Sudan’s first Cabinet since the ouster of president Omar al-Bashir was sworn in Sunday as the African country transitions to a civilian rule following nationwide protests that overthrew the autocrat.The 18-member Cabinet led by Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, which includes four women, took oath at the presidential palace in Khartoum, an AFP correspondent reported.It is expected to steer the daily affairs of the country during a transition period of 39 months.The line-up was formed after Sudan last month swore in a “sovereign council” — a joint civilian-military ruling body that aims to oversee the transition.The 18 ministers were seen greeting members of the sovereign council, including its chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, in images broadcast by state television from the palace.”We have to put in a lot of efforts to meet our people’s demands,” Information Minister Faisal Mohamed Saleh told reporters after the swearing in ceremony.”The world is watching us. It is waiting to see how we can solve our issues.”The sovereign council itself is the result of a power-sharing deal between the protesters and generals who had seized power after the army ousted Bashir in April.Hamdok’s Cabinet, which has the country’s first female foreign affairs minister, is expected to lead Sudan through formidable challenges that also include ending internal conflicts in three regions.Rebel groups from marginalized regions of Darfur, Blue Nile and South Kordofan states had waged long wars against Bashir’s forces.”The road ahead is not easy. We will face many challenges but we have to work on them,” said Walaa Issam, Minister for youth and sports.’200-day program’Sudan’s power-sharing deal aims to forge peace with armed groups.Hamdok’s Cabinet will also be expected to fight corruption and dismantle the long-entrenched Islamist deep state created under Bashir.Bashir had seized power in an Islamist-backed coup in 1989 and ruled Sudan with an iron fist for three decades until his ouster.It was a worsening economic crisis that triggered the fall of Bashir, who is now on trial on charges of illegal acquisition and use of foreign funds.The key challenge facing the new government is reviving the ailing economy.”We have a 200-day program for reviving the economy in a way that could help reduce the cost of living for our people in the near term,” said Finance Minister Ibrahim Ahmad Al-Badawi.”We also have a long term plan to restructure the overall economy,” he said, adding that the country was soon expecting new donations to help tackle some immediate challenges.According to doctors linked to the umbrella protest movement that led to Bashir’s fall, more than 250 people have been killed in protest-related violence since December.Of that at least 127 were killed in early June during a brutal crackdown on a weeks-long protest sit-in outside the military headquarters in Khartoum. Officials have given a lower death toll.
…
Month: September 2019
Huge Crowd Takes Hong Kong Protest Message to US Consulate
Updated: September 8, 2019 08:15 AM.HONG KONG — A huge crowd of pro-democracy activists marched to the United States consulate in Hong Kong on Sunday in a bid to ramp up international pressure on Beijing following three months of huge and sometimes violent protests.Millions have taken to Hong Kong’s streets over the last 14 weeks in the biggest challenge to China’s rule since the city’s handover from Britain in 1997.The protests were lit by a now scrapped plan to allow extraditions to the authoritarian mainland, seen by opponents as the latest move by China to chip away at the international finance hub’s unique freedoms.But after Beijing and city leaders took a hard line the movement snowballed into a broader campaign calling for greater democracy, police accountability and an amnesty for those arrested.Sunday’s protest featured another massive turnout for a movement that has gripped the semi-autonomous territory and plunged it into a political crisis.Dense crowds of protesters spent hours slowly filing past Washington’s consulate in the thick tropical heat. Many waved US flags, some sang the Star Spangled Banner, others held signs calling on President Donald Trump to “liberate” Hong Kong.In chants and speeches they called on the US to pressure Beijing to meet their demands and for Congress to pass a recently proposed bill that expresses support for the protest.”More than 1,000 protesters have been arrested. We can’t do anything but come out onto the streets, I feel hopeless,” 30-year-old protester Jenny Chan, told AFP.”I think aside from foreign countries, no one can really help us,” she added.In what has become a now familiar pattern, the main daytime rally passed off peacefully.But as evening set in, riot police were chasing groups of hardcore protesters who blocked roads, vandalized nearby subway stations and set makeshift barricades on fire.Beijing riled by criticismHong Kong is a major international business hub thanks to freedoms unheard of on the mainland under a 50-year deal signed between China and Britain.But Beijing balks at any criticism from foreign governments over its handling of the city, which it insists is a purely internal issue.Authorities and state media have portrayed the protests as a separatist movement backed by foreign “black hands”, primarily aiming their ire at the US and Britain.While some American politicians on both sides of the aisle have expressed support for the democratic goals of the protesters, the Trump administration has maintained a more hands-off approach as it locks horns with China over trade.Trump has called for a peaceful resolution to the political crisis and urged China against escalating with a violent crackdown.But he has also said it is up to Beijing to handle the protests.Washington has rejected China’s allegations that it is backing the demonstrators and Beijing has shown little evidence to back its claims beyond supportive statements from some politicians.The ongoing protests show no signs of abating.The city’s unelected pro-Beijing leader Carrie Lam has struck an uncompromising tone for much of the last three months.But on Wednesday she made a surprise concession, announcing the full withdrawal of the proposed extradition bill which sparked the demonstrations.Protesters across the spectrum dismissed the gesture as too little, too late, saying their movement would only end once the remainder of their core demands were met.”Our government continuously takes away our freedoms and that’s why people are coming out,” a 30-year-old protester in a wheelchair who gave his surname as Ho told AFP on Sunday. Next moveAnalysts say it is difficult to predict what Beijing’s next move might be.Under president Xi Jinping, China has become increasingly authoritarian and dissent is being stamped out with renewed ferocity.But a move such as sending troops into Hong Kong would have huge economic and diplomatic consequences at a time when Beijing is already facing headwinds from the US trade war.Officials are also gearing up for the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China on October 1, with huge celebrations planned.Protesters in Hong Kong are seeking permission for a large rally next Sunday and are also looking to get out a large crowd on October 1.
