South Korea says it has decided to continue a 2016 military intelligence-sharing agreement with Japan that it previously said it would terminate amid ongoing disputes over their wartime history and trade.The announcement by South Korea on Friday followed a strong U.S. push to save the pact, which has been a major symbol of the countries’ three-way security cooperation in the face of North Korea’s nuclear threat and China’s growing influence.The office of South Korean President Moon Jae-in says it decided to suspend the effect of the three months’ notice it gave in August to terminate the agreement, which was to expire Saturday, after Tokyo agreed to reciprocal measures.
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Month: November 2019
Despite Arrests and Intimidation, Tanzanian Journalist Fights to Ensure Press Freedom
Maxence Melo calls himself an “accidental journalist.” He says the website he founded in Tanzania, Jamii Forums, has a simple mission: give the youth a voice, offer a space for free expression and fight corruption.But the impact of the site and the response by Tanzanian authorities has been anything but simple. Melo has gone to court 137 times in the past three years, been arrested twice and spent 14 nights in jail.“I had lots of restrictions in terms of my freedoms but I know it’s the price we pay for these kinds of fundamental freedoms,” he told VOA.This week Melo was honored with the Committee to Protect Journalist International Press Freedom Award. He joined journalists from Brazil, India and Nicaragua in receiving the prestigious award.Jamii ForumsCreated in 2006, Jamii Forums is mainly published in Swahili and has readers in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda. It gained notoriety in 2007 with a story regarding corruption in the Central Bank of Tanzania, where millions of dollars were siphoned off. Melo said that was the first time the site was on the receiving end of official intimidation and authorities wanted to know who ran the platform.In 2008 the site ran stories uncovering corruption in power generation contracts that ultimately led to the resignation of the prime minister and the dissolution of the cabinet. Melo said he has been under a microscope since that time.He said government officials, members of parliament and opposition party members regularly enter the forum and engage with other users. He said the anger he receives from those in power is not about misreporting the news, it’s about reporting things officials do not like.No fake news“No one is alleging us for fake news. No one is alleging us for any kind of false information,” he said. “We are being alleged for not cooperating with state organs to reveal our sources of information. And we believe the source of information for a journalist, for a media house, is the key person to whatever kind of story that they are working on.”The media environment became even more treacherous in 2015 when Tanzania enacted a Cyber Crimes Act. The law criminalizes online speech deemed to be false, deceptive, misleading or inaccurate. It has been used to prosecute news sites like Jamii Forums.“It’s not only used against journalists and against citizen journalists, it’s used against critical voices. It’s used against almost everyone,” he said.Additional laws have restricted journalists’ access to governmental information and statistics, he said.“There are lots of laws. You need to understand how to navigate through them and it’s kind of tough at times,” he said. “I think I’ve read almost all laws around 13 of them which within the industry, and you find some flaws or some sections that do safeguard you. But the problem is, until you’re safe it’s when the court decides like you’re free and you are you that the allegations against you are not genuine.”Fighting for press freedomStill, Melo said he is determined to continue practicing journalism in his home country.“Tanzania has been a good example in Africa,” he said. “We have been like ambassadors of change in Africa. And we have gone through this kind of challenging time for almost five years of lots of challenges to journalists to critical voices in Tanzania. I am still optimistic that there is room for change. And we as citizens have a room to advocate for policy change.”He has challenged aspects of the Cyber Crimes Act in court without success but says he is not giving up.“We have room to challenge these laws. I know it comes at a huge price. As for me, I’ve tried my best. I have gone to the high court. I’ve challenged the Cyber Crimes Act section 32 and section 38 of the law. I still believe those people who can take it to the next stage. We are still able to push back.”
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Trump Insists on Exoneration in the Face of Startling, Contradictory Testimony
As current and former administration officials testify during impeachment hearings this week, President Donald Trump and his Republican allies are countering allegations that Trump demanded Ukraine probe his political rival in exchange for military aid. In the face of startling testimony that strikes at the heart of Trump’s defense, the president and his allies are pushing back against narrow parts of their testimony. VOA White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara takes a look at whether this strategy is likely to sway the public’s viewpoint, including Trump’s loyal base of supporters.
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Pope Urges Thais: Don’t See Christianity as ‘Foreign’
Pope Francis paid tribute Friday to Catholics in Thailand who suffered or were killed for their faith in the past and urged today’s Thais not to consider Christianity a “foreign” religion.The pope was on his last full day of a visit to Thailand, where the dominant culture is closely tied to Buddhism, although the Catholic minority of fewer than 1% were generally treated well in modern times.On Friday, Francis traveled to Wat Roman, a mostly Catholic area on the outskirts of the bustling capital of Bangkok.Pope Francis waves to the crowd following his visit to St. Peter’s Parish church in the Sam Phran district of Nakhon Pathom Province, Thailand, Nov. 22, 2019.World War II era priestThe pope visited a modern sanctuary built in honor of Nicholas Bunkerd Kitbamrung, a Thai priest who died in 1944. The son of Christian converts from Buddhism, he was arrested for ringing a church bell during a period dominated by an anti-Western government suspicious of foreign influences, such as the French colonial powers in neighboring countries.The priest was sentenced to 15 years in prison and died of tuberculosis in a hospital where he was treated badly and denied proper care because he was Catholic.In a talk to priests and nuns gathered in the church, Francis expressed his gratitude to those he said had offered the “silent martyrdom of fidelity and daily commitment” in the past.In 1940, seven Catholics, including three teenage girls, were killed by Thai police in the northeastern province of Nakhon Phanom. Pope John Paul II later declared them martyrs.The World War II period and other spells of persecution are considered aberrations and today relations between Buddhists and Catholics are generally very good.During the reign of Thailand’s King Narai 350 years ago, the Vatican formally established its “Mission de Siam.”Although missionaries failed to achieve mass conversions, they were largely tolerated by the Buddhist majority and particularly the royal court.Thai face of CatholicismSince the start of his pontificate in 2013, Francis has preached that the Church should grow by attraction and not by proselytizing, or conversion campaigns.This has provoked criticism from some conservatives who favor an aggressive approach and largely oppose what is known as “inculturation,” or adapting Church teachings to local culture.Francis urged priests and nuns to find more ways to talk about their religion in local terms, saying he had learned “with some pain, that for many people, Christianity is a foreign faith, a religion for foreigners.”He added, “Let us give faith a Thai face and flesh, which involves much more than making translations.”Meeting Thai bishops in the same shrine complex later, Francis once again talked about issues such as human trafficking and exploitation.On Thursday he condemned the exploitation of women and children for prostitution in Thailand, which is notorious for its sex tourism, saying the violence, abuse and enslavement they suffer are evils to be uprooted.Francis was scheduled to meet leaders of other religions and celebrate a Mass in Bangkok’s Assumption Cathedral on Friday afternoon, before leaving on Saturday for Japan.
