Trump-like behavior backfire on Johnson?FILE – Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks in the Parliament in London, Britain, Sept. 3, 2019, in this still image taken from Parliament TV footage.Critics accuse Johnson of slipping away from constitutionality and trying to relocate the Conservative party on the populist right, a wrenching maneuver that has triggered a conflict within the party between the its pro-EU and Brexit wings.Loyalists say these are not normal times in Britain and so the unconventional is needed. They argue Johnson’s abrasive strategy — which has included threats to defy the law, which he repeated Monday — will work to his favor as his hardline Brexit stance will ensure he secures the backing of 35 percent of the electorate in an election which is likely weeks away — a large enough share of the vote to gain him a pro-Brexit majority in the House of Commons.Even before becoming prime minister, Johnson mused at a private dinner with Conservative colleagues, where they discussed how to break the deadlock over Brexit, that a “bloody hard” Trump-style approach might be the best approach.
“Imagine Donald Trump doing Brexit,” Johnson said, according to an audio recording. “He’d go in bloody hard. There’d be all sorts of breakdowns, all sorts of chaos. Everyone would think he’d gone mad. But actually you might get somewhere.” And in the last few weeks, Johnson has been testing the idea, tearing up the conventional political playbook, in much the same way as Trump, all in a bid to ride a populist wave to reshape his country’s politics, remake his party and be the prime minister who manages to lead Britain out of the EU.Last week, Johnson expelled 21 moderate stalwarts from the Conservative party, including the grandson of Winston Churchill, for defying the government’s Brexit policy. The move prompted a stinging rebuke from former Conservative leader and ex-Prime Minister John Major, who dubbed Johnson’s chief advisor, Dominic Cummings, a “political anarchist,” and warned Saturday that the party purge and Johnson’s slash-and-burn politics risk transforming the Conservatives from a “broad-based national party” into a sect.FILE – Dominic Cummings, a British political strategist and special adviser to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, walks into 10 Downing Street in London, July 30, 2019.The 47-year-old Cummings, a controversial figure who has been compared to former Trump advisor Steve Bannon, was the chief strategist for the Brexit campaign during the 2016 referendum on EU membership. Cummings has made no secret of his wish to rip up the map of British politics, starting with a populist remake of the Conservative party.On Friday, he told government advisors that they should hold their nerve, saying if they thought last week was chaotic, which saw lawmakers grab control of the parliamentary timetable from the government, they should realize it was “only just the beginning.”The tumultuous week also saw Johnson indicate he was ready to defy parliament and break the law, if lawmakers, as they did, pass legislation delaying Brexit. The legislation received Queen Elizabeth’s formal assent Monday.Lawmakers took the action in the wake of Johnson’s decision to prorogue (suspend) the legislature for an unconventionally prolonged period, a gambit his critics say was aimed at preventing MPs from blocking a “no-deal” Brexit in which Britain would exit the EU without an agreement with Brussels.FILE – Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson reacts after student officer needed to sit down as he made a speech during a visit to West Yorkshire, Britain Sept. 5, 2019.In a move seen as highly Trump-like, Johnson, after the legislation cleared parliament, used police cadets in West Yorkshire as a backdrop for a charged political speech, breaching the convention of not drawing the police into partisan politics. The move drew a rebuke from the local chief constable, who said the force had agreed to host the prime minister on the understanding that the speech would be in connection to a police recruitment drive and eschew partisan party politics.Critics said there were clear similarities between the event and a speech Trump gave in August 2017 with trainee police officers also used as a backdrop.“Boris Johnson copies his mentor & hero Donald Trump by making highly political speech using young police officers as a backdrop!,” tweeted Labor lawmaker Barry Sheerman.But will the copying payoff? Political commentator Matthew d’Ancona notes that Johnson is rising in the opinion polls with the Conservatives ahead of their nearest rivals, Labor, by 14 percent, proving that the electorate outside the Westminster bubble may be taking a very different view from the prime minister’s critics.FILE – Pro-Brexit demonstrators hold a placard outside the Houses of Parliament, in London, Sept. 5, 2019.“After three years of [Brexit] dither and delay, it is not hard to image a measure of public sympathy with Johnson’s contempt for convention: his suspension of parliament, his purges, his readiness to break the law. We are undoubtedly living through a populist moment, marked by a high degree of public frustration with representative democracy, its flummery and procrastinations,” d’Ancona wrote in Monday’s The Guardian newspaper.He remains unsure if the slash-and-burn tactics will succeed and questions whether Johnson and Cummings are “courting strategic disaster” by “wrecking the Conservative party at astonishing speed” and turning it into “a single-issue campaign group” only concerned with Brexit.Others highlight how despite the high-stakes maneuvers, Johnson and his team have failed to pull off immediate tactical goals and only succeeded so far in uniting squabbling opposition parties to block Johnson from taking Britain out of the EU without a deal and even his bid to hold a snap election this month. They argue the prime minister has boxed himself in, lost his thin majority in the House of Commons through defections and expulsions and is now virtually powerless and imprisoned in Downing Street.Johnson’s supporters say all that will play to his favor once the opposition parties lift their block on holding an election and that the only viable strategy for him is to lash the Conservatives to the Brexit mast. Otherwise they will see anti-EU voters leave in droves for the newly-minted Brexit Party of the arch Euroskeptic Nigel Farage, whose party topped the European parliamentary polls earlier this year.
