Japan announced Tuesday that it is not inviting South Korea to a multinational naval review it is hosting next month because their ties are badly strained over history, trade and defense.The Maritime Self-Defense Force, Japan’s navy, said Tuesday it will not invite the South Korean navy for the review, scheduled for Oct. 14 at Sagami Bay, west of Tokyo.The head of the maritime force, Adm. Hiroshi Yamamura, said the decision was made because “We don’t have an adequate environment to invite South Korea, considering the severe condition of current Japan-South Korea relations.’”
In Seoul earlier Tuesday, South Korean Defense Ministry spokeswoman Choi Hyun-soo told a briefing that South Korea did not receive an invitation and that it’s up to the hosts to decide the participants.Tensions between the Asian neighbors have escalated since July, when Japan tightened controls on exports to South Korea.
The two countries have had long-running disputes over Japan’s actions during its 1910-1945 colonization of the Korean Peninsula, including sexual abuse of Korean women at military brothels and the use of forced laborers.
Japan says all compensation issues were settled under a 1965 peace treaty with South Korea and has accused Seoul of violating international law by not stopping a Supreme Court decision ordering Japanese companies to compensate former Korean forced laborers.
Japan tightened controls on exports of key chemicals that South Korean companies use to produce semiconductors and displays, and then downgraded South Korea’s preferential trade status a month later. Tokyo cited unspecified security reasons, while Seoul accused it of “weaponizing” trade in response to the dispute over Japan’s wartime actions.The trade restrictions, which affect a core South Korean industry, have led to a full-blown dispute, sending relations between the U.S. allies to their lowest level in decades and spilling over into tourism, security and other areas.
Seoul announced last month it is terminating a military intelligence sharing pact with Japan that had symbolized the countries’ three-way security cooperation with the United States in the face of North Korean nuclear threats and China’s growing assertiveness in the region.Defense officials said seven countries, the U.S., Britain, Canada, Australia, India, Singapore and China, have been invited to the upcoming naval review.
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Month: September 2019
China Calls on Washington to Cancel Xinjiang Meeting
China called on Washington on Tuesday to cancel a planned meeting at the United Nations to discuss accusations of repression and mass detentions in its Muslim northwestern region of Xinjiang.The foreign ministry accused the Trump administration of slandering China and interfering in its affairs.
A deputy U.S. secretary of state, John Sullivan, is scheduled to lead a panel discussion on the “human rights crisis in Xinjiang” during this week’s U.N. General Assembly meeting.The United States, human rights groups and independent analysts say about 1 million of the 12 million members of Muslim ethnic minority groups in Xinjiang have been detained in internment camps. The Communist Beijing government says those are vocational training centers.
“We urge the United States to cancel the relevant meeting, stop making irresponsible remarks on the Xinjiang issue and stop interfering in the internal affairs of China in the name of human rights,” a foreign ministry spokesman, Geng Shuang, said at a daily news briefing.On Monday, President Donald Trump said at a meeting on religious freedom held during the U.N. session that it was an “urgent moral duty” for world leaders to stop crimes against faith.On Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused Beijing of trying to erase Muslim cultures. He called on Central Asian governments to reject Chinese demands to send home ethnic minorities who might face repression.Pompeo made the comments in a meeting with the foreign ministers of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.“The United States has repeatedly smeared and slandered China’s policy toward Xinjiang and interfered in China’s internal affairs under the guise of religion and human rights,” Geng said. “Now it made an even bigger mistake by holding the so-called discussion on the Xinjiang issue during the U.N. General Assembly.”The Xinjiang panel will feature “deeply personal stories of victims of China’s brutal campaign of repression” against Uighurs, Kyrgyz and other Muslim minorities, said a State Department announcement of the event.It said Sullivan “welcomes global partners in joining the call for China to end the cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of the people of Xinjiang.”Geng defended Chinese policies as necessary to combat terrorism.
Beijing has blamed scattered incidents of violence in Xinjiang on a radical Muslim movement it says wants independence for the territory, though foreign governments and researchers say they see little evidence to support that.”The U.S. side has turned a blind eye to China’s efforts and achievements in combating terrorism and extremism,” Geng said.
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Britain’s Supreme Court Rules Suspension of Parliament Unlawful
Britain’s Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s decision to suspend parliament for five weeks was unlawful and is “void and of no effect.”The court said in explaining the unanimous decision that Johnson’s prevented parliament from carrying out its role of “holding the government to account.”It highlighted the special nature of the timing of the suspension, which was to last for five of the eight weeks that remained before the deadline for Britain to exit the European Union.”This prolonged suspension of Parliamentary democracy took place in quite exceptional circumstances: the fundamental change which was due to take place in the Constitution of the United Kingdom on 31st October,” the court said. “Parliament, and in particular the House of Commons as the elected representatives of the people, has a right to a voice in how that change comes about. The effect upon the fundamentals of our democracy was extreme.”Parliament was due to be out until mid-October under the suspension, but the court ruling Tuesday said leaders can “take immediate steps” to return “as soon as possible.”FILE – European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, left, shakes hands with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson prior to a meeting at a restaurant in Luxembourg, Sept. 16, 2019.Johnson said respected the Supreme Court decision but didn’t agree with it.
The prime minister has pledged to carry out Brexit whether or not Britain has an agreement in place on the terms of its divorce from the EU.Shortly before he suspended parliament, Britain’s Queen Elizabeth gave her approval to legislation seeking to block Johnson from going through with the split if there is no agreement.Johnson came to power after former Prime Minister Theresa May failed three times to get the House of Commons to approve the deal she negotiated with the EU. European leaders have shown no sign of wanting to open those negotiations again.
