China called on Britain on Friday to seek “severe punishment” for those involved in the deaths of 39 people, believed to be Chinese nationals, found in a truck container near London, while British police quizzed the driver on suspicion of murder.Post-mortem examinations of 11 of the deceased began as police and forensic experts sought to identify the dead, how they had died and who was involved in the suspected human trafficking ring.Detectives were continuing to quiz the 25-year-old truck driver from Northern Ireland who was arrested after the grim discovery of the bodies in the back of his refrigerated truck on an industrial estate near London in the early hours of Wednesday morning.He has not been formally identified but a source familiar with the investigation named him as Mo Robinson from the Portadown area of the British province. Detectives will decide later whether to charge him with an offense, release him or ask a court for more time to quiz him.Late on Thursday, British authorities moved 11 of the victims – 31 men and eight women – to a hospital mortuary from a secure location at docks near to the industrial estate in Grays about 20 miles (30 km) east of London where the bodies were found.Police have said the process of identifying those who died would take some time while autopsies were carried out to determine how exactly they died.”This is the largest investigation of its kind Essex Police has ever had to conduct and it is likely to take some considerable time to come to a conclusion,” Essex Chief Constable Ben-Julian Harrington said.His force has said their priority was ensuring respect and compassion for the victims.The Chinese Embassy in London said it had sent a team to Essex, and Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said police had not yet been able to verify the nationalities of the deceased.”We hope that the British side can as soon as possible confirm and verify the identities of the victims, ascertain what happened and severely punish criminals involved in the case,” she told a daily news briefing.For years, illegal immigrants have attempted to reach Britain stowed away in trucks, often from the European mainland.In 2000, 58 Chinese were found dead in a tomato truck at the port of Dover.China’s Global Times, which is published by the ruling Communist Party’s official People’s Daily, said in a Friday editorial that Britain should bear some responsibility for the deaths.”It is clear that Britain and relevant European countries have not fulfilled their responsibility to protect these people from such a death,” the widely read tabloid said.It added that Britain appeared not to have learned its lesson from the Dover incident two decades ago.”Could the British and European people ask themselves why they have not been able to avoid a similar tragedy … Did they take all the serious remedial action that they could have?” it said.Truck’s movementsThe focus of the police investigation is on the movement of the trailer prior to its arrival at Purfleet docks near Grays little more than an hour before the bodies were found and who was behind the suspected human trafficking.Irish company Global Trailer Rentals said it owned the trailer and had rented it out on Oct. 15. The firm said it was unaware of what it was to be used for.The refrigeration unit had traveled to Britain from Zeebrugge in Belgium and the town’s chairman, Dirk de Fauw, said he believed the victims died in the trailer before it arrived there.The Times newspaper reported that GPS data showed the container had arrived at the Belgian port at 2.49 p.m. local time on Tuesday before later making the 10-hour trip to Britain.Police said the cab unit of the truck was driven over from Dublin on Sunday, entering Britain in North Wales. It picked up the trailer in Purfleet shortly after midnight on Wednesday.
The National Crime Agency, which targets serious and organized crime, said it was helping the investigation and working urgently to identify any gangs involved.The head of the Road Haulage Association said traffickers were “upping their game” and closer cooperation with European nations was needed, although that may be complicated by Britain’s potential exit from the European Union.
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Month: October 2019
Incumbent Masisi Wins Botswana’s Presidential Vote
Botswana’s incumbent president has been re-elected as the leader of one of Africa’s most stable countries.Mokgweetsi Masisi has won another five-year term, the chief justice announced Friday.The Botswana Democratic Party, which has ruled the diamond-rich southern African nation since gaining independence from Britain in 1966, faced a strong challenge from the opposition Umbrella for Democratic Change coalition, led by Duma Boko. The opposition received a boost from ex-President Ian Khama, who is feuding with the president.Masisi was Khama’s hand-picked successor when the latter stepped down last year, but the two split over Masisi’s policies, including a decision to scrap a ban on elephant hunting imposed by Khama.
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US Justice Dept. Opens Criminal Investigation Into Russia Probe
The Justice Department’s probe into its investigation of whether Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election has shifted from an administrative review into a criminal investigation.The New York Times was the first to report the development Thursday, citing two sources.The new move gives the lead prosecutor the ability to issue subpoenas and empanel a grand jury. It was not immediately clear if a grand jury has already been assembled.John Durham, the U.S. attorney for Connecticut, is the lead prosecutor in the criminal investigation.Special Counsel Robert Mueller concluded earlier this year in his report on possible Russian interference that there was not enough evidence to determine that President Donald Trump or his campaign colluded with Russia.Mueller wrote, however, that he could not exonerate Trump of allegations of obstruction of justice, turning the matter over to Attorney General William Barr.Barr said he could find no evidence of obstruction.Trump has repeatedly characterized the Justice Department’s initial Russia investigation as a “witch hunt.”
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Indonesia’s Report on 737 MAX Crash Urges Redesign, Better Training
Indonesia has recommended closer scrutiny of automated control systems, better design of flight deck alerts and accounting for a more diverse pilot population in the wake of a Boeing 737 MAX crash, according to a copy of a final report seen by Reuters.The report into the crash of the Lion Air jet, Oct. 29, 2018, that killed all 189 people on board is to be released publicly later Friday.Less than five months after the Lion Air accident, an Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX crashed, leading to a global grounding of the model and sparking a corporate crisis at Boeing, the world’s biggest plane manufacturer.Relatives react at the scene where the Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 Max 8 crashed shortly after takeoff on Sunday killing all 157 on board, near Bishoftu, south of Addis Ababa, in Ethiopia, March 13, 2019.Indonesian investigators Wednesday told families of the victims that a mix of factors contributed to the crash, including mechanical and design issues and a lack of documentation about how systems would behave.“Deficiencies” in the flight crew’s communication and manual control of the aircraft contributed to the crash, as did alerts and distractions in the cockpit, according to slides presented to the families.The final report said the first officer was unfamiliar with procedures and had shown issues handling the aircraft during training.The report also found that a critical sensor providing data to an anti-stall system had been miscalibrated by a repair shop in Florida and that there were strong indications that it was not tested during installation by Lion Air maintenance staff.Lion Air should have grounded the jet following faults on earlier flights, the report said and added that 31 pages were missing from the airline’s October maintenance logs.Lion Air did not respond to a request for comment.Boeing issued a statement after Indonesia’s National Transportation Safety Committee released its final report on the accident.Boeing’s President and CEO Dennis Muilenburg said said the company is addressing the committee’s safety recommendations and working to enhance the safety of the 737 Max jet “to prevent the flight control conditions that occurred in the accident from ever happening again.”Muilenburg said the aircraft and its software are receiving “an unprecedented level of global regulatory oversight, testing and analysis. This includes hundreds of simulator sessions and test flights, regulatory analysis of thousands of documents, reviews by regulators and independent experts and extensive certification requirements.”Fighting MCASIn the report, Indonesian regulators recommended a redesign of the anti-stall system known as MCAS that automatically pushed the plane’s nose down, leaving pilots fighting for control.Boeing has said it would remake the system and provide more information about it in pilot manuals.According to the report, Boeing’s safety assessment assumed pilots would respond within three seconds of a system malfunction but on the accident flight and one that experienced the same problem the prior evening, it took both crews about eight seconds to respond.Boeing has said it cannot comment before the release of the report.A panel of international air safety regulators this month also faulted Boeing for assumptions it made in designing the 737 MAX and found areas where Boeing could improve processes.
