Venice’s mayor says police are investigating an anti-Semitic attack in which youths punched a left-wing Italian politician in the city’s St. Mark’s Square.Mayor Luigi Brugnaro tweeted Wednesday that fascist-like incidents like the one that happened on New Year’s Eve “won’t be tolerated” in Venice.Arturo Scotto, a former lawmaker, was walking with his wife Tuesday night when eight youths yelled out, “Duce! Duce!” a reference to Italy’s World War II fascist leader Benito Mussolini. The youths then punched Scotto in the nose.Scotto told Italian state TV that a young man who tried to help him was also beaten up. He said the youths also shouted disparaging remarks about Anne Frank, a young Jewish woman who perished in a Nazi death camp.Brugnaro said police are examining surveillance videos to see if the culprits can be identified. Scotto said the attackers wore scarves to hide their faces.Anti-Semitic incidents have been on the rise in Italy, as far-right political groups, including those with neo-fascist roots, gain traction in the country. Mussolini’s regime had propagated anti-Jewish laws in 1938.The head of Rome’s Jewish community, Ruth Dureghello, expressed solidarity with Scotto, saying “one mustn’t give in to any form of anti-Semitism and racism.”
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Month: January 2020
Family: Man Stabbed in Hanukkah Attack Near NYC May Have Sustained Brain Damage
A man wounded in the Hanukkah stabbings north of New York City may have permanent brain damage and be partially paralyzed for the rest of his life, his family said.
The Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council released a statement from the family of Josef Neumann, 71, and a graphic photograph Wednesday showing severe head injuries he received Saturday at a rabbi’s home in Monsey, New York.
Four other people were injured in the attack, which federal prosecutors say was a hate crime.
The photograph shows an intubated Neumann with a swollen and disfigured face lying in a hospital bed. A gash to his head appears to have been stitched up.
Neumann’s family released the photograph for the world and “the Jewish community to understand the gravity of hate,” Yossi Gestetner, the council’s co-founder, said in an interview. Neumann has seven children.
“These things are vividly and viciously disturbing and have long-term consequences,” Gestetner said.
The 18-inch machete used in the attack penetrated Neumann’s skull, the statement said, adding that Neumann’s “right arm has been shattered.”
“Our father’s status is so dire that no surgery has yet been performed on the right arm,” the statement said. “Doctors are not optimistic about his chances to regain consciousness, and if our father does miraculously recover partially, doctors expect that he will have permanent damage to the brain, leaving him partially paralyzed and speech-impaired for the rest of his life.”
The statement also called on Jewish people around the world to share their own experiences with anti-Semitism on social media using the hashtag (hash)MeJew.
“We shall not let this terrible hate-driven attack be forgotten,” the statement said, “and let us all work to eradicate all sorts of hate.”FILE – Police officers escort stabbing suspect Grafton Thomas, center, to a police vehicle, in Ramapo, New York, Dec. 29, 2019.Federal prosecutors have charged Grafton Thomas, 37, with five federal counts of obstructing the free exercise of religious beliefs by attempting to kill with a dangerous weapon. He also has pleaded not guilty to five state counts of attempted murder and one count of burglary.
Authorities have said Thomas had handwritten journals containing anti-Semitic references and had recently used his phone to look up information on Hitler and the location of synagogues.
Thomas’ family has said he was raised in a tolerant home and had a history of mental illness.
The Hanukkah attack came amid a string of violence that has alarmed Jews in the region.
Former New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind said he recently spoke with an Orthodox Jewish man in New York who told him he had taken off his yarmulke out of fear.
“Part of what we’re trying to get across to people is that these attacks are not just statistics,” said Hikind, founder of Americans Against Antisemitism. “These people have to live with this the rest of their life.”
Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday he has directed the state police to increase patrols in Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods around New York. Mayor and fellow Democrat Bill de Blasio announced a similar heightened police presence in the city last week.
“Everybody feels very upset and disturbed about what happened,” Cuomo said during a New Year’s Day visit to Brooklyn’s heavily Orthodox Williamsburg neighborhood, “and everybody stands in solidarity with you.”