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Trump Ordered Freeze of Ukraine Aid Ahead of Call Under Democratic Scrutiny
U.S. President Donald Trump told his staff to withhold about $400 million in aid to Ukraine days before a phone call with the country’s leader that is at the center of a debate between Congress and the White House over a whistleblower complaint.Reports late Wednesday from the Associated Press, Washington Post and New York Times all cited multiple senior administration officials saying Trump froze the funding, and that the order was communicated to the State Department and Pentagon with the explanation that he was looking into whether the money needed to be spent.Earlier Wednesday, the leaders of three House of Representatives committees demanded Secretary of State Mike Pompeo turn over all documents related to the call Trump made to Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. The Democratic chairmen of the House Foreign Affairs, Intelligence, and Oversight committees — Elliot Engel, Adam Schiff, and Elijah Cummings — set a Thursday deadline, the same day the intelligence committee is set to hear testimony from acting director national intelligence Joseph Maguire about the whistleblower complaint linked to the call.Trump is said to have pushed for an investigation into leading Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, who served for years on the board of a Ukrainian gas company.The three House members said in their letter the State Department has admitted that a senior Pompeo staffer directly helped set up meetings between Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, and Ukrainian officials days after the call.”By withholding these documents and refusing to engage with the committees, the Trump Administration is obstructing Congress’ oversight duty under the Constitution to protect our nation’s democratic process,” they wrote.Sen. Chris Murphy told reporters Monday that he met several weeks ago with Zelenskiy, and that the Ukranian administration worried the aid cutoff “was a consequence for their unwillingness, at the time, to investigate the Bidens.”Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy speaks to newly elected Ukrainian parliament deputies during parliament session in Kyiv, Aug. 29, 2019.”They were unwilling to conduct this investigation because there was no merit to it,” Murphy said.Also Monday, a group of first-term Democratic members of the House of Representatives with backgrounds in national security wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post saying if the allegations of Trump’s actions are true, the lawmakers believe they “represent an impeachable offense.””The president of the United States may have used his position to pressure a foreign country into investigating a political opponent, and he sought to use U.S. taxpayer dollars as leverage to do it,” they wrote. “He allegedly sought to use the very security assistance dollars appropriated by Congress to create stability in the world, to help root out corruption and to protect our national security interests, for his own personal gain.”The group includes Reps. Gil Cisneros, Jason Crow, Chrissy Houlahan, Elaine Luria, Mikie Sherrill, Elissa Slotkin and Abigail Spanberger.Trump on Monday dismissed the Democratic drumbeat for impeachment, saying he does not take such threats “at all seriously.” He insisted his call with Zelenskiy was a “very nice call,” congratulating him on becoming Ukrainian president.Trump said he could very easily release a transcript of the call, and the press would be disappointed. But he refused to commit to doing so, saying it would be a bad precedent.The controversy began last week when reports emerged that an unidentified whistleblower in the national intelligence community became alarmed about a series of actions inside the Trump administration. They include what is now known to be Trump’s telephone call with Zelenskiy. This person contacted the intelligence inspector general, who called the complaint “serious” and “urgent.” Maguire has refused to turn over the inspector’s report to Congress, which the law requires him to do.As vice president under Barack Obama, Joe Biden went to Ukraine in 2016 and threatened to withhold billions of dollars in U.S. loan guarantees unless the government cracked down on corruption. Biden also demanded that Ukraine’s chief prosecutor Viktor Shokin be fired. Shokin had previously investigated the gas company on which Hunter Biden served on the board. But the probe had been inactive for a year before Joe Biden’s visit. Hunter Biden has said he was not the target of any investigation and no evidence of any wrongdoing by the Bidens has surfaced. An angry Biden said “there is truly no bottom to President Trump’s willingness to abuse his power and abase our country.”
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Washington Dulles Airport Charity Plane Pull Draws Thousands
Generally the tarmac of a large international airport is strictly off limits to civilians. But every year hundreds storm the runways of Washington Dulles Airport for an annual traditional that involves teamwork and big planes. Sandzhar Khamidov visited the event. Anna Rice narrates his story.
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World Leaders Set to Address UN General Assembly
World leaders involved in some of the most high profile geopolitical issues are among those set to speak on the first day of the U.N. General Assembly in New York.After opening remarks from U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, those gathered for the annual meeting will hear from a group that includes U.S. President Donald Trump, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Korean President Moon Jae-in and French President Emmanuel Macron.The addresses come a day after Swedish teen activist Greta Thunberg scolded world leaders at a U.N. summit calling for climate action, saying people are suffering and dying from the effects of global warming and that all the leaders have are empty words. “We are in [the] beginning of a mass extinction and all you can talk about is money,” said Thunberg, who ignited a youth movement with her Friday school strikes for climate action.She said the science has been clear for 30 years, and still they are not doing enough. “You are failing us! But the young people are starting to understand your betrayal,” Thunberg said in a voice filled with emotion. “The eyes of all future generations are upon you. And if you choose to fail us, I say we will never forgive you.”The 16-year-old warned the more than 60 presidents and prime ministers gathered in the General Assembly hall for the summit that the youth would not let them “get away with this.” She said they draw the line here and now and “change is coming,” whether they like it or not.Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg speaks with other child petitioners from 12 countries who presented a landmark complaint to protest the lack of government action on the climate crisis during a press conference in New York, Sept. 23, 2019. “My generation has failed in its responsibility to protect our planet,” Guterres said. “That must change.”Guterres has called for the phasing out of fossil fuels and an end to construction of new coal power plants. “Is it common sense to build ever more coal plants that are choking our future?” the secretary-general asked. “Is it common sense to reward pollution that kills millions with dirty air and makes it dangerous for people in cities around the world to sometimes even venture out of their homes?” He said it is time to end subsidies to the fossil fuel industry and shift taxes from salaries to carbon – taxing pollution, not people.The U.N. chief has sought to highlight the importance of the summit and challenged leaders to “come with concrete plans” and not just “beautiful speeches,” which some outlined Monday.India, which has one of the world’s highest levels of air pollution, said it would increase its renewable energy capacity to 175 gigawatts by 2022. Prime Minister Narendra Modi highlighted his country’s expansion into solar energy. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, in a rare U.N. appearance, pledged that her country would reduce its carbon emissions by 2030 by 55% compared to its 1990 emissions. She said Germany would be carbon neutral by 2050. “In 2030 we want to get two-thirds of our energy from renewables,” Merkel said. “In 2022, we will phase out the last of our nuclear power plants, and at latest, in 2038, we will phase out coal.”Trump, who announced his administration’s intention to withdraw from the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement soon after taking office, was not scheduled to attend or speak at Monday’s summit. Trump, however, made a brief appearance and was seen sitting at the U.S. delegation’s table before attending an event on religious persecution.U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, far left, and young environmental activists look on as Greta Thunberg, of Sweden, in red, addresses the Climate Action Summit in the United Nations General Assembly, at U.N. headquarters, Sept. 23, 2019. The U.N. released a report ahead of the summit compiled by the World Meteorological Organization showing there has been an acceleration in carbon pollution, sea-level rise, warming global temperatures, and shrinking ice sheets.It warns that the average global temperature for the period of 2015 through the end of 2019 is on pace to be the “warmest of any equivalent period on record” at 1.1 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.The 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, which has been ratified by 186 nations, calls for actions to prevent global temperatures from surpassing 2 degrees, and ideally remain within 1.5 degrees by cutting greenhouse gas emissions. One of the world’s biggest emitters – the United States – announced under President Trump that it would leave the pact. The U.S. decision has not stopped climate action at the state, local and private sector levels. The report warns that in order to achieve the 2-degree target, “the level of ambition needs to be tripled.”