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Why Taiwan Wanted to Try a Murder Suspect, then Asked him to Stay Home
Ten months ago Taiwan issued an order for the arrest of Chan Tong-kai, a 20-year-old man suspected of strangling his pregnant friend to death while the two were visiting from Hong Kong. This past week, when Chan said he was ready to head back from Hong Kong and face prosecution, Taiwan’s government said it couldn’t let him.That outcome illustrates the deep political differences between Taiwan and Hong Kong’s overseer, mainland China. The two have had icy relations for seven decades, making it hard to cooperate on matters including crime. China cut off formal talks in 2016 with the government of Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen.Hong Kong and Taiwan lack an extradition deal that would give authorities in Taipei a framework to accept Chan’s return. The suspect left Taiwan days after the killing of his friend, 21-year-old Poon Hiu-wing, in February 2018. Taiwanese police never caught him, though they have a file on the case that evidently began in a Taipei hotel room.To accept Chan’s return would imply that China can treat Taiwan as its own territory with no need for an extradition deal of the sort that’s typical between two countries, some analysts believe.“Tsai Ing-wen’s government, they are afraid that if we accept Mr. Chan back to Taiwan, that would fall into the trap of China’s law,” said Michael Tsai, chairman of the Institute for Taiwan Defense and Strategic Studies in Taiwan.China sees self-ruled Taiwan as part of its territory, but the Taiwan government and most citizens say they prefer autonomy.FILE – Demonstrators hold signs protesting an extradition bill during a rally in Hong Kong, June 9, 2019.Lack of an extradition agreementThe woman’s death caught the attention of Hong Kong leaders in February this year when the territory’s leaders proposed an extradition bill. The bill sparked mass protests from June as Hong Kong citizens feared local suspects would be extradited to China where laws are harsher and include political crimes. Hong Kong withdrew the proposed extradition bill this week.Taiwan issued the arrest order before the extradition bill was proposed or protests had started.Taiwanese leaders voiced support for Hong Kong’s protests over the summer as numbers of demonstrators swelled and their cause morphed into a bigger movement against Chinese rule. The Communist country hopes to extend its 22-year-old rule over Hong Kong to Taiwan.Hong Kong citizens would “turn against” Taiwan if the government here accepted Chan for prosecution now, Michael Tsai said. His transfer to Taiwan would imply that Hong Kong citizens can be tried offshore, possibly in mainland China someday, without an extradition law.The Taiwan government’s Mainland Affairs Council says it wanted more cooperation from Hong Kong on the murder case, including copies of police interviews with Chan and any confessions. Chan served jail time there for money laundering before leaving jail Wednesday, but not for murder. He’s now a free man.“The Hong Kong government over the whole course of handling this matter first intentionally gave up its legal jurisdiction authority, then disregarded our side’s requests, let time pass and didn’t give the suspect to us,” the council said Wednesday.Secretary of Security John Lee Ka-Chiu announces the withdrawal of the extradition bill, in Hong Kong, Oct. 23, 2019.Hong Kong Security Secretary John Lee accused Taiwan Wednesday of trying to “shift responsibility” for the case to Hong Kong and putting up “roadblocks out of political considerations,” the Hong Kong Free Press reported.Political riskTsai Ing-wen is running for a second term as president and analysts say the campaign, likely to include a hard line against Beijing, motivated her government to bar Chan’s return. Her opponent advocates closer ties with China.China has claimed sovereignty over Taiwan since the Chinese civil war of the 1940s, when Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists fled to the island after losing to Mao Zedong’s Communists. More than 80% of Taiwanese told government surveys in January and March they oppose unification with China.Taiwanese people would eventually see the suspect’s return as a legal case rather than a political one, said Huang Kwei-bo, vice dean of the international affairs college at National Chengchi University in Taipei. Now they see politics, he said.“We had already filed an arrest order and wanted to catch him, and then when the other party wants to come you say no, no, no need to come,” Huang said. “This is a political issue.”Most Taiwanese hope to try people for crimes committed in Taiwan even if they’re from offshore, said Chao Chien-min, dean of social sciences at Chinese Culture University in Taipei. “It’s not right that foreigners can kill people on our soil and we can’t prosecute,” he said. “So I believe in Taiwan everyone will hope they can return.”
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Botswana’s President to Stay in Office After Parliament Win
Botswana’s chief justice says President Mokgweetsi Masisi will remain in office after his ruling party won enough parliament seats in this week’s election. The final results are not yet complete, but Chief Justice Terence Rannowane said Friday the ruling Botswana Democratic Party has won the needed 29 seats in the National Assembly.The long-peaceful southern African nation had faced its tightest election in history after former President Ian Khama broke away and announced his support for an opposition coalition instead.Many had wondered whether the ruling party would be toppled for the first time since independence in 1966.But opposition coalition Umbrella for Democratic Change was well behind with a dozen seats as counting neared an end. Observers said Wednesday’s election went smoothly in one of Africa’s most stable countries.
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African Migrants Evacuated from Libya Tell Horror Stories
African migrants evacuated from Libyan detention centers to Rwanda say they still want to make the dangerous journey to Europe, despite the abuse they encountered in Libya. The 189 migrants, mostly Eritreans but also Somalis, Ethiopians, and Sudanese, were brought to Rwanda after a September agreement with the African Union. Rwanda has agreed to host 500 migrants who Libya rescued in the Mediterranean and put in detention. Ruud Elmendorp reports from Gashora, Rwanda.