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College Teacher Convicted for Leading Al-Shabab Operations in Mogadishu
A college teacher who is the son of a senior police officer has been found guilty of leading al-Shabab’s operations in Mogadishu for several years.A military court in Mogadishu sentenced Mohamed Haji Ahmed to death on Tuesday. Prosecutors wanted to file charges connecting Ahmed to the death of more than 180 people. But in the end, he was convicted for being behind the assassination of three generals, a police corporal and a deputy attorney general.In a video recorded and released by the court, Ahmed confessed to working as head of operations for al-Shabab in Mogadishu.”I was head of operation of the city, the region,” he said in the video. “There was nothing more nerve-wracking than sending out someone to do something…what will happen to them? Have they been killed?”He said after an operation, al-Shabab bosses would call him to learn details about how it went, who fired the shots, and how many bullets were fired.He would also send information to al-Shabab’s radio station, Radio Andalus, so the group could claim responsibility for attacks and use it as propaganda.The court sentenced six other al-Shabab members to death, four of them in absentia. An eighth Shabab member was given life imprisonment.A woman who worked at the Somali Women’s Headquarters was also convicted for passing information about the movement of government officials to al-Shabab. Fadumo Hussein Ali, also known as “Fadumo Colonel,” was sentenced to 15 years in prison.The huntAhmed, 27, from Bulomarer town in the Lower Shabelle region, has used multiple aliases over the years to evade authorities.Somali security forces said they have been hearing his name since 2014, when al-Shabab suspects arrested for carrying pistols in Mogadishu’s Hamarweyne district said a man they identified as “Hudeyfi” gave them the guns to carry out assassinations. The following year, more detained al-Shabab suspects mentioned the same name.In January 2016, authorities arrested a man whose phone they had tracked because of contacts with known al-Shabab figures. He told the court he was a college teacher, which was verified, and he was released on bail. At the time, the officials did not realize that the man they arrested, Ahmed, was indeed Hudeyfi.Over the following years, Ahmed used several other aliases. On November 2, 2016, a traditional elder was killed in Mogadishu. Two men arrested by the police in connection with the killing named their supervisor as “Dahir.” On December 2018, twin blasts near the National Theater in Mogadishu killed at least ten people including prominent television journalist Awil Dahir Salad. The two men captured in connection with the bombing named “Ilkacase” as co-conspirator.Police have since established that Hudeyfi, Dahir, Ilkacase and Ahmed are the same person. On Tuesday, Ahmed confirmed this information to the court.”I was originally known as Hudeyfi, but I worked with different groups and I gave a different name to each group,” he said.On Tuesday, Ahmed was convicted for the murder of police corporal Mohamed Omar Sheikh Osman, killed in a mosque on February 24 2017; the assassination of military General Abdullahi Mohamed Sheikh Qururuh, killed September 24, 2017; the assassination of Somali deputy attorney general Mohamed Abdirahman Mohamud on February 20, 2019; and the assassination of police General Mohamud Haji Alow on April 27, 2019.He was also convicted for the assassination of police General Ismail Ahmed Osman on October 28, 2016. Ironically, Ahmed lived in Osman’s house in the town of Marka when he was a high school student, after his father asked Osman to help his son, security officials say.Military courts’ prosecutor General Abdullahi Bule Kamey described Ahmed as a “merciless killer.””His crimes are unmeasurable,” General Kamey said. “He killed the man who raised him, the hand that fed him, General Ismail,” Gen. Kamey said.The prosecution said Ahmed spared his father’s life only because he wanted to use him as a cover. “He let him live so that he bails him out when captured,” Kamey said.Ahmed’s lawyers argued that their client should only be punished for the cases that can be proven before a court.VOA Somali contacted an official at a Mogadishu college where Ahmed taught. The official, who asked that the college not be identified for fear of reprisal, says Ahmed taught English for two years as a part-time teacher. He left in March 2019, two months before he was arrested. The official says the college did not know about his connections with al-Shabab.
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Militia Leaders Order Protesters to Leave US Embassy in Baghdad
Senior leaders of an Iranian-backed militia in Iraq ordered a drawdown Wednesday of supporters surrounding the perimeter of the U.S. embassy in Baghdad. Protesters who burned trailers and smashed security cameras gathered after a U.S. airstrike killed members of the militia in Iraq. U.S. officials have said the strikes on Kataeb Hezbollah weapons storage facilities and command-and-control locations were in response to a rocket attack that killed a U.S. defense contractor last week. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has more.
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Pompeo Postpones Ukraine Trip After Attack on US Embassy in Iraq
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday postponed a trip to Ukraine, the country at the heart of impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump, after an attack on the American embassy in Iraq, the State Department announced.Pompeo had been due to travel at week’s end to Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Cyprus.But on Tuesday, a mob of pro-Iran demonstrators stormed the U.S. embassy in Baghdad over American airstrikes that killed two dozen paramilitary fighters.Pompeo’s travel was pushed back “due to the need for the secretary to be in Washington, DC to continue monitoring the ongoing situation in Iraq and ensure the safety and security of Americans in the Middle East,” State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus announced.”Secretary Pompeo’s trip will be rescheduled in the near future and he looks forward to the visit at that time,” she added.The trip would have made Pompeo the most senior U.S. official to visit Kyiv since a scandal erupted in 2019 over a controversial phone call in which Trump allegedly tried to pressure his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskiy to find dirt on Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden.Pompeo, a staunch Trump defender, was set to meet with Zelenskiy and other top Ukrainian officials, Ortagus said Monday when the trip was first announced.But the following day, the embassy in Baghdad was besieged. Demonstrators finally left on Wednesday.No U.S. personnel were injured in the attack and U.S. officials said they had no plans to evacuate.Trump was impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress Dec. 18 and faces trial in the Senate, possibly later this month, though top Democratic and Republican lawmakers are still sparring over how it will be conducted.
