A Minneapolis carpenter whom the Associated Press exposed as a former Nazi commander — a charge his family fiercely denied — has died.According to a Hennepin County, Minnesota, death certificate, Michael Karkoc died last month in a nursing home at age 100.The Ukrainian-born Karkoc came to the United States after World War II in 1949 and led a modest life, working as a carpenter and worshipping at a Ukrainian Orthodox church.FILE – This undated file photo shows Michael Karkoc, which was part of his application for German citizenship filed with the Nazi SS-run immigration office on Feb. 14, 1940.A 2013 Associated Press investigation concluded that Karkoc commanded a Nazi-led Ukrainian military unit accused of committing atrocities against Polish civilians in 1944. Dozens of women and children were among the victims. The AP said Karkoc concealed his wartime activities from U.S. immigration officials.The AP said it relied on interviews, Nazi documents, and U.S. and Ukrainian intelligence files. It also looked at Karkoc’s own memoirs where he said he was a founder of what he called the Ukrainian Self Defense Legion — a group that collaborated with the Nazi SS to stave off communist forces.German prosecutors declined to extradite Karkoc, citing his age. But Polish prosecutors say a suspected Nazi war criminal’s age is no barrier to punishment. They announced in 2017 they would seek his arrest and extradition from the United States.Karkoc’s son strongly denied his father was a war criminal, calling him a Ukrainian patriot who fought to free Ukraine of both Nazi and communist rule. Andrij Karkoc called the AP report “evil, fabricated, intolerable and malicious.”But the top Nazi hunter at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Efraim Zuroff, said he regrets U.S. and Polish officials did not move fast enough to put Karkoc on trial.”He didn’t deserve the privilege of living in a great democracy like the United States,” Zuroff said.
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Month: January 2020
Burkina Faso to ‘Lightly’ Arm Citizens After Terrorists Kill 36
Burkina Faso’s Parliament voted Tuesday to provide local volunteers with “light weapons” after a terrorist attack on two villages left 32 civilians dead.No one has claimed responsibility for Monday’s attack that the government blames on a “terrorist group.””These repeated attacks on innocent civilians call for real cooperation between defense and security forces,” a government statement said, as it called for a “frank collaboration” between civilians and security forces.Suspected Islamic extremists attacked a market in the village of Nagraogo and burned it to the ground. Four others in Alamou village were also killed.Militant attacks in what had been a relatively peaceful Burkina Faso have surged in recent months as Islamic insurgents spill across the borders from neighboring Mali and Niger.
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Trump Hails Growing US-Pakistan Ties During Khan Meeting
President Donald Trump met Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday in Davos, on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum, and hailed the growing relationship between the United States and Pakistan. A post-meeting U.S. statement said the two leaders agreed to continue efforts to seek a lasting political settlement to the war in Afghanistan, America’s longest. It said the meeting also discussed, among other issues, ways to expand U.S.-Pakistan trade.”We’re getting along very well. I would say we’ve never been closer with Pakistan than we are right now,” Trump told reporters at the start of his meeting with Khan.This was the third interaction between the two leaders since Trump hosted Khan at the White House in July 2019, which underscores warming bilateral relations.”It’s great to be with a very good friend of mine, the Prime Minister of Pakistan,” Trump remarked.The progress in Pakistan’s long, close and turbulent relationship with the United States stems from Islamabad’s cooperation in facilitating Washington’s ongoing peace talks with the Taliban insurgency in neighboring Afghanistan.FILE – Members of the Taliban attend Intra Afghan Dialogue talks in the Qatari capital, Doha, July 8, 2019.”The main issue, of course, is Afghanistan, because it concerns the U.S. and Pakistan,” Khan stressed in his pre-meeting remarks to reporters. “And fortunately, we are on the same page. Both of us are interested in peace there and an orderly transition in Afghanistan with talks with the Taliban and the government.”The yearlong U.S.-Taliban dialogue is seeking an American troop withdrawal from the country in return for the insurgent group’s counterterrorism assurances and commitment to enter into intra-Afghan negotiations to permanently end years of hostilities in the countries. The two sides are believed to be on the verge of signing a peace deal.Trump offers help on KashmirWhile referring to escalation in tensions between Pakistan and India over their territorial Kashmir dispute, Trump said Tuesday he was ready to help the two South Asian nations, using his close ties with their leaders.
“We’re talking about Kashmir and the relation to what’s going on with Pakistan and India. And if we can help, we certainly will be helping,” Trump said. “And we’ve been watching that and following it very, very closely.”Khan welcomed Trump’s remarks, and described tensions with India as “a big issue” for Pakistan.”And of course, we always hope that the U.S. will play its part in resolving it, because no other country can,” he noted. FILE – An Indian Border Security Force soldier keeps vigil during patrol along the fenced border with Pakistan in Ranbir Singh Pura sector near Jammu, Feb. 26, 2019.In previous meetings with Khan, Trump had also offered his mediation, though they were swiftly rejected by India. New Delhi insists Kashmir is strictly a bilateral dispute with Islamabad and requires no third-party intervention. Bilateral tensions have dangerously escalated since early August when the Indian government unilaterally scrapped the special autonomous status for the two-third part of Kashmir it administers.New Delhi has since placed millions of Kashmiris under security restrictions coupled with a communication blockade to deter violent protests against its controversial actions. The measures have drawn international criticism of the Indian government.Islamabad, which administers the rest of the region, has rejected the Indian actions as a violation of International law. Pakistan says Kashmir is an internationally recognized disputed territory under decades-old United Nations Security Council resolutions, and neither country is authorized to alter the region’s status. The Kashmir dispute has sparked two of the three wars between India and Pakistan. It remains the primary source of regional tensions.
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Washington Man is 1st in US to Catch New Virus From China
The U.S. on Tuesday reported its first case of a new and potentially deadly virus circulating in China, saying a Washington state resident who returned last week from the outbreak’s epicenter was hospitalized near Seattle.The man, identified only as a Snohomish County resident is in his 30s, was in good condition and wasn’t considered a threat to medical staff or the public, health officials said.U.S. health officials stressed that they believe the virus’ overall risk to the American public remained low.The newly discovered virus has infected about 300 people, all of whom had been in China, and killed six. The virus can cause coughing, fever, breathing difficulty and pneumonia. The U.S. joins a growing list of places outside mainland China reporting cases, following Thailand, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.A health official watches travelers on a thermographic monitor at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Sepang, Malaysia, Jan. 21, 2020.Airports around the world have stepped up monitoring, checking passengers from China for signs of illness in hopes of containing the virus during the busy Lunar New Year travel season.Late last week, U.S. health officials began screening passengers from Wuhan in central China, where the outbreak began. The screening had been under way at three U.S. airports — New York City’s Kennedy airport and the Los Angeles and San Francisco airports. On Tuesday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced it would add Chicago’s O’Hare airport and Atlanta’s airport to the mix later this week.What’s more, officials will begin forcing all passengers from Wuhan to go to one of those five airports if they wish to enter the U.S.The U.S. resident had no symptoms when he arrived at the Seattle-Tacoma airport last Wednesday, but he contacted doctors on Sunday when he started feeling ill, officials said. Lab testing on Monday confirmed he had the virus”The gentleman right now is very healthy,” said Dr. Nancy Messonnier of the CDC.The hospital, Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett, said in a statement that it expected the man would be monitored there at least until Thursday.CDC officials said they sent a team to Washington to try to track down people who might have come in contact with the man. The hospital also said it was contacting “the small number of staff and patients” who may have been with the man at a clinic.Health officials described the number of possible contacts since he got back to the U.S. as small.China numbersLast month, doctors began seeing the new virus in people who got sick after spending time at a food market in Wuhan. More than 275 cases of the newly identified virus have been confirmed in China, most of them in Wuhan, according to the World Health Organization.Pharmacist Liu Zhuzhen stands near a sign reading “face masks are sold out” at her pharmacy in Shanghai, Jan. 21, 2020.The count includes six deaths — all in China, most of them age 60 or older, including at least some who had a previous medical condition.Officials have said it probably spread from animals to people, but this week Chinese officials said they’ve concluded it also can spread from person to person.Health authorities this month identified the germ behind the outbreak as a new type of coronavirus. Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses, some of which cause the common cold; others found in bats, camels and other animals have evolved into more severe illnesses.SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, belongs to the coronavirus family, but Chinese state media say the illness in Wuhan is different from coronaviruses that have been identified in the past. Earlier laboratory tests ruled out SARS and MERS — Middle East respiratory syndrome — as well as influenza, bird flu, adenovirus and other common lung-infecting germs.The new virus so far does not appear to be as deadly as SARS and MERS, but viruses can sometimes mutate to become more dangerous.Researcher: Don’t panicUniversity of Washington coronavirus researcher David Veesler said the public “should not be panicking right now.”The response has been “very efficient,” Veesler said. “In a couple of weeks, China was able to identify the virus, isolate it, sequence it and share that information.”Veesler added: “We don’t have enough data to judge how severe the disease is.”The CDC’s Messonnier said health officials expected to see more cases in the U.S. and around the world in the coming days.