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Tally of Children Separated from Parents at Border Tops 5,400
U.S. immigration authorities separated more than 1,500 children from their parents at the Mexico border early in the Trump administration, the American Civil Liberties Union said Thursday, bringing the total number of children separated since July 2017 to more than 5,400.The ACLU said the administration told its attorneys that 1,556 children were separated from July 1, 2017, to June 26, 2018, when a federal judge in San Diego ordered that children in government custody be reunited with their parents.Children from that period can be difficult to find because the government had inadequate tracking systems. Volunteers working with the ACLU are searching for some of them and their parents by going door-to-door in Guatemala and Honduras.Of those separated during the 12-month period, 207 were younger than 5, said attorney Lee Gelernt of the ACLU, which sued to stop family separation. Five were less than a year old, 26 were a year old, 40 were 2 years old, 76 were 3 years old, and 60 were 4 years old.“It is shocking that 1,556 more families, including babies and toddlers, join the thousands of others already torn apart by this inhumane and illegal policy,” Gelernt said. “Families have suffered tremendously, and some may never recover.”The Justice Department declined to comment.FILE – Diana Jimenez stands with her family at a protest outside the Homestead Temporary Shelter for Unaccompanied Children, June 16, 2019, in Homestead, Fla. A coalition of religious groups and immigrant advocates want the detention center closed.The count itself is milestoneThe count is a milestone in accounting for families who have been touched by Trump’s widely maligned effort against illegal immigration. The government identified 2,814 separated children who were in government custody June 26, 2018, nearly all of whom have been reunited.The U.S. Health and Human Services Department’s internal watchdog said in January that potentially thousands more had been separated since July 2017, prompting U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw to give the administration six months to identify them. The ACLU said it received the last batch of 1,556 names one day ahead of Friday’s deadline.The administration has also separated 1,090 children since the judge ordered a halt to the practice in June 2018 except in limited circumstances, like threats to child safety or doubts about whether the adult is really the parent.The ACLU says the authorities have abused their discretion by separating families over dubious allegations and minor transgressions including traffic offenses. It has asked Sabraw to more narrowly define circumstances that would justify separation, which the administration has opposed.With Thursday’s disclosure, the number of children separated since July 2017 reached 5,460.FILE – Families wait to be reunited with their children who were separated from them by U.S. immigration authorities, at the shelter Nuestras Raíces in Guatemala City, Aug. 7, 2018.Poor system to track kids The government lacked tracking systems when the administration formally launched a “zero tolerance” policy in the spring of 2018 to criminally prosecute every adult who entered the country illegally from Mexico, sparking an international outcry when parents couldn’t find their children.Poor tracking before the spring of 2018 complicates the task of accounting for children who were separated early on. As of Oct. 16, the ACLU said, volunteers couldn’t reach 362 families by phone because numbers didn’t work or the sponsor who took custody was unable or unwilling to provide contact information for the parent, prompting the door-to-door searches in Central America.Since retreating on family separation, the administration has tried other ways to reverse a major surge in asylum-seekers, many of them Central American families.Tens of thousands of Central Americans and Cubans have been returned to Mexico this year to wait for immigration court hearings, instead of being released in the United States with notices to appear in court.Last month, the administration introduced a policy to deny asylum to anyone who passes through another country on the way to the U.S. border with Mexico without seeking protection there first.
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Sanders Plans to Release Health Records by End of Year
Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is planning to release his health records by the end of the year.The White House hopeful addressed his health Thursday in Iowa ahead of his first appearance in an early voting state since suffering a heart attack earlier in the month. The 78-year-old Vermont senator has repeatedly promised to release his health records at some point, but he outlined a likely timeline in an interview with The Associated Press.”I want to make it comprehensive,” Sanders said in explaining the delay. “The answer is I will, probably by the end of the year.”Campaign manager Faiz Shakir later said more definitively that Sanders does plan to release the records by the end of December. He expects the statement from Sanders’ physician to show Sanders has made a “full recovery” from the heart attack.Sanders’ health condition adds another layer of complexity to the Democratic Party’s crowded 2020 presidential primary election.Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, has maintained a place near the top of the field for much of the year, although most polls suggest he’s currently trailing establishment favorite Joe Biden and progressive rival Elizabeth Warren.He returned to Iowa Thursday for a two-day swing that features at least five public campaign appearances, several media interviews and a handful of private meetings with local officials as he works to convince voters that he’s physically capable of defeating Trump in 2020.Sanders suggested there wouldn’t anything new to see in the health records once he releases them.He noted that he released such information during his 2016 campaign as well.”Nothing much has changed except that I had a heart attack, and I look forward to a full recovery there,” Sanders told the AP. “So, I don’t think it’ll be all too revelatory.”
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Young Thais Battle Seniority Culture to Raise Climate Awareness
When Nanticha “Lynn” Ocharoenchai organized Thailand’s first climate strike in March, more than half of the 50 people who showed up at the rally in Bangkok were students at international schools and expatriates.
The same day, Ralyn “Lilly” Satidtanasarn, then age 11, and a group of fellow pupils submitted an open letter to the prime minister, calling for urgent action on climate change.
“The fact that Lilly and I can do this draws a lot from being in international schools,” said Lynn, 21.
There they received classes on the environment, whereas most Thai state schools do not teach the subject, Lynn noted in an interview a week after graduating from Chulalongkorn University. FILE – Environmental activist Greta Thunberg of Sweden addresses the Climate Action Summit at the U.N. General Assembly, at U.N. headquarters in New York, Sept. 23, 2019.The young pair are often said to be Thailand’s version of Greta Thunberg, the teenage Swedish activist who has inspired other children worldwide to skip school and demonstrate in the streets about the need to halt global warming and its impacts.
Lynn’s mission is to boost awareness among the Thai public about climate change in a country that is witnessing warmer temperatures, sea level rise, floods and droughts.
Its capital, Bangkok, built on the floodplains of the Chao Phraya River, is expected to be among the urban areas hit hardest as the climate heats up.
Nearly 40% of Bangkok may be inundated each year as soon as 2030 because of more extreme rainfall, according to the World Bank.
But Lynn said that while many Thais are directly experiencing the growing effects of climate change, some Asian social norms made it hard for her to achieve her aims.
“In Asia, we have a culture of seniority, and young people aren’t supposed to speak up for themselves and are not supposed to speak against adults,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in a Bangkok coffee shop.
Local link lacking
Lynn’s interest in climate change was sparked through writing articles on the environment as a journalism intern.
In March, she read about Thunberg, which prompted her to create a Facebook event for a climate strike in Bangkok.
“I could truly relate to her frustration and depression, and just feelings of hopelessness,” said Lynn.
“For years I cried in my bedroom, and I’m sad and I’m just, like, no one’s going to do anything about it. But I figured if Greta can do it … I can probably do something too,” she said.
Since she set up the Facebook page “Climate Strike Thailand,” it has attracted almost 5,000 followers.
“Initially I had no idea about Thai social media and how to deal with Thai culture and Thai people and changing their mindset, but since March I’ve learned so much,” she said.
Tara Buakamsri, Thailand director for Greenpeace Southeast Asia, said young people in provinces outside Bangkok have long campaigned on environmental issues affecting their hometowns, such as opposing gold mines or coal-fired power plants.
But there has been no networking platform to link them with groups in the capital, and Climate Strike Thailand has yet to spread beyond middle-class and international school students, he added.
“While the recent climate strikes are connected to climate change issues [at] the international level, they have yet to connect on the local level,” said Buakamsri. FILE – An environmental activist carries his daughter on his shoulders as they participate in a Global Climate Strike near the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment office in Bangkok, Thailand, Sept. 20, 2019.’Just the beginning’
Since the first March strike, Lynn has led two more, in May and September.