…
Taliban Denounce Trump’s Move to Call off Peace Talks, Claim US Will Return to Negotiate
The Afghan Taliban have denounced President Donald Trump’s decision to call off peace talks with the insurgent group, claiming American interlocuters were happy with a deal both sides had negotiated in Doha, and that September 23 had been decided as a date to move to the next step—the start of negotiations with other Afghan factions.In a Pashto language statement Sunday, the insurgent group also claimed it will not give up its fight and that the U.S. will be forced to return to negotiations eventually.Trump called off the peace deal with the Taliban in a series of Tweets, blaming “an attack in Kabul that killed one of our great great soldiers, and 11 other people.”….an attack in Kabul that killed one of our great great soldiers, and 11 other people. I immediately cancelled the meeting and called off peace negotiations. What kind of people would kill so many in order to seemingly strengthen their bargaining position? They didn’t, they….— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) FILE – U.S. special representative for Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad (L), meets with Afghanistan Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sept. 2, 2019. (Afghan Chief Executive office/Handout via Reuters)Days earlier, Khalilzad had told Afghan TV channel Tolo News that both sides had agreed “in principle” to a deal but he needed to get it approved from his boss–President Trump.However, several big attacks in Afghanistan, including in capital Kabul, led to instant criticism that the Taliban were not serious about peace. Still, President Trump’s announcement led to a mixture of uncertainty and despair in a country that was hoping for an end to almost two decades of war.“One tweet from thousands miles far, here thirty million people are concerned & uncertain about their future,” tweeted Ahmad Shah Katawazai (@askatawazai), an Afghan diplomat and writer.On tweet from thousands miles far, here thirty million people are concerned & uncertain about their future. Fake leverage won’t work anymore. Succumb to ceasefire or face the music.— Ahmad Shah Katawazai (@askatawazai) FILE – Afghan presidential candidate Ashraf Ghani, center, attends the first day of campaigning in Kabul, Afghanistan, July 28, 2019.Even prior to Trump pulling out of a deal, Ghani was known to oppose a process that seemed to sideline him and jeopardize his future in Afghan politics. In a recent article, the New York Times reported alleged shouting matches between him and Khalilzad over the deal with Taliban.The Taliban had refused to engage with the Ghani administration, calling it a puppet of the Americans. What irked Ghani the most, reports suggested, was that the insurgent group had engaged with other Afghan politicians, including Ghani’s political rivals, in conferences like one organized in Moscow.His administration had consistently offered unconditional negotiations to the Taliban, only to be rebuffed by the militant group.“Whatever was going on in Qatar, after all those rounds of talks and negotiations that were going on for ten months, we expected an outcome that will lead to ceasefire, that could lead us to a direct negotiation with the Afghan government and the Taliban. Unfortunately, that we didn’t see,” Sediqi said.Concerns about a deal that some feared gave too many concessions to the Taliban emerged from multiple quarters, including former U.S. diplomats.In an article titled “How to Avoid Rushing to Failure,” published in The Atlantic last week, nine senior former American diplomats who knew Afghanistan well warned that the “initial US drawdown should not go so far or so fast that the Taliban believe that they can achieve military victory.” That would embolden the militant group, they said, making it less likely that they make compromises with their fellow Afghans, and jeopardize chances of a lasting peace.They also warned of “an outcome worse than the status quo,” a return to the civil war of the 90s, which would leave large swathes of Afghanistan open to becoming havens for groups like Islamic State.Several people who analyze the region expressed surprise over President Trump’s decision, calling off talks over the death of an American soldier, since neither side had committed to a cease-fire. Michael Kugleman of Washington based think tank the Wilson Center tweeted: “One possible reason for Trump’s bombshell #Taliban tweet: He needed a pretext to back out of a deal that wasn’t going to work. He found one, and, in announcing it, sought to put the Taliban on the back foot to improve the USG bargaining position in potential future negotiations.”One possible reason for Trump’s bombshell #Taliban tweet: He needed a pretext to back out of a deal that wasn’t going to work. He found one, and, in announcing it, sought to put the Taliban on the back foot to improve the USG bargaining position in potential future negotiations.— Michael Kugelman (@MichaelKugelman) September 8, 2019
…
Typhoon Kills 5 in North Korea, 3 in South Korea
One of the most powerful typhoons to ever hit the Korean Peninsula has left five people dead and three injured in North Korea, state media reported Sunday, in its first public announcement of casualties since the storm made landfall in the country a day earlier.Before reaching North Korea, Typhoon Lingling hit South Korea, killing three people and injuring 13 others, though the country appears to have escaped widespread damage.The North’s official Korean Central News Agency, or KCNA, said the typhoon left 460 houses and 15 public buildings destroyed, damaged or inundated in the country. It said 46,200 hectares of farmland were buried or inundated.KCNA said the typhoon hit North Korea from 2 p.m. Saturday to midnight Sunday. Recovery work was underway in typhoon-afflicted areas, it said.Outside observers said rainstorms could be a catastrophe in North Korea because of poor drainage, deforestation and decrepit infrastructure in the impoverished country. South Korean media said North Korea could eventually report more typhoon-related casualties and damage.According to a previous KCNA dispatch, leader Kim Jong Un “urgently convened” an emergency meeting on Friday to discuss disaster prevention efforts and scolded government officials who he described as “helpless against the typhoon, unaware of its seriousness and seized with easygoing sentiment.”South Korean weather officials said the typhoon had weakened when it moved through North Korea. They said the storm was moving near Russia’s Vladivostok as of Sunday morning.South Korea’s interior ministry said earlier Sunday that it was reviewing the damage from the typhoon and engaging in recovery work. The storm damaged buildings and knocked out power to about 161,640 homes in South Korea.Typhoons that made a landfall in South Korea in past years caused greater damage and more casualties.
…
State Media: Mugabe to Be Buried Next Sunday
Former Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe is expected to be buried next Sunday, state media reported.Mugabe, an ex-guerrilla leader who became the southern African country’s first leader following independence from white minority rule in 1980 and held on to power until he was forced to resign in 2017, died in Singapore on Friday.His body will arrive in Zimbabwe on Wednesday, the Sunday Mail quoted presidential spokesman George Charamba as saying.Mugabe enjoyed strong backing from Zimbabwe’s people after taking over in 1980 but that support waned following decades of repression, economic mismanagement and allegations of election-rigging.He is still regarded by many as a national hero, though, with some even beginning to say they missed him after his successor, Emmerson Mnangagwa, a former ally turned foe, failed to revive the economy and used the army to crush dissent.According to Charamba, Mnangagwa and family members will receive the body at the airport named after the former president in the capital, Harare. The body will be taken to his rural home, about 85 kilometers (53 miles) southwest of Harare before being placed in a giant stadium for public viewing.Mnangagwa, who described Mugabe as a “a great teacher and mentor”, declared him a national hero, the highest posthumous award in the country and said official mourning will only end after the burial at the National Heroes Acre, a hilltop shrine reserved exclusively for Zimbabweans who made huge sacrifices during the war against white-minority rule.In death, Mugabe received praise from his former political and military allies, who propped up his rule for close to four decades before forcing him out in 2017.”He died a very bitter man,” family spokesman and nephew to Mugabe, Leo Mugabe told reporters at the family’s rural home Saturday. “Imagine the people that are guarding you, that you trusted the most, turn against you.At a Roman Catholic cathedral where Mugabe used to attend Mass, a priest on Sunday opened the church service by paying tribute to the former ruler and asking congregants to forgive him.”He did a lot of positive things for our country but not everything that he did was right. We should learn to forgive for all the wrongs he may have committed. May God grant him mercy,” said Father Richard Mushuku.”Being a Catholic, he tried his level best to live according to Christian values and I know people have mixed feelings in the way he practiced his Christian values,” Kennedy Muguti, the vicar-general of the archdiocese of Harare, told The Associated Press after the Mass.Alex Ngwena, a parishioner, said “current leaders must learn from his mistakes.”
…
Turkey, US Begin ‘Safe Zone’ Joint Patrols in North Syria
Turkish and U.S. troops conducted their first joint ground patrol in northeastern Syria Sunday as part of a planned so-called “safe zone” that Ankara has been pressing for in the volatile region.Turkey hopes the buffer zone, which it says should be at least 30 kilometers (19 miles) deep, will keep Syrian Kurdish fighters, considered a threat by Turkey but U.S. allies in the fight against the Islamic State group, away from its border.Associated Press journalists in the town of Tal Abyad saw about a dozen Turkish armored vehicles with the country’s red flag standing along the border after crossing into Syria, and American vehicles about a mile away waiting. The two sides then came together in a joint patrol with American vehicles leading the convoy.At least two helicopters hovered overhead. The Turkish Defense Ministry confirmed the start of the joint patrols and said unmanned aerial vehicles were also being used.Washington has in the last years frequently found itself trying to forestall violence between its NATO ally Turkey and the Kurdish fighters it partnered with along the border to clear of IS militants.An initial agreement between Washington and Ankara last month averted threats of a Turkish attack. But details of the deal are still being worked out in separate talks with Ankara and the Kurdish-led forces in Syria known as the Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF.Turkey, which has carried out several incursions into Syria in the course of the country’s civil war in an effort to curb the expanding influence of the Kurdish forces, carried out joint patrols with U.S. troops in the northern town of Manbij last year.Sunday’s joint patrol is the first one taking place east of the Euphrates River, where U.S. troops have more presence, and as part of the safe zone that is being set up.Anadolu Agency said six Turkish armored vehicles crossed into Syria on Sunday from the border town of Akcakale, opposite from Syria’s Tal Abyad, and joined U.S. vehicles for their first joint patrol of an area east of the Euphrates river.AP reporters in Tal Abyad said the patrol was headed to a Kurdish-controlled base apparently to inspect it, apparently to ensure that trenches and sand berms had been removed. U.S. troops had inspected the base on Saturday during patrols with the SDF during which some of the berms Turkey had complained about were removed.For Turkey, a “safe zone” is important because it is hoping some of the Syrian refugees it has been hosting for years could be resettled there, although it is not clear how that would work.On Thursday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned that Turkey could “open its gates” and allow Syrian refugees in the country to move toward Western countries if a safe zone is not created and Turkey is left to shoulder the refugee burden alone. Turkey hosts 3.6 million refugees from Syria.Rather than calling it a safe zone, Washington and the Kurdish-led forces have said a “security mechanism” is taking shape to diffuse tensions in northeastern Syria
…
Pope Presses Need for Dignity of Work for Madagascar’s Poor
Pope Francis is pressing for the poor to have the dignity of work with a visit Sunday to a hilltop rock quarry in Madagascar where hundreds of people toil rather than scavenge in the biggest dump of the Indian Ocean nation’s capital.
