Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called on Europe to support its work in Libya, where it is providing military support to the internationally recognized government, if it wants to end the conflict there. Erdogan made his remarks in a column published on the Politico website on Saturday, ahead of a summit in Berlin on Sunday that will try to stabilize the country. At the meeting, Germany and the United Nations will push rival Libyan camps fighting over the capital, Tripoli, to agree to a truce and monitoring mechanism as first steps toward peace, diplomats and a draft communique said. Turkey supports the government of Fayez al-Serraj in Tripoli and describes Khalifa Haftar, who heads the eastern Libyan National Army (LNA), as a coup plotter. “Keeping in mind that Europe is less interested in providing military support to Libya, the obvious choice is to work with Turkey, which has already promised military assistance,” Erdogan wrote. “We will train Libya’s security forces and help them combat terrorism, human trafficking and other serious threats against international security,” he added. Conversation with MerkelAs the summit loomed, the Turkish president spoke by phone with its host, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, to discuss developments in Libya and the region, Erdogan’s office said. In a sign of tensions surrounding the Libyan issue, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu criticised Greece for hosting Haftar ahead of the summit in a tweet directed at Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias. “Inviting Haftar to Greece and highlighting Greek national agenda sabotage the efforts to bring peace to Libya. We would like to remind our Greek friends that these futile efforts are in vain. @NikosDendias,” Cavusoglu wrote. Sunday’s summit will put pressure on Haftar and the LNA to halt a nine-month offensive against Tripoli after a weeklong lull in fighting. But it will not try to broker power-sharing between the two sides, said diplomats briefed on preparations.
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Month: January 2020
Cameroon Teachers Protest, Seek Reinstatement of Corporal Punishment Amid Rising Violence
Cameroon teachers are protesting what they say is growing violence against them by both students and their parents, and the teachers are urging the government to protect them and reinstate corporal punishment. The teachers say the absence of corporal punishment is encouraging abuse of teachers. This week, several attacks on teaching staffs were reported, including one in which a teenage student fatally stabbed his teacher, in the capital.Students shout Saturday at a government-run school in Obala, a town on the outskirts of Cameroon’s capital, Yaounde, protesting the principal’s decision to destroy all mobile phones and knives seized from children Friday at the school. One of their senior discipline masters, Narcisse Ateba, says the students use mobile phones to access social media platforms that promote violence, and they also use sharp objects such as knives to attack their peers and teachers.Cameroon Teachers Protest Escalating Violence in Separatist Areas
As students in Cameroon began their annual exams Monday, hundreds of their teachers in English-speaking regions were on the streets protesting. The teachers are demanding better security after three teachers and a student were abducted, adding to scores captured, killed, or whose property was torched during a two-year separatist conflict.Teachers dressed in dark clothes and holding signs demanding better security walk down a street in Bamenda, the capital of Cameroon’s northwest region.
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He says that some parents and students will want to harass or beat him up, but he has nonetheless decided to publicly destroy the 15 mobile phones found and seized by teachers from students Friday because it is illegal to use them in classrooms. He says he will not allow students to come to school with razor blades, box-cutters and knives.The destruction of the mobile phones and the peaceful marches to administrative offices and palaces are part of protests by teachers at Obala against what they say are increasing acts of violence against them.This week, a 16-year-old student at the public school Nkolbisson in a neighborhood in Yaounde is accused of using a knife to stab his mathematics teacher who died of excessive bleeding as he was being rushed to a hospital. The school said the student insisted on using his mobile phone in class against the teacher’s instruction. The student was arrested and detained by police, and will be answering to charges, including premeditated killing.Another teacher this week was battered by students in Douala for questioning why they were late to school, and yet another teacher in Douala was beaten by a parent and fell into a coma. The parent was said to be angry with the teacher’s decision to use corporal punishment on his son as punishment for making noise in class. In another incident, a student used a machete to chop off another student’s finger in Obala after a fight during a soccer match.Elvis Yisinyuy, an official with the Cameroon Teachers Trade Union in Yaounde, says attacks by students on teachers intensified in 2015 when Cameroon prohibited teachers from beating or severely punishing students.”When a minister says that teachers are not supposed to administer corporal punishment to students, the student will now see that he [the minister] has the right to bring disorder because there is nothing the teacher can do in class,” said Yisinyuy. “The minister should revisit the text and permit teachers to administer corporal punishment with caution.”Cameroon Teachers Celebrate Teachers Day Amid Growing Challenges
October 5 is World Teachers Day, set aside to mobilize support and to ensure that the needs of future generations will be met by teachers. Some teachers, who work with Central African refugees in camps in eastern Cameroon or on the border with Central African Republic (C.A.R.), face especially difficult challenges.
Emmanuel Mbiydzenyuy asks students to be quiet and follow English language classes here at the government school in Dhahong in eastern Cameroon. Eighty of the 110 students in one class are…
Yusinyuy said the high wave of drug consumption by students and the inability of teachers to use corporal punishment because they have been prohibited from doing so is also responsible for the wave of attacks.Nalova Lyonga, Cameroon minister of secondary education, says corporal punishment can not be tolerated because it is an abuse on the rights of students who are mostly children.”What I have told the teachers is that they themselves have to make a distinction between a disciplinary case and a case which becomes a criminal case, and they should be able to report to the special police at the disposal of the schools,” said Lyonga.Lyonga said Cameroon students are exposed to other cultures of the world because of the increasing use of mobile phones, and they gain access to social media platforms that promote violence, while neglecting the peace and unity that Cameroon traditionally preaches.Carol Kayum, president of Reference Citizens, a non-governmental organization that promotes citizenship education, has been visiting schools in Yaounde to educate both teachers and students against violence. She says Cameroon should uphold it’s culture of non-violence to prevent the growing number of assaults on other students and teachers.”Our cultures are rich. Parents should transmit them to children, and also there should be communication between schools and parents so that we know what our children are doing in school, and we also tell the school authorities what the children do at home,” said Kayum. “School authorities and parents should control the use of drugs.Kayum said many people now join the teaching profession because they lack jobs, and not for the love of teaching, and as such, they are not loved by students.The students also have complained they are harassed by some teachers whom they accuse of behaving poorly or not teaching well.The Cameroon Ministry of Secondary Education has recorded 40 violent attacks by students on their peers, 22 attacks on teachers and 15 attacks by parents on teachers within the past month.
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UN Envoy Hopes for, but Cannot Predict, Speedy Reopening of Libya Oil Ports
The United Nations envoy to Libya said on Saturday he hoped but “could not predict” whether eastern oil ports shut ahead of a pending Berlin summit aimed at reaching a truce in Libya would be reopened soon.Ghassan Salame said the Berlin summit scheduled for Sunday would likely discuss the closures to avoid them dragging on for weeks or months like previous seizures of facilities.”If the thing is not solved between today and tomorrow I expect the issue to be raised, yes,” Salame told Reuters in Berlin, where Germany and the UN are expected to push for an
extended truce.Oil export terminals across eastern and central Libya were shut on Friday by tribesmen allied to commander Khalifa Haftar, whose Libya National Army (LNA) based in the east has been locked in a nine-month war with government forces over control of the capital, Tripoli.Diplomats see the closures as a power play by the LNA aimed at choking off oil revenue to the internationally recognized Tripoli government.The National Oil Corp (NOC) on Saturday declared force majeure on oil exports from the eastern ports of Brega, Ras Lanuf, Hariga, Zueitina and Es Sider, saying the closures would result in the loss of 800,000 barrels (bpd) day in oil output.Production in Libya, which was plunged into chaos with the toppling of longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, was estimated at 1.3 million bpd last week.Salame said he hoped Haftar would be willing to consider extending a truce which has largely held for a week despite the two sides failing to sign a deal at talks in Moscow mediated by Russia and Turkey on Monday.Haftar is expected to attend the summit opposite Tripoli-based Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj.The war over Tripoli is backed by foreign powers with the LNA supported by the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and most recently Russian mercenaries, and Turkey sending troops and fighters from Syria’s civil war to help al-Serraj.”I can confirm the arrival of fighters from Syria,” Salame said, putting estimates at 1,000 to 2,000.There have been a series of failed conferences and negotiations to stabilize Libya.Salame said he had started the process of a new intra-Libyan dialog between the rival parliaments in Tripoli and the east, an approach that has failed since 2017.”What is different now is that we have war…in 2017 there was no pressure, but now you have thousands of people who have been killed,” he said.