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US Official Meets in Lebanon Over Anti-Hezbollah Sanctions
A senior United States Treasury official was visiting Beirut on Monday, where he’s explaining the motives behind recent U.S. sanctions targeting Lebanon’s Iranian-backed Hezbollah group, Lebanon’s central bank governor said.Treasury Department Assistant Secretary Marshall Billingslea met with the prime minister and the speaker of parliament, as well as officials from the Association of Banks in Lebanon and the central bank governor.Hezbollah holds three cabinet seats, and along with its allies has more power than ever in the parliament and government. It is also among the most effective armed groups in the region, extending Iran’s influence to Israel’s doorstep. Domestically, the group’s power exceeds that of the Lebanese armed forces. Lebanon’s Central Bank chief Riad Salameh played down reports in local media that the U.S. will impose further sanctions on the country’s dollar-strapped banking system. He said Billingslea “is not coming here to squeeze Lebanon.”A U.S. embassy statement said Billingslea “will encourage Lebanon to take the necessary steps to maintain distance from Hezbollah and other malign actors attempting to destabilize Lebanon and its institutions.”Last month, the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned Jammal Trust Bank and added it to its list of global terrorist organizations. The bank denied U.S. charges about “knowingly facilitating banking activities” for Hezbollah militants.The bank last week was forced to request self-liquidation and the move was accepted by the central bank governor. The U.S. has been imposing sanctions on Hezbollah for years, as Washington considers the group a terrorist organization. Such steps have increased in recent months as the Trump administration is using “maximum pressure” against Iran, Hezbollah’s main backer.In July, the Treasury Department targeted a Hezbollah security official and two members of Lebanon’s parliament, saying they are suspected of using their positions to further the aims of the militant group and “bolster Iran’s malign activities.” It was the first time Washington targeted Hezbollah legislators.Hezbollah, whose Arabic name translates as “Party of God,” was established by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard months after Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982.
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GOP, Trump Launch Campus Effort to Register, Mobilize Voters
The Republican National Committee is putting a college twist on its grassroots voter registration efforts, seeking to mobilize President Donald Trump’s supporters.The “Make Campus Great Again” initiative is offering dozens of participants training and free pizza, plus swag like campaign buttons and drink insulators to distribute. It started with trainings at four schools in Ohio last week. Organizers describe it as a national effort, with similar swing state training sessions already held or planned for the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the University of Denver and college Republicans in Michigan. It’s aimed at building on young voters’ enthusiasm and higher-than-usual turnout in last year’s midterm election and pushing back against any stifling of conservative voices in campus environments, said Mandi Merritt, a regional spokeswoman for the Trump-RNC reelection effort. “It serves as a way to bring conservative supporters out of the shadows of college campuses and show that they have a home in the Republican movement,” Merritt said.In the 2018 midterms, 67% of voters ages 18 to 22 voted for Democratic House candidates, according to AP VoteCast, which surveyed voters in last year’s election. Just 31% voted for Republicans.The outreach and mobilizing also show how the GOP is enlisting the youngest voters in its field operations and fighting for Republican votes outside the party’s base, in a demographic that favored Democrats by significant margins in recent elections, said University of Cincinnati political scientist David Niven. “If you think the election is going to be close, this is the margin of victory,” Niven said. “This is the 1% difference that helps you get over the top… They are proclaiming: This is a state we need to fight for.”’Make Campus Great Again’In Akron, which last week had the first “Make Campus Great Again” session for more than 50 students from several northeastern Ohio universities, junior Brooke Bihlman said she and fellow members of the University of Akron College Republicans will be talking with students between classes and going door-to-door on weekends in a friendly competition with their Democratic counterparts on campus to see who can register the most voters.”I think everyone in the club right now is just feeling very excited about the future and what we can do to help,” said Bihlman, 20. “Seeing hard work pay off is obviously something that keeps a lot of us going, so it starts with the little stuff right now.” Persuading peers to actually cast ballots might be tougher. Eighteen-to-29-year-olds typically have a much lower turnout rate than older voters, a point noted by some of the Democratic presidential candidates already organizing heavily on campuses in Iowa, which has the first caucuses. Support from young voters helped propel Democrat Barack Obama to victory in 2008 and 2012, and they heavily favored Hillary Clinton over Trump in 2016. This time around, young Republicans touting Trump to their classmates point to a promising job market with the U.S. unemployment rate near a 50-year low , and to the president’s executive order earlier this year that required U.S. colleges to protect free speech on their campuses or risk losing federal research funding.Even for a generation saturated in social media, there is no replacement for talking about the issues and candidates face-to-face with potential voters, said Seth Koellner, a Kent State University junior who leads the Ohio College Republican Federation. “It’s different than someone just scrolling past a post on Twitter,” he said. “So it really grabs someone’s attention and will cause them to actually think about what your message is.”
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Australia PM Joins Trump Calling for China to Drop ‘Developing Economy’ Status
Global trade rules are “no longer fit for purpose” and must be changed to accommodate China’s new status as a developed economy, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said in a major foreign policy speech in the United States.The global community had engaged with China to help it grow but now must demand the world’s second-largest economy bring more transparency to its trade relationships and take a greater share of the responsibilty for addressing climate change, Morrison said.”The world’s global institutions must adjust their settings for China, in recognition of this new status,” said Morrison in a speech to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, referring to China as a “newly developed economy.””That means more will be expected of course, as has always been the case for nations like the United States who’ve always had this standing,” Morrison said in the speech, according to transcript provided to Reuters.Global trade rules were “no longer fit for purpose” and in some cases were “designed for a completely different economy in another era, one that simply doesn’t exist any more,” he added.Referring to China as a newly developed economy marks a change from Beijing’s self-declared status as a developing economy, which affords it concessions such as longer times to implement agreed commitments, according to the World Trade Organization (WTO).It also puts Australia into line with a campaign led by U.S. President Donald Trump to remove China’s developing nation status. In an April 7, 2018 tweet, Trump wrote that China was a “great economic power” but received “tremendous perks and advantages, especially over the U.S.”Morrison has previously urged China to reform its economy and end a trade war with the United States but has until now stopped short of taking a public position on its WTO status.While two-way trade between Australia and China has grown since the countries signed a trade pact in 2015, increasing to a record A$183 billion ($127 billion) last year, the bilateral relationship has at times been strained.In December 2017, former Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull accused China of meddling in its domestic affairs. The relationship was further soured by Canberra’s decision last year to effectively ban Chinese telecoms firm Huawei Technologies from its 5G broadband network rollout.Morrison said Australia and the United States had different relationships with China, given Australia had a trade surplus with China while the United States had a trade deficit.”The engagement with China has been enormously beneficial to our country,” he said. “We want to see that continue.”
