Tesla’s Shanghai factory delivered its first cars to customers Monday and chief executive Elon Musk said the electric automaker plans to set up a design center in China to create a model for worldwide sales.Musk presided at a ceremony where a half-dozen buyers wearing red Tesla T-shirts drove away new Model 3 sedans. He expressed thanks to earlier customers who he said made Tesla’s expansion in China possible by purchasing imported models from the fledgling brand.Tesla Inc. built the Gigafactory 3, its first outside the United States, following the ruling Communist Party’s 2018 decision to allow full foreign ownership in electric car manufacturing. It is due to produce the Model 3 and a planned SUV, the Model Y.Producing in China insulates Tesla from possible duty increases on imported U.S.-made vehicles from Beijing’s tariff war with Washington. Other foreign automakers including General Motors Co., Volkswagen AG and Toyota Motor Co. have long had joint venture factories in China.Tesla Inc CEO Elon Musk takes off his coat onstage during a delivery event for Tesla China-made Model 3 cars in Shanghai, China, Jan. 7, 2020.China is the biggest global market for electrics, but Tesla’s manufacturing launch comes at a time when sales are sagging following the end of government subsidies in mid-2019.Total electric vehicle sales fell almost 45% in November from a year earlier to 95,000. Sales for the first 11 months of 2019 were up 1.3% at just over 1 million vehicles.Musk said Tesla plans to increase investment in China and set up a design center to “create a car for worldwide sale,” but he gave no details.The Chinese-made Model 3 starts at 299,050 yuan ($42,680) following a price cut announced last month.The company said production began in December and 15 Model 3s were delivered to Tesla employees in Shanghai on Dec. 30.Sales targetsTesla faces a crowded market flooded with dozens of electric models from rivals including GM, VW, Nissan Motor Co. and China’s BYD Auto and BAIC. They are under pressure to meet government sales targets that shift the cost of promoting the technology to the industry.Automakers that fail to meet their targets can buy credits from rivals that do. That might turn into a windfall for Tesla and other brands that earn a surplus because their whole output is electric. Beijing has yet to set the price of credits.The Shanghai factory makes Tesla the first foreign auto brand with full ownership of its China operation.Other global brands work through partnerships with state-owned automakers and share their revenues. Most are expected to remain in such ventures to take advantage of their Chinese partners’ government relationships despite the ruling party’s plans to allow full foreign ownership in the whole auto industry by next year.Tesla reported earlier it delivered a total of 367,500 cars last year.The company surprised investors by reporting a $143 million profit in the quarter ending in September, raising hopes Tesla may be turning to profitability. The company lost $1.1 billion in the first half of the year.
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Month: January 2020
Putin to Visit Istanbul Amid Increasing Differences Over Syria, Libya
Russian President Vladimir Putin visits Istanbul Wednesday to inaugurate a new gas pipeline between the two countries. Energy cooperation is the foundation of a growing rapprochement between Russia and Turkey, which is a NATO member. As Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul, during the visit the Russian and Turkish leaders are expected to address growing differences in their bilateral relationship, on issues ranging from Syria to Libya.
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Plastic Bags and Fur Coats, New York Welcomes New Bans In 2020
The start of a new year is the time for resolutions and promises, and New York state decided to welcome 2020 with a series of bans. The state governor Andrew M. Cuomo signed almost 700 initiatives ranging from helping immigrants to protecting pets. Nina Vishneva looked into what will be banned in the state in 2020 and how New Yorkers feel about it. Anna Rice narrates her story.
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Polish President Boycotts Holocaust Remembrance in Israel
Poland’s president said Tuesday that he won’t attend a commemoration in Israel to mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp because he is not allowed to speak at the forum, in contrast to the presidents of Russia and Germany.President Andrzej Duda is not on the list of speakers for the Jan. 23 World Holocaust Forum at Jerusalem’s Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial.Duda has voiced concerns about recent remarks from Russian President Vladimir Putin that imply that Poland was partly responsible for World War II.The war officially started in Sept. 1939 when Nazi Germany invaded Poland. Soon after, the Soviet Union annexed parts of eastern Poland as part of a non-aggression pact signed with Nazi Germany.
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Blast Kills 4 Children in Myanmar’s Rakhine State
Four children were killed and five injured alongside their teacher as an explosion hit while they collected firewood in an area of Myanmar’s Rakhine state beset by fighting between the military and Arakan Army (AA) rebels.It was not immediately clear what caused the blast or who was behind it.The conflict has seen scores of civilians killed, hundreds wounded and some 100,000 displaced in the past year as the AA fights for more autonomy for ethnic Rakhine Buddhists.The blast happened Tuesday morning in Htaikhtoo Pauk village in Buthidaung township, deputy administrator Hla Shwe told AFP.A nurse attends to a boy injured by a blast in Buthidaung township, in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, Jan. 7, 2020. (Photo provided to VOA by source who requested not to be identified)Local media posted a graphic video on Facebook showing people retrieving the victims’ bodies and carrying the bloodied injured away as distressed crowds gathered.”They were looking for firewood on the mountainside,” Hla Shwe said by phone, adding the wounded had been taken to nearby hospitals in Buthidaung and Maungdaw.
He declined to say who he thought had been behind the blast.Military spokesman Zaw Min Tun confirmed the incident and number of victims, accusing the AA of planting a landmine.The rebels could not be reached for comment but one local village leader, who asked not to be named, told AFP the number of casualties and lack of blast crater made him doubt it had been a mine.”Some people say a mine explosion, some say this was from heavy shelling.”The rebels have carried out a series of brazen kidnappings, bombings and raids against the military and local officials in recent months.The army has hit back hard, deploying thousands of soldiers to the conflict-ridden region.
