Venezuela’s opposition leader Juan Guaido joined thousands of supporters at a demonstration in Madrid on Saturday after arriving in Spain on the last leg of a European tour. Speaking in a central square packed with supporters holding signs calling for “democracy,” Guaido emphasized the importance of international support in unseating Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. “We need the support of the world to fight against the groups operating in Venezuela. We have the opportunity to get Venezuela back because we are together. We can heal Venezuela,” he told a crowd of people waving Venezuelan flags and chanting, “Yes, we can.” “It is the struggle of a whole country in favor of democracy,” he said. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez did not meet Guaido, a decision that angered right-wing opposition parties but was welcomed by Unidas Podemos, the far-left coalition partners of Sanchez’s Socialists. Podemos members have voiced support for Venezuela’s leftist ruling party in the past. Instead, Guaido met Spanish Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya as well as Madrid’s mayor and regional president, both from the conservative People’s Party (PP). Guaido’s visit coincided with a political spat in Spain over reports that Transport Minister Jose Luis Abalos secretly met a senior Maduro aide who is subject to a European Union travel ban at Madrid’s Barajas airport on Monday. PP leader Pablo Casado criticized Sanchez for not meeting Guaido and called on him to dismiss Abalos. Sanchez told reporters earlier in the day that Spain’s government wanted elections in Venezuela “as soon as possible,” but he criticized Spanish opposition parties for using the crisis in Venezuela “against the government.” He also voiced his backing for Abalos, saying “he put all his efforts into avoiding a diplomatic crisis and succeeded.” Guaido has defied a travel ban to seek support in Europe, where he has spoken at the European Parliament, attended the World Economic Forum in Davos and met with leaders including Emmanuel Macron and Boris Johnson.
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Month: January 2020
US Border Patrol Allows Replanting After Bulldozing Garden
The U.S. Border Patrol, reacting to a breach it discovered in a steel-pole border wall believed to be used by smugglers, gave activists no warning this month when it bulldozed the U.S. side of a cross-border garden on an iconic bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. On Saturday, after a public apology for “the unintentional destruction,” the agency allowed the activists into a highly restricted area to plant sticky monkey-flowers, seaside daisies and other native species in Friendship Park, which was inaugurated by first lady Pat Nixon in 1971 as a symbol of bilateral bonds. The half-acre plaza separating San Diego and Tijuana has hosted cross-border yoga classes, festivals and religious services. The garden’s rebirth is the latest twist in a sometimes adversarial, sometimes conciliatory relationship between security-minded border agents and activists who consider the park a special place to exercise rights to free expression. “It’s hard to reconcile because we have two different agendas, but we’re both in the same place, so we’re trying our best,” said Daniel Watman, a Spanish teacher who spearheads the garden for the volunteer group, Friends of Friendship Park. During an art festival in 2005, David Smith Jr., known as “The Human Cannonball,” flashed his passport, lowered himself into a barrel and was shot over the wall on the nearby beach, landing on a net with U.S. Border Patrol agents nearby. In 2017, professional swimmers crossed the border from the U.S. in the Pacific Ocean and landed on the same beach, where a Mexican official greeted them with stamped passports and schoolchildren cheered. Some events rejectedThe Border Patrol has been less receptive to events that carry an overtly political message or that, in its view, take things too far. In 2017, it rejected the Dresdner Symphony Orchestra’s plans for a cross-border concert named “Tear Down This Wall.” It also nixed a “Let Them Hug” signature campaign to allow “touch time” across the border on weekends. Agents briefly opened a heavy steel gate several times a year but ended the practice after an American man and Mexican woman wed in a cross-border ceremony in 2017. They were furious to learn later that the groom was a convicted drug smuggler whose criminal record prohibited him from entering Mexico. Smugglers allegedly cut an opening in part of a border wall, since repaired, a breach that the U.S. Border Patrol said led to the “unintentional destruction” of a cross-border garden this month in San Diego’s Friendship Park, Jan. 25, 2020.Friends of Friendship Park, which advocates for “unrestricted access to this historic meeting place,” said the garden was created in 2007, shortly before a second barrier created a buffer enforcement zone that the Border Patrol opens to the public on weekends only. People can barely touch fingertips through a steel mesh screen during those weekend encounters. The Border Patrol said in a statement after the garden was bulldozed that it was being used “as cover to hide smuggling activities.” It released photos that showed a padlock on the Mexican side, which smugglers apparently used to keep the roughly 18-inch (46-centimeter) opening to themselves. Walls are often breached. Manny Bayon, president of the National Border Patrol Council union local that represents San Diego-area agents, said some have cut through President Donald Trump’s new wall of high, concrete-filled steel bollards. Smugglers use cordless grinders that cost about $100. Friends of Friendship Park met January 15 with Douglas Harrison, the Border Patrol’s interim San Diego chief, and settled on a plan to resurrect the garden. Harrison said the intent was to trim it, not destroy it. “We take full responsibility, are investigating the event, & look forward to working with [Friends of Friendship Park] on the path forward,” Harrison said on Twitter. CompromiseA compromise called for the garden to be set back 4 feet (1.2 meters) from the wall to give agents better visibility, with minimal planting on the next 4 feet to better facilitate temporary removal when construction crews replace the existing barrier with Trump’s wall. There was a last-minute misunderstanding Saturday when Watman said the group’s willingness to set the garden back came with permission to plant over a larger space, which the agents on duty wouldn’t allow. Watman agreed to shrink his blueprint and take it up later. “Things are always up in the air somewhat,” he said. “There’s a little bit of playing it by ear.” The Border Patrol released a statement Saturday that said it values “the friendships we have built over the years with the community.” “We are confident that this relationship will continue as we move into a new era of the bi-national garden,” it said.
