The Trump administration announced Friday that it was curbing legal immigration from six additional countries that officials said did not meet security standards, as part of an election-year push to further restrict immigration.Officials said immigrants from Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, Eritrea, Nigeria, Sudan and Tanzania will face new restrictions in obtaining certain visas to come to the United States. But it is not a total travel ban, unlike President Donald Trump’s earlier effort that generated outrage around the world for unfairly targeting Muslims.Trump was expected to sign a proclamation on the restrictions as early as Friday; the restrictions would go into effect Feb. 21.The announcement comes as Trump tries to promote his administration’s crackdown on immigration, highlighting a signature issue that motivated his supporters in 2016 and hoping it has the same affect this November. The administration recently announced a crackdown on birth tourism and is noting the sharp decline in crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border and citing progress on building the border wall.Immigrant visas were restricted for Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, Eritrea and Nigeria. That type of visa is given to people seeking to live in the U.S. permanently. They include visas for people sponsored by family members or employers as well as the diversity visa program that made up to 55,000 visas available in the most recent lottery. In December, for example, 40,666 immigrant visas were granted worldwide.Sudan and Tanzania have diversity visas suspended. The State Department uses a computer drawing to select people from around the world for up to 55,000 diversity visas. Nigeria is already excluded from the lottery along with other countries that had more than 50,000 natives immigrate to the U.S. in the previous five years.Non-immigrant visas were not affected. Those are given to people traveling to the U.S. for a temporary stay. They include visas for tourists, those doing business or people seeking medical treatment. During December, for example, about 650,760 non-immigrant visas were granted worldwide.Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf said Homeland Security officials would work with the countries on bolstering their security requirements to help them work to get off the list.”These countries for the most part want to be helpful, they want to do the right thing, they have relationships with the U.S., but for a variety of different reasons failed to meet those minimum requirements,” Wolf said.Rumors swirled for weeks about a potential new ban, and initially Belarus  was considered. But Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was headed to the Eastern European nation as the restrictions were released and Belarus was not on the list. Wolf said some nations were able to comply with the new standards in time.The current restrictions follow Trump’s travel ban, which the Supreme Court upheld as lawful in 2018. They are significantly softer than Trump’s initial ban, which had suspended travel from Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen for 90 days, blocked refugee admissions for 120 days, and suspended travel from Syria. The government suspended most immigrant and non-immigrant visas to applicants from those countries. Exceptions are available for students and those with “significant contacts” in the U.S.Trump has said a travel ban is necessary to protect Americans. But opponents have argued that he seeks to target Muslim countries, pointing to comments he made as a candidate in 2015 calling for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.”The seven countries with considerably more restrictions include nations with little or no diplomatic relationship to the U.S. They include five majority-Muslim nations: Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen.Sudan and Kyrgyzstan are majority-Muslim countries. Nigeria is about evenly split between Christians and Muslims but has the world’s fifth-largest population of Muslims, according to the Pew Research Center.Wolf said immigrant visas were chosen because people with those visa are the most difficult to remove after arriving in the United States.The initial ban was immediately blocked by the courts and led to a months-long process to develop clear standards and federal review processes to try to withstand legal muster.The announcement of new countries banned was expected around the third anniversary of the Jan. 27, 2017, enactment of the first order.Wolf said officials spent about six months working on revised criteria. They examined countries for compliance with minimum standards for identification and information-sharing, and assessed whether countries properly tracked terrorism or public safety risks. Officials looked at whether countries used modern passports, shared information that the U.S. could validate on travelers and identified possible criminal suspects in a way that the U.S. could see before entry. They evaluated responses and ranked nations on where they fell.Government agencies then discussed whether countries had different, but important, contacts with the U.S. and then decided on restrictions.”Really the only way to mitigate the risk is to impose these travel restrictions,” Wolf said.
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The latest round of talks between Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan in Washington has stretched into its fourth day as the parties struggle to reach a comprehensive agreement on the Grand Ethiopia Renaissance Dam (GERD), a massive hydropower dam project on Ethiopia’s Blue Nile River.
 
The White House released a statement saying President Donald Trump spoke with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on Friday, and he “expressed optimism that an agreement on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam was near and would benefit all parties involved.”
 
The tripartite meeting hosted by the U.S. Treasury is the parties’ last-ditch attempt to resolve the question of the operation of the dam, particularly the filling of its reservoir, an issue that has triggered concerns of a “water war” between Egypt and Ethiopia.
 