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US Officials: Iran’s Soleimani Posed Distinct Security Threat
U.S. officials said Tuesday that Qassem Soleimani, the Iranian general the U.S. killed in a drone strike, posed a distinct threat to Americans in the Middle East, but again publicly offered no specific evidence of any attack he was about to carry out.Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters that “multiple pieces of information” from intelligence sources were given to President Donald Trump before Trump made the decision to target Soleimani in last week’s attack that killed him in Iraq at the Baghdad airport.National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien said Soleimani was plotting to attack American facilities where he would have killed American “diplomats, soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines.” But similar to Pompeo, O’Brien offered no specifics on the timing of what Trump administration officials have called an “imminent threat” that Soleimani posed.Defense Secretary Mark Esper, in an interview on CNN, characterized the evidence of Soleimani’s malign activities in the Middle East as “more than razor thin,” saying Soleimani “was caught red-handed” meeting with a “terrorist leader. This is not an innocent man.”Later, at a Pentagon news conference, Esper said he believed an attack planned by Soleimani was days away. He encouraged Iran to de-escalate tensions with the U.S. and open negotiations, “where they behave more like a normal country.” O’Brien said the case against Soleimani was based on “strong evidence and strong intelligence,” while adding, “Unfortunately we’re not going to be able to get into (the) sorts of methods at this time, but I can tell you it was very strong.”Pompeo said, “We could see clearly that not only had Soleimani done all the things that we have recounted, like hundreds of thousands of massacres, enormous destruction of countries like Lebanon and Iraq, where they denied…people in those two countries what it is they want, sovereignty, independence and freedom. This is all Soleimani’s handiwork. Then we would watch as he was continuing the terror campaign in the region….”Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks about Iran at the State Department in Washington, Jan. 7, 2020.”If you’re looking for imminence, you need look no further than the days that led up to the strike that was taken against Soleimani,” Pompeo said, including the late December attack that killed an American contractor working in Iraq.Pompeo added that there were “continuing efforts on behalf of this terrorist to build out a network of campaign activities that were going to lead potentially to the death of many more Americans.”The top U.S. diplomat concluded that the drone attack “was the right decision, we got it right. The Department of Defense did excellent work. The president had an entirely legal, appropriate basis, as well as a decision that fit perfectly within our strategy on how to counter the threat of malign activity from Iran.”Iran has vowed to exact revenge for Soleimani’s killing, with O’Brien saying, “We take those seriously and we’re watching and monitoring them.” But with Trump threatening to respond to any new Iran attack, O’Brien said, “We hope that they’re deterred, and that they think twice about attacking America and its interests.”Even as threats and counter-threats ricocheted between Washington and Tehran, O’Brien said he believes the world is a safer place with the killing of Soleimani.”Look, over, over the past four months, the two greatest terrorist threats in the world, (Islamic State leader Abu Bakr) al Baghdadi and Soleimani, have both been taken off the battlefield,” O’Brien said outside the White House. “I think that makes us safer, and in fact we’ve been congratulated and told that privately by world leaders from every region in the world who’ve reached out to congratulate us for this activity.”In Iran, officials delayed Soleimani’s burial, state media reported, after more than 50 people were killed in a stampede of mourners and more than 200 others injured.Coffins of Gen. Qassem Soleimani and others who were killed in Iraq by a U.S. drone strike, are carried on a truck surrounded by mourners during a funeral procession, in the city of Kerman, Iran, Jan. 7, 2020.Tens of thousands of people had gathered to honor Soleimani in his hometown of Kerman before his planned burial, following similar ceremonies this week in Tehran, Qom and Ahvaz.Many of the mourners screamed for retaliation against the United States for the killing of Soleimani. “No compromise, no submission, revenge!” they shouted. Soleimani’s killing has sparked fears of a wider conflict as the United States and Iran threatened strong responses to each other’s actions.Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif contended in a CNN interview that the U.S. killing of Soleimani, commander of the Revolutionary Guard’s Quds Force, constituted “state terrorism.”“This is an act of aggression against Iran, and it amounts to an armed attack against Iran, and we will respond,” Zarif said. “But we will respond proportionately – not disproportionately…we are not lawless like President Trump.”With heightened tensions between the United States and Iran, Washington has denied Zarif a visa to travel to New York for upcoming United Nations meetings. Pompeo refused to spell out the reasons behind the denial of the visa.Following the airstrike, Iran announced it was further cutting its compliance with the 2015 agreement that restrained its nuclear program. That prompted Trump, who withdrew from the deal and applied new sanctions against Iran, to tweet Monday, “IRAN WILL NEVER HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON!”IRAN WILL NEVER HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2020
Trump also vowed late Sunday that the U.S. will strike “very hard and very fast” at as many as 52 Iranian targets if Iran attacks U.S. personnel or assets. The number 52 represents the number of Americans Tehran took hostage in 1979 for 444 days.”They’re allowed to kill our people,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. “They’re allowed to torture and maim our people. They’re allowed to use roadside bombs and blow up our people and we’re not allowed to touch their cultural sites? It doesn’t work that way.” Pompeo said the U.S., in any new attacks on Iran, would act according to international legal constraints on warfare, under which attacks on cultural sites are considered a war crime.Iranian President Hassan Rouhani rebuffed Trump’s threat on Monday, tweeting, “Those who refer to the number 52 should also remember the number 290. #IR655. Never threaten the Iranian nation.”It was a reference to the U.S. mistakenly shooting down an Iranian passenger jet flying over the Persian Gulf in 1988, killing all 290 people aboard the aircraft. Then-U.S. President Ronald Reagan expressed deep regret over the incident and the U.S. paid nearly $62 million in reparations to the victims’ families.