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Death Toll From Eastern Turkey Earthquake Climbs to 29
The death toll from a strong earthquake that rocked eastern Turkey climbed to 29 on Saturday night as rescue crews searched for people who remained trapped under the rubble of collapsed buildings, officials said. Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said at a news conference earlier in the day that 18 people had been killed in Elazig province, where Friday night’s quake was centered, and four in neighboring Malatya. The national disaster agency later updated the total with seven more casualties. Rescue workers search on a collapsed building after an earthquake in Elazig, Turkey, January 25, 2020. Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said 1,243 people had been injured, with 34 of them in intensive care but not in critical condition. On Saturday afternoon, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited the hardest-hit areas and attended the funeral of a mother and son killed in the quake. He warned people against repeating negative'' hearsay about the country being unprepared for earthquakes. Some of the damage to the village Cevrimtas near the lakeside town of Sivrice where the 6.8 magnitude quake was centered in the province of Elazig. (Mahmut Bozarslan/VOA Turkish)Do not listen to rumors, do not listen to anyone’s negative, contrary propaganda, and know that we are your servants,” Erdogan said. Various earthquake monitoring centers gave magnitudes ranging from 6.5 to 6.8. for the earthquake, which hit Friday at 8:55 p.m. local time (1755 GMT) near the Elazig province town of Sivrice, the Turkish Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD) said. It was followed by 398 aftershocks, the strongest of them with magnitudes 5.4 and 5.1, the disaster agency said. Turkish officials and police try to keep warm at the scene of a collapsed building following a 6.8 magnitude earthquake in Elazig, eastern Turkey, Jan. 24, 2020.Emergency workers and security forces distributed tents, beds and blankets as overnight temperatures dropped below freezing in the affected areas. Mosques, schools, sports halls and student dormitories were opened for hundreds who left their homes after the quake. The earthquake was very severe. We desperately ran out [of our home],'' Emre Gocer told the state-run Anadolu news agency as he sheltered with his family at a sports hall in Sivrice.We don’t have a safe place to stay right now.” While visiting Sivrice and the city of Elazig, the provincial capital 565 kilometers (350 miles) east of Ankara, Erdogan promised state support for those affected by the disaster. We will not leave anyone in the open,'' the Turkish leader said. Earlier, a prosecutor in Ankara announced an investigation intoprovocative” social media posts. Anadolu reported that Turkey’s broadcasting authority was also reviewing media coverage of the quake. At least five buildings in Sivrice and 25 in Malatya province were destroyed in the disaster, Environment and Urbanization Minister Murat Kurum said. Hundreds of other structures were damaged and made unsafe. Ramazan Emek surveys the damage in Cevrimtas, near Sivrice, where the quake struck just before 9 p.m. Friday local time. (Mahmut Bozarslan/VOA Turkish)AFAD reported that 42 people had been rescued as search teams combed wrecked apartment buildings. Television footage showed emergency workers removing a woman from the wreckage of a collapsed building 19 hours after the main earthquake struck. A prison in Adiyaman, 110 kilometers (70 miles) southwest of the epicenter, was evacuated because of damage, and its more than 800 prisoners were transferred to nearby jails. AFAD said 28 rescue teams had been working around the clock. More than 2,600 personnel from 39 of Turkey’s 81 provinces were sent to the disaster site. Unmanned drones were used to survey damaged neighborhoods and coordinate rescue efforts. Our biggest hope is that the death toll does not rise,'' Parliament Speaker Mustafa Sentop said. A calf stands next to its mother, which has a broken leg, in the village of Cevrimtas, near Sivrice, Elazig, Turkey, Jan. 25, 2020. (Mahmut Bozarslan/VOA Turkish)Communication companies announced free telephone and internet services for residents in the quake-hit region. Neighboring Greece, which is at odds with Turkey over maritime boundaries and gas exploration rights, offered to send rescue crews to assist the Turkish teams. Erdogan appeared to reject the offer of outside assistance during his visit to the city of Elazig, telling reporters,Our state does not need anything.” Turkey sits on top of two major fault lines, and earthquakes are frequent. Two strong earthquakes struck northwest Turkey in 1999, killing around 18,000 people. A magnitude 6.0 earthquake killed 51 people in Elazig in 2010.
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Back to Gates of Hell: Survivor Prepares for Return to Auschwitz
Hundreds of former prisoners will return Monday to the Nazi concentration and extermination camp at Auschwitz, Poland, alongside several world leaders, to mark the 75th anniversary of its liberation by Soviet troops. At least 1.1 million people – mostly Jews – were murdered at Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest of the Nazi death camps, between 1940 and 1945. Stanislaw Zalewski, 94, is among the former prisoners who will return for the anniversary. He says he keeps his memories locked away – “occasionally letting them out to share the horrors of the past.” Zalewski was 18 when he was arrested for painting Polish resistance symbols on walls in Nazi-occupied Warsaw. After a brutal interrogation, he was imprisoned in Waraw’s Pawiak prison. “About 37,000 of these prisoners were killed and about 60,000 were taken from Pawiak prison to concentration camps,” Zalewski told VOA in a recent interview. “I was among these 60,000. I was taken to Auschwitz-Birkenau on October 6, 1943.” Sorry, but your player cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
FILE – Stanislaw Zalewski, pictured at Auschwitz-Birkenau a year ago, is president of the Polish Union of Former Political Prisoners of Nazi Prisons and Concentration Camps. Seventy-five years on, he still struggles to reconcile what happened.As Soviet soldiers began to approach from the east, the Nazis transferred hundreds of thousands of prisoners to other camps on so-called “death marches” or in railroad cattle trucks. Tens of thousands died on the journey. Zalewski was taken to the Mauthausen-Guzen camp in Austria. In May 1945, rumors spread of the Allied advance — and German guards fled. “On May 5, American military vehicles arrived,” Zalewski says, tears welling in his eyes. “Two American soldiers got off. One of them knew some Polish and shouted, ‘You are free!’ It took me 78 days to get from Nuremberg to Warsaw. I arrived in Warsaw on July 22, 1945, wearing USA Army fatigues.” Zalewski is now president of the Polish Union of Former Political Prisoners of Nazi Prisons and Concentration Camps. Seventy-five years on, he still struggles to reconcile what happened. Sorry, but your player cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline. Embed” />Copy“When I say the Lord’s Prayer, there is a phrase: ‘Give us our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who have sinned against us.’ I face a dilemma at this point. Can I forgive those who had an inscription that read, ‘God is with us,’ on their belt buckles, who killed people with cold premeditation?” “I put my memories of Auschwitz into a box, I tied it with a string, and threw it into the water,” Zalewski says. “I worked, I started a family, I have a son and grandchildren. When I visit the camp or when we are talking like we are today, I pull out this box, I present its contents to you, and afterwards, I throw it back into the water. There are moments, however, when these memories break into my psyche, causing reflections and questions with no answers. ‘World has not learned’“I am sad because of what is happening in other parts of the world, where people for their own purposes commit armed, violent acts that take the lives of thousands of innocent people. The world has not learned the lesson of what had happened. The world has come full circle, so to speak. This history, this circularity, is powered by people who do not respect the dignity of another human being.” Zalewski and about 200 fellow survivors will return to the so-called “gates of hell” for the 75th anniversary of the camp’s liberation, still determined to teach the world the lessons of Auschwitz.
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US Veterans Group Wants Trump Apology for Brain Injury Comment
A U.S. veterans group is “expecting” an apology from President Donald Trump for his comments that downplayed traumatic brain injuries, an official said. Speaking in Davos on Wednesday, Trump said he did not consider the brain injuries suffered by U.S. service members in Iran’s recent attack on a base in Iraq as serious. But the Veterans of Foreign Wars “expects an apology from the president to our service men and women for his misguided remarks,” William Schmitz, VFW national commander, said in a statement Friday. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment Saturday. Earlier on Friday the Pentagon said 34 service members had been diagnosed with traumatic brain injury following missile strikes by Iran on a base in Iraq, a number higher than the military previously announced. The Veterans of Foreign Wars, a group with 1.6 million members, said traumatic brain injury (TBI) cannot be taken lightly. “TBI is known to cause depression, memory loss, severe headaches, dizziness and fatigue — all injuries that come with both short- and long-term effects,” the group said.
