With the Nevada caucuses less than a week away, Democratic presidential candidates campaigning were fixated on a rival who wasn’t contesting the state.
Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, Amy Klobuchar, Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg all went after billionaire Mike Bloomberg and made clear they were eager to take him on in a debate.
“He thinks he can buy this election,” Sanders told a Carson City rally Sunday. “Well, I’ve got news for Mr. Bloomberg, the American people are sick and tired of billionaires buying elections!”
Bloomberg hit back Monday with a video mashup posted to Twitter of aggressive and threatening comments made by people who appear to be Sanders supporters, juxtaposed with Sanders calling for “civil discourse.”
“We need to unite to defeat Trump in November,” the former New York mayor tweeted.”This type of `energy’ is not going to get us there.”
We need to unite to defeat Trump in November. This type of “energy” is not going to get us there. https://t.co/bPuUZMs2d6pic.twitter.com/Tdp6mpWjcX— Mike Bloomberg (@MikeBloomberg) February 17, 2020Their attacks are a sign of how seriously the field is starting to take Bloomberg as he gains in the race and is on the cusp of qualifying for Wednesday’s Democratic debate in Las Vegas. Bloomberg has bypassed the traditional early voting states including Nevada, focusing instead on the 14 states that vote in the Super Tuesday primary on March 3. He has spent more than $417 million of his own multibillion-dollar fortune on advertising nationwide, an unprecedented sum for any candidate in a primary.
The focus on Bloomberg comes with many establishment-aligned Democrats anxious about the early strength of Sanders, who won last week’s New Hampshire primary and essentially tied for first place in Iowa with Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana. Sanders is hoping to notch a victory in Nevada on Saturday as moderates struggle to unite behind a candidate who could serve as a counter to the Vermont senator, who has long identified as a democratic socialist.
The hundreds of millions of dollars that Bloomberg has pumped into the Super Tuesday states has only heightened the sense of uncertainty surrounding the Democratic race.
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., makes a point during a campaign stop late, Feb. 16, 2020, in Denver.At Sanders’ rally, the crowded cheered as the Vermont senator joked that Bloomberg is “struggling, he’s down to his last $60 billion” and derided him for skipping the early primary states.
It marked an escalation of the salvo Sanders launched Saturday against the former mayor, when he ticked off conservative positions Bloomberg has taken in the past, including opposing a minimum wage hike and a number of Barack Obama’s policies while president. On Saturday, Sanders suggested the former mayor’s past conservatism and controversial comments make him a weak candidate against President Donald Trump, charging that Bloomberg, “with all his money, will not create the kind of excitement and energy we nee”’ to beat Trump.
And on Sunday, he was joined by the current mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio, who endorsed Sanders days ago. De Blasio introduced Sanders with an attack of his own on his predecessor, telling the crowd, “I’m sorry to report to you the chief proponent of stop and frisk is now running for president.”
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., speaks at the Clark County Democratic Party “Kick-Off to Caucus 2020” event, Feb. 15, 2020, in Las Vegas.Klobuchar, speaking on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” accused Bloomberg of avoiding scrutiny by blanketing the airwaves and sidestepping debates or tough televised interviews.
“I think he cannot hide behind the airwaves and the money,” she said. “I think he has to come on the shows. And I personally think he should be on the debate stage.”
Klobuchar said she’s raised $12 million since her better-than-expected finish in third place in New Hampshire. She’s maintained her campaign through a series of strong debate performances and argued that Bloomberg being on stage with his rivals would level the playing field.
“I’m never going to beat him on the airwaves, but I can beat him on the debate stage,” she said.
Democratic presidential candidate, former Vice President Joe Biden, greets supporters at a campaign event in Columbia, S.C., Feb. 11, 2020.Biden, speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” suggested that Bloomberg will face increased scrutiny as the race continues, pointing to his record on issues relating to race. He said: “$60 billion can buy you a lot of advertising, but it can’t erase your record.”
Biden knocked Bloomberg’s past support of stop-and-frisk policing policies and his comments suggesting that cracking down on racist mortgage lending practices, known as “redlining,” contributed to the financial crisis. Biden also criticized him for failing to endorse Obama for president in 2008. Bloomberg has released ads that tie him closely to Obama on issues like gun control and climate change.
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., aknowledges supporters at a primary election night rally, Feb. 11, 2020, in Manchester, N.H.When asked on MSNBC whether Bloomberg shares the values of the Democratic Party, Warren also went after the former mayor over his comments on redlining, declaring that “anyone who is out there trying to blame African Americans for the financial crash of 2008 … is not someone who should be representing our party.”
Even as the front-running candidates kept one eye on their Super Tuesday showdown with Bloomberg, they focused on the more immediate task of winning over minority voters, who are expected to be pivotal in Nevada and South Carolina.