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Nigerian IDPs, Citizens Hope for Better in 2020
Many Nigerian citizens are hoping for a better year in 2020. Last year, besides anxieties ahead of the general elections in February, the West African nation endured security challenges on multiple fronts. President Muhammadu Buhari has promised that his cabinet will address these issues.It’s been an eventful and hopeful day at this internally displaced people’s (IDPs) camp in Durumi, in the capital, Abuja. The camp is receiving food supplies and donations to mark the new year celebration.A storehouse at the Durumi camp where food supplies from donors are kept before they are distributed to IDPs. January 1, 2020. (T. Obiezu/VOA)Liatu Ayuba, a widow who fled her home in Gwoza, Borno state, five years ago after her husband was killed during a battle with terrorist group Boko Haram, now leads the women at this camp, more than 1,500 of them.She says she often thinks of home in Gwoza, and said she wishes to return this year.“I believe that this 2020 … yesterday I was in church by the grace of God. God will use our good Nigerian government, our military soldiers and all the security people to know the secret of Boko Haram and we are going to get peace, and I believe this year we are going to get peace in our place so that we can go back,” said Ayuba.For years, Boko Haram has been the major security challenge facing Nigeria. Their decade-long insurgency has killed at least 27,000 people and displaced millions.Some displaced women at the gate of the Durumi camp receive visitors who have come to donate supplies to them. January 1, 2020. (T. Obiezu/VOA)Despite a decline in the group’s activities over the past year, attacks have persisted. Last week, seven people were killed when Boko Haram raided a village near Chibok, a town known for the notorious abduction of 276 school girls in 2014.Idris Ibrahim is the spokesman of Abuja-based IDPs.”We’re optimistic that the war against insurgency will win because of recent [events]. There has been crisis in our area and the way the government responded is very, very good,” said Ibrahim. “So we can see seriousness, we can see sacrifice on the part of the armed forces, we can see sacrifice on civilian JTF (joint task force).”Apart from Boko Haram attacks, Nigerians had to endure a rise in armed robbery and increased kidnappings for ransom in the last year.President Muhammadu Buhari won the February 2019 polls and vowed that his cabinet will tackle these issues.FILE – Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari waves to the crowd while he drives around the venue during his inauguration for a second term in Abuja, Nigeria, May 29, 2019.But political analysts like Leke Omole want the government to adjust its strategy on the security front.”Our security architectures – the military guys, the police, all of them – are stretched,” said Omole. “Like presently, we have our military guys in almost all the 36 states taking care of one security issue or the other. So in 2020, I expect the government to make sure we define the roles of our military guys especially the security architecture of the country. Let’s withdraw the military guys from some areas. Let the police take charge of this kidnapping menace and all other issues, while the military guys face the outside terror like the Boko Haram.”In the meantime, the IDPs are celebrating the new year, hoping it will bring them good luck and good news.
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Ghosn Met With Lebanese President After Fleeing Japan, Sources Say
Fugitive former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn met with Lebanon’s president after his escape from Japan, where he was smuggled out of house arrest by a private security company, two sources close to Ghosn said on Wednesday.One of the sources said Ghosn was greeted warmly by President Michel Aoun on Monday after flying into Beirut via Istanbul and was now in a buoyant and combative mood and felt secure.In his meeting at the presidency, Ghosn thanked Aoun for the support he had given him and his wife Carole while he was in detention, the sources said. He now needs the protection and security of his government after fleeing Japan, they added.A media advisor to the president’s office denied the two men had met.Lebanese officials have said there would be no need to take legal measures against Ghosn because he entered the country legally on a French passport, although Ghosn’s French, Lebanese, and Brazilian passports are with lawyers in Japan.FILE – Former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn leaves the Tokyo Detention Center, in Tokyo, Japan, April 25, 2019.The French and Lebanese foreign ministries have said they were unaware of the circumstances of his journey.Lebanon has no extradition agreement with Japan, where he faced trial on charges of financial misconduct, which he denied.Under the terms of his bail, he had been confined to his house in Tokyo and had to have cameras installed at the entrance. He was prevented from communicating with his wife, Carole, and had his use of the internet and other communications curtailed.The sources said the Lebanese ambassador to Japan had visited him daily while he was in detention.’Pure fiction’
While some Lebanese media have floated a Houdini-like account of Ghosn being packed in a wooden container for musical instruments after a private concert in his home, his wife called the account pure fiction when contacted by Reuters.She declined to provide details of the exit of one of the most recognize titans of industry. The accounts of the two sources suggest a carefully planned escape few were aware of.They said a private security firm oversaw the plan, which was three months in the making and involved shuttling Ghosn out via a private jet to Istanbul before pushing onward to Beirut, with even the pilot unaware of Ghosn’s presence on board.”It was a very professional operation from start to finish” said one of the sources. The other source said Ghosn was in good health.In a written statement, Ghosn said after his arrival that he had “escaped injustice and political persecution” and would begin communicating with media next week. Sources close to him said he was unwilling to share details of his escape so as not to jeopardize those who aided him in Japan.He is staying at the home of a relative of his wife, but plans to return soon to a gated villa in the upscale Beirut neighborhood of Achrafieh, one of the sources said.He was first arrested in Tokyo in November 2018 and faces four charges – which he denies – including hiding income and enriching himself through payments to dealerships in the Middle East.Nissan sacked him as chairman saying internal investigations revealed misconduct including understating his salary while he was its chief executive, and transferring $5 million of Nissan funds to an account in which he had an interest.Ghosn has enjoyed an outpouring of support from Lebanese since his 2018 arrest, with billboards proclaiming “We are all Carlos Ghosn” erected in solidarity with his case.Locally he is considered a poster boy for success in a country where rampant unemployment pushes young Lebanese abroad to find work and the economy relies heavily on remittances amid a deep financial crisis that has sparked a wave of protests.Ghosn was born in Brazil but is of Lebanese descent and lived in Lebanon as a child. He oversaw a turnaround at French carmaker Renault that won him the nickname “Le Cost Killer” and used similar methods to revive Nissan.