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Brown University Official Suspended Amid Epstein Gift Probe
Brown University has placed a fundraising director on administrative leave following a report that accused him of participating in covering up disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein’s connections to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab.Brown spokesman Brian Clark told The Providence Journal on Sunday that Peter Cohen, director of development for computer and data science, is on leave pending a review. Clark says Brown hasn’t received donations from Epstein.A phone call seeking comment from Cohen was made Monday.MIT says Media Lab director Joi Ito resigned Saturday. The New Yorker reported Friday the lab had a more extensive fundraising relationship with Epstein than it previously acknowledged and tried to conceal the extent of it.The story included emails from Cohen, then the lab’s director of development and strategy, about Epstein.
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Queen Elizabeth Approves Measure to Block Johnson’s No-deal Brexit
Britain’s Queen Elizabeth gave her approval Monday to legislation seeking to block Prime Minister Boris Johnson from carrying out a no-deal Brexit, his plan to take the country out of the European Union on October 31 without spelling out the terms of the split.FILE – Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II welcomes Boris Johnson, then newly-elected leader of the Conservative party, during an audience at Buckingham Palace, London, England, July 24, 2019.Her action, known as a Royal Assent, came after parliament last week voted against attempts by Johnson to carry out his announced intention for Britain to divorce itself from the EU with or without a deal with Brussels.Before Johnson took office in July, parliament three times rejected Brexit plans advanced by former Prime Minister Theresa May. Lawmakers in the House of Commons, however, have been unable to reach agreement on British trade practices with the EU after it leaves the 28-nation bloc and how to deal with cross-border passage between Britain’s Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland.Johnson is calling for a snap election on October 15 in an effort to win a parliamentary majority to approve his Brexit plans ahead of an EU summit of the continent’s leaders days later that could set the final terms of Britain’s departure from the EU.But lawmakers are expected Monday to reject Johnson’s call for an election.FILE – Anti-Brexit protesters demonstrate outside the Houses of Parliament in London, Sept. 4, 2019.With that expected outcome, Johnson says parliament will be suspended for five weeks, until the queen gives her annual address to parliament outlining the government’s legislative plans for the upcoming year.Johnson’s no-deal Brexit plans have been opposed by a majority of parliamentarians, including 21 Conservative lawmakers, among them Winston Churchill’s grandson, who worked to thwart the Tory prime minister. Johnson booted them from the Conservative party.