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Gun Rights Activists Scheduled to Rally Monday in Virginia
A major gun rights rally is scheduled for Monday in the capital of the U.S. southeastern state of Virginia.Thousands of pro-gun activists, included armed militia members, are expected to gather in Richmond at a time when Democrats have full control of the state legislature for the first time in a generation.Democratic lawmakers have made passing tougher gun control laws a central campaign theme.The Virginia Senate approved legislation late Thursday requiring background checks on all firearm sales and limiting handgun purchases to one a month. The senate also passed a bill to restore local government right to ban weapons from public buildings and other venues.Neo-Nazi, militia and other gun-rights groups have promised to gather enmasse on the capital for Monday’s rally, which is organized annually by the Virginia Citizens Defense League.The planned demonstration harkens back to a violent white supremacist rally in nearby Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017, when one woman was killed and more than 30 other people injured as a white supremacist rammed his car into a crowd of counter-protesters.Amid threats of violence and a possible heavy turnout, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam, a Democrat, declared a temporary state of emergency Wednesday that bans all weapons from Richmond’s Capitol Square during Monday’s rally to prevent “armed militia groups (from) storming our capitol.”Gun-rights groups, which contend the constitution guarantees their right to own any firearm, asked the Virginia Supreme Court rule the temporary ban unconstitutional, but the court upheld the ban on Friday.Northam said authorities have received credible threats of violence, including the deployment of weaponized drones over Capitol Square.Extremist groups have also inundated social media and the internet with threatening messages and hints of violence.The FBI arrested three alleged members of a white supremacist group on gun charges Thursday, partly due to concern that they planned to incite violence at the rally.Both houses of the Virginia legislature are expected to approve even more restrictive gun control laws, including a ban on assault rifles and “red flag” laws aimed at taking guns from people who are considered risk to communities.U.S. President Donald Trump had words of support late Friday for gun rights supporters in Virginia, tweeting, “That’s what happens when you vote for Democrats, they will take your guns away.”Supporters of tighter gun control laws say they would help reduce the number of people killed by guns each year.
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Car Bomb Targets Turkish Engineers Outside Mogadishu
At least three people were killed and more than 20 others, including Turkish nationals, were wounded when a car bomb targeting foreign nationals exploded Saturday in the town of Afgoye, 30 kilometers outside of Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu.Al-Shabab has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Two Somali officials confirmed the causalities to local media.According to Turkish news Agency Anadolu, the Turkish health minister said at least six Turkish nationals were injured in the attack, two of whom sustained serious injuries.
The news agency said staffers of a Turkish construction firm were injured in the explosion.
Afgoye residents say they heard a huge blast in the area followed by gunfire.
Turkish engineers are working on road construction project. Two Turkish nationals, a foremen and a construction worker, were among more than 80 killed in late December in a bomb attack on a checkpoint near Mogadishu.Saturday’s attack came hours after the Somali army said it had repelled several attacks carried out by al-Shabab militants in Qoryooley and Afgoye town overnight. Qoryooley is about 70 km south of Mogadishu.Al-Shabab claimed it had killed four African Union troops and overrun a military base in Afgoye town, but a Somali official said only one Somali soldier was killed in Afgoye attack.
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Report: N. Korean Foreign Minister Replaced
North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho has been replaced, Seoul-based NK News reported on Saturday.Ri’s replacement has not been identified but Pyongyang is set to reveal his successor about next Thursday, the report said, citing unnamed sources.South Korea’s unification ministry, which is in charge of North Korea affairs, has said that any change in Ri’s status should be assessed cautiously.Born in 1956, Ri is the son of Ri Myong Je, former deputy director of the Organization and Guidance Department (OGD), a shadowy body within the ruling Workers’ Party that oversees the appointment of management positions within the state, according to the South Korean unification ministry.His father was also an editor at the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), the state media body that publishes Pyongyang’s propaganda statements.A fluent English speaker who studied at Pyongyang’s prestigious University of Foreign Languages, Ri has for years held a number of high-level posts dealing with the West.From 2003 to 2007, he was North Korea’s ambassador in London and served as vice foreign minister, representing North Korea at six-party talks on North Korea’s nuclear program.
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Splits in France’s Strike Movement Trigger Fears of Violence
A French government minister warned that seditious groups bent on violence were hijacking the protest movement against pension reform that has gripped the country, after a fire Saturday damaged a renowned Paris restaurant patronized by President Emmanuel Macron.The Paris fire service said the pre-dawn blaze that singed a corner of the La Rotonde eatery was quickly extinguished. The Paris prosecutor’s office launched an investigation to determine the cause of the fire.But Marlene Schiappa, the government’s secretary of state for equality, said the blaze “probably” resulted from a criminal act. She described a climate in France “of hate and of violence that is quite incredible,” citing the restaurant fire among a list of examples.“Seditious groups want the law of ‘might is right’ to reign, to impose violence on all people who think differently from them,” Schiappa said on French news channel BFM-TV. “It is very alarming and unworthy of a democracy like France.”After six weeks of labor strikes and nationwide protests against government plans to overhaul France’s pension system, there are mounting signs of splits within the movement. As some strikers return to work and train services that have been severely disrupted by walkouts see notable improvements, more radical protesters are trying to keep the movement going.The fire at La Rotonde came just days after demonstrators shouting “Death to Macron, death to La Rotonde” marched past the eatery, restaurant manager Gerard Tafanel said.He said marchers wore the bright jackets of the ‘yellow vest’ protest movement that has demonstrated against the policies of Macron’s government for more than a year. Tafanel said a yellow vest also was found by police officers investigating Saturday’s fire.Macron’s name has been associated with the restaurant since he celebrated there during the 2017 presidential election, after qualifying for the second-round runoff that he later won.Macron was a target of protesters himself on Friday night, too.Seemingly tipped off to his presence by people inside, several dozen protesters converged on a Paris theater where Macron was watching an evening performance with his wife. Video showed protesters chanting “Macron resign” and some entering a door as surprised police tried to hold them back. A black car reported to be carrying Macron then sped away under a hail of boos.Earlier Friday, dozens of protesters also blocked the entrance to the Louvre museum and forced the famous Paris landmark to close.Transportation strikes against the pension overhaul began on Dec. 5. Saturday marked their 45th consecutive day, although the job actions are no longer as disruptive as they were earlier.Workers in other sectors of the economy have held strikes, too, including at ports and oil refineries.On Saturday, musicians, singers and other members of the striking Paris Opera drew a crowd with a free concert in front of the Palais Garnier opera house.
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China and Myanmar Sign Dozens of Infrastructure Deals
Chinese President Xi Jinping reinforced his support for embattled Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi Saturday, signing 33 bilateral agreements covering a range of projects, including rail and port ventures to allow China access to the Indian Ocean and to shorten the route for its oil and gas imports from the Persian Gulf.The agreements were signed in the Myanmar capital of Naypyitaw at the end of Xi’s two-day visit, the first to the country by a Chinese head of state in nearly two decades.Xi’s visit came as the Myanmar government faces intense global criticism for a 2017 military campaign that targeted minority Rohingya Muslims, resulting in the deaths of thousands and the exile of nearly 750,000 others.United Nations investigators have described the military campaign as genocide, a charge Myanmar is facing at the International Court of Justice.The two leaders also signed agreements covering the resettlement of internally displaced persons in Myanmar’s Kachin State, on the border with China, and deals pertaining to security, agriculture and information.China has supported Myanmar throughout the Rohingya crisis and is now increasing efforts to solidify its relationship with the Southeast Asian country, a strategically located country in the region.“We are drawing a future road map that will bring to life bilateral relations based on brotherly and sisterly closeness in order to overcome hardships together and provide assistance to each other, Xi said Friday.The agreements are part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, an ambitious global infrastructure development and investment plan to facilitate trade from East Asia to Europe. Xi’s visit coincided with the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Myanmar, then known as Burma, and the first to the country by a Chinese president in the past 19 years.