Biden reminded older parishioners at the First African Methodist Episcopal Church in North Las Vegas of 1960s television footage of black protesters in Birmingham, Alabama, being attacked by police dogs and sprayed with fire hoses on the orders of city official Bull Connor.
Biden said today’s racists are not “Bull Connors, not out in overalls. They’re wearing fine suits, and they’re living in the White House.”
The former vice president is relying on his strength among black voters and an explicit appeal to Latinos and other minorities to deliver him a strong showing in the coming contests after posting disappointing finishes in Iowa and New Hampshire, which both feature electorates that are whiter on average than the national population.
Biden has been hammering home the need for any Democratic candidate to appeal to voters of color. On Sunday, he told black lawmakers and other political figures at the Nevada Black Legislative Caucus’s Black History Month observance that “the black community has in its power to determine who the next president of the United States is going to be.”
…
Month: February 2020
Chinese Doctors ‘Using Plasma Therapy’ on Coronavirus Patients
Doctors in Shanghai are using infusions of blood plasma from people who have recovered from the coronavirus to treat those still battling the infection, reporting some encouraging preliminary results, a Chinese professor said on Monday.The coronavirus epidemic is believed to have originated in a seafood market in the central city of Wuhan, capital of Hubei province, and has so far killed 1,770 people and infected more than 70,000 in mainland China.China’s financial hub of Shanghai on Monday had 332 infected cases, one of whom died in recent weeks. Lu Hongzhou, professor and co-director of the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center, said that 184 cases were still hospitalized, including 166 mild cases, while 18 were in serious and critical conditions.He said the hospital had set up a special clinic to administer plasma therapy and was selecting patients who were willing to donate. The blood would be screened to check if he or she had other diseases like hepatitis B or C, he added.”We are positive that this method can be very effective in our patients,” he said.There are no fully licensed treatments or vaccines against the new coronavirus, and the process of developing and testing drugs can take many months and even years.As well as using plasma therapies, which harness antibodies in the blood of someone who has fought off the viral infection, doctors are also trying antiviral drugs licensed for use against other infections to see if they might help.Chinese scientists are testing two antiviral drugs and preliminary results are due in weeks, while the head of a Wuhan hospital had said plasma infusions from recovered patients had shown some encouraging preliminary results.A senior Chinese health official said on Friday 1,716 health workers have been infected by the coronavirus and six of them had died. More than 87% of infected medical workers were in Hubei.
…
Is The West Dying Or Thriving? US And Europe Clash Over Transatlantic Alliance
The United States and Europe appear divided over the health of the transatlantic relationship following a key security conference in Germany over the weekend, attended by hundreds of political and military leaders. Europeans accused Washington of ‘rejecting the idea of an international community’ – but the U.S. said the alliance is in good shape. As Henry Ridgwell reports from the Munich conference, there is an emerging disagreement between Western allies over what exactly represents the biggest threat to Western democracy
…
Rage over Former S. Africa President’s Claim That Apartheid ‘Not a Crime Against Humanity’
South Africa’s final apartheid president, F.W. de Klerk, has found himself in the crosshairs of the powerful African National Congress — and many others — since he said he didn’t believe the racist system was a crime against humanity.While his comments – made earlier this month – have provoked outrage, African scholars have noted a sense of continental amnesia about the past, and say this misplaced nostalgia is not an exclusively South African phenomenon.De Klerk was instrumental in ending apartheid, releasing Nelson Mandela from prison and ushering in democracy in 1994. De Klerk shared the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize with Mandela for their role in ending the apartheid regime that treated the nation’s non-white majority as second-class citizens.‘I don’t fully agree with that’Forty-five percent of today’s South Africans had yet to be born when that happened. But the wounds of apartheid still run deep, as seen by de Klerk’s heated exchange with state broadcaster SABC.Reporter Manelisi Dubase pressed the former president to agree with the United Nations’ classification of the system as a crime against humanity:“I don’t fully agree with that,” de Klerk responded, adding, “I profusely apologize for [apartheid]. But there’s a difference between calling something a crime, like genocide is a crime. Apartheid cannot be, that’s why I’m saying this, cannot be, for instance compared with genocide. There was never genocide.”As Dubase then noted, thousands of people — most of them black — were killed in internecine violence during apartheid. Additionally, countless protesters were killed in police detention or by police action, and millions of South Africans were subjected to daily indignities, restrictions and unfair treatment solely on the basis of their race.De Klerk’s comments have provoked widespread anger, including from the foundation of fellow Nobel Peace laureate Desmond Tutu. Last week, parliamentarians from the youth-oriented Economic Freedom Fighters party protested De Klerk’s presence during the president’s annual speech.And the African National Congress said the former president’s comments were “a clear and deliberate attempt to incite race hatred.”