More than two years after France promised to return colonial-era treasures to their African homes, Benin — ostensibly the first recipient of the groundbreaking policy — still awaits them. But on Friday, a small museum outside Cotonou celebrated the return of antique royal scepters gifted by a group of Paris gallery owners.In 2017, French President Emmanuel Macron sparked joy — and unease — when he announced colonial-era treasures from Africa would be returned, or shared through exhibitions and loans. The first gesture would be the speedy return to Benin of 26 objects looted by French colonial forces in 1892.But turning that promise into reality is not so easy. Only last December did France’s culture minister offer a concrete timetable, saying the objects now housed at Paris’ leading African art museum would be returned by 2021.Enter a group of Paris Left Bank gallery owners, whose private efforts are moving much more quickly than public ones. They have not only acquired and returned precious antiques to Benin for years, but raised funds to build a small museum outside Cotonou to house them.On Friday that institution, the Petit Musee de la Recade, welcomed one of its biggest troves to date: more than two dozen pieces, including 17 scepters, coming from the ancient Kingdom of Dahomey, located in parts of what is modern day Benin.Speaking by phone from Cotonou, Paris gallery owner Robert Vallois said the gesture doesn’t constitute restitution of ill-gotten art. Instead, he and his colleagues bought the antiques in France, with the specific intent of returning them to Benin.Macron’s restitution promise has been more complicated to realize. It means changing French laws and ensuring old and fragile pieces are properly housed.With French support, Benin is building a new museum in Abomey, once the capital of the Kingdom of Dahomey. Jose Pliya, head of Benin’s national agency for heritage promotion and tourism development, spoke to VOA about the process last year.”We really have to have the good condition — temperature, isolation, conservation — to welcome them … a lot of things have to be done. The training of all the conservators in Benin, how to protect the pieces,” Pliya said.Despite the roadblocks, Macron’s restitution vows add pressure on other European countries and museums with African collections.Vallois said he and his gallery group are not part of such debates. Instead, they’re following their own counsel — and what’s important to them is that the objects return to their countries of origin.
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Month: January 2020
US General ‘100% Confident’ Against North Korean Missiles
The United States has long seen North Korea’s pursuit of nuclear weapons as a major national security threat. But the missiles Pyongyang would use to deliver a nuclear bomb appear to be a different matter. A top U.S. general Friday dismissed concerns North Korea’s rapidly developing missile program is capable, for now, of producing anything that could get by U.S. defenses. “I have 100% confidence,” General John Hyten, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told an audience in Washington. “I don’t say 100% confidence often. I have 100% confidence in those capabilities against North Korea.” ‘Gift’ wasn’t givenU.S. military and intelligence officials have been keeping an especially close eye on Pyongyang since late last year, when leader Kim Jong Un threatened to give Washington a “Christmas gift” it might not like. At the time, U.S. officials expected some sort of weapons test or a test of one of the country’s new long-range ballistic missiles. Only no such test ever materialized. And with negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang seemingly stalled, there are growing concerns a peaceful, diplomatic solution may be drifting out of reach. Earlier this week, during a news conference at the Pentagon with Japanese Defense Minister Taro Kono, U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper told reporters the next move was “in Kim Jong Un’s hands.” FILE – Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Japan’s Defense Minister Taro Kono speak during a news conference at the Pentagon in Washington, Jan. 14, 2020.”We continue to send the message to North Korea that the best path forward is through a diplomatic solution that results in the denuclearization of North Korea,” Esper said. “We monitor very closely what’s happening,” Esper added, warning that if necessary, “we remain ready to fight tonight.” Speaking alongside Esper, Kono voiced hope that dialogue could prevail. “Hopefully, he will make the right decision for his own people,” the Japanese minister said of North Korea’s Kim. Nearly 70 testsEven as Pyongyang engaged in talks with the U.S. last year, it launched 13 missile tests, bring the total of tests under Kin Jong Un to almost 70. “They’ve changed the entire structure of the world with the 115th most powerful economy,” Hyten said Friday at the Center for Strategic International Studies. FILE – People watch a TV that shows a file picture of a North Korean missile for a news report on North Korea firing short-range ballistic missiles, in Seoul, South Korea, July 31, 2019.“North Korea has been building new missiles, new capabilities, new weapons as fast as anyone on the planet,” he added. “They learned how to go fast.” In contrast to his confidence in defending against North Korean missiles, Hyten warned U.S. systems are not nearly as capable against new and emerging technologies, like hypersonic missiles being developed by Russia and China. “It doesn’t matter what the threat is, if you can’t see it, you can’t defend against it,” the former commander of U.S. Strategic Command warned, calling for space-based sensors while acknowledging their likely hefty price tag. “I would like to see research and development into low-Earth-orbit as well as medium-Earth-orbit,” he said. “That’s the only way to get a global [missile defense] capability that is affordable.”
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Philippine Citizens Learning to Live with Active, Urban Volcano
When Mount Taal started spewing plumes of ash in the Philippines a few days ago, thousands were ordered to evacuate and the president himself handed over aid money. It did not take Rodrigo Duterte long to get there or see the gravity of the situation. Taal stands next to a growing industrial belt and is just 109 kilometers outside the capital, Manila.Taal VolcanoQuick responses such as these are seen as signs that officials are trying harder than ever to minimize the impact of more eruptions from the especially active volcano. Their grasp of the danger results from a learning curve that has spanned multiple natural disasters, including other volcanic activity.“What we’ve seen so far in terms of ash fall and consequent disruptions to tourism and air transport, as well as just sort of damage to agriculture, is relatively minor so far, but I think the potential is there. If there is a major volcanic explosion, that then impacts logistics services because of the manufacturing belt that’s around metro Manila,” said Christian de Guzman, vice president and senior credit officer with Moody’s Sovereign Risk Group.Residents carry their belongings as authorities enforced total evacuation of residents living near the active Taal volcano in Agoncillo town, Batangas province, southern Philippines on Jan. 16, 2020.The volcano, just 311 meters high, is the most active in the Philippines. The cone sits inside a lake in one of the archipelago’s wealthier provinces, one heavily frequented by local tourists and moneyed retirees as well as farmers selling coffee and ornamental plants. A bigger explosion could spark flows of mud, ash and hot debris, the magazine Scientific American said in a report Tuesday.The government’s Department of Science and Technology warned Thursday that a “hazardous explosive eruption is possible within hours to days.”Philippine officials understand the risk, analysts say. The central government has ordered thousands of people to evacuate since January 12 and Duterte personally handed over $212 million worth of aid, his website says. Catholic Church groups, which form a powerful nongovernmental force in the Philippines, have opened centers for evacuees and offered extra help for 3,000 people who need food or water, the Vatican News website says. The Department of Science and Technology publishes daily online updates on Taal’s activity.Officials understand the urgency more now than before, said Jonathan Ravelas, chief market strategist with Banco de Oro UniBank in metro Manila. They may have learned from Mount Pinatubo, he said. A 1991 eruption from the mountain just 91 kilometers from Manila killed 847 people and severely damaged infrastructure. It also prompted the withdrawal of U.S. forces from a nearby airbase.“I think the help that came after evacuating people is a bit more coordinated,” Ravelas said of the past week. “I guess government agencies were there to provide certain things.” Companies with factories around Manila have been warned about possible power and water outages if volcanic activity ramps up, Ravelas said.In this photo provided by the Office of Civil Defense, volcanic ash covers most of the roofs at villages in Batangas province, southern Philippines on Jan. 17, 2020.Over the past decade, manufacturers of goods such as electronics and automotive parts, have set up factories in three provinces near Manila, including Batangas, to draw on the work force’s low wages and English-language skills. The region contributed more then $28 billion to the $313.6 billion national gross domestic product in 2017.Manufacturers are expected to expand on 148 hectares among the three provinces through 2021, mostly in Batangas, domestic news website Inquirer.net says. Most factories are built “to code” and have backup power systems, de Guzman said.Roads and other infrastructure have improved to support manufacturing, but companies have little means to “mitigate” any damage there, de Guzman said. Although disaster forecasting usually focuses on more likely events such as typhoons and earthquakes, the ash spewed this week is shifting attention to the hazards posed by a volcano so close to Manila, said Maria Ela Atienza, political science professor at the University of the Philippines Diliman. Manila itself is too far to be covered by volcanic flows, but winds from the south could send ash its way. After Taal sent ash as high as 15 kilometers into the air this week, flights in the capital were canceled.“This is also a wake-up call in the case of the Philippines that given its location we should really be prepared for different types of disasters, particularly volcanic eruptions, and it can happen anywhere — and this time it’s affecting areas that are actually developed,” Atienza said.Eventually officials may need to “rethink tourism,” she said. Before this month, Taal had erupted 33 times since 1572 and most recently in 1977, the Scientific American report says.