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Justices Taking up Bans on State Money to Religious Schools
A Supreme Court that seems more favorable to religion-based discrimination claims is set to hear a case that could make it easier to use public money to pay for religious schooling in many states.The justices will hear arguments Wednesday in a dispute over a Montana scholarship program for private K-12 education that also makes donors eligible for up to $150 in state tax credits. Advocates on both sides say the outcome could be momentous because it could lead to efforts in other states to funnel taxpayer money to religious schools.Montana is among 37 states that have provisions in their state constitutions that bar religious schools from receiving state aid.The Legislature created the tax credit in 2015 for contributions made to certain scholarship programs for private education. The state’s highest court had struck down the tax credit as a violation of the constitutional ban. The scholarships can be used at both secular and religious schools, but almost all the recipients attend religious schools.Kendra Espinoza of Kalispell, Montana, the lead plaintiff in the Supreme Court case, said the state court decision amounts to discrimination against her religious freedom. “They did away with the entire program so that no one could use this money to send their kids to a religious school,” said Espinoza, whose two daughters attend the Stillwater Christian School in Kalispell, near Glacier National Park.She said she could not afford to keep her daughters enrolled without financial aid from the school, where tuition this year is $7,735 for elementary and middle school and $8,620 for high school. But Espinoza said she has never received money from the scholarship program and only began the application process late last year.For Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, the Montana program is part of a nationwide, conservative-backed campaign against public schools. “This is a ruse to siphon off money from public education,” Weingarten said. Teacher unions generally oppose school choice programs.Montana is one of 18 states that offer scholarship tax-credit programs, according to EdChoice, an organization that promotes school-choice programs. Most have more generous tax credits, one of several ways states have created programs to boost private schools or defray their tuition costs. Others include vouchers, individual tax credits or deductions and education savings accounts.“These programs are about empowering parents, low-income parents, to make the same educational choices that their well-to-do peers make every day, which is to choose private schools for their kids, if public schools aren’t working for them,” said Richard Komer of the Virginia-based Institute for Justice, which backs school choice programs. Komer represents the Montana parents at the Supreme Court.When the Montana Supreme Court considered the scholarship program, it found that allowing public money to flow to religious schools, even indirectly, ran afoul of the state constitution. But rather than leave the program in place for secular schools, the court struck it down altogether. The state court ruling has been put on hold pending a Supreme Court decision.The state hoped the wholesale invalidation of the program would shield it from Supreme Court review. In urging the Supreme Court to reject the case, Montana said it can’t be compelled to offer a scholarship program for private education. The state told the justices that the Montana court decision did not single out students at religious schools because the state court ruling struck down the entire program.But at least four justices, the minimum needed to hear a case, were not persuaded by that reasoning. The Trump administration, which is taking steps to give religious organizations easier access to federal programs, has now joined the case on the parents’ side. This past week, President Donald Trump also pledged to protect prayer in public schools as part of his bid to solidify his evangelical base for the 2020 election.Recent rulings from the Supreme Court, which now includes Trump appointees Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, in favor of religion-based discrimination claims suggest the state has an uphill fight. In 2014, the justices allowed family-held for-profit businesses with religious objections to get out from under a requirement to pay for contraceptives for women covered under their health insurance plans. In 2017, the court ruled for a Missouri church that had been excluded from state grants to put softer surfaces in playgrounds.The Supreme Court also has upheld some school voucher programs and state courts have ratified others. But other state courts have relied on constitutional provisions banning the allocation of public school funds to religious institutions to strike down school choice programs.The language in Montana’s constitution is itself under attack in the case being argued Wednesday. Lawyers for the parents and legal groups supporting them argue that anti-Catholic bias motivated the adoption of the Montana provision and similar measures in other states in the late 1800s. They are similar to the proposed 1875 Blaine Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would have prohibited the allocation of public school funds to religious institutions.But Montana and its supporters dispute that bigotry was behind the adoption the state’s “no-aid” clause in 1889. In any event, they contend, the provision is a part of the Montana Constitution that was adopted at a state constitutional convention in 1972, where one of the delegates who voted for it was a Catholic priest.It’s unfair to label the convention delegates and Montana voters who later ratified the constitution as “mere rubber-stampers of bigotry,” the state wrote in its Supreme Court brief.The Stillwater Christian School, like most Montana schools in the scholarship program, is not Catholic.Espinoza said she chose it for her daughters, now 11 and 14, because “I really wanted values-based education for them, taught from the Bible, because that’s what we do at home.”
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Amid Hacking Fears, Key Caucus States to Use App for Results
Two of the first three states to vote in the Democratic presidential race will use new mobile apps to gather results from thousands of caucus sites — technology intended to make counting easier but that raises concerns of hacking or glitches.Democratic Party activists in Iowa and Nevada will use programs downloaded to their personal phones to report the results of caucus gatherings to the state headquarters. That data will then be used to announce the unofficial winners. Paper records will later be used to certify the results.The party is moving ahead with the technology amid warnings that foreign hackers could target the 2020 presidential campaign to try to sow chaos and undermine American democracy. Party officials say they are cognizant of the threat and taking numerous security precautions. Any errors, they say, will be easily correctable because of backups.“We continue to work closely with security experts to test our systems and identify incidents, including disinformation monitoring, and we are confident in the security systems we have in place,” said Iowa Democratic Party Chair Troy Price.The technology aims to produce a more efficient and reliable way of calculating and releasing results to the public than the complicated math and thousands of phone calls that the caucus system has long relied upon.But the use of a new app by an unidentified developer, coupled with the high stakes of the contests, has concerned some observers. They worry that unofficial results could be inaccurate if hackers or other problems taint the data. That’s a problem even if the paper backups eventually provide an accurate tally.“Scary would be a darn good word,” said Brandon Potter, chief technology officer of ProCircular, an Iowa company that has done vulnerability assessments for local elections officials. “If it’s secure, awesome. But it opens up all kinds of questions.”Party officials in both states declined to identify the vendor that developed their apps, saying they did not want to create a potential target for hackers.Microsoft developed an app that was used by both political parties in the 2016 Iowa caucuses and credited with helping obtain results from 95% of precincts within four hours. During that cycle, Microsoft’s role was announced months beforehand, and the company discussed security measures.Some critics say the party should again identify the developers, along with the certification and security testing they have gone through, to boost public confidence.“It would be really nice to know who developed it, how competent they are and what oversight they were subjected to,” said Douglas Jones, a University of Iowa computer science professor and election security expert. “The caucus night reporting, which is so important in determining which candidates drop out, which continue, who gets a boost from the caucus — all of that is definitely vulnerable to an attack on the app.”Jones said hacking could take several forms. Hackers could try to corrupt the app before it’s downloaded, activate malware that might be lurking on phones or target the server that houses the app. Another concern: The app could crash amid heavy use as precincts report results.He and others agreed that the official results of the Feb. 3 Iowa and Feb. 22 Nevada caucuses will eventually be accurate. Each precinct keeps paper copies of the results and numerous participants at each site will know the precise outcome.Because of hacking concerns, the Democratic National Committee scrapped the Iowa party’s plan to hold a virtual caucus in which those unable to attend in person could use smartphones to record their preferences. Party officials said the risks posed by the reporting apps were much lower than with electronic voting.The state parties worked with the technical team at the DNC to vet developers and design security protocols around the use of the app.The Belfer Center at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government conducted simulation and training exercises with Iowa officials that included scenarios in which there were problems with a mobile reporting app. The training emphasized the importance of using authentication, secure networks to transmit data and encryption to guard against attacks.“I do think that we need to give the Iowa team a lot of credit for how seriously they looked at all these issues,” said Eric Rosenbach, co-director of the Belfer Center.DNC spokesman David Bergstein said national officials were coordinating with the Iowa party and the Department of Homeland Security “to run efficient and secure caucuses.” He said he is confident that state Democrats are “taking the security of their caucuses extremely seriously from all perspectives.”Party officials said they would not be sending the app to precinct chairs for downloading until just before the caucus — to narrow the window for any interference. And while using the app is encouraged, precinct chairs still have the option of phoning in results.Democrat Ruth Thompson, who will chair a Des Moines precinct, said she was not concerned about security risks related to the app.“The Russians don’t care what’s on my phone,” she said. “I know we’ve got the app, but we have a paper backup. If there is a hack or something, there is the opportunity to correct it.”Hacking fears aren’t new. In 2012, a video purporting to be from the hacking collective Anonymous called on supporters to “peacefully shut down” the Republican caucuses. In response, party leaders increased their security measures for the website where the results were posted.Ultimately, it was old-fashioned data errors that tainted the results that year: The party chairman on caucus night declared Mitt Romney the winner by eight votes over Rick Santorum. Two weeks later, Santorum was declared the winner by 34 votes when results were certified.
