Tens of thousands of Malawians took part in protests on Thursday at alleged attempts to bribe judges overseeing a legal challenge to the re-election last year of President Peter Mutharika. People took to the streets after the country’s chief justice charged that the five judges presiding over the case had been offered kickbacks. The complaint, which was filed to the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Monday, prompted a call for demonstrations in Malawi’s three main cities. Around 50,000 people gathered in the capital, Lilongwe, with smaller rallies in Blantyre and Mzuzu. They braved the rain and stood vigil outside parliament. Many wore white T-shirts printed with “ACB name and arrest the bribers now.” Opposition leaders say the May 21 poll, which saw Mutharika narrowly beat runner-up candidate Lazarus Chakwera, was marred by fraud. In August, they petitioned Malawi’s top court to annul the results — the first time presidential election results have been legally challenged since the country gained independence from Britain in 1964.Call for ‘justice’ Gift Trapence, head of a watchdog group called the Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC), said his organization was pressuring ACB head Reyneck Matemba to seek “justice.” “We met Mr. Matemba yesterday and we told him that the taxpayers want the culprits exposed and arrested,” Trapence, whose group organized the protests, told the rally in Lilongwe. “We told him that if they sue the ACB, we, the taxpayers, will pay.” Malawi Defence Force members control a crowd in Lilongwe, Jan. 16, 2020, during protests against alleged attempts to bribe judges overseeing a legal challenge to the re-election last year of the country’s president.”The ACB will act in a few days,” Matemba told reporters on Thursday, promising Malawians would not be “let down.” He said the body was investigating individuals named by the chief justice rather than political parties. “This is our chance as the ACB to demonstrate to the people of Malawi that we can do better,” Matemba added. Ruling this monthA court ruling on the election challenge is expected by the end of January. The ACB aims to complete its probe before then. Sporadic demonstrations have broken out across Malawi since the election, with protesters demanding the ouster of the electoral commission’s head over her handling of the vote. Many rallies have been met with violence by security forces. But Thursday’s demonstrations unfolded peacefully and no incidents were reported at any of the venues, according to police spokesman James Kadadzera. Mutharika has brushed off all doubts on the official results, which show he won just 159,000 votes more than Chakwera, a margin of around 3 percentage points.
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Month: January 2020
FBI Arrests 3 White Supremacists Ahead of Pro-gun Rally
FBI agents on Thursday arrested a former Canadian Armed Forces reservist and two other men who have been linked to a violent white supremacist group and were believed to be heading to a pro-gun rally next week in Virginia’s capital. The three men are members of The Base and were arrested on federal charges in a criminal complaint unsealed in Maryland, according to a Justice Department news release. Tuesday’s complaint charged Canadian national Patrik Jordan Mathews, 27, and Brian Mark Lemley Jr., 33, of Elkton, Maryland, with transporting a firearm and ammunition with intent to commit a felony. William Garfield Bilbrough IV, 19, of Denton, Maryland, was charged with transporting and harboring aliens. The three men were believed to be planning to attend the pro-gun rally planned for Monday in Richmond, according to a law enforcement official who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss an active investigation. Mathews and Lemley were arrested in Delaware and Bilbrough was arrested in Maryland, according to Marcia Murphy, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Maryland. All three men were scheduled to make their initial court appearances Thursday afternoon in Greenbelt, Maryland. Search since SeptemberU.S. and Canadian authorities had been searching for Mathews since his truck was found in September near the border between the two countries. He was last seen by family members in Beausejour, northeast of Winnipeg, on August 24, according to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The Canadian military’s intelligence unit was investigating Mathews for possible racist extremist activities'' for several months, according to the Canadian Department of National Defence. Lemley also is charged with transporting a machine gun anddisposing of a firearm and ammunition to an alien unlawfully present in the United States.” The Anti-Defamation League said members of The Base and other white supremacist groups have frequently posted online messages advocating for accelerationism,'' a term “white supremacists have assigned to their desire to hasten the collapse of society as we know it.” The term is widely used by those on the fringes of the movement, who employ it openly and enthusiastically on mainstream platforms, as well as in the shadows of private, encrypted chat rooms,” the ADL says.
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Virginia Moves to Brink of Becoming 38th State to Ratify ERA
Virginia on Wednesday moved to the brink of becoming the crucial 38th state to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment in what was seen as a momentous victory for the women’s rights movement even though it is far from certain the measure will ever be added to the U.S. Constitution.The state House and Senate approved the proposed amendment with bipartisan support, well over a generation after Congress sent the ERA to the states for ratification in 1972. Each chamber now must pass the other’s resolution, but final passage is considered all but certain.Amendments to the Constitution must be ratified by three-quarters of the states, or 38. But whether this one will go on to become the 28th Amendment may have to be decided in court because the deadline set by Congress for ratification of the ERA ran out in 1982 and because five states that approved it in the 1970s have since rescinded their support.Still, the twin votes carried symbolic weight and showed how much once-solidly conservative Virginia, a place that defeated the ERA time and again, has changed.Del. Jennifer Carroll Foy, a sponsor of the House ERA measure, told her colleagues they were taking “the vote of a lifetime.”“One hundred and sixty million women and girls across this country are waiting and will forever be changed by what happens in this body here today,” she said.FILE – In this Jan. 8, 2020, file photo, Equal Rights Amendment supporters demonstrate outside Virginia State Capitol in Richmond, Va.ERA supporters had lined up hours in advance to get seats in the gallery. Among those who crowded in was Donna Granski, 73, who wore a purple, white and yellow sash covered in ERA buttons, some from her “antique” collection. Granksi said she was shocked when she moved to Virginia in the late ’70s and learned it hadn’t ratified the ERA. She had been pushing for it ever since.“We feel like we are marching up to the peak of the mountain,” she said.ERA advocates say it would enshrine equality for women in the Constitution, offering stronger protections in sex discrimination cases. They also argue the ERA would give Congress firmer ground to pass anti-discrimination laws.Opponents warn it would erode commonsense protections for women, such as workplace accommodations during pregnancy. They also worry it could be used by abortion-rights supporters to quash abortion restrictions on the grounds they discriminate against women.Virginia has undergone seismic political shifts in recent years because of increasing diversity and the growing activism and political power of women. Democrats retook control of the legislature in November’s elections and made passing the ERA a top priority after Republicans blocked it for years.The ERA had passed the Virginia Senate in previous years with bipartisan support but had never before made it to the House for a floor vote.It passed there on a 59-41 vote presided over by Del. Eileen Filler-Corn, the first female House speaker in the chamber’s 400-year history. Spectators in the gallery erupted in the cheers as she announced the outcome. The Senate then passed it 28-12.Republican Del. Margaret Ransone, who voted against the ERA, emphasized the missed deadline and said: “I wish I could say that this dedication and hard work has not all been for nothing.”Last week, the U.S. Justice Department issued a legal memo contending that because the deadline has expired, it is too late for states to ratify the ERA now. The only option now for ERA supporters is to try to begin the ratification process all over again in Congress, according to the memo.The National Archives, which certifies the ratification of constitutional amendments, said it will abide by that opinion “unless otherwise directed by a final court order.”At least two lawsuits have already been filed, one of them brought last month by Alabama, Louisiana and South Dakota to block the amendment and another filed last week to clear a path for its adoption. In the meantime, congressional Democrats are working to pass a measure removing the deadline.Among those disagreeing with the Justice Department opinion is Erwin Chemerinsky, a prominent constitutional law scholar and dean of the Berkeley School of Law. He said Congress can set a deadline and change one, too.Douglas Johnson, senior policy adviser with the anti-abortion group National Right to Life, endorsed the Justice Department position and said that if the ERA were to be reintroduced, abortion opponents would probably seek to revise it to specify it could not be used to overturn state restrictions on abortion.There is precedent for Congress to impose deadlines on the ratification process. But no deadline was set in the case of the 27th Amendment, which is aimed at restricting members of Congress from raising their own pay. It was ratified in 1992, or 203 years after it was submitted to Congress in 1789.Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority and former president of the National Organization for Women, said it was “tragic” that a generation of women missed out on the protections the ERA would have offered.But Smeal, who was a leader in the push for the ERA in the ’70s and ’80s, said the long fight has prompted women to run for political office, where they have increasingly made gains across the country.“Every time they make us fight more, we get stronger,” she said.