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Hong Kong Tells US to Stay Out; Students Form Protest Chains
Thousands of students formed human chains outside schools across Hong Kong on Monday to show solidarity after violent weekend clashes between police and activists pushing for democratic reforms in the semiautonomous Chinese territory.The silent protest came as the Hong Kong government condemned the illegal behavior of radical protesters” and warned the U.S. to stay out of its affairs.Thousands of demonstrators held a peaceful march Sunday to the U.S. Consulate to seek Washington’s support, but violence erupted hours later in a business and retail district as protesters vandalized subway stations, set fires and blocked traffic, prompting police to fire tear gas.Hong Kong’s government agreed last week to withdraw an extradition bill that sparked a summer of protests, but demonstrators want other demands to be met, including direct elections of city leaders and an independent inquiry into police actions.Protesters in their Sunday march appealed to President Donald Trump to “stand with Hong Kong” and ensure Congress passes a bill that would impose economic sanctions and penalties on Hong Kong and mainland China officials found to suppress democracy and human rights in the city.Hong Kong’s government expressed regret over the U.S. bill, known as the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act. It said in a statement Monday that “foreign legislatures should not interfere in any form in the internal affairs” of Hong Kong.The government said it was “very much in Hong Kong’s own interest to maintain our autonomy to safeguard our interests and advantages under the `one country, two systems’ principle” introduced when the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997.U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi last week said Congress looks forward to “swiftly advancing” the Hong Kong bill because the city deserves real autonomy and freedom from fear.The unrest has become the biggest challenge to Beijing’s rule since it took over Hong Kong, and is an embarrassment to its ruling Communist Party ahead of Oct. 1 celebrations of its 70th year in power. Beijing has slammed the protests as effort by criminals to split the territory from China, backed by what it said were hostile foreigners.
Trump has suggested it’s a matter for China to handle, though he also has said that no violence should be used. Political analysts suggest his response was muted to avoid disrupting talks with China over their tariff war.High school and university students across Hong Kong held hands on Monday, following similar protests last week, forming long human chains that snaked into the streets outside their schools. They were joined by many graduates wearing the protesters’ trademark black tops and masks.Many also rallied against what they viewed as excessive use of force by police, with one student carrying a placard that read “Stop violence, we are not rioters.”Anger was fueled over the weekend after images of a youth being bloodily beaten up by riot police at a subway station were widely shared on social media. The boy, who didn’t fight back, was pinned to the floor and appeared unconscious under a pool of blood.Police public relations chief Tse Chun-chung said Monday that police have received complaints about the case and are investigating. He said police were doing their best to handle escalating violence, with “radical” protesters attacking police and trying to snatch their weapons. He said 157 people had been detained since Friday.Hong Kong journalists, some wearing helmets and gas masks, complained at the police briefing Monday that riot police had used pepper spray and threatened media personnel covering the weekend clashes.Separately, well-known Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong was released Monday, a day after he was detained at the airport.
Wong, a leader of Hong Kong’s 2014 pro-democracy protest movement, was among several people held last month and charged with inciting people to join a protest in June. His prosecution comes after his release from prison in June for a two-month sentence related to the 2014 protests.A court said Wong’s overseas trips had been approved earlier and his detention was due to procedural errors.Wong, who visited Taiwan last week, told reporters before he flew off to Germany and then the U.S. that he would continue to raise global awareness about Hong Kong’s fight for democratic reforms.German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas welcomed Wong’s release and said he was prepared to meet him.“We hope that the conflict there will be de-escalated bit by bit, but without that entailing the rights people are entitled to _ namely the right to express their opinion, including on the street _ in any way being limited,” Maas told reporters in Berlin.