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Embalo Wins Guinea-Bissau Presidential Election
Umaro Cissoko Embalo was declared the winner of Guinea-Bissau’s presidential race on Wednesday. He defeated Domingos Simoes Pereira, from the majority PAIGC party. In Bissau, cars whizzed past the presidential palace on New Year’s Day, honking and waving the signature red and white scarf of candidate Umaro Cissoko Embalo.While next door some supporters of Domingos Simoes Pereira cried in defeat, after Embalo was declared the winner of Guinea Bissau’s presidential runoff election.Guinea Bissau’s president Jose Mario Vaz reacts as he delivers his New Year’s speech, Dec. 31, 2019 at the Presidential Palace in Bissau.Embalo won with nearly 54 percent of the vote in Sunday’s election, while Perieira captured 46 percent.Guinea Bissau residents hope the election will end years of political crisis. Both Embalo and Pereira served as prime ministers during former President Jose Mario Vaz’s five-year term.Vaz had seven prime ministers as the country lurched from crisis to crisis amid infighting between Vaz and Pereira’s party, the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde, the PAIGC.Amadu Djamanca, executive secretary of the Guinea Bissau Observatory of Democracy and Governance, said the vote signaled that residents wanted new leadership outside of the PAIGC.”The election of Cissoko demonstrates the determination of Guineans to turn the page, finding a new era. I will not say that most of the people are tired of PAIGC, but they are tired of seeing their destinies postponed because of the current confusion, internal crisis of this independence political formation party,” said Djamanca.Supporters of newly elected President Umaro Sissoco Embalo celebrate, Jan. 1, 2020, in Bissau, Guinea-Bissau, after the anouncement of the election results.Embalo also was a member of PAIGC at one time, but he defected during the crisis and helped form an opposition party, MADEM-15.Djamanca said the party is new to the scene.”Now it remains to be seen what are the surprises of MADEM G-15. I hope it’s going to be better than what we have seen over the years,” he said.Pereira won the first round of voting, but Embalo secured the backing of the other main contenders to pull ahead in the second round. Pereira said Wednesday he will contest the results of the runoff.
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Turkey May Not Send Forces to Libya if Conflict Eases
Turkey may hold off from sending troops to Libya if forces loyal to eastern commander Khalifa Haftar halt their offensive against the internationally recognized government in Tripoli and pull back, the Turkish vice president said Wednesday.The Turkish parliament is due to debate and vote on a bill mandating the deployment of military forces to Libya on Thursday after Fayez al-Serraj’s Government of National Accord (GNA) requested support as part of a military cooperation agreement.”After the bill passed from the parliament … it might happen that we would see something different, a different stance and they would say, ‘OK, we are withdrawing, dropping the offensive,'” Fuat Oktay said in an interview with Andalou news agency. “Then, why would we go there?”Oktay also said that Ankara hoped the Turkish bill would send a deterrent message to the warring parties.Ankara has already sent military supplies to the GNA despite a United Nations embargo, according to a U.N. report seen by Reuters, and has said it will continue to support it.Haftar’s forces have received support from Russia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan.
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EXCLUSIVE: Airbus Beats Goal With 863Jet Deliveries in 2019, Ousts Boeing From Top Spot
Airbus has become the world’s largest planemaker for the first time since 2011 after delivering a forecast-beating 863 aircraft in 2019, seizing the crown from embattled U.S. rival Boeing, airport and tracking sources said on Wednesday.A reversal in the pecking order between the two giants had been expected as a crisis over Boeing’s grounded 737 MAX drags into 2020. But the record European data further underscores the distance Boeing must travel to recoup its market position.Photo shows a Boeing Center in Crystal City, Arlington, Virginia. (Photo: Diaa Bekheet)Airbus, which had been forced by its own industrial problems to cut its 2019 delivery goal by 2-3% in October, deployed extra resources until hours before midnight to reach 863 aircraft for the year, compared with its revised target of 860 jets.Deliveries rose 7.9 % from 800 aircraft in 2018.Airbus declined to comment on the figures, which must be audited before they can be finalized and published.Planemakers receive most of their revenues when aircraft are delivered – minus accumulated progress payments – so the end-year delivery performance is closely monitored by investors.Airbus’s tally, which included around 640 single-aisle aircraft, broke industry records after it diverted thousands of workers and canceled holidays to complete a buffer stock of semi-finished aircraft waiting to have their cabins adjusted.Airbus has been hit by delays in fitting the complex new layouts on A321neo jets assembled in Hamburg, Germany, resulting in dozens of these and other models being stored in hangars to await last-minute configurations and the arrival of more labor.Such out-of-sequence work drives up costs and could have a modest impact on Airbus profit margins, but the impact will be largely blunted by the high volume of planes and already solid profitability for such single-aisle aircraft, analysts say.Still, the problems in fitting complex cabins have curtailed Airbus’s ability to take advantage of the market turmoil surrounding Boeing’s 737 MAX – grounded since March following two fatal accidents.Boeing delivered 345 mainly long-haul jets between January and November, less than half the number of 704 achieved in the same period of 2018, when the MAX was being delivered normally. For the whole of 2018, Boeing had delivered 806 aircraft.Airbus production plants traditionally halt over Christmas and New Year. But the company’s delivery centers and completion facilities were humming well into the afternoon of New Year’s Eve to allow Asian and other airlines to fly away new jets.
