The chief rabbi of the main Orthodox rabbinical alliance in Europe says that a resurgence of anti-Semitism on the continent “poses an existential threat to the Jewish community.”The warning by Chief Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmit was sounded as the Conference of European Rabbis awarded the Moshe Rosen Award on Thursday in Rome to the founder of the Catholic charity Sant’Egidio, Andrea Riccardi.Goldschmidt said the award recognizes non-Jews who promote dialogue, understanding and tolerance to ensure a Jewish future in Europe, which he said: “I believe is at risk.”Goldschmidt told The Associated Press that the receding memory of the Holocaust, rising far-right sentiment and radical Islam are the key factors fueling the anti-Semitic climate.An attack two weeks ago on a German synagogue was the latest violent manifestation of the trend, but also includes more subtly negative stereotypes and verbal expressions of cultural contempt.“The last survivors and the last perpetrators are about to leave our world and the Holocaust is changing from being something that is living memory to being part of history,” Goldschmidt said. “Certainly, it is also the political turmoil in Europe today, which is unsettling all the agreements and values which were agreed in 1945, after World War II.”Goldschmidt said a myriad of factors — ranging from attacks on Jews and encroachments on Jewish life like a Belgian law outlawing the Kosher slaughter of animals — have made Europe less safe for Jews than 20 years ago.During that period, the number of Jews in Europe has diminished, he said, from 2 million to 1.5 million today, largely through emigration.Riccardi is being recognized for work by the 51-year Sant’ Egidio community to construct a dialogue between lay Catholics and Jews, reaching beyond Vatican efforts to mend relations with Jews dating from the 1962 Second Vatican Council.The Sant-Egidio community believes that preserving the memory of the Holocaust is critical to constructing a united Europe, and for the last 25 years has marched with the Jewish community on the anniversary of the Oct. 16, 1943 deportation of Roman Jews to Nazi German death camps.Sant’ Egidio has also helped create a memorial to deported Jews at the Milan Central train station, and has participated in memorial walks in Antwerp, Beligum and Pecs, Hungary.“I think that it needs to be recognized that this is a difficult moment, because nationalism is giving rise again to a politics of hatred,” Riccardi told AP. “And the first chapter, not the only one, but the first chapter of political hatred is anti-Semitism.”“This must make us worry, and it should wake us up.”Riccardi said the trend can be countered by keeping alive the memory of the Nazi Holocaust that killed 6 million European Jews, creating solidarity between the Jewish and Christian communities in daily life, and investing in a common culture.“Anti-Semitism is like a storm, at a certain point it explodes. We need to act at the first signs,” he said.The Moshe Rosen award was named for the late chief rabbi of Romania who safeguarded his community during communism.The first recipient two years ago was former French President Nicolas Sarkozy and last year the award went to Lithuanian novelist, Ruta Vanagaite, for her work challenging conventional thinking in a book about her country’s involvement in the Nazi killing machine that exterminated 95% of the Jewish population.
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Month: October 2019
Trump Again Attacks Fed, Says Central Bank ‘Derelict in Its Duties’
President Donald Trump once again attacked the US Federal Reserve on Thursday, calling for more interest rate cuts to stimulate the American economy just days before the key policy meeting.”The Federal Reserve is derelict in its duties if it doesn’t lower the Rate and even, ideally, stimulate,” he said on Twitter, a relatively mild epithet after calling policymakers “boneheads” and “pathetic.”Trump has long argued that the Fed was too aggressive about raising the benchmark borrowing rate, which rose four times in 2018.Under Fed Chair Jerome Powell, the Fed cut the rate twice this year, and could do so again at the two-day meeting next week, although some economists are calling for a pause.Trump’s blitz of insults and criticism directed at the Fed had slowed in recent weeks, with the most recent occurring two weeks ago when he said US central bankers “don’t have a clue but I do.””Take a look around the World at our competitors. Germany and others are actually GETTING PAID to borrow money. Fed was way too fast to raise, and way too slow to cut!” Trump tweeted, pausing in his focus on the impeachment inquiry against him in Congress.The Federal Reserve is derelict in its duties if it doesn’t lower the Rate and even, ideally, stimulate. Take a look around the World at our competitors. Germany and others are actually GETTING PAID to borrow money. Fed was way too fast to raise, and way too slow to cut!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 24, 2019The European Central Bank left its policy interest rate unchanged on Thursday at -0.5 percent, while the Bank of Japan – also set to meet next week – has a -0.1 percent rate as sluggish economic growth persists.
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Mozambique’s President and Ruling party Headed for Big Win
Preliminary results show Mozambique’s president and ruling Frelimo party heading for overwhelming victories, as the opposition and some observers charge the elections were marked by intimidation, ballot stuffing and flawed vote-counting.The opposition Renamo party has rejected the results of last week’s elections and called for the polls to be re-run.Results from all Mozambique’s provinces, available Thursday but not yet ratified by the central electoral commission, show a landslide win for Frelimo, with the ruling party gaining an absolute majority in the elections for president, parliament and provincial representation.President Filipe Nyusi appears to have garnered more than 70% of the votes and Frelimo also looks set to secure a two-thirds majority in parliament, which would allow it to change the constitution without needing support from the opposition.
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Hong Kong Immigrants Hold Back on Anti-Government Protests
Hong Kong’s 580,000 non-Chinese residents – many of whom have been here for generations – have so far played a very quiet role in the anti-government protests that have shaken this semiautonomous Chinese city. Slowly, they are making their feelings clear – many support the protests, but others say they are an inconvenience and want their adopted home to return to normal. Almost all say the actual demonstration line is one they will not cross, as they fear arrest – and therefore, deportation. VOA’s Anita Powell reports from Hong Kong
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What Golf’s Rising Popularity Says About a Changing Vietnam
Golf, hardly a traditional Vietnamese pastime, is growing in popularity here, a reflection of changing Vietnamese culture and the country’s evolving approach to attracting tourists.A golf driving range now sits among the durian stores and seafood restaurants on some of Ho Chi Minh City’s prime real estate, just outside of downtown. It sticks out like a sore thumb because it is part of a pastime still limited to a small minority of Vietnamese.However, there are now more than 50 full golf courses in Vietnam. The sport’s increasing popularity is an indication not merely of changes in the economy, but in society more broadly — it shows a change in how Vietnamese do business, spend their leisure time, and attract tourists.Vietnam’s hotels and resorts are looking for new ways to attract tourists, such as through golf. (Ha Nguyen/VOA)Such is the growing popularity of the sport that there is now a trade publication, Vietnam Golf Magazine. This month the magazine quoted Nguyen Thi Thu Ha, vice secretary of the Vietnam Golf Association, on her organization’s latest tournament, focused on women.
“This event will definitely help bring attention to the female golf trend in Vietnam,” Thu Ha said, “each mother, each sister will be inspired so more female golfers can pick up a club and confidently step onto the golf course.”Golf is dominated by men, as has been the case around the world, including next door in China. However, Chinese President Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption crackdown has made officials cautious about indulging in too much display of opulence, which includes not only luxury watches and designer clothes, but golf as well. Consequently, as multinational golf companies, such as Australia’s Pacific Coast Design, look for customers in new markets, one of the places they have landed is Vietnam.Not frequently discussed is the environmental impact of new golf courses in Vietnam, such as overuse of water, pesticides, threats to natural habitats, as well as the microplastics that golf balls release into the ocean. (Ha Nguyen/VOA)The environmental impact of all these new golf courses, such as overuse of water, pesticides, and natural habitats, as well as the microplastics that golf balls release into the ocean, comes up from time to time, but more often Vietnam focuses on the business opportunity. This month the Conde Nast Traveler Readers’ Choice Awards included Vietnam’s golf and beach resort Laguna Lang Co, near the central city of Hue, among their top picks in Asia.“Not only is it a boost for tourism in general in central Vietnam, it’s also really good news for golf tourism in this part of the country,” Adam Calver, director of golf at the resort, said.Golf resorts in Vietnam attract a mix of visitors, including chambers of commerce hosting member events, charity organizations raising money, and the rapidly growing ranks of the new rich looking for a new hobby. The growth rate in the number of super-rich in Vietnam was one of the highest rates in the world in 2017.Executives are also doing business differently. It used to be that businessmen in Vietnam — and they were primarily men, as women were often excluded — would agree on business deals over many rounds of late-night beers and bar girls. It is a culture seen in South Korea and Japan, too, although many businesses in Japan are trying to change this culture of after-work drinking binges, which are often mandatory for employees. More businessmen in Vietnam now, however, are making deals over rounds of golf instead of beer.Vietnam also sees golf as a way to diversify its offerings to bring in more foreign tourists.“In terms of tourism, Vietnam remained an attractive destination for tourists with 12.9 million international visitors in the first nine months of 2019, an increase of 10.8%” annualized, the Vietnam unit of Jones Lang LaSalle, a commercial real estate services firm, wrote in a market analysis.