After celebrating an open-air Mass before an estimated 1 million people, Francis heads to Akamasoa village, the brainchild of an Argentine priest who was so overwhelmed by the abject poverty of Madagascar that he set about creating ways for the poor to earn a living.
Over 30 years, the Akamasoa quarry has produced the stones that built the homes, roads, schools and health clinics that now dot the pine-covered hillside of Antananarivo. Founder the Rev. Pedro Opeka said the low salaries he can pay are “an injustice” — about 1 euro a day — but they are at least more than the dump scavengers earn, and enough for parents to send their children to school.
“Akamasoa is a revolt against poverty, it is a revolt against fatality,” Opeka told The Associated Press ahead of the pope’s visit. “When we started here it was an inferno, people who were excluded from the society.”
Opeka, a charismatic, bearded figure who is beloved by many in this city, grew up in Francis’ native Buenos Aires and even studied theology at the same seminary where the future pope studied and taught. A member of the Lazarist religious order, he was working as a missionary in Madagascar when he was inspired to create Akamasoa after witnessing the wretched life led by parents and children who lived off the dump scraps.
The Akamasoa project, which is funded by donors around the world and recognized by the Madagascar government, says it has built some 4,000 homes in more than 20 villages serving some 25,000 people since its foundation in 1989. About 700 people work in the rock quarry, using simple mallets to chop chunks of granite into cobblestones or pebbles, while others work as carpenters or attend training classes. It says 14,000 children have passed through its schools.
Despite Madagascar’s vast and unique natural resources, it is one of the poorest countries in the world. The World Bank says 75% of its 24 million people live on less than $2 a day; only 13% of the population has access to electricity.
Francis, the first pope from the global south, has long preached about the dignity of work, and the need for all able-bodied adults to be able to earn enough to provide for their families. He is expected to deliver a prayer for workers during a visit to the rock quarry in one of the highlights of his weeklong Africa pilgrimage.
Susane Razanamahasoa, 65, has worked in the quarry for 20 years, 9{ hours a day, to provide for her six children. She said the pope’s visit recalled the dedication to the poor of St. Francis of Assisi, his namesake.
“He is an extraordinary man and the fact that he has taken the name Francis after St. Francis of Assisi means he is thirsty to live like St. Francis,” she said during a break in her work. “I am so full of joy that he is coming.”
Francis began his day with a Mass on a dusty field in the capital, where the faithful who attended an evening vigil spent a cold, windy night securing spots for the Sunday service.
They roared and waved plastic Madagascar and Holy See flags as Francis looped through the crowd before Mass on his popemobile, kicking up red dust in his wake. Citing local organizers, the Vatican said an estimated 1 million people were on hand.
In his homily, Francis told the crowd to not work only for their own personal agendas and goals, but for others.
“As we look around us, how many men and women, young people and children are suffering and in utter need!” he said. “This is not part of God’s plan. How urgently Jesus calls us to kill off our self-centeredness, our individualism and our pride!”
On Monday, Francis travels to the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius on the final day of his weeklong, three-nation Africa trip.
…
British Politician Resigns Over Prime Minister’s Handling of Brexit
A senior minister of Britain’s ruling Conservative party has resigned because she does not think the prime minister is serious about creating a Brexit divorce deal. Work and Pensions Secretary Amber Rudd said late Saturday that Boris Johnson is not working to secure a Brexit withdrawal agreement. “There is no evidence of a deal,” Rudd said. “There are no formal negotiations taking place.” Rudd said in her resignation letter: “I joined your cabinet in good faith: Accepting that ‘no deal’ had to be on the table, because it was the means by which we would have the best chance of achieving a new deal to leave on 31 October.” Rudd added: “The government is expending a lot of energy to prepare for ‘no deal’ but I have not seen the same level of intensity go into our talks with the European Union.” Home Secretary Sajid Javid said Sunday the government is “straining every sinew to get a deal.”
…
Dorian Leaves a Path of Death and Destruction
Dorian, now a post-tropical cyclone, is expected to move over or near the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador Sunday and then enter the North Atlantic.The storm hit Canada’s Atlantic coast Saturday with heavy wind and rains that toppled a construction crane into the side of an apartment building under construction in Halifax, the provincial capital of Nova Scotia.Nova Scotia Power told the Associated Press that 300,000 customers of Halifax, which has a population of 400,000, were without power late Saturday.Before reaching Canada, Dorian moved over extreme southeastern Massachusetts and Maine in the U.S.On Friday, Dorian made landfall over Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, after weakening into a Category 1 storm. It generated tornadoes, severe storm surges and flooding in coastal areas in North and South Carolina.Steve Harris, a resident of North Carolina’s Ocracoke Island said, “We went from almost no water to 4 to 6 feet in a matter of minutes.”People wait to board a cargo ship for evacuation to Nassau after Hurricane Dorian, Sept. 7, 2019, in Marsh Harbor, Great Abaco. Bahamians who lost everything in Hurricane Dorian were scrambling to escape the worst-hit islands.Dorian was a Category 5 storm when it hit the Bahamas, creating a path of death and destruction, leaving an estimated 70,000 people in need of immediate humanitarian relief.The official Bahamian death toll is 43, but officials say that will rise, because hundreds, perhaps thousands are missing.The death toll will be “catastrophic and devastating,” Prime Minister Hubert Minnis said, while Health Minister Duane Sands said the final toll “will be staggering.”The U.N. World Food Program warned Saturday that thousands of displaced people are living in “rapidly deteriorating” conditions in the worst-hit parts of the Bahamas in Dorian’s aftermath.“The needs remain enormous,” WFP spokesman Herve Verhoosel said in an email Saturday.“People have no food. People have no water, and it’s not right. They should have been gone,” Chamika Durosier told the French news agency AFP Saturday as she waited for a flight out of Abaco, one of the most badly damaged areas in the Bahamas. “The home that we were in fell on us,” she said. “We had to crawl — get out crawling. By the grace of God, we are still alive.”“Our relief operation is growing, but we are also facing serious challenges in terms of delivering aid,” Red Cross spokeswoman Jennifer Eli told Reuters. “Even search-and-rescue choppers haven’t been able to reach some people because there’s no place to land. These challenges are affecting everyone.”
…
Hong Kong Protesters Take Message to US Consulate
Pro-democracy activists rallied outside the United States consulate in Hong Kong Sunday as they try to ramp up international pressure on Beijing following three months of huge and sometimes violent protests.Millions have taken to Hong Kong’s streets over the last 14 weeks in the biggest challenge to China’s rule since the city’s handover from Britain in 1997.The protests were ignited by a now scrapped plan to allow extraditions to the authoritarian mainland, seen by opponents as the latest move by Beijing to chip away at the international finance hub’s unique freedoms.But after Beijing and city leaders took a hard line, the movement snowballed into a broader campaign calling for greater democracy, police accountability and an amnesty for those arrested.Protesters wave U.S. flags as they march from Chater Garden to the US consulate in Hong Kong, Sept. 8, 2019, to call on the U.S. to pressure Beijing to meet their demands and for Congress to pass a bill supporting the protest movement.A huge crowd, some waving the Stars and Stripes flag, rallied in a park in Hong Kong’s commercial district and marched to Washington’s nearby consulate.They called on the U.S. to pressure Beijing to meet their demands and for Congress to pass a recently proposed bill that expresses support for the protest.“More than 1,000 protesters have been arrested. We can’t do anything but come out onto the streets, I feel hopeless,” 30-year-old protester Jenny Chan, told AFP.“I think aside from foreign countries, no one can really help us,” she added.