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Kim Jong Un Warns He May Scrap Moratorium on Nuclear, Long range Missile Tests
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has announced he is no longer bound by his self-imposed moratorium on long-range missile and nuclear tests. Kim also warned of an unspecified “shocking” action if the United States does not soften its stance in nuclear talks. But he did not formally abandon the negotiations, as VOA’s Bill Gallo reports from Seoul
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Kenya Has a Perilous Plastic Pollution Problem
The world has a plastic pollution problem. That is the big picture. It has countries looking for creative solutions. Environmentalists say there’s no more time for talk. As VOA’s Arash Arabasadi reports, they say it’s time for action
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Taiwan’s Anti-Infiltration Bill Sends Relations with China to New Low
Taiwan parliament’s passage of a bill Tuesday banning infiltration by political rival China dealt a new blow to relations that have already sparked military threats and diplomatic tug-of-wars in the past four years.Legislators gave final approval to a bill that allows sentences of five years in prison or a fine equal to $330,600 for lobbying, election influence, fake news dissemination and political contributions originating outside Taiwan.The law — an unusual tool for a democracy — doesn’t name China specifically but the government’s Mainland Affairs Council says it applies to Chinese nationals as well as Taiwanese with connections in China. Beijing’s Taiwan Affairs Office accused the ruling party Tuesday of using the bill to win elections. The ruling Democratic Progressive Party camp says the bill will advance Taiwan’s security. Its government has previously accused China of meddling in campaigns for the January 11 legislative and presidential elections.“Every country in the whole world is considering how to handle China’s infiltration or infiltration by autocratic rule, because this isn’t old school, not the same — they use technology, use the economy, use social media, Facebook and YouTube, all sorts of ways to infiltrate,” independent lawmaker Freddy Lim said ahead of the vote.“So how do we use an administrative mechanism or legislative mechanism taken together so the new generation can stop this infiltration?” he asked.
China-Taiwan ties
China and Taiwan have been separately ruled since the Chinese civil war of the 1940s, when the Nationalists lost to the Communists and rebased their government in Taipei. China claims sovereignty over democratically ruled Taiwan and insists that the two sides eventually unite, by use of force if needed.
Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, a 63-year-old law scholar up for re-election this month, has angered China since taking office in 2016 by rejecting its condition for dialogue – that each side come to the table as part of China.
Tsai enjoys support among Taiwanese who oppose China’s goal of one day ruling their democratically run island. About 80% of Taiwan citizens are in opposition, government surveys found in early 2019.China has flown military planes and passed aircraft carriers near Taiwan during Tsai’s term, the defense ministry in Taipei says. It also has persuaded seven countries to switch their recognition from Taiwan to Beijing, Taiwanese officials believe.
New chill in relations
Taiwanese officials began accusing China last year of using money and mass media to influence the upcoming elections. Chinese authorities had influenced Taiwan’s “grassroots” by enticing tourists, buying advertisements and using the “mafia,” the Mainland Affairs Council told VOA in July.
Tsai’s chief election opponent Han Kuo-yu of the Nationalist Party favors restarting talks with Beijing on its condition that both parties belong to a single China.China’s Taiwan Affairs Office accused the Democratic Progressive Party of “major activity in ‘green terror’,” according to the semiofficial People.cn news website. The party is known informally in Taiwan as the “green” side. The bill “destroys cross-strait exchanges, creates cross-strait hostility, hurts feelings between people on the two sides and severely impacts Taiwanese people’s welfare,” People.cn said.
A “psychological impact” is certain even if details of the bill go unenforced, said Yun Sun, East Asia Program senior associate at the Stimson Center think tank in Washington.“It does have implications, it does have impacts and it does have at least as a minimum a psychological impact over businessmen, students and also scholars and also politicians in terms of their communications or their relationship with the mainland,” Sun said.China, however, will probably keep quiet before the election to avoid being seen in Taiwan as an infiltrator, she added.
Opposition in Taiwan Nationalist Party lawmakers protested the vote Tuesday with a sit-in. They fear the bill will lead to unwarranted surveillance of an estimated 2 million Taiwanese who work or study in China. Some invest there; others have taken jobs because wages in China are higher than the equivalent in Taiwan.“It is a very strange law that is overreaching the power of the executive branch that can indict anyone suspicious of any activities related to China,” Nationalist Party legislator Jason Hsu said in an interview.About 60% of new college graduates want to work outside Taiwan, Hsu estimated, and more than two-thirds are looking at China. “Would they be profiled as infiltrators or spies?” he asked.