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US Army Examines TikTok Security Concerns
The U.S. Army is undertaking a security assessment of China-owned social media platform TikTok after a Democratic lawmaker raised national security concerns over the app’s handling of user data, Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy said Thursday.Speaking to reporters at an event at the American Enterprise Institute think tank, McCarthy said he ordered the assessment after the top Democrat in the U.S. Senate, Chuck Schumer, asked him to investigate the possible risks in the military’s use of the popular video app for recruiting American teenagers.“National security experts have raised concerns about TikTok’s collection and handling of user data, including user content and communications, IP addresses, location-related data, metadata, and other sensitive personal information,” Schumer wrote in a Nov. 7 letter to McCarthy.Schumer said he was especially concerned about Chinese laws requiring domestic companies “to support and cooperate with intelligence work controlled by the Chinese Communist Party.”Tik Tok logo is displayed on the smartphone while standing on the U.S. flag in this illustration picture taken, Nov. 8, 2019.The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) has launched a national security review of TikTok owner Beijing ByteDance Technology Co.’s $1 billion acquisition of U.S. social media app Musical.ly.TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment.The company has previously emphasized its independence from China but has failed to assuage congressional concerns about the security of the personal data of U.S. citizens who use the platform and whether content on the platform is subject to any censorship from Beijing.In a Nov. 5 blog post, TikTok’s U.S. general manager, Vanessa Pappas, said that the company’s data centers “are located entirely outside of China.” She said U.S. user data is stored in the United States, with backup redundancy in Singapore.ByteDance is one of China’s fastest-growing startups. About 60% of TikTok’s 26.5 million monthly active users in the United States are between the ages of 16 and 24, the company said this year.Earlier this year, Schumer also called on the FBI and the Federal Trade Commission to conduct a national security and privacy investigation into FaceApp, a face-editing photo app developed in Russia.The potential for the sharing of army information through the use of apps was highlighted after researchers found in 2018 that fitness-tracking app Strava was inadvertently exposing military posts and other sensitive sites.In 2017, the Army ordered its members to stop using drones made by Chinese manufacturer SZ DJI Technology Co Ltd because of “cyber vulnerabilities” in the products.
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Justice Department Watchdog to Release Russia Probe Report in December
The U.S. Justice Department’s internal watchdog said he expects to be able to release on December 9 a long-awaited report on the origins of investigations into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. In a letter sent on Thursday to Senate Judiciary Committee
Chairman Lindsey Graham, Justice Department Inspector General
Michael Horowitz said that he expected his office to be able to
release the report next month “barring unforeseen circumstances.”Supporters of President Donald Trump have claimed the report
will raise questions about the legitimacy of FBI investigations
into alleged links to Russia by Trump and some of his campaign
advisers.A central issue the inspector general’s office said the
report would examine is how closely the FBI stuck to the law and
rules when it went to a secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance
Court beginning in 2016 to obtain authorization to conduct
electronic monitoring of “a certain U.S. person.”Lawsuit by PageCarter Page, a one-time foreign policy adviser to Trump’s
2016 campaign, recently sued the Justice Department, accusing it
of violating his privacy by failing to give him an opportunity
to examine the report before publication.As of Wednesday, Page told Reuters he had not been allowed
to examine a draft of the document.Another individual questioned at length last summer by
representatives of the inspector general’s office in connection
with the forthcoming report was Christopher Steele, a former
British intelligence officer who compiled a controversial
“dossier” on alleged links between Trump and Russia for
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and Democratic
Party lawyers. The FBI cited reporting by Steele in documents sent to the
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court when it sought permission to monitor Page, though other information used by the FBI in such applications remains classified.
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Report: Rebel Forces’ Use of Mines Causes Surge in Civilian Casualties
A report released Thursday said that last year, nearly 7,000 people, most of them civilians, were killed or injured by landmines and explosive remnants of war planted by rebel forces in at least six countries in conflict: Afghanistan, India, Myanmar, Nigeria, Pakistan and Yemen. The Landmine Monitor report provides an overview of developments in policies on banning mines and the production, trade and stockpiling of such weapons. This year’s edition, covering the 2018-19 period, was the 21st and looked back at efforts to fully implement the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty, which has 164 members and is considered by activists to be the most successful disarmament and humanitarian accord ever enacted. Over the past two decades, they note, only one country has violated the accord. That was Yemen in 2012. This year, the report said, only Myanmar, which is not a party to the treaty, used anti-personnel mines. Adherence to the treaty has resulted in a significant drop in the number of casualties, from 20,000 in 1999 to just a few thousand a year. Improvised explosive devicesThe Monitor, however, noted that in recent years, a spike in the use of improvised personnel mines and explosive devices by rebel forces has been driving casualty numbers up again.
Stephen Goose, the arms division director of Human Rights Watch, told VOA that Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq, the Taliban in Afghanistan and Houthi rebels in Yemen have been responsible for most of the deaths and injuries.
“The diminution of ISIS’s military power makes it much more likely that you will not have the same phenomenon occur anytime soon,” Goose said. “And we are very hopeful that if there is success in negotiating with the Taliban, part of that agreement will be a no-use-of-anti-personnel-mines clause.”
Goose said the Afghan government is part of the Mine Ban Treaty and has committed itself to never using anti-personnel mines again. He noted that Taliban in the past had said they would not use landmines. Unfortunately, he added, the militant group has gone back on its pledge.
The Landmine Monitor said civilians accounted for about 70 percent to 80 percent of those killed or maimed by landmines last year. About half of the victims were children.
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Horses Aid in Therapy for Children With Disabilities in Zimbabwe
Once a week, a horse track in Harare invites children born with cerebral palsy, a neuromuscular disorder, to visit. But the children don’t simply watch the horses. Trish Lillie of the Healing with Horses Therapeutic Centre in Harare says her organization is helping kids who cannot afford the recommended speech and physical therapies. Nov. 21, 2019. (Columbus Mavhunga/VOA)The charity is supported by donations from companies and individuals with a mission to help heal children and communities. Stanley Dzingai, 37, brings his 4-year-old child for regular sessions.