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Red Cross Warns of Humanitarian Crisis in Bosnian Camp
The International Red Cross has warned of an imminent “humanitarian catastrophe” at an overcrowded makeshift migrant camp on Bosnia’s border with Croatia and asked for urgent relocation of its occupants to a safer area.In a statement Thursday, it said the Vucjak camp, which has been named “The Jungle” by migrants living there, has no running water, no electricity, no usable toilets, and has leaking overcrowded tents. Currently there are 700 people living there.The Red Cross said that there are people in the camp with untreated broken limbs and 70% of the population has scabies. The camp only has 80 tents and just five volunteers from Bosnia’s Red Cross Society, it added.Local Bosnian authorities last week cut the camp’s water supplies to pressure the Bosnian government to relocate the migrants.Since the start of the year, about 23,000 migrants have arrived in Bosnia and thousands are stuck on its northwestern border with European Union member Croatia which they try to enter illegally on their way to more prosperous EU states further north and west.Existing migrant reception centers in Bosnia are full and thousands are sleeping on the streets or squatting in empty houses, the Red Cross said.
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Jailed Uighur Tohti Wins European Parliament Sakharov Rights Award
The European Parliament on Thursday awarded the Sakharov Prize for human rights to Uighur intellectual Ilham Tohti, who has been sentenced to life imprisonment in China for “separatism”.The outspoken former professor of economics at a Beijing university was sentenced in 2014 by Chinese courts in a trial that provoked an outcry from foreign governments and human rights organisations.European Parliament head David Sassoli urged China to immediately release Ilham Tohti as he announced the award, which was certain to sow diplomatic tensions with Beijing.”Despite being a voice of moderation and reconciliation, he was sentenced to life in prison following a show trial in 2014,” Sassoli told a plenary session of parliament.”By awarding this prize, we strongly urge the Chinese government to release Tohti and we call for the respect of minority rights in China”, added the top MEP from Italy.Tohti, who turns 50 on Friday, in September won another of Europe’s top human rights awards, the Vaclav Havel prize, for “giving the entire Uighur people a voice”.He “has worked for over 20 years on the situation of the Uighur minority and on fostering inter-ethnic dialogue and understanding in China,” the Council of Europe, Europe’s leading rights body, said after nominating Tohti for the Vaclav Havel prize.Before his arrest in January 2014, Tohti founded and ran the UighurOnline website, which wrote in Uighur and Chinese about social issues.He gained prominence as a moderate voice drawing attention to ethnic tensions in the region.Rights groups and experts say more than one million Uighurs and other mostly Muslim ethnic minorities have been rounded up in internment camps in Xinjiang.Pompeo Calls on China to Stop ‘Abhorrent’ Practice of Interning Uighur Muslims
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is describing as "tragic" and "abhorrent" China's mass detention of Uighurs and other Muslim minority groups in internment camps in the western region of Xinjiang.“We've been very vocal about that publicly, and had long conversations with them privately, as well," Pompeo said in response to a question Tuesday from VOA. “The numbers are in the, certainly, hundreds of thousands.
China initially denied the existence of the camps, but now says they are “vocational training schools” necessary to combat terrorism.’Extreme terrorism’An AFP investigation of over 1,500 government documents last year found that the camps were run more like jails than schools, with tasers and tear gas among the equipment supplied to the camps.China had slammed the Council of Europe after it nominated Tohti in August for the Vaclav Havel prize, which was also awarded to a rights group from the Balkans.China’s foreign ministry called Tohti a “separatist who supports extreme terrorism”.He has also been nominated by US lawmakers for the Nobel Peace Prize, amid growing scrutiny of China’s treatment of the Uighurs.The United States announced this month that it was blacklisting 28 Chinese entities connected to repressive policies in Xinjiang, and that it would curb visas for Chinese officials involved in the “detention or abuse” of Uighurs, Kazakhs or members of other minorities in the region.
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Biden Holds Lead in Democratic Race, for Now
The latest CNN poll has some welcome news for former vice president Joe Biden. The survey shows Biden with a 15-point lead over Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren and his other rivals in the race for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination.Biden led Warren by a margin of 34 to 19% in the latest Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren calls for people across the country to support striking Chicago teachers after joining educators picketing outside an elementary school, Oct. 22, 2019, in Chicago.Warren’s riseThe story of primary season so far has been Warren’s steady rise in the polls, emerging from single digits earlier in the year to now being Biden’s closest rival.Unlike Biden, Warren puts less emphasis on taking on President Donald Trump and prefers to focus on her sweeping proposals for what she likes to call “big structural change.”In Iowa this week, Warren compared her campaign for political reform to the difficulties faced by those who waged the struggle for civil rights.“This is our moment in American history,” she said. “Our moment to dream big, fight hard and win!”Warren has risen in the polls thanks in large part to some smooth debate performances. But last week’s Democratic debate in Ohio showed that her rivals are now eager to go after her, said Steve Peoples of the Associated Press.“She did not waver. But she clearly has some things to figure out as she gets comfortable in that front-runner status,” Peoples said.Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden, left, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., center and South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg speak during a Democratic presidential primary debate.Under fireAs Warren has risen in the polls to challenge Biden, however, she also is getting greater scrutiny now, not only in the candidate debates but out on the campaign trail on a regular basis.Biden continues to press her about how she would pay for her expansive “Medicare-for-all” health care plan that relies on a government system and phases out private health insurance.“Credibility matters. It matters,” Biden told reporters in Ohio. “And the question I think that Senator Warren is going to have to face is she is going to have to tell the truth or the question will be raised about whether or not she is going to be candid and honest with the American people.”During last week’s debate, Biden and several other rivals pressed Warren as to whether she will raise taxes to pay for her health care plan. Warren refused to say but added that she will offer more details about her proposal in the weeks to come.On Wednesday, Biden turned his focus back to Trump and went after the president’s record on the middle class during a speech in his childhood hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania. Biden said the president has “no idea” what ordinary Americans are going through in the current economy.Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., right, is introduced by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., during a campaign rally, Oct. 19, 2019, in the Queens borough of New York.Battling BernieEven as most of the spotlight remains on Biden and Warren, Sanders served up a reminder this week that he remains a force in the Democratic race.Sanders is in third place in most recent polls, though he drew a large crowd in New York last Saturday where he welcomed the endorsement of New York Congresswoman and progressive icon Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.Sanders is back on the campaign trail after his recent heart attack and sought to put to rest concerns about his health and stamina.“I am more than ready to assume the office of president of the United States,” Sanders said to roars from the crowd.More than a dozen Democrats remain active in the primary race. But for the moment, the Biden vs. Warren dynamic is getting the most attention.“I think still the big picture is that Joe Biden has support among the African American and support among older whites and moderates,” said John Fortier of the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington. “Elizabeth Warren is starting to become more of the choice of the progressives, and also Bernie Sanders.”Republicans are keeping a close eye on the Democratic race and many are hoping Warren emerges as the nominee since they see her as an easier target for Trump to depict as a far-left candidate.“She is the one who is most in tune with the progressive base of the party,” Republican strategist John Feehery told VOA. “She has got the most fiery message and she checks all the diversity boxes within the Democratic coalition. She has got the most energy and seems to be getting the most energy with crowds.”WATCH: Biden Holds Lead in Democratic Race, for Now
Biden Holds Lead in Democratic Race, For Now video player.