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Biden Stands by His Foreign Policy Resume as He Slams Trump
Rising tensions between Washington and Tehran are testing whether Joe Biden can capitalize on his decades of foreign policy experience as he seeks to challenge a president he derides as “dangerous” and “erratic.”Biden is expected to deliver lengthy remarks Tuesday in New York about President Donald Trump’s decision to approve an airstrike that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani. The event, which would follow several days of campaigning in which Biden inconsistently highlighted his foreign policy credentials, would be among his most high-profile efforts to articulate his vision for world affairs. It would come less than a month before the Feb. 3 Iowa caucuses begin Democrats’ 2020 voting.But the moment presents challenges for a two-term vice president who was elected to six Senate terms. While his resume is longer than any Democratic presidential rival’s, it comes with complications.Progressives hoping to make American foreign policy less militaristic point to Biden’s 2002 vote authorizing the U.S. invasion of Iraq, suggesting that muddies his recent warning that Trump could push the U.S. into another endless war. Alternately, Trump and Republicans cast Biden as indecisive or weak, seizing on his opposition to the 1991 U.S. mission that drove Iraq out of Kuwait and his reluctance about the raid that killed Sept. 11 mastermind Osama bin Laden in 2011, when Biden was President Barack Obama’s No. 2.Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, a Vermont senator who voted against President George W. Bush’s Iraq war powers request, calls it “baggage.” In a quote that Republicans recirculate frequently, former Obama Defense Secretary Robert Gates wrote in his memoir that Biden, though a “man of integrity,” has been “wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.”Biden himself has been inconsistent in his pitch to voters, seemingly confident that searing criticism of Trump and implicit contrasts with less-seasoned Democratic rivals are enough to earn another stint in the West Wing.“I’ve met every single world leader” a U.S. president must know, Biden tells voters at some stops. “On a first-name basis,” he’ll add on occasion. On Chinese President Xi Jinping: “I spent more time with him face to face than any other world leader.” On Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who helped persuade Trump to withdraw U.S. special forces from Syria over widespread opposition in Washington and elsewhere: “I know who he is.”The Biden campaign’s most viral moment was a video last month, titled “Laughed At,” showing world leaders mocking Trump at a Buckingham Palace reception held during a NATO summit in London. Biden says world leaders, including former British Prime Minister Theresa May, have called him to ask about Trump.He told reporters last month that foreign policy isn’t in his Democratic opponents’ “wheelhouse,” even if they are “smart as hell” and “can learn.” Demonstrating his knowledge, Biden veered into explaining the chemistry and physics of “SS-18 silos,” referring to old Soviet intercontinental ballistic missiles. “It’s just what I’ve done my whole life,” he said.He’s since touted endorsements from former Secretary of State John Kerry and members of Congress with experience in the military and intelligence community.Yet Biden doesn’t always connect the dots with an explicit appeal to voters.In Iowa last weekend, Biden called the Iran crisis “totally of Donald Trump’s making,” tracing Soleimani’s killing back to Trump withdrawing from a multilateral deal in which Iran had agreed to curtail its nuclear program. The pact “was working, serving America’s interests and the region’s interests,” Biden said, questioning whether Trump “has any plan for how to handle what comes next.”Biden told an audience that Americans need “a president who provides a steady leadership on Day One,” but during a 20-minute soliloquy, Biden never discussed his role in the Iran deal or Obama’s foreign policy generally. Days before, prior to the Soleimani strike, Biden didn’t mention the embassy attack at all as he campaigned in Anamosa, Iowa.The former vice president laments that lack of foreign policy emphasis in a Democratic primary contest that has revolved around the party’s internal ideological tussle over domestic issues including health care, a wealth tax and college tuition assistance. The international arena “isn’t discussed at all” on the debate stage, he told reporters last month, despite what he said is a deep concern among voters.“Foreign policy, commander in chief is a big deal to people,” he said, less because of a single issue and more because of Trump generally. “They just know something’s not right. It’s uncomfortable.”Biden in July offered perhaps his most sweeping foreign policy declaration to date, with a speech touting the U.S. as the preeminent world power but one that must lead international coalitions and focus on diplomacy. He pledged to end “forever wars” but did not rule out military force. He made clear he values small-scale operations of special forces while being more skeptical of larger, extended missions of ground forces.His advisers believe that reflects most Americans. “They don’t want the United States to retreat from the world … but they also don’t want us overextended without any rational strategy or exit plan,” said Tony Blinken, Biden’s top foreign policy adviser, who has worked with him since he was Democratic leader on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.As vice president, Biden was at Obama’s side for every major national security decision during their eight years in office. Biden led the administration’s efforts to help Ukraine counter Russian aggression. He also took the lead on Iraq as the Democratic administration moved to bring the war it inherited there to an end.But Biden wasn’t always in lockstep with Obama on major issues. He was among the advisers who argued against the attack on al-Qaida mastermind bin Laden. Biden’s explanation of those debates has changed over the years, varying from saying he recommended that Obama wait for clearer identification of bin Laden at the Pakistan compound where he was killed to later saying he privately told Obama to go ahead. Blinken said Biden was never against pursuing bin Laden, as some Republicans say. Recalling how Biden immediately relayed his final private conversation with Obama, Blinken said Biden told Obama to “trust your instincts.”Biden also lost an initial debate during lengthy deliberations on Afghanistan shortly after Obama took office. Biden was opposed to the idea of sending surge forces, pushing instead for a focus on counterterrorism that would have required a smaller military footprint on the ground. Obama ultimately ordered 30,000 troops deployed to Afghanistan.That could be viewed as a lesson learned after Biden initially voted to support Bush’s 2002 request to use force in Iraq. Blinken said, though, that didn’t necessarily mean Biden ever changed philosophy. His 2002 vote, Blinken said, was based on the president arguing he needed war power only as leverage for Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein to accept international weapons inspectors. That worked, Blinken said, then Bush decided to “go to war anyway.”Ultimately, Biden and his team believe voters are more interested in candidates’ overall profiles than in litigating old debates. They point to the 2004 Democratic primary.Howard Dean held momentum for much of 2003. Weeks before Iowa caucused, the U.S. captured Saddam. Dean declared that the military victory had “not made America safer,” after having spent months blistering Kerry for backing the same Iraq resolution Biden supported. Kerry, a Vietnam veteran who praised Saddam’s capture, went on to win Iowa and steamrolled to the nomination.