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European Unity On Iran Nuclear Deal May Be Cracking
Europe has so far remained united in its backing for the 2015 Iran nuclear deal or JCPOA, despite strong pressure from the Trump administration to abandon the agreement. The deal saw most sanctions on Iran lifted in return for limits on nuclear fuel enrichment – but the U.S. withdrew and re-imposed sanctions in 2018. As Henry Ridgwell reports from London, Washington is ramping up pressure on its closest European allies, following Tehran’s accidental shooting down of a Ukrainian passenger jet last week
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Committee Urges Swift Formation of South Sudan Unity Government
A committee formed to help resolve disputes over the boundaries and number of South Sudan states has turned the issue over to arbitration, adding the issue should not hold up formation of a unity government.After President Salva Kiir and opposition leader Riek Machar failed to agree on the number of states and their borders during several face-to-face meetings in December, regional bloc IGAD appointed a committee to mediate the issue and come up with a proposal for the parties.The committee is comprised of South African Deputy President David Mabuza, Kenya’s special envoy to the South Sudan peace talks Kalonzo Musyoka, Uganda’s special envoy to South Sudan Betty Bigombe and IGAD envoy Ismail Waise.South Africa’s Mabuza, the head of the committee, said in Juba Thursday his group consulted the parties to the deal but could not reach a compromise.“We all agree that we are going to form the government of national unity, but we are going to subject the question of the number of states to arbitration; a mechanism that is going to take up to 90 days which is the proposal on the table,” Mabuza told VOA’s South Sudan in Focus.Mabuza did not explain what the arbitration entails but said the parties should form a transitional government of national unity government by the February 22 deadline and resolve the issue over states and boundaries later.In 2017, President Kiir unilaterally increased the number of states from 10 to 32, a decision the opposition said violated a 2015 peace agreement.While Kiir appears to be refusing to budge on the number of states, the SPLM-in-Opposition has said it either wants to return to the original 10 states or would be amenable to setting up 21 districts as established by British colonialists prior to South Sudan becoming a country.On Wednesday, Kiir, Machar and Sudanese General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, a member of Sudan’s Sovereign Council, held a two-hour closed-door meeting in a bid to resolve the dispute and evaluate the possibility of forming a unity government next month.Mabuza said his committee will draft a final proposal and release it to the public soon.“Our feeling is that the government does not have a problem with the proposal. We are now taking this proposal to other parties. We are going to finalize this proposal and make the public aware,” Mabuza said.Martin Elia Lumoro, South Sudan’s cabinet affairs minister, said the parties have made progress in implementing the peace agreement and the government welcomes the proposal to form a unity government before a deal is reached on the number and boundaries of states.“We as the government of the Republic of South Sudan have listened very carefully, have reported concretely on the progress of implementation of the agreement on the ground, the security and other issues that are political in nature and we are very excited with the level of engagement of the envoys, also with our partner the I-O, with the presence of Dr. Machar in town,” said Lumoro.Kiir security advisor Tutkew Gatluak said Wednesday that the Kiir administration has not changed its position on the number of states. Repeated calls to SPLM IO spokesperson Manawa Peter Gatkuoth went unanswered. A SPLM-IO statement issued earlier this week said “since the parties have failed to reach an agreement on the number of states and their boundaries during their last round of consultations facilitated by South Africa’s deputy president, the SPLM-IO recommends formation of another committee composed of, among others, Troika countries to determine the number of states and their boundaries.”The Troika consists of the United Kingdom, Norway, and the United States, three countries that encouraged the government and opposition to sign the 2018 peace agreement.The statement does not state whether Machar’s group would agree to be part of the unity government if the dispute over states and boundaries remains unresolved next month.The Independent Boundaries Commission, which was originally tasked with determining the number of states and their boundaries in the 2018 peace deal, failed to reach a compromise and recommended that the matter be resolved politically.