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Nobel Laureate Seeks Backing for New Fund to Aid Women Raped in War
Congolese gynaecologist Denis Mukwege, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, called on world leaders meeting in New York this week to back an international fund to help female victims of sexual violence during armed conflict.Mukwege has devoted the past 20 years to helping women raped by armed rebels, treating more than 55,000 women at the Panzi Hospital he set up in Bukavu in the east of war-torn Congo.But despite winning a list of global accolades for his work, surviving an assassination attempt in 2012, and receiving daily threats, Mukwege said he had struggled for 10 years to generate enough interest to start a fund to recompense victims.That changed, however, after he was named joint winner of the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize with Yazidi activist Nadia Murad for their work to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war – and his ambition was finally coming to fruition, he said.Mukwege said France, Germany and the European Union had pledged money for the fund, which will be officially launched on Oct. 30, and he urged government and business leaders at the United Nations General Assembly this week to join them.”Giving women reparations can help them resume their lives and are a way to rebuild the fabric of societies, families and communities,” Mukwege, 64, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in an interview on a sidewalk cafe in New York on Monday.”Without justice, you can’t build peace, and the example of Congo makes that very clear.”Mukwege said talking to women raped during conflict he realized victims wanted different forms of recompense, just as they needed different sorts of treatment, ranging from medical and psychological to economic, social and legal.Congolese patients wait to receive medical attention from Dr. Denis Mukwege, at the Panzi Hospital in Bukavu, South Kivu Province in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Oct. 5, 2018.Some wanted financial help to rebuild their lives or requested education for their children to secure them a better future, while others wanted an apology from the authorities who had failed to protect them or punish those responsible.”In remote areas particularly, women said they were suffering from a loss of dignity and what they wanted most was an apology so they could then move on,” he said.It was important to also ensure action was taken against those responsible for sexual violence, he added, and this had yet to happen, particularly in Congo where some of the offenders were in positions of power.Democratic Republic of Congo was engulfed in war from 1996 to 2003, and several smaller conflicts still simmer.”I believe you can’t build peace without justice,” said Mukwege, who lives with his wife in the Panzi Hospital which has round-the-clock security.He said the fund would be administered by a board – yet to be appointed – which would listen to requests from victims and decide how best to allocate resources.So far France has committed to give about 6 million euros ($6.6 million) to the fund over three years, Germany 400,000 euros over two years, and the European Union a one-off donation of 2 million euros.Mukwege said it was heartening to see women were starting to speak out and the issue of sexual violence in war was getting the international spotlight.In 2015, the United Nations proclaimed June 19 of each year to be International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict to raise awareness of the need to end such violence and to honor the victims and survivors globally.”The number of women who are breaking their silence and coming to hospital is increasing every year,” Mukwege said.
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France’s Cannes to Ban Polluting Cruise Ships
Mediterranean resort town Cannes, France’s fourth-biggest cruise ship port, will ban the most polluting cruise ships from next year in a bid to boost air quality in the city.The ban will target ships that do not respect a 0.1% cap on sulphur in their fuel and could stop some passengers from disembarking in the city famous for its film festival.”It’s not about being against cruise ships. It’s about being against pollution,” Cannes Mayor David Lisnard told Reuters Television in an interview.FILE – Pedestrians stroll along the beachfront walkway as a cruise liner and luxury boats are moored in the Bay of Cannes, May 14, 2004.Under the European Union’s clean air policy, the cap is already enforced in Baltic, North Sea and Channel ports and it may be extended to the Mediterranean.Cruise ships run on fuel oil which contains about 2,000 times more sulphur oxide than ordinary diesel, according to German pollution analyst Axel Friedrich.”We will no longer accept cruise ship passengers coming from polluting cruise ships,” Lisnard said.The exponential growth of the cruise ship industry is often criticized by residents of tourist towns but it is also increasingly considered a threat to the environment.Three months ago, Italy’s main conservation group said Venice should be put on the United Nations’ list of endangered cities and cruise ships should be banned from its fragile lagoon to prevent an ecological disaster.According to figures from the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), the industry’s main trade association, 30 million passengers are expected to cruise on almost 300 ships this year, up from 17.8 million 10 years ago.In July, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, which represents 40 percent of Cannes’ maritime traffic, signed a Cruise Charter agreement with the city of Cannes, promising to make its ships more environmentally friendly.
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New Zealand PM Ardern, Trump Discuss Gun Control in First Formal Meeting
U.S. President Donald Trump “listened with interest” about New Zealand’s gun reforms introduced after the mass shooting in Christchurch, the Pacific country’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Tuesday.New Zealand’s moves on gun control have won global praise, especially in the United States, where lawmakers favoring gun control and activists have struggled to address firearms violence despite back-to-back mass shootings in Texas and Ohio last month.Ardern, 39, met Trump, 73, at the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, in what was the first formal meeting between the two leaders.In this image made from video, people bring their guns to exchange for money in Christchurch, New Zealand, July 13, 2019.Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Ardern said New Zealand’s gun buy-back and the process it had gone through was a big part of the 25-minute meeting, along with trade, tourism and what happened in Christchurch.”It was a conversation around our (gun) buy-back and the work we had done to remove military-style, semi-automatic weapons and assault rifles,” Ardern said in videos posted by media members traveling with the prime minister.”I sensed an interest,” Ardern said. “Obviously, we were able to move very quickly and with consensus and that stood out to the world. The fact that we had that political consensus among members of parliament. … I think that sparked interest amongst others.”New Zealand had near-unanimous support in parliament when it passed a law banning military-style semi-automatics in a first round of reforms within weeks of the mass shooting in Christchurch by a suspected white supremacist, in which 51 Muslim worshippers were slain.FILE – People visit a memorial site for victims of Friday’s shooting, in front of the Masjid Al Noor mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand, March 18, 2019.The country launched a gun amnesty scheme. It also plans a second set of reforms, to be debated in its parliament on Tuesday.In the United States, Trump has discussed potential gun control legislation with lawmakers after a series of mass shootings in August that killed more than 30 people. Trump has said many areas were under discussion, including background checks.Ardern said she would not want to predetermine what their discussions means for the United States and the laws there, just noting that Trump “listened with interest.”The meeting between the two leaders was keenly watched, as Ardern is often contrasted with Trump for her views on issues including women’s rights, climate change and diversity.However, news media organizations were not invited to the meeting.Ardern has publicly rejected Trump’s view on the threat of white nationalism, and recently said she “completely and utterly disagreed” with his comments telling four minority U.S. congresswomen – three of whom were born in the United States – to go back to where they came from.Ardern also gave a keynote speech at the U.N. secretary-general’s Climate Action Summit.
