Around the world, national leaders and diplomats have expressed their hopes that the United States will reverse its decision to pull out of the Paris Agreement on fighting climate change. In Washington, some others have chosen to act in small ways rather than wait.
Ambassadors and aides from all 28 members of the European Union joined forces last week with volunteers from Casey Trees, a local conservation group, to plant trees in a Washington city park, hoping to earn goodwill and make a symbolic point with their labor. EU countries’ representatives joined National Park Service staff and volunteers from Casey Trees to plant oak, holly, tuliptree and American elm trees at Montrose Park in northwest Washington, Nov. 15, 2019. (Natalie Liu/VOA)Trees soak up and store some of the excess planet-warming carbon dioxide that human activities produce.”The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago,” the enthusiastic planters were told as they gathered in a sunny corner of Washington’s Rock Creek Park by Stavros Lambrinidis, ambassador of the European Union (EU) to the United States. “The second best time is now.” Speaking afterward to VOA, Lambrinidis elaborated on the significance of individual citizens’ actions.”Every single thing every single citizen does is as important as the grand things that governments do,” he said, noting that the EU has committed itself to achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.Benjamin Roehrig, senior counselor at the French Embassy in Washington, tells VOA that the door is always open should the U.S. change its mind concerning the Paris Agreement. (Natalie Liu/VOA)Estonian emissary Jonatan Vsevoiv, one of about a dozen ambassadors who took up shovels, said the effort “symbolizes the EU’s effort on the climate front.” He added that the oak tree he helped plant holds special meaning to his native Estonia, just as it does in the United States.”I would say this is a national tree. It symbolizes strength and longevity — and stability,” he said.Having spent half of the past decade in diplomatic posts in the U.S. capital, Vseviov added that Washington has become for him “almost like my second hometown. … I’m glad to do something that gives back to the city.” The tree-planting effort was led by Ambassador Kirsti Kauppi of Finland, which currently holds the EU’s rotating presidency. (Natalie Liu/VOA)The tree-planting effort was led by Ambassador Kirsti Kauppi of Finland, which currently holds the EU’s rotating presidency. She said her nation has a special affinity for trees, given that 70% of its surface is covered by woods and that Finns basically “live in and outside of the forest.”
Even as Finland is often imagined as a land of ice and snow, the trees in her Nordic country “have no problem surviving the winter,” she said. “Then we have a very nice summer, a lot of sunlight. That’s when the trees grow.”
Eva Hunnius Ohlin, senior adviser for energy and environment at the Swedish Embassy, was laboring with two other female embassy staffers when Juan Urbano, the Spanish Embassy’s robust agricultural attaché, offered a hand.
The self-sufficient women declined his offer, but Ohlin cheerily told Urbano he should not take it personally “because we had earlier turned down the Finnish ambassador.” Eva Hunnius Ohlin, right, senior adviser for energy and environment at the Swedish Embassy, with two of her colleagues insisted on Swedish sovereignty in their planting effort. (Natalie Liu/VOA)On a more serious note, Ohlin told VOA that her embassy has been increasingly engaged on climate change with institutions on the city and state level, even as the federal administration is seen as retreating on the issue.
The interest in the issue in the big coastal states such as New York and California is well known. But, Ohlin said, citizens are also active “in the middle of the country,” in states like Colorado.
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Month: November 2019
Uber to Let Users Record Audio of Rides in Brazil, Mexico
Uber will allow passengers and drivers in Brazil and Mexico to record audio of their rides as it attempts to improve its safety record and image.The ride-hailing company plans to pilot the feature in cities in both countries in December. It eventually hopes to launch it in other markets, including the United States, although it has no timeline for possible expansion.The feature will allow customers to opt into recording all or select trips. Recordings will be stored on the rider or driver’s phone and encrypted to protect privacy, and users will not be able to listen to them. They can later share a recording with Uber, which will have an encryption key, if they want to report a problem.Whether the recording feature will deter violent behavior to help riders and drivers is unknown. But Uber stands to benefit because the recordings could help the company mitigate losses and reign in liability for incidents that flare up between drivers and passengers.For example, if a shouting match erupts between a driver and passenger, and both accuse the other of being verbally abusive, the recording could help Uber determine where fault lies after the incident, mitigating any kind of loss or claim that could be made against the driver, said Thom Rickert, vice president and emerging risk specialist at Trident Public Risk Solutions.“It probably is not going to prevent something from happening,” Rickert said. “It will probably just help you analyze what can we do to change outcomes the next time.”Uber says the new feature will promote accountability and help its safety team take decisive action when needed.The recording feature also raises privacy concerns that drivers or passengers could have their conversations recorded without their knowledge or consent.“It’s a digital recording. It’s going to exist on a server somewhere,” Rickert said. “Yes, it can be encrypted. Yes, it can be hacked…so that is a privacy concern for the individual that has lost control over that recording.”Uber has struggled with safety issues and faced accusations that some of its drivers have assaulted and raped passengers. It also has been hit with litigation alleging that its hiring process and background checks are inadequate. Uber does not conduct fingerprint-based background checks, which traditional taxi companies generally perform before hiring drivers.The San Francisco-based company’s drivers also have been victims of attacks. In both Brazil and Mexico, Uber allows riders to pay with cash, which increases the risk of incidents. In Brazil, drivers have been robbed and have suffered violent, fatal attacks while using the Uber platform, the company said in a federal filing.Uber plans to release a safety report this year, which provides data on reports of sexual assaults and other safety incidents that occurred in the United States.The company has been adding safety features to its app over the past year, including one that helps riders ensure they’re getting into the right vehicle and another that enables users to call 9-1-1 from within the app and automatically share the vehicle’s location with first responders.
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Ex-British Consulate Staff Says Chinese Police Tortured Him
A former employee of the British Consulate in Hong Kong says he was detained and tortured by Chinese secret police trying to extract information about massive anti-government protests in the territory.Simon Cheng said in an online statement and media interviews that he was hooded, beaten, deprived of sleep and chained to an X-shaped frame by plainclothes and uniformed agents as they sought information on activists involved in the protests and the role they believed Britain played in the demonstrations.FILE – Britain’s Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab is seen outside Downing Street in London, Britain, Oct. 24, 2019.British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab summoned the Chinese ambassador in London to demand Beijing investigate.”I summoned the Chinese Ambassador to express our outrage at the brutal and disgraceful treatment of Simon in violation of China’s international obligations,” Raab said in a statement. “I have made clear we expect the Chinese authorities to investigate and hold those responsible to account.”Chinese police in August announced Cheng’s release after 15 days of administrative detention but gave no details of the reasons behind his detention.China reactionChina’s foreign ministry responded angrily to the allegations and the summoning of the ambassador at a daily briefing Wednesday.Ambassador Liu Xiaoming will “by no means accept the so-called concerns or complaints raised by the British side,” ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said.FILE – Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang speaks during a daily briefing at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs office in Beijing, Jan. 29, 2019.”The Chinese ambassador to the U.K. will lodge the complaints with the U.K. to express our strong opposition and indignation to the U.K.’s wrong words and deeds on Hong Kong in these days,” Geng said.Geng did not address Cheng’s allegations directly, but cited a statement by Shenzhen police from August saying his lawful rights had been protected and that he had “admitted his offense completely,” an apparent reference to a confession of soliciting prostitution that Cheng says was coerced. Cheng has strongly denied the charge.Police in Shenzhen did not immediately respond to faxed questions about Cheng’s allegations.Cheng worked for the consulate as a trade and investment officer with a focus on attracting Chinese investment in Scotland. That required him to travel frequently to mainland China and he was detained at the border with Hong Kong after returning from a one-day business trip.Hong Kong’s nearly six months of pro-democracy protests began in opposition to proposed legislation that would have allowed criminal suspects in the semi-autonomous city to be extradited to face trial in mainland China, where critics say their legal rights would be threatened. While Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam has since withdrawn the bill, demonstrations have continued unabated as strong anti-government sentiment continues.China says it doesn’t allow suspects to be tortured or make false confessions, although both practices are believed to be common.’Blindfolded and hooded’In his account on Facebook, Cheng wrote that he had been asked about the supposed British role in the protests, his own involvement in them and mainland Chinese who joined in demonstrations.China has long accused “anti-China foreign forces” of fomenting the protests, which have grown increasingly violent, without providing direct evidence.FILE – Demonstrators hold posters in support of Simon Cheng, a staff member at the consulate who went missing after visiting the neighboring mainland, during a protest outside the British Consulate-general office in Hong Kong, China, Aug. 21, 2019.Cheng wrote that while being held he was shuttled between detention and interrogation centers while hooded and handcuffed. In addition to being shackled to the frame, he wrote he was ordered to assume stress positions for “countless hours,” and was beaten with what felt like “sharpened batons” and poked in the knee if he faltered. He was also punished for dozing off during the sessions by being forced to sing the Chinese national anthem, he wrote.”I was blindfolded and hooded during the whole torture and interrogations, I sweated a lot, and felt exhausted, dizzy and suffocated,” Cheng wrote.One interrogator speaking Hong Kong’s native Cantonese dialect cursed him, saying, “How dare you work for the British to supervise Chinese,” while another speaking in a northern Mandarin accent told him they were from China’s secret intelligence service and that he had “no human rights in this place,” Cheng wrote.He said the interrogators expected him to confess that Britain had instigated the protests by donating money and materials, that he personally led that effort and paid the bail of mainland participants. At the detention center, he witnessed police questioning other young inmates who appeared to be Chinese mainland nationals being punished for participation in the protests.Cheng said he refused but confessed to the minor offense of “soliciting prostitution” in order to avoid harsher treatment and a heavy sentence on national security charges. Some of the officers holding him said they could “abduct” him back to the mainland if he didn’t “behave,” he said.Cheng no longer works at the consulate and has fled to a third country. Raab, the foreign minister, said the U.K. is working to support Cheng, including a possible move to Britain.