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4 Dead, Thousands Displaced in Flooding in Indonesia’s Capital
Severe flooding hit Indonesia’s capital as residents were celebrating New Year’s, killing at least four people, displacing thousands and forcing the closure of a domestic airport.Tens of thousands of revelers in Jakarta were soaked by torrential rains as they waited for New Year’s Eve fireworks. National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Agus Wibowo said Wednesday that monsoon rains and rising rivers submerged at least 90 neighborhoods.Wibowo said the dead included a 16-year-old high school student who was electrocuted while more than 19,000 people were in temporary shelters after floodwaters reached up to 3 meters (10 feet) in several places.Television footage and photos released by the agency showed dozens of cars floating in muddy water while soldiers and rescuers in rubber boats were struggling to evacuate children and the elderly who were holding on the roofs of their squalid houses. General view of flooding after heavy rain in Bekasi, near Jakarta, Indonesia, Jan. 1 2020. (Antara Foto/Saptono/via Reuters)The floods inundated thousands of homes and buildings in poor and wealthy districts alike, forcing authorities to cut electricity and water supplies and paralyzing transport networks, Wibowo said. Director General of Civil Aviation Polana Pramesti said the floods also submerged the runway at Jakarta’s Halim Perdanakusumah domestic airport, prompting authorities to close it, stranding some 19,000 passengers. Flooding also highlighted Indonesia’s infrastructure problems as it tries to attract foreign investment.Jakarta is home to 10 million people, or 30 million including those in its greater metropolitan area. It is prone to earthquakes and flooding and is rapidly sinking due because of uncontrolled extraction of ground water. Congestion is also estimated to cost the economy $6.5 billion a year.President Joko Widodo announced in August that the capital will move to a site in sparsely populated East Kalimantan province on Borneo island, known for rainforests and orangutans.
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California Fire Victims’ Settlement Turns Into Tug-of-War
A financial tug-of-war is emerging over the $13.5 billion that the nation’s largest utility has agreed to pay to victims of recent California wildfires, as government agencies jockey for more than half the money to cover the costs of their response to the catastrophes. Pacific Gas & Electric declared bankruptcy nearly a year ago as it faced about $36 billion in claims from people who lost family members, homes and businesses in devastating wildfires in 2017 and 2018. The utility acknowledged its power lines ignited some of the fires.Those claims were settled as part of the $13.5 billion deal that PG&E reached last month with lawyers representing uninsured and underinsured victims. Meanwhile, insurers had been threatening to try to recover roughly $20 billion in policyholder claims that they believe they will end up paying for losses from those fires. PG&E settled with the insurers for $11 billion.FILE – Flames burn near power lines in Sycamore Canyon in Montecito, Calif., Dec. 16, 2017. As California counties face power shutoffs meant to prevent wildfires, counties with more resources are adapting easier than poorer ones.PG&E must keep working on its broader bankruptcy exit plan to meet the approval of state regulators and a bankruptcy judge by June, as planned. In the meantime, the $13.5 billion settlement leaves open just how much would be used to compensate victims, their lawyers and federal and state agencies for the money they spent on rescue and recovery operations. California state agencies said they’re owed about $3.3 billion, and federal agencies including FEMA filed claims totaling $4.3 billion. The claims are not related to the $1 billion PG&E agreed in June to pay to 14 local governments to cover damages from wildfires caused by its equipment.U.S. attorneys and the California attorney general’s office raised concerns in separate court filings last month about “potential unequal treatment of claims” and asked U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Dennis Montali to clarify how the money will be divided. They also urged him to ensure that settlement amounts are governed by neutral and experienced trustees.Lawyers for the fire victims, meanwhile, have asked the judge to reduce the government agencies’ claims and argued in one court filing that the California governor’s office of emergency services can’t recover the costs of carrying out public services such as response to fires.FILE – Bill Husa holds before-and-after photos of his home, Oct. 24, 2019, lost in the Camp Fire in Paradise, Calif. Husa’s home is one of nearly 9,000 Paradise homes destroyed in the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California history.Many victims dissatisfied with the settlement say giving money to the government agencies leaves little left to people who are still struggling to rebuild their lives. “There’s not enough money in there for everybody and yet there are too many hands in the pot,” said Sasha Poe, who lost her house in 2018 when a fire killed 85 people and nearly wiped out the city of Paradise.Some victims said they’re upset that the settlement provides cash and PG&E stock to a trust, stretching out payments over a few years, while insurers will receive their settlement in cash. “To me, they’re taking care of shareholders first and they want us to wait for payments,” said Lisa Williams, who also lost her house in Paradise. She says a Facebook group she started for wildfire survivors concerned about the settlement has reached 800 members.“Nobody expects to be made whole by this settlement … but they ought to give the victims cash because they need it more immediately,” she said. “People are still hurting. I know a woman whose house burned down … she’s living in a trailer with an autistic child and the generator and plumbing went out. She has no heat and water and she’s freezing.”Attorneys for the victims said they hope to work out several key issues, including how the trust for the fire victims will be managed and the process for submitting claims, by the end of January.