“At first my son used to refuse horse therapy, but he is changed and you can see the progress,” Dzingai said. “He couldn’t stand, but now he is standing; he couldn’t sit, and now he can sit. We started recently, but we can see an improvement, a huge one,” in one month’s time. Stanley Dzingai brings his 4-year-old child for regular horse therapy sessions at the Harare site. Nov. 21, 2019. (Columbus Mavhunga/VOA)The U.N. Children’s Fund says the prevalence rate of cerebral palsy worldwide ranges from about 1 to 4 in every 1,000 live births.
Christine Peta, a former disabilities professor at the University of Cape Town who now works with UNICEF Zimbabwe, said that “when some women fall pregnant, they do not go for medical checks until the day they go into labor. So if there are problems that can be prevented or infections that can be treated that can prevent cerebral palsy, those problems remain unattended, resulting in the child being born with cerebral palsy. So it is very critical to be medically checked during pregnancy.” But that might be only an ideal in countries like Zimbabwe, where the health sector has essentially ceased to function.
In that case, Peta recommends speech, occupational and physical therapies for children born with cerebral palsy. The Healing with Horses Therapeutic Centre in Harare is supported by donations from companies and individuals dedicated to helping children and communities heal. Nov. 21, 2019. (Columbus Mavhunga/VOA)She said this might be difficult to obtain in situations where money is lacking. In such instances, she said, horse riding can be the cheapest kind of therapy. “When a child has cerebral palsy, the child faces a number of problems, which include balance, their limbs can be stiff or they are unable to control movement,” Peta said. “Horse riding can stabilize or improve the balance of the body or the weakened muscles, the weak bones. So it is one of the things that I believe are organic and brilliant in addressing the issue of cerebral palsy.” Almost as important, the children, after getting acclimated, take to the therapy with glee. What child, after all, doesn’t want to ride a pony?
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Horses Aid in Therapy for Some Children With Disabilities in Zimbabwe
With Zimbabwe’s health sector and economy both struggling, some parents of children with disabilities have turned to Healing with Horses Therapeutic Centre. The charity, supported by donations, provides horse rides and activities to children with cerebral palsy, a neuromuscular disorder, and other physical and mental challenges. Columbus Mavhunga reports from Harare.
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US Congress Approves Hong Kong Pro-Democracy Bills
The U.S. Congress approved two bills Thursday to support pro-democracy demonstrators in Hong Kong after months of unrest in the semi-autonomous city.The House overwhelmingly passed the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, which requires an annual review of the favorable trade status the United States grants Hong Kong. The measure also authorizes U.S. sanctions on Chinese and Hong Kong officials who carry out human rights abuses.The second piece of legislation prohibits the export of certain non-lethal munitions to Hong Kong, including tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons.The House passed both bills one day after the Senate approved them, sending them to the White House for President Donald Trump to sign into law.The White House has indicated Trump will sign the legislation.Passage of the measures is widely viewed as a potential roadblock to a major trade deal between the U.S. and China.”If America does not speak up for human rights in China because of commercial issues, we lose all more authority to speak about human rights anywhere in the world,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, told reporters shortly after the bills were approved.Both measures received bipartisan support, despite the divisiveness that currently reigns on Capitol Hill.FILE – Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, atends a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Oct. 23, 2019.”We don’t stand here today as Republicans or Democrats, but as Americans united in our strong support for the people of Hong Kong,” said Congressman Michael McCaul, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.”This bill sends a clear message to China that there will be consequences for the ruthless and brutal actions in Hong Kong. We will not sit on the sidelines as the Chinese Communist Party enriches herself and oppresses her own people,” McCaul declared.For the past five months, protesters have taken to the streets of Hong Kong demanding more democracy and autonomy. The demonstrations have sometimes turned violent, stoking concerns that China will ratchet up its response to stop the civil disobedience.China promised Hong Kong a “high degree of autonomy” for 50 years after it regained sovereignty over the city from Britain in 1997, but protesters contend that freedoms have since steadily eroded.Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson contributed to this report.
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Cameroon Teen Girl Wins International Children’s Peace Prize
A 15-year-old girl from Cameroon is one of two winners of the 2019 International Children’s Peace Prize. Divina Maloum was rewarded for her efforts in promoting children’s rights by visiting school to warn students against joining armed groups, such as Boko Haram.Hundreds of children from schools in Yaounde, glued to their TV screens, applauded Wednesday as Maloum was given the International Children’s Peace Prize for 2019 in the Hague on the occasion of Universal Children’s Day.This is no small award. The other winner of the prize was 16-year-old Greta Thunberg, the climate activist from Sweden, who was unable to attend the ceremony but said in a statement that she is “incredibly grateful and honored for this prize.”Among those watching Maloum accept the award was her civic education teacher, Ntigang Oumarou.Oumarou said thanks to Maloum’s association to Children for Peace, many young people in their schools and neighborhoods no longer consume drugs. She said after Maloum’s talks and sensitization caravans, the community was alert and the police now conduct regular controls to make sure drugs and alcohol are not sold around schools and to children. She said she was very proud of the 15-year old and wished her well.Maloum created Children for Peace in 2014 after she visited Cameroon’s northern border with Nigeria, where Boko Haram terrorism has killed more than 27,000 people and displaced two million others.She said she was horrified that children were the greatest victims of the war and started thinking of what she could do to help those who were joining Boko Haram, either by force or out of ignorance.”I noticed that the rights of children especially for girls were violated. You see a girl of five years getting married to an old man of 60 years. You see boys, girls who are carriers of bombs (suicide bombers), so I decided to create that association to stimulate the civic and voluntary engagement of children in the fight against violent extremism. To make them be peace builders in their communities. To also make them to be change makers,” Maloum said.Children for Peace now has a network of 100 children across Cameroon’s ten regions. She has organized inter-community children’s peace camps, established peace clubs in mosques, and together with other children, issued a children’s declaration against violent extremism.Maloum said she believed everyone can make a difference in bringing peace to their societies.’My message to the world is that when the power of love will be greater than the love of power, man shall have another name which is God and that a youth, where you are as an individual, you can change the world and make a difference where you are going to,” she said.Maloum said her main concern now is for peace to return to the restive English-speaking regions of Cameroon, where most schools have been closed for three years due to fighting between armed separatists and the country’s military.
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French Courts Face Touchy Test: Is Helping Migrants a Crime?