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Myanmar: Suu Kyi to Lead Team to Fight Genocide Accusation
Myanmar’s government announced Wednesday that its leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, will head a legal team it will send to the International Court of Justice in the Netherlands to contest a case of genocide filed against it by Gambia on behalf of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.
The announcement was posted on the Facebook page of the office of the state counsellor, a position Suu Kyi holds along with that of foreign minister. Myanmar’s government releases much public information on Facebook.
The country’s military has been accused of carrying out mass rapes, killings and the torching of homes during a counterinsurgency campaign launched in western Myanmar in August 2017 after rebel attacks. The violence sent more than 700,000 members of the Muslim Rohingya minority fleeing to neighboring Bangladesh. Myanmar’s population is overwhelmingly Buddhist.
When filing the case, Gambia’s justice minister and attorney general, Abubacarr Marie Tambadou, told The Associated Press he wanted to “send a clear message to Myanmar and to the rest of the international community that the world must not stand by and do nothing in the face of terrible atrocities that are occurring around us. It is a shame for our generation that we do nothing while genocide is unfolding right before our own eyes.”
The head of a U.N. fact-finding mission on Myanmar warned last month that “there is a serious risk of genocide recurring,” and the mission also said in its final report in September that Myanmar should be held responsible in international legal forums for alleged genocide against the Rohingya.
Myanmar has strongly denied carrying out organized human rights abuses.
The brief announcement Wednesday night on the effort “to defend Myanmar’s national interest” did not specify that Gambia’s application to the ICJ involved genocide, but said it was “with regard to the displaced persons from the Rakhine state,” the area from which the Rohingya fled.
It said Myanmar has retained prominent international lawyers to contest the case, and that Suu Kyi will lead the team in her capacity as foreign minister.
The announcement did not mention a date for the mission to the court, but the court said on Monday that it would hold public hearings on Dec. 10-12.
On Friday, Myanmar’s government rejected the International Criminal Court’s decision to allow prosecutors to open an investigation into crimes committed against the Rohingya Muslim minority.
Government spokesman Zaw Htay said Myanmar stood by its position that the Netherlands-based court has no jurisdiction over its actions because Myanmar was not a party to the agreement establishing the court.
The court’s position is that because Myanmar’s alleged atrocities sent more than 700,000 Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh for safety, it does have jurisdiction since Bangladesh is a party to the court and the case may involve forced deportation.
The International Court of Justice settles disputes between nations, while the International Criminal Court seeks to convict individuals responsible for crimes. Member states of the United Nations are automatically parties to the court, though they must also consent to its jurisdiction.
Both courts are based in The Hague.
Akila Radhakrishnan, president of the New York-based Global Justice Center which promotes enforcement of international laws protecting human rights and promoting gender equality, said Suu Kyi and Myanmar’s civilian government “failed to act against genocide in Rakhine State with any level of urgency and have taken no steps to hold the military to account.”
“The international community should no longer have illusions where Suu Kyi and the civilian government stand and must act to support The Gambia and take other measures to hold Myanmar accountable,” Radhakrishnan said in a statement.
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Germany Offers Expert Group in Bid to End NATO Rift
Germany sought Wednesday to ease French worries about NATO by offering to set up a group of experts to examine the alliance’s security challenges after President Emmanuel Macron lamented the “brain death” of the military organization.Macron’s public criticism of NATO — notably, a perceived lack of U.S. leadership, concerns about an unpredictable Turkey since it invaded northern Syria without warning its allies, and the need for Europe to take on more security responsibilities — has shaken the alliance.At a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels, Germany’s Heiko Maas said that the 29-nation trans-Atlantic alliance is “Europe’s life insurance and we want it to remain so.” He said the aim should be to prevent “break-away tendencies” within NATO.To ensure that doesn’t happen, Maas told reporters, the “political arm” of NATO must be strengthened.“We should get advice from experts, from people who understand these issues,” he said.Maas declined to elaborate or comment on who might be part of this expert commission, saying he was more interested in how Germany’s partners react to the proposal. France’s response to the offer should indicate whether NATO’s internal differences can quickly be papered over.Macron’s choice of words was rejected as “drastic” by German Chancellor Angela Merkel the day after they were published in The Economist magazine. Senior U.S. and European officials have since piled on, leaving France feeling isolated for speaking out.NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg heads to Paris next week for talks with Macron, tentatively scheduled for Nov. 28. On the eve of the Brussels meeting, Stoltenberg said the best way to resolve differences “is to sit down and to discuss them and to fully understand the messages and the motivations.”Asked Wednesday why Macron’s stance has angered allies or might hurt NATO, Stoltenberg said, without mentioning France, that “there is no way to deny that there are disagreements on issues like trade, like climate change, the Iran nuclear deal and also simply on how to deal with the situation in northeast Syria.”But he added: “We have to overcome these disagreements, because it is so essential both for Europe and the United States that we stand united.”The rift bodes ill for a Dec. 3-4 summit of NATO leaders in London, where U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to once again demand that the Europeans and Canada step up defense spending. That meeting comes amid impeachment hearings in the U.S., and in the heat of a British election campaign.
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Bucking Stereotypes, A More Sober Russia Emerges
Russia has long been viewed as one of the world’s heaviest drinking countries. Or it certainly used to be. A recent global study found that alcohol consumption by Russians nearly halved over the past decade — and now sits at levels below western countries like France and Germany. From Moscow, Charles Maynes reports on the shift going on in the glass.
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Court Postpones Hearing 8th Time For Tanzanian Journalist
A Tanzanian court on Wednesday postponed the hearing for the eighth time of a
prominent Tanzanian journalist arrested in July in a case his lawyers and rights group say is politically motivated.Police arrested Dar es Salaam-based journalist Erick Kabendera in July and he was charged in August with leading organized crime, failing to pay taxes and money laundering. His lawyers reject the charges.His trial has not begun. At each of the eight hearings since August, prosecutors have told the court that investigations were not complete.Last month, Kabendera’s lawyer Jebra Kambole told the court that he is pursuing a plea bargain. On Wednesday, Kambole told the court that the process had not reached a conclusion.Rights groups say press freedom has nosedived since President John Magufuli took office in 2015. On his watch the government has shut newspapers and websites as well as arrested opposition leaders and restricted political rallies.The government has rejected criticism that it is muzzling the media.