‘Nervous party Nellies’Even with all the Democratic choices, some party activists reportedly are anxious about the chances of any of the announced candidates actually beating Trump next year.Both The New York Times and The Washington Post reported this week there are concerns about Biden’s uneven debate performances and his weak fundraising abilities. Other Democrats fear that Trump will depict either Warren or Sanders as far-left radicals in a general election matchup should they win the nomination.That has led some Democrats to muse about the possibility of other notable party figures getting into the race, including 2016 presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, 2004 nominee John Kerry and former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg.Democrats experienced similar jitters in 1992 before Bill Clinton emerged victorious, and in the early stages of the 2004 campaign when former Vermont governor Howard Dean gained a following.The latest CNN poll could help bolster Biden’s argument that he remains popular with moderate and conservative Democrats, many of whom are looking to pick a nominee with the best chance of denying Trump a second term in November of 2020.
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California Utility Turns off Power to a Half-Million People Amid Wildfire Fears
Lights went out across large portions of Northern California Wednesday as the state’s largest utility began its second massive blackout in two weeks and hinted that more outages could come this weekend because of the return of dangerous fire weather. Pacific Gas & Electric Co. said the rolling blackouts stretching from the Sierra foothills in the northeast to areas north of the San Francisco Bay Area would ultimately impact a half-million people — or nearly 180,000 customers — in 17 counties. “We understand the hardship caused by these shutoffs,” said Bill Johnson, CEO of PG&E. “But we also understand the heartbreak and devastation caused by catastrophic wildfires.” Pacific Gas and Electric Company CEO Bill Johnson listens to speakers during a California Public Utilities Commission meeting in San Francisco, Oct. 18, 2019.Unpopular power outagesIn a televised briefing Wednesday night, Johnson defended the unpopular power outages that the utility says are necessary to reduce the risk of wildfires during periods of high wind, hot weather and low humidity. He also addressed growing criticism, saying the company was doing a better job this time communicating with the public, “working in lockstep” with local governments and state agencies and made sure its website where customers can get information was working well, after repeatedly crashing during the earlier outage. The current outages will last about 48 hours, the utility said. But its seven-day forecast shows a likelihood of another planned blackout across a much larger area starting Saturday, when even heavier winds are expected to move through. “There could be another round of safety shut-offs this weekend into early next week. The timing isn’t clear yet,” Johnson said. High winds statewidePG&E meteorologist Scott Strenfel said of the weekend weather: “This could be the strongest wind event of the season, unfortunately.” Strenfel called the current wind event a “Californiawide phenomenon.” Conditions should begin easing in the northern part of the state around midday Thursday, when crews will begin inspecting lines to make sure they’re safe to re-energize. FILE – Fire investigators examine the scene around a transformer tower in Sylmar, Calif., suspected of being responsible for starting the Saddleridge fire, Oct. 15, 2019.That’s when Santa Ana winds are expected to begin whipping up in the south. Southern California Edison said it could cut power Thursday to more than 308,000 customers in seven counties, and San Diego Gas & Electric was warning of power shutoffs to about 24,000 customers.With winds forecast to top 60 mph (97 kph), utilities worried branches and debris could be thrown into power lines or topple them, sparking wildfires. Two weeks ago, a PG&E blackout affected nearly 2 million people from Oct 9-12, prompting frustration and resignation among residents and business owners who are finding the new routine both inconvenient and expensive. Major impactThe small city of Calistoga, in the Napa Valley, known for its hot springs and wineries, was among those hit by Wednesday’s outage. “It’s very frustrating,” said Michael Dunsford, owner of the 18-room Calistoga Inn, which has rented two powerful generators for the month at a cost of $5,000. Like many, he feels the outages need to be better managed, better targeted and less expansive. “Right now, we have no wind. Zero. I don’t even see a single leaf blowing. Did they really have to cut the power right now?” he said, shortly after the lights went out Wednesday afternoon and he revved up the generators. “When the wind picks up to 40 mph maybe that’s a good time to close the power.” “They’re not appreciating enough the impact this has on everybody,” he said about PG&E.Sonoma County Supervisor James Gore said PG&E was better this time about getting information to people who would be affected, but he was still astonished by the need to resort to largescale blackouts.“I am a big believer in shutdowns to prevent fires. But the thing that erodes public trust is when it doesn’t make sense,” he said. “You say, ‘God, I know if we can put a man on the moon … we can manage a (power) grid.’” California Gov. Gavin Newsom sent a sharply worded letter to Johnson Tuesday, blaming the unprecedented mass outage earlier this month on the company’s failure to maintain and upgrade its equipment.
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Another Partial Victory in Ending Polio
Ending polio has been a long haul. The global campaign to eradicate the virus has been going on since 1988, and while it’s close, it’s not over. Sometime in 2020, Africa may be declared polio-free. But the disease is hanging on stubbornly in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and as long as it hangs on, it can spread around the globe.The effort to end polio started more than 30 years ago. It’s been a massive program that relies on global funding, countless volunteer vaccinators, negotiations with political and religious leaders and parents. Vaccinators sometimes work in conflict zones, all to save lives and prevent lifelong disability.Polio cases down 99.9%In Kenya, facts about polio and the vaccine are taught in schools. Children are even taught what to tell their parents.The international effort has seen the polio cases drop by 99.9%. Nigeria had its last case more than three years ago. It’s possible that next year Nigeria, and all of Africa, will be declared polio free.Another victory: There used to be three strains of the virus. As of this week, there is now only one.Afghan women wearing burqas from a polio immunization team walk together during a vaccination campaign in Kandahar, Oct. 15, 2019. Polio immunization is compulsory in Afghanistan, but distrust of vaccines is rife.Pakistan-Afghanistan borderIt is here, at the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan where the wild polio virus spreads. People are constantly crossing from one country to another, mostly to visit family members. Both countries saw cases increase in 2019 from the previous year. Oliver Rosenbauer is a spokesman for the World Health Organization. He spoke to VOA by Skype.“The reality is that both countries are essentially one epidemiological block, and there is so much population movement. The same virus family is being ping-ponged back and forth across the border with population movements,” he said.A second challenge concerns restrictions the Taliban have placed on vaccinators. The vaccine can only be given at immunization centers. Door-to-door immunizations are now banned.WATCH: Another Partial Victory in Ending Polio
Another Partial Victory in Ending Polio video player.
Program’s successStill another challenge is a result of the program’s success. There are so very few cases in the two countries, the global program now has to address other urgent needs like access to clean water and better nutrition.Carol Pandak, head of the PolioPlus program at Rotary International, says the partners in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative have always been able to adapt.“UNICEF, in particular, has a strategy for both Afghanistan and Pakistan to provide these complimentary services, and Rotary, for many years now, has been working with Coca Cola in Pakistan, providing water filtration systems in some of these highest risk areas,” she said.Those involved in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative have traveled a road that is longer and harder than was expected in 1988, when the program began. It’s far from over, but Rotary International, UNICEF, the World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, along with countless local and federal governments, and the vaccinators themselves have not given up.