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UN High-Level Panel Seeks Solutions to Problem of Internal Displacement
A high-level panel on internal displacement established by the U.N. Secretary-General said it will seek concrete long-term solutions to try to alleviate the plight of tens of millions of people internally displaced by conflict and natural disasters. The panel had its first brainstorming session Tuesday in preparation for the complex and challenging work that will get underway on Feb. 26. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has given the eight distinguished members of this high-level panel only one year to come up with a realistic plan to prevent displacement and mitigate its effects.Last year, the number of people internally displaced by conflict around the world reached a record high of more than 41 million. In the same year, the United Nations said 17 million other people were forced to move because of natural disasters and climate-related events.Former European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini arrives at the European Union leaders summit, in Brussels, Belgium, Oct. 17, 2019.Panel Co-Chair Federica Mogherini is the former European Commission high representative for foreign affairs and a seasoned politician. She said the panel will address the problem of displacement from many aspects. She said it will look for realistic, durable solutions and mobilize international support to help both the displaced and the countries hosting them.“The issue of internal displacement tends to be forgotten, while it is one of the major, not only humanitarian, but also, I would say, political crises that our times are seeing,” Mogherini said. “So, our first task will be to keep, or rather put this as high as possible on the agenda and try to provide some good advice on how this can be addressed.” Former African Development Bank President Donald Kaberuka speaks during the opening ceremony of the annual meeting commemorating the 50th anniversary of the African Development Bank in Abidjan, May 26, 2015.Co-Chair Donald Kaberuka is a former president of the African Development Bank Group and minister of Finance and Economic Planning in Rwanda. He said he hopes to bring his experience from the development world to find practical solutions to this problem.He told VOA it is not possible to separate development, environment and security — all elements involved in displacement. “We would be failing the secretary-general if we did not address the issue of climate impacts … I do not see any solution in the Sahel at the moment … unless it encompassed what we are saying,” Kaberuka said. “What is happening to climate … and how it has fallen into a social problem and now into a security problem. Those will have to be addressed together.” The panelists said they want a positive, productive outcome to their year-long deliberations. As such, they said they do not intend to point fingers of shame or dwell on governmental shortcomings. They will try to get states to work together to meet the needs of the displaced. They said they will try to avoid politicizing the issue. Rather, they will look at ways to help those forced to flee conflict and natural disasters live better under very difficult circumstances.
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US Urges China to Join Nuclear Arms Talks With Russia
The United States urged China on Tuesday to join trilateral nuclear arms talks with Moscow, calling Beijing’s secrecy around growing stockpiles a “serious threat to strategic stability.”U.S. President Donald Trump said last year he had discussed a new accord on limiting nuclear arms with Russian President Vladimir Putin and hoped to extend that to China in what would be a major deal between the globe’s top three atomic powers. But China has so far refused to take part.”We think, given the fact that China’s nuclear stockpile is estimated to double over the next ten years, now is the time to have that trilateral discussion,” Robert Wood, U.S. disarmament ambassador, told reporters on the opening day of the U.N.-backed Conference on Disarmament in Geneva.He said that Washington had discussed the potential trilateral talks in a security meeting with Russia last week and had reached an “understanding” about pursuing them. “We cannot afford to wait,” he added.Asked how to go about pressuring Beijing to join, Wood said that he hoped Russia, and others, would help. “Hopefully over time and through the influence of others besides the United States, they (China) will come to the table. We think it’s imperative for global security that the Chinese do that.”Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said last week that Russia would take part in potential trilateral talks but that he “won’t force China to change” its current position.China has previously said its weapons were the “lowest level” of its national security needs and not comparable to those of Russia and the United States.The United Nations is seeking the total elimination of nuclear arms but talks have been deadlocked for more than 20 years.Other talks between the five declared nuclear powers that have ratified the 1970 Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) – China, United States, Russia, France and the United Kingdom – are ongoing and a meeting is planned in London next month.However, Wood said this was not the right framework for nuclear arms talks with Beijing.In his speech, China’s disarmament Ambassador Li Song did not refer to its own nuclear stockpiles but called for cooperation among nuclear powers and made a thinly-veiled swipe at the Trump administration.Li called for a commitment to multilateralism, “with no exceptions, least of all the big power which shoulders a special responsibility for international peace and security and who is not expected to play the role of a ‘spoiler’ to our collective efforts and to withdraw from treaties.”
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Brazilian Prosecutors Accuse Glenn Greenwald in Hacking Case
Brazilian prosecutors on Tuesday accused U.S. journalist Glenn Greenwald of involvement in hacking the phones of officials involved in a corruption investigation, but said court rulings protecting free speech prevent them from bringing charges.A prosecutor in the Federal District, Wellington Divino Marques de Oliveira, said the journalist helped a group of six people who hacked into phones of hundreds local authorities.Greenwald’s The Intercept Brasil published excerpts from conversations involving Justice Minister Sérgio Moro, saying they showed the then-judge was improperly coordinating with prosecutors at the time he was a judge overseeing a vast corruption investigation. The probe led to the imprisonment of former President Luis Inácio Lula da Silva on corruption charges.While many Brazilians hail Moro as a hero, others believe he unfairly targeted da Silva and other top leftist figures. Moro is now a key member of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro’s cabinet.Greenwald’s attorneys said in a statement that the prosecutors’ allegations are “bizarre” and that they challenge the top court ruling protecting the journalist and freedom of press in Brazil.“Their objective is to disparage journalistic work,” the lawyers said.FILE – U.S. journalist Glenn Greenwald (L) walks with his partner David Miranda in Rio de Janeiro’s International Airport, August 19, 2013.Prosecutors said in a statement that an unreleased audio links Greenwald to the group of hackers as they broke the law, terming it “auxiliary participation in the crime” and saying he was “seeking to subvert the idea of protection of a journalistic source into immunity to guide criminals.”Brazil’s top court last year said that “the constitutional secrecy” around journalistic sources prevented the Brazilian state from using “coercive measures” against Greenwald. Because of that, a judge would have to authorize any attempt by prosecutors to formally investigate Greenwald or bring charges.Greenwald, an attorney-turned-journalist who lives in Brazil, has frequently come under criticism by Bolsonaro.Moro has not acknowledge the veracity of the reports by The Intercept Brasil, saying they come from “criminal invasion” of the phones of several prosecutors. Many others involved in the leaked messages or mentioned in them have confirmed their content.