…
Hong Kong’s Grandpa Protesters Speak Softly, Carry a Stick
“Grandpa Wong” holds a cane above his head as he pleads with riot police to stop firing tear gas — an 85-year-old shielding protesters on the front lines of Hong Kong’s fight for democracy.Despite his age, Wong is a regular sight at Hong Kong’s street battles, hobbling toward police lines, placing himself in between riot officers and hardcore protesters, hoping to de-escalate what have now become near daily clashes.“I’d rather they kill the elderly than hit the youngsters,” he told AFP during a recent series of skirmishes in the shopping district of Causeway Bay, a gas mask dangling from his chin.“We’re old now, but the children are the future of Hong Kong,” he added.”Grandpa Wong,” center left, 85, shields protesters from the police by stepping between them along with other “silver hair” volunteers in the Tung Chung district in Hong Kong, Sept. 7, 2019.Youth lead, but all marchThe three months of huge, sometimes violent pro-democracy protests in the semi-autonomous Chinese city are overwhelmingly youth-led.Research by academics has shown that half of those on the streets are between 20 and 30 years old, while 77 percent have degrees.But the movement maintains widespread support across the public with lawyers, doctors, nurses, teachers and civil servants all holding recent solidarity rallies, even as the violence escalates.Groups of elderly people — dubbed “silver hairs” — have also marched.But Wong and his friend “Grandpa Chan,” a comparatively spry 73-year-old, are among the most pro-active of this older generation.The two are part of a group called “Protect the Children,” made up of mostly senior citizens and volunteers.Almost every weekend, they come out to try to mediate between police and demonstrators, as well as buy protesters time when the cops start to charge.A pair of swimming goggles dangle from the neck of “Grandpa Wong,” 85, as he rides an MTR train to the Tung Chung district in Hong Kong, Sept. 7, 2019.‘Stay peaceful’As another volley of tear gas bounded down a boulevard in Causeway Bay, a street lined with luxury malls and fashion retailers, Chan gripped Wong’s hand tightly, stopping his old comrade from rushing back into the crossfire.“If we die, we die together,” yelled Chan, who eschews helmets and instead always wears an eye-catching red hat daubed with slogans.While “Protect the Children” turn up primarily to defend the youth, Wong said he tries to warn protesters not to provoke police.“It’s wrong to throw stones, that’s why the police beat them up,” he lamented. “I hope that police won’t hit them and the children won’t throw stuff back.”“Everyone should stay peaceful to protect the core values of Hong Kong,” he added.As Hong Kong’s summer of rage has worn on, the violence on both sides has only escalated.Each weekend has brought increasingly violent bouts, with a minority of black-clad protesters using molotovs, slingshots and bricks.Police have also upped their violence, deploying water cannons and resorting to tear gas and rubber bullets with renewed ferocity.More than 1,100 people have been arrested, ranging from children as young as 12 to a man in his mid-70s. Many are facing charges of rioting, which carry 10 years in jail.”Grandpa Wong,” center, 85, leans on his walking stick with other “silver hair” volunteers after intervening in a confrontation between protesters and riot police in the Tung Chung district in Hong Kong, Sept. 7, 2019.Fears have risen for the fate for one veteran protester Alexandra Wong, known as “Grandma Wong,” who attended dozens of protests waving a large British flag.She lives in Shenzhen, a city across the border on the Chinese mainland but has not been seen at the protests since mid-August when she appeared in videos looking injured after clashes with police inside a subway station.‘Let the elderly look after you’Grandpa Wong says he understands why youngsters feel they have no choice but to protest.He has watched over the decades as mainland China has grown more wealthy and powerful while remaining avowedly authoritarian.“If the Chinese Communist Party comes to Hong Kong, Hong Kong will become Guangzhou,” Wong sighed, referring to a nearby mainland city.“The authorities can lock you up whenever they want,” he said.Hong Kong’s protests were sparked by a controversial bill that would allow extradition to China, raising concerns over unfair trials given the mainland’s record of rights abuses.But it soon morphed into a wider movement calling for democratic reform and police accountability.”Grandpa Wong,” 85, speaks with a riot police officer along with other “silver hair” volunteers in the Tung Chung district in Hong Kong, Sept. 7, 2019.Roy Chan, who organizes the “Protect the Children” group, says he respects what the elderly citizens do but is disappointed they feel they need to come out.“They should have a good life at home during the last years of their lives,” he said. “But they are in a war and protecting the youth.”Grandpa Wong’s presence at the Causeway Bay protest came to an end as riot police eventually cleared the usually bustling shopping district.But the next day he was right back at it, this time at a protest near the city’s airport.“Go home kiddos,” he hollered, brimming with renewed energy. “Let the elderly look after you.”
…
Russian Authorities Testing Strategies to Handle Election Discontent
In Russia, elections are Sept. 8 for municipal and Duma deputies and regional governors. The vote was preceded by months of protests in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Authorities used different tactics to prevent the spread of discontent around the country and contain any opposition. Yulia Savchenko reports from Moscow on how authorities attempted to keep the unrest from spreading, and the strategies used by protesters to sidestep the suppression.
…
NOAA Assailed for Defending Trump’s Hurricane Dorian Claim
Former top officials of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are assailing the agency for undermining its weather forecasters as it defends President Donald Trump’s claim that Hurricane Dorian had threatened Alabama.
They say NOAA’s action risks the credibility of the nation’s weather and science agency and may even risk lives.
The critics served both Republican and Democratic presidents. Among them are four former top NOAA officials and a former disaster response chief.
On Friday, a NOAA statement from an anonymous spokesperson lent support to Trump’s warning days earlier that Alabama faced danger from Dorian. Alabama had never been included in official hurricane advisories and his information was outdated.
The statement undermined a National Weather Service tweet from Sunday that had said Alabama would see no impact from Dorian.
…
Pope Says Deforestation Must Be Treated as a Global Threat
Pope Francis said on Saturday rapid deforestation and the loss of biodiversity in individual countries should not be treated as local issues since they threaten the future of the planet.Francis made his appeal on a visit to Madagascar, the world’s fourth-largest island, which research institutes and aid agencies say has lost about 44% of its forest over the past 60 years, abetted by illegal exports of rosewood and ebony.Francis zeroed in on endemic corruption, linking it with persistent, long-term poverty as well as poaching and illegal exports of natural resources. Addressing Madagascar’s president, Andry Rajoelina, his cabinet and other officials, Francis said some people were profiting from excessive deforestation and the associated loss of species.”The deterioration of that biodiversity compromises the future of the country and of the earth, our common home,” he said.Following recent huge fires in the Amazon region, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro rejected international criticism about his policy to expand farmland, saying it was a domestic issue.”The last forests are menaced by forest fires, poaching, the unrestricted cutting down of valuable woodlands. Plant and animal biodiversity is endangered by contraband and illegal exportation,” Pope Francis said.Jobs must be created for people whose livelihood harms the environment so they will not see it as their only means of survival, the pontiff added.”There can be no true ecological approach or effective efforts to safeguard the environment without the attainment of a social justice capable of respecting the right to the common destination of the Earth’s goods, not only of present generations, but also of those yet to come,” he said.’Corruption and speculation’The Amazon fires have lent new urgency to Francis’s calls to protect nature, tackle climate change and promote sustainable development — all themes enshrined in his 2015 encyclical on environmental protection.Madagascar is one of world’s poorest countries. The U.N. Nations World Food Program estimates that more than 90% of its population of 26 million live on less than $2 a day, with chronic child malnutrition widespread.Corruption is also rampant, Transparency International says. Francis urged the nation’s leaders “to fight with strength and determination all endemic forms of corruption and speculation that increase social disparity, and to confront the situations of great instability and exclusion that always create conditions of inhumane poverty.”Conservation groups say that during Rajoelina’s first stint in power, his cash-strapped administration presided over a spike in deforestation to supply rosewood and ebony to China despite a national ban on such exports.Environmental campaign group TRAFFIC estimates that at least one million rosewood logs have been illegally shipped from Madagascar since 2010.As Asian supplies of valuable hardwoods including rosewood used to make luxury furniture have been depleted, Chinese importers have shifted to Africa, according to Chinese customs data cited by U.S.-based non-profit group Forest Trends.Later on Saturday, Francis visited a convent of cloistered nuns and joked about the challenges of dealing with strict superiors.In the evening, he addressed some 100,000 young people at a rally in a field on the outskirts of the capital, urging them to help bring social justice to their country.