A French court is to rule Thursday on whether to convict a mountain guide of helping migrants enter the country illegally — the latest case that is testing France’s “principle of fraternity” allowing humanitarian aid for irregular migrants.The cases have centered on the Alps, where migrants traverse snowy passes between Italy and France, many ill-equipped for the cold. Each year some die of hypothermia.Pierre Mumber, a 55-year-old ski instructor and member of migrant rights organization Tous Migrants, came across several West African migrants in January 2018 as he hiked through the Montgenèvre pass in search of people needing help.Mumber argues he was giving legal humanitarian assistance. Tous Migrants co-president Michel Rousseau said Mumber was bringing warm clothes and drinks to migrants when he was arrested. Mumber’s lawyer, Philippe Chaudron, has argued that his client helped them on French soil.A court in the city of Gap convicted Mumber earlier this year for “aiding the irregular entry of foreigners,” giving him a three-month suspended sentence. It pointed to the fact that his cell phone signals bounced off the Italian side as evidence that Mumber had illegally helped them cross the border.His lawyer says the prosecutor had insufficient evidence and appealed, and the regional appeals court in Grenoble is handing down its verdict Thursday. Lawyer Chaudon argues that in the Alps, cell phone signals and ski slopes often straddle both sides of the border.“My client is reproached for going back and forth between the two countries, but he is a ski instructor and the slopes of Montgenèvre cross into Italy,” Chaudon told The Associated Press.Between 1,500 and 2,000 migrants tried to illegally cross the border between France and Italy during a three-month period that winter, fueling both humanitarian efforts to help them and calls by nationalist politicians for a crackdown. It’s part of a Europe-wide migrant challenge, since both countries are part of the European Union’s border-free travel zone.The case is one of several that has tested how the French judiciary handles citizens providing aid to migrants since France’s Constitutional Council upheld the “principle of fraternity” in 2018.That ruling came after the high-profile case of farmer Cedric Herrou, who housed some 200 migrants in the Alps’ Roya valley and helped them travel within France. He was convicted in 2017 of helping migrants illegally cross the border.EU rules criminalize those who help migrants without the proper documentation from crossing into or transit through member states, as well as those who house migrants for financial gain. Some countries have more stringent restrictions; Denmark, for instance, has prosecuted hundreds of its citizens for giving migrants food or a lift. Germany and Switzerland have also seen similar court cases.France used to ban individuals from giving migrants free housing or transportation on French soil. The Constitutional Council, however, ruled that France’s motto of “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity” gives citizens freedom “to assist others for a humanitarian purpose,” even if they are in the country illegally. The decision, codified in French law in September 2018, excludes from punishment any person who helps migrants with a humanitarian goal without compensation.Fewer cases involving migrant assistance have wound up in French courts since then, Chaudon said. Still, prosecutions have continued — particularly in regions along the Italian and Spanish borders.Rousseau of Tous Migrants said lingering ambiguities over what constitutes a “humanitarian goal” and compensation under the law “opens the door to any interpretation.”Lola Schulmann of Amnesty International in France said a court decision to deny Mumber’s appeal could dissuade benevolent citizens who want to save migrants’ lives, particularly as winter sets in.“These people should not find themselves in front of a court; they should be encouraged and celebrated,” she told The AP.
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US Federal Judge Halts Trump Administration’s Bid to Resume Executions
A U.S. federal judge has ordered a temporary halt to the scheduled executions next month of four inmates, saying that President Donald Trump’s administration lacked legal authorization to use its intended lethal-injection drug.The ruling, late on Wednesday by District Judge Tanya Chutkan, effectively blocks the Justice Department’s attempt to resume the use of the death penalty after a 16-year hiatus. The four inmates argued that the Justice Department’s plan to use the drug pentobarbital ran afoul of federal laws.The government previously executed condemned inmates using a three-drug protocol, with the first drug being sodium thiopental, which mirrored many state protocols at the time. In 2011, Hospira, the only U.S. maker of that drug, ceased production. Unable to obtain a supply, Texas and other states began experiment with new execution protocols. Since then, a single-drug pentobarbital protocol has become the most common method.Judge Chutkan sided with the plaintiffs when she found the new directive to create one federal method of execution “very likely exceeds” authority provided by the Federal Death Penalty Act of 1995, which says individual states determine “manner” of execution.”There is no statute that gives the BOP (Bureau of Prisons) or DOJ the authority to establish a single implementation procedure for all federal executions,” Chutkan wrote in her 15-page ruling.In July, the U.S. Justice Department reinstated a two-decades-long dormant policy allowing the federal government’s use of capital punishment, and immediately scheduled the executions for five death row federal inmates.The last federal execution took place in 2003. Since then, protracted litigation over the drugs historically used in lethal injection executions prevented the government from continuing the practice, according to Justice Department officials.This decision prevents the government from evading accountability and making an end-run around the courts by attempting to execute prisoners under a protocol that has never been authorized by Congress,” Shawn Nolan, one of the attorneys for the men facing federal execution, said in a statement.There are currently 62 federal inmates on death row, including Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who planted a deadly bomb at the Boston Marathon in 2013.The four inmates whose execution was scheduled for next month include Daniel Lewis Lee, a white supremacist who was convicted in Arkansas for murdering a family of three, including an 8-year-old girl.President Donald Trump, a death penalty supporter, has called for increasing its use for drug traffickers and mass shooters.