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In Hong Kong, Thousands March, Pledge to ‘Keep Fighting’
Tens of thousands of anti-government protesters began marching in Hong Kong on New Year’s Day, demanding concessions from the city’s embattled government as the civil unrest that convulsed the Chinese-ruled city for more than half a year spills into 2020.Gathering on a grass lawn in Victoria Park under grey skies, citizens young and old, many dressed in black and some masked, carried signs such as “Freedom is not free” before setting off.“It’s hard to utter ‘Happy New Year’ because Hong Kong people are not happy,” said a man named Tung, who was walking with his 2-year-old son, mother and niece.“Unless the five demands are achieved, and police are held accountable for their brutality, then we can’t have a real happy new year,” he added, referring to the push for concessions from the government including full democracy, an amnesty for the more than 6,500 people arrested so far, and a powerful, independent investigation into police actions.People wearing masks depicting LIHKG Pig and Pepe the Frog, characters used by pro-democracy activists as a symbol of their struggle, gather in Victoria Park ahead of a planned pro-democracy march in Hong Kong, Jan. 1, 2020.The pro-democracy march is being organized by the Civil Human Rights Front, a group that arranged a number of marches last year that drew millions.Along the route, a number of newly elected pro-democracy district politicians mingled with the crowds on their first day in office, some helping collect donations to assist the movement.“The government has already started the oppression before the new year began … whoever is being oppressed, we will stand with them,” said Jimmy Sham, one of the leaders of the Civil Human Rights Front.Thousands of Hong Kong revelers had earlier welcomed in 2020 on neon-lit promenades along the iconic skyline of Victoria Harbor, chanting the movement’s signature eight-word Chinese protest couplet — “Liberate Hong Kong. Revolution of our Time.” — for the final eight seconds before clocks struck midnight.This view shows thousands of people gathered in Victoria Park in the Causeway Bay area ahead of a planned pro-democracy march in Hong Kong, Jan. 1, 2020.A sea of protesters then surged down Nathan Road, a major boulevard, blocking all lanes in a spontaneous march breaking out within minutes of the new decade. Some held signs reading “Let’s keep fighting together in 2020.”Overnight, police fired tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons during some brief standoffs.China’s President Xi Jinping said in a New Year’s speech that Beijing will “resolutely safeguard the prosperity and stability” of Hong Kong under the so-called “one country, two systems” framework.Many people in Hong Kong are angered by Beijing’s tight grip on the city, which was promised a high degree of autonomy under this framework when the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997.Beijing denies interference and blames the West for fomenting the unrest.A group of 40 parliamentarians and dignitaries from 18 countries had written an open letter to Hong Kong’s leader Carrie Lam on New Year’s Eve, urging her to “seek genuine ways forward out of this crisis by addressing the grievances of Hong Kong people.”The protest movement is supported by 59% of the city’s residents polled in a survey conducted for Reuters by the Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute.Demonstrations have grown increasingly violent in recent months, at times paralyzing the Asian financial center.Protesters have thrown petrol bombs and rocks, with police responding with tear gas, water cannon, pepper spray, rubber bullets and occasional live rounds. There have been several injuries.
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A Year of Multiple Standoffs, Few Solutions in South China Sea Dispute
China confirmed its lead this year in Asia’s biggest maritime sovereignty dispute by sending nonmilitary ships to waters normally controlled by other countries, allowing it to flex muscle without conflicts or diplomatic losses.Pushback from Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam kept Beijing from adding artificial islets or control over existing features in the resource-rich South China Sea in 2019, analysts say.Citing dynastic-era maritime records, China claims 90% of the 3.5 million-square-kilometer tropical waterway that stretches from Hong Kong to Borneo, while Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam claim waters that overlap China’s. They all value the sea for fisheries, fossil fuel reserves or both.”Compared to the previous years, there was relatively less militarization by China,” said Aaron Rabena, research fellow at Asia-Pacific Pathways to Progress Foundation, a Manila research organization. “Still we see standoffs taking place, so there are still challenges.”China was once more aggressive. Vietnam and China clashed in two deadly incidents in the 1970s and 1980s. In 2012, Chinese ships entered into a prolonged standoff with the Philippines at a shoal near Luzon Island and eventually took control of it. Two years later, Vietnamese and Chinese ships rammed each other over the location of an offshore Chinese oil rig.FILE – This aerial photo taken through a glass window of a military plane shows China’s alleged on-going reclamation of Mischief Reef in the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, May 11, 2015.Over the past decade, China has alarmed the other claimants by using landfill to create or expand three tiny islets, in the sea’s Spratly Islands and others in the Paracel chain. Some of those islets now support hangars and radar equipment.”You had two, maybe three, cable-cutting incidents, you had over the years Chinese fishermen being rapacious with Vietnamese, boarding ships and seizing things,” said Carl Thayer, emeritus professor with the University of New South Wales in Australia, recalling a more assertive China 10 years ago. “That seems to have died down,” he said.Pressure without firefightsChinese coast guard ships, survey vessels and informal fishing boat flotillas still appear in the sea tracts claimed by other governments. China used all three this year to assert existing claims but occupied no new islets and got into no firefights.To avoid angering the other claimants, China worked with them economically, for example by financing infrastructure construction in the Philippines. That cooperation lowers odds that the other governments will grow cozier with the United States, which has the world’s strongest armed forces and resents Chinese maritime expansion, analysts have said.China, however, positioned vessels this past year in the waters within 370 kilometers of Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines, possibly to flex muscle. That distance normally gives coastal nations an exclusive economic zone.Around Malaysia, “they’ve sailed ever more closely to our platforms, so that particular aspect has changed,” said Shahriman Lockman, senior foreign policy and security studies analyst with the research organization the Institute of Strategic and International Studies in Kuala Lumpur. “They’ve not interrupted operations, they just sail closer, that’s all. It’s more a show of force rather than anything else.”For much of the year, China’s coast guard made its presence felt in waters claimed by Malaysia, the most active explorer of undersea natural gas in the disputed region.In January, China moved as many as 90 ships around the Manila-controlled Thitu Island to monitor construction of a beaching ramp. A Chinese fishing boat sank a Philippine vessel in June near the disputed sea’s Reed Bank, raising questions about whether the capsized boat was rammed.FILE – Filipino soldiers stand at attention near a Philippine flag at Thitu island in disputed South China Sea, April 21, 2017.Vietnam and China got into the most heated dispute of the year.It started when a Chinese energy survey ship began patrolling in July near Vanguard Bank and a seabed tract about 352 kilometers off the coast of southeastern Vietnam. The patrol circled an oil and gas block on the Vietnamese continental shelf, also within China’s claim. A standoff followed and ended in October when the survey ship left, apparently after completing a mission.Diplomatic fixesMalaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed has asked China to clarify its intent in the sea and this month his government submitted documentation to the United Nations suggesting it extend rights over a larger part of the continental shelf. China protested. Mahathir’s government also set aside a railway project funded by China, but it resumed in late 2019.In the Philippines, legislators and military officials want President Rodrigo Duterte to step up resistance to China; however, his administration has agreed with Beijing to joint oil and gas development. The two sides started intergovernmental committee talks this year to oversee projects. They separately pledged to investigate the ship collision.Vietnam contacted numerous Western nations about the Vanguard Bank standoff, Thayer said.FILE – A U.S. fighter jet takes off from the U.S. aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan for their patrol in the international waters near the South China Sea, Aug. 6, 2019.Much of Southeast Asia still expects the United States will keep China in check, as needed, by sending naval ships into the sea, Lockman said. Washington calls the events “freedom of navigation operations” and carried out several in 2019.China and the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which includes four maritime claimants, often discuss the maritime disputes but made little headway this year. They are due to talk eventually about signing a code of conduct that would help avert mishaps.”I wouldn’t say there’s been reconciliation,” said Alan Chong, associate professor at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore. “It’s been a fluid situation and the jury is still out.”