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Pompeo Derides Journalist; NPR Defends Reporter
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo lashed out in anger Saturday at an NPR reporter who accused him of shouting expletives at her after she asked him in an interview about Ukraine. In a direct and personal attack, America’s chief diplomat said the journalist had lied'' to him and he called her conductshameful.” NPR said it stood by Mary Louise Kelly’s reporting. Pompeo claimed in a statement that the incident was another example of how unhinged the media has become in its quest to hurt'' President Donald Trump and his administration. Pompeo, a former CIA director and Republican congressman from Kansas who is one of Trump's closest allies in the Cabinet, asserted,It is no wonder that the American people distrust many in the media when they so consistently demonstrate their agenda and their absence of integrity.” It is extraordinary for a secretary of state to make such a personal attack on a journalist, but he is following the lead of Trump, who has repeatedly derided what he calls fake news'' and ridiculed individual reporters. In one of the more memorable instances, Trump mocked a New York Times reporter with a physical disability. FILE - Mary Louise Kelly accepts the award for best reporter/correspondent/host — noncommercial for "All Things Considered" on NPR at the 43rd annual Gracie Awards, May 22, 2018, in Beverly Hills, Calif.Question about YovanovitchIn Friday's interview, Pompeo responded testily when Kelly asked him about Ukraine and specifically whether he defended or should have defended Marie Yovanovitch, the U.S. ambassador in Kyiv whose ouster figured in Trump's impeachment. I have defended every State Department official,he said.We’ve built a great team. The team that works here is doing amazing work around the world. … I’ve defended every single person on this team. I’ve done what’s right for every single person on this team.” This has been a sensitive point for Pompeo. As a Trump loyalist, he has been publicly silent as the president and his allies have disparaged the nonpartisan career diplomats, including Yovanovitch, who have testified in the impeachment hearings. Those diplomats told Congress that Trump risked undermining Ukraine, a critical U.S. ally, by pressuring for an investigation of Democrat Joe Biden, a Trump political rival. Yovanovitch, who was seen by Trump allies as a roadblock to those efforts, was told in May to leave Ukraine and return to Washington immediately for her own safety. After documents released this month from an associate of Trump’s personal attorney suggested she was being watched and possibly under threat, Pompeo took three days to address the matter and did so only after coming under harsh criticism from lawmakers and current and former diplomats. After the NPR interview, Kelly said she was taken to Pompeo’s private living room, where he shouted at her for about the same amount of time as the interview itself,'' using thef-word” repeatedly. She said he was not happy to have been questioned about Ukraine. No apologyPompeo, in his statement, did not deny shouting at Kelly and did not apologize. Instead, he accused her of lying to him when setting up the interview, which he apparently expected would be limited to questions about Iran, and for supposedly agreeing not to discuss the post-interview meeting. Kelly said Pompeo asked whether she thought Americans cared about Ukraine and if she could find the country on a map. I said yes, and he called out for aides to bring us a map of the world with no writing,'' she said in discussing the encounter on NPR’s All Things Considered.” I pointed to Ukraine. He put the map away. He said, `People will hear about this.' '' Pompeo ended Saturday's statement by saying,It is worth nothing that Bangladesh is NOT Ukraine.” Nancy Barnes, NPR’s senior vice president of news, said in a statement that “Kelly has always conducted herself with the utmost integrity, and we stand behind this report.”
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Concerns Grow About Coronavirus Challenge
Chinese President Xi Jinping has earned the praise of U.S. President Donald Trump and other world leaders for his handling of the coronavirus outbreak, which has killed 41 people and sickened more than 1,200. The disease has spread to about 15 countries, including the United States and France. “China has been working very hard to contain the Coronavirus. The United States greatly appreciates their efforts and transparency. It will all work out well. In particular, on behalf of the American People, I want to thank President Xi!” Trump said in a tweet Friday. The appreciation is the result of some impressive measures that include isolating nearly 40 million people across 18 cities and towns in the most affected province, Hubei. In two weeks, the government has requisitioned military doctors and has begun building two hospitals to house 2,300 patients in Hubei. Excavators and bulldozers are seen at a construction site where a hospital is being built to treat those affected by a new strain of coronavirus, on the outskirts of Wuhan, China, Jan. 24, 2020.Xi is also reaching out to world leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, as part of an image management drive, because Chinese travelers are being named as carriers of the disease. He said China is ready to work with the international community to effectively curb the spread of the pneumonia cases caused by the new strain of coronavirus to uphold global health security. Still, there are rising concerns that the challenge the disease presents may be much bigger than is evident from official reports. Despite some energetic action from the central government in Beijing, there are questions about delayed responses since the disease surfaced in mid-December. Economic impactAddressing the concerns is important because of the risk that the disease might severely damage the Chinese economy. “Should the virus break out to a full-blown pandemic, it will certainly have a major impact on the economy,” Max Zenglein, head of economic research at the Mercator Institute for China Studies in Berlin, told VOA. “At this stage, it is already likely to affect consumption- and travel-related services during China’s major holiday season. A clear picture should emerge within the next two weeks when the country’s economy returns to normal following the Chinese New Year,” he said. Though Xi and other Chinese leaders have called for total transparency in reporting on the response to the virus, they also have made a point of emphasizing the need to “safeguard social stability.” The idea is to avoid the public panic that can occur if available information paints a grim scenario. Officials in Wuhan city, where the highest number of infections has been reported, have punished eight people for wrongly reporting the situation on social media. This was seen as a signal to social media users not to challenge official information. “In general, the government is using the traditional Chinese Communist Party approach,” Fu King-wa, associate professor at the University of Hong Kong‘s Journalism and Media Studies Center, was quoted as saying in media reports. The goal is “to control the information, to control the media, to control the narrative and to give the people the idea that the government is handling the issue.” People wearing protective masks stand outside the entrance of the Forbidden City where a notice says the place is closed to visitors following the outbreak of a new coronavirus, in Beijing, China, Jan. 25, 2020.Disease featuresThe disease is exhibiting some sinister features, suggesting the actual extent of infections may be much larger than the Chinese government has reported. Many of the patients have been found without such telltale symptoms as coughing, fever and pneumonia. They have had other symptoms, such as a sense of tightening in the chest, which could be confused with other ailments. China’s National Health Commission is struggling to determine the right kind of guidance it can give to doctors for making diagnoses. Two of the five most recent cases of infection in Beijing have involved people who had no exposure to people from Hubei province. That has raised questions about whether there is another source. Different groups of scientists have suggested different animals, ranging from bats to snakes to mink, as the “reservoir” of the coronavirus. There also is an ongoing battle to come up with a vaccine, but this may take a long time. Millions of Chinese are traveling from their homes as part of the ongoing Spring Festival celebration. The extent of the infection rate could change as they begin to return home over the next four to five days, having mingled in crowds at bus stops, railway stations and airports. Transmission rates are highest in crowds.