For the third, about 200 young people marched to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, demanding that the government declare a climate emergency and shift to 100% renewable energy by 2040.
In 2015, Thailand signed the Paris climate agreement and pledged to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 20% to 25% by 2030, compared with 2005 levels.
But new coal-fired power plants have since been promoted both in Thailand and neighboring countries, which activists say contradicts climate change goals.
“These climate strikes are by no means methods to solve the problem,” Lynn said. “It’s just the beginning where you acknowledge the problem.”
Lilly, meanwhile, now 12, has been meeting with business and government officials, urging them to care more about the environment.
Her persistence over the last two years has paid off, and she is widely credited for a pledge by more than 40 national retailers to ban plastic bags by next year.
“I see no progress made by the government,” she told journalists recently. “I only see progress made by Lynn and me.”
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One of Europe’s Last Wild Rivers Is in Danger of Being Tamed
Under a broad plane tree near Albania’s border with Greece, Jorgji Ilia filled a battered flask from one of the Vjosa River’s many springs.
There is nothing else better than the river,'' the retired schoolteacher said.The Vjosa gives beauty to our village.”
The Vjosa is temperamental and fickle, changing from translucent cobalt blue to sludge brown to emerald green, from a steady flow to a raging torrent. Nothing holds it back for more than 270 kilometers (170 miles) in its course through the forest-covered slopes of Greece’s Pindus mountains to Albania’s Adriatic coast.
This is one of Europe’s last wild rivers. But for how long?
Albania’s government has set in motion plans to dam the Vjosa and its tributaries to generate much-needed electricity for one of Europe’s poorest countries, with the intent to build eight dams along the main river. Hydropower boom
It’s part of a world hydropower boom, mainly in Southeast Asia, South America, Africa and less developed parts of Europe. In the Balkans alone, about 2,800 projects to tame rivers are underway or planned, said Olsi Nika of EcoAlbania, a nonprofit that opposes the projects.
Some tout hydropower as a reliable, cheap and renewable energy source that helps curb dependence on planet-warming fossil fuels. But some recent studies question hydropower’s value in the fight against global warming. Critics say the benefits of hydropower are overstated — and outweighed by the harm dams can do. FILE – The sky is reflected in the Vjosa River after sunset near the village of Badelonje, Albania, June 30, 2019. Rivers are a crucial part of the global water cycle. They act like nature’s arteries.Rivers are a crucial part of the global water cycle. They act as nature’s arteries, carrying energy and nutrients across vast landscapes, providing water for drinking, food production and industry. They’re a means of transportation for people and goods, and a haven for boaters and anglers. Rivers are home to a diversity of fish — including tiny minnows, trout and salmon — and provide shelter and food for birds and mammals.
But dams interrupt their flow, and the life in and around them. While installing fish ladders and widening tunnels to bypass dams helps some species, it hasn’t worked in places like the Amazon, said Julian Olden, a University of Washington ecologist.
Dams block the natural flow of water and sediment. They also can change the chemistry of the water and cause toxic algae to grow. Some will lose property
Those who live along the riverbank or rely on the waterway for their livelihood fear dams could kill the Vjosa as they know it. Its fragile ecosystem will be irreversibly altered, and many residents will lose their land and homes.
In the 1990s, an Italian company was awarded a contract to build a dam along the Vjosa in southern Albania. Construction began on the Kalivac dam but never was completed, plagued with delays and financial woes.
Now, the government has awarded a new contract for the site to a Turkish company. Energy ministry officials rejected multiple interview requests to discuss their hydropower plans. FILE – People raft on the Vjosa River near Permet, Albania, June 25, 2019. Some tout hydropower as a reliable, cheap and renewable energy source, but critics say the benefits of hydropower are overstated and are outweighed by the harm dams can do.Many locals oppose the plans. Dozens of residents from the village of Kute joined nonprofits to file what was Albania’s first environmental lawsuit against the construction of a dam in the Pocem gorge, a short distance downriver from Kalivac. They won in 2017, but the government has appealed.
The victory, while significant, was just one battle. A week later, the government issued the Kalivac contract. EcoAlbania plans to fight that project, too.
Ecologically, there is a lot at stake.
A recent study found the Vjosa was incredibly diverse. More than 90 types of aquatic invertebrates were found in the places where dams are planned, plus hundreds of fish, amphibian and reptile species, some endangered and others endemic to the Balkans. Thwarting fish
Dams can unravel food chains, but the most well-known problem with building dams is that they block the paths of fish trying to migrate upstream to spawn.
As pressure to build dams intensifies in less developed countries, the opposite is happening in the U.S. and Western Europe, where there’s a movement to tear down dams considered obsolete and environmentally destructive.
More than 1,600 have been dismantled in the U.S., most within the past 30 years, according to the advocacy group American Rivers. In Europe, the largest-ever removal began this year in France, where two dams are being torn down on Normandy’s Selune River.
With so few wild rivers left around the globe, the Vjosa also is a valuable resource for studying river behavior.
Science is only at the beginning of understanding how biodiversity in river networks is structured and maintained,'' said researcher Gabriel Singer of the Leibniz-Institute in Germany.The Vjosa is a unique system.” FILE – An abandoned bulldozer sits on the banks of the Vjosa River at the construction site of the Kalivac dam in Albania, June 23, 2019.For Shyqyri Seiti, it’s much more personal.
The 65-year-old boatman has been transporting locals, goods and livestock across the river for about a quarter-century. The construction of the Kalivac dam would spell disaster for him. Many of the fields and some of the houses in his nearby village of Ane Vjose would be lost.
Someone will benefit from the construction of the dam, but it will flood everyone in the area,'' he said.What if they were in our place? How would they feel to lose everything?”
But the mayor, Metat Shehu, insisted that his community has no interest'' in the matter. The Vjosa is polluted. The plants and creatures of Vjosa have vanished,” Shehu said. The biggest issue, he added, is that villagers are being offered too little to give up their land. He hopes the dam will bring investment to the area. ‘Irreparable’ damage
Jonus Jonuzi, a 70-year-old farmer who grew up along the river, is hopeful the Vjosa will stay wild.
Albania needs electrical energy. But not by creating one thing and destroying another,'' he said.Why do such damage that will be irreparable for life, that future generations will blame us for what we’ve done?”