The meeting was scheduled for January 28-29 but has continued until January 31 without an agreement on the numbers for filling of the reservoir.
 
Ethiopia and Egypt have been negotiating for years, but several technical sticking points remain, including the duration and rate at which Ethiopia will draw water out of the Nile and the quantity of water that will be retained. Cairo fears Ethiopia’s plans to rapidly fill the reservoir could threaten Egypt’s source of fresh water.      
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The technical details of how, when, and where the water will flow are a life-and-death matter for each party,” said Bronwyn Bruton, deputy director of the Atlantic Council’s Africa Center. Bruton added that the situation is complicated by “international organizations and mediating third party countries, which all come with their own interests and agendas.”
 
With the Trump administration’s urging, last November the parties agreed to hold four technical governmental meetings at the level of water ministers with the World Bank and the United States attending as observers. They agreed to a deadline of January 15, 2020, for reaching an accord. When they failed to reach an agreement, the parties agreed to another round of talks this week.
 
The main issue has been a lack of consensus, said Mirette Mabrouk, director of the Egypt Program at the Middle East Institute. “Ethiopia’s priority has been to complete the dam and Egypt’s priority has been to ensure that its near sole source of water is not decimated,” Mabrouk said.
 A flexible treaty
 
In previous statements, the ministers have recognized that flexibility in trans-boundary water management is essential considering the constantly changing levels of the Nile.
 
They have agreed that guidelines for the filling and operation of the GERD “may be adjusted by the three countries, in accordance with the hydrological conditions in the given year.”
 
However, competing hydrological and political interests have hindered negotiations.
 
The director of the Water Institute at the University of North Carolina, Aaron Salzberg said that parties are striving for an agreement that is “easily codified in terms of numbers” –how fast you can fill, how much water is released.”   At the same time, he says, the agreement must establish a joint decision-making process that allows flexibility in responding to changing conditions, but not one that may be “too open to interpretation and set the stage for conflict down the line.”
 
This is not something that should be forced, Salzberg added.   “The parties themselves must drive the process. This is an agreement that will need to last multiple lifetimes,” he said.
 
 Sileshi Bekele, Ethiopia’s Minister for Water and Energy, speaks to the media after the end of the fourth and final round of talks between Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan on Ethiopia’s construction of a controversial dam on the Nile River.Mediation?
 
On their first Washington meeting on November 6, the foreign ministers agreed that if a deal is not reached by January 15, 2020, Article 10 of the 2015 Declaration of Principles will be invoked.
 
Article 10 of the declaration, signed in Khartoum, addresses the peaceful settlement of disputes. It states that “if the parties involved do not succeed in solving the dispute through talks or negotiations, they can ask for mediation or refer the matter to their heads of states or prime ministers.”
 
Egypt has long-sought external mediation, while Ethiopia wants to keep the negotiations on a tripartite level. But earlier this month Ethiopian Prime Minister Ahmed said he has asked South African President Cyril Ramaphosa to intervene. Ramaphosa has accepted the task.
 
Under the 1959 Nile Waters Agreement between Egypt and Sudan, signed before Egypt began constructing the Aswan High Dam, Egypt can take up to 55.5 billion cubic meters of water from the Nile each year, and Sudan can take up to 18.5 billion. Ethiopia was not part of that agreement.   
 US involvement
 
U.S. involvement in the dam issue came about after Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi last year requested that President Trump help mediate the conflict. A senior Trump administration official confirmed that the president had offered “the good offices of Mnuchin” to lead the effort and the U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin has played the role of host and observer in negotiations since last November.
 
Trump appears to have sustained his interest on the negotiations and has even gone so far as inviting the ministers to impromptu meetings at the Oval Office on November 6 and January 14.Just had a meeting with top representatives from Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan to help solve their long running dispute on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, one of the largest in the world, currently being built. The meeting went well and discussions will continue during the day! pic.twitter.com/MsWuEBgZxK— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 6, 2019 
After the last meeting, the White House released a statement that Trump emphasized to the foreign and water resources ministers of Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan that the United States “wants to see all of these countries thrive and expressed hope that each country will take this opportunity to work together so that future generations may succeed and benefit from critical water resources.”
 