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Pope Honors Mauritius Diversity, Urges Ethical Development
Pope Francis visited the Indian Ocean nation of Mauritius on Monday to celebrate its diversity, encourage a more ethical development and honor a 19th century French missionary who ministered to freed slaves.Thousands of Mauritians waved palm branches as Francis arrived in his popemobile to celebrate a Mass honoring the Rev. Jacques-Desire Laval. While Catholics represent less than a third of Mauritius’ 1.3 million people, Laval is seen as a unifying figure for all Mauritians, most of whom are Hindu of Indian descent.Francis was in the Mauritian capital Port Louis for just a few hours to honor Laval on his feast day and meet with government leaders on the final full day of his weeklong Africa trip.Among the estimated 100,000 people attending the Mass was a 50-member delegation from the Chagos Islands, an Indian Ocean archipelago that includes the U.S. air base on Diego Garcia.Earlier this year, the U.N. General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to demand that Britain, which held onto Chagos after granting Mauritius independence in 1968, ends its “colonial administration” and return Chagos to Mauritius. Britain has refused to do so, saying its presence on the archipelago is strategically important.Britain evicted about 2,000 people from Chagos in the 1960s and 1970s so the U.S. military could build the air base at Diego Garcia.On Monday, Chagos delegation leader Suzelle Baptiste said some of those evicted had met with Francis two years ago at the Vatican and explained their plight.“For our community it is very important to be here to welcome the pope and at the same time we know that the pope knows about our cause so we are here to greet him in joy and to pray together with all Mauritian families,” Baptiste said as delegation members, some of whom wore pins reading “Let us return,” waited for Francis to arrive.Their plight is likely to have struck a chord with the Argentine pope, who as archbishop of Buenos Aires spoke out forcefully against the British claim to the Falkland Islands, which Argentines call the Malvinas.It wasn’t clear if Francis would raise the case of the Chagos in his private talks with Mauritius’ president and prime minister, though he mentioned the faithful from Chagos in a final prayer thanking pilgrims from across the region for coming to the Mass.In his meetings with government authorities, Francis was expected to flag concerns about corruption and other ills associated with Mauritius’ growth into a regional financial center that some consider a global tax haven. Transparency International has said that while Mauritius boasts one of Africa’s highest per capita incomes, its growth into a financial center has come at a cost that was exposed in the “Panama Papers” and subsequent leaks about offshore financial instruments.The government has called the tax haven allegations false and insisted that it abides by all international standards on transparency and sharing of financial information.In his homily, Francis lamented that young Mauritians in particular haven’t benefited from the country’s strong economic growth and are left uncertain about their future and on the margins of society, where drugs are a persistent problem.“Let us not allow those merchants of death rob the first fruits of this land!” Francis said, in an apparent reference to drug dealers.He urged young people to look to Laval as a model of someone who spoke up for the voiceless. Laval, who was beatified in 1979 in the first beatification ceremony presided over by St. John Paul II, is hailed for having ministered to African slaves who had been freed but were treated as second-class citizens in Mauritius.“Through his missionary outreach and his love, Father Laval gave to the Mauritian church a new youth, a new life that today we are asked to carry forward,” Francis said.
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VOA Interview: Former US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta
In a wide-ranging interview on the new global arms race, former US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said he wished “diplomacy had been given a little more chance” before the US and Russia let the INF treaty to end. Panetta, who was also CIA Director and a Congressman from California, told VOA contributor Greta Van Susteren that the US has fallen behind “developing the kind of defenses” necessary to protect satellites in space from attacks by China. Panetta discussed Turkey’s purchase of a missile system from Russia, summitry with North Korea and a prescription for repairing relations with Russia and China.
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UK’s Johnson Tells Irish Leader Brexit Deal Can Be Reached
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, facing staunch opposition at home, told Ireland’s leader Monday that a new Brexit deal can be reached so Britain leaves the European Union by the Oct. 31 deadline.Speaking alongside Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar in Dublin, Johnson said a deal on the Irish border question can be secured in time to enable a smooth British departure from the EU by the scheduled Brexit date.He said a no-deal departure from the European Union would represent a “failure of statecraft” and that all sides would bear a responsibility for that.Johnson has said he will take Britain out of the EU on Oct. 31 even without a deal, but Parliament has passed a bill that would force him to seek a delay from the EU if no deal has been agreJohnson’s spokesman James Slack also confirmed the government will suspend the British Parliament later Monday until Oct. 14. He said Parliament will be prorogued, or suspended, at the close of the day’s business.
The suspension limits Parliament’s ability to block Johnson’s plans for Brexit.