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Nigerian Authorities to Financially Support Families of Fallen Soldiers
Nigerian Vice President Yemi Osibanjo this week announced plans by the government to allocate funds to support families of fallen troops and to increase the allotment to veterans and those currently serving in the military. The announcement came amid events marking Armed Forces Remembrance Day on Wednesday. “This is the commitment that the federal government through the president has made to do better for our veterans and the families of our fallen heroes and to improve the conditions of those who serve today,” Osibanjo said. “And we shall do so incrementally, making provisions in the annual budget. We do not and will not take our men and women of the armed forces for granted.” Thousands of victimsSince the start of the Boko Haram insurgency in 2009, thousands of troops have been killed by the Islamist militant group and its West African affiliate ISWAP, leaving behind their families. Leaders of the Military Widows Association (MiWA) say there are more than 5,000 registered members and the number keeps growing by the day. Armed Forces Remembrance Day is usually celebrated to remember troops and their families and also renew commitments toward ending the war. This year’s event was by far the most memorable, said Marlin Idris, whose husband was killed by Boko Haram during an ambush on a military convoy in Borno state in 2014. “The army has been very supportive, the government has been supportive through the army as well, and then other individuals have also tried to support the widows,” Idris said. “Basically, I’d say even though it seemed as if our lives ended at that point in time, we’re still moving because God has provided people that supported us.” Sign of hopeGift Aloko, president of the widows association, said, “When they’re burying your husband, they tell you, ‘Madam, we’re here for you,’ but this is the first time we’re seeing that ‘we’re here for you’ is really a word that they fulfilled.” The widows now do not receive any official payment from the government, but Aloko said they usually get some donations from the wife of the country’s defense chief. It is not known when the budgetary allotment to families of slain soldiers will take effect, but the families are waiting and hoping the government fulfills its promise.
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Rare Edward VIII Coin Bought for Million Pounds
A rare 1937 Edward VIII sovereign coin has been bought by a private collector for 1 million pounds ($1.31 million), making it the most expensive British coin ever. The coin was one of six prepared by the Royal Mint when Edward became king in 1936 and was due to be mass produced for general circulation from Jan. 1, 1937.But he abdicated in December 1936 — quitting his job as king — to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson, meaning that production was canceled and coinage with his face never entered circulation.Edward VIII insisted that the portrait show his left side, which he preferred, breaking the tradition of each new monarch facing the opposite direction to their predecessor. He wanted to show his parting to break up an otherwise solid fringe of hair, the Royal Mint said.The coin is a sovereign: a type of gold coin with a face value of one pound. It is no longer in circulation but is still accepted as legal tender in Britain.Made from 22-carat gold, it is slightly smaller and lighter than a modern pound coin, measuring 22 millimeters in diameter and weighing 7.98 grams.”The Edward VIII Sovereign is one of the rarest and most collectible coins in the world, so it’s no surprise that it has set a new record for British coinage,” said Rebecca Morgan, head of collector services for the 1,100-year-old Royal Mint. Of the six originally struck, four are in museums and institutions and two are privately owned.Their existence was not widely known until 1970, as they were locked away and not treated as part of the Royal Mint museum’s collection, because of the sensitivity of Edward’s abdication.The Royal Mint sourced this particular coin from a collector in the United States to bring it back to Britain for the new buyer.
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Six Somali Soldiers Killed in Al-Shabab Attacks
Six Somali government soldiers and 19 militants were killed when Islamist group al-Shabab attacked two bases before dawn Friday, according to officials and residents.Local security officials and residents told VOA Somali that the attackers targeted a Somali government military base in Haji Ali village, near the Indian Ocean coastal town of Addale, in Middle Shabelle region.Somali government forces at the base responded to the attack, sparking a deadly gun battle.Local sources said five government soldiers were killed, including a military commander. The Somali National Army Headquarters, in a statement, put the death toll at four soldiers, with two others injured.The statement said 15 al-Shabab militants were killed and 26 were injured.Al-Shabab said its fighters overran the base and seized weapons and vehicles.Separately, one government soldier and four militants were killed in another al-Shabab attack Friday in the town of Hosingow, Lower Juba region.Residents told VOA that the militants briefly entered a Somali military camp near the town. Troops launched a counterattack and retook the base, killing four militants and a soldier, residents say.U.S. airstrikeMeanwhile, the U.S. military has confirmed killing two al-Shabab militants in an airstrike near the town of Kunyo Barrow in Lower Shabelle region on Thursday. It is the second U.S. airstrike in Somalia in 2020.Last year, U.S. Africa Command conducted a record 63 strikes in Somalia.Al-Shabab has conducted several high-profile attacks in recent weeks, including one on a Kenyan military base housing U.S. forces. The militants killed three Americans in the Jan. 5 attack.