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Russia’s Putin Visits Syria to Meet Assad, a Key Iran Ally
Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Syria on Tuesday and met with officials including President Bashar Assad, Syrian state media and a Kremlin spokesman reported.Putin’s visit is the second to the war-torn country, where his troops have been fighting alongside Syrian government forces since 2015.The visit comes amid heightened tensions between Iran — a key Syrian ally — and the United States, following the killing of a top Iranian general in a U.S. airstrike in neighboring Iraq.Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani’s death has sparked calls across Iran for revenge against America.U.S. troops are based in eastern Syria, making the country a potential site of conflict with Iran.Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin visited the Russian command post in Damascus and met President Bashar Assad there. The two leaders were presented with military reports on the situation in different regions of Syria.In his conversation with Assad, Putin said that “a huge distance has been covered in terms of restoring Syria’s statehood and territorial integrity,” Peskov said.State news agency SANA gave no further details about Putin’s visit only saying that he met with Assad in a Russian military base in the capital.The last time Putin visited Syria was in 2017 when he declared that mission for Russian troops has been accomplished. Russia has been a main backer of Assad and has tipped the balance of power in his favor over the past four years with government forces now in control in most of the country.Syria’s conflict that began in March 2011 has left more than 400,000 people dead.Last week U.S. warplanes attacked bases of Iran-backed Iraqi fighters in western Iraq and eastern Syria killing 25 and wounding dozens others.The U.S. government warned ships of an unspecified threat from Iran across all the Mideast’s waterways, crucial routes for global energy supplies.Meanwhile, the U.S. Air Force launched a drill with 52 fighter jets in Utah, just days after President Donald Trump threatened to hit 52 sites in Iran.
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2 Zimbabwe Park Rangers Drowned by Poachers in Lake Kariba
Zimbabwean authorities say they have retrieved the bodies of two park rangers who had arrested four poachers but were then thrown into Lake Kariba by the suspects.
The bodies of the two rangers were taken to the capital, Harare, for examinations, said Tinashe Farawo, spokesman for the Zimbabwe National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority on Tuesday.
The two rangers had arrested four Zambian men for poaching and on Dec. 31 were transporting them by boat to Kariba town to be charged and jailed. But the four suspects overpowered the rangers and threw them into Lake Kariba, said Farawo. The rangers’ bodies were discovered after a week-long search.
Authorities are searching for the suspected poachers, he said.
The rangers had caught the poachers in Matusadona National Park, home to lions, leopards, elephants and hyena on the shores of Lake Kariba, one of the world’s largest man-made lakes. The park is popular with tourists who go on walking safaris and boating on the lake.
The rangers had detained the poachers overnight before attempting to take them by boat to Kariba town.
Although the parks agency has recorded “a significant decrease” in poaching in the wildlife rich southern African country, cases of armed contact between poachers and rangers have been on the rise in the Kariba area, where Zimbabwe borders Zambia to the north, said Farawo. The two countries share the lake as well as the magnificent Victoria Falls along the Zambezi River.
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US-Nigerian Citizen Used Fake Passports to Launder Romance Fraud Money
Federal officials say a Maryland man used fake passports to facilitate a money laundering conspiracy involving nearly $1 million.Arinze Michael Ozor, 36, pleaded guilty Friday to federal charges of forgery or false use of a passport, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland said in a release Monday. He’s a dual citizen of the U.S. and Nigeria.Ozor used at least two passports to open eight so-called “drop accounts”, prosecutors said. He took more than $976,000 from business email compromise schemes and romance fraud schemes and put it in those accounts.Officials say Ozor used a Ghanaian passport to open five bank accounts and a Beninese passport to open three additional accounts. The money was then largely sent to other entities involved in the schemes.Ozor is expected to be sentenced in May. He could spend up to 10 years in prison.An attorney representing Ozor didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment, The Baltimore Sun reported.
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Facebook Bans Deepfakes in Fight Against Online Manipulation
Facebook says it is banning “deepfake” videos, the false but realistic clips created with artificial intelligence and sophisticated tools, as it steps up efforts to fight online manipulation.The social network said late Monday that it’s beefing up its policies to remove videos edited or synthesized in ways that aren’t apparent to the average person, and which could dupe someone into thinking the video’s subject said something he or she didn’t actually say.Created by artificial intelligence or machine learning, deepfakes combine or replace content to create images that can be almost impossible to tell are not authentic.“While these videos are still rare on the internet, they present a significant challenge for our industry and society as their use increases,” Facebook’s vice president of global policy management, Monika Bickert, said in a blog post.However, she said the new rules won’t include parody or satire, or clips edited just to change the order of words. The exceptions underscore the balancing act Facebook and other social media services face in their struggle to stop the spread of online misinformation and “fake news” while also respecting free speech and fending off allegations of censorship.The U.S. tech company has been grappling with how to handle the rise of deepfakes after facing criticism last year for refusing to remove a doctored video of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi slurring her words, which was viewed more than 3 million times. Experts said the crudely edited clip was more of a “cheap fake” than a deepfake.Then, a pair of artists posted fake footage of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg showing him gloating over his one-man domination of the world. Facebook also left that clip online. The company said at the time that neither video violated its policies.The problem of altered videos is taking on increasing urgency as experts and lawmakers try to figure out how to prevent deepfakes from being used to interfere with U.S. presidential elections in November.Facebook said any videos that don’t meet existing standards for removal can still be reviewed by independent third-party fact-checkers. Those deemed false will be flagged as such to anyone trying to share or view them, which Bickert said was a better approach than just taking them down.“If we simply removed all manipulated videos flagged by fact-checkers as false, the videos would still be available elsewhere on the internet or social media ecosystem,” Bickert said. “By leaving them up and labeling them as false, we’re providing people with important information and context.”