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US-China Trade Deal Draws Praise, But Leaves Considerable Unfinished Business
The “Phase 1” trade deal between the United States and China, signed with much fanfare at the White House on Wednesday, is being met with qualified praise by most trade experts who see good news in any reduction of tensions between the world’s two largest economies.The deal also leaves many major challenges to be addressed in a “Phase 2″ negotiation that experts believe will be far more difficult to complete successfully.The Phase 1 agreement gives the U.S. some assurances that China will reform some of its practices related to the treatment of intellectual property, open its markets to U.S. financial services firms, and purchase more U.S.-made goods and services, particularly in the area of agriculture.However, it leaves tariffs in place on a large majority of goods traded between the two countries, and doesn’t address major points of concern, including Chinese industrial policy that subsidizes domestic companies to make them more competitive internationally. It also doesn’t specifically touch on theft of proprietary business information that the U.S. claims is abetted by Beijing.The two countries have been engaged in a trade war for nearly two years, with tariffs in place that have grown to cover hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of goods. Both sides have experienced considerable economic pain as a result, making any move to reduce the tension welcome to most trade experts and representatives of the business community.FILE – President Donald Trump signs a trade agreement with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Jan. 15, 2020.”We commend both governments for staying the course and taking this important step to rebuild trust and restore some stability in the world’s most important commercial relationship,” Thomas J. Donohue, CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said in a statement. “This deal provides much needed certainty to American businesses as they begin the new year.””I think this is actually very good news for the U.S. economy,” said economist Ed Lazear, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, in an interview with CNBC. “It’s important that we finally got this thing going. We’ve been talking about it for a long time. The tariffs were supposed to be a vehicle that would get us to a trade deal.”Lazear, who served as chairman of former President George W. Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers from 2006 to 2009, cautioned that it would be a mistake to expect too much from the agreement.”It’s not going to be transformational in terms of how it affects our economy,” he said. “If we take the administration’s numbers as given and assume that they’re accurate, and then no reason to assume that they won’t be accurate, we’re talking about something like a half a percentage point of GDP.”Key elements of the agreementIntellectual property protections
The U.S. has for years protested the Chinese government’s failure to enforce international agreements meant to protect infringement of copyrights, and theft of trade secrets and other proprietary information. The deal signed Wednesday commits Beijing to criminal prosecution of individuals caught stealing trade secrets, and to a crackdown on the sale of pirated goods.Forced technology transfer
For years, a condition of doing business in China for many foreign firms has been the requirement that sensitive technology be transferred to a Chinese partner company as a condition of market access. The agreement commits China to ending that practice and allowing any transfer that does take place to be on market terms.Market access for financial services firms
U.S. banks, insurers, securities firms and other financial services providers have until now faced significant barriers to entry in the Chinese markets. The Phase One deal will allow them to compete on a more level playing field inside China by removing restrictions on foreign ownership of financial services companies and other restrictions.Currency manipulation
China’s historic use of currency manipulation to give its exporters a competitive advantage over foreign competitors has long been a concern for the Trump administration. Although in recent years, the Chinese government has refrained from many of the practices that used to infuriate U.S. businesses, the deal contains a set of provisions meant to block China from reverting to its old practices.Opening markets to U.S. agriculture
The agreement removes many structural barriers that have made it difficult or impossible for U.S. agricultural products to be sold in China. The deal addresses a wide range of goods, from meat and produce to infant formula and pet food.FILE – A cargo truck drives amid stacked shipping containers at the Yangshan port in Shanghai, China, March 29, 2018.Increased purchases of U.S. goods by China
Trump’s longtime concern about the trade deficit between the U.S. and China will be partially addressed by a commitment from Beijing to increase its purchases of U.S. goods and services by $200 billion over two years, and to “continue on this same trajectory for several years after 2021.” Experts have warned that it seems unlikely that China will be able to meet that requirement, especially in the years following 2021.Enforcement mechanisms
The agreement creates an unusual dispute resolution process that bypasses any third-party involvement, relying on bilateral consultations that leave both sides the option of imposing punitive tariffs if they believe the other side is not conforming to the deal.What the deal leaves outIndustrial subsidies
The deal does not address China’s practice of creating substantial financial subsidies for its domestic industries, which it does through a complex web of low-interest loans, directed government spending, favorable regulatory treatment and more. U.S. officials have indicated that the issue of industrial subsidies is a key element of the proposed Phase Two talks.Cybertheft
Over the past several years, the U.S. and other countries have identified multiple instances in which hackers, some clearly tied to and supported by the Chinese government, have been caught attempting to penetrate the computer systems of foreign businesses in order to steal intellectual property. The intellectual property provisions of Phase One commit both countries to combating the “misappropriation” of trade secrets. However, some experts have advocated for a more specific promise by China to refrain from supporting or benefiting from hostile computer hacking.Future use of tariffs
Trade experts are largely in agreement that tariffs create undesirable distortions in international trade, and ought to be used only when absolutely necessary. However, the agreement leaves in place tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of annual trade, and creates a mechanism for the unilateral imposition of new tariffs if either party to the agreement feels the other has not lived up to expectations. This has led experts such as Chad Bown of the Peterson Institute for International Economics to speculate that permanent tariffs might become the “new normal” for U.S.-China trade relations.Whether and when negotiations on a Phase Two agreement will begin is unclear. Trump has signaled that he plans to wait until after the 2020 elections to relaunch trade talks. China, however, had signaled that Beijing would prefer an earlier start.
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US Labor Department Limits News Outlets’ Use of Embargoed Data
The Labor Department will begin restricting news organizations’ use of economic data by barring computers from the rooms where reporters receive such data before its public release. The early access to embargoed data allows news services to prepare articles in advance of the public release of economic reports. While credentialed reporters will still have early access to embargoed economic figures, the department says it’s barring their use of computers during that time. The Labor Department says this is to ensure the security of the data and to prevent anyone from benefiting from early access to the data, which can influence stock and bond markets. Department officials say the ban will go into effect March 1. It will cover all releases that the department issues each month, including the highly watched U.S. jobs report. For several years, reporters have had to surrender their cellphones and other electronic devices before entering the so-called lockup rooms in order to prevent early transmission of the information in the reports. But they were allowed to write their news stories on computers that could transmit the data only after the embargo lifted. But Labor officials said the current process still gives some news organizations a competitive advantage by allowing them to transmit the data through high-speed networks to serve such clients as investment firms. “These updated procedures will strengthen the security of our data and offer the general public equitable and timely access,” William W. Beach, BLS commissioner, said in a letter announcing the decision.
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5 Countries Demand Open Probe of Iran’s Downing of Ukrainian Airliner
Five countries that lost citizens in the downing of a Ukrainian airliner are calling on Iran to conduct an open investigation and to provide compensation to the victims’ families.The demands came from Ukraine, Canada, Afghanistan, Sweden and the United Kingdom after the foreign ministers of those countries met Thursday at the Canadian High Commission in London.The ministers called for “an independent criminal investigation followed by transparent and impartial judicial proceedings.”The Ukraine International Airlines plane was mistakenly shot down Jan. 8 by Iranian ballistic missiles shortly after takeoff from an airport in Tehran, killing all 176 people on board.Among the victims were 57 Canadians, 17 people from Sweden, 11 Ukrainians, four Afghans, four British citizens and Iranians.FILE – Debris is seen from a downed Ukrainian plane as authorities work at the scene, in Shahedshahr, southwest of the capital Tehran, Iran, Jan. 8, 2020.Iran originally said technical difficulties led to the downing of the plane but admitted days later amid mounting evidence that its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard had accidentally fired missiles at the jetliner.The plane was shot down amid heightened tensions between Iran and the United States over the killing of Revolutionary Guard commander Qassem Soleimani in a U.S. drone strike.Iran retaliated by firing missiles at Iraqi bases that house U.S. troops.Canadian Transport Minister Marc Garneau said Wednesday that two Canadian investigators joined an international team of investigators in Iran. He said the investigators were collaborating effectively, but that Canada was still demanding an official role in the investigation.Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said this week the victims would be alive if tensions had not escalated in the Middle East. “If there was no escalation recently in the region, those Canadians would be right now home with their families,” Trudeau told in an interview with Global News Television. “This is something that happens when you have conflict and the war. Innocents bear the brunt of it.”
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Memorial Service Held for Nairobi Terror Attack Survivor Who Died Days Shy of Anniversary
On Jan. 15, 2019, when al-Shabab terrorists attacked an international hotel and office complex in Nairobi, killing 21 people, hotel nurse Noel Kidaliza was shot five times. She survived the attack only to die earlier this month as a result of her injuries, just ahead of the one-year anniversary of the attack. As Kidaliza’s surviving relatives Thursday held a memorial service for the latest casualty of the attack, her surviving husband called on Kenyan authorities to do more to stop the Islamist militant group.Fifty-two-year-old Noel Kidaliza was the hotel nurse at the DusitD2 hotel, when the militants attacked.Kidaliza’s husband, Benard Kisanya, says the attack changed his family’s life forever.She was the hotel nurse at Dusit. The only nurse in that hotel. During that incident, she had gone out. She ran back when she heard the explosion. She realized there was a patient, so she went back. When she went back, that’s when she met those terrorists,” said Kisanya.The Islamist militants shot Kidaliza five times – twice in the shoulder and three times in the stomach. Kisanya says emergency medical workers got his wife to the Avenue Hospital about an hour after she was shot.Dr. Paul Odula, who was the operating surgeon, recalled the events of that day.“She looked very down and hopeless. She had multiple bullet wounds in her tummy. She was just lying there. That’s the first thing I saw. She was just lying on a stretcher. So, I came in, took her to theater and realized it was a mess in the tummy. It was like spaghetti in the tummy instead of intestines. It was a mess. The surgery took us a lot of time, about five hours, to clean her up and connect everything back together,” said Odula.‘She was a fighter’Despite her severe injuries, Kidaliza survived and a few weeks later was discharged from the hospital. But even when she seemed to be getting better, there were complications.Because of Kidaliza’s multiple wounds, says Odula, she had to constantly fight off infections.