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Russia’s Foreign Minister Slams ‘Aggressive’ US Policies
Russia’s foreign policy chief on Friday blamed what he described as “aggressive” U.S. policies for growing global tensions, noting Washington’s reluctance to extend a key nuclear arms pact.Sergey Lavrov, who serves as acting foreign minister in the wake of Wednesday’s resignation of the Russian Cabinet, said this week’s meeting of top U.S. and Russian diplomats on strategic stability didn’t achieve any immediate results, adding that “dialogue is continuing.”Russia-U.S. relations have been at post-Cold War lows since Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea.Speaking at an annual news conference, Lavrov said that the U.S. has stonewalled Russia’s push for extending the New Start nuclear arms treaty that expires in 2021. The agreement is the last U.S.-Russian arms control deal still in place, and Moscow has argued that its demise will remove the final barrier stemming an arms race.”We will act strongly to avoid depriving the world of agreements that control and limit nuclear weapons,” said Lavrov, who has was appointed foreign minister in 2004.”We stand for the extension of the New Start treaty without any preconditions,” he said. “I hope that the Americans hear us, but we haven’t received any coherent signals from them.”ChinaU.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has pushed for China to join nuclear arms cuts, but Lavrov described the idea as unrealistic. He pointed at Beijing’s refusal to discuss reductions in its nuclear arsenal, which is much smaller than those of the U.S. or Russia.Lavrov emphasized that the U.S. push for Russia to encourage China to change its mind doesn’t make sense. “We respect the Chinese position and we won’t persuade China to change it,” he said.EuropeTurning to other issues, Lavrov criticized Britain, France and Germany for caving in to pressure from the U.S. over a nuclear deal with Iran.Earlier this week, the three countries reluctantly triggered the accord’s dispute mechanism to force Iran into discussions over its violations, starting the clock on a process that could result in the “snapback” of U.N. and EU sanctions on Iran.The three nations are being pressed on one side by Trump to abandon the agreement like he did unilaterally in 2018, and on the other side by Iran to provide enough economic incentives for it to continue honoring the deal.Lavrov noted that the European Union boasted about creating a mechanism for trade with Iran bypassing U.S. sanctions, but never put it into action.He described the move by Britain, France and Germany as a “dangerous turn,” arguing that the three nations used the moment of heightened tensions between the U.S. and Iran to “blame Iran for all what happened.”Middle EastFollowing the U.S. drone strike that killed Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani, Iran announced what it said was its fifth and final step in dropping its commitments under the 2015 deal. Iran said it would no longer abide by any limitations to its enrichment activities.Turning to Libya, Lavrov said he expects the warring parties in the North African nation to observe a lasting cease-fire after their talks in the Russian capital earlier this week.He explained that the talks in Moscow between Libya’s rival leaders focused on a document spelling out conditions of a cease-fire that could serve as a basis for Sunday’s Libya talks hosted by Germany.Lavrov said he plans to attend the talks in Berlin, which will be attended by both Fayez Sarraj, the head of Libya’s U.N.-recognized government in Tripoli, and his rival, Gen. Khalifa Hifter,Sarraj and Hifter attended Monday’s talks in Moscow, but didn’t meet directly.”Their relations are tense, and they don’t want to be in one room together, let alone talk to each other,” Lavrov said.He added even though Hifter refused to sign the cease-fire document that was signed by Sarraj, the most important outcome of the talks was that the truce was still holding.
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Taliban: Discussions Continue With US on Afghan Peace Deal
The Taliban said Friday its latest meetings with representatives of the United States in Qatar have discussed the signing of a peace deal between the two adversaries to end their 18-year-old Afghan war.The insurgent group’s assertions come two days after its political envoys in the Qatari capital, Doha, offered a brief partial cease-fire in a bid to end the latest deadly violence in their troubled direct dialogue with American interlocutors.The Taliban negotiating team’s spokesman, Suhail Shaheen, said on Twitter that both sides discussed “matters related to the ceremony of the signing of the agreement” in meetings over the past two days.FILE – Suhail Shaheen, spokesman for the Taliban’s political office in Doha, speaks to the media in Moscow, Russia, May 28, 2019.He described as “productive” the discussions with the U.S. team being led by Afghan-born veteran American diplomat Zalmay Khalilzad. “(The) talks will continue for several days.”Shaheen did not comment on the Taliban’s reported offer of a limited cease-fire. It was also not clear for how long the insurgents intended to scale back their violent activities, though reports said the duration could be up to 10 days. There were no immediate comments from the U.S. side on the insurgent claims of progress in talks or whether the offer of a limited cessation in hostilities was acceptable to them.Khalilzad had paused the talks last month, demanding the Taliban reduce battlefield hostilities before his team returned to the table to conclude the peace process.Insurgent sources say the U.S. envoy has been staying in Doha for days to hear from the Taliban on his demand, although Khalilzad’s office has been silent about his presence in the Gulf nation.FILE – U.S. envoy for peace in Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad speaks during a debate at Tolo TV channel in Kabul, Afghanistan, April 28, 2019.The Afghan government, which is kept out of the U.S.-Taliban talks, Friday reiterated its opposition to the Taliban’s reported offer of a reduction in violence, saying an extensive cease-fire could only test the insurgent group’s seriousness and further the peace effort. “A cease-fire is the only way to achieve sustainable and dignified peace which is the demand of the people and the government of Afghanistan,” the deputy presidential spokesman, Dawa Khan Mina Pal, told VOA.If signed, the U.S.-Taliban deal would lead to a gradual withdrawal of more than 13,000 American troops along with thousands of coalition partners in return for the Taliban’s assurances Afghan soil would not be allowed to be used for international terrorism. Additionally, the Taliban would be bound to immediately open negotiations with Afghan stakeholders, including the government in Kabul, on permanently ending nationwide hostilities and negotiating a power-sharing deal to govern post-withdrawal Afghanistan.Pakistan: ‘Major development’Pakistan, which is credited with arranging the U.S.-Taliban talks — mostly held in Qatar — disclosed on Thursday the insurgent group had agreed to a reduction of violence to move the peace process forward.”Today a major development has taken place in this effort. The Taliban has accepted the demand for a reduction in violence,” said Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi in a video statement. He is currently visiting Washington and is scheduled to hold official meetings with senior Trump administration officials. Pakistan was one of only three countries to recognize the five-year Taliban government in Kabul before that government was ousted by a U.S.-led military invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 for sheltering al-Qaida leaders blamed for plotting the terrorist strikes against America that year. The Pakistani spy agency is accused of covertly supporting the Taliban insurgency. Officials in Islamabad deny the charges but acknowledge that areas in Pakistan still hosting nearly 3 million Afghan refugees could be serving as a hiding place for insurgents.
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2020s Could Be Decade Millennials Finally Get Ahead
The 2020s might be the decade faltering millennials finally roar to financial health after a tough start brought on by the Great Recession, which lasted from 2007 until 2009. Coming of age during the worst economic downturn in the United States since the 1930s meant that many of these young people, who are now in their mid-20s to late-30s, experienced a delayed entrance into the job market or accepted lower-paying jobs for which they were overqualified. Many millennials were hard hit due to a variety of factors, including high unemployment, student loan debt, and an increased cost of living, particularly if they graduated from high school or college during the downturn.
“Since then, we’ve really had a lot of wage stagnation, particularly given that so many millennials started behind where they thought they would be,” says Jason Dorsey, president and lead millennial researcher at the Center for Generational Kinetics. “And it’s taken them longer to recover — if they have recovered.” In this April 27, 2019, photo, millennials Andy and Stacie Proctor in the kitchen of their new home in Vineyard, Utah.Experts also say U.S. millennials are the first generation to feel the full impact of decades of Juan Hernandez of Hartford, Conn., was among millennials nationwide with student debt who worried about being able to qualify for a home loan, March 7, 2016.Millennials are at the age when Americans traditionally buy homes, start saving for the future, and invest for their retirement. It also will help that many have paid down their student debt now that they’ve been out of college for a number of years.“And at the same time, many of them will become potentially two-income households and that’s also really helpful for many of them,” Dorsey says. “It’s sort of a perfect storm. It just happens to align with the 2020s. It’s not that the 2020s are this famous decade, but more so that millennials are hitting the times when they should start really saving and investing, and earning higher incomes relative to their spending.”And if millennials blame previous generations for their current financial straits, it might cheer them up to know this is also the time many of them can expect to start inheriting wealth from their more well-off baby boomer parents or other relatives.
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Trump Reinforces Right to Pray in Public Schools
On National Religious Freedom Day, Jan. 16, the U.S. government released what it refers to as an updated guidance that lays out what President Donald Trump calls the “right to pray.” White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has the story.