During his press conference with Varadkar, Johnson did not explain how the longstanding stalemate can be broken in a way that satisfies the other 27 EU leaders and would win backing in Britain’s Parliament, where his party no longer has a working majority.Johnson has been criticized in Britain for not producing new plans to break the Brexit impasse, and Varadkar also said that Britain has not produced any realistic alternatives to the controversial “backstop” agreement reached by Johnson’s predecessor, Theresa May.Opposition to the backstop was a key reason why Britain’s Parliament rejected May’s Brexit deal with the EU on three occasions earlier this year.The backstop, which has emerged as the main stumbling block to an agreement, is intended to make sure that no hard border is put up between EU member Ireland and Northern Ireland, which is part of the United KingdomVaradkar said a no-deal departure would cause severe economic problems for Ireland now that border checks have been eliminated for an extended period of time.He said the EU does not want another extension of the Oct. 31 deadline but is willing to consider one if it is requested.The Irish leader says more negotiations are needed and that the Good Friday peace agreement, which states that no hard border is re-imposed on the island of Ireland, must be respected.The Dublin meeting marks the first time the two leaders have met since Johnson took power in July.Varadkar has said he does not expect an immediate breakthrough in the border impasse.Johnson’s political position in Britain has been greatly weakened over the past week, with the loss of his Conservative Party’s working majority in Parliament and the departure of some key party figures who sided with the opposition in key votes.He plans to press a rebellious Parliament later Monday to back his plan for an early election, with the hope of winning a majority that would back his Brexit strategy, but opposition parties have said they will vote the measure down.They want to make sure a no-deal departure is blocked before agreeing to an election.Johnson has said he will not seek a delay despite the new bill that seeks to force him to do so. His government is studying the bill for possible loopholes that might allow a legal challenge.
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After Summer of Turmoil, Russians Hand Kremlin Election Setback
Russian voters handed setbacks to Kremlin-affiliated candidates in Moscow and other local elections nationwide — losses that came despite a near total ban on opposition candidates that sparked a summer of street protests and mass arrests in the capital. With most of the vote counted, returns showed pro-Kremlin candidates lost over a third of seats in the race for Moscow’s city council — suggesting a plan by the opposition to consolidate votes around targeted opponents of the Kremlin had been relatively successful. Meanwhile, Kremlin-backed candidates appeared poised to hold on to the important governor posts in 16 regions, including Russia’s second capital, Saint Petersburg.The independent election monitoring organization Golos reported “the mass use” of cash incentives and busing of voters to election precincts in Siberia and the Far East. It also complained of a lack of access by vote monitors and journalists to precincts. Ella Pamfilova, the head of Russia’s Election Commission, who had been subject of a mysterious attack on the even of the vote, accused Golos of reproducing claims of fraud from previous elections. The closely watched Moscow elections — which have been marred by past vote rigging —proceeded largely without incident. Several videos, however, circulated on social media showing ballot stuffing at a few polling stations. A woman holds a poster that reads: “Elections are when you can choose,” as people gathered for a protest in St. Petersburg, Russia, Sept. 5, 2019.Election Repression For many, the vote was characterized by which candidates were not in the race.Russia’s Election Commission banned the vast majority of opposition candidates alleging they did not have the required number of signatures to participate. The move prompted a rolling series of street protests in Moscow and Saint Petersburg that saw some 2,500 arrests — effectively turning a somewhat minor race into a test of political freedoms in President Vladimir Putin’s managed democracy.Banned opposition candidates spent much of the summer in prison. A handful of protesters faced even harsher punishment — several receiving prison terms of 3-5 years for participating in what the government says are “unauthorized rallies.” Yet Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed complaints about the lack of competition.“It’s not important how many candidates there are — what matters is the quality,” said the Russian leader as he cast his vote in Moscow. Putin has said Russians have the right to protest but has also warned that authorities would not tolerate those who break exiting laws. In a reminder of that threat, a dozen demonstrators were arrested in Moscow Sunday while trying to raise public awareness over the harsh sentences issued by Russian courts earlier in the week. Where is the Party of Power? The vote seemed to confirm recent polls that showed a collapse in support for the government and its ruling United Russia party. Indeed, United Russia — formally, still the ‘party of power’ in Russia’s Parliament — was nearly absent from the ballot as party regulars recast themselves as ‘independents’ to avoid voters’ ire. Yet they faced another challenge. With opposition candidates barred from participation, Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny called on voters to avoid diving their votes and embrace a ‘smart voting’ strategy. The plan amounted to outing Kremlin-affiliated candidates and urging voters to strategically cast their ballots for whatever other candidate has the best chance of winning. Russian opposition front-man Alexey Navalny addresses a rally in Moscow, Sept. 20, 2015.I’ll vote for whatever smart vote candidate Navalny tells me to,” said Sergey Shepetev, 38, who spoke to VOA at outside a precinct in central Moscow. “I don’t even remember his name. But I’ll vote for him. Anything to beat United Russia.” Still, Navalny’s plan clearly tested the limits of opposition voters loyalty — in effect asking them to support candidates with ideas they clearly despised. “I went and Smart Voted. What could be more repulsive?” asked Konstantin Sonin, a leading Russian economist, in a post to Facebook where he detailed his vote for a communist candidate. “Voting for him, I voted “against all” — against everyone who ruined the Moscow elections.” Election interferenceThe election was also characterized by accusations of foreign interference.In advance of the vote, Russia’s Duma held investigations accusing the US and several media companies of trying to foment a street revolution. On Sunday, Roskomnadzor, Russia’s Internet governing body, made similar “election interference” charges against American tech giants Google and Facebook, saying the companies had run online political ads banned on election day. Yet the biggest factor in the race appeared to be low voter turnout — which hovered in the upper teens across the country and just over 20% in the capital. “What elections? I have to work,” grumbled a cashier in Moscow when asked about the elections. “I couldn’t vote if I wanted to.”