…
‘We’re Here,’ France’s Yellow Vests Say, but Numbers Are Smaller
With the French back from summer vacation, the yellow vest movement is vowing to turn this month into a “black September” of protests. But there was little sign Saturday of the massive crowds that shuttered shops and disrupted France’s economy and politics not so long ago. “We’re here, we’re here,” some in yellow vests sang, crossing a busy street as cars screeched to a halt. “Even if [President Emmanuel] Macron doesn’t like it, we are here.” At the Champs-Elysees, once a no-go zone on Saturdays, riot police vastly outnumbered a small group of yellow vests defying a ban to protest there. Sept. 7, 2019. (L. Bryant/VOA)And so they were. But they counted in the thousands, not tens of thousands like before. At the Champs-Elysees, once a no-go zone on Saturdays, riot police vastly outnumbered a small group of yellow vests defying a ban to protest there. Stores once protectively boarded up against rioters were open and packed with tourists.
A couple of miles away, a scrum of yellow vests waited on a corner for others to join them. Their small group had splintered earlier in their march, which authorities had approved. Police who might have clashed with them not so long ago helped them find the whereabouts of lost members.
“My name is Antoine,” one marcher said. “I’m an engineering student in the center of France. We just come here to show some support to people who come here every weekend — to try to show people that everything is not yet over.”
The protests were bigger elsewhere in France, where police clashed with crowds of yellow vests. But overall, the movement is a lot smaller and a lot quieter than before. Yellow vest protesters wait near the Seine River for other members to join them, Sept. 7, 2019. (L. Bryant/VOA)One protester in Paris named Eric admitted he was disappointed by the turnout, but he said he thought things would gather steam again. Another yellow vest, Laurent Come, also said he thought the movement wasn’t over, pointing to the violence in towns like Rouen and Montpellier on Saturday. “We’re too nice,” he added. “We need to cause mayhem to be heard.”
Since it started nearly a year ago, the grass-roots movement for economic justice has presented Macron’s government one of its biggest challenges to date. The French president held a national debate to find answers to the discontent. After hitting rock bottom, his approval rating has inched up.
A yellow vest protester named Malika believed the movement had made a difference, just by bringing people together to talk about issues and propose solutions.
The government is now discussing unpopular pension reforms, which may again drive French to the streets.
…
Ukraine Defense Firm Caught Up in US-China Rivalry Probed for ‘Subversion’
This story originated in VOA’s Ukrainian service. Some information is from Reuters and RFE. VOA Ukrainian’s Tatiana Vorozhko contributed reporting. WASHINGTON – Ukrainian security officials have a launched an investigation into “subversive” activities by one of the Eastern European country’s defense contractors over plans to supply military hardware to neighboring Russia.
Ukraine’s main government agency for counterintelligence and counterterrorism, the SBU, confirmed Thursday that Motor Sich, the country’s largest manufacturer of engines for missiles and military aircraft, was under investigation for preparing an illegal export shipment of military or dual-use equipment to Russia, with whom Ukraine is at war. The news was first reported by RFE.
SBU officers raided Motor Sich headquarters and seized its shares in 2018 when the defense firm, then valued at nearly $500 million, was in the process of being sold to a Chinese company.
That Chinese aeronautical firm, Beijing Skyrizon Aviation, renewed efforts to acquire a controlling share of Motor Sich in June, drawing scrutiny from Kyiv’s Anti-Monopoly Committee.
The prospective sale also drew the attention of White House officials, who told Ukrainian media ahead of White House national security adviser John Bolton’s late-August visit to Kyiv that Motor Sich should not be handed over to a “potential enemy.”
As Ukraine’s antitrust agency began reviewing the proposed China deal, the U.S.-government-run Overseas Private Investment Corp., an agency that provides financial support for American companies looking to invest in emerging markets, said it would consider backing a U.S. private-sector bid for Motor Sich. FILE – White House national security adviser John Bolton meets with journalists in London, Aug.12, 2019.Bolton has aimed to scuttle Beijing’s acquisition of Motor Sich “on grounds that it will give Beijing vital defense technology,” The Wall Street Journal reported before Bolton’s Kyiv trip.
Aid withheld Bolton, it was widely reported, used the Kyiv visit to warn pro-Western Ukraine, which the White House views as a geopolitical ally against an increasingly assertive Russia, to avoid being lured into China’s orbit by what he called Beijing’s “debt diplomacy.”
A day after Bolton concluded his Kyiv visit by announcing stepped-up military assistance to Ukraine, President Donald Trump issued a contradictory directive, calling for a suspension and review of a $250 million military aid package to Kyiv.Later that day, Pentagon officials confirmed that they had already conducted an audit and fully supported allocation of the funding to Ukraine. The ongoing White House delay has since sparked an outcry from a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers from the Senate’s Ukraine Caucus, who issued a letter to Trump demanding that he release the funds.
Falling under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, the funds, the lawmakers wrote, “help Ukraine develop the independent military capabilities and skills necessary to fend off the Kremlin’s continued onslaughts within its territory.”
Asked for a response, a senior Trump administration official told VOA’s Ukrainian service, “We can confirm the letter from the Senate’s Ukraine Caucus has been received and is going through the normal process for correspondence at OMB.”
The senior administration official failed to confirm whether the $250 million in question was currently under active review.
Op-ed on White House action
On Friday, The Washington Post published an FILE – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy speaks during a meeting with law enforcement officers in Kyiv, Ukraine, July 23, 2019.”We’re reliably told that the president … is attempting to force [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelenskiy to intervene in the 2020 U.S. presidential election by launching an investigation of the leading Democratic candidate, Joe Biden,” the Post editorial states. “Mr. Trump is not just soliciting Ukraine’s help with his presidential campaign; he is using U.S. military aid the country desperately needs in an attempt to extort it.”
In August, Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudolph Giuliani, told The New York Times that he traveled to Europe to ask Zelenskiy aide Andriy Yermak to investigate Hunter Biden’s role on the board of a Ukrainian gas company. Hunter Biden is former Vice President Biden’s son.
Giuliani’s office did not respond to VOA’s requests for comment. Budgetary issues ‘being sorted out’George P. Kent, deputy assistant secretary in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs at the U.S. State Department, told VOA that although he was optimistic U.S. funding would continue, “I think there are some issues about the U.S. budgetary process being sorted out right now.”
“The U.S. has contributed over $1.5 billion in security assistance to Ukraines defense since Russians invaded Donbass in 2014," Kent said. "And I think we will work very closely together with Ukrainians to ensure that we support Ukraines abilities to defend itself effectively, and it has been the case the last five years, and it will also be the case going forward.”