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Seoul Criticizes US Ambassador’s ‘Very Inappropriate’ Comments on N Korea Tourism
South Korea pushed back firmly Friday on comments by U.S. Ambassador Harry Harris, who called on Seoul to consult with Washington about the South’s attempt to resume individual tourism to North Korea. Harris said Thursday that South Korea should run the plan through a joint working group to “avoid a misunderstanding later that could trigger sanctions.”An official with South Korea’s presidential office called those remarks “very inappropriate,” while stressing Seoul continues to coordinate with Washington.”The issue of [inter-Korean] cooperation is a matter for our government to decide,” the official said. FILE – Retired Adm. Harry Harris, currently the U.S. Ambassador to South Korea, attends a ceremony at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, Dec. 7, 2019.South Korea’s Unification Ministry, which handles relations with the North, refused to directly respond to Harris’ comments, but a spokesperson said the country’s policy regarding North Korea “falls under our sovereignty.”U.S.-South Korea relations have already been strained by U.S. President Donald Trump’s demand that Seoul pay substantially more of the cost of the U.S. military presence here. The current military cost-sharing deal expired at the end of the year. A sixth round of talks ended this week without a breakthrough and U.S. officials have warned “residual funds” being used to cover the gap are running out.The issue has created unusual friction in a nearly 70-year-old alliance that both sides regularly portray as “ironclad.”Inter-Korean tiesDespite a stalemate in U.S.-North Korea nuclear talks and the consequent retention of sanctions that have prevented implementation of most aspects of inter-Korean agreements, the administration of South Korean President Moon Jae-in has said it is looking for ways to independently improve inter-Korean ties. North Korea has rejected the efforts.Harris said he thinks Moon’s “continued optimism is encouraging,” adding that it is not Washington’s job to approve South Korea’s decisions.”I think his optimism creates hope, and that’s a positive thing,” Harris said Thursday. “But with regard to acting on that optimism, I have said that things should be done in consultation with the United States.”Sanctions are just some of the hurdles that South Korea’s plans for tourism must clear. Another obstacle is North Korea.”Even if South Korea did attempt to restart tours, North Korea won’t accept the proposal right now,” said Park Won-gon, an international relations professor at South Korea’s Handong Global University. “This effort is one-sided for the time being.”North Korea last year ruled out any further dialogue with the South, accusing Seoul of prioritizing its relationship with Washington over Pyongyang.
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Amid Kenya Power Struggle, IMF Says Investment Program in Crisis
Hundreds of mismanaged infrastructure projects have stalled in Kenya and it will cost around $10 billion to revive them, the IMF said in a report whose findings point to a growing power struggle at the heart of government.Amid mounting public anger over ballooning state debt and a series of graft scandals, President Uhuru Kenyatta on Tuesday confirmed acting finance minister Ukur Yatani in the post after its previous incumbent, Henry Rotich, was charged with financial misconduct — an accusation he denies.The government has acknowledged that some past investment projects did not pass muster, and Yatani told a budget preparation meeting on Wednesday that available resources would be “dedicated only to projects and programs that will ensure higher economic and social returns.”FILE – Kenya’s Finance Minister Henry Rotich, right, arrives at the Milimani Law Courts in Nairobi, July 23, 2019.Yatani, an ally of Kenyatta while Rotich was closer to Deputy President William Ruto, has won support from voters since provisionally taking over at the ministry in July.The International Monetary Fund report, published on Wednesday, lays bare the scale of the task Yatani now faces. It said an estimated 500 projects — around half of the total v had ground to a halt due to “non-payment to contractors, insufficient allocation of funds to projects, and litigation cases in court.”The state would need to raise around 1 trillion shillings ($10 billion) to complete them, the report said.Kenya has ramped up public investment projects since 2010. But that increase “occurred without enough screening for project viability and readiness before they entered the budget,” the IMF said.”There has been a subsequent squeeze on ongoing projects in the absence of fiscal space, which is now accruing large costs to the government.”The fund named no specific projects, but construction of roads, markets and stadiums has stalled all over the country. Unpaid bills from the infrastructure department to suppliers and contractors totaled 78 billion shillings as of June, the IMF said.Yatani said the government was reconstituting its planning and project monitoring unit to “ensure timely completion of projects and realization of value for money.”His confirmation as finance minister was part of a government reshuffle that adds to signs of a rift between Kenyatta, who must step down when his second five-year term finishes in 2022, and Ruto, who considers himself the heir apparent but has begun to fall out of favor.
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Deadline? What Deadline? North Korea, US Try New ‘Strategic Patience’
In April, just weeks after his summit with U.S. President Donald Trump collapsed in Hanoi, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un decided to ramp up the pressure on Washington. “We will wait for a bold decision from the U.S. with patience till the end of this year,” Kim said in a speech to North Korea’s Supreme People’s Assembly.Just three weeks later, Kim launched his first missiles in nearly a year and a half and would conduct 12 more rounds of launches in 2019, underscoring the urgency of his year-end deadline.At one point in early December, North Korean state media published near-daily warnings of Kim’s deadline, including one threat from a Foreign Affairs Ministry official regarding a potentially sinister “Christmas gift” for the U.S.The top U.S. Air Force general in the Pacific region said he expected North Korea’s gift to be a long-range missile launch. The U.S. increased surveillance flights around the Korean peninsula, apparently on alert for weapons tests.The Christmas gift never came, though. Maybe, some analysts said, North Korea was waiting for Kim’s annual New Year’s speech to unveil a major, provocative announcement. That didn’t really happen either. Kim’s New Year’s comments were relatively restrained, striking a more pessimistic than provocative tone. All of this raises questions. Why did North Korea steadily raise tensions for much of 2019, only to let them apparently fizzle out once the deadline passed, and what does that say about how North Korea will act in 2020?North Korean ‘strategic patience’The short answer is that nobody knows. One big clue is Kim’s New Year’s remarks, which came at the end of an important meeting of ruling party politicians in Pyongyang. Kim warned the world would soon witness a “new strategic weapon” and said he no longer feels bound by his moratorium on long-range missile and nuclear tests, which he unilaterally declared in April 2018, just as his diplomacy with Trump was beginning.FILE – A man watches a TV screen showing a file image of North Korea’s missile launch during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Jan. 1, 2020.Kim did not formally abandon nuclear talks, though. Instead, he said their progress depends on the U.S. — progress that won’t likely come anytime soon, he added. North Korea, he said, should be prepared for a “long-term” standoff with Washington.That could be North Korea’s version of “strategic patience,” according to North Korea analyst Koo Kab-woo. That is a reference to former U.S. President Barack Obama’s attempt to apply carefully calibrated economic and military pressure until Pyongyang was ready to make concessions at the negotiating table.For North Korea, strategic patience includes emphasizing “self-reliance, an increase in its nuclear deterrent, and stronger diplomacy that could bring about the denuclearization [of North Korea] if the U.S. lifts its confrontational policies,” said Koo, a scholar at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, at a recent conference.While that strategy may include more weapons tests, as hinted at in Kim’s speech, North Korea may be reluctant to cross any “red line” that would prompt a major reaction by Washington, Koo said. An intercontinental ballistic missile or nuclear test could also upset China and Russia when both countries are pressuring the U.S. to relax sanctions on North Korea, analysts have said. As a result, North Korea may not fully provoke or fully engage the U.S. in the near future — a policy of intentional ambiguity, Koo said.Bigger moves coming?Not everyone agrees with the strategic patience analogy, though.”Strategic patience implies that North Korea has expectations from U.S.