“Apartheid was a brutal system of oppression and underdevelopment, and the United Nations in 1973 correctly declared it a crime against humanity,” said ANC spokesman Pule Mabe. “The nation is therefore indeed shocked, and we are all asking: Mr. de Klerk, was apartheid anything else than this definition by the entire world?”Hate speech is not legally protected in South Africa, although the ANC did not explicitly call for punishment. The EFF, however, is calling for a case to be opened against De Klerk.‘It is my own fish; leave him to me’Independent political analyst Ralph Mathekga said he is worried about what he sees as a continent-wide attempt to revise what is often painful history. He pointed to the nostalgia over recently deceased Zimbabwean strongman Robert Mugabe, longtime Kenyan ruler Daniel Arap Moi, and others. “When I look at how we reflect on Mugabe, we reflect on some former dictators, it’s almost like we’re saying — and this has actually been a Nigerian saying, ’It is my own fish; leave him to me,’” he told VOA. “It’s like cutting off your nose to spite your face. Because if you look at the performance of those dictators, what have they achieved locally? There is no material benefit that justify this attempt to whitewash history.”Mathekga was a high school student when apartheid ended. When asked if he thought apartheid was a crime against humanity, his reply was swift.“Of course, there was no doubt about it…Forget about the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The killing, mass killing, of black people, in Thembisa, in Katlehong, in Sebokeng — I’ve seen those with my eyes, so I cannot imagine any system that has been as atrocious as apartheid.”De Klerk’s foundation, which had initially supported his comments, on Monday withdrew them, saying apartheid was a crime against humanity.
…
Facebook Warns of Risks to Innovation, Freedom of Expression ahead of EU Rules
Facebook warned of threats to innovation and freedom of expression on Monday, ahead of the release of a raft of rules by the European Union this week and in coming months to rein in U.S. tech giants and Chinese companies.The social media giant laid out its concerns in a white paper, and Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg was expected to reiterate the message to EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager and EU industry chief Thierry Breton in Brussels on Monday.Referring to the possibility that the EU may hold internet companies responsible for hate speech and other illegal speech published on their platforms, Facebook said this ignores the nature of the internet.”Such liability would stifle innovation as well as individuals’ freedom of expression,” it said in the white paper.It suggested new frameworks that should be proportionate and necessary.Zuckerberg’s visit came on the heels of visits by Alphabet Chief Executive Sundar Pichai and Microsoft President Brad Smith to Brussels last month.Vestager and Breton will announce proposals on Wednesday aimed at exploiting the bloc’s treasure trove of industrial data and challenging the dominance of Facebook, Google and Amazon.They will also propose rules to govern the use of artificial intelligence especially in high risk sectors such as healthcare and transport.
…
Russia Says US Using Weapons in Space an Irreversible Blow to Security: RIA
Russia said on Friday that plans by the United States to deploy weapons in space would deal an irreversible blow to the current security balance in space, the RIA news agency cited the foreign ministry as saying.Russia does not have plans to solve problems in space using weapons, the foreign ministry added.
…
Popular Rwandan Gospel Musician Found Dead in Police Cell
A popular Rwandan gospel musician who in 2015 was found guilty of conspiracy to murder or harm President Paul Kagame was found dead in a police cell Monday in the capital, Kigali, authorities said.
Kizito Mihigo, 38, an ethnic Tutsi survivor of the 1994 genocide that killed more than 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutus who tried to protect them, killed himself in the morning hours, a police statement said.
The official account of a suicide was expected to be met with skepticism in a country where the government is frequently accused of targeting perceived critics.Described by many as Rwanda’s biggest cultural icon and a devout Catholic known for songs promoting healing and forgiveness, Mihigo had been pardoned in 2018 but was re-arrested last week. Police asserted that he had been trying to flee to neighboring Burundi to join groups fighting the Rwandan government.
“He has been in police cell for three days as police investigated why he was crossing the border illegally and cases of bribery,” police spokesman Eric Kabera said in a statement. He didn’t respond to calls from The Associated Press.
Police said Mihigo had been allowed to meet family members and his lawyer. It was not immediately known whether he had been in a solitary cell.
A family member declined to comment. The news of the death was met with disbelief.
The Rwanda Investigations Bureau tweeted on Thursday that the country’s security organs had handed over Mihigo, saying the charges against him included illegally crossing to Burundi, joining terrorist groups and corruption.
Mihigo was arrested in 2014 and sentenced the following year to 10 years in prison after he was found guilty of conspiracy to murder or harm Kagame and other top leaders. He was also convicted of complicity to overthrow the government and conspiracy to form alliances with negative groups to destabilize the country.
He pleaded guilty to all charges, leading the judge to say he was given a lenient sentence because he had made the court’s work easy.