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US-Japan Trade Deal Hits Snag as Tokyo Seeks Assurances on Car Tariffs
A U.S.-Japan trade deal hit a last-minute snag as Japanese officials sought assurances that the Trump administration will not impose national security tariffs on Japanese-built cars and auto parts, people familiar with the talks said on Monday.U.S. President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe are aiming to sign a trade deal at a meeting this week during the United Nations General Assembly in New York that provides increased access to Japan for U.S. agricultural goods and bilateral cuts in industrial goods tariffs.But the limited trade deal is not expected to include changes to tariffs and trade rules governing autos, the biggest source of the $67.6 billion U.S. trade deficit with Japan.Trump has refrained thus far from following through on his threat to impose tariffs of up to 25% on Japanese and European car and parts imports, citing ongoing trade negotiations with these partners.The New York Times earlier reported that Japan was demanding a “sunset clause” that would cancel any trade benefits for the United States if Trump imposes the auto tariffs on Japanese vehicles.Japanese Foreign Ministry spokesman Masato Ohtaka said that Japan still hoped to sign the U.S. trade deal by the end of September and that there was still time to work out remaining issues.He told reporters in a briefing that U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi would discuss these issues at a meeting in New York later on Monday evening.”Frankly speaking, we still have some time and all my colleagues in the government are making their best efforts to actually meet this target,” Ohtaka said.Executives at two automakers briefed on the matter said Japan has expressed concerns about signing a deal without assurances that Trump will refrain from imposing tariffs on Japanese automotive exports as he benefits from Japanese agricultural concessions.These people, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that the issue could delay the signing of a U.S.-Japan trade deal until subsequent weeks.Details of the U.S.-Japan trade deal have not been disclosed, but people familiar with it say that it will provide U.S. farmers who have been battered by the U.S. trade war with China some relief through increased access to Japan, including for American beef and pork.But some people say it will provide less than the access they would have received had the United States remained in the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, which Trump pulled the United States out of on his third day in office in January 2017.The deal also includes a modernization of digital trade rules, which is expected to reinforce the U.S. model of internet development, prohibiting cross-border taxation of e-commerce and data localization requirements.Trump and Abe a year ago at the U.N. General Assembly agreed to discuss an arrangement that protects Japanese automakers from further tariffs while negotiations are under way.The trade deal would not require congressional approval, using a trade law provision that allows the U.S. president to make executive agreements to mutually reduce tariffs with a foreign trading partner.
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Harare Closes Water Plant for Lack of Treatment Chemicals
Zimbabwe’s capital has closed its water plant due to lack of funds to purchase water treatment chemicals, forcing residents to rely on open and untreated water sources. Grace Kufakunesu, a 38-year-old mother of three, says she has been relying on open water sources for her household chores for months. Michael Chideme, the spokesman for Harare, says the closure of its water plant was due to a lack of water treatment chemicals, Sept. 23, 2019. (C.Mavhunga/VOA)”What happens is on our side, our budget for water is now exhausted,” Chideme said. “We have approached [the] government to appraise [the] government of the need to support the water sector, to declare it an emergency so that funding partners can also come onboard and assist the city in the long-term projects.”For years, rights groups have accused the government of prioritizing matters such as foreign trips and luxury vehicles for senior officials, neglecting issues like health care, education and water supplies.In 2008, lack of water treatment chemicals resulted in about 5,000 deaths from cholera. It was only after the intervention of U.N. agencies, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the European Union that the disease was contained.Now with the water plant closed in Harare, residents of the capital fear that might happen again.
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GM Strike Enters 2nd Week With No Clear End in Sight
The strike against General Motors by 49,000 United Auto Workers entered its second week Monday with progress reported in negotiations but no clear end in sight.Bargainers met all weekend and returned to talks Monday morning as the strike entered its eighth day.A person briefed on the negotiations says they’re haggling about wages and profit sharing, new product for factories that GM wants to close, a faster route to full wages for new hires, and use of temporary workers. The person didn’t want to be identified because details of the bargaining are confidential.Workers walked off their jobs early on Sept. 16, paralyzing production at about 30 manufacturing sites in nine states.Already the strike forced GM to shut down two Canadian factories that make engines, older-model pickup trucks and two car models. If the strike drags on much longer, GM likely will have to close more factories in Mexico and Canada because engines, transmissions and other components are built in the United States. Companies that supply parts to GM also will have to start cutting production.Consumers this week will start to see fewer trucks, SUVs and cars on dealer lots. Cox Automotive said that GM had stocked up before the strike with a 77-day supply of vehicles. But before the strike, the supply of larger SUVs such as the Chevrolet Tahoe already was below the industry average 61 days’ worth of vehicles.Workers also will feel pressure. They got their last GM paycheck last week and will have to start living on $250 per week in strike pay starting this week.The union wants a bigger share of GM’s more than $30 billion in profits during the past five years. But the company sees a global auto sales decline ahead and wants to bring its labor costs in line with U.S. plants owned by foreign automakers.The top production worker wage is about $30 per hour, and GM’s total labor costs including benefits are about $63 per hour compared with an average of $50 at factories run by foreign-based automakers mainly in the South.Issues that are snagging the talks include the formula for profit sharing, which the union wants to improve. Currently workers get $1,000 for every $1 billion the company makes before taxes in North America. This year workers got checks for $10,750 each, less than last year’s $11,500.Wages also are an issue with the company seeking to shift compensation more to lump sums that depend on earnings and workers wanting hourly increases that will be there if the economy goes south.They’re also bargaining over use of temporary workers and a path to make them full-time, as well as a faster track for getting newly hired workers to the top UAW wage.GM has offered products in two of four locations where it wants to close factories. It’s proposed an electric pickup truck for the Detroit-Hamtramck plant and a battery factory in the Lordstown, Ohio, area, where it is closing a small-car assembly plant. The factory would be run by a joint venture, and although it would have UAW workers, GM is proposing they work for pay that’s lower than the company pays at assembly plants.This is the first national strike by the UAW since 2007, when the union shut down General Motors for two days.