“She was a fighter. Once she realized she was alive, she fought. She struggled. She tried to keep going. She was lively. I hardly knew her. She was a colleague, a nurse. I hardly knew her, but we talked, and she talked, and she kept fighting, trying hard,” Odula said.FILE – A security officer and guard dog patrol the DusitD2 Hotel during its reopening after its closure in January of 2019 following an attack by al-Shabab militants, in Nairobi, Kenya, July 31, 2019.But after months of struggle, her liver failed and she died on Jan. 2, just two weeks shy of the one-year anniversary of the attack..The family of Noel Kidaliza Thursday held a private memorial service.Friends and relatives described Kidaliza as hardworking, warm, kind, and generous.Her surviving husband Kisanya says she was a loving and nurturing mother to their children.“My wife was a woman of substance, she loved her family, she was a woman who gave her life to her family.”More security neededKisanya says authorities need to take more practical measures to protect the Kenyan people from terrorism.He lashed out at Kenyan leaders for big projects like the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI), a controversial project that seeks national compromise on various issues.“Instead of going for whatever they call BBI, why can’t they go for the security, to protect the citizens? We vote for them, they are just going round. There is no employment. They should create employment for the young people. If they are not employed, they go [to] these terrorists, they offer you something, they come back to kill us,” Kisanya said.Kenyan authorities have vowed to stop the militant group, which is an affiliate of al-Qaida. The Islamists have been fighting the government in Mogadishu ever since.Kenya sent troops to Somalia in 2011 to fight al-Shabab alongside the African Union Mission in Somalia, with forces from at least six African countries.Al-Shabab has demanded all foreign troops leave Somalia and gives Kenya’s military presence in the country as reason for its attacks. Since last year’s assault on the Nairobi hotel, al-Shabab has claimed several other attacks on security and civilians in northeast Kenya, near the Somali border.In a brazen attack on Jan. 5, the terrorist group attacked a military base in Lamu, Kenya, killing three Americans.The al-Shabab attack on the Dusit hotel complex was not the first assault by the group in Nairobi. The Islamist militants in 2013 attacked the Westgate shopping mall, killing 67 people.The group’s deadliest attack in Kenya was in 2015, when al-Shabab gunmen killed 148 people at Garissa University, most of them Kenyan students.
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Rights Group Demands Israel Rein in Murky Spyware Company
An Israeli court heard a case Thursday calling for restrictions to be slapped on NSO Group, an Israeli company that makes surveillance software that is said to have been used to target journalists and dissidents around the world.The case, brought by Amnesty International, calls for Israel to revoke the spyware firm’s export license, preventing it from selling its contentious product abroad, particularly to regimes that could use it for malicious purposes.“They are the most dangerous cyber weapon that we know of and they’re not being properly overseen,” said Gil Naveh, spokesman for Amnesty International Israel. “That is the reason why we think that their license should be revoked.”NSO is implicated in a series of digital break-in attempts and the court case is the latest pushback against the company and its product. Last year, Facebook sued the hacker-for-hire company in U.S. federal court for allegedly targeting some 1,400 users of its encrypted messaging service WhatsApp with highly sophisticated spyware.Khashoggi Friend Says Israeli Spyware Played Role in His Killing
An Israeli software company calls the allegation that its spyware played a part in the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi "unfounded."
A fellow Saudi dissident and Khashoggi friend living in exile in Canada — Omar Abdelaziz — is suing NSO Group, alleging the Saudi government used NSO’s Pegasus spyware to track his and Khashoggi’s movements and communications.
The two dissidents had been working on a pro-opposition project targeting the Saudi government and calling for democracy in the…
In 2018, Amnesty said one of its employees had been targeted with the malware, saying a hacker tried to break into the staff member’s smartphone, using a WhatsApp message about a protest in front of the Saudi Embassy in Washington as bait.The spyware has also been implicated in the gruesome killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was dismembered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018. It is also said to be behind a campaign to compromise proponents of a soda tax in Mexico and an effort to hack into the phone of an Arab dissident that prompted an update to Apple’s operating system.An Associated Press investigation last year found that critics of NSO were targeted in elaborate undercover operations in which operatives tried to discredit them. NSO has denied involvement.NSO Group’s flagship malware, called Pegasus, allows spies to effectively take control of a phone, surreptitiously controlling its cameras and microphones from remote servers and vacuuming up personal data and geolocations.NSO does not disclose the identities of its clients, but they are believed to include Middle Eastern and Latin American states. The company says it sells its technology to Israeli-approved governments to help them stop militants and criminals. The company said it would not comment on the case because it revolves around a demand directed at Israel’s defense ministry, but last year NSO announced that it had adopted “a new human rights policy” to ensure its software is not misused.The Israeli Defense Ministry, which issues export licenses to Israeli defense and security companies, declined to comment.Reflecting the interest in the case’s outcome, the Tel Aviv courtroom on Thursday was packed, with many attendees forced to stand until the hearing was moved to a larger space. As with previous cases involving defense exports, judge Rachel Barkai ruled that the legal proceedings would be closed to media and she imposed a gag order on the case.“There is a tangible concern that if the hearing is open it will cause harm to the state’s security and to its foreign relations,” she said, before journalists were ushered out of the courtroom.Thursday’s hearing is expected to be the only one in the case, Naveh said, and a decision is set to be handed down in the coming days.
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Poverty, Overwhelmed School System Forcing Sudan’s Children to Work
Millions of children in Sudan go to work each day instead of to school, in part because of widespread poverty, and in part because the education system does not have the resources to accommodate them. Naba Mohiedeen reports from Khartoum.