He was pardoned in 2018 by Kagame alongside Rwanda’s leading opposition leader, Victoire Ingabire. But last week, police said his attempt to escape constituted a breach of conditions of the presidential order, meaning the revocation of the pardon.
…
GM Plans to Pull out of Australia, New Zealand and Thailand
General Motors decision to pull out of Australia, New Zealand and Thailand as part of a strategy to exit markets that don’t produce adequate returns on investments raised dismay Monday from officials concerned over job losses.The company said in a statement Sunday that it plans to wind down sales, engineering and design operations for its historic Holden brand in Australia and New Zealand in 2021. It also plans to sell its Rayong factory in Thailand to China’s Great Wall Motors and withdraw the Chevrolet brand from Thailand by the end of this year.“This is a very disappointing outcome,” said Karen Andrews, Australia’s minister for Industry, Science and Technology. She said it was unfortunate both because about 500 workers would loose their jobs, but also because “they only advised the government of this decision just before the announcement.”Dave Smith of the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union also expressed chagrin.Workers at Holden had thought they’d “been through the worst of it, and that’s not the case,” Smith said. “For many of them their long-term workers have been very loyal to the company … they’ve loved being part of the car industry, and now, it was such an iconic brand coming to an end; it’ll mean an end to their jobs.”GM has 828 employees in Australia and New Zealand and another 1,500 in Thailand, the company said.In Thailand, the decision to sell GM’s plant in Rayong, south of Bangkok, may well end up being good news for workers there.Great Wall Motors, a major maker of sport utility vehicles and pickups, said it intends to expand in Southeast Asia using the plant in Thailand as its base.“We will also promote the development of the local supply chain, research and development and related industries, plus contribute more to the exchequer of both the local Rayong and Thailand governments,” Great Wall’s vice president for global strategy, Liu Xiangshang.Thailand is still determined to be the “Detroit of Asia,” Krichanont Iyapunya, a spokesman for the Ministry of Industry said. He said plant closures and openings happen constantly.“The automobile industry must be adaptive,” Krichanont said.Liu, of Great Wall Motors, said the Thai expansion was part of the company’s global push, following the launch of a plant in Tula in Russia in 2019 and plans to acquire GM’s Talegaon plant in India.GM has struggled in Asia in the past year. Its International Operations, which include China, lost $200 million last year, including $100 million in the fourth quarter. It analyzed the business case for future production at the Rayong plant, but low utilization of its capacity and low sales volumes “made continued GM production at the site unsustainable,” the company said.GM’s CEO, Mary Barra, said the company wants to focus on markets where it can drive strong returns, scaling back operations in Australia, New Zealand and Thailand to selling niche specialty vehicles. GM will support its employees and customers in the transition, she said.GM is making the same moves in Japan, Russia and Europe, where “we don’t have significant scale,” she said.“We are pursuing a niche presence by selling profitable high-end imported vehicles supported by a lean GM structure,” International Operations Senior Vice President Julian Blissett said in the statement.GM said it will honor all warranties in the markets, and it will continue to provide service and parts. Local operations also will handle recalls and any safety-related issues, the company said.The Detroit automaker expects to take $1.1 billion worth of cash and noncash charges this year as it cuts operations in the three countries.GM has a long history in Australia with the Holden brand, where cars were designed and sold in the U.S. and other markets. The 2008 and 2009 Pontiac G8 muscle car, for instance, was designed as a Holden Commodore and built in Australia. But Holden’s market share, which was nearly 22% in 2002, fell to just over 4% last year.GM President Mark Reuss, who once ran the Australian operations, said the company explored options to continue Holden, “but none could overcome the challenges of the investments needed for the highly fragmented right-hand-drive market, the economics to support growing the brand, and delivering an appropriate return on investment,” he said in the statement.
…
Former Equatorial Guinea Former Chief Justice Pleads For International Help
A former chief justice in the central African nation of Equatorial Guinea has gone into hiding and is appealing to the U.S. and the United Nations for help as security forces hunt for him on the orders of the country’s longtime ruler, Teodoro Nguema Obiang.From an undisclosed location where he is hiding, former chief justice Juan Carlos Ondo Angue spoke with VOA’s James Butty, saying his life is at risk if he is arrested. The Obiang government has accused him of taking part in an alleged coup attempt in 2017. Angue says he is being persecuted for fighting for judicial independence and the separation of powers. Angue told VOA security forces, acting on the orders of President Obiang, went to his home last week to arrest him without a warrant. Angue said that he was warned in advance and was able to flee, escaping detention. He said his ordeal stems from a speech he delivered in 2018 at the funeral of a judge who Angue said had been tortured to death for refusing to take part in a corruption scheme by government officials. Angue said authorities tried to get him to change his statement, but he refused and was removed from his post as chief justice.The French news agency AFP reports the government of Equatorial Guinea is accusing France, Spain, and the United States of obstructing justice, saying their ambassadors obstructed gendarmes from arresting Angue when police arrived at his home last week.AFP quotes the Spanish Foreign Ministry as saying Angue had invited the three envoys to his home. France and Spain have denied the government’s accusations. In his appeal for help Monday, Angue told VOA he stands no chance of getting a fair trial in Equatorial Guinea, where he said it is common for anyone who disagrees with Obiang, who has been in power since 1979, to be persecuted and killed.International human rights groups rank the oil-rich country as one of the most repressive in Africa. Amnesty International says human rights defenders face continued harassment, intimidation, and arbitrary detention.