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Malaysia’s Rise, From Buckets and Hanging Toilets, to Universal Sanitation
What can Malaysia teach Southeast Asia about water resources? A new study shows that Malaysia has been able to spread access to toilets and safe sanitation to nearly 100% of the partial island nation. After some trial and error, its experience offers some lessons for others around the world, particularly at a time when places from California to South Africa are increasingly worried about how well they will be able to manage their water resources in the long run.Water access improvesIn recent decades Malaysia has increased citizens’ access to water thanks to a mix of top-down determination from the government, partial privatization, and clearly defined roles and rules for all stakeholders, author Dorai Narayana writes in a new book chapter. As a British colony until 1957, Malaysia used to see most urban inhabitants commonly use buckets or open defecation, which contributed to waterborne diseases. However after independence local authorities
started to pay more attention to sanitation, introducing septic tanks and piped water supplies.National Government LeadershipThen the national government took over responsibilities in 1993. As the nation started to urbanize and develop quickly, it regulated the sector but allowed more private companies to deliver services, according to Narayana.“Guidelines and standards were established, and a system to check and approve all new sewerage built by private developers was introduced,” he writes. “This resulted in a vast improvement in the quality of developer-built systems.”A consultant in the sanitation and wastewater sector, Narayana analyzed Malaysia for the book Water Insecurity and Sanitation in Asia, published last month by the Asian Development Bank Institute and the National University of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.Investment in infrastructureMalaysia has made a fast transition from a developing nation to an upper middle-income economy, using its new wealth to invest in infrastructure like sanitation.Narayana writes that it was a “drastic move” and “largely a top-down approach” for the national government to take over from local governments, but it mostly worked. At the same time Malaysia has been ruled largely by the same party since independence, making it easier for the national government to concentrate and wield power.Private Companies became involvedIt has loosened some of that power to allow private companies into sanitation.“With the federalization and privatization, the country saw spectacular improvements in sewerage management,” Narayana, who is based in the capital city of Kuala Lumpur, writes. “Unprecedented amounts of funds were invested for the repair, refurbishment, and upgrading of the dilapidated sewage treatment plants.”However the government makes sure to include strict regulations to go along with private investment. When it allowed Indah Water to sell services for instance, it required the company to empty septic tanks on a regular schedule and renovate all related infrastructure to the point of operating condition. Also when ompanies build new real estate developments the law requires them to build internal sewerage infrastructure as well.This matters to the government because it wants to promote sustainable use of resources, from water to energy to recycling, according to Malaysia’s deputy secretary general at the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, Hairil Yahri Yaacob. He argued that this issue has been overlooked amid the world’s focus on the economy, even though resource sustainability is also an economic issue.“What we have to realize is that there is opportunity directly linked to sustainability,” said Yaacob in a statement.As with the economy, sanitation is a day to day concern that affects everyone. It is not something people love to talk about but in this tropical nation, public and private sector work on sanitation has led to measurable improvements in the lives and well-being of most Malaysians.
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Hong Kong Will add Mystery Illness to Reportable Diseases
Hong Kong’s health chief said Tuesday that a respiratory illness whose cause remains unknown will be added to an official list of diseases that medical practitioners are required to report to the government.The disease — an unidentified form of viral pneumonia — has sent 59 people to the hospital in the mainland Chinese city of Wuhan, in central Hubei province. As of Sunday, seven were in critical condition, while the rest were stable. Municipal authorities have ruled out SARS, the severe acute respiratory syndrome that killed 700 people in 2002 and 2003.In Hong Kong, a total of 15 patients were being treated Sunday for symptoms including fever and respiratory infection after recent visits to Wuhan. It is not clear whether they have the same illness as the Wuhan patients.Speaking at a news conference, the health chief, Sophia Chan, said the “severe respiratory disease associated with a novel infectious agent” will be added to a list of reportable infectious diseases in Hong Kong’s Prevention and Control of Disease Ordinance.The regulation enables the government to take stronger measures against the spread of certain diseases, such as tuberculosis and chicken pox. Actions under the ordinance could include enforcing quarantines or limiting the movement of people who are suspected to have infections.“Under the amendment, medical practitioners will have to report suspected cases as well as carry out appropriate investigations and follow-ups to the Center for Health Protection under the Department of Health,” Chan said.
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France Grimly Marks 5 years Since Charlie Hebdo Attack
Charlie Hebdo’s editor hasn’t gone out by himself since Jan. 7, 2015. The widow of one of the satirical newspaper’s cartoonists can’t bear to pull down a note her husband stuck to the door that morning: “Have a good day, darling. See you in a bit.”France on Tuesday commemorated the fifth anniversary of the extremist attack on Charlie Hebdo that killed nine of its editorial staff, a guard, a visitor to the building and a patrol officer in the street outside. The killers were a pair of French brothers, supporters of al-Qaida who claimed the attack was revenge for caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.
Two days later, an accomplice who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group seized hostages inside a kosher supermarket. In all, 17 people died before near-simultaneous police raids killed the three gunmen. The trial of a network of people accused in the plot begins this May.
Riss, the editor, who goes by his pen name, was wounded in the attack and lives to this day under constant police protection.
“I’m here. We’re here. Charlie Hebdo is still here. Still standing and just as determined,” he told France Info radio on Tuesday ahead of a somber memorial service at the site of the first attack. “We never stopped laughing because that’s part of life.”
Maryse Wolinski, whose husband Georges stuck a note to the door before he left for the editorial meeting that morning, keeps it up along with dozens of his drawings. She is still in mourning.
“It’s not because five years have passed that I’m not going to be angry anymore. I want to express that during the trial. Talk to these people, why they did that. I think it’ll be better after the trial. I hope so,” she told RMC television.Charlie Hebdo’s latest issue is dedicated to freedom of expression, five years after the death of most of its editorial staff.