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New Swarms of Locusts Threaten Crops, Food Security in Ethiopia
A new round of locust swarms has hit Ethiopia and is again threatening crops and food security, say agricultural officials.Dereje Hirpha, the Oromia region’s head of locust control, tells VOA’s Horn of Africa Service that the new generation of locusts was first reported weeks ago in the Raya district and has since spread across thousands of hectares in 40 districts of the region. The fast-moving swarm is threatening crops in a country where more than 80 percent of the population depends on agriculture for its livelihood. A similar locust wave hit Ethiopia a year ago. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has said it believes heavy rainfall in East Africa has contributed to the growth of locust swarms in the area.This new generation is arriving from Somaliland, while breeding has continued on both sides of the Red Sea, and in Sudan and Eritrea, according to experts.USAID plans to work with the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization to prevent and control the spread of locusts, its office of communication says. The agency is training more than 300 pest experts and providing 5,000 sets of protective equipment for locust fighters. Hirpha says authorities are spraying the affected areas from planes and vehicles on the ground to ward off the pests. Locals, meanwhile, are engaged in their own combat operation. When a locust swarm approaches, residents try to scare them away by blowing whistles, drumming empty buckets, setting fires, and shooting into the air. Locust chasers take position in green areas to disperse the swarms before the descend.
“From a distance the swarm looks like a brown cloud, a sandstorm,” says Sora Kura, one of the chasers in the Borana zone. A Samburu boy uses a wooden stick to try to swat a swarm of desert locusts filling the air, as he herds his camel near the village of Sissia, in Samburu county, Kenya, Jan. 16, 2020.The swarm follows the wind direction and is also guided by hairy antenna on their heads that detect smells and other signals of food, Hirpha says. According to the FAO, the swarms can move up to 150 kilometers per day. USAID says the swarms will likely spread next to southwest Ethiopia and northwestern Kenya, and may enter Uganda and South Sudan. Desert locust can comfortably live in a warm, sandy environment like Eastern Ethiopia and Somaliland, Hirpha says. Ethiopia has to report any assessment of the crops lost to the pests. In 2003 and 2005, locust outbreaks in more than 20 countries, mainly in North Africa, cost farmers $3.6 billion, according to the FAO.
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Five Terror Suspects Including American Await Trial in Kenya
A Kenyan court has allowed security agencies to hold five terror suspects arrested Saturday for allegedly casing a bar in Nairobi. The five include three Somali nationals, a U.S. citizen, and their Kenyan driver. Five suspects, one American, three Somali nationals, and their Kenyan driver, are awaiting their second appearance in a Kenyan court after they were arrested for of what authorities say is surveying an entertainment establishment in Nairobi.The five, Mohamed Abas Mohamud, Ifrah Mohamed Abshir, Mohamed Hassan Bario, Hodhan Abdi Ismail, and Mohamed Adan, made an initial court appearance Monday. Prosecutors asked for more time to conduct an investigation on the individuals.They were arrested Saturday at the Whiskey River Club in Nairobi. David Mbugua, the head of the security of the club, told VOA the suspects were present in the club.“They came around seven guys. They got their seats in different positions. So we started worrying why they couldn’t sit in one table and share their drinks,” said Mbugua. “Thereafter I called my guys and told them I am sensing something is not right here, and I sent some guys on different positions to keep an eye on what these guys are set to do. I saw one guy leaving, going behind the club and coming back to the seat, then going again at one time this fellow was just drinking a soda.”Mbugua says he called one of the suspects to his office, and when he couldn’t explain himself, he called authorities.“I gave a command take this fellow to the chamber for interrogation and then we interrogated this fellow,” said Mbugua. “He was telling us I have been to the U.S. I have been to Kenya. He doesn’t speak good Swahili, good English. I started wondering because a Kenyan will have a good Swahili, and an American will have a very good flowing English. I told the guy this is the fellow we are looking for. I kept him in custody, and then I communicated to security agencies, and that is it. They came for him.”Kenya security agencies say when they took the suspects in they found a military uniform.The U.S. citizen taken into custody claimed he had not been given an opportunity to contact an attorney.Abdinassir Adan is a human rights lawyer and has represented many terror suspects. He says the prosecution sometimes has relied on hearsay and many end up being freed.“Most of the time when there is this issue of terrorism surfaces, the most challenging beat is prosecution or the government tend to struggle to link the suspect with any terrorism because what they normally rely on is rumor, and they don’t have sufficient evidence to link the suspect with (the terror) the number of suspects to be convicted of terrorism are very minimal. Most of them are released,” said Adnan. In July 2019, a Tanzanian and two Kenyans were found guilty for their role in the 2015 Garissa University College gun attack that killed 147 people.Kenya has witnessed a wave of terror attacks in the past month, killing more than 20 people, but Kenyan authorities have occasionally released terror suspects after interrogating them for a few weeks.The al-Shabab terror group targets Kenya for its troop contribution to the African Union mission in Somalia that supports the Somali government.
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Senior al-Shabab Foreign Fighter Defects in Somalia
One of the most senior foreign fighters with Somali militant group al-Shabab says he has defected and is now in Mogadishu with the Somali government.Zubair al-Muhajir traveled from London to join the group in 2006. He rose through the ranks and ultimately became a member of al-Shabab’s Shura Council of religious scholars. Al-Muhajir, originally from Ivory Coast, told the VOA Somali program Investigative Dossier that he fell out with the group in 2013 when its Amniyat force arrested him and imprisoned him for three years. “I defected because al-Shabab, they are lying to the Muslims and to the world,” he said. “They are claiming to implement the Sharia (Islamic law) which is not true because I know from incidents where they went against the Sharia.”He says the group uses Sharia just to “betray the people, fool them, and lie to them.””The reality of their actions is totally against their Sharia – they are killing innocent people and they are lying to the people.”Investigative Dossier verified Zubair al-Muhajir’s identity and defection through Somali officials and previous al-Shabab defectors.In 2011, al-Muhajir was head of a committee appointed by al-Shabab to mediate a bitter dispute between the late leader Ahmed Abdi Godane and three other commanders – Ibrahim al-Afghani, Mukhtar Robow Abu Mansour and Fuad Mohamed Khalaf Shongole. Godane rejected his mediation efforts and the dispute led to the execution of al-Afghani in June 2013. Robow eventually defected while Shongole is still with al-Shabab. At the time, al-Shabab detained a number of other commanders and figures suspected of opposing Godane. Zubair al-Muhajir says he was one of the detained.Al-Muhajir says before his defection in October 2019, al-Shabab visited a small shop he ran in Galhareri and asked him to pay zakat. He said he told them he was ready to pay taxes but could not afford zakat, which is based on a certain amount of accumulated wealth.”I have an argument with about paying zakat and taxes,” he said. “I showed them that if they want to take taxes from me, I’m ready to give them the taxes but if they want zakat from me, I’m not among the people who pay the zakat.”The Somali government has an open amnesty program for those defecting from al-Shabab as long as they renounce violence and the ideology. Al-Muhajir says he first went to the African Union Mission based at the Mogadishu airport. He is now at a Somali government safe house. He says he is still waiting to hear from the government on what program they have for him.But Zubair al-Muhajir is clear on what he wants the Somali government to do.”They have to take the issue of al-Shabab seriously, otherwise they will still kill the innocent people and do it in the name of Sharia,” he said. “They have to take the fight with al-Shabab on the ideology side, because this is the side which is boosting al-Shabab. If the people realize that the ideology is wrong with Islamic proofs, I think al-Shabab will no longer be there for a long time.”