This was produced in partnership with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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EU to Help Fund Colombia Peace Process for Additional 4 Years
The European Union said on Thursday it would extend for four years funding to support implementation of Colombia’s peace accord with former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels, including an initial contribution of 33.5 million euros ($37 million).The EU has given nearly 128 million euros ($142 million) to help former fighters reintegrate since late 2016.The peace accord ended the FARC’s part in more than five decades of conflict in Colombia, which left 260,000 people dead and millions displaced.”This announcement is a serious bet, solid, with resources, to show our commitment with the government of Colombia,” EU Ambassador to Colombia Patricia Llombart told journalists, adding the EU hoped for a “peace that generates economic development.”Some 13,000 members of the FARC, including 7,000 combatants, demobilized under the deal. The group is now a political party.Hundreds of fighters remain in former demobilization camps, where many are participating in business projects meant to help them reintegrate into society and find ways to make a living.Revolutionary Alternative Force of the Common (FARC) Political party flags are seen during a protest in support of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) in Bogota, Colombia, March 13, 2019.A majority of former guerrillas have remained committed to the peace process, despite the killings of dozens of ex-combatants, the rearmament of some former commanders and doubts that President Ivan Duque is committed to helping former fighters.”This is a long-term effort. We are all clear that within the priorities is accompanying ex-combatants for all the time that is necessary for them to finish their transition to legality,” said Emilio Archila, Colombia’s presidential adviser for implementation of the accord.The new EU money will fund two cacao-production projects and one cheese-making effort next year, Archila said. Funds from the EU, Austria and Finland have so far been used for about 30 projects, he said.($1 = 0.9006 euros)
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US Seeking to Mediate Feud Over Nile Dam
The Trump administration has invited the foreign ministers of Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan to Washington to discuss a giant hydropower dam project on Ethiopia’s Blue Nile, the focus of an escalating feud between Addis Ababa and Cairo over water resources. The invitation letter obtained by VOA was extended by U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin Oct. 21 to the three countries and to David Malpass, president of the World Bank Group.Egypt, which has long sought outside help to mediate the talks, has accepted the meeting, scheduled to be held at Mnuchin’s office Nov. 6. A senior administration official confirmed that during the U.N. General Assembly in New York in September, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi asked President Donald Trump to mediate the conflict caused by the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. Cairo considers the issue a national security matter. Without a settlement with Ethiopia, the construction of the massive upstream Nile dam could threaten Egypt’s source of fresh water. FILE – Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin takes a question from a reporter in the Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, Oct. 11, 2019.Offer to el-Sissi The administration official said that Trump had offered el-Sissi “the good offices of Mnuchin.” This would indicate that the Treasury Department would be the point of contact in the matter, instead of the State Department, which has its own Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, an agency tasked with engaging foreign governments on transboundary water management through its Office of Conservation and Water. The State Department bureau has been engaging with parties to the dam project since 2011. It has repeatedly urged tripartite negotiations to resolve the matter and stated to Egypt as recently as last month that any consideration of technical assistance would be conditioned upon agreements resulting from the tripartite process. The bureau was not involved in the invitation by Mnuchin to begin talks.Trump’s appointment of Mnuchin to mediate is a shift from the administration’s FILE – Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, top center, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, bottom left, and Russian President Vladimir Putin, bottom right, are pictured at the Russia-Africa Summit in Sochi, Russia, Oct. 24, 2019.Sochi meeting Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed met with el-Sissi on Wednesday on the sidelines of the first Russia-Africa Summit in Sochi, Russia. Speaking to reporters in Amharic after his meeting with el-Sissi, Abiy said he welcomed political mediation from external actors. “There is no problem if we do the political discussion with anyone. The technical discussion has already been initiated, and they have gone five rounds and will continue,” Abiy said. This appeared to be a softening of Ethiopia’s position, which is to keep the talks at the tripartite level. Last year, Ethiopia rejected Egypt’s call for World Bank arbitration. The $5 billion dam, which is about 70% complete, will provide much-needed electricity to Ethiopia’s population of 100 million. In a question-and-answer session with Parliament in Addis Ababa two days earlier, Abiy said that only negotiation could resolve the deadlock with Cairo. But he warned that if there was a need to go to war with Egypt over the dam, his country could ready millions of people. Pro-government media in Egypt have cast the issue as a threat that could warrant military action. Ethiopia and Egypt have been negotiating for years, but one sticking point remains the rate at which Ethiopia will draw water out of the Nile to fill the dam’s reservoir. Cairo fears that filling the reservoir behind the dam too quickly could reduce its share of water from the Nile. El-Sissi wants guarantees that Abiy’s government will not fill the dam without an agreement. The latest talks collapsed earlier this month. Russian mediation The Russian news agency TASS reported that Moscow was prepared to act as a mediator on the conflict. “We have excellent relations with Addis Ababa and Cairo. We know this subject. We discussed it many times,” Mikhail Bogdano, Russia’s special representative for the Middle East and Africa, said on the sidelines of the Russia-Africa Summit. Moscow is seeking to restore its influence in Africa, which has declined since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. VOA’s Salem Solomon and Cindy Saine contributed to this report.
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25 Million Californians Under Fire Warning
More than 25 million Californians are under a fire warning for wildfires in both the northern and southern parts of the state.Hot dry winds are making it difficult for firefighters to battle the blazes.A fire that erupted in Sonoma Country, north of San Francisco, Wednesday has already destroyed the entire town of Geyserville. About 2,000 county residents were forced to evacuate their homes Thursday.Pacific Gas and Electric began a series of power blackouts Wednesday, cutting electricity to power lines to prevent them from sparking any new blazes in case the winds blow them down.Flames consume a home as the Kincade Fire tears through the Jimtown community of Sonoma County, Calif., on Oct. 24, 2019.Gusts up to 97 kilometers an hour (60 mph) could also knock dry tree branches into active power lines and spark wildfires. Active power lines sparked the fires that devastated parts of northern California last year, leaving 85 people dead and reducing entire towns to ashes.PG&E was forced to declare bankruptcy earlier this year as it faces billions of dollars in lawsuits from residents who lost everything.The exact cause of the fires are unknown, but forecasters blame them in part on dry conditions made worse by hot winds that blow west from the desert.They say they expect the windy conditions to ease in the north but remain intense in the south until sometime this weekend.