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‘Joker’ Tops Nominations for British Academy Film Awards
The film “Joker” has topped the nominations for the British Academy film awards announced Tuesday.
The movie about the origins of the comic book villain received 11 BAFTA nominations including best film, best actor for Joaquin Phoenix, and best director.
Martin Scorsese’s gangster epic “The Irishman” and Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” were close behind with 10 nominations, including best picture, and Sam Mendes’ war film “1917” also earned a best picture nomination two days after winning that award at the Golden Globes.
The Korean film “Parasite” also is on the best picture list.
In addition to Phoenix, best actor contenders include Leonardo DiCaprio, Adam Driver, Taron Egerton and Jonathan Pryce.
The best actress will be chosen from Scarlett Johansson, Saoirse Ronan, Charlize Theron, Renee Zellweger and Margot Robbie.
The awards will be announced at a gala event hosted by Graham Norton on Feb. 2.
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Arrest Warrant Issued in Japan for Wife of Fugitive Ex-Nissan Chairman Ghosn
Authorities in Japan have issued an arrest warrant for the wife of former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn, who fled the country last week while awaiting trial on charges of financial misconduct.Prosecutors have accused Carole Ghosn of providing false testimony in a Tokyo court last year in her husband’s case.Ghosn escaped to Lebanon on December 29, a move that stunned both his legal team and law enforcement officials in Japan, where he was under strict restrictions under the terms of his bail agreement. He was initially arrested in November 2018 and charged with diverting millions of dollars from a Nissan subsidiary for his personal use, and of underreporting his income.Ghosn says the charges are a conspiracy concocted by Nissan executives who opposed his plans for a fuller merger between the Japanese automaker and its French alliance partner Renault. Ghosn will hold a press conference Wednesday in Beirut to discuss the so-called “coup” against him. Nissan issued a written statement Tuesday vowing to continue to seek “appropriate legal action” against Ghosn despite his escape to Lebanon. Ghosn reportedly took a bullet train from Tokyo to Osaka, then hid himself in a large container that was flown aboard a private jet to Istanbul before traveling to Lebanon, which does not have an extradition treaty with Japan.He was credited for steering Nissan from the brink of bankruptcy to becoming one of the world’s top-selling automakers. He engineered a three-way alliance with Renault and one-time domestic rival Mitsubishi Motors.
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Angolan Billionaire Says Anti-Corruption Drive is Jeopardizing Rule of Law
The daughter of Angola’s former president said she was blindsided by a court decision to freeze her assets.”There were no communications. We never received the summons. None of our companies received the notification,” Isabel Dos Santos told VOA in a Skype interview. “We were never aware that there was a process going on at all. So really there was no due process.”Dos Santos is the eldest daughter of Angola’s long-serving President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos who stepped down in 2017. She has been called Africa’s richest woman whose net worth, according to FILE – Angolan businesswoman Isabel dos Santos delivers a speech during the start of the new EFACEC Portuguese corporation’s electric mobility industrial unit on Feb. 5, 2018 in Maia.Isabel dos Santos is not the first member of her family to face legal scrutiny. In 2018, her brother, Jose Filomeno dos Santos, was arrested and accused of trying to steal $500 million while he ran Angola’s sovereign wealth fund. He was freed last March but is facing a trial before the country’s Supreme Court.In a September speech at the Council on Foreign Relations, Lourenco said the country is determined to root out corruption in order to restore citizens’ faith in government as well as create a more favorable business environment.”Corruption has reached very alarming levels,” Lourenco said. “The difference is that in the recent past … corruption existed but was not fought there was a state of impunity. But today the situation is not the same which means corruption is being fought and is being fought in a very courageous way.”Other observers applauded the decision to target the Dos Santos family, saying it sends a strong signal that no one is above the law. “It’s a great lesson for current leaders who continue to think that justice will only hit a few,” journalist and researcher Rafael Marques de Morais told VOA’s Portuguese service.’Never served in government’But Dos Santos denies she is part of a system of corruption or patronage from her father’s years in power. She said she never served in government or played a political role in the country. The closest she came was as a part of a team of businesspeople who helped rescue the national oil company in 2016 when it was $20 billion in debt.”‘I’m just a businesswoman. I’m an entrepreneur. I work in 60 countries. I work in South America, I work in Asia, I work in Europe and I work in technology. So I don’t work with the government and contracts,” she said.Dos Santos added she supports the anti-corruption campaign but believes it is being used to target family members of the previous president in the run-up to internal elections for the leadership of the ruling MPLA political party.Dos Santos also pointed out that Lourenco held a number of leadership positions prior to becoming president including Minister of Defence. She said between 2017 and 2019 he issued $3 billion worth of government contracts without putting them out for “public tender” or a competitive bidding process.She said this shows he is part of an old, corrupt system in the MPLA party and not the reformer he claims to be. “For me it’s just the way the political party works, MPLA works. It is the continuing of the MPLA tradition. And I regret to say I feel that very little has changed,” she said.She said rather than view this as proof that no one is above the law, the measures will serve as a warning to other Angolan entrepreneurs and she worries they will be used as a political weapon. “In a country that I believe should have the rule of law, like Angola, I’m very concerned for the future,” she said. “I’m very concerned that these kinds of measures are going to be just arbitrarily put on someone from the private sector. Then it could be me today but it could be anyone else tomorrow.”