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UN Rights Panel Finds Climate Change Can be Cause for Asylum
A U.N. human rights panel has ruled for the first time that people fleeing the effects of climate change may be entitled to claim asylum, even as it dismissed an individual plaintiff’s case against his deportation from New Zealand.The U.N. Human Rights Committee published its ruling Tuesday in the case of a man from Kiribati who was sent back to the Pacific island nation after being denied asylum by New Zealand in 2015.
The Geneva-based panel, which monitors states’ compliance with the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, concluded that although the deportation was legal, similar cases might in future justify asylum claims.
The ruling has no immediate legal impact, but it is likely to be cited by people who say their rights are endangered by the impacts of climate change — such as violent storms and sea level rise.The plaintiff in the case, Ioane Teitiota, had argued that he and his family were threatened by the lack of fresh water and violent land disputes as the ocean encroaches on Kiribati. The panel concluded that he had failed to provide sufficient evidence for his claims and that while Kiribati is likely to become uninhabitable, there is still a chance the island’s government might avert this.Still, the committee’s 18 independent experts acknowledged that “environmental degradation, climate change and unsustainable development constitute some of the most pressing and serious threats to the ability of present and future generations to enjoy the right to life.”
“This ruling sets forth new standards that could facilitate the success of future climate change-related asylum claims,” committee member Yuval Shany said.
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Thai Opposition Party Survives Sedition Scare, But Threats Still Loom
Thailand’s Constitutional Court acquitted the country’s most vocal opposition party of sedition on Tuesday, sparing it an imminent death but setting the stage for its possible dissolution over a loan the party received in an alleged breach of election laws.The upstart Future Forward Party has been a cornerstone of Thailand’s opposition bloc in Parliament since finishing a strong third in national elections last March that returned 2014 coup leader Prayut Chan-ocha to power, ostensibly ending five years of military rule.Despite its junior role to the bloc’s larger Pheu Thai Party, it has been more brazen in challenging the military’s continued grip on power through its own proxy party, Palang Pracharath, and an appointed Senate.Natthaporn Toprayoon, a lawyer and former adviser to the Ombudsman of Thailand, filed a complaint last year accusing Future Forward of seeking to overthrow the monarchy, which the constitution places beyond reproach. To make his case, Natthaporn cited the party leaders’ speeches, the party’s regulations and even its logo — a triangle — which he likened to the symbol of the Illuminati, a supposed secret society bent on world domination.The party dismissed the allegations as politically motivated.Shortly after noon in Bangkok on Tuesday, the Constitutional Court announced that the evidence proffered could not support conviction.Calls for parties to join reform agendaGreeting a room full of cheering supporters at party headquarters a few hours later, Future Forward leader Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit struck a tone both conciliatory and defiant, inviting the parties in power to join its reform agenda.”We hope that if our bills [go] to the parliament, we would go beyond the opposition and the governing coalition line and work for the bills that benefit the people together,” he said.”Outside the Parliament, we will continue to campaign on the amendment of the 2017 constitution, because we believe that the Thai society as a whole needs to come sit down together and design what kind of country, what kind of Thailand, we would like to live [in] together.”Many Thais blame the political powers the military gave itself in the constitution it drafted while in power for tipping last year’s election in its favor.Heading into the verdict, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a political analyst and lecturer at Thailand’s Chulalongkorn University, said he expected Future Forward to survive the sedition charge given how thin the case appeared.The Constitutional Court, already bruised by its controversial handling of election complaints, would have been reluctant to dissolve the party on such flimsy grounds, he added, or to be seen dragging the monarchy into politics.But Thitinan said it was too soon for Future Forward to breathe easy, suspecting the sedition charge to be a mere “decoy” for a loan case against the party the Constitutional Court is due to decide on next, though no date has been set.Thanathorn, an auto parts billionaire, extended his young party a hefty line of credit to see it through last year’s campaign season, allegedly breaking laws on lending limits and funding sources in the process.Future Forward denies wrongdoing, and a pair of Election Commission subcommittees appeared to agree, according to local news reports citing leaked commission records. Responding to the leaks, the Election Commission said the subcommittees’ recommendations to drop the case were not binding and defended its decision to pursue the charge.”If the decision has been made to dissolve Future Forward because it represents a clear and present danger to the Prayut government … they will have to look for a case. And the loan case, I think they could fudge it easier than the Illuminati,” Thitinan said.’Case was more technical’Thammasat University political science professor Prajak Kongkirati agreed that the government was more likely to convict and dissolve Future Forward over the loans. He said the case was more “technical,” echoing the court’s conviction of Thanathorn in November for owning shares in a media company during the election campaign, costing him his seat in Parliament. Thanathorn denied the charge.With the party and its leaders still facing some 20 lawsuits between them, Future Forward remains squarely fixed in the government’s crosshairs.More than any other party in the opposition bloc, Thitinan said, “Future Forward has been calling the shots. [It] has been taking the government and the military to task without fear, and that’s why they are on the chopping block.”Government challenged by Future Forward partyThe party has taken the lead in challenging the government’s defense budget and in calling for an end to military conscription. Prajak said the party’s collective vote against an emergency decree in October to transfer two army units to the Royal Palace was another case in point.”It’s unthinkable,” he said. “No political analysts or observers [thought] that any party would dare to do that, but finally Future Forward did it. So, clearly they commit to what they [said] during the election campaign, that they want to change Thai society, they want to … reform the army, reduce the power of the army. And that is something that the army and Prayut could not tolerate.”At party headquarters, Thanathorn sounded hopeful that Future Forward would survive its coming court battles, as well. But the party has been preparing for its potential demise regardless, and with good reason. Thailand’s courts have dissolved three opposition parties since 2007.Future Forward announced plans weeks ago to set up a proxy party its lawmakers and supporters could jump to if and when it is dissolved.Prajak and Thitinan said the ruling coalition would likely manage to poach a few Future Forward lawmakers if that happens and bolster its razor thin majority in the House of Representatives. But they warned that it could also prove a springboard for more and larger protests demanding that the government step down.A pair of anti-government rallies in Bangkok drew several thousand people in late December and early January.
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Spain Declares Climate Emergency, Gets Climate Plan Ready
Spain’s new government declared a national climate emergency on Tuesday, taking a formal first step toward enacting ambitious measures to fight climate change.
The declaration approved by the Cabinet says the left-of-center Socialist government will send to parliament within 100 days its proposed climate legislation. The targets coincide with those of the European Union, including a reduction of net carbon emissions to zero by 2050.
Spain’s coalition government wants up to 95% of the Mediterranean country’s electricity to come from renewable sources by 2040. The plan also foresees eliminating pollution by buses and trucks and making farming carbon neutral.
Details of the plan are to be made public when the proposed legislation is sent to parliament for approval.
More than two dozen countries and scores of local and regional authorities have declared a climate emergency in recent years.