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Mobile Phone Warnings Set to Aid Climate-vulnerable Somali Nomads
In central Somalia’s Beledweyne district, families still reeling from food shortages and livestock deaths after another year of poor rains were surprised by a new disaster last month: brutal floods that completely submerged homes after the Shabelle River burst its banks.Across the district, 230,000 people were driven from their homes, the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR reported, some fleeing through neck-deep water.“The situation was devastating,” Ahmed Omar Ibrahim, an aid worker with Save the Children, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.In the flood’s aftermath, “all the people (were) out from the town, scattered.”But such disasters may soon no longer catch people unaware. A mobile phone alert system is set to roll out across Somalia, designed to text residents a warning before they are hit by droughts or floods.Such warning systems are increasingly common around the world, but the Somali effort will mark the first time a nationwide mobile phone-based alert system has been set up in sub-Saharan Africa, according to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).The alert system is part of a $10 million project, launched last week by UNDP and the Somali government, to improve the conflict-hit East African nation’s resilience to growing climate threats.It includes efforts to educate pastoralists on better managing their resources and plans to build new weather stations, weather monitoring systems, and water storage dams.Officials expert the mobile alert system to be fully operational in two to three years.“This project is really looking into resiliency-building of the most vulnerable people,” said Abdul Qadir Rafiq of UNDP Somalia.PASTORALISTS AT RISKSimilar mobile-based systems have been tried out in drought-prone areas of Ethiopia and Kenya. A project led by Oxfam in 2013 trained local people to gather data on water levels and report their findings to the humanitarian organization using mobile phones.The UNDP alert system, by contrast, will rely on sophisticated data from new and existing monitoring stations and satellites, to alert people to danger directly through their mobiles.The technology has already been used on a trial basis in parts of Somalia, where climate change is contributing to more frequent and severe droughts and floods.In 2015, the Somalia Water and Land Information Management project developed an app to warn vulnerable river communities about impending heavy rain and to alert fishing vessels about December cyclones.But those most at risk from severe weather are Somalia’s nomadic pastoralists, who make up about 60% of the population, according to UNDP.The herders keep a majority of their wealth in livestock. If the animals are killed by severe weather, “that’s a huge economic loss,” said Chris Funk, a researcher at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and with the U.S. Geological Survey who has worked on drought forecasting in Somalia.“Farmers can have a bad year that is damaging to those households, but they can recover more quickly than pastoralists,” he said.Because of their nomadic lifestyle, providing pastoralists with early warning systems has historically been difficult, Funk said – but better access to mobile technology is changing that.Somalia has good mobile phone coverage, UNDP specialist Rafiq and aid worker Ibrahim both said. A 2013 survey by analytics company Gallup and the Broadcasting Board of Governors, a U.S. federal agency, found seven in 10 Somalis own a mobile phone.The study did note regional differences, however, with those in major cities more likely to own one than those in rural areas.Still, while “it is difficult to give exact numbers or percentages,” Rafiq said, “at this stage it is safe to assume half of pastoralist communities are using mobile technologies.”FROM WARNING TO ACTIONExperts stress that even if pastoralists have access to the technology, the emerging alert system will be useless unless Somalis are capable to taking effective action on the warnings.With this in mind, the new alert system has been designed to direct people towards the closest water resources as drought strengthens, for instance, so pastoralists can move their herds before they begin losing animals.Alerts may also help communities decide where to move to avoid expected flooding.The disaster resilience project includes funds to educate pastoralists on management techniques, such as reducing the size of their cattle herds before periods of drought.Funk, the researcher, said he was pleased the project was focused on improving resilience to climate events, not just monitoring the changes.“That’s the real promise,” he said.The UNDP project is set to last four years. But in order to create lasting change, projects like this one will need long-term commitment, climate resilience experts said.“The sustainability really is a big issue,” said Rebecca Carter, deputy director of the World Resources Institute’s climate resilience practice. “There’s a real role for the private sector here.”Telecom companies are increasingly aware of how valuable their services are to customers in crisis, she said.Since 2015, mobile operators in almost 30 African countries have signed up to the Humanitarian Connectivity Charter, an initiative launched by trade body GSMA and funded by the UK Department for International Development.It aims to create best practices for mobile operators responding to humanitarian disasters.In 2016, charter member Vodacom installed the first 3G tower in Nyarugusu refugee camp in Tanzania, with mobile operators Airtel, Halotel and Tigo soon moving in as well to offer refugees a choice of providers, according to the charter’s 2017 annual report.In Uganda, the report showed, mobile phone operators have used mobile money payment services to deliver cash aid from non-governmental groups to refugees.“This is a great way (for telecom companies) to build their base of customers,” Carter said. “Pastoralists recognize that it is worthwhile, with their scarce resources, for … someone in the community to have access to warnings.”
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Pelosi Says Evidence Is Clear: Trump Used Office for Personal Gain
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday said there was clear evidence that Donald Trump used his office for his own personal gain and undermined national security, as lawmakers continue their impeachment inquiry into the Republican president.Pelosi, speaking at a regular weekly news conference, reiterated that it was up to the House Intelligence Committee to determine how to proceed with Democratic-led investigation, adding that no final impeachment decision has been made yet.
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Pentagon Rejects Report US Pulling Forces From South Korea
The Pentagon is rejecting a report that the United States is preparing to pull military forces from South Korea.Chief Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said Thursday there was “absolutely no truth” to reports that the U.S. was considering removing any troops from the peninsula.Conservative South Korean newspaper U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper (L) shakes hands with South Korean counterpart Jeong Kyeong-doo (R) prior to the 51st Security Consultative Meeting (SCM) at the Defence Ministry in Seoul, Nov. 15, 2019.“Secretary (Mark) Esper was in South Korea this past week where he repeatedly reiterated our ironclad commitment to the ROK and its people,” said Hoffman. “We are demanding the Chosun Ilbo immediately retract their story.”Talks between the United States and South Korea broke down Tuesday over Washington’s demand that Seoul increase its financial contribution for hosting U.S. military forces on its soil.South Korean negotiator Jeong Eun-bo told reporters the U.S. side walked out after a short session. James DeHart, the U.S. negotiator, said his team left because the proposals put forward by the Koreans “were not responsive to our request for fair and equitable burden sharing.”Seoul currently pays just over $890 million to defray the cost of the 28,500 U.S. troops stationed in South Korea defend the country against a possible attack from the North.South Korean officials say the Trump administration wants to raise the amount to as much as $5 billion.U.S. President Donald Trump has long complained that U.S. allies have not paid Washington enough for the bases and troops used for their defense.Defense Secretary Esper said during his visit to Seoul last week that South Korea is “a wealthy country that could and should pay more to help offset the cost of defense.”