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Death Toll From Eastern Turkey Earthquake Climbs to 22
The death toll from a strong earthquake that rocked eastern Turkey climbed to 22 on Saturday as rescue crews searched for people who remained trapped under the rubble of collapsed buildings, officials said.Speaking at a televised news conference near the epicenter of the quake in Elazig province, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said 18 people were killed in Elazig and four in neighboring Malatya.Rescue workers search on a collapsed building after an earthquake in Elazig, Turkey, January 25, 2020. Some 1,103 people were injured, with 34 of them in intensive care but not in critical condition, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said.Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attended the funeral of a mother and son killed in the quake while visiting the hardest-hit areas. He warned people against repeating “negative” hearsay about the country being unprepared for earthquakes.“Do not listen to rumors, do not listen to anyone’s negative, contrary propaganda, and know that we are your servants,” Erdogan said.Some of the damage to the village Cevrimtas near the lakeside town of Sivrice where the 6.8 magnitude quake was centered in the province of Elazig. (Mahmut Bozarslan/VOA Turkish)Various earthquake monitoring centers gave magnitudes ranging from 6.5 to 6.8. for the earthquake, which hit Friday at 8:55 p.m. local time (1755 GMT) near the Elazig province town of Sivrice, the Turkish Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD) said.It was followed by 398 aftershocks, the strongest of them with magnitudes 5.4 and 5.1, the disaster agency said.Emergency workers and security forces distributed tents, beds and blankets as overnight temperatures dropped below freezing in the affected areas. Mosques, schools, sports halls and student dormitories were opened for hundreds who left their homes after the quake.“The earthquake was very severe. We desperately ran out (of our home),” Emre Gocer told the state-run Anadolu news agency as he sheltered with his family at a sports hall in Sivrice. “We don’t have a safe place to stay right now.”Erdogan on Saturday afternoon visited Sirvice and the city of Elazig, the provincial capital located some 565 kilometers (350 miles) east of Ankara. The Turkish leader promised state support for those affected by the disaster.“We will not leave anyone in the open,” he said.Turkish officials and police try to keep warm at the scene of a collapsed building following a 6.8 magnitude earthquake in Elazig, eastern Turkey, Jan. 24, 2020.Earlier, a prosecutor in the capital Ankara announced an investigation into “provocative” social media posts. The Anadolu news agency reported that Turkey’s broadcasting authority was also reviewing media coverage of the quake.At least five buildings in Sivrice and 25 in Malatya province were destroyed in the disaster, Environment and Urbanization Minister Murat Kurum said. Hundreds of other structures were damaged and made unsafe.AFAD reported that 42 people had been rescued as search teams combed wrecked apartment buildings.Television footage showed emergency workers removing a woman from the wreckage of a collapsed building 19 hours after the main earthquake struck.A prison in Adiyaman, 110 kilometers (70 miles) southwest of the epicenter, was evacuated due to damage its more than 800 prisoners transferred to nearby jails.AFAD said 28 rescue teams had been working around the clock. More than 2,600 personnel from 39 of Turkey’s 81 provinces were sent to the disaster site. Unmanned drones were used to survey damaged neighborhoods and coordinate rescue efforts.“Our biggest hope is that the death toll does not rise,” Parliament Speaker Mustafa Sentop said.Ramazan Emek surveys the damage in Cevrimtas, near Sivrice, where the quake struck just before 9 p.m. Friday local time. (Mahmut Bozarslan/VOA Turkish)“Everybody is in the street, it was very powerful, very scary,” said Zekeriya Gunes, 68, from Elazig city, after the quakes caused a building to collapse on her street.“It lasted quite long, maybe 30 seconds,” added Ferda, 39. “I panicked and was undecided whether to go out in this cold or remain inside.”Greece offers aidThe U.S. Geological Survey assessed the magnitude as 6.7, slightly lower than AFAD, adding that it struck near the East Anatolian Fault in an area that has suffered no documented large ruptures since an earthquake in 1875.“My wholehearted sympathy to President @RTErdogan and the Turkish people following the devastating earthquake that has hit Turkey. Our search and rescue teams stand ready to assist,” Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis wrote on Twitter.In Athens, the Greek premier’s office said later that Mitsotakis had spoken by phone to Erdogan.“The Turkish president … said Turkish teams had the situation under control for now and that it would be re-evaluated in the morning,” his office added.A calf stands next to its mother, which has a broken leg, in the village of Cevrimtas, near Sivrice, Elazig, Turkey, Jan. 25, 2020. (Mahmut Bozarslan/VOA Turkish)Quake-prone TurkeyCommunication companies announced free telephone and internet services for residents in the quake-hit region.Neighboring Greece, which is at odds with Turkey over maritime boundaries and gas exploration rights, offered to send rescue crews to assist the Turkish teams.Erdogan appeared to reject the offer of outside assistance during his visit to the city of Elazig, telling reporters, “Our state does not need anything.”Turkey sits on top of two major fault lines and earthquakes are frequent. Two strong earthquakes struck northwest Turkey in 1999, killing around 18,000 people.A magnitude 6 earthquake killed 51 people in Elazig in 2010.
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Trump’s Lawyers Defend Him at Senate Impeachment Trial
U.S. President Donald Trump’s legal team began presenting counterarguments Saturday in the Senate after House impeachment managers wrapped up three days of closing arguments in Trump’s historic Senate impeachment trial.White House Counsel Pat Cipollone began presenting Trump’s defense by declaring the Democratic House managers failed to achieve their objective.“We don’t believe that they have come anywhere close to meeting their burden for what they’re asking you to do,” Cipollone said.Cipollone also reiterated an often-repeated criticism of the Democratic-led impeachment proceedings that they would nullify Trump’s 2016 election win and reduce choices for voters before the upcoming November presidential election.“They’re here to perpetrate the most massive interference in an election in American history and we cannot allow that to happen,” Cipollone said. “It would violate our Constitution. It would violate our history. It would violate our obligations to the future. And, most importantly, it would violate the sacred trust that the American people have placed in you.”Saturday’s defense of Trump amounts to a preview of the arguments that will be laid out in further detail next week.During his presentation, White House deputy counsel Michael Purpura played a video clip of lead House manager Adam Schiff embellishing the conversation Trump had with Ukraine’s president on July 25 phone call that is central to the impeachment probe.“That’s fake. That’s not the real call, that’s not the evidence,” Purpura said in an attempt to discredit Schiff and other Democrats.Schiff acknowledged after the hearing, during which he recounted the phone call, that his comments were “in character with what the president was trying to communicate.”Sorry, but your player cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
Trump and his lawyers were invited to appear before the House Judiciary Committee during the impeachment inquiry, but declined.U.S. Democratic lawmakers closed out their final arguments against the president Friday, arguing that if Trump is not removed from office he will continue to abuse power.“At the heart of Article Two, obstruction of Congress, is a simple troubling reality: President Trump tried to cheat, he got caught, and then he worked hard to cover it up,” said Hakeem Jeffries, one of seven House Democrats serving as managers of the trial.Jeffries said Trump administration officials were aware of the president’s alleged misconduct last year and called the situation in the White House a “toxic mess.”Schiff told lawmakers, “You cannot leave a man like that in office.” He argued that the president will not change and his actions will remain the same. “You know it’s not going to stop. It’s not going to stop unless the Congress does something about it.””He has shown neither remorse nor acknowledgment of wrongdoing,” said Schiff. “Do you think if we do nothing, it’s going to stop now?”In his final argument, Schiff urged senators to “give America a fair trial,” saying, “she’s worth it.”Trump is only the third U.S. president to be impeached and tried before the Senate. Andrew Johnson was impeached in 1868 because of a post-Civil War dispute over states that seceded from the union. Bill Clinton was impeached in 1998 for lying to a grand jury over a sex scandal. Both Johnson and Clinton were acquitted and remained in office until the end of their terms.