Scientists say the decade that just ended was by far the hottest ever measured on Earth, capped off by the second-warmest year on record.
Also Tuesday, young climate activists including Greta Thunberg told the elites gathered at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland they are not doing enough to deal with the climate emergency and warned them that time was running out.
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Polish Art Project Marks Sites of Vanished Jewish Cemeteries
An ethnologist and photographer are trying to recover a lost chapter of Poland’s past by marking the sites of now vanished Jewish cemeteries with transparent ‘headstones’ and taking photographs of them.The plexiglass installations bear laser-etched epitaphs in Hebrew to those believed to have been buried at the site.Poland was home to more than three million Jews before World War Two, one of the world’s largest Jewish communities, but the vast majority were killed by Nazi German occupiers who set up death camps such as Auschwitz on Polish soil.Next Monday world leaders including German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Israeli President Reuven Rivlin will join some of the dwindling number of survivors at Auschwitz to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the camp’s liberation.Ethnologist Katarzyna Kopecka and photographer Piotr Pawlak travel around Poland searching for the sites of former Jewish cemeteries in their ‘Currently Absent’ project.“This is a bit like bringing back roots that have been destroyed, but life is stronger than the entire attempt at destruction,” said Pawlak. “We can bring some memory back.”The POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw says on its website there are 1,164 Jewish cemeteries in Poland, but more than half of them have no tombstones left.Kopecka said they got the idea for the project after they discovered they were unwittingly sitting in an area that was actually a cemetery.“Whether it’s a field, or something else, these places are usually neglected,” said Kopecka, who plans to visit some 200 such sites with Pawlak for their project.DESCENDANTS’ INTERESTKopecka said they often work with local authorities to determine the site of a former cemetery, but even they sometimes cannot locate it, forcing her and Pawlak to rely on guesswork.The plexiglass installations are removed after they have been photographed.The pictures have been displayed in Poland’s parliament and in cultural centers around the country.“We have people contacting us whose ancestors were buried in these cemeteries and they ask when we’ll be going to a particular location,” Kopecka said.“They tell us the name of the place, they would like to obtain a photo because they’ve never been to Poland, and here rest their grandfathers, great-grandfathers, aunts and uncles.”The duo plan to publish a book of their photos and to make a documentary on the cemeteries which would also feature descendants of those buried there.
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Buckle Up: What to Watch as Impeachment Trial Takes Off
Senators like to float above messy politics in what’s known by some as the dignified upper chamber, home of Congress’ cooler heads and lofty rhetoric.
But as a court of President Donald Trump’s impeachment, the Senate beginning Tuesday might seem more like the economy cabin of an oversold flight on an especially tense, mandatory work trip.
Rock star legal teams will cram the airy well of the chamber just a few feet from each other and Chief Justice John Roberts. Four television screens take up rarified space. Staff will snap up seats near the wall. A podium stands at the center aisle.
As for phones, it’s worse than airplane mode: They are banned from the chamber. That maroons 100 chatty senators – including four Democrats in the heat of a nomination fight – for the serious constitutional business of the impeachment trial, for hours at a time.
“I’m going to be stuck in Washington for God knows how long,” Sen. Bernie Sanders told supporters in Des Moines Monday night.
What – and whom – to watch when the trial gets underway around 1 p.m. EST Tuesday:GROUND RULES
But first, naturally, some talk from senators.
The Senate opens with debate on the structure and rules of the proceedings. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is proposing a condensed, two-day calendar for opening arguments on the articles passed by the House on Dec. 18. They charge Trump with abusing power by pressuring Ukraine to help him politically, and obstructing Congress when it tried to find out what happened.
McConnell’s ground rules are outlined in a four-page resolution that must be voted on as one of the first orders of business. It pushes off any votes on witnesses until later in the process, rather than up front, as Democrats had demanded. But McConnell’s plan on witnesses lines up with the organizing resolution that set the structure of President Bill Clinton’s trial in 1999.DRAWING THE CURTAIN
“At all times,” according to Senate rules, a majority of senators present can vote to close the proceedings and debate in private. That would mean the cameras shut off and everyone who’s not a member of the Senate kicked out of the chamber until the senators choose to reopen it.
Senators did that at various points during the Clinton trial. McConnell then argued that members of the chamber listen to each other better in private.U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell speaks to Capitol Hill reporters following the weekly Senate Republican policy lunch at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Jan. 14, 2020.A LONG HAUL
McConnell, defending his GOP majority and up for reelection himself, wants to make this trial go quickly. It still will take some time.
After the four days of opening arguments – maximum 24 hours per side – senators will be allowed up to 16 hours for questions to the prosecution and defense, followed by four hours of debate. Only then will there be votes on calling other witnesses.
Senate rules say the trial must proceed six days a week – all but Sunday – until it is resolved.
There’s some question about whether it’s finished by Feb. 4, the day of Trump’s State of the Union speech. White House officials say that appointment remains, as of now. Trump can ask the House to postpone it.
But here again, there’s precedent for Trump to consider: Clinton delivered his State of the Union speech in the midst of his Senate trial. He wasn’t running for reelection, however, as Trump is.
Democratic presidential candidates US. Sen. Bernie Sanders, left, I-Vt. and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, right, D-Mass., shake hands as U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, center, D-Hawaii, watches at a Martin Luther King Jr. Day services at Zion Baptist Church,…OFF THE TRAIL, OFF THE GRID
Watch a coterie of Democratic senators who literally would rather be somewhere else – specifically Iowa and New Hampshire – ahead of their party’s kickoff votes for the right to try to unseat Trump in the November election.
Watch Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Michael Bennet of Colorado and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota for signs of fatigue from flying between Washington and these places and coping with being off the internet for hours at a time.
Also look for the surrogates, video calls to supporters and ads designed to give them a measure of presence in the early nominating states.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., speaks during a news conference to announce impeachment managers on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2020. With Pelosi from left are Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., Rep. Sylvia Garcia, D-Texas,…THE PROSECUTORS
They could be heard practicing speeches in the shuttered Senate chamber late into Monday night.
Leading the case for the House is Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff of California and Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler of New York. Five other Democrats round out the prosecution team, a group House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she chose in part for their experience with the law.
Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., has worked on three impeachment inquiries, starting with the one that helped persuade President Richard Nixon to resign. Rep. Val Demings of Florida is not a lawyer, but she is a former police chief and a member of both committees deeply familiar with the case against Trump. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries is a lawyer and chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, so he’s close to Pelosi’s ranks.
Pelosi also chose two freshmen who helped flip the House from GOP control in 2018. Rep. Sylvia Garcia of Texas is a former judge. And Rep. Jason Crow of Colorado is a retired Army Ranger who was one of the seven new members with national security backgrounds to call for Trump’s impeachment over his conduct with Ukraine.
FILE – White House Counsel Pat Cipollone is seen during a meeting with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House, in Washington, Nov. 14, 2019.FOR THE PRESIDENT
Trump cast some big personalities for seats at the defense table.
White House counsel Pat Cipollone and personal lawyer Jay Sekulow are expected to lead the argument that Trump committed no crimes, that abuse of power is not an impeachable offense and that the president is a victim of a political “witch hunt” by Democrats.
Bringing experience both in constitutional law and the politics of impeachment, he’s adding retired law professor Alan Dershowitz and Ken Starr, the independent counsel who investigated Clinton. The team also will include Pam Bondi, the former Florida attorney general.