…
Japan Confirms 99 More Cases of New Virus on Cruise Ship
Japanese officials have confirmed 99 more people infected by the new virus aboard the quarantined cruise ship Diamond Princess, bringing the total to 454, the Health Ministry said Monday.
The ministry has been carrying out tests on passengers and crew on the ship, docked in Yokohama, a port city near Tokyo.
The 14-day quarantine for those on the ship was due to end Wednesday.
Outside China, the ship has had the largest number of cases of the COVID-19 illness caused by the virus that emerged in China late last year.
The ministry said it now has tested 1,723 people on the Diamond Princess. The ship had about 3,700 passengers and crew.
Two chartered planes flew 340 Americans who were aboard the vessel out of Japan late Sunday. About 380 Americans had been on the ship. The State Department announced later that 14 of the evacuees were confirmed to have the virus in tests given before they boarded the planes.
They were taken to the U.S. because they did not have symptoms and were being isolated from other passengers on the planes, it said.
Japan’s Health Ministry said the 14 evacuees were among the 99 new cases, which included two other Americans and 43 Japanese.
Those who were earlier found to be sick with the virus have been hospitalized in Japan.Australia, Canada, Hong Kong and Italy were planning similar flights for their citizens.
…
Gunmen Kill 24 in Attack Near Church in Burkina Faso
Gunmen killed 24 men, including a church pastor, and kidnapped three others on Sunday in Burkina Faso, an official said. It was the latest attack against a religious leader in the increasingly unstable West African nation.
The mayor of Boundore commune, Sihanri Osangola Brigadie, said the attack occurred in the town of Pansy in Yagha province. The roughly 20 attackers separated men from women close to a Protestant church. At least 10 other people were injured.
“It hurt me when I saw the people,” Brigadie said after visiting some of the victims in the hospital in Dori town, 180 kilometers (110 miles) from the attack. The gunmen looted oil and rice from shops and forced the three youth they kidnapped to help transport it on their motorbikes, he said.
Both Christians and Muslims were killed before the church was set on fire, said a government security official in Dori who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak to the media.Attacks have targeted religious leaders in the area in the past. Last week, also in Yagha province, a retired pastor was killed and another pastor was abducted by gunmen, according to an internal security report for aid workers seen by The Associated Press.Extremist violence has dramatically escalated in once-peaceful Burkina Faso. Analysts are concerned that attacks against civilians, including against Christians, are increasing “at an alarming rate,” said Corinne Dufka, West Africa director for Human Rights Watch. “Perpetrators use victims’ links to government or their faith to justify the killings, while others appear to be reprisal killings for killings by the government security forces,” she said.
More than 1,300 civilians were killed in targeted attacks last year in Burkina Faso, more than seven times the previous year, according to Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, which collects and analyzes conflict information.
The insecurity has created a humanitarian crisis. More than 760,000 people are internally displaced, according to the government.
…
Countries Step Up Border Measures to Prevent Spread of Coronavirus
Countries around the world are introducing precautionary measures to prevent the coronavirus from infecting their citizens. Chinese officials on Sunday confirmed a total of 68,500 confirmed cases and 1,665 deaths from the virus. The number of suspected new cases exceeds 8,000. So far no one knows when the outbreak may end while the virus infects more and more people across international borders. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke has this story.