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China Applauds Trade Deal With US But Says ‘Core Concerns’ Must Still Be Addressed
The Chinese government is applauding an interim trade agreement with the United States but cautions the two countries must still address key issues of mutual concern.U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He signed the deal Wednesday to resolve what had been an escalating 18-month trade dispute between the world’s largest economies. “The Phase 1 economic and trade agreement reached between China and the United States is beneficial to both China and the United States, and it is also beneficial to the whole world,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said at a news conference Thursday in Beijing.Geng said the deal “demonstrates once again that China and the United States are capable of finding appropriate approaches and effective solutions through dialogue and consultation on the basis of equality and mutual respect” and that it is imperative the two countries “take care of each other’s core concerns.”Geng did not provide details about issues of concern but Beijing has said it wants tariffs imposed earlier on most of China’s exports to the U.S. to be lifted.Trump tweeted early Thursday the pact is “One of the greatest trade deals ever made!” and that it is “Also good for China and our long term relationship.”One of the greatest trade deals ever made! Also good for China and our long term relationship. 250 Billion Dollars will be coming back to our Country, and we are now in a great position for a Phase Two start. There has never been anything like this in U.S. history! USMCA NEXT!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 16, 2020At Wednesday’s White House signing ceremony, Vice Premier Liu read a letter from Chinese President Xi Jinping, which said, “In the next step the two sides need to implement the agreement in earnest.”WATCH: Related video by VOA’s Patsy Widakuswara:Sorry, but your player cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
In his letter to Trump, the Chinese president also called for the U.S. to treat Chinese companies fairly. Washington already has removed its designation of Beijing as a currency manipulator. Under the deal, the U.S. is halting plans to add new tariffs on billions of dollars’ worth of Chinese goods, while cutting in half tariffs on about $110 billion of Chinese products.U.S. tariffs will remain in place on about $360 billion of imports from China.The tough tariffs hurt China economically and brought the Chinese to the negotiating table, National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow told reporters on Wednesday.”This is an indisputable win for our country and a momentous day in the U.S.–China economic relationship,” according to National Association of Manufacturers president and CEO Jay Timmons.Members of the opposition Democratic Party are among those criticizing the deal as weak for U.S. interests.”True to form, Trump is getting precious little in return for the significant pain and uncertainty he has imposed on our economy, farmers and works,” said former Vice President Joe Biden, a leading candidate for his party’s nomination to challenge Trump for the presidency in November. “The deal won’t actually resolve the real issues at the heart of the dispute.”House Speaker Nancy Pelosi termed Wednesday’s event “nothing more than a showy television ceremony to try to hide the complete absence of concrete progress, transparency or accountability in this ‘Phase One’ agreement.”The first phase, which is to go into effect in a month, does not address China’s subsidies to state-owned companies, an issue likely to be discussed in the next phase.U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer called those subsidies a big problem that is partly offset by the continuing tariffs. China cannot impose retaliatory tariffs if the United States takes actions against it for violating terms of the agreement, according to a senior administration official, who explained to reporters after the signing event that Beijing’s only option would be to quit the deal. “I think both sides are reasonably happy with this compromise, even though it doesn’t really tackle the core issues,” Edward Alden, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, told VOA.
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Turkey Targets Kurdish Rebels in Iraq, Killing 4 Yazidi Fighters
Turkish airstrikes inside Iraq targeting members of an outlawed Kurdish rebel group have killed at least four minority Yazidi fighters allied with the rebels, an Iraqi army official said Thursday.The strikes, which took place on Wednesday, hit a military pickup truck in the northern town of Sinjar in Nineveh province, said the army official, speaking on condition of anonymity under regulations.The pickup was carrying members of the Iraqi Yazidi militia known as the Shingal Resistance Units, affiliated with the Kurdistan Worker’s Party, or PKK, which is fighting an insurgency in Turkey and has been outlawed by Ankara.Kurdish television channels in northern Iraq reported that Yazidi commander Zardasht Shingali was among the dead and that another five fighters were wounded in the strikes.In Baghdad, Iraq’s joint operations command said five people were killed in the attack in Sinjar. The different casualty tolls could not immediately be reconciled.The Yazidi militia was formed in 2014, after the Islamic State group overran much of northern Iraq in August of that year and took over security in Sinjar after IS was pushed out of town in November 2015. It maintains strong relations with Kurdish groups such as the People’s Protection Units, or YPG, in Syria, and the PKK in Turkey.Turkey has repeatedly struck the Yazidi militia positions in Sinjar in efforts to cut supply routes of the PKK. Also, a Turkish airstrike there last year killed Zaki Shingali, a PKK commander.Elsewhere in Iraq, a car bombing wounded at least four Iraqi solders on a highway leading to a border crossing with Saudi Arabia, according to a statement from the Iraqi joint command.No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack but it was suspected to have been carried out by remnants of the Islamic State group.
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Iran: Uranium Enrichment at Higher Level Than Before Nuclear Pact
President Hassan Rohani says Iran is now enriching more uranium than the country did before it agreed to a nuclear deal with world powers in 2015, as Tehran gradually scales back its commitments under the agreement.“Pressure has increased on Iran, but we continue to progress,” Rohani said in a televised speech on January 16. The country has lifted all limits on its production of enriched uranium, which can be used to make reactor fuel but also nuclear weapons.Iran has breached its main limitations, exceeding the stockpiles of heavy water and uranium allowed, the number and types of centrifuges it can operate to enrich uranium, and the purity of uranium, in response to sanctions reinstated by the United States after President Donald Trump unilaterally abandoned the nuclear agreement in 2018.Trump wants Tehran to negotiate a new accord that would place indefinite curbs on its nuclear program and restrict Tehran’s ballistic-missile program.The five remaining parties to the accord — Britain, France, and Germany, plus China and Russia — have pledged to keep the accord alive.But European partners have been unable to offer Tehran a way to sell its crude oil abroad despite the U.S. sanctions, which caused the value of Iran’s currency to plummet and sent its inflation rate soaring.Announcing they had triggered the 2015 deal’s Dispute Recognition Mechanism on January 14, Britain, France, and Germany warned that Tehran’s actions were “inconsistent with the provisions of the nuclear agreement” and had “increasingly severe and non-reversible proliferation implications.”Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on January 16 that the three countries were allowing themselves to be bullied by the United States, which had threatened new tariffs on their goods.”E3 sold out remnants of JCPOA to avoid new Trump tariffs,” he wrote in a tweet, referring to the nuclear accord.“It won’t work my friends. You only whet his appetite. Remember your high school bully?” Zarif added.He continued by telling Europeans: “If you want to sell your integrity, go ahead. But DO NOT assume high moral/legal ground. YOU DON’T HAVE IT.”The Trump administration has threatened to impose a 25 percent tariff on European automobile imports if Britain, France, and Germany did not formally accuse Iran of breaking the nuclear pact, the Washington Post reported on January 15.In a speech on January 15, Rohani criticized the European powers’ decision and their failure to ensure his country enjoyed the economic benefits of the 2015 deal.”The next step you need to take is to return to your commitments,” the Iranian president said, while Zarif asserted that the nuclear deal was “not dead.”Under the 2015 pact, Iran pledged to curb its nuclear ambitions in exchange for international sanctions relief.Tehran, which insists its nuclear program is for civilian purposes only, announced that the final limit on its production of enriched uranium had been lifted earlier this month, days after top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad.In retaliation, Iran on January 8 fired ballistic missiles at two bases housing U.S. forces in Iraq.Hours after the missile attack, a Ukrainian passenger airliner was shot down by Iran’s air defenses after it took off from Tehran, killing all 176 people on board.Rohani said in his speech on January 16 that his government was “working daily to prevent military confrontation or war.”He also said that that dialogue with the international community was difficult but remained “possible.”