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Politics Weigh Heavily in Trump’s Mideast Peace Plan
A blueprint the White House is rolling out to resolve the decades-long conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians is as much about politics as it is about peace.President Donald Trump said he would likely release his long-awaited Mideast peace plan a little before he meets Tuesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his main political rival Benny Gantz. The Washington get-together offers political bonuses for Trump and the prime minister, but Trump’s opponents are doubting the viability of any plan since there’s been little-to-no input from the Palestinians, who have rejected it before its release.“It’s entirely about politics,” Michael Koplow, policy director of the Israel Policy Forum, said about Tuesday’s meeting. “You simply can’t have a serious discussion about an Israeli-Palestinian peace plan and only invite one side to come talk about it. This is more about the politics inside Israel and inside the U.S. than it is about any real efforts to get these two sides to an agreement.”Jared Kushner, a Trump adviser and the president’s son-in-law, has been the architect for the plan for nearly three years. He’s tried to persuade academics, lawmakers, former Mideast negotiators, Arab governments and special interest groups not to reject his fresh approach outright.People familiar with the administration’s thinking believe the release will have benefits even if it never gets Palestinian buy-in and ultimately fails. According to these people, the peace team believes that if Israeli officials are open to the plan and Arab nations do not outright reject it, the proposal could help improve broader Israeli-Arab relations.For years, the prospect of improved ties between Israel and its Arab neighbors had been conditioned on a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But the administration believes that a change in regional dynamics – due mainly to rising antipathy to Iran – will boost Israel’s standing with not only Egypt and Jordan, which already have peace deals with the Jewish state, but also Saudi Arabia and the smaller Gulf nations, these people say.There have been signs of warming between Israel and the Gulf states, including both public displays and secret contacts, and the administration sees an opening for even greater cooperation after the plan is released, according to these people.Trump, for his part, told reporters on Air Force One this week that “It’s a plan that really would work.” He said he spoke to the Palestinians “briefly,” without elaborating.Nabil Abu Rdeneh, a spokesman for the Western-backed Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, says that’s not true.“There were no talks with the U.S. administration — neither briefly nor in detail,” he said. “The Palestinian position is clear and consistent in its rejection of Trump’s decisions regarding Jerusalem and other issues, and everything related to the rejected deal.”Abbas ended contacts with the administration after it recognized disputed Jerusalem as Israel’s capital two years ago. The Palestinians’ anger mounted as Trump repeatedly broken with the international consensus around solving the conflict and took actions seen as biased toward Israel’s right-wing government.The White House has cut off nearly all U.S. aid to the Palestinians and closed the Palestinian diplomatic mission in Washington. In November, the Trump administration said it no longer views Jewish settlements in the occupied territories as a violation of international law, reversing four decades of American policy. The Palestinians view the settlements as illegal and a major obstacle to peace, a position shared by most of the international community.Tuesday’s meeting offers benefits to both leaders while they are under fire at home.The meeting allows Trump to address a high-profile foreign policy issue during his impeachment trial, while Democrats are arguing for his ouster. Moreover, if the plan is pro-Israel as expected, Trump hopes it will be popular with his large base of evangelicals and maybe sway a few anti-Trump Jewish voters his way.According to AP VoteCast, a nationwide survey of the American electorate, 79% of white evangelical voters in the 2018 midterms approved of the job Trump was doing as president, while 74% of Jewish voters disapproved.Pastor John Hagee, founder and chairman of the 8 million-member Christians United for Israel, said in a statement that Trump “has shown himself to be the most pro-Israel president in U.S. history, and I fully expect his peace proposal will be in line with that tradition.”For Netanyahu, the meeting allows him to shift press coverage Tuesday when Israel’s parliament convenes a committee that is expected to reject his request for legal immunity from charges of fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes.“The ‘Trump peace plan’ is a blatant attempt to hijack Israel’s March 2 election in Netanyahu’s favor,” tweeted Anshel Pfeffer, a columnist for Israel’s Haaretz newspaper and the author of a biography of Netanyahu.Netanyahu is fighting for his political survival ahead of the election. The decision to bring Gantz along is likely aimed at forestalling any criticism that the U.S. administration is meddling in the election. But in Israel, the meeting and the unveiling of the plan will be widely seen as a gift to the prime minister. The prime minister has noted that it was his idea to invite Gantz, putting his rival in a position where he could not say no to a meeting that could make him look like a bystander at the White House event.In Congress, Trump’s announced release of his Mideast plan has caused hardly a ripple against the backdrop of the impeachment drama.Asked on Friday what he thought about the expected rollout, Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said: “I’m on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and we’ve not heard anything about it.”Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, the committee chairman, defended the administration’s work on a plan.“I think the people who are working on this are working on this in good faith,” Risch said in the halls of Congress, shortly before Trump’s impeachment trial resumed. “I think the people who are trying to do it really are acting in good faith, hoping they can come up with a solution.”
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Vietnam Explores Increasing Foreign Military Cooperation to Resist China
Vietnam indicates in a recent defense white paper it will pursue stronger military ties abroad as China challenges its maritime sovereignty claims, and analysts expect that to mean more exercises with Western-leaning foreign powers and brisker purchases of foreign weapons.The Southeast Asian country will “promote defense cooperation” abroad to handle mutual security challenges, the Ministry of National Defense paper released in November says.As conditions are right, the English-language paper says, “Vietnam will consider developing necessary, appropriate defense and military relations with other countries … for mutual benefits and common interests of the region and international community.”ASEAN defense ministers and dialogue nations defenses ministers, Russia’s deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin, Singapore’s Ng Eng Hen, U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper and ASEAN Secretary-General Dato Lim Jock Hoi in Bangkok, Nov. 18, 2019.The document stresses more defense cooperation among 10 Southeast Asian nations and calls settling differences with China a “long-term, difficult and complex process involving multiple countries and parties.” The two Asian neighbors, which have centuries of border disputes, now contest sovereignty over tracts of the South China Sea.The paper should signal more procurement of advanced weapons from countries such as Russia and joining more multinational defense exercises, analysts believe. One such event was the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations bloc’s first maritime exercises with China’s chief rival, the United States, in September.“If we read between the lines, we can see the Vietnamese hinting at the possibility that they may deepen cooperation with other powers, but how far they can go they don’t say specifically in the paper,” said Nguyen Thanh Trung, Center for International Studies director at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Ho Chi Minh City.Vietnam and ChinaBrunei, China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam contest all or parts of the 3.5-million-square-kilometer South China Sea. They value the waterway, which stretches from Taiwan west to Singapore, for its fisheries and energy reserves.China has taken a military and technological lead during the past decade by using landfill to build out small islets under its control. Some now support hangars and airstrips.Chinese maritime activity angers Vietnam especially because China controls the Paracel Islands, a 130-islet archipelago claimed by both sides. The two sides faced off in deadly sea battles in the 1970s and 1980s, fanning Vietnamese resentment, already strong from a two-war land border dispute.A Chinese energy survey ship sparked a standoff with Vietnam last year as it patrolled near an oil and gas block on the Vietnamese continental shelf, also within China’s maritime claim.The white paper dovetails with a 2018 Communist Party Central Committee resolution calling for becoming what domestic media outlet VnExpress International calls “a powerful maritime nation.”More joint exercisesThe paper, the first since 2009, follows from Vietnam’s gradual accumulation of 28 partnerships with foreign countries, some with a military dimension. India and Vietnam signed a deal in 2018 to step up defense cooperation, and Vietnamese military personnel already train at Australian defense institutions.The paper’s wording implies that Vietnamese officials feel confident they can join any future U.S. military exercises with ASEAN, Nguyen said. Vietnam will not engage one country to strike another, the white paper says, a pledge that precludes any treaty alliances, said Collin Koh, maritime security research fellow at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Foreign military bases are also considered unlikely.The white paper doesn’t rule out a tighter defense relationship with Washington, said Carl Thayer, emeritus professor with the University of New South Wales in Australia.“You might want to read it as a very nuanced way of ‘you push us too far, we’ll go closer to the U.S.’ but it’s not that explicit in there,” Thayer said, although when U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper visited Vietnam in November, he talked up what the U.S. Embassy called a “defense partnership.”U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper speaks at the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam in Hanoi, Vietnam, Nov. 20, 2019.Arms salesForeign defense cooperation may augur more deals to buy arms from Russia, India and eventually the United States, analysts believe.In 2018 the country signed a deal to order more than $1 billion from its long-time submarine and aircraft supplier Russia. Two years earlier, India extended $500 million in credit for any military purchases. China, also a political rival of India, protested that idea.Trump administration officials have explored selling weapons to Vietnam. In 2018 the U.S. State Department indicated it wanted to Vietnam to buy more weapons from the United States despite price tags that the country might find hard to pay, military news outlet DefensenNews reported. Four years ago Washington lifted an embargo on lethal arms sales to Vietnam, ending a remnant from U.S. Vietnam War.The white paper doesn’t mention specific defense expenditures, nor does it bore down into details of Vietnam’s disputes with China or name the fellow communist government as a target.“I think in a way this white paper is trying to strike a balance between the need to send a signal and yet at the same time trying not to appear too provocative toward certain parties,” Koh said.