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Hong Kong Protesters to Rally in Support of Catalan Activists
Hong Kong protesters plan to rally on Thursday evening to show solidarity with people demonstrating in Spain’s wealthiest region of Catalonia over jail sentences handed out to nine separatist leaders.The protests in Catalonia share some noticeable comparisons with the demonstrations in Hong Kong, where millions have taken to the streets for five months to vent their anger over what they see as Beijing’s tightening grip on the city.Most protesters in Hong Kong want greater democracy, among other demands, although a small minority are calling for independence, a red line for Communist Party leaders in Beijing.Independence is also a highly divisive issue in Catalonia, which, like Hong Kong, has more than 7 million inhabitants, its own language, parliament and flag.Some demonstrators waved the Catalonian flag at a protest in Hong Kong on Sunday, while activists in Spain’s northeastern region have adopted some of the tactics used by people in the Chinese-ruled city.Students in Catalonia have boycotted classes, while protesters there have focused on strategic targets to cause maximum disruption, including the international airport serving Barcelona – similar to strategies used by Hong Kong activists.Catalonian demonstrators are angry at what they see as attempts to thwart their desire for greater autonomy from the rest of Spain, fears that resonate with many protesters in the former British colony of Hong Kong.Some Hong Kong protesters are going online ahead of the demonstration to urge people not to attend, saying it is too provocative and risks denting international support for their cause.Hong Kong authorities formally banned a group promoting independence from China in September last year, the first outlawing of a political organization since the handover.Under the terms of the 1997 handover from Britain, Hong Kong was allowed to retain extensive freedoms not enjoyed in mainland China under a “one country, two systems” formula, including an independent judiciary and right to protest.However, many Hong Kong residents are angry at what they see as a relentless march towards mainland control.Hong Kong’s legislature formally withdrew on Wednesday planned legislation that would have allowed extraditions to mainland China, a bill that triggered the unrest, but the move was unlikely to end the protests because it met just one of the pro-democracy demonstrators’ five demands.
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Most US States Not Giving Driver’s License Data to Washington
An effort by the U.S. Census Bureau to collect state driver’s license records as part of President Donald Trump’s order to gather citizenship information has been a bust so far.As of Wednesday, the vast majority of state motor vehicle agencies had not agreed to share their records with the bureau, according to an Associated Press survey of the 50 states. The effort over the past couple of months has alarmed civil rights groups, which see it as part of a backdoor move by the Trump administration to reduce the political power of minorities.In August, the bureau began requesting five years’ worth of driver’s license records, promising the information would be kept confidential. The effort began after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the Trump’s administration plan to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census, and the president instead ordered citizenship data compiled through federal and state administrative records.Some states saying noAt least 13 states have refused to share the driver’s license data, 17 are still deciding what to do, and 17 haven’t yet received a request, according to the AP survey. Three states didn’t respond to multiple AP queries.Republican and Democratic states alike have said no, citing privacy concerns and prohibitions in state law.“Philosophically, we believe the information in the database doesn’t belong to us. It belongs to the people who it pertains to,” Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap said. “It’s not ours to give away.”Two of the biggest states, California and New York, haven’t received requests yet. Three more of the top five most populous states — Texas, Florida and Pennsylvania — are deciding how to respond.Census Bureau officials had no immediate comment.Many states got calls or emails similar to one from a Census Bureau official asking an Arkansas Driver Services official if she had time to discuss the bureau’s “new and exciting project.”Scott Hardin, a spokesman for the Arkansas agency, said: “We are currently working to determine whether the requested information is eligible for release.”Utah officials turned down the request because state law says personal data can be shared only for public safety reasons, said Marissa Cote, a spokeswoman for the Department of Public Safety in the Republican-leaning state.Democratic-leaning Nevada also declined.“We value our residents’ privacy and hesitate to release records in bulk,” said Kevin Malone, a spokesman for the motor vehicle agency.States that haven’t decided how to respond said they were researching the legal and privacy implications. In issuing driver’s licenses, most states require documents such as a birth certificate that would reflect citizenship or require that recipients be either citizens or in the U.S. legally.Civil rights groups weigh inThe American Civil Liberties Union has urged states to turn the Census Bureau down.The ACLU and other civil rights groups say the requests are part of an overall strategy by the Trump administration to encourage states to use counts of citizens only, as opposed to total population, when redrawing state and local electoral districts. Such a move could make districts older, whiter and more Republican.“This endeavor appears to be part of a scheme motivated by an unconstitutional discriminatory purpose to dilute the political power of communities of color,” said Dale Ho, director of the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project.The Census Bureau said in its requests that the driver’s license records would be used, in part, to help build a statistical model for calculating the number of citizens and noncitizens in the U.S.Less accurate countEven though the president’s order requires collecting the citizenship information, Census Bureau officials are concerned that it could hinder efforts to get people to participate in the 2020 census. The bureau’s own research showed adding a citizenship question to the 2020 questionnaire would have reduced participation, making for a less accurate count.Civil rights groups say driver’s license records do a poor job of showing if a person is a citizen.They point to what happened earlier this year when Texas’ election chief gave prosecutors a list of 95,000 potential noncitizens on the state’s voter rolls. The list was drawn up with the help of motor vehicle records. But it turned out that many of those people had become citizens before casting their ballots.The battle over whether citizen-only counts can be used for congressional reapportionment or redistricting at the state and local levels is being waged in federal courtrooms in Alabama and Maryland.It has been longstanding practice in the U.S. to include immigrants living in the country illegally in census counts, which are also used to allocate billions of dollars in federal spending.
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US Done Fighting Over ‘Long-Bloodstained Sand’ in Syria
The United States is “getting out” of Syria, no longer willing to spend blood and treasure in a country ripped apart by civil war now that the Islamic State terror group’s self-declared caliphate is gone. President Donald Trump announced his decision at the White House on Wednesday, saying that with a U.S.-brokered cease-fire between Turkey and U.S.-backed Kurdish forces in northeastern Syria still holding, responsibility for peace in the region should be left to others. “We have done them a great service,” Trump said of U.S. efforts to end fighting between Turkey, a NATO ally, and the mainly Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), who have been a key partner in the U.S.-led campaign to defeat IS. “This was an outcome created by us, the United States, and nobody else,” he said. “Now we’re getting out. … Let someone else fight over this long-bloodstained sand.” Syrian campaign Trump’s announcement came hours after he said Turkey assured the U.S. that the country’s military campaign in northeastern Syria, aimed at clearing the Turkish-Syrian border of Kurdish fighters, whom Ankara regards as terrorists, was over. The initial reaction from Syrian Kurdish officials was muted.
GEN.Mazloum:2. We THANK President Trump for his tireless efforts that stopped the brutal Turkish attack and jihadist groups on our people.— Mustafa Bali (@mustefabali) October 23, 2019In a statement posted on social media, SDF Commander General Mazloum Abdi thanked Trump “for his tireless efforts that stopped the brutal Turkish attack” and for the promise of continued U.S. support. But Abdi also said he spent time explaining “the Turkish violations” during the initial five-day pause in fighting that ended Tuesday. As the hours passed, other Kurdish officials expressed increasing displeasure. “This cannot be called a cease-fire,” Ilhan Ahmed, the executive president of the SDF’s political wing, the Syrian Democratic Council, told U.S. lawmakers late Wednesday. “This is a continuation of the war,” she said through a translator, adding, “This means that more people will be killed.” Officials with the Kurdish-led autonomous administration in northeast Syria estimated that 250 men, women and children had been killed since Turkey launched its incursion following the withdrawal October 6 of U.S. special forces from near the Turkish-Syrian border. Another 300 have gone missing, and there have been allegations that dozens more have been injured as a result of the use of white phosphorus or chemical weapons — a charge Turkish officials vehemently deny. WATCH: US President Trump Announces Syria Deal with Turkey ‘Permanent’
US President Trump Announces Syria Deal with Turkey ‘Permanent’ video player.