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Japan Confirms Case of Coronavirus Behind Outbreak in China
Japan has confirmed its first case of a strain of a coronavirus that has killed one man and sickened 41 others in China since last month.The Health Ministry says a man in his 30s who lives in Kanagawa prefecture was hospitalized last week suffering from a persistent cough and a fever, which developed after visiting the central Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak. The ministry says the man has since recovered and been released.This is the second reported case of the virus outside of China, after a Chinese woman traveling in Thailand was diagnosed with the virus. Neither person had visited the seafood market in Wuhan that has been identified as the center of the outbreak and that had sparked fears that the virus could spread through human-to-human transmission.The virus is a new strain of the same family of viruses that caused the outbreak of several acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, that killed over 600 people in China and Hong Kong between 2002 and 2003. The detection of this outbreak comes ahead of the Lunar New Year, when hundreds of millions of Chinese normally travel.
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While US Relaxes Demands in S. Korea Cost-Sharing Talks, Gaps Remain
Harry Harris, the U.S. ambassador to South Korea, says Washington has softened its demand for how much Seoul should pay for the cost of the U.S. military presence here, but says a gap remains and that “time is of the essence.” “We have some time left, [but] not a lot of time,” Harris said Thursday, a day after a sixth round of cost-sharing negotiations ended in Washington with no breakthrough. For the second consecutive year, U.S. and South Korean negotiators were unable to reach an agreement before the cost-sharing deal expired at the end of the year. Both sides hope to eventually reach a deal that would retroactively cover the intervening weeks. Seoul’s foreign ministry Thursday said both sides expanded their mutual understanding during the latest round of talks, but that there are still differences. Speaking to foreign correspondents at his residence, Harris said the chief U.S. negotiator has reduced the “top-line number” for how much Seoul should pay for the presence of the 28,500 troops. “He has compromised, so we are now waiting for the Korean side to do the same,” said Harris.The U.S. had reportedly asked South Korea to increase the amount it pays by five times – a demand rejected by Seoul as unreasonable. The issue has created an awkward strain in a nearly 70-year-old alliance that both sides tout as “ironclad.” Opinion polls show South Koreans overwhelmingly reject the U.S. demand but still support the alliance and want U.S. troops to stay. “I pay attention to South Korean public opinion – it’s important,” Harris said. However, he insisted there is no evidence the U.S. financial demands were detrimental to the overall relationship.“Financial demands only become detrimental if we can’t reach an agreement,” Harris said. Earlier this week, President Moon Jae-in said South Korea should contribute a “reasonable and fair amount,” noting that any eventual deal will need to be approved by South Korea’s National Assembly, its legislature.People watch a TV screen showing the live broadcast of South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s New Year’s speech at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, Jan. 7, 2020.Trump demandsLast year, the U.S. and South Korea were unable to reach an agreement until early February. Seoul eventually agreed to pay $925 million — an 8% increase from the previous year. The deal only covered a single year rather than five, as in the previous arrangement, meaning the issue continues to be an irritant to bilateral ties. U.S. President Donald Trump has frequently blasted South Korea for paying what he considers an inadequate amount for U.S. protection. In Seoul, most public anger has been directed at Harris. In October, a group of anti-U.S. protesters broke into Harris’ residential compound, carrying signs complaining about the cost-sharing talks.Small groups of fringe protesters have also gathered outside the U.S. Embassy. During at least one of those protests, demonstrators plucked the mustache hairs out of a sign depicting Harris’ face. Harris defends mustacheHarris’ facial hair created international headlines last month, when a South Korean reporter asked the ambassador if he would shave his mustache in order to improve relations with South Koreans. The Korea Times reporter said some South Koreans associate mustaches with South Korea’s former Japanese colonial rulers, many of whom had facial hair.Retired Adm. Harry Harris, currently the U.S. Ambassador to South Korea, attends a ceremony to mark the 78th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Saturday, Dec. 7, 2019 at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.Harris rejected that notion on Thursday, pointing out that many historical South Korean independence leaders also wore mustaches. “It’s a cherry-picking of history,” said Harris, whose mother was Japanese.Some South Koreans on social media have taken issue with Harris’ Japanese heritage – a fact that Harris lamented.“To take that history and put it on me simply because of an accident of birth is I think a mistake,” Harris said. “I didn’t grow a mustache because of my Japanese heritage, because of the independence movement in Korea, or even because of my dad [who also wore a mustache],” Harris added. “I did it because I could. And I did. Nothing more than that.”Harris, who has attempted to make light of the issue, handed out fake mustaches on a stick to reporters at his press availability and briefly posed with a fake mustache afterward. “I couldn’t grow hair on top of my head. But I could grow it on the front of my head,” said the 63-year-old Harris. “So I did that.”
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Kenya Looks to Secure Border as Al-Shabab Launches Deadly Attacks
Kenya has endured a grim start to the new year as extremist group al-Shabab launched attacks against targets including a school, a police post and a military base shared by U.S. forces.Observers are debating whether the surge of violence signals renewed strength by the terror group or is a seasonal phenomenon. A new report found the group has killed more than 4,000 civilians over the past 10 years.On Monday, three teachers were killed and one abducted in Kamuthe, a town in Garissa county, bordering Somalia. The three killed were all non-Muslims while the one kidnapped was a Muslim. Another teacher was wounded, according to the Associated Press. Attackers also hit a police post and destroyed a telecommunications tower.Hillary Mutyambai, inspector general of the Kenya Police Service visited a police camp in neighboring Lamu county on Tuesday to thank officers for their efforts but advised them to reach out to community members for help foiling future attacks.Mutyambai “urged the officers to change their tact in the fight against the enemy,” the Kenya Police Service’s official account tweeted about the visit. He also “urged the officers to embrace community policing so as to have [a] flow of information from members of [the] public on suspected criminals.”@IG_NPS and , The Deputy Inspector General @APSKenya Mr Noor Gabow, today visited Nyagoro AP Camp-Lamu County. He thanked the officers for their resilience in the fight against Al Shabaab. He informed them that the current sporadic attacks by Al Shabaab are a sign of cowardness. pic.twitter.com/QllQoL6Bvl— National Police Service-Kenya (@NPSOfficial_KE) January 14, 2020 Tres Thomas, a security analyst focusing on Somalia, said the latest attacks show that the terror group is attempting to sow divisions among the population by sparing Muslims and killing Christians. He also said that January is typically a time when al-Shabaab launches some of its deadliest attacks including a 2017 attack in Kulbiyow, where dozens of Kenya Defense Force soldiers were killed, and DusitD2 hotel attack in 2019 that killed more than 20 people.Thomas said the spate of violence shows the group is able to exploit points of weakness along the Kenyan border.“You still see al-Shabaab has free mobility to cross the border from Somalia into Kenya. And that’s because a lot of the areas don’t have adequately manned checkpoints,” he told VOA. “And one of the areas on the southeastern border in the Boni Forest is very rugged terrain that’s hard for security forces to navigate and offers a safe haven to Shabaab.”Thomas added that the lack of capacity is exacerbated by a lack of cooperation between local and national law enforcement agencies. “You still have security forces that are not integrated,” he said. “You have tensions between the central government and regional administrations that prevent them from banding together to defeat al-Shabaab.”He said a January 5 attack against Camp Simba that left three Americans dead exemplifies the group’s continued ability to identify and exploit weak spots.“I think Shabab was able to identify this as a vulnerable spot that didn’t have adequate force protection from U.S. and Kenyan forces,” he said. “And so only with maybe 15 or so attackers actually on the base they were able to destroy approximately $20 million in equipment, including spy aircraft used to collect intelligence on al-Shabab and to target mid-level and senior-level officials. So I think from that perspective, al-Shabab was able to achieve its objectives.”Future strategies, he added, should focus on securing the border and preventing the group from recruiting young Kenyans, particularly those of Somali origin. “And I think that what needs to be identified are ways to actually stop al-Shabaab from crossing the border, recruiting inside Kenya. And that’s something that Kenya hasn’t been able to accomplish, even though it’s been deployed in Somalia for the last nine years,” Thomas said.