…
Philippine Move to Scrap US Military Deal Boosts China’s Clout in Asia
The Philippine president’s proposed cancellation of a 32-year-old military pact with the United States gives regional power China chances to strengthen its influence in Asia as U.S. military units would visit less often.Chinese naval ships, military aircraft and coast guard-escorted fishing vessels would find it easier to move around the disputed South China Sea, which lies west of the Philippines, analysts in Asia say. Naval ships also could more freely enter the Pacific Ocean east of the Philippines, Taiwan and Japan – the first-island chain. Those waters are usually considered an American sphere of influence.China, a political rival of the United States since the Cold War, already gives billions in aid and investment to the fast-growing but impoverished Philippines. More may be on the way, consecrating Chinese influence there, scholars believe. “The Chinese are going to be happy about this, seeing a big hole poked in the first-island chain,” said Fabrizio Bozzato, Taiwan Strategy Research Association fellow who specializes in Asia and the Pacific. “They may also seize the opportunity in the extra-military dimension in the sense that they will increase their financial commitment to the Philippines, start building some infrastructure.”The Philippine foreign secretary sent notice to the United States February 11 that it would terminate the Visiting Forces Agreement with effect in 180 days. The U.S. defense sectary called the cancellation request “unfortunate.”Philippines presidential office spokesman Salvador Panelo in Manila told a press briefing Thursday that “What is important to the president is, this is the time to terminate the Visiting Forces Agreement to stress a point that…it is not advantageous to us because the more we rely on them, the more our position weakens and stagnate our defenses.” The current agreement allows U.S. military aircraft and naval vessels free entry into the Philippines and eases immigration rules for American military personnel. The two sides will still uphold a Mutual Defense Treaty that was signed in 1951, after the United States ended colonization of the Asian archipelago.Duterte’s cancellation falls in line with statements since he took office in 2016 about easing reliance on the United States and building ties with China. Most recently, the U.S. government revoked the visa of Philippine senator who as former police chief helped lead Duterte’s deadly anti-drug campaign.FILE – U.S. President Donald Trump, left, and Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte hold a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of an ASEAN Summit in Manila, Philippines, Nov. 13, 2017.“We can probably take into consideration how serious President Duterte was when he was talking about separating from the United States at the beginning of his administration, so there must be some degree of seriousness to that,” said Herman Kraft, political science professor at the University of the Philippines.The cancellation raises questions about whether Duterte wants a military pact with China, Kraft said. Beijing maintains Asia’s biggest armed forces, some of which monitor Philippine activity in tracts of the resource-rich South China Sea that both sides call their own.Absent the Visiting Forces Agreement, U.S. ships and aircraft could still help the Philippines – by special invitation – and four other governments that dispute China’s claim to 90% of the sea. But U.S. personnel would be scouting less often, analysts say, meaning fewer chances to check China’s activities.U.S. visits to the Philippines will become less “regular,” said Aaron Rabena, research fellow at Asia-Pacific Pathways to Progress Foundation, a Manila research organization. He expects joint U.S.-Philippine military exercises to be suspended as well. The two sides do joint drills every year, often with a South China Sea focus that Beijing resents.Philippine military personnel and common Filipinos wonder what China will bring, Rabena said. Based on widespread reactions in Manila, he said, “You would see how many Filipinos really desire American help and assistance. “And they’re saying ‘Is (Duterte) doing this because he loves China so much? So, he’s really turning us into a province now of China?’” the research fellow said.The Chinese navy worldwide had 512 ships as of 2012, according to the British think tank International Institute of Strategic Studies. It had 714 ships last year, the database Globalfirepower.com says.Cancellation of the Visiting Forces Agreement gives Beijing a “freer hand” in the South China Sea’s Spratly Islands and will let it accelerate construction of artificial islets there, Bozzato said. Its three biggest Spratly holdings have more infrastructure, such as hangars and radar systems, compared to the 10 islets controlled by the Philippines.The U.S. still sees the Philippines as a key Asian ally that can help hem in China’s growing maritime influence. Duterte might use the next 180 days to seek concessions from the United States and keep the visiting forces deal if he gets them, Bozzato said.