-DPRK diplomacy,” said Rachel Minyoung Lee, an analyst for the North Korea-focused NK News online publication, using the abbreviation for North Korea’s formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. According to Lee, Kim’s New Year’s comments signaled he has “little to no hope” for a diplomatic breakthrough.”My feeling is that he is buying time for himself, not because he is hopeful of concessions from the U.S., but because he is not ready to showcase the ‘new strategic weapon’ yet,” she said. There’s still a possibility that North Korea may act more forcefully this year, Lee said.”It could be that Kim feels it’s not the right time to provoke. It could be the China factor, it could be that Kim is waiting for the right moment in the U.S. presidential election, or it could be that he wants to see some progress on the problems on the economic front,” she said. Status quoIf North Korea is reluctant to upset the status quo for now, though, that may be just fine for Trump, who is entering a more intense phase of his reelection campaign and has been focused on other foreign policy issues, such as Iran.FILE – U.S. President Donald Trump meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas, in Panmunjom, South Korea, June 30, 2019.”As long as North Korea doesn’t launch long-range missiles and doesn’t test nuclear devices, I think Trump can claim that everything is alright,” said Artyom Lukin, an international relations scholar at Far Eastern Federal University in Vladivostok, Russia.Trump’s reelection campaign has portrayed the North Korea talks as a major foreign policy win, and Trump remains publicly optimistic about their eventual success, even as North Korea stormed away from talks and conducted a near-record number of weapons tests in 2019. However, there does appear to be a limit for Trump. Last month, he signaled he would be disappointed if Kim resumed ICBM or nuclear tests. “He knows I have an election coming up. I don’t think he wants to interfere with that, but we’ll have to see,” Trump said.Trump may be employing his own version of strategic patience, according to Lukin, describing the approach as: “We are ready to talk when you are ready, but we can wait.”Who will move first?If both the U.S. and North Korea are showing signs of “strategic patience,” the big question is: Who can afford to wait longer? In Lukin’s view, the situation is much more urgent for North Korea.”Any radical move they make is only going to make their position worse. If they start testing long-range missiles, it will carry all sorts of risks for them. If they start real denuclearization, it’s also a very risky thing,” Lukin said.”The only thing that’s left for Kim Jong Un is to wait, wait, and wait. But you could wait a long time — you could wait forever and nothing could happen, actually,” he added. Signs of frustrationOne sign of North Korean frustration came last week, when senior North Korean Foreign Affairs Ministry official Kim Kye Gwan accused the U.S. of taking advantage of the relationship between Trump and Kim.Though the Trump-Kim relationship remains “not bad,” it is also not enough to ensure the talks progress, he said. “Although Chairman Kim Jong Un has … good personal feelings about President Trump, they are, in the true sense of the word, ‘personal,'” the diplomat said. Nuclear talks can only resume, Kim said, once the U.S. agrees to totally accept all of North Korea’s demands. “But we know well that the U.S. is neither ready nor able to do so,” he added.
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Germany: Ugly Anti-Semitic Remnant at Center of Court Battle
High on the wall of a German church where Martin Luther once preached, an ugly remnant of centuries of anti-Semitism is now at the center of a court battle.
The so-called “Judensau,” or “Jew pig,” sculpture on the Town Church in Wittenberg dates back to around 1300. It is perhaps the best-known of more than 20 such relics from the Middle Ages, in various forms and varying states of repair, that still adorn churches across Germany and elsewhere in Europe.
Located about 4 meters (13 feet) above the ground on a corner of the church, it depicts people identifiable by their headwear as Jews suckling on the teats of a sow, while a rabbi lifts the animal’s tail. In 1570, after the Protestant Reformation, an inscription referring to an anti-Jewish tract by Luther was added.
Judaism considers pigs impure, and no one disputes that the sculpture is deliberately offensive. But there is strong disagreement about what consequences that should have and what to do with the relief.
A court in the eastern city of Naumburg will consider on Tuesday a Jewish man’s bid to make the parish take it down.
It’s the second round in the legal dispute, which comes at a time of mounting concern about anti-Semitism in modern Germany. In May, a court ruled against plaintiff Michael Duellmann, who wants the relief put in the nearby Luther House museum.
Judges in Dessau rejected arguments that he has a right to have the sculpture removed because it formally constitutes slander and the parish is legally responsible for that. Duellmann appealed.
The relief “is a terrible falsification of Judaism, a defamation of and insult to the Jewish people,” Duellmann says, arguing that it has “a terrible effect up to this day.”
Duellmann, a former student of Protestant theology who converted to Judaism in the 1970s, became involved in the issue in 2017, the year Germany marked the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. He says he joined vigils in Wittenberg against the sculpture and was asked if he would be prepared to sue when it became clear that the church wasn’t prepared to take it down.’Culture of remembrance’
Luther is said to have nailed his 95 theses to the door of another church in Wittenberg in defiance of Roman Catholic authorities in 1517, starting the German Reformation. He also is known for anti-Jewish invective, from which Germany’s Lutheran church has distanced itself.
Luther preached at the Town Church, now a regular stop for tourists visiting Wittenberg.
When the church was renovated in the early 1980s, the parish decided to leave the sandstone sculpture in place, and it was also restored. In 1988, a memorial was built on the ground underneath it, referring to the persecution of Jews and the killing of 6 million in the Nazi Holocaust.
In addition, a cedar tree was planted nearby to signify peace, and a sign gives information on the sculpture in German and English.
Pastor Johannes Block says the church is “in the same boat” as the plaintiff and also considers the sculpture unacceptably insulting. The parish, he says, “also is not happy about this difficult inheritance.”
However, he argues that the sculpture “no longer speaks for itself as a solitary piece,” but is embedded in a “culture of remembrance” thanks to the memorial. “We don’t want to hide or abolish history, but take the path of reconciliation with and through history,” he says.
“The majority of the Town Church parish doesn’t want this to become a museum piece, but to warn and ask people to remember history on the building, with the original,” Block says.
Duellmann isn’t impressed. “The ‘Jew pig’ is not weakened” by the memorial, he says. “It continues to have a terrible anti-Semitic effect in the church and in society.”World Heritage siteThere are mixed opinions in the church, too. Last year, the regional Lutheran bishop, Friedrich Kramer, said he favors taking down the sculpture from the church wall and exhibiting it in public at the site with an explanation. He doesn’t favor putting it in a museum. He praised the 1988 memorial but said it has weaknesses, including a failure to address Luther’s anti-Semitism.
If judges do order the sculpture removed, that may not be the end of the story. Block says the church would ask authorities to assess whether it is possible to remove it from a building that is under a preservation order, and more talks with the court would probably follow.
The church is a UNESCO World Heritage site, a status that it gained in 1996.
Plaintiff Duellmann has little sympathy with the church’s preservation order dilemma. He contends that authorities deliberately failed to mention the offending sculpture at the time of the application in order not to endanger it.
Whatever the outcome, Block says he regrets that the case went to court.
‘We are not advocates and initiators” of the sculpture, he says. “We are heirs and are trying to deal very conscientiously with this inheritance.”