The U.S. Treasury has not released a statement on the latest round of negotiations and it is unclear what the next steps would be for the parties.  
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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo vowed Friday that the Trump administration would not waver in its support for Ukraine and denied charges at the heart of President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial.
Pompeo met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Friday and denied allegations that vital military aid and a White House visit were conditioned on a probe into former Vice President Joe Biden’s family.
“It’s just simply not the case. We will find the right time, we will find the appropriate opportunity (for the visit),” Pompeo said at a press conference after a meeting with Zelenskiy.
Pompeo is the highest-ranking American official to visit Ukraine since the impeachment process began last year. That process started with revelations about a July 25 phone call between Zelenskiy and Trump.
Zelenskiy said the impeachment had not had a negative effect on U.S.-Ukraine relations and thanked the Trump administration for its financial and military support that impeachment prosecutors say the president withheld in order to extract a personal favor from Ukraine.
Pompeo’s meetings in Kyiv come as t he GOP-majority Senate prepared to vote  on whether to hear witnesses who could shed further light on Trump’s actions toward Ukraine. The vote appeared likely to fail, however, as a key Republican said he would vote against allowing new testimony, boosting odds the Senate will vote to acquit in a matter of days.
A senior U.S. official in the meeting said Pompeo and Zelenskiy mainly discussed investment and infrastructure and that there was no talk of impeachment or corruption investigations. The official was not authorized to publicly discuss the private conversation and spoke on condition of anonymity.
At a press conference after the meeting, Pompeo assured Zelenskiy of Washington’s unwavering support.
“The United States understands that Ukraine is an important country. It’s not just the geographic heart of Europe, it’s a bulwark between freedom and authoritarianism in eastern Europe. It’s fields feed the European continent and its pipelines keep Europe warm in the winter,” he said.
Zelenskiy, in turn, expressed hope that the U.S. would more actively participate in resolving a separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine that has killed more than 14,000 people in the past five years. Zelenskiy also said he still wanted to meet Trump in DC as long it would be productive. “I am ready to go tomorrow,” he said.
In addition to Zelenskiy, Pompeo is meeting Ukraine’s prime, foreign and defense ministers as well as civic leaders, and touring several Ukrainian Orthodox churches.
Trump is accused of obstructing Congress and abuse of office for withholding a White House meeting with Zelenskiy and critical military aid to the country in exchange for an investigation into Biden, a political rival, and his son, Hunter.
Ukraine has been an unwilling star in the impeachment proceedings, eager for good relations with Trump as it depends heavily on U.S. support to defend itself from Russian-backed separatists. Trump, who has still not granted Zelenskiy the White House meeting he craves, has offered that support to some degree. Although the military assistance was put on hold, it was eventually released after a whistleblower complaint brought the July 25 call to light. The Trump administration has also supplied Ukraine with lethal defense equipment, including Javelin anti-tank weapons.
Pompeo has stressed the importance of the U.S.-Ukraine relationship, a sentiment long shared by Republicans and Democrats who see the former Soviet republic as a bulwark against Russian ambitions. But it’s a view that now has partisan overtones, with Democrats arguing that withholding aid from such a critical ally for political purposes is an impeachable offense.
The Senate is to vote on hearing impeachment witnesses later Friday. Democrats want to hear from former national security adviser John Bolton, whose forthcoming book reportedly says that Trump withheld the aid in exchange for a public pledge of a probe into the Bidens. That would back witnesses who testified before the House impeachment inquiry.
Ukraine has been a delicate subject for Pompeo, who last weekend  lashed out at a National Public Radio reporter for asking why he has not publicly defended the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch. She was removed from her post after unsubstantiated allegations were made against her by Trump’s personal attorney, Rudolph Giuliani.
Pompeo has been criticized for not publicly supporting Yovanovitch, her now-departed successor as chief of the Kyiv embassy, William Taylor, and other diplomats who testified before House impeachment investigators. Yovanovitch and Taylor have been attacked by Trump supporters and, in some cases, have been accused of disloyalty.
In the NPR interview, Pompeo took umbrage when asked if he owed Yovanovitch an apology, and maintained that he had defended all of his employees. In an angry encounter after the interview, he also questioned if Americans actually cared about Ukraine, according to NPR.
That comment prompted Taylor and Pompeo’s former special envoy for Ukraine, Kurt Volker, who also testified to the impeachment panel, to write opinion pieces discussing the importance of the country to U.S. national security and why Pompeo should be explaining its role to Americans as their top diplomat.
Pompeo brushed aside his reported comment, telling reporters aboard his plane that “of course, the American people care about the people of Ukraine” and said his message to American diplomats in Ukraine would be the same he gives to those at other embassies.
“The message is very similar to every embassy that I get a chance to talk to when I travel,” he said. “I almost always meet with the team and tell them how much we love them, appreciate them, appreciate their family members and their sacrifice.”
He said he would “talk about the important work that the United States and Ukraine will continue to do together to fight corruption inside of that country and to ensure that America provides the support that the Ukrainian people need to ensure that they have a free and independent nation.”
Pompeo twice postponed earlier planned trips to Ukraine, most recently in early January when developments with Iran forced him to cancel. Pompeo said he plans to discuss the issue of corruption but demurred when asked if he would specifically raise the Bidens or the energy company Burisma, for which Hunter Biden worked.
“I don’t want to talk about particular individuals. It’s not worth it,” he told reporters. “It’s a long list in Ukraine of corrupt individuals and a long history there. And President Zelenskiy has told us he’s committed to it. The actions he’s taken so far demonstrate that, and I look forward to having a conversation about that with him as well.”
Pompeo traveled to Kyiv  from London, which was the first stop on a trip to Europe and Central Asia that will also take him to Belarus, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. 
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Democrats in Iowa are grappling with many issues as they weigh who to support in the Feb. 3 Iowa Caucuses, meetings where party voters choose their preferred candidate. As VOA’s Kane Farabaugh reports, it’s the first test for Democratic presidential hopefuls seeking to defeat Republican President Donald Trump in the November election, and comes during a time of low unemployment and a strong economy.
 