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Parnas: Trump ‘Knew Exactly What Was Going On’ in Ukraine
Lev Parnas, the indicted associate of U.S. President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer who worked to pressure Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden, told the New York Times and the U.S.-based cable news network MSNBC that Trump was aware of his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani’s activities in Ukraine.Trump “knew exactly what was going on,” Parnas told Rachel Maddow in an interview broadcast Wednesday night.The Times quoted him as saying, “I am betting my whole life that Trump knew exactly everything that was going on that Rudy Giuliani was doing in Ukraine.”Previously, Trump has denied sending Giuliani to Ukraine to look for dirt on Biden, the former vice president and a rival in the 2020 presidential election.But Parnas told Maddow that Trump “was aware of all my movements.””I wouldn’t do anything without the consent of Rudy Giuliani or the president,” Parnas said. “I was on the ground doing their work.”Parnas said his function in working with Giuliani was to meet with senior Ukrainian officials in a search for evidence of corruption by Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, who worked for Burisma, a Ukrainian gas company. Trump allegedly withheld aid to Ukraine until President Volodymyr Zelenskiy committed to investigating the Bidens, and those allegations are at the center of his impeachment by the House of Representatives.In a tweet later Wednesday night, Katherine Faulders, White House and Capitol Hill reporter for ABC News, said she asked Giuliani if he had any comment on the interview with Parnas. He texted, “None he’s a very sad situation.”Asked Giuliani if he had any comment on the ongoing Parnas interview and he texted me “None he’s a very sad situation.”— Katherine Faulders (@KFaulders) January 16, 2020″I mean they have no reason to speak to me,” Parnas told Maddow. “Why would President Zelenskiy’s inner circle or (Interior Minister Arsen) Avakov or all these people or (former) President (Petro) Poroshenko meet with me? Who am I? They were told to meet with me. And that’s the secret they’re trying to keep.”He added that Trump’s interest in Ukraine was never about rooting out government corruption but was “all about Joe Biden, Hunter Biden.”When Maddow asked Parnas about Trump’s claim that he does not know him, Parnas said, “He lied,” adding that he was with Giuliani four or five days a week in Ukraine during which Trump was in constant contact with Giuliani.Parnas said he wants “to get the truth out … it’s important for our country, it’s important for me … a lot of things are being said that are not accurate.”Parnas and another Giuliani associate, Igor Fruman, have been indicted on charges of making illegal contributions to the Trump campaign. Both have pleaded not guilty.
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Senators to be Sworn In For Trump Impeachment Trial
The Senate impeachment trial of President Donald Trump begins Thursday with preliminary proceedings, including House lawmakers who will act as prosecutors presenting the articles of impeachment to the Senators who will serve as the jury.Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts will be sworn in for his role in overseeing the process, and then will swear in the 100 members of the Senate.Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the final step Thursday will be to notify the White House and “summon the president to answer the articles and send his counsel.”The main portion of the trial will begin Tuesday.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi signed the articles of impeachment at a ceremony Wednesday, moving the process forward after delaying for about a month as House Democrats tried to get Senate leaders to agree to allow testimony from new witnesses during the trial.McConnell has resisted calling witnesses, saying that decision would come later in the trial.U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell speaks to Capitol Hill reporters following the weekly Senate Republican policy lunch at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Jan. 14, 2020.The Democratic-led House also voted Wednesday to formally choose the seven impeachment managers who will serve as prosecutors arguing Trump abused his power and obstructed Congress. They include House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff, Judiciary Committee Chair Jerry Nadler, Administration Committee Chair Zoe Lofgren, Democratic Caucus Chair Hakeem Jeffries, Congresswoman Val Demmings, Congressman Jason Crow and Congresswoman Sylvia Garcia.As Pelosi announced the impeachment managers at a morning news conference, Trump tweeted the impeachment was “another Con job by the Do Nothing Democrats.”A senior administration official told reporters the White House is ready for the trial “because the facts overwhelmingly show that the president did nothing wrong.”White House spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham also reiterated Trump’s defense that he has done nothing wrong.”He looks forward to having the due process rights in the Senate that Speaker Pelosi and House Democrats denied to him, and expects to be fully exonerated,” Grisham said.Trump is accused of abusing his power by pressuring Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, who served on the board of a gas company in Ukraine, as Trump withheld $391 million in military aid that he later released. The president is also accused of subsequently obstructing a congressional probe into his actions.No matter what rules are in place for the Senate trial, Trump seems to be safe from the prospect of being convicted and removed from office.His Republican Party holds a 53-47 majority in the chamber, and conviction requires a two-thirds majority, meaning if all Democrats voted to convict, then 20 Republicans would have to also vote that way for Trump to be convicted and removed from office.This is the third time in the country’s 244-year history a U.S. president has been impeached and targeted for removal from office.Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998 were both impeached by the House but acquitted in Senate trials. A fourth president, Richard Nixon, resigned in 1974 in the face of certain impeachment in a political corruption scandal.