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Russia, Ukraine Trade Barbs Over Condition of Returned Naval Ships
Ukraine says three captured naval vessels returned by Russia earlier this week were in poor condition and stripped of key components.After inspecting the returned vessels, the chief of Ukraine’s navy, Vice Adm. Ihor Voronchenko, was quoted by Ukraine’s “4th Channel” TV as saying the ships’ return to safe harbor had been hampered by their poor condition. “They do not move on their own,” the vice admiral said, according to the report. “The Russians ruined them — even took off the lamps, power outlets and toilets. We will show the whole world the Russian barbarism towards them.”Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy later inspected the ships upon arrival at the port of Ochakiv and reportedly said repairing them would take three months. The Ukrainian leader also demanded Russia return missing components.Back in Moscow, officials from Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB, suggested sabotage.Russia’s RIA-Novosti wire service quoted FSB officials as claiming the ships had been returned in “normal condition, and plumbing equipment in working order.” The FSB also provided what it said was video of the ships in what appeared to be reasonable condition, noting that Ukrainian officials had signed off on the exchange in neutral waters Monday without registering complaints.“If Ukraine managed to ruin the vessels and their bathroom equipment as they crossed the coast of Crimea to Ochakiv, that’s Ukraine’s problem,” said a Russian FSB official, according to a separate report by Russia’s Interfax news service.Russian media reported earlier that the Ukrainian ships had been returned stripped of their guns — a detail that has yet to be confirmed by either side.Misplaced optimism?The return of the vessels had been widely viewed as a trust-building measure ahead of a December summit in Paris aimed at bringing an end to the conflict in the Donbas that has left some 13,000 people dead over the past five years. Zelenskiy and Russian President Vladimir Putin have both indicated they would join French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel for the event — billed as the latest attempt to jump-start peace negotiations after several previous failed attempts by the so-called “quartet” to end the fighting between Ukraine government forces and Moscow-backed rebels.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy visits the port of Ochakiv, Nov. 20, 2019, to see the three Ukraine’s naval ships, captured in the Kerch Strait in Nov. 2018 and then returned by Russia.Zelenskiy had signaled the return of the three Ukrainian vessels as the latest in a series of small step measures aimed at normalizing relations with Russia and ending the war in the Donbas. “Step by step, we’re making peace, seeking diplomatic solutions, and fighting for our Ukraine to be united once again,” wrote Zelenskiy in a post to Twitter just hours before he reviewed the ships’ condition for himself.The ships and their crew were seized by Russia after its border patrol fired on the vessels off the coast of Crimea in November 2018 — arguing the ships had violated what had become Russia’s territorial waters after the Kremlin’s annexation of the peninsula from Ukraine in 2014.The incident caused outrage in Kyiv and beyond, with the United States launching a new round of sanctions targeting Russia over its military actions in Ukraine.Moscow portrayed the incident as a ploy by Ukraine’s former president, Petro Poroshenko, to stoke nationalist sentiment ahead of elections he would ultimately lose by a landslide to Zelenskiy.Zelenskiy has made ending the war in east Ukraine a top priority of what he says will be his sole term in office.Among his successes thus far is a negotiated deal with Putin that saw the release of the Ukrainian ships’ 24 crew members as part of a wider prisoner swap last September.
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China Bats Away Rumors, Says Trade Talks With US Continue
China is working to resolve conflicts with Washington over trade, a Commerce Ministry official said Thursday, dismissing speculation the talks might be in trouble as inaccurate “rumors.”Ministry spokesman Gao Feng said he had no new information to release. But he said China was committed to working toward an agreement.“China is willing to address core concerns together with the U.S. on a basis of equality and mutual respect, and to work to conclude our discussions on the first phase” of a trade deal, Gao told reporters at a weekly briefing.“This will benefit China, the U.S. and the world,” Gao said.Financial markets have swung between elation and gloom in recent days as conflicting reports over the talks swirled. Some have cited officials saying they believe a deal is likely by the year’s end, while others have expressed skepticism.Gao described such reports as “outside rumors that are not at all reliable.”President Donald Trump began imposing punitive tariffs on Chinese exports nearly 18 months ago, citing trade and technology policies that he says violate Beijing’s market-opening commitments and are unfair.Since then, tariffs have been raised by both sides on billions of dollars’ worth of each other’s exports, squeezing farmers and manufacturers. A fresh set of tariffs is due to take effect Dec. 15 on about $160 billion of Chinese exports to the U.S., including smartphones, laptops and other consumer goods.President Donald Trump had said he hoped to sign a preliminary agreement with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, at a regional economic summit in Chile in mid-November that was canceled due to protests. Prospects for the two leaders to meet and sign a deal soon appear uncertain.Earlier this week Trump indicated he was prepared to go ahead with more tariff hikes if he does not get a deal with China that he likes.The approval this week of a U.S. congressional resolution expressing support for human rights in Hong Kong after months of increasingly violent political protests drew an angry response from China’s foreign ministry.It also rattled financial markets: markets fell Thursday for a second straight day in most regional markets after losses overnight on Wall Street.China took control of the former British colony in 1997, allowing it a semi-autonomous status and separate legal and economic systems. It bristles at foreign comments on matters that it considers its internal affairs.China has urged Trump not to sign the legislation, which passed both the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate almost unanimously.“If the U.S. goes its own way, we will take countermeasures,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang.But Geng adopted a less fiery tone when asked about the trade talks, reiterating the stance that reaching an agreement is in the best interests of everyone.“We hope both could meet each other halfway,” Geng said.
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Earthquake Shakes Thailand, Laos, Sways Bangkok High-Rises
A strong earthquake shook a border area between northern Thailand and Laos early Thursday, swaying high-rises in Bangkok and Vietnam’s capital.Residents of Chiang Mai, northern Thailand’s biggest city, felt prolonged shaking but saw no major damage.Chiang Mai resident Petchnoi Osathaphan said the long shaking left her feeling dizzy.“There are three new cracks at the baseboards and close to the windows,” she said of her house near the Mae Ping River.High-rise buildings swayed slowly for half a minute in Bangkok, startling residents. Many online videos showed light fixtures swaying during the temblor.Vibrations were also felt in Hanoi, Vietnam.The U.S. Geological Survey said the 6.1 magnitude quake was about 10 kilometers (6 miles) below the surface.It was centered just inside Xaignabouli province in Laos, some 31 kilometers (19 miles) from Chaloem Phra Kiat district in Thailand’s Nan province, which is about 610 kilometers (380 miles) north of Bangkok.Moderate quakes of 4.6 and 5.7 magnitude shook the same area overnight.The Thai-owned, coal-fired Hongsa Thermal Power Plant in Xaignabouli said its system to prevent damage from tremors operated as planned and shut down the system to avoid damage. It said an initial survey of the plant’s two dams showed no structural damage, but a more comprehensive survey was expected to be completed within 24 hours. Some structures suffered minor damage, it added.Thai-owned CK Power said that according to preliminary inspections, two hydroelectric plants it operates in the area, the Xayaburi Hydroelectric Power Plant and the Nam Ngum 2 Hydroelectric Power Plant, suffered no damage from the quakes and continued to generate electricity for Thai and Laos state power authorities.