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UN Seeks $600 Million for Ethiopian Refugee Effort
The U.N. refugee agency and partners are appealing for $658 million this year for 735,000 refugees and more than half-a-million Ethiopians hosting them.The U.N. refugee agency praises the many rights granted by the Ethiopian government to refugees during the last three years. They include granting refugees the right to work and access social services, primary education, register births, and other essential benefits.But UNHCR spokesman Andrej Mahecic says resources are needed to expand existing social services and finance a number of other basic needs.”The Ethiopia Refugee Response Plan… covers humanitarian activities by UNHCR and 57 other humanitarian partners,” said Mahecic. “It seeks to address huge gaps in health, nutrition, education, and shelter, while also investing in sectors including sanitation, energy and livelihoods.” Ethiopia has a long history of hosting refugees and asylum seekers. Mahecic tells VOA the country currently is hosting nearly three-quarter-million refugees of 26 nationalities. The majority, he says, is from South Sudan, followed by Somalia, Eritrea, and Sudan.“There is no massive influx right now, but… the number of refugees is expected to grow substantially during the course of the year as the country continues to receive refugees with nearly, about 100,000 new arrivals that came in 2019,” said Mahecic.Mahecic notes Ethiopia also has a huge problem with internal displacement. As part of the overall inter-agency humanitarian effort, he says the UNHCR and partners will assist more than 1.5 million Ethiopians who have been forced to flee their homes because of conflicts and climate shocks.
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UN Urges Calm After Deadly Attack in Disputed Abyei Border Area Between Sudan and South Sudan
The United Nations is condemning the deadly attack on a village in the disputed oil-rich area of Abyei between Sudan and South Sudan Wednesday. It is calling for calm in the wake of the attack by armed gunmen, which left dozens dead and scores injured.Armed gunmen reportedly killed 32 people, injured 25 and went on a rampage, burning homes and causing other devastation in the Dinka village of Kolom. Spokesman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian affairs Jens Laerke tells VOA the attack on Kolom, about 9 kilometers northwest of the town of Abyei, which straddles both sides of the Sudan-South Sudan border, sent people fleeing for their lives. He says the village reportedly has been emptied of its inhabitants.“I cannot say for sure who instigated the attack,” said Laerke. “We were not there to witness what happened. We know it is a Dinka village and that people have left … but we have assessed since the attack that some 500 people are now in Abyei town where they are sheltering, I believe in some schools there.”In the aftermath of the attack, the U.N. Interim Security Force in Abyei issued a statement saying suspected nomadic Misseriya herders from Sudan attacked Kolom. This is the latest clash between the Arab Misseriya tribe to the north of the border and the Ngok Dinka to the south since November. This oil-rich region has been in dispute since South Sudan gained its independence from Sudan in 2011.Laerke says humanitarian organizations on the ground are providing healthcare, including emergency surgical operations, to the survivors of the attack.“OCHA is coordinating humanitarian responders in Abyei and we are working to dispatch an interagency needs assessment team to the area shortly…The continued intercommunal tensions, population movements—including during last year’s flooding—and the absence of public institutions and services have resulted in high humanitarian and recovery needs,” said Laerke. Laerke says the U.N. and humanitarian organizations aim to provide aid to 200,000 people in the Abyei area this year. Priority needs include health, nutrition, food and water as well as protection for people at risk of sexual and gender-based violence and protection for children.
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Iraqi’s Protest US Military Presence
Tens of thousands of people poured into a central Baghdad square on Friday morning, calling for the US military to leave Iraq. VOA’s Heather Murdock and Halan Akoy have more from Baghdad.
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Australia Prepares for Controversial National Day
Australia commemorates its national day on Sunday (Jan 26). It is a time of mixed feelings. Many indigenous Australians believe the arrival of British settlers more than 230 years ago was an invasion, and insist it is hurtful to celebrate the dispossession of their land. But for millions of people, Australia Day is a time of great pride.To many indigenous people, January 26, 1788, was the day when their land was taken by the British, led by Captain Arthur Phillip. He was the commander of the First Fleet of 11 British ships, which arrived at Sydney Cove to signal the birth of the colony.Across the country, Australia Day harbors so many emotions: anger, sadness, pride and celebration. There will be so-called Invasion Day rallies, and well as festivities and parties.The government body that organizes various community events, the Australia Day Council, said, “The highs and lows of history are commemorated.”Wesley Enoch, an indigenous artistic director, believes it’s a time of a great complexity.“The Australia Day Council has used now this three-word slogan where they say ‘reflect, respect and celebrate,’ where they are now saying there are three different functions for that day, which I find to be more coherent with the way I am thinking about the 26th January,” said Enoch.Australia is the only country in the Commonwealth, a grouping of former British colonies, that does not have a treaty with its indigenous peoples.Dr. Jackie Huggins, an aboriginal leader in Queensland, believes a formal agreement would help the nation move on from the pain of colonization.“Truth-telling is about us all having a say in what has happened to our families, to our communities, to the very people who we are today in terms of the history, the dispossession, the massacres,” she said. “You know, the unpalatable truths of telling history. So that is really important. Our people felt that is a necessary, a vital component in terms of moving on.”While Australia Day acknowledges the birth of a modern nation as a British penal colony in 1788, it also reflects on more than 60,000 years of aboriginal history.There are calls for Australia to change the date of its national day because of indigenous sensitivities, but the government says it will remain on January 26.
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Coronavirus Outbreak Raises Health, Economic Concerns in Asia
Southeast Asia’s proximity to China and dependence on that nation for a major share of its economy is raising concerns that the coronavirus outbreak that started there will not only have health impacts but harm the region’s economies.The outbreak, which has so far caused 41 deaths in China, and caused the country to quarantine 16 cities, is causing comparisons to the 2003 spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, which decreased the value of the global economy by $40 billion.“Now that the Wuhan coronavirus has been found to be able to be transmitted from human to human, the economic consequences could be extremely concerning for the Asia-Pacific region,” Rajiv Biswas, IHS Markit Asia Pacific chief economist, said.“Sectors of the economy that are particularly vulnerable to a SARS-like virus epidemic that can be spread by human-to-human transmission are retail stores, restaurants, conferences, sporting events, tourism and commercial aviation,” he said.Observers agree that tourism could be one of the hardest-hit industries, in part because of the millions of Chinese who usually travel now, during the Lunar New Year, and in part because China has grown so much in the last two decades that many neighboring nations depend on it for tourism.That is only one of the economic differences between China today and the China of the SARS virus in 2003.China has since then become a member of the World Trade Organization and the second-biggest economy in the world. Its supply chain has become more integrated with the rest of the world than it has ever been, and it has become the biggest trading partner for many countries in the region.The 2003 virus decreased China’s economic growth rate, but its effect was the same for Malaysia, Singapore, and Vietnam, Biswas said.This time around Chinese tourism matters even more to Southeast Asia.After Hong Kong, nations for which Chinese visitors’ spending accounts for the biggest share of gross domestic product are, from most to least, Cambodia, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, and Malaysia, according to statistics released by Capital Economics, a London-based research company, Friday. In many of these nations, businesses catering to tourists display signs in Chinese, accept China’s yuan currency, and use that country’s WeChat for mobile payments.Major tourism events in the region add to the threat that the virus and its economic impact will spread, such as the Tokyo Summer Olympics, Biswas said. Vietnam will also host the Vietnam Grand Prix Formula One race this year, while Malaysia will host the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.Singapore is an island nation that depends heavily on foreign trade, including to facilitate trade and investment in China. Selena Ling, head of treasury research and strategy at Singapore’s OCBC Bank, said Friday she was expecting Singapore’s economy to stage a modest recovery from 2019, but that may change.She said “the recent coronavirus outbreak originating from China to other countries including Singapore may impart some uncertainty to near-term business and consumer sentiments.”That could mean slower growth in the first quarter of 2020, she said.