…
Taliban: Peace Deal With US To Be Sealed by End of Feb
The Taliban appeared confident Monday it will sign a peace agreement with the United States by the end of this month in the presence of international guarantors to close the 18-year-old war in Afghanistan.A senior leader of the insurgent group told a pro-Taliban news agency the two adversaries have mutually decided to hold the signing ceremony in Doha, the capital of Qatar, which hosted the 18-month U.S.-Taliban negotiations.Abdul Salam Hanafi, a central member of the Taliban negotiating team and its political office in Doha, gave no date, but insurgent sources have previously said the deal would be inked on February 29.Hanafi said representatives from all neighbors of Afghanistan, the United Nations Security Council, Islamic countries and European Union will be among those invited to witness the ceremony.The dialogue process has been concluded, Hanafi said, and “we have already initialed the final draft of the peace agreement.”Soon after the agreement is inked, he added, Americans and the Afghan government will set free 5,000 insurgent prisoners, and the Taliban would also release around 1,000 detainees from its custody.Washington, however, has stressed it would move forward on a peace agreement with the Taliban only if a mutually agreed 7-day reduction in violence truce is successfully implemented in Afghanistan.U.S. officials say the short-term truce reached last week will come into force “very soon” but they have not mentioned any date, though insurgent sources claim it will take effect on February 22.Members of a Taliban delegation leaving after peace talks with Afghan senior politicians in Moscow, Russia May 30, 2019.The understanding commits the warring sides to halt offensive operations for seven days. If both sides keep their commitment, they will return to the table to sign the peace agreement Taliban and U.S. negotiators have finalized in marathon meetings over the past year.Afghan Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah also told the Council of Ministers in Kabul Monday that the U.S.-Taliban peace agreement has been “finalized.” He said “the signing of the agreement is based on the reduction in violence over seven days and then it (the peace process) will continue,” apparently referring to the short-term truce.The agreement provides a timetable for the withdrawal of American and coalition forces from Afghanistan, insurgent counterterrorism guarantees, and a process for political reconciliation between Afghan parties to the conflict.Hanafi said no date and venue has been set for intra-Afghan negotiations on permanently ending hostilities and power-sharing in post-war Afghanistan. But those negotiations, he insisted, would begin only after the prisoner release process is completed.U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper told a security conference in Germany last week the reduction in violence deal with the Taliban “looks very promising” but it was not without risk.Esper said the prospective peace agreement could reduce U.S. troop levels to about 8,600 — from around 13,000 currently in Afghanistan.The Defense Secretary would not say whether all American forces would eventually pull out of Afghanistan and reiterated U.S. counterterrorism missions would remain in place.U.S. officials, however, have stressed the troop withdrawal process would be linked to progress achieved in Taliban-Afghan peace negotiations.
…
Rouhani Says Trump Will Never Start War in an Election Year
U.S. President Trump will never start a war with Iran during an election year, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said.Rouhani told a Tehran news conference Sunday that Trump knows a war between Iran and the United States would “ruin” his chances of reelection in November.”I think the Americans aren’t after war since they know what harm it could do them,” he said.The level of hostility between the United States and Iran has been increasing steadily and has reached a level not seen since the hostage crisis 40 years ago.Among the events contributing to the hostility are Trump’s decision to pull the U.S. out of the international nuclear deal with Iran in 2018 and reimposed sanctions. Iran responded by backing away from the deal and saying it is no longer bound by the limits on uranium enrichment spelled out in the agreement. Britain, France and Germany are struggling to keep the deal from complete collapse.In January, Trump ordered a U.S. drone strike that killed Iranian General Qassem Soleimani and Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis. Iran responded with a missile strike on an Iraqi base that houses U.S. coalition troops. Nearly 100 U.S. soldiers were injured in the attack.The U.S. consistently accuses Iran of terrorism, and Iran says U.S. imperialism is destroying its economy and fueling conflicts in the Middle East.But both sides have so far avoided all-out war.Rouhani said Sunday Iran would never negotiate with the United States under pressure, but invited the U.S. to rejoin the nuclear agreement. He said it will be Iran that will one day force the U.S. to return to the negotiation table.”Iran will never negotiate under pressure. … We will never yield to America’s pressure and we will not negotiate from a position of weakness,” Rouhani said.The Iranian president also said that Tehran’s role was essential for security in the region.”Securing peace and stability in the sensitive region of the Middle East and in the Persian Gulf is impossible without Iran’s help,” he said.
…
Coronavirus Death Toll Tops 1,800
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in China surpassed 70,000 Monday while two planeloads of quarantined Americans took off from Tokyo for home.Hubei province, the center of the outbreak, reported 100 more deaths, bringing the death toll in China to nearly 1,800. Five deaths outside the mainland have also been confirmed in France, Hong Kong, Japan, the Philippines, and Taiwan.The number of new cases in Hubei is only slightly higher than the number reported Sunday but down from those reported Friday and Saturday. Chinese officials say this is a sign that China has the outbreak under control.But World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus tweeted Sunday that “it is impossible to predict which direction this epidemic will take.”While China has recently been complimented for the way it has handled the outbreak and its efforts to contain it, the WHO is still asking for more information on how China is making its diagnoses.Chinese state media Saturday published a speech President Xi Jinping made Feb. 3 that shows Chinese authorities knew more about the seriousness of the coronavirus at least two weeks before it made the dangers known to the public. It wasn’t until late January that officials said the virus could spread between humans.In his Jan. 7 speech, Xi ordered the shutdown of the cities most affected by the virus. Those lockdowns began Jan. 23. Meanwhile, two U.S. State Department chartered fights took off from Tokyo early Monday, carrying Americans who had been quarantined for two weeks aboard the cruise ship Diamond Princess.More than 355 infected people were diagnosed with coronavirus on board the cruise ship and all of the evacuated passengers will be quarantined for another 14 days in the U.S.Also Sunday, the State Department said it is looking into the case of a U.S. citizen who was diagnosed with the coronavirus after departing the cruise ship Westerdam, whose passengers tested negative for the virus before disembarking in Cambodia.Malaysian medical authorities said the passenger, and 83-year-old woman, twice tested positive for the virus upon arriving in Malaysia after showing signs of a viral infection, a State Department spokesperson said Sunday. She is the first person from the Westerdam to test positive. Her husband tested negative.A group of ambulances from the Solano EMS Cooperative stage at the visitor center at Travis Air Force Base, adjacent to Fairfield, California, Feb. 16, 2020.The spokesperson said U.S. authorities to not have “sufficient evidence to determine when the passenger may have been exposed and where.” The spokesperson said no more information could be shared because of privacy considerations, but said the U.S. embassy in Kuala Lampur is in close contact with local authorities and the patient.