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Trump Suggests Pulling Some Flavored Vapes Temporarily
President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the federal government will soon announce a new strategy to tackle underage vaping, promising, “We’re going to protect our families, we’re going to protect our children, and we’re going to protect the industry.”Trump was vague about what the plan would entail, but suggested “certain flavors” in cartridge-based e-cigarettes would be taken off the market “for a period of time.”The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that the Food and Drug Administration would ban the sale of most flavored e-cigarettes, such as those sold by Juul and NJOY. E-cigarette pods formulated to taste like tobacco or menthol would still be allowed.The Journal also reported that tank-based vaping systems, which are less popular among teenagers, would still allow users to custom-mix flavors. The Journal report cited anonymous “people familiar with the matter.”Previous effort stallsIn September, Trump and his top health officials said they would soon sweep virtually all flavored e-cigarettes from the market because of their appeal to young children and teens. But that effort stalled after vaping lobbyists pushed back and White House advisers told Trump the ban could cost him votes with adults who vape.On Tuesday, Trump suggested a ban of flavored e-cigarettes might be temporary.“Hopefully, if everything’s safe, they’re going to be going very quickly back onto the market,” he told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, where he was hosting a New Year’s Eve party.“People have died from this, they died from vaping,” the president said. “We think we understand why. But we’re doing a very exhaustive examination and hopefully everything will be back on the market very, very shortly.”FDA announcementBut the FDA had already announced that, starting in May, all e-cigarettes will need to undergo a review. And only those that can demonstrate a benefit for U.S. public health will be permitted to stay on the market.In Florida, Trump added: “Look, vaping can be good from the standpoint — you look at the e-cigarettes, you stop smoking. If you can stop smoking, that’s a big advantage. So, we think we’re going to get it back on the market very, very quickly.”
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Kenya Hopes HPV Vaccinations Reduce Cervical Cancer Rate
East Africa has the highest rates of cervical cancer in the world, according to the World Health Organization. In October, Kenya launched a mass vaccination of girls against the human papillomavirus (HPV),which can lead to cervical cancer. For those who acquired HPV, the vaccine is being welcomed in hopes of protecting their children against cervical cancer. Rael Ombuor reports from Nairobi.
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Dry Conditions Keep Australia’s Fires Going
Dry conditions, hot weather and strong winds keep the wildfires in Australia going, with new blazes sparking almost every day. Officials say more than 200 bushfires are burning throughout the country. Since early September, fires have killed 12 people, destroyed more than 4 million hectares of land, surrounded cities, forced evacuations and killed wildlife. But as VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports, that did not stop Sydney from staging its world-renowned fireworks display to usher in the new year.
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Rohingya Refugees Face More of Uncertainty
A stalled Rohingya refugee repatriation plan and the start of a judicial process by the West African nation Gambia for genocide charges against Myanmar marked the troubled end of the second year since more than 700,000 Rohingya Muslims fled a brutal Burmese army “clearance operation” in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, crossing over to Bangladesh. Steve Sandford has this report for VOA from Bangkok.
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Protesters Storm US Embassy in Iraq as Tensions Escalate Between Tehran, Washington
Protesters in Iraq stormed the U.S. embassy compound in Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone on Tuesday. The protesters appeared to belong to a pro-Iran faction upset over deadly U.S. airstrikes targeting Iran-backed militia in the region. The incident marked the latest escalation in tensions between Tehran and Washington. As VOA’s Jesse Oni reports, defense experts fear even more violent confrontations could erupt.
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Ranks of Refugees Grow in 2019 Amid ‘Crisis of Solidarity’
The worldwide refugee crisis continues to deepen. According to the United Nations, the world is witnessing “thehighest levels of displacement on record.” Spurred by conflict and persecution, the numbers of displaced are expected to rise further in the future, as climate change pushes people out of their homes. VOA’s Ardita Dunellari reports.
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