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Putin’s Moves Leave Russian Opposition With Few Options
Russian President Vladimir Putin played it differently this time.Instead of openly declaring plans to extend his rule like he did in 2011, Putin proposed constitutional amendments to appear to give more power to Russia’s parliament.Instead of announcing the move as a fait accompli, he said the people should vote and decide.And then he executed a swift, unexpected reshuffle of Russia’s leadership, putting a low-profile official with no political aims in charge of the government.Putin announced what many see as a strategy for staying in power well past the end of his term in 2024. And the proposed constitutional reforms that might allow him to remain in charge as prime minister or as head of the State Council didn’t elicit much public outrage.Neither did the resignation of Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s prime minister, whom Putin quickly replaced with the little-known tax chief, Mikhail Mishustin.There was a smattering of calls for protest: One opposition supporter urged people to join his one-man picket in front of the Presidential Administration on Saturday, while another called for protesters to turn out against the “constitutional coup” at a Sunday rally in honor of two slain activists.It was very different from what happened in 2011-2012, when efforts to engineer Putin’s return to the presidency crushed Russian hopes for liberalization and sparked massive protests in Moscow.In his speech Wednesday, Putin presented his plan to amend the constitution as a way to improve democracy. By suggesting that lawmakers could name prime ministers and Cabinet members, he also curtailed the authority of the president, who currently holds that power.Putin also said the constitution could specify a greater role for the State Council, an obscure consultative body of regional governors and federal officials, indicating that he might take a leading position there.He also sought to prioritize the primacy of Russian laws, so that the European Court of Human Rights would no longer have the authority to issue rulings that Moscow opposed.All this would “strengthen the role of civil society, political parties and regions in making key decisions about the development of our state,” Putin said Thursday in discussing the amendments with lawmakers.New Prime Minister Mishustin was praised by government officials and commentators as an “effective manager” with expertise in finance who would be able to drive Russia’s stagnating economy out of a slump.Many Russians might see that as a positive change rather than a sophisticated political plot. According to a survey released Friday by Russia’s state-funded pollster VTsIOM, 45% of the respondents saw the shakeup as Putin’s genuine desire to change the existing power structure.But opposition leaders like Alexei Navalny said the changes are not the kind that people are looking for. Putin is looking to “remain a lifelong, ultimate leader” and run Russia as “property” divided between himself and his backers, Navalny tweeted.And the announced changes do nothing to address what Russians really want, said Navalny ally Lyubov Sobol.“People demand to end corruption, people demand to improve their living conditions. They demand a reform of the health care system, they’re worried about pension reform. All these demands, they are not going anywhere,” Sobol told The Associated Press.Vladimir Milov, an opposition politician, echoed that sentiment. Russians are willing to put up with worsened living conditions if they see potential for growth in the future — but Putin’s address shows he’s not interested in that, he said.“This is the main conflict between Putin and society right now,” Milov said. “Society can’t wait for economic growth to start again, and Putin doesn’t care, he’s occupied with other things. At some point, this will backfire.”Still, the announced constitutional reforms are unlikely to trigger a new wave of protests.“All recent protests happened when discontent that has been building up for a while spilled out, triggered by something. Amending the constitution is unlikely to be a trigger,” Milov said.Denis Volkov, a sociologist with the independent Levada polling center, said the government shakeup is so vague it is unlikely to spur public anger.“What is happening is not clear. Is this about a presidency? About some other governing body? It is unclear what people should express their unhappiness about,” Volkov said. “It is hard to protest against something that’s unclear.”In addition, Volkov noted, back in 2011-2012 Putin’s approval ratings were much lower — more than half of the country wanted him out. “Right now there is no urge to replace the country’s leader,” he said.And the question remains whether the opposition will be able to galvanize people to protest. The Kremlin last year turned up the pressure on activists and politicians, sandbagging them with high-figure fines and exhausting them with arrests and trials.There are several criminal cases open against Sobol and other Navalny allies. Sobol said she owes the government more than $400,000 in fines, and expects more fines to be imposed on opposition figures.“There is a high probability that political pressure on us will continue this year,” she said.Still, Sobol vowed the opposition will continue the fight — by protesting, contesting the government’s actions in court and exposing corrupt officials.On Thursday, Navalny said in a post online that Mishustin’s wife earned some $12 million over the past nine years, according to her tax returns, even though she never owned nor ran a business. He demanded answers from Mishustin, who headed Russia’s tax service until he was named prime minister this week, and alleged there was corruption involved.Dmitry Gudkov, a former lawmaker turned opposition politician, believes an early parliamentary election is likely, since he says the Kremlin would want the vote to be this year instead of next.“They’re in a rush and want to (pass the proposed constitutional amendments) with the sitting parliament, which they fully control,” Gudkov. “Clearly that changes our strategy.”
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US to Screen Passengers at Airports for Signs of New China Virus
U.S. health officials announced Friday that the United States will begin screening airline passengers arriving from central China for signs of a new virus outbreak that has killed two people and sickened dozens of others.Officials with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the screenings will take place at airports in San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles, and will focus on direct or connecting flights from Wuhan, the central Chinese city at the heart of the outbreak.A CDC spokesman, Scott Pauley, told VOA that only people traveling from Wuhan would be screened at this time.Chinese health officials say many of those who became sick from the virus worked at or visited a food market in the suburbs of Wuhan. Three cases have been detected outside China — two in Thailand and one in Japan – with health officials saying those patients had visited Wuhan prior to becoming sick.Health authorities have identified the virus as a new type of coronavirus, part of a large family of viruses that includes the common cold as well as the more serious illness SARS. Scientists say the new virus strain appears most similar to SARS, but say it seems to be weaker than that disease.Two people in China have died from the mysterious virus and 45 others have been infected in Wuhan and nearly 50 have been infected worldwide. Chinese officials say five people remain in serious condition.The CDC says upon arrival in the United States, travelers from Wuhan will answer a health questionnaire and have their temperatures taken for signs of illness. Those who are determined to be at risk of the virus will be taken to a nearby hospital and isolated for further assessment.CDC officials told reporters during a conference call Friday that they expect more cases will be reported outside of China. They said the risk of the virus to the American public is low, but said they want to take proper precautions.Health officials believe the virus spread in China from animals to humans. It is not clear if the virus is now capable of human-to-human transmission, but CDC officials say there are some indications that people may be able to spread the virus in a limited way. Scientists say that it is also possible that the virus could mutate to become more dangerous.At least a half-dozen countries in Asia have also started health screenings for incoming airline passengers from central China.This time of year is one of the busiest travel seasons in China, with people flying both to and from the country to celebrate the Lunar New Year.Pauley said the CDC anticipates a higher number of Chinese travelers to the United States for the New Year and has factored this into its planning.China said it has increased disinfection efforts in major transportation hubs to help ensure the virus does not spread. Wuhan is a main hub in China’s railway network.A State Department spokesman said the United States is closely monitoring the outbreak in China as well as actively working with governments across the region to combat spread of the virus.The World Health Organization is warning that a wider outbreak of the virus is possible and has given guidance to hospitals worldwide. However, in a statement Thursday, the WHO said that it does not recommend instituting any trade or travel restrictions on China at this time.The most common symptoms of the newly identified virus are fever, cough and difficulty breathing.VOA State Department correspondent Nike Ching contributed to this report.
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Somalia Car Bomb Targets Turkish Contractors
A car bomb targeting a group of Turkish contractors exploded on Saturday in Afgoye, northwest of the Somali capital Mogadishu, police said.There was no immediate word on any fatalities.”A speeding suicide car bomb rammed into a place where the Turkish engineers and Somali police were having lunch,” police officer Nur Ali told Reuters from Afgoye.It was not know who carried out the attack but residents and police said al Shabaab fighters had tried to attack Afgoye, about 30 km from Mogadishu, late on Friday and were repulsed.The al Qaeda-linked militant group has claimed responsibility for past attacks in its campaign to overturn Somalia’s U.N.-backed government.”We heard a huge blast and soon clouds of smoke into the air. Before the blast, several Turkish engineers and well armed convoy of Somali police were at the scene,” Farah Abdullahi, a shopkeeper, told Reuters from Afgoye. “We see casualties being carried but we cannot make if they are dead or injured.”Since a 2011 famine in Somalia, Turkey has been a major source of aid to the country as Ankara seeks to increase its influence in the Horn of Africa in contest with Gulf rivals like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.Turkish engineers are helping with road construction in Somalia. A group of engineers was among those hit in late December in a blast at a checkpoint in Mogadishu that killed at least 90 people.