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Ukrainian Prime Minister Offers Resignation
Ukraine’s prime minister offered his resignation on Friday after an audio recording was leaked in which he was heard making disparaging comments about president’s understanding of the economy.Oleksiy Honcharuk said in a Facebook post that he took the job of prime minister to fulfill the program of the president, calling him “a model of openness and decency.”Referring to the leaked audio, Honcharuk said “in order to remove any doubts about our respect and trust in the president, I wrote a letter of resignation and submitted it to the president who can submit it to parliament.”President Volodymyr Zelenskiy will review the resignation letter and the decision will be announced separately his office said in a statement, according to Ukrainian news agency, UNIAN.
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Ghosn Lawyers Rebut New Nissan Claims Against Fugitive Exec
The legal team of Nissan’s former chairman Carlos Ghosn issued a statement Friday refuting the latest allegations by the Japanese automaker against the fugitive businessman.Nissan Motor Co. on Thursday filed a new set of allegations to the Tokyo Stock Exchange against Ghosn, who skipped bail and fled to Lebanon earlier this month, saying he could not get a fair trial in Japan.The lawyers said that Nissan’s complaints were biased and that it never questioned Ghosn about them. They also said Nissan never tried to interview Ghosn or Greg Kelly, another former executive facing charges of financial misconduct, or “bothered to solicit their knowledge of the facts.”His lawyers also complained that Latham & Watkins, which conducted the investigation, had long been Nissan’s outside counsel.Nissan confirmed both were true, but denied there was any conflict of interest.Ghosn’s legal team also complained that Nissan waited for months to investigate Ghosn’s successor, former Nissan Chief Executive Hiroto Saikawa, and only after Kelly publicly raised concerns.Saikawa resigned last year over allegations about dubious income. He has not been charged.”This report confirms that Nissan’s investigation was biased, lacked integrity and independence, and was designed and executed for the predetermined purpose of taking out Carlos Ghosn,” Frank Pasquier and the other lawyers said in a statement.Both Ghosn and Kelly say they are innocent.Ghosn was charged with under-reporting his future compensation and breach of trust in diverting Nissan money for personal gain. He says the compensation was never decided on or paid, and the payments were for legitimate business.Kelly is accused of helping Ghosn underreport his income.Yokohama-based Nissan says Ghosn “single-handedly” decided on his compensation. It has promised to beef up corporate governance since the arrest of Ghosn in November 2018.Japan and Lebanon do not have an extradition treaty. Experts say it is virtually impossible to continue Ghosn’s trial in Japan. Kelly and Nissan as a company are still expected to stand trial.
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Ukraine Asks FBI to Help Probe Suspected Russian Hack of Burisma
Ukraine has asked the FBI in the United States for help investigating a suspected cyberattack by Russian military hackers on Burisma, an energy company caught up in the impeachment of U.S. President Donald Trump.The Ukrainian interior ministry on Thursday also announced an investigation into the possible illegal surveillance of Marie Yovanovitch, formerly the American ambassador to Kiev, following the release of text messages this week by the U.S. Congress as part of the impeachment case.The FBI said it had visited the home and business of Robert Hyde, a Republican congressional candidate in Connecticut who sent the text messages to Lev Parnas, an associate of Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, that suggested Hyde had Yovanovitch under surveillance. The FBI declined to give further details.Hyde was not immediately available for comment but on Twitter he has said he has never been to Kiev and that he made up the story about keeping watch on Yovanovitch to fool Parnas.The FBI declined to comment on Ukraine’s request for help after California-based cybersecurity company Area 1 Security on Monday identified the hacking of Burisma Holdings and linked it to Russia’s Main Directorate of Military Intelligence, or GRU.Burisma was at the center of attempts by Trump in July to persuade Ukraine to announce an investigation into Joe Biden, a Democratic presidential contender, and his son, Hunter, who used to have a seat on the Ukrainian company’s board.There has been no evidence of wrongdoing by the Bidens, who reject Trump’s allegations of corruption.Trump’s efforts have led to him being impeached on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. The president, who denies wrongdoing, faces a trial in the U.S. Senate next week.The same hacking group, known as “Fancy Bear” or “APT28″ by cybersecurity researchers, breached the Democratic National Committee in 2016 in what U.S. investigators described as part of an operation to disrupt that year’s election.Russia’s defense ministry did not respond to a request for comment about Area 1 Security’s assertions.”It is noted that the hacking attack was probably committed by the Russian special services,” Ukrainian interior ministry official Artem Minyailo said at a briefing.Minyailo said Ukraine had asked the FBI and Area 1 Security for assistance regarding information that hackers stole personal employee data and emails from executives at Burisma and other companies. These other companies included the media production company of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, he said.”The national police has initiated the creation of a joint international investigation team, to which FBI representatives have already been invited by the ministry,” Minyailo said.Yovanovitch surveillance probeIt was not clear what data the hackers wanted to steal, Area 1 said. Breaching Burisma could yield communications from, to or about Hunter Biden, who served as a director between 2014 and 2019.A source close to Burisma told Reuters earlier this week the company’s website had been subject to multiple break-in attempts over the past six months but did not provide further details.Ukrainian officials said they were also probing allegations that Yovanovitch, the former ambassador to Ukraine, was subject to illegal surveillance before Trump fired her in May.U.S. Senator Robert Menendez, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told CNN on Thursday he had sent a letter to the State Department seeking an immediate briefing.A former senior security official with the U.S. State Department told Reuters he did not regard the Hyde text messages as constituting an actual threat to Yovanovitch.“I would have trouble going to a U.S. Attorney and saying, ‘I want an arrest warrant for this person or I want to open an investigation,’” said the former senior security official, who spoke on condition that he not be identified.“I might send somebody to talk with them and say, you know, ‘You have any intent to harm her?’ and if he says no and there’s no other evidence to the contrary … that’s probably as far as I would go.”