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Kenya’s Former Attorney General Challenges US Entry Ban
This week, U.S. officials imposed an entry ban on former Kenyan Attorney General Amos Wako, citing his alleged involvement in what the State Department called “significant corruption.” At a news conference Wednesday, Wako denied the allegations and denounced the ban, which prevents him, his wife, and son from traveling to the U.S.
U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo announced the travel ban on Wako and his family in a statement released Monday.
The U.S. has criticized Wako several times over the years for not enough to halt corruption during his 20-year tenure as attorney general from 1991 to 2011.
At a news conference Wednesday in Nairobi, Wako, now a member of Kenya’s Senate, criticized the U.S. allegations as vague and unjustified.
“I am against corruption and I believe I as an individual and the people of Kenya as a whole are entitled to full disclosure on general allegations of corruption against me.
These nebulous accusations and aspersions do not help in the fight against corruption and can be termed defamatory in nature,” he said.
Wako served in the administration of Kenya’s second president Daniel Moi, which was engulfed in numerous corruption scandals. The country’s judiciary was almost defunct at the time, and had a poor record of convicting high-level officials.
This is the second travel ban issued to Wako by U.S. The first one came in 2009, after a disputed Kenyan presidential election that triggered deadly post-election violence.
Wako demanded the details of his corruption allegations to be made clear. The U.S. statement Monday made no mention of specific cases where Wako acted to aid corruption or failed to take action against it.
“This therefore leads me to demand that if indeed the United States of America is a valued and serious partner in the fight against corruption, let them share with me and also make it public for Kenyans to know the full particulars of the allegations of corruption against me,” Wako said.
He also criticized the inclusion in the ban of his wife and son as unfair.
“Even if I committed the sin of corruption, which I emphatically deny, it would be my personal responsibility, and my wife, my son and all members of my family should not be punished for my sins,” Wako said.
High-level corruption cases in Kenya have a history that stretches back to the country’s independence in 1963.
Over the years, the U.S. has often used travel sanctions as an instrument against those it sees as aiding corruption in Kenya and other countries.
The 2018 Corruption Perceptions Index by Transparency International listed Kenya as the 144th most corrupt country out of 175.
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Sondland Details ‘Quid Pro Quo’ with Ukraine
U.S. diplomat Gordon Sondland emphatically told the impeachment inquiry targeting President Donald Trump on Wednesday that despite the president’s denial, there was a conditional deal with Ukraine in recent months, that Kyiv would not get the military aid it wanted unless it opened investigations to benefit Trump politically.Sondland, the American ambassador to the European Union, told the House Intelligence Committee that impeachment investigators “have frequently framed these complicated issues in the form of a simple question: Was there a quid pro quo? As I testified previously … the answer is yes.”Sondland, a million-dollar donor to Trump’s inaugural celebration nearly three years ago before Trump tapped him for the posting to Brussels, said he worked with Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, named by the president to oversee Ukraine relations, even though he did not want to because it sidelined normal State Department channels with Kyiv.Sondland said that Giuliani, acting at Trump’s behest, told Ukrainian officials directly that the U.S. leader wanted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to publicly commit to investigations of former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, his son Hunter’s work for Burisma, a Ukrainian natural gas company, and a debunked theory that Ukraine meddled in the 2016 election to help Democrats against Trump. The U.S. intelligence community concluded Russia interfered to help Trump.Trump on Sept. 11 released $391 million in U.S. military aid to Ukraine without Zelenskiy opening the Biden investigations.Front-line participant
While other witnesses at the impeachment inquiry had only second-hand accounts as the Ukraine aid drama unfolded in recent months and no contact with Trump, Sondland was a front-line participant with cell phone access to the president. He is the Democrats’ star witness in their effort to impeach the country’s 45th president.But Sondland said the path to releasing the money was tortured. He detailed long behind-the-scenes talks involving Trump, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Vice President Mike Pence, then national security adviser John Bolton and acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and others during the 55-day delay in dispatching the money Kyiv wanted to help in its fight against pro-Russian separatists in the eastern part of the country.Sondland said Trump was particularly skeptical of helping Ukraine, believing it was generally engulfed in corruption. But Sondland said he came to believe that the aid would not be released without Zelenskiy making a statement that the Biden investigations were underway.Sondland said, however, that he and Trump never specifically talked about the military assistance.”As my other State Department colleagues have testified, this security aid was critical to Ukraine’s defense and should not have been delayed,” he said. ” I expressed this view to many during this period. But my goal, at the time, was to do what was necessary to get the aid released, to break the logjam. I believed that the public statement (about the investigations) we had been discussing for weeks was essential to advancing that goal. I really regret that the Ukrainians were placed in that predicament….”Trump’s July 25 White House call with Zelenskiy, in which the U.S. leader asked Zelenskiy to “do us a favor,” to undertake the politically tinged investigations, is at the center of Democrats’ impeachment inquiry against Trump, only the fourth time in the country’s 243-year history such an investigation has been opened.It is against U.S. campaign finance law to solicit foreign government help in a U.S. election, but it will be up to lawmakers to decide whether Trump’s actions amount to “high crimes and misdemeanors,” the standard in the U.S. Constitution sets for impeachment and removal of a president from office. Trump could be impeached by the full Democratic-controlled House of Representatives in the coming weeks, which would be similar to an indictment in a criminal trial. He then would face a trial in the Republican-majority Senate, where his conviction remains unlikely.Sondland confirmed the essence of a cell phone conversation he had with Trump on July 26, the day after Trump’s conversation with Zelenskiy, as he sat at a Kyiv restaurant with other State Department officials.David Holmes, a career diplomat and the political counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine leaves Capitol Hill, Nov. 15, 2019, in Washington, after a deposition before lawmakers.Late last week, David Holmes, an aide to William Taylor, the top U.S. diplomat in Kyiv, told impeachment investigations in private testimony that he overheard the Trump-Sondland call because Trump’s voice was loud and Sondland held the phone away from his ear.Holmes said Sondland in the call assured Trump that Zelenskiy “loves your ass,” which Sondland said “sounds like something I would say.””So, he’s gonna do the investigation?” Holmes quoted Trump as asking. Sondland, according to Holmes, replied, “He’s gonna do it,” while adding that Zelenskiy will do “anything you ask him to.”Holmes said he later asked Sondland if Trump cared about Ukraine, with the envoy replying that Trump did not “give a s**t about Ukraine.” Sondland said he did not recall this remark but did not rebut Holmes’s account.”I asked why not,” Holmes recalled, “and Ambassador Sondland stated that the president only cares about big stuff.’ I noted that there was big stuff’ going on in Ukraine, like a war with Russia, and Ambassador Sondland replied that he meant big stuff’ that benefits the president, like the Biden investigation.”‘President Donald Trump talks to the media on his way to the Marine One helicopter, Nov. 20, 2019, as he leaves the White House in Washington, en route to Texas.Disdain from Trump
Before Sondland revised his testimony last month to say there had been a quid pro quo — the military aid for the Biden investigation — Trump had called Sondland a “great American.”But after Sondland changed his testimony, Trump said, “I hardly know the gentleman.”Trump has repeatedly described the July 25 call with Zelenskiy as “perfect” and denied any wrongdoing. Trump has often assailed the impeachment inquiry but did not immediately comment on Twitter about Sondland’s testimony.Instead, Trump declared that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who supports Trump’s impeachment, “will go down as the least productive Speaker of the House in history.”Sondland’s testimony came on the fourth day of the impeachment investigation, with two more witnesses set to appear later Wednesday and two more Thursday, including Holmes.
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Putin Says US ‘Political Dramas’ Diverting Focus From Russia
Russian President Vladimir Putin says he’s pleased that the “political battles” in Washington have put on the back-burner accusations that Russia interfered in U.S. elections.”Thank God,” he told an economic forum in the Russian capital on Wednesday, “no one is accusing us of interfering in the U.S. elections anymore; now they’re accusing Ukraine.”Some Republicans have used the public hearings to tout a discredited conspiracy theory that blames Ukraine, not Russia, for interfering in the U.S.’s 2016 presidential election.In the impeachment hearings, Democrats in Congress say U.S. President Donald Trump pressured his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, to investigate former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden while withholding U.S. military aid to Kyiv, and argue that may be grounds for removing Trump from office.