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29 Killed in Two Attacks in Burkina Faso
Officials in northern Burkina Faso say at least 29 people were killed in two separate incidents Sunday. Government spokesman Remis Dandjinou said, in a statement, at least 15 people were killed when a truck carrying people and goods “rode over an improvised explosive device in the Barsalogho area.” Fourteen people were killed when a food convoy of trucks came under attack in Sanmatenga province, according to the spokesman. The French news agency AFP reports that locals sources said many of the dead in the convoy were the drivers of the vehicles carrying provisions for people displaced by fighting. “Military reinforcements have been deployed and a thorough search in under way,” said Dandjinou. Millions of people in Burkina Faso are facing an unprecedented humanitarian emergency because of growing hunger, instability and displacement, the World Food Program warned recently. The United Nations reports escalating fighting, some fueled by ethnic and religious beliefs, has forced more than 237,000 people to flee their homes. Jihadists have frequently launched attacks on Burkina’s military. A former French colony, Burkina Faso in one of the poorest countries in the world.
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State Media: China will Not Tolerate Attempts to Separate Hong Kong from China
Hong Kong is an inseparable part of China and any form of secessionism “will be crushed,” state media said on Monday, a day after demonstrators rallied at the U.S. consulate to ask for help in bringing democracy to city.The China Daily newspaper said Sunday’s rally in Hong Kong was proof that foreign forces were behind the protests, which began in mid-June, and warned that demonstrators should “stop trying the patience of the central government”.Chinese officials have accused foreign forces of trying to hurt Beijing by creating chaos in Hong Kong over a hugely unpopular extradition bill that would have allowed suspects to be tried in Communist Party-controlled courts.Anger over the bill grew into sometimes violent protests calling for more freedoms for Hong Kong, which returned to Chinese rule in 1997 under a “one country, two systems” formula. Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam formally scrapped the bill last week as part of concessions aimed at ending the protests.”Hong Kong is an inseparable part of China – and that is the bottom line no one should challenge, not the demonstrators, not the foreign forces playing their dirty games,” the China Daily said in an editorial.”The demonstrations in Hong Kong are not about rights or democracy. They are a result of foreign interference. Lest the central government’s restraint be misconstrued as weakness, let it be clear secessionism in any form will be crushed,” it said.State news agency Xinhua said in a separate commentary that the rule of law needed to be manifested and that Hong Kong could pay a larger and heavier penalty should the current situation continue.
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Nissan to Discuss Saikawa Resignation, CEO not ‘Clinging to his Chair’: Source
Nissan Motor Co’s nominating committee will discuss Chief Executive Hiroto Saikawa’s resignation and possible successors at a meeting on Monday, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.Saikawa has expressed his desire to resign from the troubled automaker and is not “clinging to his chair”, the source said, declining to be identified because the information has not been made public.The Nikkei newspaper earlier reported that Saikawa told reporters on Monday he wanted to “pass the baton” to the next generation as soon as possible. The executive has come under pressure since admitting last week to being improperly compensated.