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Australians Told to Shelter from Bushfires as Political Heat Builds
Firefighters battled hundreds of bushfires across Australia Thursday as scores of blazes sprang up in new locations, triggering warnings that it was too late for some residents to evacuate.As thick smoke blanketed the most populous city of Sydney for a third day, residents were urged to keep children indoors, stepping up pressure on Prime Minister Scott Morrison to tackle climate change.By early afternoon, dozens of fires were burning across the southeastern state of Victoria and temperatures of 40.9 Celsius (105.6 F) in Melbourne, its capital, matched the hottest day on record in 1894, Australia’s weather bureau said.Authorities warned residents of towns about 50 km (31 miles) north of Ballarat, the state’s third largest city, that it was too late for them to evacuate safely.“You are in danger, act now to protect yourself,” fire authorities said in an alert. “It is too late to leave. The safest option is to take shelter indoors immediately.”Blazes across several states have endangered thousands of people, killing at least four people this month, burning about 2.5 million acres (1 million hectares) of farmland and bush and destroying more than 400 homes.Fire season early, badThe early arrival and severity of the fires in the southern hemisphere spring follows three years of drought that experts have linked to climate change and which have left bushland tinder-dry.With 10 days remaining to the official start of summer, extreme temperatures and high winds have sparked wildfires in new areas, even as firefighters tracked the crisis across the mainland, the Northern Territory and the island of Tasmania.In Victoria, power to more than 100,000 homes was knocked out amid lightning strikes and strong, gusty winds of more than 110 kph (68 mph) that knocked tree branches into power lines, ahead of a cool change expected to bring relief in the evening.The extensive damage was likely to leave some customers without power through the night as utilities worked to restore networks and fix downed powerlines, a spokeswoman for power provider Ausnet said.State authorities issued its first Code Red alert in a decade, signifying the worst possible bushfire conditions, warning that should a fire start it would be fast moving, unpredictable and probably uncontrollable.In the state of New South Wales, strong winds blew smoke from 60 fires still burning over much of Sydney, shrouding the harbor city and its famous landmarks in thick smog.The state imposed tough new water curbs in Sydney from Dec. 10, when a key dam is expected to be down to 45% capacity.Residents face fines if they use hoses to water their gardens and wash their cars.Climate politicsThe unrelenting conditions have sharpened attention on the climate change policies of Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who rejected any link.“Climate change is a global phenomenon, and we’re doing our bit as part of the response to climate change,” Morrison told ABC radio. “To suggest that, with just 1.3% of global emissions, that Australia doing something differently — more or less — would have changed the fire outcome this season, I don’t think that stands up to any credible scientific evidence at all.”Morrison’s conservative government has committed to the Paris Agreement for a cut in emissions from 26% to 28% by 2030, versus 2005 levels. Critics say current projections suggest it will miss that target and have urged remedial steps.
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US Denies Plans to Pull Some Troops from South Korea
The Pentagon on Thursday denied a South Korean news report saying that the United States was considering a significant cut to its troop numbers in South Korea if Seoul does not contribute more to the costs of the deployment.“There is absolutely no truth to the Chosun Ilbo report that the U.S. Department of Defense is currently considering removing any troops from the Korean Peninsula,” Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said in a statement, referring to Secretary Mark Esper, who earlier Thursday had said he was unaware of any such planning.“Secretary Esper was in South Korea this past week where he repeatedly reiterated our ironclad commitment to (South Korea) and its people. News stories such as this expose the dangerous and irresponsible flaws of single anonymous source reporting. We are demanding the Chosun Ilbo immediately retract their story.” In the story, Chosun Ilbo quotes a diplomatic source as saying the U.S. is preparing to withdraw one brigade.A typical U.S. military brigade numbers about 3,000 to 4,000 troops. There are about 28,500 U.S. troops currently stationed in South Korea, which remains technically in a state of war with nuclear-armed neighbor North Korea following their 1950-1953 conflict.U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said he was not aware of any plans to withdraw 4,000 U.S. troops from South Korea if cost-sharing talks failed.“We’re not threatening allies over this. This is a negotiation,” he told reporters during a trip to Vietnam.South Korea’s defense ministry said the Chosun report was “not the official position of the U.S. government.”Under U.S. law, the United States’ troop presence in South Korea must not fall below 22,000 unless the Secretary of Defense justifies a further reduction to Congress.The Associated Press contributed to this report,
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Sondland Confirms Quid Pro Quo Between Trump, Ukraine
Wednesday was the most explosive day yet in the House impeachment hearings and perhaps a crucial moment for the Trump White House when U.S. Ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland testified that there was a quid pro quo between President Donald Trump and Ukraine.Trump has been denying allegations that he held up nearly $400 million in badly needed military aid to Ukraine until Kyiv promised to investigate Joe Biden, a possible rival of Trump’s in the 2020 presidential election, for alleged corruption.In his opening statement, Sondland said 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.”According to the ambassador, “it was no secret” and a number of senior Trump administration officials were “in the loop,” including Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, and former national security adviser John Bolton.Sondland talked about long and complicated behind-the-scenes machinations that started in April, with the election of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and September, when the aid to Ukraine was finally released after a 55-day delay.House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, center, gives his closing remarks as U.S. Ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland testifies before the committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Nov. 20, 2019.Sondland said he joined Energy Secretary Rick Perry and special envoy Kurt Volker in following Trump’s “orders” to work with the president’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, who was pressuring Ukraine to investigate Biden and alleged Ukrainian meddling in the 2016 election to help Democrats.“We did not want to work with Mr. Giuliani,” Sondland said. “Simply put, we played the hand we were dealt. We all understood that if we refused to work with Mr. Giuliani, we would lose an important opportunity to cement relations between the United States and Ukraine.”WATCH: Sondland to US Lawmakers: Trump Conditioned Aid to Ukraine on Investigations
Sondland to US Lawmakers: Trump Conditioned Aid to Ukraine on Investigations video player.
Embed” />Copy LinkSondland said Giuliani was acting at Trump’s behest when the lawyer told Ukrainian officials that the president wanted Zelenskiy to publicly commit to investigating the Bidens and the Democrats.Sondland said efforts to push for the investigations were a quid pro quo in arranging a White House meeting for Zelenskiy.Sondland said that while Trump never told him directly that military aid to Ukraine was conditioned on the investigations, he later concluded that had to be the reason because Sondland said there was no other credible reason Ukraine was not getting the money it had been promised.WATCH AMBASSADOR SONDLAND HEARING ON-DEMANDAid released after whistleblower complaintRepublicans on the impeachment inquiry have argued there could not have possibly been a quid pro quo with Ukraine because the military aid was eventually released and there were no investigations of Biden and the Democrats. They also say Ukraine was unaware that the money was being held up.But in later testimony Wednesday, Pentagon official Laura Cooper said Ukrainian officials began asking questions about the aid in July. “It’s the recollections of my staff that they likely knew,” she said.Trump released the aid to Ukraine on September 11 after reports emerged that an intelligence community whistleblower told the inspector general he was concerned about a July phone call in which Trump asked Zelenskiy to investigate Biden. That whistleblower complaint is what led to the impeachment probe.White House spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham said that Sondland’s testimony “made clear” that in his calls with Trump, the president “clearly stated that he ‘wanted nothing’ from Ukraine, and repeated ‘no quid pro quo’ over and over again. The U.S. aid to Ukraine flowed, no investigation was launched, and President Trump has met and spoken with President Zelenskiy. Democrats keep chasing ghosts.”Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said Ukraine got the money and there were no investigations only because Trump got caught.FILE – President Donald Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani speaks to reporter’s on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, May 30, 2018.No evidence of Biden wrongdoingTrump has alleged that when Biden was vice president, he threatened to withhold loan guarantees to Ukraine unless it fired a prosecutor looking into corruption in Burisma, a gas company where Biden’s son Hunter sat on the board.No evidence of wrongdoing by the Bidens has ever surfaced. Allegations that Ukraine meddled in the 2016 U.S. election to help Democrats are based on a debunked conspiracy theory that likely originated in Russia.Two more witnesses are set to testify in the impeachment inquiry Thursday, including David Holmes, an aide to the U.S. ambassador, who says he overheard Trump talk about investigations in a telephone call the president had with Sondland.July call central to inquiryTrump’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.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 cellphone 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’ 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 TrumpBefore 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.