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Friday will be a crucial day in the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump.The trial in the Republican-majority U.S. Senate could end Friday with Trump’s expected acquittal on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.Or four Republicans could join 47 Democrats and independents in voting to allow witnesses to testify, including former National Security Adviser John Bolton, extending the trial for at least another week and maybe longer.But if the vote to hear witnesses ends in a 50-50 tie, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, the presiding judge, could cast a deciding vote. But that would be unprecedented in an impeachment trial, so no one is sure what will happen.The lead House impeachment manager, Democrat Adam Schiff, proposed hearing witnesses behind closed doors for no more than a week, saying that would let senators return to regular business.Republicans have indicated they do not want any witnesses subpoenaed, believing that would drag out the trial and that more evidence could hurt their case.Senators Susan Collins of Maine talks to reporters before attending the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, Jan. 28, 2020, on Capitol Hill in Washington.Will Senate call witnesses?Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell conceded earlier this week that he may not have the votes to prevent witnesses from being called. Several moderate Republicans have said they may be interested in hearing what Bolton has to say.One of them, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, said Thursday evening she would vote to allow witnesses. But Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, in a statement released shortly after Collins’ announcement, that there was “no need for more evidence.” In a yet-to-be-published book, Bolton said Trump told him he was withholding $391 million in military aid to Ukraine until President Volodymyr Zelenskiy publicly announced an investigation of former Vice President Joe Biden, a potential political rival of Trump’s in the 2020 presidential election.Democrats said reaching out to a foreign power to interfere in an election is an impeachable offense.White House deputy counsel Patrick Philbin answers a question during the impeachment trial against President Donald Trump in the Senate at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Jan. 30 2020.Trump’s defenseTrump’s lawyers say the president had the right to hold up the aid over concern for corruption in Ukraine and a demand that Europe do more to help Ukraine fight Russian-backed separatists.Trump’s defense team and the impeachment managers Thursday spent their second day answering questions from the senators, which were read by Roberts.Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., talks to reporters before attending the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, Jan. 28, 2020, on Capitol Hill in Washington.Roberts refused to ask a question handed in by Kentucky Republican Rand Paul because it reportedly would have identified the whistleblower, whose concern about Trump’s July phone call in which he asked Zelenskiy for a favor led to the president’s impeachment. Paul denied the question would have outed the whistleblower.Trump’s attorneys continued to argue that nothing the president did concerning Ukraine is impeachable.White House counsel Pat Cipollone said Democrats are trying to get rid of a president they don’t like, saying it is up to voters to decide whom they want.When Patrick Philbin, a Trump attorney, said the president’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, was only “a source of information” and not carrying out foreign policy in Ukraine, Schiff called that statement “breathtaking.”Schiff said the attorneys blew up their whole case by seeming to admit that Giuliani was in Ukraine on a personal political errand for Trump.Witnesses during the impeachment hearing testified that Giuliani was in Ukraine to pressure officials to investigate Biden for corruption even when no evidence against the former vice president ever surfaced.
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The first votes of the 2020 U.S. presidential election will be cast Monday, February 3, when the state of Iowa holds its first-in-the-nation caucuses. For the last 50 years, America’s political parties have used a series of caucuses and primary elections to determine their presidential nominee. VOA’s Steve Redisch explains the process.
 