The team, less experienced in the Senate than the House prosecutors as a whole, visited the Senate chamber Monday, in part to test the equipment they expect to use for audio-visual presentations.
Look for signs of tension involving the president’s outside legal team and lawyers within the White House. Dershowitz on Sunday tried to distance himself from the president.THE NUMBERS100: The total number of senators.53: The Republican majority.51: The number of senators who must agree on almost anything to make it happen during an impeachment trial.Four: The number of Republican senators who must join Democrats to get to the magical 51.2/3: The proportion of senators required to convict and remove a president from office. So 67 members of the Senate would have to vote to convict if every senator is voting.FILE – Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, talks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington.THE GANG
Both sides will be keeping tabs on the Senate’s moderates for an emerging gang of three to four who could influence the outcome on such matters as whether to subpoena former national security adviser John Bolton. That vote won’t be taken for days if not weeks.
Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine has been meeting with a small number of GOP colleagues who want to consider witness testimony and documents that weren’t part of the House impeachment investigation. Watch GOP Sens. Mitt Romney of Utah, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska for signs of whether this group can stick together and force the Senate to consider additional material.
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Death Toll up to 10 in Ethiopia Platform Collapse; 250 Hurt
Regional officials in Ethiopia on Tuesday confirmed 10 deaths and 250 people injured after a wooden platform collapsed during a religious event the day before.Thousands of people attended the colorful Epiphany celebration known as Timkat in the northern city of Gondar.”Ten people have lost their lives,” the Ethiopian Press Agency quoted the city’s police chief, Ayalew Teklu, as saying. “Thirteen people have sustained serious injuries, including four members of the security services.”Ashenafi Tazebew with Gondar University Hospital said more than 250 people had received medical care. Some 80 people remained at the hospital, Ashenafi said.The collapse occurred inside the Emperor Fasilides Bath in the city where several thousand Ethiopians and tourists attended the celebration commemorating the baptism of Jesus.The Ethiopian News Agency reported that more than 15,000 foreigners attended the event in Gondar.UNESCO late last year added Ethiopia’s Epiphany festivities to its list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, which attracted more attendees.
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Challenges for Public Following Impeachment, Weinstein Cases
Americans who want to follow President Donald Trump’s impeachment saga and Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein’s rape trial through the media will sit in obstructed seats.Both events begin in earnest this week — with Senate arguments over Trump’s impeachment beginning Tuesday and opening statements in the Weinstein case Wednesday. Both have been the subject of behind-the-scenes wrangling over media access.Far from an esoteric exercise, the limited media access affects what the public is able to see and, just as importantly, who controls the narrative.C-SPAN, joined by the other major television networks, objects to the Senate’s plan to essentially allow only two camera views of the impeachment trial from the Senate floor. One would focus on whoever is speaking at the time and the other would be a wider shot of the Senate itself, said Terry Murphy, C-SPAN’s vice president of programming, on Monday.More camera shots are generally permitted during special events, but not in this case, he said.It means, for example, that pictures of how individual senators are reacting to testimony, what groups gather together for informal confabs, or any demonstrations that may take place will generally go missing. The Senate will be the arbiter of what pictures go out, Murphy said.“The citizen who gets to sit in the gallery gets a lot better view than the person sitting inside the living room at home,” Murphy said. “All we ask is that the person watching from home get the same view.”Restrictions on reporters who sit in the press gallery, including having to go through metal detectors to enter and not being allowed to transmit messages electronically while there, may minimize the immediate value of having those eyes on sight.“Can anyone name a time when free flow of information is more important than when impeachment is the issue and the nation is bitterly divided?” said Tom Bettag, a veteran news producer who now teaches journalism at the University of Maryland. “For any one side to try to control the news can only inflame the situation.”Typically, reporters have generous access to politicians in the hallways outside. Most senators are keen to talk, although the reaction of Arizona Sen. Martha McSally last week, who called CNN’s Manu Raju a “liberal hack” when he tried to ask her a question, illustrate these are fraught times.For the public and politicians, information gleaned from these conversations can fill in the blanks about what is happening behind the scenes and how testimony was being taken.So journalists were alarmed when initial rules were put in place that would pen in reporters directly outside the Senate chamber and chill attempts at conversations. There’s been some progress loosening those rules; reporters were assured Monday that Capitol police would no longer try to break up any interviews they saw in Capitol hallways, as happened late last week, said Sarah Wire, a reporter for the Los Angeles Times and chair of the Standing Committee on Correspondents, which is responsible for credentialing reporters.“It is one of the most important moments in American history,” Wire said. “Having reporters speak to senators is important, and not just the senators who choose to speak to reporters.”Christopher Isham, Washington bureau chief for CBS News, said discussions are “still fairly fluid” in terms of making it easier for senators who want to talk. He’s optimistic that the public will ultimately have roughly the same access to the impeachment trial through the media as it did for President Bill Clinton’s trial.A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell did not immediately return a message seeking comment.The American Civil Liberties Union, which together with several other groups sent a letter to the Senate last week, urged the leaders not to slide back to 20th Century technology at a time more can be done to let the public know what the politicians are up to.Bettag, once executive producer at ABC’s “Nightline,” said any differences in news coverage of the impeachment trial caused by media restrictions is likely to be so subtle that most viewers won’t notice. But it’s important for news organizations to fight them, since without that things are likely to tighten even further in the future.Cable news networks CNN, Fox News Channel and MSNBC are expected to cover every minute of the impeachment trial, mirroring coverage of the House hearings. ABC, CBS and NBC will also have extensive coverage but haven’t committed to showing each minute of the hearings.By comparison, the much-anticipated Weinstein trial will be much harder for the public to follow. The once-powerful Hollywood producer, whose behavior gave rise to the (hash)MeToo movement, is on trial in a New York courtroom on charges that he raped a woman in a hotel room in 2013 and forced oral sex on another in 2006.New York state courts infrequently allow or are equipped to provide television coverage, and despite efforts by Court TV, state Supreme Court Justice James Burke is not permitting cameras in this case. Any depiction of Weinstein listening to testimony in the trial will come from sketch artists.Reporters permitted in the courtroom will not be allowed to have phones or any recording devices; they won’t be allowed to text, tweet or email anything to the outside world, according to rules issued by Burke.News organizations have also been unsuccessfully pushing for an “overflow” room at the state Supreme Court, which would allow more reporters room on site.
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China Sentences Ex- Interpol Boss to 13 Years for Bribes
China has sentenced the former president of Interpol, Meng Hongwei, to 13 years and six months in prison on charges of accepting more than $2 million in bribes.
Meng was elected president of the international police organization in 2016, but his four-year term was cut short when he vanished after traveling to China from France in late 2018.
Interpol was not informed and was forced to make a formal request to China for information about Meng’s whereabouts amid suspicion he had fallen out of political favor with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Meng’s wife, who remains in France with their two children, has accused Chinese authorities of lying and questioned whether her husband was still alive.
Grace Meng is now suing Interpol, accusing it of failing to protect him from arrest in China and failing to look after his family. Meng’s lawyers last year filed a legal complaint in the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, Netherlands.
In a statement sent to The Associated Press, she said Interpol “breached its obligations owed to my family” and “is complicit in the internationally wrongful acts of its member country, China.”
A statement Tuesday from the No. 1 Intermediary Court in the northern city of Tianjin said Meng accepted the verdict and would not appeal. In addition to his prison sentence, he was fined 2 million yuan ($290.000) .