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China Reports 4 More Cases in Viral Pneumonia Outbreak
Four more cases have been identified in a viral pneumonia outbreak in the central Chinese city of Wuhan that has killed two people and prompted countries as far away as the United States to take precautionary measures.
The latest cases bring to 45 the number of people who have contracted the illness, the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission said Saturday. Five are in serious condition, two died and 15 have been discharged. The others are in stable condition.
The cause of the pneumonia has been traced to a new type of coronavirus.
Health authorities are keen to avoid a repeat of SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, another coronavirus that started in southern China in late 2002 and spread to more than two dozen countries, killing nearly 800 people.
The U.S. announced Friday that it would begin screening passengers at three major airports arriving on flights from Wuhan. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it would deploy 100 people to take the temperatures and ask about symptoms of incoming passengers at the Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York City’s Kennedy airports.
At least a half-dozen countries in Asia have started screening incoming airline passengers from central China. The list includes Thailand and Japan, which have together reported three cases of the disease in people who had come from Wuhan. It is an unusually busy travel period as people take trips to and from China around Lunar New Year, which falls on Jan. 25 this year.
Doctors began seeing a new type of viral pneumonia – fever, cough, difficulty breathing – in people who worked at or visited a food market in the suburbs of Wuhan late last month. The city’s health commission confirmed a second death this week, a 69-year-old man who fell ill on Dec. 31 and died Wednesday.
Officials have said the pneumonia probably spread from animals to people but haven’t been able to rule out the possibility of human-to-human transmission, which would enable it to spread much faster.
No related cases have been found so far among 763 people who had close contact with those diagnosed with the virus in Wuhan. Of them, 665 have been released and 98 remain under medical observation, the Wuhan health authorities said.
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Anti-Trump Protests Have Shrunk. What’s it Mean for 2020?
Days after President Donald Trump killed an Iranian general and said he was sending more soldiers to the Middle East, about 100 protesters stood on a pedestrian bridge over Chicago’s Lake Shore Drive with an illuminated sign that read “No War in Iran.”
Some 200 people marched in the bitter cold near Boston, while a few dozen people demonstrated on the steps of Los Angeles City Hall and at similarly sized gatherings across the U.S.
Three years after Trump took office and millions of people swarmed to the Women’s March in Washington and companion marches across the country, these typically modest protests are often the most visible sign of today’s Trump resistance.
Activists say the numbers should not be mistaken for a lack of energy or motivation to vote Trump out of office come November.
The anti-Trump movement of 2020, they say, is more organized and more focused on action. Many people have moved from protesting to knocking on doors for candidates, mailing postcards to voters, advocating for specific causes or running for office.
But the movement that sprung up to oppose Trump’s presidency also is more splintered than it was when pink-hatted protesters flooded Washington the day after his inauguration for what is generally regarded as the largest protest in the city since the Vietnam era. There have been schisms over which presidential candidates to back in 2020, as well as disagreements about race and religion and about whether the march reflected the diversity of the movement. Those divisions linger even as many on the left say they need a united front heading into November’s election.
The disputes led to dueling events in New York City last year, the resignation of some national Women’s March leaders and the disbanding of a group in Washington state.
Organizers expect about 100,000 people across the country to participate in this year’s Women’s March, which is scheduled for Saturday in over 180 cities. They say up to 10,000 people are expected at the march in Washington, far fewer than the turnout last year, when about 100,000 people held a rally east of the White House. Instead of a single big event, the group has been holding actions in a run-up to the march this week around three key issues: climate change, immigration and reproductive rights.
The week reflects that the movement is “moving into the next stage,” said director Caitlin Breedlove.
Leaders of MoveOn.org, which organized some of the anti-Iran war protests, agreed. Mobilization manager Kate Alexander said the group and its members pulled together over 370 protests in 46 states in less than 48 hours to show resistance to Trump’s actions. The president ordered airstrikes that killed Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s Quds Force who has been blamed for deadly attacks on U.S. troops and allies going back decades. Iran pledged retribution, sparking fears of an all-out war.
Alexander noted that the Iran protest is just one of many issues MoveOn members have organized in response to in the past few years.
“It’s not that there are fewer people mobilizing – it’s that they’re mobilized in different campaigns. There’s more to do,” Alexander said. “I don’t believe people are tuning out. I think people are lying in wait.”
While waiting, many have passed on some major moments in Trump’s presidency. Resistance groups rallied on the eve of the House vote for impeachment, but even some of those who participated said they were disappointed more people didn’t turn out.
Several organizations also said much of their organizing is done through social media or text message and email programs, which are less visible but have a significant impact. In 2018, the Women’s March had over 24 billion social media impressions, Breedlove said.
Atef Said, a sociology professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said all social movements evolve over time. He noted the Trump resistance movement is global and will continue regardless of whether Trump is reelected.
“Movements always rise and decline in terms of numbers on the ground,” he said.
Andy Koch, a 30-year-old nurse who lives in Chicago, has seen that ebb and flow firsthand. Koch has been active in protesting Trump’s policies even before he took office. When Koch was a student at University of Illinois at Chicago, Trump’s campaign canceled a 2016 speech at the campus following tense student protests.
Koch said the anti-Trump activism swelled when he first took office and again in early 2017 when he announced his first travel ban affecting people from several predominantly Muslim countries.
Roughly 1,000 people mobilized in Chicago immediately after Trump authorized the attack on the Iranian leader, and then the crowds subsided a few days later after the threat of war seemed to subside following Trump’s address to the nation Jan 8. That day, a few dozen – including Koch – showed up in 20-degree Fahrenheit (minus 7 Celsius) temperatures outside Trump International Hotel Chicago during rush hour.
Koch understands that masses of people won’t show up for every protest. ” What allows those numbers to come out … is continued organizing going on in between these events,” he said.
He said there have been numerous smaller protests he’s been involved with, including protesting U.S. foreign policy in Venezuela and Syria, and they’ve taken other forms. For instance, he’s helped plan a teach-in on Iranian foreign policy this week at UIC.
Maya Wells, a 21-year-old political science senior at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, was a speaker at a rally last week in Charlotte. Wells, who is Persian American and has family in Iran, said she doesn’t look at the numbers of people who turn out but rather at the fact that they took time out of their day to be there.
“I see more people coming. Because some of my friends who are conservatives and voted for Trump, they’re against this,” she said, adding that the most recent protest wasn’t the last.
“There will be more days to come,” Wells said. “I have no doubt in my mind.”
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3 More Linked to Neo-Nazi Group Arrested in Georgia
Three men linked to a violent white supremacist group known as The Base were charged with conspiring to kill members of a militant anti-fascist group, police in Georgia announced Friday, a day after three other members were arrested on federal charges in Maryland and Delaware.
A senior FBI national security official said police and federal agents intentionally moved to arrest the men ahead of Monday’s rally because they believed some of them intended to commit violence there. It was unknown if the men arrested in Georgia planned to attend the rally in Richmond.
The Base, a collective of hardcore neo-Nazis that operate as a paramilitary organization, has proclaimed war against minority communities within the United States and abroad, the FBI has said. Unlike other extremist groups, it’s not focused on promulgating propaganda – instead the group aims to bring together highly skilled members to train them for acts of violence.
There’s an intensified focus on The Base after the three members were arrested Thursday in Maryland and Delaware on federal felony charges. A criminal complaint included details of how some of the men built an assault rifle using parts, purchased thousands of rounds of ammunition and traded vests that could carry body armor.
“A big reason why we disrupted it now was based on the timing of the rally on Monday and the intent of some of the individuals to potentially conduct violent acts down in Richmond,” said Jay Tabb, the executive assistant director for national security at the FBI.
Speaking at a homeland security event in Washington, he said the FBI has “got a fair sense of worry” because agents “can’t account for everybody and everything.”
“We have a degree of interest of some individuals that we know are at least saying that they will be there and we have no way to predict where rhetoric turns to violence,” Tabb said.
Organizers of The Base recruit fellow white supremacists online – particularly seeking out veterans because of their military training – use encrypted chat rooms and train members in military-style camps in the woods, according to experts who track extremist groups.
The group, which has the motto “learn, train, fight,” brings together white supremacists with varying ideologies.