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Hong Kong Leader Says New Year will be a Challenging One
Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam said Tuesday that the city faces multiple challenges in the new year, including violence, economic tribulation and a health scare as anti-government protests enter their eighth month.But the government is determined to overcome these challenges, Lam said.Her administration’s reluctance to concretely address political demands has angered demonstrators, who have called for electoral reforms and an independent investigation into accusations of police brutality.When asked again about such an inquiry at a news conference Tuesday, Lam said, “We do not need to go down this road.”The mass protests began in June to oppose proposed extradition legislation that would have allowed Hong Kong residents to be sent to stand trial in mainland China, where activists are routinely jailed. While Lam has since withdrawn the bill, demonstrations have continued around broader democratic demands, fueled by a distrust of the Communist Party-ruled central government in Beijing.A former British colony, Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997 under the framework of “one country, two systems,” which promises the territory certain rights not afforded to the mainland.At Tuesday’s news conference, Lam also sought to quell fears around a respiratory illness that may have infected some Hong Kong residents who recently traveled to the central mainland city of Wuhan, where 59 patients are being treated for a form of pneumonia whose cause has not been determined.Lam declined to comment on the new head of China’s liaison office in Hong Kong, Luo Huining, who was appointed over the weekend.
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6 Dead, Including 4 Residents, After Extremist Raid in Kenya
A Kenyan government official says four people are dead after a raid by suspected al-Shabab extremists in eastern Garissa County.Deputy county commissioner Kibet Bowen said Tuesday the gunmen targeted police officers at a roadblock near the village of Saretho. Two of the suspected extremists were killed by police, he said.He said the residents were killed by stray bullets during the fighting.The al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab has vowed retribution on Kenya for deploying its troops in 2011 to fight the extremist group in neighboring Somalia.Since December the group has increased attacks inside Kenya including Sunday’s attack on a military base that killed three U.S. military personnel.
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Weinstein Jury Selection to Start in NY; New Charges in LA
Potential jurors in Harvey Weinstein’s New York sexual assault trial are expected to fill a courtroom Tuesday as the former movie titan’s legal problems deepen with new charges in Los Angeles.In New York, jury selection is set to start Tuesday and could take weeks as prosecutors, Weinstein’s lawyers and the judge find people to serve on a lengthy trial in a high-profile case that has fueled societal pressure for accountability for sexual misconduct.The trial involves charges that Weinstein raped a woman in a Manhattan hotel room in 2013 and forcibly performed a sex act on another woman in the city in 2006.Weinstein, 67, has said any sexual activity was consensual.”In this great country, you are innocent until proven guilty,” his lawyer Donna Rotunno said Monday.Across the street from the courthouse, women who say they were sexually harassed or assaulted by Weinstein branded him a villain undeserving of anyone’s pity.”This trial is a cultural reckoning regardless of its legal outcome,” said Sarah Ann Masse, a performer and writer who said Weinstein once sexually harassed her in his underwear during a job interview.The Associated Press generally does not identify people who say they have been sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly.Once one of Hollywood’s most powerful producers, Weinstein has now been accused of sexual assault, harassment and misconduct by dozens of women, from famous actresses to assistants at his former company. The allegations began surfacing publicly in October 2017 and sparked the (hash)MeToo movement, as well as investigations in multiple places.Los Angeles prosecutors charged Weinstein Monday with sexually assaulting two women there on successive nights during Oscar week in 2013.Lawyers for Weinstein had no immediate comment on the new charges, though he has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.Los Angeles District Attorney Jackie Lacey said the timing of the charges was unrelated to the New York trial. She said the case took more than two years to build because the women were reluctant to provide all the information necessary, and the filing happened on the first business day when all the necessary people could gather.There is some connection between the cases, though: One of the Los Angeles accusers is expected to testify in the New York case to help prosecutors establish what they say was Weinstein’s pattern of forcing himself on young actresses and women trying to break into Hollywood.Weinstein is expected to appear in court in California after his New York trial, Lacey said.
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Iranians Mourn Soleimani at Hometown Funeral
Thousands of Iranians gathered Tuesday in the city of Kerman for the burial of top military commander Qassem Soleimani, whose killing last week in a U.S. airstrike has sparked fears of wider conflict as the two countries threatened strong responses to each other’s actions.The assembly of black-clad mourners in Soleimani’s hometown was reminiscent of gatherings that have taken place this week in Tehran, Qom and Ahvaz.In this aerial photo released by an official website of the office of the Iranian supreme leader, mourners attend a funeral ceremony for Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani and his comrades.It also included the leader of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, Hossein Salami, adding the latest threats to exact revenge against the United States for the airstrike, which took place outside Baghdad’s airport on Friday.U.S. officials have blamed Soleimani for the killings of American troops in Iraq by Iranian-backed forces and accused him of plotting “imminent” new attacks against U.S. personnel in the region, while not publicly disclosing the nature of the threat.With tensions between the United States and Iran raised, the U.S. has denied Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif a visa to travel to New York for upcoming United Nations meetings.Following the airstrike, Iran also announced it was further cutting its compliance with the 2015 agreement that restrained its nuclear program. That prompted U.S. President Donald Trump, who withdrew from the deal and applied new sanctions against Iran, to tweet Monday, “IRAN WILL NEVER HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON!”IRAN WILL NEVER HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg briefs media after a meeting of the Alliance’s ambassadors over the security situation in the Middle East, in Brussels, Belgium January 6, 2020.Stoltenberg said it was a “U.S. decision” to launch the attack, but added that the other 28 NATO countries had longstanding concerns about aggressive Iranian military actions in the Middle East.In another development, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met Saudi Deputy Defense Minister Khalid bin Salman Al Saud in Washington. The State Department said Pompeo thanked Al Saud for Riyadh’s “continued support” and for “working with the U.S. to counter the threat posed by the Iranian regime.”Speaking to VOA Persian, London-based Iranian dissident and political analyst Alireza Nourizadeh said the demise of Soleimani is welcome news to several of Iran’s neighbors.”Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain and Lebanon — they were targets of Soleimani and endured his attacks,” Nourizadeh said.In another VOA Persian interview, former U.S. ambassador to the UAE Barbara Leaf said majority-Sunni Gulf nations Saudi Arabia and the UAE, who long have accused predominantly-Shi’ite Iran of seeking regional hegemony, both have been “muted” in their public responses to the U.S. killing of Soleimani.”The theme of their comments essentially is, it is time for de-escalation and a political approach to resolving these issues,” said Leaf, an analyst at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “It is safe to say that all Gulf countries as well as Iraqis are extremely anxious about the prospect of an escalation to actual clashes between the U.S. and Iran.”Senate Briefing The White House said it will brief the entire 100-member Senate about the drone attack on Wednesday. While Republicans have generally supported Trump’s action to take out Soleimani, opposition Democrats have called for publication of U.S. intelligence used by his aides to justify the strike.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a Sunday letter to her Democratic colleagues that the House will vote this week on a war powers resolution “to limit the President’s military actions regarding Iran.””It reasserts Congress’s long-established oversight responsibilities by mandating that if no further Congressional action is taken, the Administration’s military hostilities with regard to Iran cease within 30 days,” Pelosi wrote.She called last week’s airstrike “provocative and disproportionate,” and said it endangered U.S. troops while escalating tensions with Iran.Sen. Lindsey Graham, one of Trump’s Republican allies, said the president “did the right thing” and that his national security team is “doing a great job helping President Trump navigate Iranian provocations.”VOA Persian’s Katherine Ahn and Afshar Sigarchi contributed to this report.