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Why Drones Matter So Much for China to Control Disputed Sea?
China is bolstering its lead in resource exploration and any conflicts in the South China Sea, a sea disputed by five other governments, by stepping up deployment of expendable, cost-effective drones, analysts believe.Last month the People’s Liberation Army exhibited an “electronic-warfare variant” of drones that had done just reconnaissance missions before, part of an effort to control information during any military movement, American research organization Center for Strategic & International Studies said.In September, a drone network operated by the Chinese Ministry of Natural Resources was sent to survey the contested sea’s waters and remote, uninhabited islets, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment said as reported by domestic media. In 2017 Chinese researchers christened a drone specifically for maritime transport and surveillance.Drones can easily spy because, if caught, operators can claim they’re being used for resource exploration, experts say. Their cheaper than radars and other intelligence-gathering tools, causing little loss if seized, they add.“The drone is of course a very ideal sort of spy,” said Alan Chong, associate professor at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore “Drones are in a sense more expendable than aircraft. If they’re shot down, China would raise a protest, but that’s it.”Stronger position in South China SeaChina, hemmed in by other claimant states and monitored by Western powers, isn’t expected to occupy more features in the 3.5-million-square-kilometer sea that’s prized for fisheries and energy reserves.But drones along with other quasi-military technology will help it find undersea fossil fuels and know quickly if another country is expanding, especially near China’s existing maritime assets, scholars say.FILE – U.S. ScanEagle drones are lined up for the formal turnover, March 13, 2018, at Villamor Air Base in suburban Pasay city, southeast of Manila, Philippines.Vietnam and China got into a standoff earlier this year over energy exploration tracts off the Vietnamese coast, and Filipinos are growing edgier about China’s pressure on their maritime holdings despite friendliness at the state-to-state level.“People are concerned that China is using technology not only in the South China Sea but spying on the Philippine population in general,” Atienza said. Defense leaders and some legislators are starting to go public with their worries, she added.China does not disclose details about its drone deployments, but it indicated in June that it sees drones as crucial hardware in the maritime dispute.The People’s Liberation Army website China.mil then linked a U.S. plan to sell drones in Southeast Asia to containing China. The Pentagon had said that month it would sell 34 ScanEagle drones worth of $47 million to Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam.
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Australia Searches for African Swine Fever Vaccine
Australian scientists say it could be another five years before a vaccine is developed to protect pigs from African swine fever. It is estimated that a quarter of the world’s pig population has died this year, following the deadly outbreak of the virus in China. African swine fever, or ASF, has yet to reach Australia, but it is close. The virus has been spreading rapidly through Asia, and outbreaks have been reported in East Timor, one of Australia’s closest neighbors.Hong Kong Reports a Case of African Swine Fever
A case of African swine fever has been detected in a Hong Kong slaughterhouse, prompting the culling of all 6,000 pigs at the facility.
Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan said in a statement Friday that the incurable virus was found in a single pig imported from a farm in Guangdong province in mainland China, where the monthslong outbreak has devastated herds.
Pork is China’s staple meat and its price and availability is considered a matter of national concern.
The disease is devastating pig populations in several countries. It is highly contagious and there is no cure.Scientists have been working on a vaccine for 60 years, but because the African swine fever virus is so large and complex it is an immense task.At the Australian Animal Health Laboratory in the state of Victoria researchers are hopeful of a breakthrough, but concede an effective treatment for ASF could be at least five years away.China Reports Outbreak of African Swine Fever in Hunan
China has reported a new outbreak of African swine fever that is threatening the country’s vital pork industry.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs reported Friday that the disease had been detected on a farm in Yongzhou in the central province of Hunan, where 4,600 pigs were being raised.
Although 171 of the pigs had died and 270 were found sick, ministry regulations require all pigs on an affected farm be culled and disposed of and the area quarantined and decontaminated.
1 million pigs…
The laboratory’s director is Dr Trevor Drew.“I do not think I really expected African swine fever to spread with such ferocity,” said Drew. “I think we will not be able to control African swine fever until there is a vaccine available.”Without a vaccine, Australia will rely on traditional methods of disease control should ASF reach its shores. Infected pigs would be culled, their carcasses buried and farms disinfected.Australia’s multi-million dollar pork industry includes about 2,700 producers, which employ 34,000 people.US Halts Polish Pork Imports Over African Swine Fever
The United States suspended imports of pork from Poland Thursday because of an outbreak of the highly contagious hog disease African swine fever in that country.
African swine fever has spread rapidly in Eastern Europe and China, the world’s largest pork producer, where new cases are appearing and the disease is traveling far distances.
The United States is free of the disease and eager to keep it that way because infections in U.S.
There are concerns the disease could spread through Australia’s large feral pig population. It numbers about 25 million, and the animals are spread across almost half the country.Scientists say the most likely way ASF could enter Australia is through infected pork products that are then fed to pigs.Under new bio-security laws, Australia is deporting tourists who fail to declare illegal pork products.
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After Weeks on the Run, Eritrean Footballers in Uganda Plead for Resettlement
The fate of four Eritrean football players seeking asylum in Jinja, Uganda, remains uncertain, weeks after they fled their hotel during a tournament.
The players had been set to compete with the Eritrean National Team in the Cecafa Under-20 Challenge Cup in October. For the past six weeks, they have been moving from house to house to avoid being caught by Eritrean agents in Uganda, their lawyer told VOA.Kimberley Motley, an American attorney dealing with international law and representing the four men, said they fear being returned to Eritrea, where they could face imprisonment and torture.“They simply want to be able to live free in a country that is not going to imprison them, and which is a great fear that they have if they’re sent back to Eritrea. And they’re very fearful that they will be sent back by the Ugandan authorities,” Motley said.Eritrean under-20 soccer players Hermon Fessehaye Yohannes, Simon Asmelash Mekonen, Hanibal Girmay Tekle, and Mewael Tesfai Yosief talk together in a house where they are staying in Uganda.Ugandan officials didn’t respond to VOA’s requests for updates on the footballers’ case.“They’ve been in hiding,” Motley said. “They’ve been moving from place to place, hoping that a country is kind enough to accept them as asylum seekers based on their very solid claim of being persecuted if they were sent back to their country.”In a video posted by “One Day Seyoum,” a group focused on human rights for Eritreans, the footballers said there is a campaign against them, and they fear being tracked and illegally detained by Eritrean agents in Uganda.Hear from the 4 Eritrean footballers currently living in fear in Uganda. It has been more than 3 weeks since they defected & the UNHCR has still not relocated them to safety. Join our Twitter storm against @Refugees to pressure them to immediately #ProtectFleeingFootballerspic.twitter.com/GeYgdjsTgn— One Day Seyoum (@onedayseyoum) October 29, 2019“We are in grave danger,” Mewael Yosief, one of the footballers, said. “We are in need of help. Because if they catch us, when we go back home, it’s going to be an unimaginably severe danger for us, because we might face imprisonment — unimaginable punishments. And it might even cause us death,” the 19-year-old said.Eritrean under-20 soccer players Hermon Fessehaye Yohannes, Simon Asmelash Mekonen, Hanibal Girmay Tekle, and Mewael Tesfai Yosief talk together in a house where they are staying in Uganda.In 2015, 10 players on the Eritrean national football team sought and secured asylum during a World Cup qualifying match in Botswana. In 2009, the team made worldwide headlines when the entire roster defected and refused to fly home after a match in Kenya.
To support the remaining players who did not defect during the Uganda tournament, some members of Eritrea’s diaspora started a GoFundMe drive that has raised more than $44,000 to allow “these young men to be able to enjoy their careers at home and allow them to enjoy their return.”