It said Meng, 66, admitted he abused his position to accept 14.4 million yuan ($2.1 million) in bribes while serving in various offices, including as a vice minister of public security and maritime police chief, often in exchange for favors and using his influence with other officials.
Meng has already been fired from his positions and expelled from the Communist Party. The relatively light sentence was likely a result of what the court called his cooperative attitude and willingness to admit to and shore remorse for his crimes.
While serving at Interpol, Meng retained his title as China’s vice minister of public security. It wasn’t clear when or how he had crossed Xi, who has leveraged a wide-ranging campaign against corruption at all levels to eliminate or intimidate political rivals.
As a long-serving vice minister of public security, Meng served for a time under Zhou Yongkang, the former security chief who was sentenced to life in prison, becoming the most powerful figure to fall in Xi’s anti-graft campaign.
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Ethiopians Look for Love During Orthodox Epiphany Celebration
Getahun Fetana spent years admiring Emebet Melaku from a distance before plucking up the nerve to speak to her, taking advantage of a chance encounter during Timkat, the Ethiopian Orthodox celebration of epiphany.Breaking off from his friends, the 37-year-old professor walked over to introduce himself, and the sparks that flew led to their wedding on the very same holiday one year later.”We got married on Timkat because we wanted to remember it as a breakthrough in our relationship,” Getahun told AFP. “The day has a special place in our hearts.” It is far from the only Ethiopian love story closely bound up with Timkat, which Orthodox Christians celebrated Monday with feasts and elaborate processions across the country.The holiday, which commemorates the baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan, was marred this year by the collapse of a wooden seating structure during a pivotal ceremony in the northern Ethiopian city of Gondar, an accident that left at least 10 people dead. But it is generally a sunny and joyous affair — and one that offers a choice meeting ground for young singles on the hunt for romance.Multiple factors make Timkat ideal for finding a partner, said Aschalew Worku, the top tourism official in Gondar.First, the holiday comes at the height of wedding season, meaning love is already in the air.The fact that it’s also the dry season means the country’s roads are in good shape, making it easier to travel and meet new people.Finally, worshippers don their finest traditional clothing on Timkat, including pristine white robes and tunics accented with the greens, reds and yellows of the Ethiopian flag. There’s even a saying — “Let a dress not meant for Timkat be shredded” — suggesting that Timkat clothes are the only ones worth keeping. “Everyone is dressed to impress,” Aschalew said. “Everyone attends Timkat clean and fresh, and this creates an opportunity for dating.”Courtship customsThe most famous Timkat celebrations take place each year in Gondar, the former seat of the royal empire located 700 kilometres (435 miles) north of the capital, Addis Ababa. Before dawn on Monday, thousands of people gathered at stone baths constructed during the reign of 17th-century Emperor Fasilides. The ceremony during which the seating area collapsed — in which worshippers dive into holy water to recreate Jesus’ baptism — was meant to cap a weekend-long traditional celebration that last month was inscribed on UNESCO’s list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.For many young people, though, the main event came the day before, as tens of thousands of Ethiopians and foreign tourists marched alongside priests carrying cloaked tabots — replicas of the Ark of the Covenant — amid a riot of song, dance and prayer. This is when young men and women have typically sparked up conversations that can lead to relationships. One Timkat custom calls for young men to throw lemons at women they find attractive, aiming for the heart to signal their intentions.But while lemon-throwing is still common in rural areas, it is increasingly out of fashion in Ethiopia’s fast-growing cities.A common joke in Gondar is that instead of throwing lemons at their crushes, young men today would do better to throw iPhones. ‘Back to our old ways’ For Aschalew, the tourism official, this reflects a broader shift away from traditional dating habits, as Ethiopian youth explore new ways to meet partners. “These days there are plenty of platforms for dating. People meet at the workplace or in school, and technological advancements mean they can meet on Facebook,” he said. Aschalew described this as an “acceptable” result of modernity, but some Gondar residents told AFP they believed the old customs should be revived. “People who find their spouse on Timkat are getting a gift from God,” said Rahel Mola, a 37-year-old Gondar native.She was celebrating with her daughter, 20-year-old Katim Tewodrose, who bemoaned the fact that no boys had thrown lemons at her. “It’s our tradition and I don’t think it’s practiced anywhere else, so I’m patiently waiting for someone to throw a lemon at me,” Katim said. Their nostalgia was shared by Tariku Munye, 33, who took part in Sunday’s procession.”Our elders used to embrace Timkat dating, but now we have gotten away from it. I think we need to go back to our old ways,” he told AFP.”You never know,” he added, “you could find your destiny here.”
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N. Korea’s New ‘Blunt’ Foreign Minister May Reinforce Foreign Policy Realignment
North Korea has appointed a former military officer with a blunt-speaking reputation to be the country’s new foreign minister, the latest evidence Pyongyang may be realigning its foreign policy after apparently losing hope in nuclear talks. North Korea has notified foreign embassies in Pyongyang that Ri Son Gwon has been named as foreign minister, a diplomatic source confirmed to VOA. The story was first reported by NK News, a Seoul-based online publication with contacts in North Korea. The move comes as North Korea continues to boycott nuclear talks, amid frustrations Washington has not offered enough concessions. The appointment of Ri as foreign minister may be the latest evidence North Korea will take a hardline approach in 2020.A former army colonel, Ri has relatively little diplomatic experience and apparently no history working on nuclear issues. Most recently, he was the chairman of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Country, which handles relations with the South. He has led North Korean delegations for inter-Korean talks, including in 2018. During those talks, Ri gained a reputation for straightforward and sometimes standoffish behavior, according to South Korean media reports.FILE – The head of the North Korean delegation Ri Son Gwon, center, is greeted by an unidentified South Korean official as Ri crosses to the South side for the meeting with South Korea at Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone, Oct. 15, 2018.Policy still dictated by KimHowever, many analysts cautioned against reading too much into Ri’s reputation or background.”North Korean diplomats can be both blunt or charming, depending on the situation. So his reported bluntness is secondary” to whatever message North Korea wants him to convey, says Ramon Pacheco Pardo, a Korea specialist who teaches at King’s College London.”Policy decisions will still come from Kim Jong Un, not from the foreign minister. So in terms of substance, it does not matter much who is the foreign minister,” he adds. Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul, agrees that the new foreign minister’s past experience and policy positions are “less important than what he is empowered to do by the Kim regime.”Will he be entrusted with restarting denuclearization talks with Washington and inter-Korean exchanges with Seoul? Or will it be his job to stonewall [U.S. Secretary of State Mike] Pompeo and [U.S. North Korea envoy Stephen] Biegun while overseeing a pressure campaign including the demolition of South Korean-built tourism facilities at Mt. Kumgang? Recent signs from North Korea are not encouraging,” Easley said. North Korea has not formally announced Ri as new foreign minister. It is not clear what happened to his predecessor, Ri Yong Ho, a career diplomat who served in the position for about four years. Some analysts have suggested that Kim may be reprimanding Ri for the failed nuclear talks.”I agree that it’s a way to show displeasure with the lack of progress,” says Pacheco Pardo. “If there was a deal, I don’t think we would have seen the changes in personnel.” Stalled talksKim Jong Un had set an end-of-year deadline for the U.S. to make a new offer in nuclear talks. After the deadline passed without any U.S. concessions, many analysts had expected him to lay out a starker “new path” for his country. But Kim’s New Year’s comments were more pessimistic than provocative. Kim warned of a “long-term” standoff with the U.S. and said he no longer felt bound by his self-imposed suspension of nuclear and long-range missile tests. But he also did not rule out talks altogether. Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump have met three times. In June 2018, they signed a vague agreement to work toward the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. The talks have been stalled since February 2019, when a Hanoi summit between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump ended abruptly in no deal. There are signs that the Trump-Kim diplomacy has reached its limit. Earlier this month, a North Korea foreign ministry official said that while the two men’s relationship remains “not bad,” talks would not resume unless the United States first unconditionally accepts the North’s demands.