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US Official: US Denies Iran’s Zarif a Visa to Attend UN
The United States has denied a visa to Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif that would have allowed him to attend a United Nations Security Council meeting in New York on Thursday, a U.S. official said.Monday’s comments by the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, came as tensions escalate between the two countries after the United States killed Iran’s most prominent military commander, Qassem Soleimani, in Baghdad on Friday.Under the 1947 U.N. “headquarters agreement,” the UnitedStates is generally required to allow access to the United Nations for foreign diplomats. But Washington says it can deny visas for “security, terrorism and foreign policy” reasons.The U.S. State Department declined immediate comment. Iran’s mission to the United Nations said: “We have seen the media reports, but we have not received any official communication from either the U.S. or the U.N. regarding Foreign Minister Zarif’s visa.”U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric declined to comment on the U.S. denial of a visa for Zarif.Zarif wanted to attend a meeting of the Security Council on Thursday on the topic of upholding the U.N. Charter. The meeting and Zarif’s travel had been planned before the latest flare-up in tensions between Washington and Tehran.The Security Council meeting would have given Zarif a global spotlight to publicly criticize the United States for killing Soleimani.Iran’s U.N. envoy, Majid Takht Ravanchi, has described the killing of Soleimani as “an obvious example of State terrorism and, as a criminal act, constitutes a gross violation of the fundamental principles of international law, including, in particular … the Charter of the United Nations.”Zarif last traveled to New York in September for the annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations – after the United States sanctioned him for implementing “the reckless agenda of Iran’s Supreme Leader.”The sanctions block any property or interests Zarif has in the United States, but he said he had none.Zarif also attended U.N. meetings in April and July. During his July visit, Washington imposed tight travel restrictions on Zarif and diplomats at Iran’s mission to the United Nations, confining them to a small section of New York City.U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres spoke with U.S Secretary of State Mike Pompeo earlier on Monday. State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said in a statement the pair discussed events in the Middle East and that Pompeo “expressed his appreciation” for Guterres’ diplomatic efforts.
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Analysts: Al-Shabab’s Attack on US and Kenyan Forces Aimed at Scoring Propaganda Points
Sunday’s attack by the Somali extremist group al-Shabab on a Kenyan military base was aimed at scoring propaganda points, according to some experts, but they also say the assault shows the region needs robust cooperation to defeat the extremists. Authorities say three U.S. personnel were killed and several aircraft and military vehicles were destroyed during the attack on the base which hosts joint U.S. and Kenyan forces in the coastal region of Lamu. VOA correspondent Mariama Diallo reports.
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Ivory Coast President Plans Constitutional Revision Before Election
Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara said Monday he intends to modify the constitution ahead of an October presidential election seen as a test of the country’s stability.A rise in tensions in recent weeks between Ouattara and his political rivals has raised fears of election-related violence in Francophone West Africa’s largest economy, where a disputed 2010 vote set off a civil war that killed 3,000 people.In remarks to foreign diplomats, Ouattara, who has not yet announced whether he will be a candidate in October, said the proposed revisions were intended to make the constitution “more coherent” but did not provide any details.He did, however, seek to downplay opponents’ fears that he would try to impose age limits on presidential candidates that would prevent his main rivals, former presidents Laurent Gbagbo and Henri Konan Bedie, from running.”I wish to make clear that this is not a maneuver to push anyone aside,” he said.Modifying the constitution requires approval in parliament, which is controlled by Ouattara’s allies.Ouattara came to power in 2011 after defeating Gbagbo at the polls and Gbagbo’s forces in the ensuing war. He says he wants to step down after a decade in power and turn over the reins to a new generation, but that he will run if Gbagbo and Bedie are candidates.Some opposition leaders have speculated that Ouattara, who is 78, will reimpose the 75-year age limit for presidential candidates that was removed in a new constitution he championed in 2016. That would exclude himself; Gbagbo, who will turn 75 in May; and Bedie, who is 85.Candidates uncertainOuattara was expected to step down in 2020 but unexpectedly declared in 2018 that the new constitution had reset term limits that would have barred him from running again.Gbagbo and Bedie have not said whether they will run. Gbagbo was acquitted earlier this year of crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court for his role in the war but remains in Europe pending an appeal by the prosecution.Political tensions in Ivory Coast have risen since last month, when the public prosecutor issued an arrest warrant for presidential candidate Guillaume Soro, a former rebel leader whose forces swept Ouattara to power in 2011.Soro, who is currently in Europe, denies the charges that he plotted a coup against Ouattara and says they are politically motivated.If Ouattara does not run, he is widely expected to back his prime minister, Amadou Gon Coulibaly, in the election.
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