‘Received promises’ “We received promises from America,” Ahmed said, explaining her sense of betrayal. “We were told wherever [U.S.] forces exist, we won’t allow any attack [from Turkey],” she said. “For this reason, we trusted the U.S.” Another Kurdish official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, described Trump’s Wednesday announcement in equally stark terms. “It sounds to me that people of [northeast] Syria are being given up to the regime in Damascus,” the official said. Trump, though, mostly dismissed such concerns. “We’re achieving a much more stable area between Turkey and Syria, including a 20-mile-wide [30-kilometer-wide] safe zone,” he said at the White House, adding it was time for other countries to “get involved.” “The nations in the region must ultimately take on the responsibility of helping Turkey and Syria police their border,” he said. Trump also said that while he was lifting U.S. sanctions on Turkey, the U.S. reserved the right to reimpose new and more devastating punitive measures against Ankara if it failed to live up to its commitment to protect minorities and civilians. “We’ll monitor the situation in Syria closely,” a senior U.S. administration official said, adding that even with the continuing withdrawal of U.S. forces, “we have plenty of means and methods to do so.” The official also said that, so far, Washington had not detected any evidence of forced population removals or ethnic cleansing. James Jeffrey, U.S. State Department special representative for Syria engagement; arrives to testify before a House committee on President Donald Trump’s decision to remove U.S. forces from Syria, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Oct. 23, 2019.But the U.S. State Department’s top official for Syria, Ambassador James Jeffrey, told lawmakers that there was evidence of war crimes at the hands of some of the militias that have taken part in the Turkish offensive. “We have reached out to Turkey to demand an explanation,” he said during testimony on Tuesday. There were also questions as to what happens next. Turkey-Russia deal While Trump on Wednesday hailed the U.S.-brokered cease-fire as a “great outcome,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced a separate deal with Russia just a day earlier. That deal, negotiated with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, calls for removing Kurdish forces from an even wider zone along the Syrian-Turkish border and for joint patrols with Turkish and Russian forces.
Russian forces’ armored vehicles patrol the Syrian border in Kobani, Oct. 23, 2019. Russian military police began patrols on part of the Syrian border, quickly moving to implement an accord with Turkey that divides control of northeastern Syria.Video provided by VOA’s Kurdish service showed Russian military vehicles Wednesday entering the Syrian city of Kobani, which is located on the border with Turkey. There were doubts, however, that Turkey and Russia, which has long backed the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, would be able to maintain any stability in an already volatile area. “It’s more dangerous,” said Michael Pregent, a former U.S. military adviser who was embedded with Kurdish forces in Iraq. “Turkey can’t control the forces that it’s introduced into northern Syria. Russia doesn’t have enough of a ground presence to keep everyone quiet,” said Pregent, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, a Washington research group. A Kurdish official who has worked with U.S. forces in the region and who has ties to Kurdish leaders in both Syria and Iraq also expressed concern. “It is a mess and Trump wants to try to get out of it like a hero,” he told VOA on the condition of anonymity, given the sensitivity of the situation. “The ‘safe zone’ won’t be safe. Mark my words.” Current and former U.S. intelligence and military officials were also wary, particularly of the impact the decision will have on the U.S.-led effort to defeat IS. They said that while the terror group’s physical caliphate had been destroyed, a resurgence was already underway, with an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 fighters across Syria and Iraq rebuilding capabilities and carrying out attacks. Can anyone fight back?And there were doubts as to whether any of the forces in Syria has the ability or the willingness to counter an IS insurgency. “The [Assad] regime, not only has it not been very effective against ISIS, there have been times in the campaign where it might have even supported some elements of ISIS,” said retired Colonel Ketti Davison, who helped lead U.S. intelligence efforts for the coalition to defeat Islamic State. “Russia has never prioritized the counter-ISIS fight, and neither has Turkey.” Trump on Wednesday said the U.S. would leave a “small number” of troops in Syria to help guard oil fields currently under Kurdish control, something defense officials said was necessary to keep the oil out of Islamic State’s hands. Multiple former officials raised doubts that such a small contingent would be able to have much of an impact. “Even if we had the desire to continue to support the SDF, General Mazloum [Abdi] and the SDF have cut a deal with the [Assad] regime, and we do not support the regime,” said Davison, now with the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War. VOA White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara contributed to this report.
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Thirst Turns to Anger as Australia’s Mighty River Runs Dry
Reduced to a string of stagnant mustard-colored pools, fouled in places with pesticide runoff and stinking with the rotting carcasses of cattle and fish, the Darling River is running dry.The parched earth of Australia’s longest waterway, if tributaries are included, is in the grip of the continent’s most severe drought in a century.At Menindee, 830 km west of Sydney, despair has turned to anger as residents blame the government for exacerbating the drought by drawing down river water in 2017 for irrigation and other uses downstream.Locals now avoid using tap water for drinking and washing babies and children, saying it has caused skin irritation, and prefer boxed and bottled water instead.Barkindji elder Patricia Doyle uses boxed water to make a cup of tea at her home in Menindee, New South Wales, Australia, Sept. 29, 2019. At Menindee, residents blame the government for exacerbating the drought by draining the river in 2017.“That was our food source, the river, our water source. That was our livelihood,” said Aboriginal elder Patricia Doyle, in her backyard piled with flotsam discovered in the now-exposed riverbed.“When you live on a river and you have to have water brought into your town to drink and survive on, what’s that saying? It’s saying that our system … isn’t looked after properly.”Driest years since 1900The past two years have been the driest in the catchment area of the Darling, which flows 2,844 km (1,767 miles) over the outback to the sea, and adjoining Murray River since records began in 1900.Drought is weighing on economic growth, and the dire conditions have prompted Australia, a major wheat exporter, to import the grain for the first time in 12 years.Last summer was the hottest on record, and in Menindee, where temperatures regularly top 38 Celsius (100 Fahrenheit), another scorching season is expected.The government has set up a panel to evaluate water management and ordered its anti-trust watchdog to investigate trading in irrigation rights.The sun rises over dried up lake Pamamaroo, outside of Menindee, Australia, Sept. 2, 2019. Prolonged drought exacerbated by demands on water resources by irrigators and cities means the Darling River (Barka) is running dry.River at heart of clanDoyle’s clan is called the Barkindji, or people of the river, and in Aboriginal language, the Darling is called the Barka.The river is at the heart of stories about the origins of the clan and its cultural life, particularly evident in Menindee where a third of 550 residents are indigenous, compared with a national average of less than 3%.Lined with river red gums, the Darling also waters some of Australia’s richest grazing land, and until the construction of railways in the early 20th century, was the main route used to take wool and other goods to market.All aspects of society are now suffering. A Barkindji man, hunter and goat musterer Kyle Philip, poses for a photograph with his son Kaleb at their home in Menindee, Australia, Sept. 2, 2019. “The river country itself, it doesn’t provide as much as what it used to,” said Kyle.“The river country itself, it doesn’t provide as much as what it used to,” says Kyle Philip, a Barkindji hunter and goat musterer.Parents have forbidden children from swimming in the murky water that remains. Fish caught in holes still deep enough to hold water are inedible.“We could taste the mud in the meat of the perch,” said Philip. “We couldn’t really eat them.”An Aboriginal dance group prepares to perform at a festival on the bank of the Darling River in Wilcannia, New South Wales, Australia, Oct. 1, 2019. Recently, Aboriginal communities held special festivals along the river “to heal the Barka.”Healing the riverRecently, Aboriginal communities held special festivals along the river “to heal the Barka.” Ochre-painted dancers performed around fires at dusk, revering the river but also seeking to draw attention to its plight.“We’re going to start dancing and singing the land,” organizer Bruce Shillingsworth said. “Singing the rivers, singing our environment back again to make it healthy.”Reverend Helen Ferguson from Broken Hill prepares for a church service at the Holy Trinity Menindee Anglican Parish in Menindee, Australia, Sept. 1, 2019.And in the Anglican church at Menindee, there are prayers.“The river should be flowing,” said Reverend Helen Ferguson.“When that river flows, the people are just abuzz and the whole town just comes to life. But that hasn’t happened for some time now and my prayer is that people don’t get worn down through that.”