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Botswana Issues Elephant Hunting Licenses, First Since 2014
For the first time in five years, elephant hunting will be legal in Botswana, with authorities planning to issue nearly 160 hunting licenses in coming weeks. The southern African country says the elephant population has gotten too big and needs to be curbed. In May this year, Botswana lifted a ban on elephant hunting, citing growing conflict between wildlife and humans. The country has an elephant population of more than 130,000, more than double its official capacity.Seventy-two licenses will be given to non-citizens and will be awarded through a bidding process for next year’s hunting season, expected to begin in April.Another 86 licenses have been reserved for locals, and are being awarded through a nationwide raffle system. Participation in the raffle is high. Maun, a wildlife zone in the northwestern part of the country, saw 5,990 locals jostling for just eight elephant hunting licenses reserved for the area. In this July 12, 2014 photo, an elephants crosses the main highway leading to Zambia in Northern Botswana.The government has said the licenses are not transferable, but a raffle winner, who preferred anonymity, says this makes them less attractive.“It would have been ideal if the hunting licenses were transferable so that as a local, I can sell it to an international hunter to raise money,” said the license holder. “As it stands, the benefit is the meat and keeping the trophy.”Locals pay $800 for the license, and hunters will be accompanied by wildlife officers for the hunt.The trophy, including the tusks, cannot be exported and should be kept by the license holder.Despite the high interest in hunting licenses, Maun resident Boniface Keakabetswe feels the $800 fees was too steep, particularly for rural communities.”There were raising concerns about the license price that is paid once people have won the elephant (licenses),” Keakabetswe said. “It is around P8,000 and they were saying that many people who are living in communities, who are part of the people who have applied for these licenses, are poor and many of them cannot afford the P8,000.”A farmer, Davidson Mapetla from Gobajango in eastern Botswana, where more than 250 elephants have moved into human settlements, says the allocation of hunting licenses was not balanced.”It is a pity that there are only areas that have been identified for hunting,” Mapetla said. “The hunting licenses that have been issued, I want to tell you, it is not going to help us here. The only thing that we are going to have here is another death, another destruction of crops.”Botswana’s minister of environment and natural resources, Kitso Mokaila, says the hunting season will start off “slowly and cautiously.”He says quotas were allocated in areas where there is increased conflict between humans and wildlife.The first session of the hunting season runs between September and November.
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Puerto Rico Braces for Tropical Depression Karen
The U.S. territory of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands are expected to feel the effects of Tropical Depression Karen to the islands Tuesday.The National Weather Service warned Monday that Karen was expected to bring flash floods and mudslides to the islands starting Tuesday into Wednesday.Monday evening, Karen was 215 kilometers south of St. Croix and moving north-northwest at 20 kph, with maximum sustained winds of 55 kph.Meteorologist Roberto Garcia predicted that eastern Puerto Rico would be “greatly affected” by moderate to serious flooding.The U.S. territory is still recovering from the devastation caused by Hurricane Maria two years ago.Officials on the island ordered all schools and public offices closed in anticipation of Karen.
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Indonesia Military: At Least 20 Killed, Dozens Jnjured in Papua Unrest
At least 20 people were killed and dozens more injured as fresh unrest erupted in Indonesia’s restive Papua region Monday, with some victims burned to death in buildings set ablaze by protesters, authorities said.Papua, on the western half of New Guinea island, has been gripped by weeks of violent protests fueled by anger over racism, as well as fresh calls for self-rule in the impoverished territory.Sixteen people were killed in Wamena city where hundreds demonstrated and burned down a government office and other buildings, authorities said.”Most of them died in a fire,” said Papua military spokesman Eko Daryanto.”The death toll could go up because many were trapped in burning kiosks,” he added.Among the victims, 13 were non-Papuans and three were Papuans, Daryanto said, adding that a soldier and three civilians also died in provincial capital Jayapura, where security forces and stone-throwing protesters clashed Monday.The soldier was stabbed to death, while three students died from rubber bullet wounds, authorities said, without elaborating.About 300 people were arrested in connection with Monday’s protests, Daryanto said, adding that about 65 people had been injured.The clashes in Papua had quietened down in recent days, but flared up again as hundreds took to the streets — and houses and stores went up in flames.Monday’s protests in Wamena — mostly involving high-schoolers — were reportedly sparked by racist comments made by a teacher, but police have disputed that account as a “hoax”.Indonesia routinely blames separatists for violence in Papua, its easternmost territory, and conflicting accounts are common.Demonstrations broke out across the region and in other parts of the Southeast Asian archipelago after the mid-August arrest and tear-gassing of dozens of Papuan students, who were also racially abused, in Indonesia’s second-biggest city, Surabaya.InsurgencyA low-level separatist insurgency has simmered for decades in Papua, a former Dutch colony, after Jakarta took over the mineral-rich region in the 1960s. A vote to stay within the archipelago was widely viewed as rigged.Earlier Monday, authorities said the situation had been brought under control in Wamena, while an AFP reporter there said Internet service had been cut.”Security forces have also taken steps to prevent the riots from spreading,” said National Police spokesman Dedi Prasetyo.The airport in Wamena was shut Monday with some 20 flights cancelled due to the unrest, local media reported, citing an airport official.Indonesia has sent thousands of security personnel to Papua to quell the recent unrest, and dozens were arrested for instigating the earlier riots.At least five demonstrators and a soldier were killed, but activists say the civilian death toll is higher.Last week the military said a toddler and teenager were among three people killed in a gunfight between security forces and independence-seeking rebels.