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Two US Soldiers Killed in Afghan Helicopter Crash
The U.S. military said Wednesday two of its service members were killed in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan.The cause of the crash is under investigation, however preliminary reports do not indicate it was caused by enemy fire, according to an official announcement.The latest fatalities bring the number of American soldiers killed this year in war-related activities in Afghanistan to at least 18.Earlier, the Taliban insurgency claimed its fighters shot down a U.S. military Chinook helicopter in the eastern Afghan province of Logar.A Taliban spokesman said the helicopter was sent to raid an insurgent base in the area.It was difficult to ascertain from independent sources whether the insurgent group was referring to the same incident. Taliban battlefield claims of attacks on U.S.-led foreign forces in Afghanistan are often inflated.Separately, an overnight Taliban raid on a military base in northern Kunduz province has killed at least 13 Afghan forces and wounded several others. Afghan media reported the attack occurred in the Imam Sahib district.The Taliban took responsibility for carrying out the deadly attack, saying insurgent fighters also seized military equipment from the base.The violence comes a day after a high-profile prisoner swap between the insurgents and the United States that freed two foreign hostages, including an American, in return for three senior insurgent detainees. The two university professors, Kevin King and his Australian colleague, Timothy John Weeks, had been held hostage by the Taliban since August 2016. They were teaching at Kabul’s American University of Afghanistan before being kidnapped at gunpoint from near their campus.
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US Ambassador Sondland to Testify in Trump Impeachment Inquiry
U.S. Ambassador to the E.U. Gordon Sondland on Wednesday will be the most high-profile witness to appear before the U.S. House of Representatives as it holds public hearings on the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump.Sondland is set to testify in the morning, followed by career Pentagon official Laura Cooper and Undersecretary of State David Hale Wednesday afternoon. Former White House adviser Fiona Hill and career foreign service officer David Holmes are to testify Thursday.On Tuesday Jennifer Williams, an aide to Vice President Mike Pence, and Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the National Security Council’s top Ukraine expert, former U.S. Special Envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker and former NSC official Tim Morrison testified.All nine have testified previously in closed-door hearings about Trump’s efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate his political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, who had served as a board member of a Ukraine natural gas company, and probe a discredited conspiracy theory regarding the 2016 president election. Three of the nine listened in on the July 25 phone conversation between Trump and Ukraine’s president.Democrats hope the hearings will sway public opinion in favor of impeachment. Republicans have used them to discredit the impeachment proceedings and poke holes in the witnesses’ testimony.Here is what you need to know about the witnesses Wednesday and Thursday and their role in the Ukraine affair.Gordon SondlandAs President Donald Trump’s ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland was in frequent contact with Trump and other administration officials about Ukraine policy. On July 26, the day after Trump and the Ukrainian president Zelenskiy spoke by phone, Sondland and Trump had their own phone conversation during which the president was overheard asking whether Ukraine would “do the investigation” he had asked for. A wealthy hotel magnate, Sondland gave $1 million to Trump’s 2017 inaugural committee. In March 2018, Trump picked him as his ambassador to the European Union. He was confirmed by the Senate in July.Laura CooperLaura Cooper is a career Pentagon official responsible for policy on Russia, Ukraine and other nations in that region. Cooper first joined the Department of Defense in 2001. She held a series of posts at the Pentagon before being named the deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia. In that capacity, she met with Volker in late August to discuss the frozen Ukrainian aid and was told by Volker that the hold might be lifted if Ukraine was willing to issue a statement disavowing election interference and vowing to prosecute anyone engaged in interference. Cooper later told impeachment investigators that she and others had expressed concerns about the legality of withholding congressionally authorized funds for UkraineDavid HaleAs under secretary of state for Political Affairs, David Hale is the State Department’s No. 3 official, a position to which Trump named him in 2018. A graduate of Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, Hale joined the foreign service in 1984 and holds the rank of career ambassador. In early March, he traveled to Ukraine where he asked then Ambassador Marie Yovanovich to extend her diplomatic term by one year and stay in the country through 2020. Later, when Rudy Giuliani, the president’s point man on Ukraine, launched a smear campaign to oust Yovanovitch, Hale instructed a subordinate, George Kent, to “keep [your] head down.” Hale testified behind closed doors this month about the State Department’s handling of the former ambassador’s recall.Fiona HillA British-born American foreign affairs expert, Fiona Hill served as the National Security Council’s top Russia expert until June. The first former White House official to testify in the House impeachment inquiry, Hill told investigators in October that Yovanovitch’s removal was the “result of the campaign that Mr. Giuliani had set in motion” and that she had personally been the target of similar smear campaigns. Hill also testified about a July 10 White House meeting between U.S. and Ukrainian officials at which Sondland announced that “we have an agreement with the chief of staff for a meeting (between Trump and Zelenskiy) if these investigations in the energy sector start.”David HolmesA career foreign service officer, Holmes has been the political counselor at the U.S. embassy in Kyiv since August 2017. In that capacity, he serves as the senior political and political adviser to the ambassador and has attended many meetings with Zelenskiy and other Ukrainian officials. Holmes is the diplomat who overheard a phone conversation between Sondland and Trump the day after Trump pressed Zelenskiy to carry out corruption investigations. During the call, Holmes testified last week, Trump asked Sondland, “So, he’s gonna do the investigation?” According to Holmes’ testimony, he heard Sondland reply that “he’s gonna do it” and that Zelenskiy would do “anything you ask him to.” The account establishes a direct link between Trump and the Ukraine pressure campaign.
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Ethiopia’s Sidama Vote on Autonomy in Latest Test for Restive Regions
Ethiopia’s Sidama people vote on self-determination in a referendum Wednesday closely watched by other restive ethnic groups also seeking more autonomy since reforms by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed shook up the national power balance.The special vote for the Sidama, mostly based in the south and comprising about 4 percent of Ethiopia’s 105 million population, comes ahead of a national election next year and has brought fears of renewed violence.At least 17 people died in clashes in July between security forces and Sidama activists after the government delayed the poll by five months.If the referendum passes as expected, the Sidama will control local taxes, education, security and laws in a new self-governing region that would be Ethiopia’s 10th.The Horn of Africa nation’s regions are emboldened by a more open political climate — and weaker ruling coalition — since Abiy took office in 2018 and eased predecessors’ iron rule.However, that has also brought a surge of long-repressed rivalries between Ethiopia’s 80-plus ethnic groups, forcing more than 2 million people out of their homes and killing hundreds, according to the United Nations and monitoring groups.FILE – The unofficial flag of the advocated region for the Sidama ethnic group, left, flies next to the Ethiopian national standard as local elders planned to declare the establishment of a breakaway region, in Hawassa, July 15, 2019.’Danger for Ethiopia’ “Should there be irregularities and should autonomy not be declared, that would be a danger for Ethiopia itself because of course there will be violence,” said Dukale Lamiso, head of the Sidama Liberation Front, an activist group.Around 2.3 million voters are registered at nearly 1,700 polling stations, the national electoral board said.Polling stations open at 6 a.m. (0300 GMT) and close at 6 p.m. (1500 GMT). Preliminary results are due Thursday.Sidama people have been proudly carrying their voter cards and told Reuters they are overjoyed at the chance to vote for statehood. One businessman in Addis Ababa said he had provided transportation for his family and employees to travel back home to vote.More than a dozen other ethnic groups are considering or already campaigning for region status.The vote will also be closely watched for its tone prior to next year when Abiy has promised a free and fair national poll.Previous elections going back to 2005 were marred by irregularities, violence and clampdowns by security forces.Sidama people A potential Sidama homeland would be carved out of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples (SNNP) region, the most ethnically diverse part of Ethiopia, a rural region of around 20 million people that borders Kenya and South Sudan.The Sidama people want the multiethnic city of Hawassa, located 275 km (170 miles) from Addis Ababa, to be their capital.The city, located on a lake and surrounded by farmland, is home to the country’s first industrial park, opened in 2017, where Western and Asian companies are producing clothes for export as part of Ethiopia’s ambitious industrialization drive.