The arrests show an intensified focus on the group from law enforcement officials who are concerned that the supremacists may go beyond plotting to violent acts, a threat made more urgent ahead of a pro-gun rally Monday in Richmond, Va.
The arrests only added to rising fears that Monday’s rally could quickly devolve into violence, with thousands of protesters planning to descend on Virginia’s capital, and become a repeat of the 2017 white nationalist rally when a man drove his car into counter-protesters in Charlottesville, killing Heather Heyer, a 32-year-old paralegal and civil rights activist.
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam signed an executive order banning guns from the state Capitol grounds for Monday’s rally, but pro-gun groups filed an appeal seeking to overturn the ban. The Virginia Supreme Court upheld the ban Friday.
“These extremists are going to try to attach themselves to these events in order to exploit these strong feelings, to try to bring in new recruits,” said Oren Segal, vice president of the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism.
In encrypted chat rooms, members of The Base have discussed committing acts of violence against blacks and Jews, ways to make improvised explosive devices and their desire to create a white “ethno-state,” the FBI has said in court papers.
On Friday, police in Georgia confirmed that the three other men linked to The Base were arrested on charges of conspiracy to commit murder and participating in a criminal street gang. Authorities said the men planned to kill a married couple who were anti-fascist protesters – part of the Antifa movement – and believed killing the couple would send a message to enemies of The Base.
The arrests came after an undercover FBI agent infiltrated the group and participated in shooting drills in the mountains of northern Georgia, according to a police affidavit obtained by the AP. The drills were being done in preparation for what they believe is an impending collapse of the United States and ensuing race war. At the end of the firearms training, the Georgia men wore tactical gear and balaclava hoods that expose only part of the face while posing for photos with the undercover agent and the photos were later used in the group’s propaganda, the affidavit says.
The men were identified as Luke Austin Lane, Michael Helterbrand, and Jacob Kaderli. The three remained in custody and it was not immediately clear whether they had attorneys who could comment on the allegations.
Lane, Kaderli and the undercover agent drove to the couple’s home in Bartow County to scope it out, according to the affidavit. After checking out the property and the surrounding neighborhood, Lane suggested using a sledgehammer as one way of breaching the door, then kill them with revolvers, according to the affidavit. Kaderli suggested they should burn the house down after the killings, it states.
While other extremist groups are focused on getting people together to produce propaganda and make a name for themselves around a specific ideology, The Base is focused on action, the experts say. They are interested in training their members to use firearms and explosives.
“To have that kind of broad tent, that’s incredibly dangerous,” said Joshua Fisher-Birch, a researcher with the Counter Extremism Project, a policy group formed to combat online extremist ideologies.
Members of The Base also believe in an extreme form of survivalism and preparation, offering real-life survivalist training to resist the “extinction” of the Caucasian race, the FBI has said.
“I think what marks The Base as a particular concern is that it is very blatant about its embrace of accelerationist ideas. This concept that societal collapse is not only imminent, but that they have a role to play in furthering it – so that we can have a race war in this country,” Segal said.
“There are many groups active online that have an on-the-ground presence, but it’s the sub-culture that the base is embracing is so vividly militant,” he said. “It’s so blatantly hateful it’s going to attract a certain type of extremist, one who is looking for action.”
A New Jersey man who authorities say was a recruiter for The Base was arrested by the FBI in November after he allegedly used the group to find fellow neo-Nazis to vandalize synagogues in Michigan and Wisconsin. Authorities said the group’s plan to vandalize synagogues with anti-Semitic graffiti and break windows was part of what the group called “Operation Kristallnacht,” a reference to a 1938 incident when Nazis torched synagogues in Germany, vandalized Jewish homes and business and killed close to 100 people.
The man, Richard Tobin, 18, had also discussed carrying out a suicide bombing and said he had saved manuals about how to carry out an attack, filling the back of a truck with barrels packed with explosive materials similar to the Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people in 1995.
Separately on Friday, the Justice Department charged a Wisconsin man who they say was also a member of The Base who spray painted swastikas, the group’s symbol and anti-Semitic words on a synagogue in Racine, Wisconsin in September, at Tobin’s direction. The man, Yousef Barasneh, 22, was arrested on a federal civil rights charge.
Tobin is not specifically named in the charging papers against Barasneh, but the details match those in the criminal complaint that was filed against him in November. Authorities said Tobin and Barasneh were supposed to meet in person at one of the group’s meetups in in Silver Creek, Georgia, from Oct. 30 until Nov. 2. Tobin ultimately didn’t attend.
Prosecutors said recruitment posters for The Base were put up at Marquette University in Milwaukee and the group also held a separate training session for members in Wood County, Wisconsin.
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4 S Koreans, 3 Nepal Guides Missing in Avalanche; 30 Rescued
An avalanche swept a popular trekking route in Nepal’s mountains, leaving at least four South Koreans and three Nepali guides missing, authorities said Saturday.
Nepal’s Department of Tourism official Meera Acharya said at least one Chinese national injured in the avalanche was rescued by helicopter.
The avalanche hit along the popular Annapurna circuit trekking route, which encircles Mount Annapurna.
Acharya said efforts were being made to rescue the others. So far, rescuers have been able to pluck 30 trekkers who were trapped by the avalanche blocking the trail and flew them to a safe area.
Weather conditions were poor with temperature dropping in the last two days, making the operation more difficult.
The South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the avalanche hit at an altitude of 3,230 meters (10,600 feet) before noon Friday. It said five other South Korean members of the same team were safe and taking shelter in a lodge.
The missing trekkers – two women in their 30s and 50s and two men in their 50s – were teachers who were staying in Nepal for volunteer work, the ministry said, according to the Yonhap news agency.
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Russia Touts Arms Across Southeast Asia
Russia is rapidly expanding foreign arms deals worldwide, with Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin confirming to the Russian military’s newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda December 20 that Moscow has signed military cooperation pacts with 39 countries in the last five years, many of them in Southeast Asia, including Laos, which has not been buying Russian weapons on this scale for decades.The expansion is raising eyebrows and comes as relations between Russia and NATO have broken down.Analysts said old Cold War alliances with countries such as Laos, Moscow’s appetite for barter deals, and the potential for access to railroads under construction that will provide access to seaports and trade routes along the Vietnamese, Cambodian and Thai coasts, appeal to Moscow, and the arms sales are part of a larger effort by Russia to strengthen its links with these countries.“Moscow’s motives appear to be a combination of commercial and the perhaps disruptive, in the sense that any erosion of U.S. or European defense interests is a de facto win,” Gavin Greenwood, an analyst with A2 Global Risk, a Hong Kong-based security consultancy, told VOA.He said Russia had accounted for 25% of major arms sales in Southeast Asia since 2000, and according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Moscow sold $6.6 billion in arms to Southeast Asia between 2010 and 2017, as much as the U.S. and China combined.The institute also says Russia accounted for 60% of arms sales across Asia and Oceania between 2014 and 2018.However, Russia also needs to offset falling sales to India, and the MiG-29 and Sukhoi-30 fighters purchased by Malaysia in 1995 are nearing the end of their life. Greenwood said any replacement was unlikely to be procured from Russia, as they are also considering deals with U.S. and European suppliers.Southeast Asia focusAs a result of declining arms sales to India, Russia is falling further behind the U.S. in global arms sales, analysts say, but it has remained the dominant player in Southeast Asia, where analysts said South China Sea disputes, terrorism and competition among rival states is increasing demand for high-tech weaponry.Fomin said progress in developing military cooperation with traditional partners China and India had been made alongside fresh efforts with Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos.“Their efforts to sell are obviously increasing and there’s a sense from some quarters that this is a strategic effort by Moscow – while others would say probably not, it’s commercial,” Greenwood said.Russia remains a primary supplier to Vietnam, accounting for 60% of all military sales to that country – including submarines – and is seeking opportunities in the Philippines while stepping up sales to Malaysia, Indonesia and Myanmar.Meanwhile, strategically important Laos, which forms a buffer between China and Southeast Asia, has increased its spending, acquiring Russian T-72B tanks, BRDM-2M armored vehicles, YAK 130 fighter jets and helicopters.In addition, Russia and Laos last month launched the nine-day Laros 2019 exercise, their first joint military exercise, with more than 500 soldiers taking part alongside the recently acquired tanks, which was seen as part of a greater effort to deepen military ties with Southeast Asia.Analysts said further joint military exercises with Laos are now in the offing together with more arms and training for Laotian officers in Russian military academies.The timing could be related to Chinese railway construction, “which will connect southern-southwest China to Thailand,” Greenwood said, which would provide further seaport access.FILE – People attend a mobile exhibition installed on freight cars of a train and displaying military equipment, vehicles and weapons, in Sevastopol, Crimea.Ukraine sanctionsIncreased weapon sales worldwide can be traced to Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine six years ago. Sanctions followed and the ruble collapsed, sparking a three-year financial crisis.