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5 EU Countries Agree on Distribution of Migrants
Interior ministers from five European countries reached a preliminary agreement on how to distribute migrants picked up in the central Mediterranean. The agreement was reached Monday during a meeting in Malta and is scheduled to be discussed by all European Union members next month.EU Migration and Home Affairs Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos said good progress was made in Malta towards a predictable and structural set of arrangements to deal with migrants rescued in the Mediterranean.He said the ministers worked to find practical solutions to respond together, in a spirit of solidarity, to the migratory challenges.“We all agree that the current ad hoc approach consisting of the commission coordinating solidarity efforts each time a vessel with migrants is at sea is simply not sustainable,” said Avramopoulos.Malta’s Interior Minister Michael Farrugia, who hosted the meeting, which also included Germany, France, Italy and Finland, said an agreement was reached on the disembarkation of migrants following search and rescue operations. He said a paper was ready to be presented to the other EU members.”There is an agreement of a common paper that will be presented to the Council of Ministers of home affairs on October 8,” Farrugia said.Under the preliminary agreement, vessels which rescue people at sea will be given a safe harbor to disembark passengers without delay, avoiding additional hardships to migrants. The agreement also calls for the swift relocation of asylum-seekers, on a voluntary basis, to other member states.Avramopoulos said the migrant crisis is a responsibility for all of the EU which must be addressed collectively.He added that the European Commission would continue to provide active support to member states struggling with the burden of migration, adding that this support would be operational, financial and political.“I remain convinced that the structural and permanent solution embedded in the common European asylum system remains necessary and is the only viable solution in the medium term,” said Avramopoulos.Italy and Malta have in recent months closed their ports to NGO vessels that rescued migrants but those policies are likely to change with the new agreements now being discussed.Thousands of migrants from Africa and the Middle East continue their efforts to reach European shores, sometimes on very unsafe vessels. Both Italy and Malta have long accused other EU nations of dragging their feet on the migration burden they face on a daily basis.
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Russia Declares Alleged CIA Mole Missing, Launches Search
Russia’s Interior Ministry says a former Kremlin official, whom media reports have called a CIA informant, has been officially declared missing.The ministry said on Monday that it had added Oleg Smolenkov, born in 1969, to its list of missing people and that it has launched a search to locate him.Earlier this month, U.S. media reports from Reuters, CNN, The New York Times, and The Washington Post said a CIA informant in the Russian government had been extracted and brought to the United States in 2017.Some of the reports said the unidentified Russian had provided intelligence from inside President Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin about alleged Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.The CIA, the State Department, and the White House have said the reports were inaccurate.Public records from the Russian government administration in 2008 and 2010 show a person named Oleg Smolenkov employed in the administration of Putin, who served as prime minister between 2008 and 2012. In 2010, Smolenkov was promoted to a relatively high civil-service ranking, under an order signed by then-President Dmitry Medvedev.Smolenkov was listed earlier as working as a second secretary at the Russian Embassy in Washington, D.C., according to a personnel listing from the time. The ambassador at that time was Yury Ushakov, who later returned to Moscow and became a deputy chief of staff for Putin and then a foreign-policy adviser.The Russian newspaper Vedomosti reported that Smolenkov was the chief adviser to Ushakov in the Kremlin, and a New York Times reporter on September 11 posted a photo on Twitter of a phone listing for Ushakov’s team indicating that Smolenkov indeed held that post.The Russian government confirmed Smolenkov’s employment, but Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on September 10 that “he was fired several years ago.”According to the Russian media reports, Smolenkov disappeared with his wife, Antonina, and three children while on holiday in the Adriatic country of Montenegro in June 2017.
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Teen Climate Activist Thunberg Scolds Leaders for Inaction
Swedish teen activist Greta Thunberg scolded world leaders Monday at a United Nations summit calling for climate action, saying people are suffering and dying from the effects of global warming and that all the leaders have are empty words.“We are in [the] beginning of a mass extinction and all you can talk about is money,” said Thunberg, who ignited a youth movement with her Friday school strikes for climate action.She said the science has been clear for 30 years, and still they are not doing enough.“You are failing us! But the young people are starting to understand your betrayal,” Thunberg said in a voice filled with emotion. “The eyes of all future generations are upon you. And if you choose to fail us, I say we will never forgive you.”U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, far left, and young environmental activists look on as Greta Thunberg, of Sweden, in red, addresses the Climate Action Summit in the United Nations General Assembly, at U.N. headquarters, Sept. 23, 2019.The 16-year-old warned the more than 60 presidents and prime ministers gathered in the General Assembly hall for the summit that the youth would not let them “get away with this.” She said they draw the line here and now and “change is coming,” whether they like it or not. “My generation has failed in its responsibility to protect our planet,” U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said. “That must change.”Guterres has called for the phasing out of fossil fuels and an end to construction of new coal power plants.“Is it common sense to build ever more coal plants that are choking our future?” the secretary-general asked. “Is it common sense to reward pollution that kills millions with dirty air and makes it dangerous for people in cities around the world to sometimes even venture out of their homes?”He said it is time to end subsidies to the fossil fuel industry and shift taxes from salaries to carbon – taxing pollution, not people.The U.N. chief has sought to highlight the importance of the summit and challenged leaders to “come with concrete plans” and not just “beautiful speeches,” which some outlined Monday.India, which has one of the world’s highest levels of air pollution, said it would increase its renewable energy capacity to 175 gigawatts by 2022. Prime Minister Narendra Modi highlighted his country’s expansion into solar energy.German Chancellor Angela Merkel, in a rare U.N. appearance, pledged that her country would reduce its carbon emissions by 2030 by 55% compared to its 1990 emissions. She said Germany would be carbon neutral by 2050.“In 2030 we want to get two-thirds of our energy from renewables,” Merkel said. “In 2022, we will phase out the last of our nuclear power plants, and at latest, in 2038, we will phase out coal.”U.S. President Donald Trump, who announced his administration’s intention to withdraw from the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement soon after taking office, was not scheduled to attend or speak at Monday’s summit. Trump, however, made a brief appearance and was seen sitting at the U.S. delegation’s table before attending an event on religious persecution.The U.N. released a report ahead of the summit compiled by the World Meteorological Organization showing there has been an acceleration in carbon pollution, sea-level rise, warming global temperatures, and shrinking ice sheets.
It warns that the average global temperature for the period of 2015 through the end of 2019 is on pace to be the “warmest of any equivalent period on record” at 1.1 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
The 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, which has been ratified by 186 nations, calls for actions to prevent global temperatures from surpassing 2 degrees, and ideally remain within 1.5 degrees by cutting greenhouse gas emissions. One of the world’s biggest emitters – the United States – announced under President Trump that it would leave the pact. The U.S. decision has not stopped climate action at the state, local and private sector levels.
The report warns that in order to achieve the 2-degree target, “the level of ambition needs to be tripled.”