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Experts: North Korea’s Nuclear Weapons, Missiles Make It Less Secure
Contrary to Pyongyang’s belief that nuclear weapons and missile programs safeguard its security and ensure its survival, experts said they make the country less safe because they leave it prone to U.S. military targets.North Korean leader Kim Jong Un “thinks that nuclear weapons are the guarantee of his regime survival,” said Bruce Bennett, a senior defense analyst at the Rand Corp. research center. “In reality, they’re the guarantee of his regime destruction.”Although Kim promised he will commit to denuclearization since he began engaging with the U.S. in 2018, North Korea has not shown a serious willingness to reach a deal agreeing to forgo nuclear weapons.Experts said North Korea’s reluctance to reach a denuclearization deal stems from its dogmatic view of nuclear weapons as essential for its security.Evans Revere, a former State Department official who had negotiated with North Korea extensively, said, “I am convinced that North Koreans believe nuclear weapons guarantee their security.”“And as long as that is the case, there is no chance that Pyongyang will give them up,” he added.StallingRather than committing itself toward reaching a viable denuclearization deal with Washington, Pyongyang has been stalling while blaming Washington for refusing to make concessions.North Korea said on Monday it is not interested in having another summit with the U.S. in an apparent response to President Donald Trump’s Sunday tweet urging Kim to “act quickly” to “get a deal done.” Mr. Chairman, Joe Biden may be Sleepy and Very Slow, but he is not a “rabid dog.” He is actually somewhat better than that, but I am the only one who can get you where you have to be. You should act quickly, get the deal done. See you soon! https://t.co/kO2k14lTf7— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 17, 2019North Korean Foreign Ministry adviser Kim Kye Gwan said, “We are no longer interested in such talks that bring nothing to us,” in a statement carried by the country’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).“As we have got nothing in return, we will no longer gift the U.S. president with something he can boast of.” Progress on denuclearization talks has been stalled since the Hanoi Summit held in February failed when Trump denied Kim’s request for sanctions relief in exchange for partial denuclearization. Trump, instead, asked Kim to fully denuclearize before any lifting of sanctions can be granted.Trump-Kim Summit Ends With No Agreement
Despite their collapsed talks in Vietnam this week, U.S.
After months of stalled negotiations, working-level talks were held in Stockholm in October, but the talks ended quickly without a deal reached when North Korea walked away from the negotiating table.
North Korea Walks Away from Nuclear Talks, but Maybe Not For Good video player.
Revere said North Korea had used negotiations in the past as a cover-up to further develop its nuclear weapons.“Even when negotiations seemed to be moving in a positive direction, such as in 1994 and 2005, we now know that the North Koreans are determined not to give up their nuclear weapons and used the negotiations to cover their continued pursuit of nuclear weapons,” Revere said.While North Korea has been engaged with the U.S. this year, it demonstrated it has been developing advanced missile technologies through a series of missile tests it conducted since May.Missile launchesAmid a flurry of missile launches in August, Pyongyang said it “will never barter the strategic security of the country” even for the sanctions relief it has been seeking since the Hanoi Summit, apparently referring to nuclear weapons when it said the security of the country.Robert Manning, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, said, “Kim Jong Un, like his father and other North Korean leaders view nuclear weapons as the ultimate deterrent against the U.S.” He continued, “That’s why they have poured so much of their scarce resources into their missile and nuclear programs over the past four decades.”According to experts, Pyongyang adheres to the doctrine of nuclear security because it does not think the U.S. will launch an attack against a country that has nuclear weapons to retaliate.“The North Koreans have long believed that nuclear weapons are an insurance policy against an attack or invasion by the United States,” Revere said. “They have convinced themselves, with good reason, that the United States will not attack a country that has the ability to respond to a U.S. attack with nuclear weapons.”Thomas Countryman, former acting undersecretary of arms control and international security at the State Department, said, “The DPRK has developed nuclear weapons because it believes this is the ultimate effective deterrent against what it sees as a risk of U.S.-ROK attacks on the DPRK.”The DPRK stands for North Korea’s official name in English, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. The ROK is an acronym for South Korea’s official English name, the Republic of Korea.Furthermore, Pyongyang thinks even if it were to launch an attack against South Korea targeting American troops stationed there, the U.S. will not retaliate against North Korea or defend South Korea, Bennett, of Rand Corp., said.This view, he said, comes from Choi Ju Hwal, a high-ranking military official of the North Korean army who defected to South Korea in 1995 and testified to the U.S. Congress in 1997.In the testimony Choi said, “Some Americans believe that even if North Korea possessed the ability to strike the United States, it would never dare to because of the devastating consequences.”Choi continued that North Korea’s then-leader Kim Jong Il, Kim Jong Un’s father, “believes that if North Korea creates more than 20,000 American casualties in the region, the U.S. will roll back and the North Korea will win the war.” Kim Jon Il ruled North Korea from 1994 until 2011.Bennett said, “I worry that we have not tried to convince Kim Jong Un that that’s a wrong view because an even more senior military defector much more recently has told me that that view continues within the North Korean regime.” ((ACT 2))’Alliance of convenience’Bennett said Pyongyang holds this view because it believes the alliance of the U.S. and South Korea is “an alliance of convenience” rather than “an alliance of commitment.”“If indeed, [North Korea] were to kill 20,000 Americans, which is more than 10 times the number of Americans killed at Pearl Harbor, I think you get an idea of what the Americans are likely to do to [North Korea],” Bennett said, pointing out the U.S. policy toward North Korea in the 2018 Nuclear Posture Review. The U.S. policy, according to the review, is to end the regime if North Korea were to use nuclear attacks against the U.S. or its allies.“Our deterrent strategy for North Korea makes clear that any North Korean nuclear attack against the United States or its allies and partners is unacceptable and will result in the end of that regime,” the review said. “There is no scenario in which the Kim regime could employ nuclear weapons and survive.”It also said the U.S. will target North Korea military forces hidden underground and in natural terrains “at risk.”Manning, of the Atlantic Council, said, “Any North Korean use of nuclear weapons would be suicidal, as would a major conventional attack on the ROK.” He continued, “Any nuclear use would mean their demise.”Ken Gause, director of the Adversary Analytics Program at CNA, said, “Once North Korea uses forces in large measure against Seoul, the U.S. would likely take steps to end the North Korean regime.”
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EU’s Tusk: Croatia’s EU Presidency Comes at Critical Time
Croatia’s first-ever presidency in the European Union will come at come at a “critical period” for the 28-nation bloc, outgoing EU leader Donald Tusk said Tuesday.The EU’s newest member could end up in charge of launching the bloc’s post-Brexit negotiations with Britain, the European Council president said after talks with Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic.Croatia, which joined the EU in 2013, takes over the bloc’s six-month rotating chairmanship at the beginning of January while Britain’s departure from the bloc is now set for Jan. 31.”Your task is not easy,” said Tusk. “It will be a critical period for the EU and we will be relying on your steady leadership.”Tusk expressed confidence in Croatia’s preparation for the job, adding that Croatia also needs to focus on the EU’s enlargement agenda and the volatile Western Balkans.EU aspirations in the Western Balkans have been dealt a blow after France and the Netherlands blocked the opening of membership talks with North Macedonia and Albania.”I deeply believe that you (Croatia) will do everything in your power to restore EU unity and enlargement while demonstrating positive EU engagement in the region,” Tusk said.Tusk was in Zagreb, the Croatian capital, for a meeting of the European People’s Party, the main center-right bloc in the European Parliament. The Polish politician is expected to be elected the leader of the alliance during the two-day gathering.”I am leaving the EU in good hands,” he said.