Earlier this week, two senior White House officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told Reuters that chances were the money would be allocated as usual, but that the determination would not be made until a policy review was completed and Trump made a decision.
The federal fiscal year ends Sept. 30.
…
South Sudanese Refugees Transform a Camp Into a City in Uganda
Bidi Bidi refugee camp is home to nearly a quarter-million South Sudanese who fled the violence of civil war in their home country. Its progressive policies allow refugees to live, farm and work together while they wait to return to their home country. But, as conditions are slow to improve in South Sudan, many refugees are opting to stay.Bidi Bidi Refugee CampU.S. Democratic Senators Chris Coons and Chris Van Hollen visited the camp recently. The two lawmakers were touring several refugee settlements throughout Uganda last month, including Bidi Bidi — one of the world’s largest.Speaking by phone, Senator Van Hollen called the settlements an “important model” that other countries should consider when housing the displaced.Commandant Nabugere Michael Joel, an official at Bidi Bidi, takes questions from a recent U.S. delegation that included Senator Chris Coons and Senator Chris Van Hollen. Bidi Bidi Camp, August 13, 2019. (I. Godfrey/CARE)
“Obviously a key ingredient to the success of that model has been significant international support,” he said.When Bidi Bidi was opened in 2016, it was a rural piece of land in northern Uganda, where South Sudanese refugees, mostly women and children, fled to avoid violence during their country’s civil war.
As is often the case, tensions are common between refugees and the local population, who feel that the refugees are taking resources that might have been available for them.But, Uganda decided to do something different, earmarking a percentage of the country’s international funding to go toward local amenities. Refugee families were given plots of land to build family-style clusters of homes with room to grow their own fruits and vegetables. As a result, a small-scale economy began to flourish in the camp, with some refugees starting their own businesses.Last year, following a peace deal between warring South Sudan leaders, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said he hoped the refugees would begin returning home.
But, that’s not the case.
According to a Grace is a South Sudanese refugee who has been in Uganda for almost four years. She says it’s not safe enough for her to return home. Bidi Bidi Camp, Aug. 13, 2019 (Courtesy – J. Estey/CARE) As a result, settlement official Michael Joelle says Bidi Bidi has reached capacity, and refugees are being turned away and settlements are feeling the strain.
“Before the 2016 emergency, we were offering a plot of 50 by 100, so the number has been decreasing as the number of refugees increase,” said Joelle.
The situation has become more dire after international donors suspended their funding earlier this year after it was reported that funds for refugees in Uganda had been mismanaged.Grace, a refugee at Bidi Bidi, fled her home country with her children four years ago. Her husband finally joined the family last year.The former teacher said she doesn’t see herself moving back to South Sudan anytime soon.
“Even we’re receiving bad news, so and so has been killed, so and so has been raped, so many things are happening.”
…
Churchill’s Grandson Tells Johnson He’s Nothing Like Iconic Wartime Leader
Winston Churchill’s grandson, who was expelled midweek from the Conservative party for voting to delay Brexit, launched Saturday a scathing attack on Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who wrote a biography of his grandfather, saying he should stop comparing himself to Britain’s iconic wartime leader as he’s “nothing like” him.“Winston Churchill was like Winston Churchill because of his experiences in life. Boris Johnson’s experience in life is telling a lot of porkies [lies] about the EU in Brussels and then becoming prime minister,” Nicholas Soames told Britain’s The Times newspaper.Soames was among 21 Conservative rebels who were expelled from the party for voting to stop Johnson taking Britain out of the EU by October 31, something Johnson has pledged to do “no ifs or buts.”In the interview, Soames, a former defense minister, said he could see no “helpful analogy” between his grandfather and Johnson. “I don’t think anyone has called Boris a diplomat or statesman. We all know the pluses and minuses, everyone he has worked for says the same thing: he writes beautifully [but he’s] deeply unreliable.”Johnson’s Brexit options are shrinking fast. He has lost every single vote he’s brought as prime minister before the House of Commons in the face of a Conservative party split and the united efforts of the country’s opposition parties to thwart him.On Monday party rebels again will join with opposition parties to block him from calling an election before they’ve ensured he can’t take Britain out of the European Union without a deal agreed upon with Brussels.FILE – Member of Parliament Nicholas Soames walks in Westminster, London, Britain, Sept. 3, 2019.Limited optionsIn effect, his opponents are trapping him in Downing Street as his hardline Brexit strategy appeared to be in tatters. Johnson now has no majority in the House of Commons, thanks to defections and the mass expulsion of party rebels.Last week, his election bid was rebuffed when he failed to secure the backing of two-thirds of the Home of Commons. His second bid will get a similar dismissal, according to lawmakers and analysts. With his options limited, Johnson is now saying he will ignore legislation passed midweek requiring him to ask Brussels for a Brexit delay to allow further negotiations to take place between Britain and EU leaders.The Conservative rebels and opposition parties argue that the economic impact of a so-called no-deal Brexit would be devastating for livelihoods and jobs.Johnson also wrote to Conservative lawmakers on Friday, telling them: “They just passed a law that would force me to beg Brussels for an extension to the Brexit deadline. This is something I will never do.” He told reporters earlier he won’t comply and seek yet another deadline extension from Brussels, as the incoming law, which will receive the Queen’s assent on Monday, compels him to do, if no agreement with Brussels is in place by October 19.Asked if he would obey the new law requiring him to write to EU leaders, Johnson responded: “I will not. I don’t want a delay.”His defiance is prompting growing alarm that Britain’s political crisis is deepening and risks a tumultuous clash between the government and the courts, along with a rebellion by top civil servants and an even bigger split in Conservative ranks. David Lidington, the de facto deputy prime minister under Johnson’s predecessor, Theresa May, warned Saturday it would set a “dangerous precedent,” if Johnson chose to break the law. “It is such a fundamental principle that we are governed by the rule of law that I hope no party would question it,” he told the BBC.A former senior legal official went further, warning Johnson he risked being jailed, if he refuses to obey the law. Kenneth MacDonald, who was the country’s top prosecutor between 2003 and 2008, said if the courts were asked to issue an injunction ordering that “the law should be followed,” a refusal to obey “could find that person in prison.” He added that would not be “an extreme outcome” as it is “convention” that individuals who refuse to “purge their contempt” are sent to prison.FILE – Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson walks out 10 Downing Street, in London, Britain, Sept. 5, 2019.Warning shotsThe warning was echoed by a former attorney general, Dominic Grieve, another Conservative rebel. If he refuses to obey the law he will be “sent to prison for contempt,” he said, while accusing Johnson of acting like a “spoiled child having a tantrum.” A former Supreme Court judge, Lord Sumption, told Sky News he doubted it would get as far as that because civil servants likely would rebel and refuse to co-operate with a prime minister who was willfully breaking the law.Johnson broke off early on Saturday from a social visit with his partner, Carrie Symonds, to the Queen at the monarch’s Scottish residence, Balmoral, to plot his next moves. On his visit to Scotland, Johnson ramped up the pressure on opposition parties to agree to an early election, goading them by accusing them of cowardice. “I have never known an opposition in the history of democracy that has refused to have an election,” he said. “I think that obviously they don’t trust the people, they don’t think that the people will vote for them, so they are refusing to have an election.”But Downing Street aides admit the unity of the opposition parties — as well as the size of the Conservative rebellion — had surprised Johnson and his chief strategist, Dominic Cummings, who miscalculated the reaction of the leader of the main opposition party, Labor’s Jeremy Corbyn.“The plan was to use the threat of suspending parliament to force the rebels out into the open early,” an aide said. “We always knew they would try and force a Brexit delay on us. But the expectation was that Corbyn could be goaded into welcoming an election. That was a serious miscalculation on our part,“ he added.The turbulence of the last week — which saw the British parliament break convention and initiate legislation — is unnerving the cabinet, too.Collision courseOn Friday, some current cabinet ministers expressed major reservations about Johnson’s bellicose approach with much of the blame for the government’s lose of control being focused on the 47-year-old Dominic Cummings, a controversial figure who’s been compared to the former adviser to Donald Trump, Steve Bannon, for his ‘slash-and-burn tactics.”Cummings, the chief strategist for the Brexit campaign during the 2016 referendum on EU membership, told government advisers Friday they should hold their nerve, saying if they thought last week was chaos, it was “only just the beginning.” Cummings has made no secret of his wish to rip up the map of British politics and re-draw it, starting with a populist remake of the Conservative party.A former cabinet minister, David Gauke, one of the expelled Conservative rebels, said Johnson and Cummings want “to rebadge the Conservative party as the Brexit Party.”“I can see nothing incompatible about being a Conservative MP and not wanting to crash the country into a brick wall, but it appears that it is no longer the case,” he said in a newspaper interview. The risk is that Johnson will end up alienating millions of pragmatically-inclined, traditional Conservative voters, he says.