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Ethiopia Activist Calls for Calm After 16 Killed in Clashes
Prominent Ethiopian activist Jawar Mohammed called for calm on Thursday amid protests that have killed 16 people and are challenging Nobel Prize-winning Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in his political heartland.Addressing hundreds of supporters gathered around his house in Addis Ababa, Jawar said: “Open the blocked roads, clean the towns of barricades, treat those who have been injured during the protests and reconcile with those you have quarreled with.”He struck a conciliatory tone toward the government, saying it was “not the time to kill each other”, but warned his supporters to stay alert. “Calm yourself,” he told the crowd at his house, “but sleep with one eye open.”People have died in at least four cities since clashes began on Wednesday, officials and a witness said, after police fired gunshots and tear gas to break up demonstrations in support of Jawar.In two of the towns where violence occurred on Wednesday, Harar and Dodola, residents said that young men began opening the roads on Thursday afternoon, after Jawar’s comments to his supporters.”The road to Addis Ababa is now open,” said a regional official in Harar. A resident in Ambo, another site of earlier violence, said that protesters had heeded Jawar’s call to clear roadblocks and go home, but police shot at them. The regional police commissioner did not immediately respond for a request for comment.Jawar Mohammed, an Oromo activist and leader of the Oromo protest, waves to his supporters outside his house in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Oct. 23, 2019.A media entrepreneur and activist from the Oromo ethnic group, the country’s largest, Jawar organized protests that propelled Abiy to power last year.Abiy oversaw rapid political reforms after decades of repressive rule, winning international praise that culminated in last week’s award of the Nobel Peace Prize for ending a decades-long conflict with neighboring Eritrea.But the greater freedoms unleashed long-repressed tensions between Ethiopia’s ethnic groups as local leaders claim more resources for their own regions. This week Abiy accused unnamed media figures of promoting ethnic interests over national unity.Jawar, a one-time ally of the prime minister, has mobilized protesters from the Oromo ethnic group – the same group Abiy comes from. The showdown is a litmus test for Abiy: If he backs down, it could embolden Jawar and other regional powerbrokers.But widespread violence would tarnish his reformist credentials.A spokeswoman for the prime minister did not respond to requests for comment.Late on Tuesday, police ringed Jawar’s house and told his bodyguard to leave, he told Reuters. Hundreds of people quickly gathered in support. Protests spread in the capital and to other cities, where police fired teargas and guns to disperse them.On Thursday, Jawar supporters dug in, erecting tents by his house. Some chanted: “We don’t want Abiy, we don’t want Abiy.”Half a dozen police stood at a distance from the protesters.”One week, one month, we don’t care,” said a young protester, who asked for anonymity for fear of repercussion from the security forces. “We will stay here until the government tells us why they did this to Jawar.”Protests and PoliticsJawar, an Ethiopian-born U.S. citizen, mobilized many thousands of young men all over the Oromiya region to protest against the government from 2016 to 2018, finally forcing Abiy’s predecessor, Hailemariam Desalegn, to step down – the first time a prime minister had resigned since independence.Jawar and Abiy were photographed together frequently last year, but the prime minister on Tuesday appeared frustrated.Abiy told parliament, without naming anyone, “Media owners who don’t have Ethiopian passports are playing both ways.””We tried to be patient. But if this is going to undermine the peace and existence of Ethiopia … we will take measures.”Abiy must walk a delicate line between increasing political freedoms and reining in strongmen building ethnic power bases.Some Ethiopians have criticized Jawar for using ethnically-tinged language, but many young Oromo men consider him a hero.Ethiopia is due to hold elections next year. The four main ethnically-based parties in the ruling coalition, in power since 1991, will compete with new, more strident parties. Jawar could help mobilize support for the coalition – or a rival.Death Toll ClimbsOn Thursday morning, the army was deployed in Dodola, about 300 km (185 miles) south of the capital, after six people were killed, said an official at Dodola hospital. He said three had been shot and three beaten to death.A army spokesman said he had no information on the army being deployed anywhere.In Ambo town, 100 km (60 miles) west of the capital, five protesters died from wounds from gunshots and stones since Wednesday, Oromiya regional police commissioner Kefyalew Tefera told Reuters.Security forces fired to disperse protesters setting tires alight, 30-year-old Solomon Kidanu told Reuters by phone as gunshots cracked in the background.In Harar, 500 km (310 miles) east of the capital, police shot two people on Wednesday, an official said, and protesters killed a third because they suspected him of being an informant.A businessman in Addis Ababa told Reuters he saw two dead protesters brought to the city’s Alert Hospital on Wednesday.Several roads heading out of Addis Ababa remained closed.
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Ohioan Ryan Drops Out of Democratic Presidential Race
U.S. Representative Tim Ryan of Ohio said Thursday that he was dropping out of the race for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. The moderate Ryan had sought backing from blue-collar workers who left the Democratic Party to vote for Donald Trump in 2016 but are now unhappy with the president. However, he struggled to emerge from the large field of Democrats seeking the 2020 nomination. He barely made any headway in the polls and failed to qualify for the last two Democratic debates. Ryan thanked all who supported him and said he would focus his attention on seeking re-election to his seat in the House of Representatives. The Ohioan’s departure left 18 Democrats, led by Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, still in the race, down from a high of 24.
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Russia Sends S-400 Missile Defense Systems to Serbia for Military Drill
Russia said on Thursday a division of its S-400 missile defense system would take part in a military drill in Serbia, underlining Moscow’s wish to keep a traditional ally on side even as Belgrade pursues links with NATO and the European Union.It will be the first time that the sophisticated S-400s, together with a Pantsir missile battery, will be participating in military exercises abroad, Moscow’s Defense Ministry said in a statement.For its part, Serbia’s Defense Ministry said the exercises — dubbed Slavic Shield 2019, aimed to simulate the “use of a joint (combat) group … in defending … against enemy reconnaissance and offensive actions.””Apart from anti-aircraft missile systems in use in the Serbian army, missile systems that are in use by the Russian Air Force will also be used” in the live-fire exercise set to run until Oct. 29, it said in a statement.The exercises began on Wednesday but were not made public until Thursday.Serbia declared military neutrality in 2006 and joined NATO’s Partnership for Peace program in 2015, though does not seek full membership in the U.S.-led alliance. It is also an EU membership candidate and is negotiating entry to the bloc.But Russia is vying to keep fellow Orthodox Christian, Slavic Serbia within its sphere of geopolitical influence.Serbia, whose military is based on ex-Soviet weapons technology, has procured MiG-29 fighter jets as well as helicopters, tanks and armored personnel carriers from Russia in recent years.The two countries have also boosted intelligence cooperation. On Wednesday, Sergey Naryshkin, head of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), told Serbian state-run RTS TV that the two countries were performing “complex mutual operations” to protect their external interests.Serbia has relied on Russia for support in its continued refusal to recognize the independence of its former southern province of Kosovo, which seceded in 2008 after a bloody guerrilla uprising. NATO peacekeepers remain in Kosovo.Serbia also depends on Russia for natural gas supplies and the largest local oil company, Naftna Industrija Srbije, is majority-owned by Russia’s Gazprom.