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US Veteran, Father of Veteran: Death of Soleimani Makes World Safer
U.S. President Donald Trump ordered an airstrike earlier this month that killed the commander of Iran’s elite Quds Force, Qassem Soleimani. Trump said Soleimani was “plotting imminent and sinister attacks on American diplomats and military personnel.” It was a move that lawmakers criticized as putting the U.S. at the brink of war. But some U.S. veterans of the Iraq War and their families share a different view. VOA’s Elizabeth Lee has the details.
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Powerful Quake Kills at Least 20, Injures More Than 1,000 in Eastern Turkey
ELAZIG, TURKEY — A powerful earthquake has killed at least 20 people and injured more than 1,000 in eastern Turkey, as rescue teams searched through the rubble of collapsed buildings for survivors Saturday.At least 30 people were missing following the magnitude 6.8 quake Friday night, which had its epicenter in the small lakeside town of Sivrice in the eastern province of Elazig.“It was very scary, furniture fell on top of us. We rushed outside,” 47-year-old Melahat Can, who lives in the provincial capital of Elazig, told AFP.President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said all steps were being taken to aid people affected by the quake, which caused widespread fear.“We stand by our people,” Erdogan said on Twitter.Some of the damage to the village Cevrimtas near the lakeside town of Sivrice where the 6.8 magnitude quake was centered in the province of Elazig. (Mahmut Bozarslan/VOA Turkish)The Turkish government’s disaster and emergency management agency (AFAD) said the quake hit Sivrice around 8:55 p.m. (1755 GMT). Turkey lies on major fault lines and is prone to frequent earthquakes.Turkish television showed images of people rushing outside in panic, as well as a fire on the roof of a building.Interior, environment and health ministers, who were in the quake zone, said the casualties were in Elazig province and in the neighboring province of Malatya to the southwest.At least 20 people died and 1,015 others were wounded, according to AFAD.“There is nobody trapped under the rubble in Malatya, but in Elazig search and rescue efforts are currently under way to find 30 citizens,” Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said Friday.Rescue teams were searching for survivors trapped in a five-story collapsed building in a village about 30 kilometers from Elazig, according to AFP journalists at the scene. One person was pulled alive from the rubble.Turkish officials and police try to keep warm at the scene of a collapsed building following a 6.8 magnitude earthquake in Elazig, eastern Turkey, Jan. 24, 2020.Emergency staff and people waiting at the scene lit fires in the streets to stay warm in freezing temperatures.Sports centers, schools and guest houses had been opened to accommodate quake victims in Malatya.Sivrice, a town with a population of about 4,000 people, is situated south of Elazig city on the shores of Hazar lake, one of the most popular tourist spots in the region and the source of the Tigris River.The lake is home to a sunken city with archaeological traces dating back 4,000 years in its waters.The tremor was felt in several parts of eastern Turkey near the Iraqi and Syrian borders, the Turkish broadcaster NTV reported, adding that neighboring cities had mobilized rescue teams for the quake area.Ramazan Emek surveys the damage in Cevrimtas, near Sivrice, where the quake struck just before 9 p.m. Friday local time. (Mahmut Bozarslan/VOA Turkish)“Everybody is in the street, it was very powerful, very scary,” said Zekeriya Gunes, 68, from Elazig city, after the quakes caused a building to collapse on her street.“It lasted quite long, maybe 30 seconds,” added Ferda, 39. “I panicked and was undecided whether to go out in this cold or remain inside.”Greece offers aidThe U.S. Geological Survey assessed the magnitude as 6.7, slightly lower than AFAD, adding that it struck near the East Anatolian Fault in an area that has suffered no documented large ruptures since an earthquake in 1875.“My wholehearted sympathy to President @RTErdogan and the Turkish people following the devastating earthquake that has hit Turkey. Our search and rescue teams stand ready to assist,” Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis wrote on Twitter.In Athens, the Greek premier’s office said later that Mitsotakis had spoken by phone to Erdogan.“The Turkish president … said Turkish teams had the situation under control for now and that it would be re-evaluated in the morning,” his office added.A calf stands next to its mother, which has a broken leg, in the village of Cevrimtas, near Sivrice, Elazig, Turkey, Jan. 25, 2020. (Mahmut Bozarslan/VOA Turkish)Quake-prone TurkeyIn 1999, a devastating 7.4 magnitude earthquake hit Izmit in western Turkey, leaving more than 17,000 people dead including about 1,000 in the country’s largest city Istanbul.Last September, a 5.7-magnitude earthquake shook Istanbul, causing residents to flee buildings.Experts have long warned a large quake could devastate the city of 15 million people, which has allowed widespread building without safety precautions.
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Zimbabwe VP Scolded for Using Soldiers in Divorce Dispute
A Zimbabwean judge on Friday described as “frightening” the use of soldiers by the country’s vice president in a divorce-related dispute, and ruled that his wife should regain custody of their children and be allowed to access the family’s luxury home.The ruling is the latest twist in a case that has gripped the southern African nation with allegations of black magic, attempted murder and drug addiction. The case has provided a glimpse of the luxurious lives of Zimbabwe’s ruling elite as the rest of the country grapples with economic collapse, hyperinflation and hunger.The wife of Vice President Constantino Chiwenga, Marry, had approached the court seeking custody of the children and access to the house, a farm and vehicles. She said they were taken from her by Chiwenga when she was detained for more than three weeks on accusations of trying to kill him and money laundering.After his wife was released from prison on bail earlier this month, Chiwenga refused to give her custody of the children and vehicles, and used soldiers to block her from entering their house in a wealthy suburb of the capital, Harare.”It is unacceptable and anathema to the constitutional values of this jurisdiction that the military may be used to settle a matrimonial dispute,” said Judge Christopher Dube-Banda.”This is frightening. What happened to the applicant (Marry) must be a cause of fear and concern to all law-abiding citizens,” he said. He ordered Chiwenga to return the children as well as three Mercedes-Benz vehicles and a Lexus to his estranged wife “forthwith.” He also said soldiers should not block Marry from accessing their home and farm.Chiwenga, who as army commander led a coup against former president Robert Mugabe in 2017, separated from his wife, a former model, after he returned from four months of medical treatment in China in December.He claimed his wife tried to kill him while he was on a hospital bed in neighboring South Africa before he was airlifted to China. He described her in court papers as “violent” and a drug addict who used black magic.On her part, Marry accused her husband of being a “dangerous” man who “can summon the army when it suits him … to deal with perceived opponents” and suffering from “acute paranoia brought about by his poor health” and “his being under heavy doses of drugs, including un-prescribed opiates.’’The divorce case has not started, but even in its preliminary stages the bitter wrangle has “gone a long way to expose the depth of moral decay that has pervaded our national leaders,” the privately owned The Standard newspaper said.”The divorce case presents our national leaders as completely out of touch with the reality that the citizens of this country are among the poorest in the region and the continent,” the weekly newspaper said in an editorial this week.
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President Trump Becomes First in History to Speak at March for Life
U.S. President Donald Trump became the first president ever to attend the annual March for Life rally, which is for the opponents of abortion. The event is held annually on or near the anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court case that legalized abortion. The president’s appearance before a friendly conservative crowd was especially notable because of what was taking place at the same time at the U.S. Capitol – his impeachment trial. VOA’s Carolyn Presutti explains.
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New Trump Administration Rules Target ‘Birth Tourism’
The Trump administration announced Thursday new visa rules to stop what is known as “birth tourism.” The new guidelines state the U.S. can deny tourist visas to pregnant women if consular officers determine that the applicant is traveling to give birth in the United States, in order to secure the child U.S. citizenship. VOA’s Ardita Dunellari has more from Washington.