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China’s Xi Visits Myanmar for Infrastructure Talks
With billboards, banners, fanfare and flags, the government of Myanmar is welcoming Xi Jinping, president of the People’s Republic of China, for a two-day state visit beginning Friday that is expected to mark the 70th anniversary of China-Myanmar relations with agreements for infrastructure projects key to Beijing’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative.As with any long-term connection, there have been ups, downs and detours.This will mark Xi’s first visit to Myanmar since 2009 before Xi became president and party chief,” Murray Hiebert, senior associate, South Asia Program, Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, D.C., told VOA. “After that visit, Myanmar launched reforms, including freeing political prisoners, creating more independence for the media, opening up the economy, deepening relations with the U.S., and cancelling work on the Myitsone Dam which was a big priority for china. Since 2017, Myanmar has again had a falling out with the U.S. because of the expulsion of nearly a million Rohingya Muslim refugees. This [visit] provides an opening for China to build deeper ties with Myanmar again.”Yun Sun, co-director of the East Asia Program and director of the China Program at the Stimson Center, told VOA, that Xi’s visit is “uniquely high-level,” pointing to last week’s official media briefing conducted by Chinese vice foreign minister Luo Zhaohui.With the visit Xi “is consolidating his kingdom,” Priscilla Clapp, the chief of mission and permanent charge d’ affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Burma from 1999-2002 told VOA. “Myanmar represents to China the far western province. … I think it is China’s ambition to control Myanmar through economic and other means.”Clapp continued, “I think China is making a determined effort to harness all of Southeast Asia to the Chinese sphere of influence so it’s not just Myanmar. … Myanmar’s a gateway not only to the Indian Ocean but other parts of southeast Asia.”The close post-World War II association of the two nations, which share a long border, began when Myanmar, then known as Burma, was the first non-Communist country to recognize the People’s Republic of China in 1949. The two nations established diplomatic relations a year later.China defends Myanmar Today, as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, China has defended Myanmar since it began a military campaign against the Rohingya in 2011. A United Nations fact-finding mission described the campaign as “the gravest crimes under international law,” and called for Myanmar’s senior military officials to face investigation and prosecution for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. This week, Amnesty International’s Regional Director, Nicholas Bequelin, said “China must stop using its position in the U.N. Security Council to shield Myanmar’s senior generals from accountability. This has only emboldened the military’s relentless campaign of human rights violations and war crimes against ethnic minorities across the country.”Despite international outcry about treatment of the Rohingya, China stepped up its investments in Myanmar, filling a void left by those departing in part because of the human rights issues. China is the second biggest investor in Myanmar, after Singapore, according to the World Bank. Myanmar’s exports to China, its largest trading partner, were worth $5.5 billion in 2018, while imports were worth $6.2 billion.”We have seen that China has achieved a great success in exploring and following a path suitable for its economic development since the reform and opening up,” Pe Myint, the Union Minister for Information told Reuters. “For Myanmar, we are happy for China, as it’s like our relative and friend that has achieved success. It’s worth our learning.”And it is those investments that will be in the spotlight during Xi’s visit. Last Friday China’s Luo told reporters in Beijing the purpose of the visit was to strengthen relations and cooperation on China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and “materialize” the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC), a series of projects connecting China with the Indian Ocean. Launched in 2013 by then Chinese president Xi Jinping, BRI includes hundreds of infrastructure projects financed and constructed in part or in whole by Chinese entities that are envisioned as connecting almost all of Asia and Africa.Belt and RoadIn Myanmar, the CMEC is a Belt and Road component.“If you look at the design of the CMEC, … you can see that it’s designed by China to harness all of the basic infrastructure of Myanmar to Chinese infrastructure, and effectively create another western province beyond Yunnan,” said Clapp.It is also an area notable for long-running conflicts between the Myanmar military and ethnic armed groups, which are widely believed to receive their weaponry from Chinese sources even as Beijing plays a role in negotiating peace. China is “playing a big role in the peace process but they’re playing both sides of it,” said Clapp. “I think that China’s interest in the long term is keeping some instability on the border so you have a firewall, as it were, between developing democracy in Myanmar, and the lack of democracy in China.”Xi’s visit comes after Myanmar pulled away from China in 2011 over public opposition to the Myitsone Dam, a $3.6 billion hydropower project. It remains a heated topic, with more than 50 civil society organizations calling on Xi to scratch the project in Kachin State in an open letter issued on Wednesday. Nau Kai Tu Kaung, a Kachin environmentalist told VOA’s Burmese Service that Chinese companies are also involved in destructive environmental endeavors such as rare earth mining.“[The dam] is highly unpopular,” said Clapp. “It would erupt as a political issue in Myanmar” if the project were revived. She pointed out that the dam’s original design sent more than 90% of the generated electricity to China. “But there were no plans for a transmission line, even into China,” she added. “So it didn’t make sense.”To succeed today “you have to completely redesign it, and … it has to feed in to the grid in Myanmar, it has to serve the electrical needs of Myanmar, not China. Yunnan doesn’t need the electricity now.”Xi is scheduled to meet Myanmar’s de factor leader Aung San Suu Kyi and army chief Min Aung Hlaing in the capital Naypyitaw, as well with the heads of an array of political parties. Chinese Ambassador to Myanmar Chen Hai said dozens of agreements will be signed during Xi’s visit.Clapp said that while the countries may sign memoranda of understanding “those are not final agreements. Even the CMEC, the China Myanmar Economic Corridor is an MOU so it’s aspirational.”The talks are also expected to touch on a project that involves a deep-sea port in Rakhine state that would give China access to the Indian Ocean. The port project was scaled back in 2018 over fears of a debt-trap, a move critics believe China uses “to gain influence by bankrupting its partners and bending them to its will.”Clapp said none of the massive infrastructure projects is going to happen quickly. The projects cannot become final until environmental, social and economic assessments are completed, and a business plan completed for each project. Financing for the projects is unclear because “the Myanmar government is not going to take any sovereign debt” and any financing by “big Chinese companies and their partners” will take a long time to put together, especially for large projects. “I think the most that we’re going to see in the near term is small projects; for example, there are several economic zones along the border that are already under development. The problem with those is that they’re largely unregulated, and they’re going to erupt at some point because they’re bringing in a lot of Chinese migration into Myanmar, [which is] going to cause a big problem with the Myanmar population. In the Karen State, in places where these economic zones are already underway, it’s going to start causing social problems. And this is something that China, Beijing needs to think about over the long terms because it could really destroy the relationship between the two countries if they’re not careful.”Liyuan Lu is with VOA’s Mandarin Service and Kyaw Zan Tha is with VOA’s Burmese Service.
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11 US Troops In Hospitals After Last Week’s Iranian Attack In Iraq
The U.S. military says 11 service members are in hospitals after displaying concussion symptoms, following Iran’s attack last week on Iraqi bases where U.S. troops were stationed.Iran’s ballistic missile attack on two Iraqi bases was launched in retaliation for the U.S. drone strike that killed Iran’s top general Qassem Soleimani, commander of Iran’s elite Quds Force.Captain Bill Urban, a spokesman for U.S. Central command, said in a statement Thursday, “While no U.S. service members were killed in the Jan. 8 Iranian attack on Al Asad Air base, several were treated for concussion symptoms from the blast and are still being assessed.”The service members are in hospitals in Germany and Kuwait.”When deemed fit for duty, the service members are expected to return to Iraq,” Urban said.U.S. President Donald Trump had said after Iran’s attack in Iraq that no U.S. forces were injured.