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VP Pence Takes Aim at Nike, NBA in China Speech
In a hard-hitting speech on China, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence also criticized American companies for selling out this country’s values to protect their market access in the world’s most populous country.“Far too many American multinational corporations have kowtowed to the lure of China’s money and markets by muzzling not only criticism of the Chinese Communist Party, but even affirmative expressions of American values,” according to Pence.“A progressive corporate culture that willfully ignores the abuse of human rights is not progressive – it’s repressive,” said Pence, who specifically mentioned two U.S. entities – athletic-wear maker Nike and the National Basketball Association.The vice president, speaking at the Wilson Center in Washington, said Nike promotes itself as “social-justice champion,” but when it comes to Hong Kong, “it prefers checking its social conscience at the door.”Pence said the brand’s stores in China removed from shelves merchandise of the Houston Rockets basketball team “to join the Chinese government in protest against the Rockets general manager’s seven-word tweet: “Fight for Freedom, stand with Hong Kong.”Pence also said some of the NBA’s biggest players and owners “who routinely exercise their freedom to criticize this country, lose their voices when it comes to the freedom and rights of other peoples.”Pence added that in siding with the Chinese Communist Party and silencing free speech, “the NBA is acting like a wholly owned subsidiary of the authoritarian regime.”Fans in Lebron James and former player Kobe Bryant jerseys watch a game between the LA Lakers and the Brooklyn Nets, at Mercedes-Benz Arena, in Shanghai, China, Oct. 10, 2019. The NBA logos on their jerseys are covered with Chinese flags.Last week, star player Lebron James of the Los Angeles Lakers accused Rockets’ General Manager Daryl Morey of not being educated on the China-Hong Kong issue and raising what he called the “negative” side effects of free speech.James faced additional criticism on Tuesday for screaming and walking off the basketball court during the playing of the American national anthem just before the Lakers’ season opening game against the Clippers in Los Angeles.
“I thought you were right to scold corporate America a bit” for bending to China, former Congresswoman Jane Harman, a Democrat, who is now president of the Wilson Center, told Pence following his speech.Criticism of NBA players and coaches for dodging questions on China while they are, on the other hand, willing to speak out on domestic politic issues is fair, says Julian Ku, academic dean of the Hofstra University’s law school.The league’s leadership, however, “has actually refused to give in to Chinese demands that they fire or discipline Morey,” says Ku.“They have lost quite a bit of money for their unwillingness to fire Morey,” Professor Ku tells VOA. “In this way the NBA should be praised as a model for companies like [hotel chain] Marriott that have bowed to China’s unreasonable demands” and not protected their employees’ rights and values.Pence spent the bulk of his address criticizing China — referring to it as a strategic rival — for its authoritarian approach to society, the rule of law and international commerce.The vice president accused China of attempting to export censorship by exploiting corporate greed and coercing American companies, especially in the entertainment industries.Hollywood studios are accused of editing their content to appease China and avoid losing distribution channels in that country.Pence warned that if authorities in Hong Kong respond violently to protestors — who the vice president urged to remain peaceful — that would make it much harder to conclude the pending trade pact between Beijing and Washington.“We stand with you,” Pence said to the demonstrators in Hong Kong, which is a special administrative region, calling China’s response “antipathy to liberty.”Pence said China is exporting its authoritarian-style surveillance technology to Africa, Latin America and the Middle East.The vice president also accused Beijing of not living up to its promise to Washington to end exports of deadly fentanyl and synthetic opioids to the United States. “The truth is also those deadly drugs continue to flow across our borders,” said the vice president.The United States, Pence said, will not decouple from China, but the Chinese Communist Party has been decoupling from the wide world for decades.Pence, who delivered a similar tough speech about China a year ago, lamented since that address, “Beijing still has not taken significant action to improve our economic relationship.”The vice president concluded on a forward-looking note, expressing hope China would grasp America’s hand being extended for trans-Pacific cooperation.“And we hope that soon Beijing will reach back this time with deeds, not words, and with renewed respect for America,” concluded Pence.This year’s speech by the vice president, who has become the administration’s top-level hardliner on China, “is much focused on the U.S.-China relationship rather than on China’s actions in third countries, especially the developing world,” notes Agatha Kratz, associate director at the Rhodium Group, an independent private sector China-focused research and advisory firm.
“I find this speech more constructive than the last one, with more room left for cooperation,” Kratz tells VOA.
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British PM Johnson, Stymied on Split from EU, Calls for Dec. 12 Election
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, stymied in his efforts to have Britain divorce itself from the European Union by next week, on Thursday called for a snap national election on Dec. 12 to give voters a chance to weigh in on protracted but indecisive wrangling over Brexit in parliament.But Johnson needs a two-thirds vote in the House of Commons to win approval for the quick election and it was not immediately clear if he could win enough support to hold it.With Conservatives holding less than half of the seats in parliament, Johnson would need substantial support from the opposition Labor Party. Labor said that, before supporting an election, it wants assurances that an exit from the EU by next Thursday, which Johnson has long pushed for, has definitely been ruled out.Johnson, in a letter to Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn, said, “An election on 12 December will allow a new parliament and government to be in place by Christmas. If I win a majority in this election, we will then ratify the great new deal that I have negotiated, get Brexit done in January and the country will move on.”Johnson’s election gambit came after he was thwarted this week in winning the House of Commons’ expedited approval for his Brexit plan.Lawmakers voted for the deal that he worked out with the other 27 EU countries, the first time parliament has cast a favorable vote on any Brexit plan. But then the House of Commons rejected his call for final passage within three days, a timetable that would have allowed Britain to exit the EU next week.With the uncertainty surrounding the Brexit outcome, Johnson earlier this week asked the EU for a delay in implementing Britain’s departure until Jan. 31, but the EU has yet to respond.
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Greek Police Clash With Students Protesting Business Reforms
Police clashed with students in Greece’s two largest cities Thursday amid strikes and street protests against a planned overhaul of business rules by the new conservative government.In Athens, one protester and one policeman were hurt when a confrontation between students and police turned violent outside parliament. Police used tear gas to disperse the demonstrators.Clashes also occurred during a student protest in the northern city of Thessaloniki. No arrests were reported.The three-month-old government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis says the reforms will simplify regulations and boost investment as Greece emerges from a protracted financial crisis.Mitsotakis wants to boost growth with more aggressive pro-business policies, promising to deliver 2.8% growth next year, higher than the European Commission’s forecast of 2.2%. His government is also hoping that the reforms will help persuade European creditors to ease repayment conditions debts from three consecutive international bailouts.But unions argue that longstanding workers’ rights will be eroded by the reforms, including the right to negotiate pay through collective bargaining with employers. Critics also oppose the expanded use of private sector services at local government agencies and argue that the value of qualifications from state-run universities may be undermined.Municipal workers continued a strike for a second day, disrupted garbage collection and other services in Athens and elsewhere.More than 2,000 municipal workers marched to Greece’s parliament. During the rally, some of the protest organizers carried an empty coffin and wore masks.The protesters briefly scuffled with police after challenging a cordon outside the parliament building.Two more protest marches are planned later Thursday ahead of a vote in parliament on the draft legislation, which is expected to pass.The government has 158 lawmakers in the 300-member assembly.