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Trump-Kim Relationship Remains ‘Special,’ North Korea Says
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump continue to have a “special” relationship despite stalled nuclear talks, North Korean state media said Thursday, blaming other U.S. officials for poor relations.The statement published in the official Korean Central News Agency was attributed to North Korean foreign ministry advisor Kim Kye Gwan, who allegedly spoke with Kim “a few days ago.”North Korea’s First Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan, center, shakes hands with a delegate as he arrives for the opening ceremony of the six-party talks at Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, Sept.18, 2013. “What I can ascertain is that the close relations between the chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the DPRK and President Trump are firm and the trust in each other is still maintained,” Kim said, using an abbreviation for North Korea’s official name.”The problem is that contrary to the political judgment and intention of President Trump, Washington political circles and DPRK policy makers of the U.S. administration are hostile to the DPRK for no reason, preoccupied with the Cold War mentality and ideological prejudice,” he continued.The statement reiterated Pyongyang’s end of year deadline for Washington to change its approach to the nuclear negotiations.North Korea earlier this month walked away from working-level talks in Sweden, accusing U.S. negotiators of failing to offer any new proposals.Despite the impasse, Trump has also continued to tout his relationship with Kim, even while stressing the fragility of U.S.-North Korea relations.”I like him. He likes me. We get along. I respect him. He respects me. You could end up in a war,” Trump said Monday.Trump and Kim have met three times since last June and exchange personal letters. Earlier this month, Trump also appeared to suggest he talks with Kim on the phone.President Donald Trump talks on the phone with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, in the Oval Office of the White House, Aug. 27, 2018.But the two men’s relationship has failed to transform broader U.S.-North Korea relations or secure progress on eliminating North Korea’s nuclear weapons.Pyongyang has appeared reluctant to talk with anyone other than Trump, leading some analysts to say the Trump-Kim relationship may actually be preventing more substantial, lower-level negotiations.Talks broke down in February when Trump walked away from a summit with Kim in Hanoi, Vietnam over disagreements on how to begin implementing the process of denuclearization.Following several months of little interaction, North Korea agreed to hold working-level talks in Stockholm, Sweden — apparently encouraged by Trump’s suggestion of the need for a “new method” to the discussions.But North Korea walked away after just one day of meetings. The North later said it has no intention to engage in “sickening negotiations” until the U.S. takes unspecified steps to withdraw its “hostile policy.”A Swedish diplomat who helped arrange the talks offered an upbeat analysis on Wednesday during a briefing in Seoul.Swedish Special Envoy Kent Harstedt attends a news conference in Minsk, Belarus, Sept. 12, 2016. “It’s been perceived that this was a meeting that this was interrupted,” said Swedish Special Envoy Kent Harstedt. “I can say it was not interrupted. It was a full meeting and lasted a little bit longer than planned.”Harstedt said he was “cautiously optimistic” the talks would continue, despite North Korea not accepting Sweden’s invitation for follow-up talks within two weeks.”The DPRK hasn’t closed the door for continuation at this point,” Harstedt said. “We don’t comment exactly on our dialogue with DPRK. We can just say we have a very good working dialogue with them.””We also have to bear in mind that this is a very, very sensitive and complicated matter to discuss,” the envoy added.Sweden has acted as an intermediary between the U.S. and North Korea, since the two countries do not have official diplomatic relations. Though Sweden helped set up the U.S.-North Korean talks, Harstedt said he was not involved in the negotiations.At their first meeting, held in Singapore last June, Trump and Kim agreed to improve U.S.-North Korea relations and to work toward the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. But the two sides have been unable to agree on what denuclearization means or how to begin implementing it.
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Report: 4 Out of 5 EU Coal Plants Unprofitable
Four out of five coal plants in the European Union are unprofitable and utilities could face losses of nearly 6.6 billion euros ($7.3 billion) this year, a report by think tank the Carbon Tracker Initiative said Thursday.Lower costs for renewable energy and cheaper natural gas prices are increasingly competitive vs. coal in power generation.More expensive technology will also need to be installed on many existing coal plants to meet stricter EU air quality standards from 2021 and rising carbon permit prices could increase costs, too, the report said.Phasing out coalSeveral EU countries have announced plans to phase out coal completely to comply with international emissions reduction targets. But some are still reliant on coal for the majority of their power generation, such as Poland.Many coal plant operators say coal will be needed for decades to provide stable energy supplies because renewable energy is intermittent.Carbon Tracker analyzed the operating economics of every coal plant in the EU.It found that hard coal generation, which has the highest carbon content, had fallen 39% this year from a year earlier.Some 84% of lignite generation, which also has a high carbon content, and 76% of hard coal generation, is unprofitable, resulting in losses of 3.54 billion and 3.03 billion euros respectively.Running at a lossAcross the EU, 79% of coal plants are running at a loss.“EU coal generators are hemorrhaging cash because they cannot compete with cheap renewables and gas and this will only get worse. Policymakers and investors should prepare to phase out coal by 2030 at the latest,” said Carbon Tracker’s Matt Gray, co-author of the report.German utility RWE faces the biggest losses this year of 975 million euros, which is 6% of its market capitalization, according to the report.Central European energy group EPH, which has assets mainly in Germany and the Czech Republic, could lose 613 million euros, and PPC in Greece could lose 596 million euros, it said.Coal plants that will continue to turn a profit include those in Poland, which receive quite high subsidies, efficient units in Germany and the Netherlands and some plants in Italy, the Czech Republic and Slovenia, which benefit from high wholesale power prices, the report said.
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Abuses in Nigerian Islamic Schools Spark Regulation Demands
Nearly 1,000 people have been freed in the past month from Islamic schools in northern Nigeria where they reportedly experienced abuse. In one such case, police sources said hundreds of men and boys had been freed from a school in Katsina, many of whom had been chained to walls, beaten and sexually abused. The four raided schools, all in predominantly Muslim northern Nigeria, have much in common. All had managers who portrayed themselves as Islamic clerics teaching students how to be good Muslims.
All the facilities also operated as reform centers to discipline misbehaving children. And all were in poor communities, drawing little attention — until now.
Activists have sought regulation of private Islamic schools for years, but strong traditions have stood in the way. A 15 year-old-boy, one of hundreds of men and boys rescued by police from an institution purporting to be an Islamic school, reveals scars on his back at a transit camp set up to take care of the released captives in Kaduna, Nigeria, Sept. 28, 2019.One such tradition involves a concept among Nigerian Muslims called almajiri. “Almajiris, according to Islam, means those who migrated to somewhere in search of Islamic knowledge,” said cultural historian Bukar Chabbal. “That is the original conception — one under a strict teacher who teaches them.” Almajiris are usually boys. A parent will send a son to live with an Islamic scholar, known as a mallam, for many years in the hope that the child will receive a sound education in Islamic doctrine.
There are an estimated 10 million almajiris in Nigeria, often seen on the streets begging for food. According to their Islamic teachers, begging helps the students learn humility.
But Chabbal and others say parents are abusing the system, giving their children away to Islamic clerics because they can’t afford to raise them themselves. Discipline
Sending unruly children to Islamic schools to be disciplined is another traditional practice.
Children rescued from captivity by police are fed by officials at the Hajj transit camp in Kaduna, Nigeria, Sept. 28, 2019.Aliyu Mohammed Tonga, an activist for almajiri children, said that “as I can recall, when we were young, what our parents used to tell us is that someone has been taken to so-and-so person and has been corrected.”
Muslim groups in Nigeria are condemning the raided schools, saying the owners are not real clerics and the schools are not true almajiri schools.
Activists like Aliyu say regulation is necessary, to separate the good from the bad.
“Anybody can come in, even the criminal can come in in disguise and say, ‘I’m a mallam,’ and he can do what he can do, and that is what happened,” Aliyu said. President Muhammadu Buhari has directed Nigerian police to find abusive so-called Islamic schools and disband them. Some information for this report came from Reuters.