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Charity Ship Rescues 50 African Migrants in Sea off Libya
A charity ship run by humanitarian groups in the Mediterranean spent a rainy Sunday searching open waters for a fragile rubber boat overloaded with migrants before finally plucking 50 people to safety not far off Libya’s coast.The Norwegian-flagged Ocean Viking, which is operated jointly by SOS Mediterranee and Doctors Without Borders, sent its own boats to pick up a pregnant woman close to full term, 12 minors and 37 men, all from sub-Saharan Africa.“God bless you!” one of the men told the rescuers as they passed life vests to the wet and barefoot passengers.At least two people feeling ill collapsed upon arrival on the Ocean Viking, while three others were soaked in fuel and two were suffering from mild hypothermia. The operation was witnessed by an Associated Press journalist aboard the ship, which found the migrant boat some 14 nautical miles (16 statute miles) from Libya.The rescue occurred 14 hours after the Ocean Viking as well as Libyan, Italian and Maltese authorities, the United Nations’ refugee agency and Moonbird, a humanitarian observation plane, received an email by Alarm Phone, a hotline for migrants. It was an urgent call seeking help for the rubber boat carrying 50 people without a working engine.The Ocean Viking, which was already in the Libyan search and rescue zone of the central Mediterranean, informed all authorities that it was beginning an active search for the migrant boat. Throughout the morning, the charity ship chased several objects spotted on the horizon, including what turned out to be a floating palm leaf tangled with fishing gear and an empty small fishing boat.Throughout the morning, the ship tried to contact Libyan officials without success. The AP journalist witnessed at least three phone calls to the Libyan Joint Rescue and Coordination Center that went unanswered.The blue rubber boat jammed with the migrants was finally spotted on the horizon near a fishing boat at 1:30 p.m. The fishing boat did not respond to radio contact by the Ocean Viking, which then launched its rescue boats.At 2:30 p.m., the Libyan Coastguard finally answered the phone and the Ocean Viking reported that its crew was in the process of rescuing the migrants.A European Union plane taking part in the Operation Sophia anti-human trafficking operation flew over the Ocean Viking, the migrant boat and the fishing boat multiple times shortly before the people were rescued.As required by maritime law, the ship asked Libyan authorities responsible for rescue coordination in that part of the Mediterranean to provide a place of safety to disembark the rescued migrants, but it also made the same request to Italian and Maltese officials. There was no immediate response.International migration and human rights bodies say Libya is not a place of safety, and Doctors Without Borders does not consider any North African country safe for disembarkation of the migrants.But for more than a year, migrant rescues performed by non-governmental groups have frequently led to sometimes weeks-long standoffs trying to get European authorities to allow migrants to be landed.
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WWII ‘Screaming Eagle’ Veteran Henry Ochsner Dies at 96
World War II veteran Henry Ochsner, who landed on the beach at Normandy on D-Day and later received the French government’s highest honor for his service, has died. He was 96.Family friend Dennis Anderson says Ochsner died Saturday at his home in California City of complications from cancer and old age.As part of the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division — known as the “Screaming Eagles” — Ochsner also fought at the Battle of the Bulge.In 2017 Ochsner and nine other veterans were awarded France’s National Order of the Legion of Honor during a ceremony at Los Angeles National Cemetery.Ochsner married Violet Jenson in 1947. He is survived by his wife, their four daughters and two granddaughters. Funeral plans are pending.