Carl Thayer, emeritus professor at the University of New South Wales said military technology is one of Russia’s much-needed strengths.“Annexation of the Crimea was accompanied by very punishing sanctions by the United States and Russia went through a phase of trying to recover by developing its domestic market.“That didn’t work, and they had to do overseas exports and the one thing the Russians have is military technology,” Thayer told VOA, echoing Greenwood.Meanwhile, the issue for most Southeast Asian countries is that access to high-tech weaponry is limited to the U.S., which ties sales to human rights, and Russia, which offers soft loans, state-backed credits, barter deals, spares and servicing with a no such strings attached. Don Greenlees, senior adviser at the Asialink think tank at the University of Melbourne, said U.S. costs and conditions, coupled with sanctions, mean easier options are available in Russia.“If you want really high-level military technology and you’re a Southeast Asian country you’ve either got to go to Moscow or you’ve got to go Washington. And Washington hasn’t made it terribly easy in recent years for a lot of these countries to obtain the best kit,” he told VOA.“And it’s also more expensive to buy it from Washington,” Greenlees said. “So Russia, for many of these countries, is the arms supplier of choice.”The big pictureThayer said Moscow also must act against any isolation spurred by sanctions and establish itself with Vietnam, with which it has always been a strategic partner, as a natural conduit in developing relations in Southeast Asia, but Laos “is just one small peg in the larger picture.”Greenlees said Russia’s regional reemergence was still in its early days but from a big-picture geopolitical point of view, it’s the Sino-Russian alignment that concerns everyone.So far, China has not complained about Russia’s push into its traditional sphere of influence. Moreover, it also could benefit from potential sales to countries alienated by the U.S. linkage of sales to issues like human rights, which analysts said could lead to a stronger alliance between Moscow and Beijing in Southeast Asia. “If that leads to a hardening of East-West ‘camps,’ that would be a concern to the region. It could force the issue of ‘taking sides and reduce the opportunities for small to medium sized powers to play the great powers off against each other,” Greenlees said.
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Social Enterprise Project Connects African Asylum Seekers, Israelis in the Kitchen
The 37,000 African asylum seekers in Israel live in limbo. They are allowed to work and their children go to Israeli schools, but they have no official status and live on the fringes of Israeli society. Now a new social enterprise project aims to help them share their stories and culinary culture with native Israelis. Linda Gradstein reports from Tel Aviv.
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Social Enterprise Project Connects African Asylum Seekers, Israelis in the Kitchen
It looks like any other cooking class in yuppie Tel Aviv. Sleek kitchen utensils, baskets of fresh vegetables, participants sipping wine and beer. The first hint that this is a little different is the beer Asmara from Eritrea.Yael Ravid, co-director of Kitchen Talks, explains how her cooking events make a special connection between Israelis and the Africans seeking refuge in their country.
“As we cook together shoulder to shoulder, we literally break bread, not as a metaphor but as a real happening together. I’m hoping they will enjoy the holiday feast we’re preparing for the Eritrean Christmas and they will get a chance to know Asmayit, our Eritrean cook, and to ask her questions about her life, her home kitchen, how she grew up, how she came here,” she says.
Chef Asmayit Merhatsion is a 30-year-old asylum seeker from Eritrea. As she chops and stirs, she tells her story, starting with her imprisonment in Eritrea.
“When I was in college I was arranging for women or girls to pray. They catched [caught] us and asked who organized? I organized. They are thinking our meeting is political but it’s not political, it’s religious. That’s why I was in prison,” she explains.
After two short stints in prison, she escaped to Sudan, then to Libya, hoping to make it to Europe. But after Europe closed its doors, she decided on Israel, paying smugglers to get her across the Sinai desert.
That was almost nine years ago. Today she is married and has a young daughter. She works for the AIDS task force. And she is a chef with Kitchen Talks to share her love for Eritrean food and culture.
“It’s a vegetarian dish, five types of food we do and the traditional bread we have here I make it at home. This one is not bread it’s injera, it’s made of teff flour growing in Eritrea or Ethiopia…it’s non gluten, its healthy, that’s why we are not fat,” she says.
Participants paid about $50 for the collaborative cooking event and were enthusiastic when they tasted the results. Many said it was their first time meeting with an asylum seeker and eating their exotic food.
“You can form an opinion based on things that you don’t know or things that you fear. Then once, like even seeing here people interacting, and then once you know somebody, like get to know them and speak with them, and all of a sudden you’re like, they’re people just like me and deserve rights just like I do’,” says Adi Cydulkin, a cooking class participant.
“They are here, they exist here, we can’t ignore it, we should help especially the young children to become good citizens here in Israel,” says Eli Levy.
Participants agreed that they will take home, not only empathy for African asylum seekers like chef Asmayit, but also some of her tasty recipes they learned tonight.
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US Hits Iran General With Sanctions Over Protest Crackdown
The Trump administration on Friday imposed sanctions on a senior Iranian general for his role in a brutal crackdown on anti-government protesters as it ramps up its maximum pressure campaign on the Islamic Republic.The State Department said it imposed penalties on Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Gen. Hassan Shahvarpour for directing a massacre of nearly 150 demonstrators in southwestern Iran in November.”General Shahvarpour was in command of units responsible for the violent crackdown and lethal repression around Mahshahr,” U.S. special envoy for Iran Brian Hook said. He said the designation was the result of photographic and video tips submitted to the department by Iranians.The department has received more than 88,000 such tips since it appealed for Iranians to report evidence of repression and gross human rights abuses, Hook said.Iran has denied U.S. allegations of widespread repression but has acknowledged confronting separatists in Mahshahr that it said were armed.
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Vietnam’s Vingroup Enters Cybersecurity Business
Vietnam’s largest conglomerate, Vingroup, has added cybersecurity to its services, expanding a business that already stretches from real estate to cars to shopping malls.The business announced last week it obtained an international certification for the technology it uses to verify online user logins. The certification comes from the Fast IDentity Online (FIDO) Alliance, a trade group whose board members represent the likes of Lenovo, the LINE chat application and eBay.Cybersecurity is a growing area of concern for Vietnam, where common use of pirated software makes computers vulnerable to cyberattack. Vingroup said it obtained certification for one of its many subsidiaries, the VinCSS Internet Security Services Limited Liability Company.“This success of VinCSS will make a big change in defense activities of modern network security in Vietnam,” Nguyen Phi Kha, director of research and development at VinCSS, said.Secure internet loginsThe news is part of a growing trend globally to make internet logins more secure. Under the traditional system that requires people to have account names and passwords, users often forget passwords, use the same one for various accounts, or use passwords that hackers can guess by running software that applies common dictionary words to log in.The FIDO Alliance aims to transition away from this over-reliance on passwords. Some say organizations should use two-factor authentication, such as using SMS text messages in addition to passwords, while others say SMS is too easy to hack. They instead recommend biometric authentication, including with thumbprints.“Never before have service providers and developers had the ability to enable convenient, cryptographically secure authentication to a user base this broad,” Andrew Shikiar, executive director and chief marketing officer of the FIDO Alliance, said of the trend. “Service providers are now taking advantage of these new capabilities on a global scale.”New cyber offeringsThe Vingroup subsidiary said now that it had the international certification, it would proceed to develop cyber offerings such as security for the internet of things, which refers to connected devices like toasters and smart plugs. These IoT devices are considered less secure because many of them are mass produced at a low cost and come with no or poor default password settings, which are easy to access by malicious actors.VinCSS also aims to create what it calls a “Zero Trust Platform,” which involves trusting no users and verifying all of them, as opposed to trusting users that are already inside an organization.“With our team of world-class experts, in the coming time, VinCSS will continue to introduce a series of practical products and services,” Kha said.Changes in works for VingroupThe announcement from his company came as Vingroup is pulling back from other businesses, most recently stating that it would no longer pursue establishment of a new airline.And in December, Vingroup also said it would merge its convenience store, e-commerce and agricultural businesses with Masan, another Vietnamese giant, leaving Vingroup less directly involved in those sectors. The publicly listed conglomerate has a market capitalization of $13.7 billion, making it the most valuable in the nation and making its founder Vietnam’s richest man.