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House Democrats Face Tough Choices on Impeachment Approach
Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives investigating President Donald Trump for possible impeachment are facing a conundrum.Should they push for a relatively narrow set of charges similar to the articles of impeachment that were brought against Richard Nixon in 1974 and Bill Clinton in 1998? Or should they look further back into history and use the sweeping 1868 impeachment of President Andrew Johnson as a model?Johnson, America’s 17th president and the first to be impeached by the House, faced no fewer than 11 articles of impeachment voted by an opposition party that was just as irate with his post-Civil War policies as today’s Democrats are angry with Trump’s agenda.FILE – U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a bilateral meeting with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on the sidelines of the 74th session of the U.N. General Assembly in New York, Sept. 25, 2019.In Trump’s case, the central allegation is that the president held up nearly $400 million in military aid over the summer to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate Trump’s Democratic rivals, including former Vice President Joe Biden. Although Trump denies allegations of a corrupt quid pro quo, Democrats say the scheme amounted to just that and is grounds for possible impeachment.With House investigators still taking testimony from key witnesses, including Acting Ambassador William Taylor on Tuesday, Democratic chairs of congressional investigative committees are not publicly discussing likely articles of impeachment.But behind closed doors, they’ve started debating possible charges, including an overarching abuse of power offense, with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pushing for a “targeted and easy-to-communicate” case that is focused on Ukraine, according to NBC News. The discussions suggest the Democrats have moved in the span of a few short weeks from deciding whether to impeach the president to considering what charges to bring against him. In a document that provides a foretaste of the Democratic impeachment arguments, Pelosi on Monday highlighted Trump’s alleged “shakedown” and “pressure campaign” on Ukraine, repeatedly casting the president’s actions as abuse of power. The four-page fact sheet copiously cites from the rough transcript of a July 25 phone call between Trump and Zelenskiy, a whistleblower complaint about the scheme, text messages exchanged between diplomats, and recent congressional testimonies.“My read of the fact sheet is that there is at least a significant faction within the House Democrats who want to focus specifically on Ukraine as a way of narrowing the articles of impeachment so as to keep the investigation simple, straightforward, and in many respects, clear cut,” said James Sample, a law professor at Hofstra University in New York. Under the U.S. Constitution, the House of Representatives has the power to impeach a president and other senior officials with “treason, bribery, and other high crimes and misdemeanors.” The phrase “high crimes and misdemeanors,” while largely undefined, is widely understood to refer to serious misdeeds such as abuse of office for personal gain.To formally impeach a president, a majority of House members must approve articles of impeachment. Similar to a criminal indictment, articles of impeachment lay out the facts and make a case for impeaching the president on individual counts. Once the charges are approved, the Senate conducts a trial to determine guilt or innocence — and whether to oust the president.The White House and the Washington Monument are seen in Washington, Oct. 21, 2019, as House Democrats continue their impeachment investigation of President Donald Trump.In some ways, the current impeachment standoff is analogous to the showdown between Johnson and the “Radical Republicans” who controlled Congress in the aftermath of the American Civil War, according to Frank Bowman, a law professor at the University of Missouri and author of “High Crimes and Misdemeanors: A History of Impeachment for the Age of Trump.”The 11 articles of impeachment stemmed from Johnson’s decision to fire his secretary of war in defiance of an act of Congress that forbade the president from dismissing federal officials without the Senate’s consent. But the violation was a “pretext” for the Republicans’ ultimately unsuccessful attempt to oust Johnson, according to Bowman.“The real dispute was that they had fundamentally conflicting ideas about what the constitutional future of the country ought to be,” Bowman said. “One can imagine a similar kind of fight in this case where I suspect there are going to be some Democrats who want to have at least some kind of catch-all that allows consideration of what they think are a wide variety of misbehavior by Mr. Trump.”To Trump’s staunchest critics, the president’s list of impeachable misdeeds is a lengthy one and runs the gamut, from violations of the Constitution’s “emoluments clause” to obstruction of justice in connection with the Russian election meddling probe to abuse of power in the Ukraine scandal. One frequent critic, Amy Goodman, host of the current affairs show “Democracy Now,” considers Trump’s climate policy as an impeachable offense.While placating many on the left, adding the emoluments clause violations and other charges risks making the process time-consuming and unwieldy, Sample said. Trump faces two lawsuits for violations of the constitutional measure that forbids U.S. officials from accepting gifts from foreign governments.“I think the Democrats are faced with a crisis of complexity, which is to say that if all of the possible bases to pursue articles of impeachment against Donald Trump would be simultaneously pursued and investigated, the American people, particularly in an election year, might find the complexity overwhelming,” Sample said.It is a scenario that Democratic leaders seem intent on avoiding. While insisting that the emoluments clause and other potential charges are not off the table, they say they remain focused on Ukraine. “Right now, the focus is on Ukraine with what we think is a very clearly demonstrable quid pro quo,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said on Tuesday. “Most people think that’s a quid pro quo. That decision has not been made — that will be made by the committee, by determination.”The result is likely to be a narrow set of charges similar to the three-count impeachment approved by the House Judiciary Committee against Nixon in the Watergate scandal, according to Bowman.VOA’s Katherine Gypson contributed to this report.
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Britain Awaits EU Verdict on Brexit Delay as Deadline Looms
LONDON — European Union leaders are deciding on another extension to Britain’s exit from the bloc, after lawmakers in Britain frustrated Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s plan to leave by Oct. 31. The EU’s decision is likely to come toward the end of this week.After previously pledging to leave by that deadline “do or die”, Johnson now seems determined to seek an election as soon as possible. Speaking to lawmakers Wednesday, he insisted that his government still hopes to leave the bloc on the Halloween deadline.”I don’t think the people of this country want a delay. I don’t want a delay. I intend to press on. But I’m afraid we now have to see what our EU friends will decide on our behalf,” Johnson said.The prime minister was forced by law to ask the EU for an extension, even though he didn’t want one, after failing to pass his Brexit deal in Parliament last Saturday.The British leader then tried to rush the legislation through Parliament with just days to go before the deadline. While agreeing to the deal in principle, members of Parliament Tuesday voted against this timetable.Brexit opponents display their posters in front of Parliament in London, Oct. 23, 2019.”Essentially, Boris Johnson was asking MPs to decide in three days what will impact at least a generation,” said Joelle Grogan, a British constitutional analyst at Middlesex University.So, Britain’s prime minister once again awaits the EU’s decision, just as Johnson’s predecessor, Theresa May, did in March, which led to the October extension.EU Council President Donald Tusk recommended that member states this time approve the three-month extension until the end of January 2020 as requested by Johnson. This would be a so-called “flextension,” which could be shortened if the Brexit deal is approved in London.If that is the EU’s offer, Johnson has indicated he would push for an early election.”But (he) doesn’t necessarily have power to do it,” Grogan said. “We might see a resignation, or we might see another motion for another election, essentially calling on the House of Commons to bring an early general election. The most important qualification for all of this, though, is as of right now, the U.K. is withdrawing on a no-deal basis on Oct. 31, 2019.”Brexit supporters display their signs in front of Parliament in London, Oct. 23, 2019.The EU doesn’t want to be blamed for a no-deal Brexit, so it will likely eventually agree to an extension, said Agata Gostyńska-Jakubowska of the Center for European Reform policy group.”I think the EU should focus on having as constructive a partnership with the U.K. as possible. Now those discussions will not always be easy, but it seems to me that within the EU’s mindset, the U.K. has actually already left,” she said.The Withdrawal Agreement was meant to be the easy bit. Negotiating the future relationship — likely to be a free trade agreement — will be much tougher, said Gostyńska-Jakubowska.”We will face ratifications also in national parliaments. And this is something that we can’t really predict how that would be used in the domestic politics, because obviously there are different dynamics in all 27 member states.”Opposition MPs warn even if the deal is passed, Britain could face another cliff-edge at the end of next year when the transition period expires if there is no free trade agreement in place.In Britain and Brussels there is growing Brexit fatigue, but this is just the beginning of a process that will likely take several years.