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Search Warrants Served in California Boat Fire Investigation
Authorities served search warrants Sunday at the Southern California company that owned the scuba diving boat that caught fire and killed 34 people last week.Agents with the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and other agencies searched Truth Aquatics’ offices in Santa Barbara and the company’s two remaining boats, Santa Barbara County sheriff’s Lt. Erik Raney said.The warrants served shortly after 9 a.m. are part of the ongoing investigation into the tragedy to determine whether any crimes were committed, he said. The office was ringed in red “crime scene” tape as more than a dozen agents took photos and carried out boxes.Thirty-four people died when the Conception burned and sank before dawn on Sept. 2. They were sleeping in a cramped bunkroom below the main deck and their escape routes were blocked by fire.The bodies of all but one victim have been recovered. The search for the final body was suspended this weekend because of strong winds and rough seas, Raney said.“The dive teams are going to get together Monday to develop a plan. We’re hoping they’re back in the water on Tuesday,” he said Sunday.For a judge to approve warrants, law enforcement must spell out the probability a crime was committed. Raney declined to comment on what evidence was disclosed to obtain the warrants, saying only that they are “a pretty standard” part of the investigation to determine whether crimes occurred.Coast Guard records show the Conception passed its two most recent inspections with no safety violations. Previous customers said Truth Aquatics and the captains of its three boats were very safety conscious.Authorities are focused on determining the cause of the fire and are looking at many things, including how batteries and electronics were stored and charged. They will also look into how the crew was trained and what crewmembers were doing at the time of the fire. The boat’s design will also come under scrutiny, particularly whether a bunkroom escape hatch was adequate.Five crew members jumped overboard after trying to rescue the 33 scuba divers and one crew member whose escape routes were blocked by fire, federal authorities and the boat’s owner said. The crew, including the captain, said they were driven back by flames, smoke and heat.They jumped from the bridge area to the main deck — one breaking a leg in the effort — and tried to get through the double doors of the galley, which were on fire.That cut off both escape routes from the sleeping quarters: a stairway and an escape hatch that exited in the galley area. The crew then tried, but failed, to get into windows at the front of the vessel.Truth Aquatics pre-emptively filed a lawsuit Thursday under a pre-Civil War provision of maritime law that could protect it from potentially costly payouts to families of the dead, a move condemned by some observers as disrespectful and callous.The company said in a statement posted Friday on Instagram that the lawsuit is an “unfortunate side of these tragedies” and pinned the action on insurance companies and other so-called stakeholders.
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Some 9/11 Firefighters May Have Higher Heart Risks Now
Firefighters who arrived early or spent more time at the World Trade Center site after the 9/11 attacks seem to have a modestly higher risk of developing heart problems than those who came later or stayed less, doctors reported Friday.The research might have implications for any efforts to expand the list of health problems eligible for payment from a victim compensation fund.The study has some big limitations and can’t prove that dust or anything else about the disaster caused increased heart risks. It also doesn’t compare the New York firefighters to the general population or to other responders such as paramedics or construction workers.But it does suggest that working at the site raised risk for some firefighters more than others. Those who arrived by noon that day had a 44% greater chance of suffering a heart problem in the years since the attack compared to firefighters who came hours or days later.Risk was 33% higher for those who worked there during six or more months versus less time.That may sound large but heart problems were fairly uncommon — only about 5% of these firefighters developed one.“This is a modest increase, not an epidemic,” said one study leader, Dr. David Prezant, chief medical officer of the Fire Department of the City of New York. However, “this risk increases over time; it doesn’t disappear.”Results of the federally funded study were published in the journal JAMA Network Open.It tracked the health of 9,796 male firefighters through 2017 — 16 years after the collapse of the twin towers exposed many to a cloud of thick dust and particles from fires that burned for days. Female firefighters were excluded because there were only 25 and their heart risks may differ.Medical records were available for years before the attacks, so researchers could consider high blood pressure, cholesterol, smoking and other factors.They documented 489 heart problems since the disaster, including 120 heart attacks and roughly 300 procedures or surgeries for clogged arteries. Risks were higher among the 1,600 firefighters who arrived at the site by noon on Sept. 11, 2001, and among the 2,400 who worked there during six months or more.There are good records on arrival times but less on duration at the site, making that result less reliable. Being counted as having worked one month could be one day during that month or 30 days.Judith Graber, a researcher at Rutgers School of Public Health who has studied other 9/11 responders, called the research “very well conducted” and said “the important thing is the accumulation of evidence” suggesting increased risk.Prezant said some other studies found signs suggesting a greater risk of heart problems, which are not covered now by the program that treats responders or the victim compensation fund. He said administrators will need more information to decide whether to include those conditions for any groups, such as firefighters who responded early.“This adds to the evidence but it doesn’t guarantee coverage,” Prezant said.Dr. Nieca Goldberg, a cardiologist at NYU Langone Health and an American Heart Association spokeswoman, said 9/11 responders must stay alert for possible problems.“Everyone needs to know potential symptoms of a heart attack so they can get rapid care,” she said.
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