…
Cambodia Launches Campaign to End Child Labor in Brick Industry
Cambodia has launched a campaign to end child labor in the brick industry by 2020, a move industry observers cautiously welcome while expressing doubts the goal will be achieved, and calling for more structural changes.The industry drew international attention last year when a report, Blood Bricks: Untold Stories of Modern Slavery and Climate Change from Cambodia, asserted poverty, often caused by climate change, forced tens of thousands of Cambodians into debt bondage at brick kilns, and again in March when a 9-year-old girl lost her arm working in one of the factories.The government fined the factory and issued a directive barring children from brick kiln production line compounds. Children often live with their families in accommodation provided for by the brick factory, which often is in the direct vicinity of the kilns.The government said Aug. 31 that the director of the Labor Ministry’s Child Labor Department, Veng Heang, had started the campaign August 26 in cooperation with local authorities. “According to the department director, any brick factory found having child labor will be severely penalised without any excuse,” the state news agency Agence Kampuchea Presse reported.One of the authors of the Blood Bricks report, Laurie Parsons, welcomed the initiative, saying child labor was still prevalent in the industry and estimating that the number of children working in brick factories ranged “in the thousands.”Parsons said the government had denied the issue for years and as late as last year, despite multiple reports by nongovernmental organizations, but now had started to acknowledge the issue because of increased international media attention.“Although the issue has been known, it hasn’t been internationally known,” Parsons said.He welcomed the initiative but called just focusing on child labor a “symptom-led approach” not likely to address the root causes of the problem. He said that poverty pushes people into debt-bondage at the brick kilns, poor working conditions, and brick kiln contracts barring workers from employment elsewhere.“It’s a focus which won’t necessarily produce any long-term tangible change, [which] is very much a kind of symptom-led focus with what we see as being an undue focus on the issue of child labor, which is obviously a very evocative topic,” he said. “It’s something that gets a lot of attention. But to us, the child labor is essentially part of the wider structural problem.”“The reason that these conditions exist is essentially because people are desperate enough to keep bonding themselves into work in the brick industry,” he said.The ministry remained evasive, however, about what concrete measures would be taken to combat child labor. Asked what the government would do once the inspection was done, ministry spokesman Heng Sour said: “I would like to inform you that our labor inspectors are still on their mission to inspect all brick factories across the country, which will conclude in late October. We will publish the report in this November.”Sour did not answer questions about further details of the campaign and what steps the government would take.Parsons said the success of the campaign depends on the concrete measures that have been taken, and whether the brick kiln owners’ claims they don’t directly employ children but only buy bricks will be tolerated. “It has to have a really sweeping overhaul of the entire industry,” he said.Sou Chhlonh, vice director of the Building and Wood Workers Trade Union Federation of Cambodia, agreed.Chhlonh said it would be easy for brick factories to avoid being fined if inspections were conducted on a one-off basis. Factories could easily have no children on site for one week, for example, and revert to children working there after the inspection was done, he said.To make matters more complicated, he said, children were largely not employed by the factory owners directly, but rather helped – voluntarily or involuntarily – their parents instead of going to school to lighten their parents’ debts. Sometimes, brick kiln owners tell parents to get their children to work to pay their debts, he said, but this was not always the case.Sour told VOA the government would show “zero tolerance” on the issue.“The main mission is zero tolerance to child labor, and debt bondage in the brick factory,” he said. “So, the labor inspector is doing such inspection, education, and raising awareness among the workers who work in the brick factory.”Chhlonh said training those inspectors is crucial for the success of the campaign, and raised doubts that child labor could be erased by the government’s deadline. “It’s so fast,” he said. “We should train more inspectors [first].”Pointing to the comparatively small size of the industry – Parsons estimated that about 10,000 people were involved in about 450 kilns in the country – the researcher said significant improvements could be made quickly.However, “in practice, of course, it’s not going to happen by 2020,” he said, “because resources won’t be put in place, and the kind of structural attitude won’t be there.”
…
Expert: North Korean Call for UN to Cut Aid Staff Seen as Pressure for Sanctions Relief
North Korea’s call on the United Nations to cut its international staff involved in humanitarian work there could be a move to gain leverage over sanctions relief, a human rights expert said Thursday.Pyongyang told the U.N. in an August 21 letter it wants the world body to slash the number of aid workers inside the country by the end of the year because U.N. programs have been ineffective, according to a Wednesday report by Reuters. The news service quoted Kim Chang Min, secretary general for North Korea’s National Coordinating Committee for the U.N., as writing that “U.N. supported programs failed to bring the results as desired due to the politicization of U.N. assistance by hostile forces” in the letter.The letter comes at a time when talks between Pyongyang and Washington have been stalled since their Hanoi summit in February failed due to their difference over denuclearization and sanctions relief. The United States rejected North Korea’s proposal for sanctions relief in exchange for partial denuclearization while asking it to carry out complete denuclearization.Greg Scarlatoiu, executive director of the Washington-based Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, however, called the letter “an insidious way of blackmailing the international community.” Scarlatoiu wrote in a Thursday email that North Korea is essentially saying unless sanctions are eased “we will punish you by restricting your access to those North Korean people who need assistance.”Scarlatoiu said North Korea is “politicizing and weaponizing humanitarian aid” and “using its vulnerable people as hostage and leverage” to obtain sanctions relief.“The North Korean regime focuses on the sanctions as the root cause of its precarious humanitarian situation,” Scarlatoiu said. “This is a serious distortion of the truth. It is the regime’s deliberate policy of human rights denial that results in severe human insecurity in North Korea.”The U.N. Security Council began ratcheting up sanctions on North Korea in 2006 in response to its nuclear test in the same year, and in 2016, started imposing sanctions targeting North Korea’s key export commodities such as coal and seafood to cut off funds that flow into its nuclear and missile programs. The United Nations has been granting sanctions exemptions to humanitarian groups to provide aids to North Korea.Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said Tuesday that sanctions on North Korea are impeding humanitarian work there.Scarlatoiu, though, said, “Humanitarian operators may be negatively affected by some unintended side effects of the sanctions regime,” but that the sanctions “do not target the people of North Korea.””The perennial human insecurity affecting the people of North Korea has persisted for three decades…[and is] are systematic,” he said, “What North Korea needs is comprehensive economic, political, and social reform.”Daniel Jaspers, public education and advocacy coordinator for Asia at the American Friends Service Committee, said the North Korean letter “points to an issue that humanitarian groups have been raising for a number of years – namely that sanctions are impeding humanitarian operations and aid delivery” in an email to VOA on Thursday. He continued, “These obstacles in aid delivery are despite U.N. regulations which clearly state that sanctions are not meant to interfere with humanitarian work.” U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters Thursday that the United Nations had received the letter, and said it is currently talking with North Korea. He said the U.N. already has “a light footprint on ground” and that keeping the current number of humanitarian staff in North Korea is “vital” in mobilizing resources to support U.N.’s food, water, and nutrition programs in the country.