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Transgender Activists Honor 22 Slain Victims in US, 331 Worldwide
Layleen Cubilette-Polanco had experienced some rough patches in her 27 years but had tried to change course, seeking to switch out of previous jobs as a go-go dancer and sex worker for employment in places like McDonald’s and Walgreens, her sister said.She never completed that journey. Cubilette-Polanco died in June of complications from epilepsy in New York’s notorious Rikers Island jail where she spent her final two months, unable to make $500 bail.On Wednesday, transgender advocates across the United States commemorated people like Cubilette-Polanco for the Transgender Day of Remembrance.Vigils such as one in New York that culminated in front of the Stonewall Inn LGBTQ landmark drew attention to at least 22 transgender people, almost all of them black women, who have been killed so far in 2019. A similar number have been killed in each of the past seven years, as tracked by the Human Rights Campaign, the largest LGBTQ advocacy group in the United States.Globally, at least 311 were killed in the 12-month period ending Sept. 30, the second-highest total on record, according to the Trans Murder Monitoring project of the Berlin-based group Transrespect versus Transphobia Worldwide.Of those 130 were killed in Brazil and 63 in Mexico, the project said.The U.S. campaign made special note of Cubilette-Polanco.Though she was not a homicide victim, her story illustrates the insecurity of trans women of color, who are more likely to be unemployed and lack access to healthcare.After a youth spent helping others, whether rescuing stray animals or bringing home runaway kids needing a place to stay, she decided to start helping herself, sister Melania Brown said.”The last couple of months of her life, she wanted the change. She wanted to get a real job. She wanted to fulfill herself in society, and society let her down,” said Brown, who believed that discrimination never gave the Dominican-born U.S. citizen a fair chance in the job market.Cubilette-Polanco was arrested in April on charges of misdemeanor assault and theft over an altercation with a taxi driver. Bail was set at $500 because of a 2017 prostitution arrest, local media reported, citing arrest records.She lived with epilepsy and schizophrenia, according to a lawsuit her family filed against New York City’s Department of Correction.The Human Rights Campaign has recorded at least 157 homicides of transgender people since 2013, nearly all of them women of color.More than 100 demonstrators gathered in New York on Wednesday night to remember those slain, meeting at the Christopher Street pier, where transgender activist Marsha P. Johnson died in 1992, and marching to the Stonewall, site of the 1969 uprising considering the birth of the modern queer rights movement.”We need to invest more in our trans community. Don’t just send me roses when I’m gone,” said Kiara St. James, executive director of the New York Transgender Advocacy Group.The names of victims were read, and people dressed in white, their faces veiled, held up portraits of the dead.Another speaker, who goes only by the name Synthia, said she had been the victim of a hateful act of aggression in which a man pulled a gun on her.”I survived that day knowing my name could have been on the list I just read,” she said. “So for me, Transgender Day Remembrance is about living survivors that walk these streets daily just trying to survive.”
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Toxins Increase in Somali Crops Under Climate Shocks
Somalia is one of the world’s countries worst affected by global warming, suffering near-constant droughts, heat waves and floods. Recent flooding in south central Somalia affected 547,000 people, according to U.N. estimates, at a time when more than 2 million are food-insecure.Scientists and food safety experts say the climate shocks are not only destroying Somali crops and livestock but are also increasing the levels of toxins in the food that makes it to harvest. The frequent droughts, in particular, have significantly increased toxins in maize, sorghum and wheat, the main staple foods in the country.”What is making Somalia more vulnerable to these toxins is the climate change, because our farms are rain-fed,” said Abdi Mohamed Hussein, head of plant protection at the Ministry of Agriculture. “The droughts and the heat are creating a conducive environment for the bacteria to grow in these crops, thus damaging the corn trees (stalks)and making it easier for the mold and fungus bacteria.”A study conducted by Queen’s University Belfast on Somali crops, published earlier this year, found that levels of aflatoxin B1, a toxin linked to development of liver cancer, are dangerously high compared to European Union levels.In this Nov. 21, 2011 photo, residents harvest crops at a community-run farm, which receives assistance by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, near Dolo in Somalia.Dr. Ewa Wielogorska of the University of Chemistry and Technology in Prague, who supervised the lab work for the study, says the results were “quite shocking.””When we looked at the concentrations, unfortunately we found out that the levels of the most dangerous mycotoxin, which is aflatoxin B1, was over 400 times higher than the level permitted by the European Union,” she told “Investigative Dossier,” a VOA Somali program. “The other toxins exceeded European limits from 20 to almost 80 times.”Queen’s University collected 140 samples from maize, sorghum and wheat in 2014, but the result of the lab work was only released earlier this year. Wielogorska, who has a doctorate in food analysis, says all of the maize samples and almost all of the sorghum samples were contaminated with various amounts of toxins. “When we tried to translate the risk to the consumer, we found out that the risk is 700 times higher than the risk that the consumers in (the) EU are faced with when consuming widely available food,” she said.The U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization has not conducted its own study on the problem, but Emma Ouma, an FAO food nutrition expert, concurred with the role of climate shocks in high levels of aflatoxins.”We just know that because of the environment, that we have the food being stored in terms of the humidity, the soil, the nitrogen stress, the farm, we may have high levels of aflatoxin, but it has not been scientifically proven,” she said. “I do feel that in terms of climate change, it exposes the population to higher levels of aflatoxin.”There are no statistics proving that liver cancer is on the rise in Somalia, but Dr. Mohamed Mohamoud Fuje, a general practitioner based in Mogadishu, says he sees an increase.”Liver cancer is increasing in Somalia. The liver is very vulnerable to these toxins,” Fuje said. “The danger is even worse if the person was suffering from hepatitis B.”
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