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Polls Close in Botswana’s General Election
Voters in Botswana continued to line up late Wednesday to cast their ballots even after the polling stations had closed.Independent Electoral Commission said the voters who managed to make it inside the polling places were being allowed to cast their ballots but those outside, even those in the lines, would not be allowed to vote.The results will be announced within two days, the IEC said.The Botswana Democratic Party, which has ruled the diamond-rich southern African nation since gaining independence from Britain in 1966, is facing a strong challenge from the opposition Umbrella for Democratic Change coalition, led by Duma Boko. The opposition has gotten a boost from ex-President Ian Khama, who is feuding with President Mokgweetsi Masisi.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.About 925,000 registered voters in a country of over two million are voting for 57 members of the National Assembly, who will choose the president.
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Maryland Sues Kushner Companies, Alleges Shabby, Unsafe Conditions at Rental Properties
The state of Maryland is suing the real estate company partly owned by Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law, over allegedly shabby and dangerous conditions at its Baltimore rental properties.
Democratic Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh said Westminster Management broke consumer protection laws in the thousands of apartments and townhouses its parent, Kushner Companies, rents to mainly low-income and middle-class families.
FILE – Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh, speaks at a news conference near the White House, Feb. 26, 2018 in Washington.Frosh said the company took advantage of its tenants by “collecting fees and other unlawful costs from them and often failing to make repairs needed to maintain suitable environments.”
Frosh said problems included such hazardous conditions as infestations of rodents and vermin, water leaks and mold.
The state alleged Westminster illegally refused to return security deposits because of damage not caused by the tenants and such minor problems as worn carpeting.
A spokeswoman for Kushner Companies disputed the allegations, calling Frosh an “ambitious attorney general who clearly cares more about scoring political points than fighting real crime and improving the lives of the people of Maryland.”
Earlier this year, Trump called Baltimore a “rat and rodent infested mess,” and mocked city leaders, including the late Democratic U.S. Representative Elijah Cummings, for what he called their failure to fix the city’s problems.
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PM Conte Defends Italy’s Intelligence Contacts With US
Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte said Wednesday U.S. Attorney General William Barr was seeking information about the activities of FBI agents assigned to Italy in his meetings with Italian intelligence officials this summer.Conte insisted on the complete legitimacy of both the meetings and his own role, during a press conference after testifying behind closed doors to the parliamentary intelligence committee in Rome.The two meetings, in August and in September, related to a U.S. investigation into the origin of a probe into Russian election interference in the 2016 election won by President Trump.Italian media reports have accused Conte of violating protocols in permitting the meetings.Conte said Barr’s request arrived via normal diplomatic channels for “a preliminary exchange of information with our intelligence aimed at verifying activities of American agents. This must be clear.”Conte argued that Italian law gives the country’s premier sole responsibility for responding to intelligence requests, and that he could not seek, for example, preliminary clearance from the parliamentary intelligence committee or legally discuss the request with any minister or political leader.Conte also emphasized that the Americans showed no interest in the activities of Italian intelligence, and that the Italian intelligence services were “completely extraneous to these events.”Conte said that Barr first held a “preliminary technical” meeting with intelligence officials in offices at Rome’s Piazza Dante on Aug. 15. That was followed up with another meeting in the same offices on Sept. 27.“I hate to disappoint you but there were no meetings in bars or hotels,” Conte said, referring to media speculation. “They were all held in institutional settings.”Referring to domestic criticism that the meetings came at a moment when the previous Conte-led government was in crisis, Conte emphasized that the American request for the meetings was made in June — before Interior Minister Matteo Salvini sought to push Conte out of power — and that the request arrived by normal diplomatic channels.“The request dates from June, and came not from President Trump, but from (Attorney General) Barr,” Conte said. “President Trump never spoke to me about this investigation.”Conte also said he never had direct contact with Barr, either by phone or writing.The Associated Press and other media have reported that Barr met with Italian government officials as part of an investigation into the origin of a probe into Russian election interference. The September meeting also included the U.S. Attorney John Durham, who is examining what led the U.S. to open a counterintelligence investigation on the Trump campaign and the roles that various countries played in the U.S. probe.Conte said he wouldn’t change a thing about the way he handled Barr’s request.“If we had refused to sit at a table, we would have created damage for our intelligence activity, besides creating a serious breach of loyalty with an historic ally,” he said
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Second Guilty Plea in Visa Fraud Ring for Armenian ‘Dancers’
A second U.S. resident has pleaded guilty this week to federal charges stemming from an elaborate visa fraud scheme to bring Armenians to the United States under the guise of being folk dance performers.Armenian national and California resident Hrachya Atoyan, 32, took part in an illegal transnational network that told U.S. immigration authorities the supposed dancers were coming to America to perform and therefore qualified for “Culturally Unique Artist” visas, according to the Department of Justice.Atoyan and others in the network are said to have charged Armenian nationals between $3,000 and $10,000 to come to the U.S. as part of a fake dance troupe.Stella Boyadjian, a New York resident accused of leading the fraud ring, pleaded guilty to multiple federal charges in March, but has not been sentenced. A third defendant, Diana Grigoryan, also has been charged in the case.Investigators said Boyadjian used the Big Apple Music Awards Foundation, a nonprofit organization she created, as a front for the scheme, according to a 2018 indictment.Boyadjian and others had fake “dance certificates” made, arranged photo shoots “to make it appear as though they were traditional Armenian musicians, singers and performers,” and created flyers about fake concerts to justify a performance “tour” for the visa applicants, according to the indictment.”Exploiting the P-3 nonimmigrant visa classification system for culturally unique artists and entertainers makes a mockery out of the legitimate performers for whom that visa was intended,” said Assistant Attorney General Brian Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. Cultural visas are intended to allow people to “temporarily travel to the United States to perform, teach or coach as artists or entertainers,” according to the DOJ.Atoyan is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 20, 2020.
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Leader of South Africa’s Leading Opposition Party Resigns
The first black leader of South Africa’s largest opposition party resigned Wednesday in a blow to efforts to shed the liberal party’s image as representing the country’s white minority.Mmusi Maimane stepped down as the Democratic Alliance’s leader shortly after the return of former party leader Helen Zille as its chair. Zille has been criticized over past comments suggesting that colonialism wasn’t all bad.
Tensions have risen after the DA saw a loss of support in this year’s general elections, winning 20.7% of votes, down from 22.2% in 2014, even as the ruling African National Congress saw its weakest victory in a quarter-century. Some of the DA’s more conservative voters opted instead for the right-wing Afrikaner party Freedom Front Plus.
A recent internal review heavily criticized Maimane for the poor election performance. He has been accused of pursuing the support of South Africa’s black majority at the expense of the DA’s traditional, mainly white, base.
“Over the past few months it has become more and more clear to me that there exists those in the DA who do not see eye-to-eye with me, who do not share the vision for the party and the direction it was taking,” Maimane told reporters while announcing his resignation.
“There have been several months of consistent and coordinated attacks on me and my leadership, to ensure that this project failed or I failed,” he added.
Earlier this week the DA saw the resignation of Herman Mashaba, the mayor of South Africa’s economic hub, Johannesburg, and another of the party’s prominent black leaders.
Political analyst Prince Mashele said the resignations signal a backward step for the party.
“The DA is going back to its original self, which is a party of white people, focusing on the interests of white, and nothing else,” Mashele said. “I have no doubt that now that Mmusi is gone we will see an exodus of black leaders and members who will leave the party.”
The analyst said the DA appeared to be more worried about “the white voters who deserted the party and voted for the Freedom Front Plus than about black people not voting for them.”
While the ruling ANC won a new low of 57.5% of the vote in this year’s elections, hurt badly by public outrage over corruption, it was the populist Economic Freedom Fighters party that picked up ground. It won 10.7% of the vote, up from 6.3% five years ago in its first election showing.
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