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Attorney General William Barr on Thursday named Timothy Shea, one of his closest advisers, to be the next top prosecutor in the nation’s capital.Shea will lead the largest U.S. attorney’s office in the country, which has been historically responsible for some of the most significant and politically sensitive cases the Justice Department brings in the U.S.He is a senior counselor to the attorney general and was Barr’s right-hand man helping institute reforms at the federal Bureau of Prisons after Jeffrey Epstein’s death at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City.As the U.S. attorney in the District of Columbia, Shea would oversee some of the lingering cases from special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, along with a number of politically charged investigations. The office is also generally responsible for handling potential prosecutions if Congress finds a witness in contempt.FILE – Attorney General William Barr speaks to reporters at the Justice Department in Washington, Jan. 13, 2020.”Tim brings to this role extensive knowledge and expertise in law enforcement matters as well as an unwavering dedication to public service, reflected in his long and distinguished career in state and federal government,” Barr said in a statement. “His reputation as a fair prosecutor, skillful litigator, and excellent manager is second-to-none, and his commitment to fighting violent crime and the drug epidemic will greatly benefit the city of Washington.”Prosecutors from the U.S. attorney’s office had been investigating former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, a frequent target of President Donald Trump’s wrath, and the prospect of charges seemed likely in the fall after his lawyers failed to persuade senior Justice Department officials that he didn’t intentionally lie to internal investigators. Little has been said about the case in recent months.The position generally requires Senate confirmation, but the law also allows federal judges to vote to appoint a U.S. attorney after a 120-day window. That was the case with Geoffrey Berman, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan.Career highlightsShea, a Boston-area native who comes from a family of first responders, is widely seen as being able to bridge a gap between law enforcement officials and the community, especially in Washington. The office is unique because its 300 or so prosecutors have jurisdiction to prosecute both local and federal crimes in the nation’s capital.”He’s the definitive public servant,” said Jim Pasco, the executive director of the National Fraternal Order of Police. “He has a real reverence for the law and a real dedication to making communities safer.”Shea has served in a variety of roles in the Justice Department from working as a line prosecutor to being associate deputy attorney general. As an assistant U.S. attorney, he prosecuted violent crimes, fraud, public corruption and drug trafficking cases and he’s also led a task force that was responsible for investigating and prosecuting prison crimes and had also worked as a congressional staffer in the House and Senate.He was the chief counsel and staff director for the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which was chaired at the time by Sen. Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, and also worked on the staff of the House Appropriations Committee.Collins said in a statement that Shea “did an outstanding job leading in-depth investigations into issues ranging from consumer protection to government waste, fraud, and abuse.””With his decades of legal experience in both the private and public sectors, Tim has a wealth of knowledge that will serve him well in his new role,” she added.In the wake of Epstein’s death, Barr and Shea worked hand-in-hand to manage the crisis and investigation into the circumstances surrounding the wealthy financier’s death. Shea visited the jail days after Epstein’s suicide and helped advise the attorney general as Barr shook up the agency’s leadership, removing its acting director.FILE – Jessie Liu, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, speaks during a news conference at the Justice Department in Washington, Dec. 15, 2017.Predecessor Jessie LiuShea, who begins his new role on Feb. 3, replaces Jessie Liu, who has been nominated to become the undersecretary for terrorism and financial crimes at the Treasury Department, as the Trump administration imposes economic sanctions as a national security tool. The attorney general said Liu had “served with distinction” as U.S. attorney.Barr had nominated Liu to become the associate attorney general, the third-highest job in the department, overseeing civil litigation, but she withdrew from consideration after encountering opposition on the Republican-led Senate Judiciary Committee because of her past membership in a lawyers’ group that has supported abortion rights.Liu would be first U.S. attorney to assume the role at Treasury. When she was U.S. attorney, her office brought several sanctions-related cases and issued a warrant to seize an Iranian supertanker caught in a diplomatic standoff because of violations of U.S. sanctions, money laundering and terrorism statutes.
 
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