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Trump Dismisses Impeachment Talk
U.S. President Donald Trump has dismissed any talk about impeachment by some Democrats over reports that he tried to pressure Ukraine’s president to investigate leading Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.Trump told reporters as he arrived at the United Nations that he is not taking such threats “at all seriously.” He also again said he discussed what he called “corruption” concerning Biden and his son with Ukrainian President President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.”We had a perfect phone call with the president of Ukraine. Everybody knows it. It’s just a Democrat witch hunt. Here we go again. They failed with Russia, they failed with recession, they failed with everything,” Trump said Monday. “It’s very important to talk about corruption. If you don’t talk about corruption, why would you give money to a country that you think is corrupt?…It’s very important that on occasion you speak to somebody about corruption.”FILE – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy speaks to newly elected Ukrainian parliament deputies during parliament session in Kyiv, Aug. 29, 2019.A Wall Street Journal report says Trump urged Zelenskiy eight times to investigate Biden and his son Hunter, and whether a Ukrainian gas company tried to win favors by hiring Hunter while Joe Biden was U.S. vice president. The reports say Trump was looking to get Zelenskiy to collaborate with Trump’s lawyer, Rudolph Giuliani, to investigate the Bidens.The newest controversy surrounding Trump began last week when reports emerged that an unidentified whistleblower in the national intelligence community became alarmed about a series of actions inside the Trump administration. They include what is now known to be Trump’s telephone call with Zelenskiy.Trump critics, including a number of Democratic lawmakers, say if Trump urged Zelenskiy to investigate Biden to discredit the former vice president, that would be a direct appeal to a foreign government to interfere in a presidential election — a potentially impeachable offense. Democrats also want to know if Trump promised Zelenskiy anything in return for an investigation.Ukrainian Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko denies Trump pressured Zelenskiy, saying Ukraine would not take sides in U.S. politics.Amid calls to release the transcript of phone calls with the Ukrainian leader, Trump has said White House will “make a determination” whether to release it.Trump had frozen $250 million in military aid to Ukraine. Congress voted to release those funds last month.FILE – Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden puts on a Beau Biden Foundation hat while speaking at the Polk County Democrats Steak Fry, in Des Moines, Iowa, Sept. 21, 2019.An angry Biden said “there is truly no bottom to President Trump’s willingness to abuse his power and abase our country.” Referring to next year’s election, Trump knows “I’ll beat him like a drum,” Biden said.”I’m not looking to hurt him with respect to his son. Joe’s got enough problems,” Trump said Sunday without specifying what those problems are.As vice president under Barack Obama, Joe Biden went to Ukraine in 2016 and threatened to withhold billions of dollars in U.S. loan guarantees unless the government cracked down on corruption. Biden also demanded that Ukraine’s chief prosecutor Viktor Shokin be fired.Shokin had previously investigated the gas company on which Hunter Biden served on the board. But the probe had been inactive for a year before Joe Biden’s visit. Hunter Biden has said he was not the target of any investigation and no evidence of any wrongdoing by the Bidens has surfaced.
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Nigerian Labor Activists Denounce Delay in Salary Increase
Nigerian labor activists accuse the government of not being serious about increasing the minimum wage after recent talks ended unsuccessfully. Now, they’re threatening to strike.Prepare for a nationwide strike. That’s the latest message from Nigeria’s Trade Union Side (TUS) organization and Joint National Public Service Negotiating Council to public workers and civil servants.The call comes after talks between the federal government and labor groups ended in a deadlock last week. Neither party could come to an agreement on salary adjustment issues surrounding a new minimum wage increase that President Muhammadu Buhari signed into law in April. The law mandates that the lowest level of employees earning 18,000 naira a month, about $50, should now be paid a 30,000 naira salary, or $83.It is a 67 percent raise that would benefit workers such as cleaners, receptionists, security guards and gardeners.It applies to the private and public sector, with a few exemptions, like smaller businesses with less than 25 workers on the payroll.But members of the Nigeria Labour Congress and Trade Union Congress of Nigeria say the government is not serious about putting the law into action.A statement from the Trade Union Side group or TUS read, “TUS has given the government enough time to come to terms with workers’ demands but it appears that the only language necessary for government to act is a strike.”Nigerian current affairs commentator, Adeniyi Kunnu, suggested that President Buhari’s approval of the new wage could have just been a political maneuver.”Since April, you would have expected government to expedite action. I think very strongly when discussions [for the wage bill] were as its highest, it appeared as if the government gave it to the people just for political reasons and the fact that there needed to be some form of consolation going into the general elections that we had on February 23rd of this year,” said Kunnu.He went on to criticize what appears to be insincerity from the government.”It is characteristic of this administration to more or less parry very salient issues. When you deal with the people that actually more or less till the soil of the nation, I think you should address their issues very importantly,” he said.Poverty on the risePoverty is on the rise in Nigeria. Numerous reports from local and international organizations show that the gap between the rich and poor is widening. The country is still struggling to bounce back from one of the worst recessions to hit in 30 years. The nearly 11.5 percent inflation rate is why some workers say this this wage increase may not actually be as good as it sounds. Jide Ologun, a lawyer and member of the Chartered Institute of Personal Management explained.”You convert that to dollars and you’ll be amazed that’s its even lower that what it was in 2011 when it was raised to 18,000 naira,” said the lawyer.He also said that since the Nigerian government recently approved a 5.5 billion naira allocation, nearly $15 million, for members of the Senate to purchase luxury cars, then it should be able to pay the new minimum wage. “It’s a matter of prioritizing,” he said.The government is the largest employer of labor in Nigeria. So millions of people in the country are playing close attention to this. This weekend, the Labor Minister, Chris Ngige, spoke in Enugu to address misinformation about the implementation of the pay raise. He said junior federal workers have begun receiving the new payment, but the real issue is the consequential salary adjustment for upper level workers.For now, negotiations have been stalled, with no set date for the next round of talks.
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Ugandan Leader Questions US Sanctions against Former Protege
Uganda’s longtime leader is disputing United States sanctions targeting a former protege accused of rights violations during his role as police boss between 2005 and 2018.President Yoweri Museveni on Sunday said Gen. Kale Kayihura’s alleged offenses “will be handled in Uganda.”The sanctions are widely seen in Uganda as sending a strong message to Museveni about alleged corruption and rights violations.Museveni says his government will never hand any Ugandan to global justice mechanisms such as the International Criminal Court, even though his country is a state party to the statute creating the ICC.The U.S. this month blocked Kayihura’s assets and imposed a travel ban on him and family members, saying units under his command committed “serious human rights abuses.” He also is accused of corruption and bribery.
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