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Experts: Pyongyang Pushing for Further Concessions from US If It Wants to Talk
Pyongyang is pushing for major concessions from Washington before it agrees to resume working-level talks or hold another summit with the U.S., experts say.“What the North Koreans are indicating that they want right now (are) … two things essentially” as “preconditions before they schedule any talks,” said Harry Kazianis, director of Korean Studies at the Center for the National Interest. “I think that is some kind of promise on sanctions relief, and I also think they want some sort of written or verbally given security guarantees.”North Korea said Tuesday that the U.S. decision to postpone joint military drills with South Korea is not enough for it to return to the negotiating table.“We demand that the U.S. quit the drills or stop it once and for all,” said Kim Yong Chol, chairman of North Korea’s Asia-Pacific Peace Committee, in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). “The U.S. should not dream of negotiating for denuclearization before dropping its hostile policy.”U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper announced Sunday that the U.S. and South Korea agreed to postpone a joint air force drill scheduled for later this month. He described the move as “an act of good will” aimed at providing an atmosphere for North Korea to return to the negotiating table.Protesters shout slogans while holding signs to oppose planned joint military exercises between South Korea and the United States near the U.S. embassy in Seoul, South Korea, Aug. 5, 2019.Earlier in the month, the U.S. had announced the drills would be scaled back to provide room for diplomacy. John Bolton, left, and others attend an extended bilateral meeting between North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump, in Hanoi, Vietnam Feb. 28, 2019.“In addition to the postponement of the drills, it’s trying to get sanctions relief,” said Fitzpatrick, adding, “The U.S. is not going to bend over backward to make concessions on sanctions.” Kazianis said North Korea is mistaken if it thinks Trump is in a position to grant concessions to Kim either directly through another summit or through working-level talks while the impeachment inquiry is underway.“I don’t think they understand the pressure that Donald Trump is in,” said Kazianis. “He has no political bandwidth to forge some sort of grand bargain with Kim Jong Un right now. There is no way he would be able to sell hawkish Republican senators or really almost anybody here in Washington that he would give sanctions relief and all these other concessions either upfront or during working-level talks.” Joseph DeTrani, who served as the special envoy for the six-party denuclearization talks with North Korea during the George W. Bush administration, thinks working-level talks should and could resume.However, he said the U.S. will not and should not grant more concessions than it had with the postponement of the joint drills.“Suspending the joint military exercises with (South Korea) was a sign of extreme goodwill on the part of the U.S.,” said DeTrani. “I think the U.S. is showing a lot of flexibility on that. I think that’s enough. (If) North Korea is putting conditions on another summit for other deliverables from the U.S., they are terribly mistaken. I just don’t see that ever happening.”Christy Lee contributed to this report originated by the VOA Korean Service.
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US National Security Aides Troubled by Trump Call for Ukraine Investigations
It was a long and exhausting day in Washington Tuesday, where testimony in the House of Representatives impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump lasted more than 11 hours.Lawmakers on the Intelligence Committee heard from four witnesses – three of whom directly listened to Trump’s July 25 telephone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, when he asked Zelenskiy to investigate Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the top Ukraine expert on the White House’s National Security Council, said Trump’s call was “inappropriate” and “improper.”National Security Council aide Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman testifies before the House Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Nov. 19, 2019.”Frankly, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. It was probably an element of shock that maybe, in certain regards, my worst fear of how our Ukrainian policy could play out was playing out,” he said.Vindman said Trump’s request to investigate Biden “had nothing to do with U.S. national security” interests and was not part of the talking points Vindman and others prepared for Trump ahead of the call.Vindman appeared before the committee in his full Army dress uniform, including a decoration for Iraqi war wounds.Donald Trump Jr. tweeted that Vindman was a “low-level partisan bureaucrat.” Vindman called character attacks on public servants testifying “reprehensible,” while stressing that he is 100% nonpartisan and was only there to give the facts.Jennifer Williams, special adviser to Vice President Mike Pence for European and Russian affairs, testifies before a House Intelligence Committee hearing as part of the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump on Capitol Hill, Nov. 19, 2019.Jennifer Williams, a foreign affairs adviser to Vice President Mike Pence, also testified Tuesday. She heard the call and said the Trump request for a Biden probe was “unusual” because it involved a “domestic political matter” and not foreign policyWilliams said in her 14 years as a foreign service officer, she has heard a lot of presidential phone calls, but nothing like what Trump has asking for.After a break, the committee heard from two more witnesses.Ambassador Kurt Volker, the former U.S. special envoy to Ukraine, had said in closed-door testimony that he did not see a link between Trump pressuring Ukraine for a Biden probe and Trump withholding nearly $400 million in military aid.Volker said in Tuesday’s testimony that after hearing other witnesses and seeing the transcript of the July 25 phone call, he now believes there was a connection. He said if he had seen things differently earlier, he would have raised objections.Ambassador Kurt Volker, former special envoy to Ukraine, testifies before the House Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Nov. 19, 2019.Volker also said he failed to realize that when the White House asked for a corruption investigation into the Ukrainian gas company Burisma, it really meant an investigation into Biden, whose son, Hunter, sat on the company’s board.Volker defended Biden, saying he has known the former U.S. vice president for more than 20 years and called allegations that Biden had a financial motive in Ukraine not credible.Volker said he believes Trump has a deeply negative view of Ukraine as a hopelessly corrupt country full of “terrible people” who tried to destroy him by meddling in the 2016 election on behalf of the Democrats. Volker said Trump’s views were rooted in the past, before Zelenskiy took over, and egged on by Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer, who insists Biden is corrupt and leaned hard on the Ukrainians to investigate.Tim Morrison, who was the top director for European affairs on the National Security Council, testified Tuesday that he did not hear anything in Trump’s July phone call that he would call illegal.Tim Morrison, a former official at the National Security Council, listens as he testifies before the House Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Nov. 19, 2019, during an impeachment hearing.But Morrison said he does not think investigating Biden should be a “policy objective.”Democrats want to know why a complete word-for-word transcript of the July 25 call was put in a highly secure White House location, reserved only for the most sensitive of documents.Morrison called it a “mistake” and an “administrative error.”The impeachment inquiry was sparked by an intelligence community whistleblower who was disturbed by the July 25 phone call and informed the intelligence inspector general.Republican lawmakers have been fishing for the name of the whistleblower during the hearings and tried to get Vindman to reveal the name, believing he knows who it is. But Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff has said he will not permit such tactics, reminding the Republicans that federal law protects the whistleblower’s identity.Trump and the Republicans allege that when Biden was vice president, he threatened to withhold loan guarantees to Ukraine unless prosecutors stopped a corruption probe into Burisma.No evidence of wrongdoing by the Bidens has surfaced, and the allegations of Ukrainian election interference are based on a debunked conspiracy theory.Democrats are focused on whether Trump froze military aid to Ukraine in exchange for Zelenskiy publicly committing to an investigation of the Bidens and Democrats. Some Democrats accuse Trump of bribery — an impeachable crime.Trump calls the hearings a huge scam and a witch hunt, insisting he did nothing wrong.U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland, left, walks to a secure area of the Capitol to testify as part of the House impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump, Oct. 28, 2019, in Washington.Three more witnesses will testify Wednesday, including U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland. Sondland was in frequent contact with Trump and other administration officials about Ukraine policy and pressure to carry out the investigations Trump demanded.
Top National Security Aides Troubled by Trump Ukraine Call video player.
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Top National Security Aides Troubled by Trump Ukraine Call
Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives launched a second week of public hearings Tuesday in the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump. In a marathon day of testimony, firsthand witnesses described Trump’s July 25th phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that launched of impeachment inquiry. As VOA’s congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson reports from Capitol Hill, the most important testimony is still ahead.
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2,887 Days: Abe Becomes Japan’s Longest-Serving Premier
Shinzo Abe entered the history books as Japan’s longest-serving premier on Wednesday, but many of his ambitious goals, including a constitutional revision to strengthen the military, appear far from reach.Wednesday marks Abe’s 2,887th day in office, topping the record previously set by Taro Katsura, a revered politician who served three times between 1901 and 1913.The 65-year-old is also the second-longest-serving leader of the Group of Seven major economies behind only German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has been in office since 2005.Abe’s grip on power remains firm as he passes the landmark, with his tenure likely to last until at least September 2021 and no clear successor yet on the horizon.But the premier has plenty of unfinished business, saying earlier this year after a cabinet reshuffle that he hoped to “take on the challenge to create a new country.”He has reiterated his long-cherished ambition of revising Japan’s post-war constitution to change the status of the country’s Self Defense Forces.But opposition parties have refused to move forward with procedures for the revision, and Abe has seen his reputation tarnished by the resignation of two cabinet ministers and a cronyism scandal.FILE – Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, center left, and his wife Akie, center right, pose for pictures with their guests during his cherry blossom viewing party at a park in Tokyo, April 13, 2019.’No strong rivals’He is currently mired in a row over inviting too many of his supporters to a costly cherry blossom viewing party, forcing the government to scrap the annual event next year.Speaking to reporters on Wednesday to mark the record, he was peppered with questions about the latest scandal, which shows little sign of going away.Despite recent missteps, however, experts say Abe’s ruling coalition faces no major threats in parliament, and there are no obvious pretenders to his office.”There seem to be no strong rivals inside the LDP, and the prime minister’s political foundation inside the party is stable,” said the conservative Yomiuri Shimbun.An NHK poll this month showed support for his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) at a solid 36.8 percent, dwarfing the 6.3-percent support for the largest opposition Constitutional Democratic Party.Nearly 38 percent said they did not support any particular party.’Ambitious goals’With his place in the history books secure, Abe is expected to focus on several difficult goals in coming years, experts say: the constitutional revision, the release of Japanese kidnapped by North Korea, and the resolution of a long-standing territorial dispute with Russia.”Definitely, Prime Minister Abe will go down in history,” said Shinichi Nishikawa, professor of political science at Meiji University in Tokyo.”But the chances of achieving his ambitious goals are very, very slim,” Nishikawa told AFP.Abe became Japan’s youngest prime minister when he took office in 2006 at the age of 52, but he resigned after just a year, hit by scandals and debilitated by health issues.In 2012, he returned to office on a pledge to revive Japan’s economy with his growth blitz, known as “Abenomics.”He has pushed ahead with policy reforms intended to boost the country’s flagging birth rate, including by increasing access to pre-schools for toddlers.He has also prioritized forging a close personal relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump in a bid to strengthen the key alliance with Washington that guarantees Japan’s security.