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Despite Trump’s Urging, Egypt, Ethiopia Still Deadlocked on Nile Dam
The latest talks hosted by the U.S. Treasury produced some progress but failed to achieve a comprehensive agreement on the filling and operation of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).Egypt and Ethiopia are still deadlocked over the dam, despite urging from U.S. President Donald Trump that parties reach a “mutually beneficial agreement.”The parties had agreed in November to a deadline of January 15, 2020, for reaching an accord on the dam. Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan are scheduled to reconvene in Washington on January 28-29 to finalize an agreement.FILE – The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam is seen as it undergoes construction work on the river Nile in Guba Woreda, Benishangul Gumuz Region, Ethiopia, Sept. 26, 2019.A joint statement released by U.S. Treasury noted the “progress achieved” and the joint “commitment to reach a comprehensive, cooperative, adaptive, sustainable and mutually beneficial agreement on the filling and operation of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.”Ethiopia and Egypt have been negotiating for years, but one sticking point remains the rate at which Ethiopia will draw water out of the Nile to fill the dam’s reservoir. Cairo fears Ethiopia’s plans to rapidly fill the reservoir could threaten Egypt’s source of fresh water. Reservoir filling in stagesThe parties have agreed that the filling of the dam will be “executed in stages” during the wet season, in a manner that will take into account “the potential impact of the filling on downstream reservoirs,” according to the statement.The parties have agreed to an initial filling stage of the GERD that will provide for the rapid achievement of a level of 595 meters above sea level and the early generation of electricity, while providing appropriate mitigation measures for Egypt and Sudan in case of severe droughts during this stage.The parties have not appeared to agree on how these provisions will be implemented. However, observers note that there is political will to continue talks. “This is progress,” said Aaron Salzberg, director of the Water Institute at the University of North Carolina and former director of the State Department agency that deals with international transboundary water issues.“The countries are staying at the table and a vision for the cooperative and adaptive management of GERD — based on hydrology and downstream impacts — is coming together,” Salzberg added.Prior to negotiations this week, a group of Egyptian academics and civil society circulated a petition calling for the United Nations, African Union and Pan African Parliament to exert pressure on Ethiopia and “avert potential conflict in the region” over the dam. Ethiopia continues to insist that it is not going beyond a tripartite negotiation on this issue, with U.S. and the World Bank participating only as observers during the three Washington meetings.South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa speaks during a session of the World Economic Forum on Africa in Cape Town, South Africa, Sept. 5, 2019.”We came out of respect, but we will not accept negotiation. That is our stance,” Seleshi Bekele, Ethiopia’s minister of water, irrigation and electricity, told VOA last week.On Monday, Ethiopia requested that South African President Cyril Ramaphosa help resolve the long-running dispute.Still, the joint statement appears to represent a lowering in tensions. In October, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed warned that if the need arose to go to war over the dam, his country could ready millions of people.White House meetingOn Tuesday, Trump met with the foreign and water resources ministers of Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan at the White House to discuss progress on dam talks and reaffirm “United States support for a cooperative, sustainable and mutually beneficial agreement among the parties.”Presiden Trump @realDonaldTrump met with Foreign Ministers & Water Resources Ministers of Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan in the White House in the sideline of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam #GERD meeting. @seleshi_b_a@mfaethiopia@mowieethiopiapic.twitter.com/ruxraVHEQy— Fitsum Arega (@fitsumaregaa) January 15, 2020 The meeting was not on the president’s public schedule and was not announced until hours later. A White House meeting with the parties in November was also not announced on the president’s schedule.Trump took interest in the dam in September, after Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi asked him to mediate the conflict. He appointed Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to be the point of contact in the matter.The U.S. State Department has engaged with parties of the dam project since 2011 and repeatedly urged tripartite negotiations to resolve the matter.Salem Solomon and Habtamu Seyoum contributed to this report.
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Book by Pope Emeritus on Celibacy Gets Shrug in France
The former pope Benedict XVI reportedly wants his name removed from a controversial book that appears to undermine his successor, Pope Francis, on issues of priestly celibacy. The book hit stores Wednesday in France, the first country to publish it. But despite the furor the book has stirred in the press, many French readers appear underwhelmed.The book, “Des Profondeurs de Nos Coeurs,” meaning “From the Depths of Our Hearts,” defends priestly celibacy at a time when Pope Francis is considering whether to lift restrictions on married priests in remote areas. Cardinal Robert Sarah, who co-authored the book, rejects accusations he manipulated Benedict regarding the content. The furor, which appears to lay bare spiritual divisions between the two popes, has made news headlines, but hasn’t stirred up much public interest. Parisian Brigitte Gallay says she has heard about the book, but notes Protestant ministers are married with children. She sees nothing wrong about a church that’s closer to the lives of ordinary people — even though some Catholics might be shocked at the thought of married priests. The Catholic Church has taken a hit in France, not just because of declining attendance, but also because of a major pedophilia scandal — the theme of a recent movie. A trial opened this month against a priest at the heart of the scandal, which has helped fuel debate about the dangers of priestly celibacy. At Paris bookstore Gibert Joseph, social worker Alexander Monnot adds the book to a pile of others he’s planning to buy. Monnot says he supports celibacy for priests. “The fact is, at the very beginning of the Church, there was Jesus and 12 apostles,” Monnot said. “And even some were married. They all left their families to preach. Jesus was not married. And priests should be an incarnation, a continuation of Jesus.”Monnot says he is looking forward to reading the book’s arguments in favor of celibacy, but that’s not the only reason he’s buying it. He predicts the French publisher will recall this edition, which has Benedict’s name as co-author, meaning the copy he’s buying may one day be a collector’s item.
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Will US-China ‘Phase 1’ Trade Deal Reset Other Stalled Talks?
The United States and China agreed to a ‘Phase 1’ trade deal on Wednesday that includes the protection of intellectual property rights and agricultural policy.Both countries say they plan to continue working on issues. “The parties intend to continue implementation and improvement of existing mechanisms for bilateral communication on agricultural policy,” according to the FILE – U.S. and Chinese officials are seen meeting during the second bilateral Diplomatic and Security Dialogue, at the State Department in Washington, Nov. 9, 2018.Citing Washington’s call for a “results-oriented” relationship with Beijing, U.S. officials are reportedly not anxious to resume the DSD, which is perceived as highly symbolic.On Jan. 3, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke to Chinese Politburo member Yang Jiechi by phone after the U.S.- targeted killing of top Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani. Yang raised the resumption of DSD with Pompeo, according to a diplomatic source.”We are not going to comment on the details of our diplomatic conversations or engagements,” a State Department spokesperson told VOA.One of the top issues on the U.S. agenda is persuading China to halt the purchase of oil from Iran, which Washington says has fueled Tehran’s nuclear and missile ambitions. Trump has also called on China and other signatories of the so-called JCPOA Iran nuclear deal to “walk away from the 2015 deal.”Watch related video by VOA’s Patsy Widakuswara:Sorry, but your player cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline. Embed” />CopyWhile senior administration officials say they have repeatedly emphasized to Beijing “the threat posed to regional stability by Iran’s nuclear and missile programs,” some experts are skeptical that China, a traditional ally of Iran, will cooperate with the U.S. against Tehran.Jon Alterman, CSIS’s director of the Middle East, said he is doubtful China could use its influence over Iran to help ease tensions in the Middle East. “I wouldn’t expect China is able to play a useful role in de-escalating this conflict,” Alterman said. “China might wish to be included in a larger grouping of countries as it was in the JCPOA process, but even so, I’d expect its role to be quite passive.” Others say China welcomes a distracted U.S., which would provide Beijing with breathing space to continue to build its comprehensive national power. “The Chinese Communist Party would welcome developments in the Middle East that siphon U.S. resources and attention away from U.S. efforts to deter Chinese aggression,” said Bradley Bowman, senior director of the Center on Military and Political Power at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
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Growing Controversy in Turkey Over Erdogan’s Massive Canal Project
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is planning what’s dubbed ‘the construction project of the decade’, a massive canal connecting Turkey’s Marmara and Black Sea. The canal will provide an alternative route to the Bosporus, one of the world’s busiest waterways, which divides Istanbul. But the project is proving controversial, both domestically and internationally. Dorian Jones reports.
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US, China Lower Tension With Trade Deal but Disputes Remain
The United States and China have signed phase one of a trade deal that may help lower tensions between the world’s two largest economies. But as White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara reports, much of the trade disputes between the two countries remain unresolved.
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