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US Official: Unknown if Iran Athlete Plans to Seek Asylum in America
A U.S. official says women are the force behind the massive protests in Iran, and that the United States is unaware of whether Iranian Olympic athlete Kimia Alizadeh is seeking asylum in the U.S.
Alizadeh, Iran’s only female Olympic medalist, said earlier this week on social media that she has permanently left Iran because she had had enough of being used by its authorities for political purposes.“
I don’t know if she is seeking asylum so I can’t speak to that,” Brian Hook, U.S. Special Representative for Iran, said Friday when asked by VOA if the U.S. would welcome Alizadeh if she seeks asylum in the United States.
“Much of the strength and the energy in the anti-regime protests are being led by Iranian women,” Hook said, adding he believes “many more Iranian women would like to leave the oppression that this regime presents to them.”
Iran was shocked when Alizadeh announced her defection earlier this week.
Iranian politician Abdolkarim Hosseinzadeh accused “incompetent officials” of allowing Iran’s “human capital to flee,” according to media reports.
A deputy Iranian sports minister, Mahin Farhadizadeh, reportedly told the news agency ISNA that Alizadeh defected to pursue her education “in physiotherapy,” according to a New York Post report.
Friday, Shohreh Bayat, an Iranian chess referee who is in Russia for the Women’s World Chess Championship, told Reuters she does not want to return home out of fear for her safety. Bayat has been accused of violating her nation’s Islamic dress code while adjudicating a women’s tournament.
Last week, protests erupted across Iran after a period of increasing tensions between Washington and Tehran. The U.S. killed the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani on Jan. 2, and Iran responded Jan. 8 by launching an airstrike from Tehran against an Iraqi base that housed U.S. military. Shortly after, a Ukrainian International Airline Boeing 737 taking off from Tehran’s airport crashed, killing all 176 people on board. Three days later, Iran admitted to mistakenly shooting down the airplane, which led to street protests in Tehran and several other Iranian cities.
The 21-year-old Alizadeh, who won a bronze medal in taekwondo at the 2016 Rio Olympics, did not reveal her whereabouts but in the past has said she wants to settle in the Netherlands.
She said she no longer wanted to “sit at the table of hypocrisy, lies, injustice, and flattery.”
“I am one of the millions of oppressed women in Iran with whom they have been playing for years,” she wrote on social media.
In a tweet, State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said “#KimiaAlizadeh, Iran’s only female Olympic medalist, has rejected the regime’s oppression of women. She has defected for a life of security, happiness, and freedom. #Iran will continue to lose more strong women unless it learns to empower and support them.”#KimiaAlizadeh, Iran’s only female Olympic medalist, has rejected the regime’s oppression of women. She has defected for a life of security, happiness, and freedom. #Iran will continue to lose more strong women unless it learns to empower and support them. https://t.co/NIzdo4PPwI— Morgan Ortagus (@statedeptspox) January 12, 2020Western media had credited the taekwondo medalist with “emboldening Iranian girls and women to push the boundaries of personal freedom.”
In December, Alireza Firouzja, Iran’s top-rated chess champion, said he would not play for Iran in an upcoming tournament and is ready to renounce his citizenship because of a ban on competing against Israeli players.
Saeid Mollaei, an Iranian judo world champion, left the country for Germany last fall and sought asylum. Mollaei said he had been pressured to deliberately lose in the semifinals at the 2019 World Judo Championships in Tokyo to avoid facing Israelis.
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Erdogan Takes Sides in Libyan Conflict Ahead of Berlin Meeting
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is doubling down on support for the U.N.-backed government in Libya ahead of a Berlin conference aimed at ending the Libyan civil war. Erdogan, who is set to attend the Sunday meeting, lashed out at Libyan rebel leader General Khalifa Haftar on Friday while announcing the deployment of Turkish forces to Libya.Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar meets Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis (not pictured) at the Parliament in Athens, Greece, Jan. 17, 2020.”Haftar is a man I do not trust. … He continued bombing Tripoli yesterday,” Erdogan said in a statement. Haftar is waging war against the Turkey-backed Government of National Accord.A day earlier, Erdogan announced additional military forces would be deployed in support of the GNA. Earlier this month, Ankara sent a few dozen military personnel and equipment to Tripoli as part of a military agreement with the GNA.Haftar infuriated Erdogan by refusing to sign a cease-fire agreement Wednesday brokered by Turkey and the Russian government. Russian mercenaries linked to the Kremlin are backing Haftar, although Russian President Vladimir Putin denies arming the militia.”With these new developments, Turkey is getting more and more in a losing position,” said international relations professor Huseyin Bagci of Ankara’s Middle East Technical University. “Probably Tayyip Erdogan will face much bigger problems in Berlin than he assumed before. He [Erdogan] thought he would be in a stronger position, but with no cease-fire, he is in a much more difficult position.”Haftar and GNA Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj are expected to attend the Berlin conference. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also confirmed his attendance.German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas met with Haftar on Thursday, claiming a breakthrough. Maas tweeted Haftar “has agreed to abide by the ongoing cease-fire” and that the Berlin meeting offered “the best chance in a long time” for peace.But Turkey is voicing skepticism about the prospects for peace and has criticized the conference for excluding Turkish allies Qatar and Tunisia. “He [Erdogan] will be taking a very hard position in Berlin,” said Bagci. “I expect more, harsher words in Berlin — he is not going there to be soft, [he] is going there to be very hard.”FILE – In this photo taken on Oct. 30, 2018, Turkey’s oil and gas drillship Conquerer is seen off the coast of Antalya, southern Turkey.Turkish oil interestsAnkara says the survival of the GNA is a strategic priority. Along with a security deal, Erdogan also signed an agreement with Sarraj that gives Turkey control of a large swath of the eastern Mediterranean. The area is believed to have vast potential reserves of hydrocarbons. “We will start search and drilling activities as soon as possible in 2020 after issuing licenses for the areas,” Erdogan said Friday, adding that a seismic exploration vessel would soon be deployed to this field.Turkey’s deal with the GNA is strongly condemned by Greece, which claims the contested region as part of its territorial waters. The two countries are engaged in an increasingly bitter competition for resources in the eastern Mediterranean. Analysts note Turkey is aware that if Haftar were to prevail in the Libyan civil war, all deals it made with the GNA likely would become null and void.FILE – Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis appears at a reception, at the State Department in Washington, Jan. 8, 2020.On Thursday, Haftar flew by private plane to Athens and was taken to a luxury hotel for two days of talks with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias.In a move that could further complicate the Berlin talks, Mitsotakis underlined his determination to annul Turkey’s Mediterranean deal with the GNA. “Greece at the level of an [EU] summit meeting will never accept any political solution on Libya that does not include as a precondition the annulment of this agreement. To put it simply, we will use our veto,” Mitsotakis said Thursday in a television interview.EU officials are also set to attend the Berlin conference, and the EU is strongly opposed to Turkey’s agreement with the GNA on the Mediterranean, saying it violates international law.FILE – Former Turkish Ambassador Mithat Rende says personal chemistry can facilitate efforts to resolve escalating tensions. (Dorian Jones/VOA)Turkey insists it’s ready to negotiate. “The GNA deal aims to protect Turkish vital national interests and Turkey is not to remain isolated,” said former Turkish Ambassador Mithat Rende. “Turkey has made it clear it’s ready to talk.”In Cairo Thursday, the seven-member East Mediterranean Gas Forum pledged to strengthen cooperation, deepening Ankara’s isolation. Turkey views the move by Cyprus, Greece, Israel, Italy, Jordan, the Palestinian territories and Egypt as an attempt to deny what Ankara sees as its fair share of Mediterranean energy resources.Erdogan dismissed the Cairo agreement, saying, “They tried to implement a scenario to imprison our country in the Mediterranean Sea. We ended this game with the agreements we made with Turkish Cyprus and then with Libya.”Some analysts say Ankara’s stance ultimately may prove counterproductive.”Turkey wants to be in Syria, Libya and the eastern Mediterranean; it wants to be a player,” Bagci said. “Turkey wants to get more and more involved in this region. But the problem is Turkey is not wanted because it creates an atmosphere of hegemony. So this is what Turkey faces, and this is why Erdogan’s rhetoric is getting harsher.”
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