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Indonesia Fights Growing Pressure from China to Let it Use Use Disputed Waters
China is raising pressure on Indonesia over rights to use a contested tract of sea and challenging the militarily weaker Southeast Asian country to consider options from friendly dialogue to strong protests.
Indonesia spotted as many as 63 “trespassing” Chinese vessels in 30 locations within its maritime exclusive economic zone last month, the research platform East Asia Forum says in a January 15 report. Another spate followed in early January. Chinese coast guard vessels had escorted some, media reports from Jakarta say.
Though not a first between the two big Asian countries, this escalation near Indonesia’s Natuna Islands raises the specter of a new flash point in a normally quiet part of the broader, heavily disputed South China Sea.”On the Indonesian side, I think that there’s a growing sense at the security level that China is becoming a more problematic actor,” said Stephen Nagy, a senior associate professor of politics and international studies at International Christian University in Tokyo.
China may hope Indonesia will bargain over the tract of sea that’s near the 272 tiny Natuna islands northwest of Borneo, possibly in exchange for economic aid, Asia scholars say.
But if Indonesia fears talks would validate China’s claim, it might instead make diplomatic protests instead or get help from powerful Western-allied countries that already resent China’s maritime expansion.”I think you’ll see a lot more of China pushing not just on us but on Malaysia, Vietnam, Philippines and others through incursions and get us to eventually acknowledge their right to a negotiation, and I think this is why we’re still very much resisting the notion that we should come and talk to the Chinese about this,” said Evan Laksamana, senior researcher for the Centre for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Jakarta.”And I think China also doesn’t want to make (the coordinates of its claim) that clear yet, so that’s why these are kind of gradual, low-level incursions, that of course I think will escalate if Indonesia doesn’t respond strongly and forcefully and provide actual diplomatic protest notes so that under international law we always challenge China’s incursions,” Laksamana said.South China Sea Territorial Claims
China vies separately with Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan, Vietnam and the Philippines over parts of the 3.5 million-square-kilometer South China Sea north of the Natuna Islands. China uses a nine-dash line, sourcing it to maritime records from dynastic times, to claim about 90% of the waterway that multiple countries value for its fisheries and undersea fossil fuel reserves. The nine dashes cut into the Indonesian exclusive economic zone, or EEZ.
Indonesia and China are in a new phase of testing each other’s bottom line, said Oh Ei Sun, senior fellow with the Singapore Institute of International Affairs. Competing ship movements will continue “for a while”, he believes. “In recent years, I think both China and Indonesia came to the realization that the Natuna Island EEZ and nine-dash line, they do intersect one another, so they are literally testing the water now,” Oh said.
Friction between the two sides dates back to 2016, when Indonesian President Joko Widodo showed signs of taking a harder line in the maritime dispute compared to his predecessors.Authorities in his government have burned dozens of foreign fishing boats found in the EEZ. Vessels from the two countries entered a standoff in 2016 when Indonesian authorities tried to arrest a private boat operator but a Chinese coast guard vessel intervened. Indonesia said then that China had officially included waters near the Natuna Islands on a territorial map. Two years later Indonesia opened a Natuna Islands military base for up to 1,000 personnel.
China hinted this month that the two sides should talk. “I can tell you that China and Indonesia have always carried out dialogue through diplomatic channels,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told a news briefing January 7 as quoted on his ministry’s website. “We believe the Indonesian side also can see the issue from the vantage of bilateral relations and regional stability and resolve disputes with the Chinese side.”
China often offers aid and investment to ease rifts with smaller countries. Before Widodo took office in 2014, Indonesia normally said little about Chinese vessels near the Natuna Islands. China had invested in Indonesia’s infrastructure and bought oil from its palm plantations. Indonesian officials today have been cautious on any deals to accept infrastructure aid under Beijing’s $1 trillion, Belt and Road Initiative aimed at building trade routes across Asia.
Indonesia indicated it would assert its maritime claim without dialogue.Maritime and Fisheries Minister Edhy Prabowo made a working visit January 15 to the Natuna Islands “in order to follow up President Jokowi’s instructions that Indonesian sovereignty is not negotiable,” according to a statement on the ministry’s website. Jokowi is the president’s nickname.
Indonesia protested diplomatically over the December ship movements and China replied that it had rights to use those waters.
Jakarta might look to Australia, Japan and the United States for help such as “capacity building”, Nagy said. Eventually, he said, nothing will be settled. That way China can show it’s not being influenced by smaller countries and Indonesian people won’t see their government as a pushover, he said.
China would avoid any moves that might incite anger among Indonesian people, the source of deadly anti-Chinese riots in 1998, Nagy added.
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South Korea Naval Unit to Expand Operations to Strait of Hormuz
A South Korean anti-piracy unit has temporarily expanded its mission to the Strait of Hormuz, a vital global oil route at the center of soaring tensions between Iran and the United States.South Korea’s Defense Ministry announced the expansion Tuesday, saying it was meant to help ensure the safe passage of South Korean vessels and nationals through the waterway. South Korea has conducted anti-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden since 2009 and is expanding to the strait that connects the Gulf of Oman and Persian Gulf. Tensions in waters around the Arabian Peninsula have soared since President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal and a U.S. airstrike earlier this month killed Iran’s top general.Iran was accused of sabotaging oil tankers in the Persian Gulf last year, allegations it denied. It seized a British-flagged oil tanker after an Iranian oil tanker was seized by authorities in Gibraltar over suspected sanctions violations. Both ships were released weeks later. The United States last week warned of threats to commercial vessels in and around the Persian Gulf following the latest tensions.The South Korean ministry’s statement said the unit will work independently but cooperate with a U.S.-led coalition if necessary. It said two South Korean soldiers will be liaison officers at the International Maritime Security Construct headquarters. Observers say the decision suggested South Korea considered both its relations with Iran and chief ally United States, which has asked it for a contribution to help guard oil tankers.The South Korean naval unit refers to a 4,400-ton-class destroyer with 300 troops and a helicopter, according to the navy. According to the statement, the Strait of Hormuz is a shipping lane for more than 70 percent of South Korean oil imports and South Korean vessels sail through the area about 900 times annually. It said about 25,000 South Korean nationals live in the Middle East.
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Tens of Thousands Lobby in Support of Second Amendment
A gun rally in a state south of Washington, DC, had officials on high alert as they worried about violence between gun rights advocates and anti-gun forces. Tens of thousands turned out for the annual lobbying day at the Virginia State Capitol in support of the Second Amendment to the US Constitution. VOA’s Carolyn Presutti takes us to the streets of Richmond, Virginia to show us what it looked and sounded like.
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Number of New Virus Infections Triples in China
The number of people infected with a new strain of coronavirus in China tripled over the weekend and is spreading from Wuhan to other major cities. The new cases of pneumonia-like illness caused by the virus has been detected in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen. Scientists have also confirmed that the virus can be spread from human to human, which is bad news for China as it prepares for the Spring Holiday which is the busiest travel season. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke has more.
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