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California Threatened with Funds Loss Over Abortion Coverage
The Trump administration on Friday threatened California with a potential loss of federal health care funds over the state’s requirement that insurance plans cover abortions.The announcement, timed to coincide with the anti-abortion March for Life in the nation’s capital, came hours before President Donald Trump was scheduled to address the marchers in person, becoming the first president to do so. Religious conservatives are a core element of Trump’s political coalition, and his administration has gone out of its way to deliver on their demands.The federal Health and Human Services Department said it is issuing a “notice of violation,” giving California 30 days to comply with a federal law known as the Weldon amendment. That law bars federal health care funding from being provided to states or entities that practice “discrimination” against a health care organization on the basis that it “does not provide, pay for, provide coverage of, or refer for abortions.”The head of the HHS Office for Civil Rights, Roger Severino, said California is violating that restriction by requiring insurance plans to cover abortions. According to Severino, 28,000 Californians had abortion-free plans prior to the state’s requirements and have now lost that option. The federal government has received complaints from an order of nuns – the Missionary Guadalupanas of the Holy Spirit – as well as a church.”If states receive federal funds … they cannot discriminate against a health plan that declines to cover abortions,” said Severino.Severino did not specify which of many streams of federal health care funds amounting to tens of billions of dollars might be in jeopardy for California. That could include money for community health centers, Medicaid health insurance for low-income people, and basic public health activities like educating parents about vaccines.”Our goal is to seek compliance, and we are going to give them 30 days, so we do not have to cross that bridge,” said Severino. Other states could also face federal actions.Federal law has long barred the use of taxpayer money to pay for abortions, except in cases of rape, incest, or to save the life of the woman. That bipartisan consensus could change if a Democrat wins the White House in November, since the Democratic candidates have pledged to take a more assertive stance on abortion rights.The HHS civil rights office headed by Severino has traditionally mainly handled complaints about privacy violations. Under Trump, it added a new division to handle cases of alleged discrimination on the basis of religious or moral scruples. A federal judge in New York last year struck down a Trump administration rule that could have opened the way for more clinicians and health care workers to refuse to participate in abortions and other procedures because of religious or moral objections.
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NPR Reporter: Pompeo Lashed Out at Her After Testy Interview
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo cursed at a National Public Radio reporter and repeatedly “used the F-word” in a shouted diatribe after she questioned him about Ukraine and the ousted American ambassador to Kiev in an interview on Friday, the reporter said.Mary Louise Kelly conducted a testy interview lasting about nine minutes with Pompeo for NPR’s “All Things Considered” program, asking him about Iran and former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, who was ousted by President Donald Trump last May. Yovanovitch’s removal was a key event in the actions that prompted Trump’s impeachment in the House of Representatives last month.“Afterwards, Pompeo proceeded to shout his displeasure at being questioned about Ukraine. He used repeated expletives, according to Kelly,” NPR said in a statement.“He asked, ‘Do you think Americans care about Ukraine?’ He used the F-word in that sentence and many others,” Kelly said in an interview of her own with NPR later Friday.The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Kelly said Pompeo shouted at her “for about the same amount of time as the interview itself.” Pompeo then had aides bring a blank map of the world and asked Kelly to show Ukraine.“People will hear about this,” Pompeo said after Kelly pointed at Ukraine on the map, she said.Questions on UkraineWhen Kelly turned her questioning to Ukraine in the latter part of the interview with Pompeo, he said he had agreed to discuss only Iran.Kelly said she had informed Pompeo’s aides that she would ask also about Ukraine, and posed several questions, including whether Pompeo owed an apology to Yovanovitch, who testified last year in the House impeachment inquiry about her ouster. The incident also has figured in Trump’s impeachment trial in the Senate.“I have defended every State Department official. … I’ve defended every single person on this team,” Pompeo replied.In November, Pompeo declined to defend Yovanovitch after Trump attacked her on Twitter.Yovanovitch was removed by Trump following a negative campaign against her by his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, and others. Giuliani at the time was pushing to have Ukraine investigate Trump’s political rival Joe Biden.
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China Reports 15 More Deaths From Coronavirus, Bringing Toll to 41
China is reporting another 15 deaths from the coronavirus, bringing the toll from the disease to 41, and an additional 180 people sickened in central Hubei province.The new figures, announced by officials in Hubei province, brought the number of confirmed cases of coronavirus to more than 1,000.The development came as France announced three cases of the virus, marking the first confirmed diagnoses in Europe.French health officials said Friday that two of the cases involved patients who had recently traveled from China, while the third person was a relative of one of the initial patients.Dr. Allison Arwady, commissioner, Chicago Department of Public Health, speaks at a news conference, Jan. 24, 2020, in Chicago. A Chicago woman has become the second U.S. patient diagnosed with the dangerous new virus from China.Second US caseAlso Friday, U.S. health officials reported a second patient infected with the virus, a woman from Chicago, Illinois, who returned January 13 from Wuhan, where the epidemic is believed to have started.The woman, who is in her 60s, reportedly is doing well but is hospitalized “primarily for infection control,” said Dr. Allison Arwady, Chicago’s public health commissioner.People who had close contact with the woman were being monitored.The U.S. announced its first case Tuesday in the northwestern state of Washington. Health officials there said a man who returned to Seattle from Wuhan last week was hospitalized in good condition, but had pneumonia.Medical authorities say it’s likely additional cases will be identified in the near term because the virus apparently has a two-week incubation period.Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, talks to reporters before the start of a closed all-senators briefing on the coronavirus on Capitol Hill in Washington, Jan. 24, 2020.The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said more than 2,000 travelers returning to U.S. soil had been screened at U.S. airports, and 63 patients in 22 states were being tested. Of those being tested, 11 thus far have been found to be free of the virus.The Pentagon said Friday that it had no indication “of outbreaks that would affect our personnel.” However, Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said U.S. base commanders were monitoring the situation “particularly in the Indo-Pacific region” and “have the authority to take additional action if they need to.”A police officer checks the temperature of a driver at a highway in Wuhan, in China’s central Hubei province, Jan. 24, 2020.Cities locked down, Disney closesThe Chinese government isolated more cities Friday, an unprecedented move to contain the coronavirus, which has spread to other countries.At least 10 cities, and a total of at least 33 million people, have been put on lockdown — Wuhan, Huanggang, Ezhou, Chibi, Qianjiang, Zhijiang, Jingmen, Xiantao, Xiaogan and Huangshi, all in Hubei province — on the eve of the Lunar New Year, when millions of Chinese traditionally travel.Shanghai Disney Resort announced on its website that it is temporarily closing Shanghai Disneyland, a major tourist attraction during Lunar New Year, “in response to the prevention and control of the disease outbreak and in order to ensure the health and safety” of guests and cast.The municipal authorities of Wuhan said Friday that the city was building a new 1,000-bed hospital, expected to be completed by February 3.On Thursday, authorities banned planes and trains from leaving Wuhan. Toll roads were closed, and ferry, subway and bus services were also suspended.Wuhan authorities have demanded that all residents wear masks in public and urged government and private sector employees to wear them in the workplace, according to the Xinhua news agency, which cited a government official.Similar measures were taken hours later in the nearby cities of Huanggang and Ezhou.The government also canceled holiday events in Beijing that usually attract large crowds.Fifteen medical workers are among those who have been infected by the virus, which has spread from Wuhan to Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong province. Most of the cases have been in China, but cases have also been reported in Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Taiwan, Vietnam, Singapore, Nepal, France and the United States.US working on vaccineScientists at the U.S. Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland, are working on developing a vaccine for the coronavirus.“It will take at least three months to complete the first phase of development,” said Dr. Lily Dai, a researcher at the institute. She spoke with VOA’s Mandarin service as an individual scientist, not as an NIH representative.Dai said that after the first phase of development, researchers will test the vaccine on people for another three months to determine if it is safe.Forest Cong of VOA’s Mandarin service contributed to this report.
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