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Outspoken Hong Kong Activist Says He is Barred From Election Bid
Joshua Wong, the 23-year-old poster boy for Hong Kong’s ongoing anti-government protests, said Thursday that he is the only candidate for upcoming district elections who has been barred from running.Wong was defiant as he parked himself in front of the city’s Legislative Council complex to announce Thursday that he is the only one of 1,000 aspirants running for the 479-seat District Council who has yet to be approved.He said he was given no explanation for the move. Wong said that when he visited the Electoral Affairs Commission on Thursday to learn more about why he was not approved to run in the Nov. 24 poll he was told that the officer responsible was out sick. In a statement, the commission confirmed that the officer is on sick leave “until further notice” and would be replaced.”It is unexpected and unprecedented in Hong Kong’s election history, and I notice some strange move by the government this time,” he said, adding, “I think how the announcement, or the arrangement, of the Elections Affairs Committee of replacing the returning officer will just prove that it’s not the decision of the internal coordination of the civil service — it’s the interference from Beijing to prompt a delay and to block me to run for office, which will just prove that the election process in Hong Kong isn’t fair at all.”FILE – Anti-government demonstrators attend a protest march in Hong Kong, China, Oct. 20, 2019.When he announced his candidacy in September, Wong warned that any attempts to interfere could fan the flames of anti-government protests, which have filled Hong Kong’s streets for four months.Protesters initially marched to oppose a controversial extradition bill that would have allowed arrested and charged Hong Kong residents to be tried in China. That bill was formally withdrawn this week, but in the interim the leaderless protests grew and evolved into the “five demands” — which include amnesties for protesters, an investigation into police violence, and universal suffrage.The district council is the most democratic government body in Hong Kong, with almost all its members directly elected. Only half of the members of the higher Legislative Council are directly elected by geographic constituencies.FILE – Joshua Wong, left, secretary-general of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy Demosisto party and leader of the Umbrella Movement, testifies at a Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Sept. 17, 2019.Wong first came to prominence in 2016 when he co-founded the Demosisto party. He has since been arrested and jailed numerous times, and other Demosisto members seeking political office have been previously disqualified for their support of self-determination for Hong Kong, a Chinese city with its own semi-autonomous government.In September, Wong testified before the U.S. Congress and urged lawmakers to support the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act — legislation to, among other things, impose sanctions on those responsible for human rights violations in Hong Kong. Lawmakers unanimously passed the act earlier this month. Pro-Beijing lawmakers in Hong Kong slammed the act as interference in Hong Kong’s affairs.
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Egypt, Ethiopia Follow Diplomatic Route Over River Nile Water-Sharing
Both Egypt and Ethiopia are working to find a diplomatic solution to the conflict over water-sharing as construction of the Renaissance Dam on the River Nile nears completion. The leaders of both countries are due to discuss their differences Thursday at an African summit in the Russian resort town of Sochi.Water flows over the two-thirds completed Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile downstream in Ethiopia. Fears have arisen in both Egypt and Sudan that the process of filling the reservoir behind the dam will severely curtail water supplies, prompting a flurry of bellicose rhetoric and intense diplomatic activity.Recent comments by Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed that he could “muster an army of a million men to defend the dam,” if it were threatened, prompted an angry reaction from Egyptian officials. But Ahmed, who recently won the Nobel peace prize, emphasized that diplomacy is his preferred course of action.He says that if any one of those involved in the talks fails [in forging a diplomatic solution], it will be a failure for all.Ahmed also told the Ethiopian Parliament that “no matter what the opposition to the dam—ostensibly from Egypt—there was no going back on the decision to build it.”The comments sparked an angry reaction from the head of the Egyptian Parliament’s Defense and Security Committee, Gen. Mamdouah Maqallad, who told journalists, “If Ethiopia shuts the water tap on Egypt” that he would “authorize President Abdel Fattah al Sisi to declare war on Addis Ababa.”President Sisi, himself, told journalists a little over a week ago, that he has become frustrated that diplomatic talks between Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan are “getting nowhere,” and that “time is running out.”He says that technical committees need to decide how much water Egypt is able to do without in order to fill the reservoir of the dam, and how many years the process will take. Until now, he complains, they have not been able to reach an agreement over this.Dr. Paul Sullivan, a professor at the U.S. National Defense University, tells VOA “Egypt has the most powerful military in North Africa [with] air, land and sea power that could overwhelm Ethiopia’s very quickly.” He argues, though, that “a war is not the answer [because] both sides would pay a heavy price.””In the long run,’ he says, “there has to be a negotiated settlement.””Ethiopia has a horrific history of wars,” Sullivan points out, “and Egypt is in no political or economic shape for a major war. Both sides need to look at diplomatic and economic solutions before the heated rhetoric drives them both to a mistaken war.”Political sociologist Said Sadek tells VOA that the Egyptian foreign ministry has been pulling out diplomatic stops in search of a solution:”Egypt is trying to mount a diplomatic campaign to put pressure on Ethiopia to slow down the storage of water [behind the dam], so that it does not affect Egypt negatively,” he said.Sadek says that Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukri “has been meeting with European Union, African and Asian foreign ministers,” as well as lobbying both Washington and Moscow to help resolve the crisis.Reuters news agency reported Wednesday that Egypt has “accepted a US invitation to a meeting of foreign ministers over [the Renaissance dam project].” No date for the meeting was given.Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el Sisi is also due to meet with Ethiopian Prime Minister Ahmed on the sidelines of the Russian-sponsored African summit in the Black Sea resort town of Sochi. It was not clear if Russian President Vladimir Putin would try to mediate.”
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Rep. Elijah Cummings to Lie in State at US Capitol
The late Rep. Elijah Cummings is being remembered by congressional leaders and colleagues at the Capitol, where the Maryland Democrat will lie in state.Members of Cummings’ family were joined by lawmakers on Thursday as they looked on from the East Front Plaza when the hearse carrying Cummings’ casket arrived at the Capitol and was carried up the building’s steps.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Democrat-California), Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Republican-Kentucky), and other congressional leaders planned to speak at the arrival ceremony.The public was to have the chance to pay respects to Cummings later Thursday in Statuary Hall.Cummings, chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, died Oct. 17 after complications from long-standing health problems. A wake and funeral are planned Friday in Baltimore.A sharecropper’s son, Cummings rose to become a civil rights champion and a leader of an impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump.As a tribute to Cummings, no votes were scheduled Thursday in the House.
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Ugandan Police Detain 16 Men Over Suspected Homosexuality
A Ugandan gay rights organization says 16 men have been detained by police on suspicion of homosexuality and human trafficking.Diane Bakuraira of Sexual Minorities Uganda said Thursday the arrests took place in a neighborhood just outside the capital, Kampala, on Monday as the men were being hosted by another rights group.
A police officer confirmed the arrests, saying the men were detained following a “complaint from the public.” He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters.Activists say attacks against LGBT people are increasing amid efforts by Uganda’s ethics minister to introduce a bill that would punish gay sex with death. The government spokesman denies such a plan exists.
Uganda’s penal code punishes gay sex with up to life in prison.
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