…
Hurricane Dorian Heads Toward Nova Scotia
The National Hurricane Center says Hurricane Dorian is “heading for Nova Scotia in a hurry” and is expected to arrive late Saturday as it moves with maximum sustained winds of 150 kilometers per hour.Dorian made landfall over Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, Friday morning after weakening into a Category 1 storm and generating tornadoes, severe storm surges and flooding in coastal areas in North and South Carolina.After landfall, Dorian began moving out into the Atlantic ocean and continued its trek up the U.S. eastern seaboard, the NHC said. The storm had devastated much of the Bahamas days earlier.The NHC said the storm was about 200 kilometers northeast of Cape Hatteras Friday afternoon with maximum sustained winds of 150 kilometers per hour. The winds are expected to slowly weaken through Saturday.North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper said there was “significant concern about hundreds of people trapped on Ocracoke Island” in the Outer Banks region.“We are flooding like crazy,” Ocracoke Island bookstore owner Leslie Lanier texted. “I have been here 32 years and not seen this.”Steve Harris, who has been on Ocracoke for most of the last 19 years, said, “We went from almost no water to four to six feet in a matter of minutes.”Elsewhere, thousands of people in the Bahamas have begun the long and painful struggle to rebuild their lives following the onslaught of the hurricane, which was an extremely powerful Category 5 storm upon its arrival several days ago.International search and rescue teams are looking for survivors.The death toll in the Bahamas is 43, but Bahamian Prime Minister Hubert Minnis said he believes the final number of people killed “will be staggering.”
…
US House Panel to Vote on Parameters for Trump Impeachment Probe
The U.S. House Judiciary Committee is planning to vote to determine the parameters for conducting an impeachment probe of President Donald Trump.Politico first reported the development, saying its report was based on “multiple sources briefed on the discussions.”The committee is expected to vote on the details next week.A draft of the resolution is expected to be released Monday morning, according to Politico.The article said Democrats are “hopeful that explicitly defining their impeachment inquiry will heighten their leverage to compel testimony from witnesses.”It is doubtful, however, that the probe will lead to any charges against the president.Articles of impeachment would have to be voted on by the full House and it is doubtful that the Republican Senate would vote to remove the president from office. Various legislative committees are looking into a number of matters concerning the president, including his failure to release his tax returns, his payment of hush money to stop embarrassing stories becoming public, and the spending of taxpayer money at the president’s hotels and properties.
…
Russia-Ukraine Prisoner Exchange Underway
A major prisoner swap between Russia and Ukraine is underway — with multiple reports citing the transfer of prisoners out of Moscow’s Lefortovo Prison as well as the arrival of a Ukrainian state-emblemed plane to Vnukovo airport in the Russian capital Saturday morning. While the exact number, list, and timing of the exchange is not yet publicly known, the leaders of both countries have insisted a significant exchange was imminent in recent days. “We will finalize our talks on the exchange, and I think it will be rather large-scale,” said Russian President Vladimir Putin while addressing the issue at an economic forum in the far eastern city of Vladivostok on Thursday. “And also it will also be a good step forward toward the normalization” of relations, added Putin.Putin’s comments followed Ukraine’s release of Volodymyr Tsemakh, a former commander of Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, by a court in Kyiv on Thursday. The release was not without controversy: Ukrainian security services have identified Tsemakh as a key witness to the downing of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17, which was shot down over east Ukraine in July of 2014, killing all 298 people aboard.Dutch prosecutors investigating the tragedy had urged the government in Kyiv to prevent Tsemakh’s extradition, saying he is “a person of interest” in their work.Yet recently elected Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy came to power promising to bring Ukrainian prisoners in Russia home and end the conflict in East Ukraine.In July, Putin and Zelenskiy held their first phone talks since the new Ukrainian leader took office.At the time, a Kremlin spokesman said the two leaders discussed a stalled peace agreement for Ukraine’s Donbas region as well as the possibility of prisoner exchanges “from both sides.”
…
Russia’s Voters Head to Polls Following Summer of Political Turmoil
Russians braced for key local elections in Moscow and St. Petersburg Sunday — as the exclusion of opposition candidates and imprisonment of anti-government demonstrators cast doubt on the legitimacy of races that analysts say Kremlin-backed candidates still risk losing.Indeed, with polls showing widespread discontent with President Vladimir Putin’s ruling United Russia party, the limited scope of Russia’s election season was set early on.Russia’s Election Commission barred opposition-oriented candidates nearly en masse in July, citing candidates’ failure to clear voter signature requirements to participate in elections.The result: a series of rolling weekend protests in both cities that saw more than 2,500 arrests, many at the hands of truncheon-wielding police and aggressive OMON security forces.“The aggressive response suggests authorities understand it’s not just about the Moscow Duma,” said Alexander Baunov of the Moscow Carnegie Center. “It’s about reshaping the future of power in Russia.”Russian President Vladimir Putin attends judo tournament on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Russia, Sept. 5, 2019.Right to protest vs. rush to justicePutin has insisted citizens have the right to participate in political protests, a constitutional guarantee he reaffirmed again this week.“(The protests) sometimes it brings positive results, because it wakes up the authorities, sets them in the right direction so they can effectively solve people’s problems,” Putin said when referring to the “Saturday demonstrations” during an economic forum in the far eastern city of Vladivostok Thursday.Yet nearly all of Russia’s key opposition figures, including several would-be candidates, were repeatedly jailed through the election season.Meanwhile, Moscow courts quickly sentenced a handful of demonstrators ahead of the vote.Three- to four-year prison terms were handed down to several protesters for light altercations with police, such as flicking a helmet. FILE – Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny walks out of a detention center after he was jailed for 30 days for calling an unauthorized protest in Moscow, Aug. 23, 2019.Opposition to have an effectThough banned from participation in the elections, Russia’s opposition remained poised to influence the outcome of the elections in Moscow.In the months leading up to election day, opposition leader Alexei Navalny unveiled a strategy called “smart voting,” a calculated effort to consolidate voter support around remaining candidates, no matter how odious, in an effort to oust control from the Kremlin-backed United Russia party.“I want to remind you how strong we are, and how afraid of us they are,” Navalny said in an online broadcast to his YouTube channel Friday while promoting the strategy.How much is open to debate — and math.Other leading opposition voices, such as the exiled businessman Mikhail Khodorkovsky, have called on supporters to resist Navalny’s calls to vote for communist or nationalist candidates simply because they can defeat Putin loyalists.Yet outside observers have largely endorsed Navalny’s strategy as effective, given traditionally low voter turnout in local races.“I don’t understand who can be ‘for’ or ‘against’ the smart vote,” sociologist Grigory Yudin wrote in a Ella Pamfilova, head of Russian Central Election Commission speaks during an interview with the Associated Press in Moscow, Aug. 27, 2019.Mysterious attackerAdding further uncertainty ahead of the vote, a masked intruder broke into the home of Ella Pamfilova, the head of the Central Election Commission, early Friday, reportedly threatening her with a stun gun. Pamfilova was uninjured but appeared shaken at an appearance in Moscow later in the day.Russia’s Investigative Committee has launched an inquiry, prompting theories — and jokes — about the real target of the investigation.“The criminal was in a mask, young, flexible, tall and athletic — and he ran out very fast,” wrote the online news portal Baza in a tweet quoting Pamfilova about the attack.Элла Памфилова назвала приметы напавшего на неё неизвестного мужчины: «Преступник был в маске, молодой, гибкий, высокий и был тренированный — уматывал очень быстро». Кажется, мы нашли преступника.— baza (@bazabazon) September 6, 2019“We think we found the criminal,” Baza added.A series of photos of the opposition leader Navalny ensued.
…