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Iran’s State TV Airs Apparent Prank Call to C-SPAN to Back False Claims of US Casualties
Iranian state TV has broadcast what appears to be a prank call to a U.S. television network to try to support false Iranian claims of heavy U.S. casualties in an Iranian missile attack on an Iraqi base last week. Several Iranian diaspora journalists tweeted a video clip of Thursday’s broadcast by the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) TV channel, whose presenter, Ali Zohourian, introduced a segment about Washington’s purported “cover-up of heavy losses” from Iran’s January 8 strike on the al-Asad base that houses U.S. and Iraqi forces. No U.S. or Iraqi forces were harmed in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) missile attack, which caused some damage to the base. Iran had given advance notice of the strike to Iraqi authorities, enabling the troops at the base to take cover. In the IRIB news segment, Zohourian said: “Eight days after the IRGC’s missile slap on the (face of) the United States war machine, a father of a terrorist soldier of America admits in a telephone interview with (C-SPAN’s) Washington Journal (program) that he has no information about his son’s whereabouts since last week, and says his numerous pursuits of U.S. Defense Department officials bore no fruit.”This is just weird! An Iranian (with a heavy accent) called C-Span pretending to be the parent of an #American soldier killed during #Iran’s attack against American bases in #Iraq. He then starts cursing Trump and pretends to cry. Does @cspanwj verify the callers? @gretabrawnerhttps://t.co/9UVn1SFk4c— Maziar Bahari (@maziarbahari) January 16, 2020Maziar Bahari, a journalist with the IranWire news site, was the first to tweet in English and share a clip of the IRIB news segment featuring an excerpt of U.S. TV network C-SPAN’s Washington Journal show. Bahari noted that the man who called in to the C-SPAN show, claiming to be the father of a U.S. soldier who was at the al-Asad base when Iran attacked it, had a heavy Iranian accent and appeared to be pretending to cry. “I don’t know if he is alive or he is dead,” the caller said in reference to his purported son, before cursing U.S. President Donald Trump.Several other Iranian diaspora journalists shared Bahari’s assessment that the phone call to C-SPAN was bogus, including Hadi Nili of BBC Persian and Shayan Sardarizadeh of the BBC Monitoring service.IR state TV aired what seems to be a prank call on @cspan, where someone pretends to be parent of a US soldier in Asad base.#IRGC-affiliated media been trying to convince their audience that Iran strikes on US bases in Iraq left 10s dead & 100s injured.pic.twitter.com/AExisfgHoQ— Hadi Nili (@HadiNili) January 16, 2020I’ve seen it all now. An Iranian bloke with an obvious Persian accent rings C-Span to say he is the father of a US soldier who has gone missing after Iran’s missile attack on Al Asad base. “God damn Trump,” he says, with an unmistakable Persian accent! https://t.co/ZNLKpHVkdp— Shayan Sardarizadeh (@Shayan86) January 16, 2020The apparent prank call by the man who gave his name as Allan was made to the Wednesday edition of the Washington Journal program hosted by U.S. journalist Greta Brawner. After listening to the call, Brawner offered sympathy to the man, saying, “Allan, I’m so sorry for you, for what’s happening with your family, not knowing what’s happening to your son,” before pivoting to another topic. “We do not and cannot fact-check each call or assess its legitimacy,” C-SPAN spokesman Howard Mortman told VOA Persian, in reference to calls made to Washington Journal’s “Open Phones” segment. He declined a direct response to the use of the C-SPAN content in an Iranian state TV news report promoting false claims of U.S. casualties in Iraq. In a phone interview with VOA Persian, BBC Monitoring journalist Sardarizadeh said Iranian state media outlets, including Fars, Tasnim and Khabar Online, had published a series of unsubstantiated claims of dozens to hundreds of U.S. troops being killed in the al-Asad base attack. He said the reports cited “informed IRGC sources,” who purportedly received the information from other sources in Iraq.مهمترین چالش این روزهای ترامپ ، مخفی کردن جنازه سربازان امریکایی270 کشته…#انتقام_سخت— آمنه سادات ذبیح پور (@as_zabihpour) January 9, 2020In one example of such reporting, IRIB TV journalist Ameneh Sadat Zabihpour tweeted the following message on January 9, a day after the Iranian missile strike: “Trump’s biggest challenge these days: hiding the bodies of U.S. troops. 270 dead… #Vengeance”.At the same time that it was disseminating false reports of U.S. casualties, IRIB also echoed the Iranian government’s initial denials that it had any direct role in the January 8 crash of a Ukrainian passenger jet shortly after it took off from Tehran. For three days after the crash, it reported Iranian officials’ claims that mechanical problems likely caused the crash, until the government made a Saturday acknowledgement that Iranian forces shot down the plane, mistaking it for an enemy threat. The Iranian acknowledgement followed days of Western media reports citing Western intelligence agencies and officials as saying there was evidence of Iranian missile fire bringing down the plane.IRIB’s broadcasting of the government’s initial denials of responsibility for the plane crash, which killed all 176 people on board, has drawn criticism from other members of Iran’s state-approved media and from university students who held anti-government rallies in Tehran and other cities in the past week. A Monday statement published by the Tehran Province Journalists Association said: “The publication of false information has had a severe impact on public confidence and public opinion, and more than ever shook the media’s shaky position … IRIB television employees acknowledge that their credibility has been lost. It should be noted that other media outlets objected to the situation, but IRIB television (management) favored it. This incident showed that people cannot trust official data and journalists should try to fill this gap as much as possible.”Sorry, but your player cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline. Embed” />CopyIn a Tuesday protest at Tehran University, students assembled near the university’s medical school chanted, “Our state television is our disgrace.”Asked why IRIB broadcasted an apparently prank call to C-SPAN to support false claims of U.S. casualties after facing domestic criticism for its reporting of erroneous government denials of responsibility for the Ukrainian plane crash, Sardarizadeh, a former IRIB journalist, said the network’s management is beholden to Iran’s Islamist rulers. “IRIB is so strategically important to the central message that the rulers in Tehran want to get out to their people, and the managers who run IRIB’s news department are so close to the establishment and trusted by them, that they don’t even care that what they are saying is ridiculous,” Sardarizadeh said. “They believe they are in the front line of an onslaught against the Islamic Republic,” he added.This article originated in VOA’s Persian Service. Mehdi Jedinia of VOA’s Extremism Watch Desk contributed.
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Senate Passes North American Trade Pact
On the day his Senate impeachment trial formally began, U.S. President Donald Trump scored a bipartisan victory Thursday as the Senate passed a North American trade pact, known as USMCA. The international accord replaces the 25-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, and governs trade between the United States, Canada and Mexico. VOA’s Ardita Dunellari looks at what this pact is expected to deliver both for the U.S. economy and for the president’s re-election campaign.
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Analysts: Africa Faces Promising Decade, But With Obstacles
2020 marks the beginning of a promising decade for Africa, according to African experts and global policymakers who gathered this week for the release of the Brookings Institution’s annual publication on Africa. VOA correspondent Mariama Diallo reports on some of the six key priorities, including climate change, regional integration, and the need to develop the energy and private sectors.
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Pompeo Silent on Reports of Surveillance of Former US Ambassador to Ukraine
Ukrainian authorities say they have opened an investigation into whether Marie Yovanovitch, the former U.S. ambassador to Kyiv, was illegally spied on before U.S. President Donald Trump abruptly recalled her from her post last year. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the State Department have not replied to repeated requests for comment on the alleged surveillance and potential physical threats to the 33-year career diplomat. VOA’s Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports from the State Department.
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Greece Warns it Will Block an EU Peace Deal for Libya
Greece will block any European Union peace deal for Libya, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said Thursday, unless a maritime deal between Turkey and Libya is scrapped.”Greece at the level of a summit meeting will never accept any political solution on Libya that does not include as a precondition the annulment of this agreement,” Mitsotakis told Greek television on Thursday. “To put it simply, we will use our veto.”Greece says the deal setting border and energy exploration areas in the Mediterranean between Libya and Turkey is “unacceptable and illegal” because Greek claims in the Mediterranean are ignored.Mitsotakis is also upset Greece is excluded from a peace summit on Libya to be held Sunday in Berlin. He says it is wrong not to invite Greece and plans to complain about it to German Chancellor Angela Merkel.FILE PHOTO: Khalifa Haftar, the military commander who dominates eastern Libya, arrives to attend an international conference on Libya at the Elysee Palace in Paris, May 29, 2018.Greece expelled the Libyan ambassador from Athens because of the deal signed with Turkey. It has also taken steps to boost ties with General Khalifa Haftar, head of a rival Libyan government whose forces have been fighting with those of the U.N.-backed administration in Tripoli.Haftar is in Athens where he plans to meet with Mitsotakis on Friday.Before flying to Greece, Haftar met in Benghazi with German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, who tweeted that Haftar is willing to come to the Berlin conference and is committed to the cease-fire that took effect in Libya this week.In Washington, a senior State Department official said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo would also attend the Berlin conference on Libya. The official said Pompeo would push for three things — the cease-fire, a withdrawal of all foreign forces from Libya and a return to the political process.
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