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No Clear Champ as Johnson, Corbyn Spar in UK Election Debate
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn attacked each other’s policies on Brexit, health care and the economy Tuesday in a televised election debate that likely failed to answer the question troubling many voters: Why should we trust you?The two politicians hammered away at their rival’s weaknesses and sidestepped tricky questions about their own policies in the hourlong encounter, which was the first-ever head-to-head TV debate between a British prime minister and a chief challenger.It was a chance for Corbyn to make up ground in opinion polls that show his Labour Party trailing Johnson’s Conservatives ahead of the Dec. 12 election. For Johnson, the matchup was an opportunity to shake off a wobbly campaign start that has seen the Conservatives thrown on the defensive by candidates’ gaffes and favoritism allegations involving Johnson’s relationship with an American businesswoman while he was London’s mayor.Both play it safeBoth men stuck to safe territory, with Corbyn touting Labour’s plans for big increases in public spending and Johnson trying to keep the focus on his promise to “get Brexit done.”Speaking in front of a live audience at the studios of broadcaster ITV in Salford, in northwest England, the two men traded blows over Britain’s stalled departure from the European Union — the reason the election is being held. The U.K. is due to leave the bloc on Jan. 31, after failing to meet the Oct. 31 deadline to approve a divorce deal.Johnson pushed to hold the election more than two years ahead of schedule in an effort to win a majority in the House of Commons that could pass his departure agreement with the EU. He blamed the opposition for “dither and delay, deadlock and division” and said a Conservative government would “end this national misery” and “break the deadlock.”Corbyn said a Labour government would also settle the Brexit question by negotiating a new divorce deal before holding a new EU membership referendum within six months. A lifelong critic of the EU and lukewarm advocate of Britain’s membership in the bloc, Corbyn did not answer when asked repeatedly by Johnson whether he would support leaving or remaining in a new referendum.New trade deal would take yearsThe Labour leader, meanwhile, slammed Johnson’s claim that he would negotiate a new trade deal with the EU by the end of 2020 as a fantasy, saying such deals usually take years to complete.“You’re not going to get it done in a few months, and you know that perfectly well,” Corbyn said.The Labour leader also repeated his allegation that Johnson planned to offer chunks of Britain’s state-funded health system to American medical firms as part of future trade negotiations with the U.S.Johnson branded that claim “an absolute invention.”All 650 seats in the House of Commons are up for grabs in the election. Smaller parties in the race include the pro-EU Liberal Democrats, who want to cancel Brexit; the Scottish National Party, which seeks Scotland’s independence from the U.K.; the anti-EU Brexit Party led by Nigel Farage; and the environmentalist Greens.Two candidates are excludedThe debate featured only two candidates after the High Court in London rejected a legal challenge from the Liberal Democrats and the Scottish National Party over ITV’s decision to exclude their leaders from the debate. The court decided it was a matter of ”editorial judgment” to limit the format to the leaders of Britain’s two largest political parties, one of whom will almost certainly be the country’s next prime minister.Later in the campaign, the leaders of smaller parties will take part alongside Labour and the Conservatives in two seven-way debates, and Corbyn and Johnson are due to square off again in a BBC debate on Dec. 6.The stakes are high for both Johnson and Corbyn as they try to win over a Brexit-weary electorate. Both are trying to overcome a mountain of mistrust.Neither delivered the kind of performance to silence their critics.Johnson — who shelved his customary bluster in favor of a more muted, serious approach — is under fire for failing to deliver on his often-repeated vow that Britain would leave the EU on Oct. 31.He drew derisive laughter from the audience when he urged voters, “Look what I have said I’m going to do as a politician and look what I’ve delivered.”Corbyn, a stolid socialist, is accused by critics of promoting high-tax policies and of failing to clamp down on anti-Semitism within his party. His refusal to say which side he would be on in a Brexit referendum was also met with laughter.Pushed by moderator Julie Etchingham to pledge to tone down the angry rhetoric that has poisoned British politics since the country’s 2016 Brexit referendum, the two men awkwardly agreed and shook handsAwkward momentThere was another awkward moment when they were asked about Prince Andrew’s friendship with American sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Andrew gave a televised interview last week in which he denied claims that he had sex with Virginia Giuffre, a woman who says she was trafficked by Epstein as a teenager.Asked if the British monarchy was “fit for purpose,” Corbyn replied, “Needs a bit of improvement.” Johnson said “the institution of the monarchy is beyond reproach.”Both expressed sympathy for Epstein victims — something Prince Andrew failed to do in his interview.Televised debates are a relatively new phenomenon in British elections — the first took place in 2010 — and they have the power to transform campaigns. A confident 2010 appearance by former Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg sparked a wave of “Cleggmania” that helped to propel him into the deputy prime minister post in a coalition government with the Conservatives.’Pretty messy’During Britain’s last election in 2017, then-Prime Minister Theresa May refused to take part in any TV debates. The decision reinforced the view that she was a weak campaigner, and the election turned out to be a debacle for her Conservative Party, which lost its majority in Parliament.Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London, said Tuesday’s debate was “a pretty messy score draw, although Corbyn may just have snuck a win in the dying minutes.”“Hardly two men at the top of their game, though,” he said.
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Congo Court Hands Life Sentence to Warlord for Murder, Sexual Violence
A court in Democratic Republic of Congo handed down a life sentence on Tuesday to one of the country’s most notorious warlords for crimes against humanity including murder and sexual violence, lawyers in the case said.The court, in the eastern city of Bukavu, also found Congo’s government liable for failing to protect victims of the Raia Mutomboki militia and ordered it to pay compensation to more than 300 victims.Despite repeated initiatives by the government to address sexual violence in eastern Congo’s conflict zones, civil wars around the turn of the century resulted in millions of deaths. Experts say rape is still deployed by armed groups and army soldiers as a weapon of war.The judges convicted Raia Mutomboki chief Frédéric Masudi Alimasi, who goes by the name Kokodikoko, along with two allies for murder, torture, enforced disappearances, sexual violence and enslavement committed over several months last year.United Nations investigators say his forces were responsible for abducting and repeatedly gang raping at least 17 women in a cave in September 2018. He was captured by Congo’s army in April.”The victims we supported during this trial are happy that the crimes they suffered were recognized by the conviction of their tormentors,” Charles Chubaka Chichura, the victims’ chief lawyer, told Reuters.Victim compensationThe court ordered that the state pay the victims compensation as well as medical fees. TRIAL International, a Geneva-based non-governmental organization that observed the proceedings, praised the verdict but questioned whether compensation would ultimately be paid.”Precedents have shown that the state was unwilling to compensate victims, even when the judges have ordered it,” said Chiara Gabriele, a legal adviser for the group.Raia Mutomboki, which means “angry citizens” in Swahili, was formed in 2005 to fight Rwandan Hutu militias in eastern Congo and is one of the most powerful of the dozens of armed groups in mineral-rich areas bordering Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi.
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