…
Is The West Dying Or Thriving? US And Europe Clash At Munich Conference
The United States and Europe appear divided over the health of the transatlantic relationship following a key security conference in Germany over the weekend, attended by hundreds of political and military leaders. Eruopeans accused Washington of ‘rejecting the idea of an international community’ – but the U.S. said the alliance is in good shape. As Henry Ridgwell reports from the Munich conference, there is an emerging disagreement between Western allies over what exactly represents the biggest threat to Western democracy
…
Dazzling Sydney Concert Raises Millions For Australian Bushfire Relief
Queen, Adam Lambert, Alice Cooper and Michael Buble have played at a huge concert Sunday to support bushfire victims in Australia. More than 70,000 people attended the televised ‘Fire Fight Australia’ event in Sydney. “Mama, just killed a man,” said Queen Adam Lambert. “Put a gun against his head. Pulled my trigger, now he’s dead. Mama, life had just begun.”Fans in Sydney were treated to a spectacular rendition of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ by Queen and the American singer Adam Lambert.They were joined by Olivia Newton-John and Alice Cooper, along with Australian stars 5 Seconds of Summer, Tina Arena and Delta Goodrem.The ‘Fire Fight Australia’ concert aimed to raised almost $7 million for bushfire relief. Fire services, devastated communities and animal welfare charities are to benefit.Australia’s bushfire crisis began in September. More than 30 people have been killed, and thousands of homes destroyed, while millions of hectares of land have been scorched.The debate about the influence of climate change on the disaster continues. The Lord Mayors of Australia’s two biggest cities, Sydney and Melbourne, say they will intensify their efforts to mitigate the impact of global warming. They intend to introduce bolder targets on emissions, waste and water use. Sally Capp, the Lord Mayor of Melbourne, says Australia needs more action at a federal level.“Whatever heavy-lifting we do at a local government level we still desperately need national leadership, (a) bipartisan approach saying these are the sorts of initiatives that need to be supported. We need to see a transition of our economy as part of that,” Capp said.Australia is one of the world’s worst per capita emitters of greenhouse gases. Prime Minister Scott Morrison has been criticized for underplaying the role of climate change in the bushfire crisis. His center-right government is an ardent supporter of the coal industry, which generates much of the nation’s electricity. Morrison has insisted his climate and energy policies are both adequate and responsible.
…
Iran’s President: Trump Doesn’t Want War Ahead of 2020 Vote
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Sunday that he doesn’t believe the U.S. will pursue war with his country, because it will harm President Donald Trump’s 2020 reelection bid.Rouhani said that Trump knows that war with Iran will “ruin” his chances of winning the 2020 U.S. presidential election.The Iranian leader added that war would be harmful to U.S. interests and those of its regional allies, as well as Iran.“I think the Americans aren’t after war since they know what harm it could do them,” said Rouhani in a news conference.He said that Persian Gulf nations like the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar stood a lot to lose if conflict between Iran and the U.S. turns to war.Tehran and Washington came close to an open conflict in January, when a U.S. drone strike killed Iran’s top general, Qasem Soleimani, outside Baghdad. Iran retaliated with missile strikes on a base housing U.S. troops in Iraq.Tensions have been escalating steadily since Trump pulled the U.S. out of Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, and reimposed crippling sanctions on Iran.Rouhani reiterated that the U.S. should rejoin the nuclear deal if it wants to return to negotiations.“We will finally get the enemy to sit at the negotiating table some day, like before,” said Rouhani, referring to the U.S.Rouhani also encouraged Iranians to turnout in large numbers for parliamentary elections on Friday, as a show of defiance against the U.S.“Americans will not be happy with a high-turnout,“he said. “Surely they will be happy with a low-turnout election.”Iran’s parliamentary elections are seen as a test of the popularity of Rouhani’s relatively moderate and pro-reform bloc led. His government, however, has mostly struggled to deliver on campaign promises to improve people’s lives as Iran’s economy buckles under the weight of U.S. sanctions.Iranian authorities have also barred thousands of parliamentary candidates from running, mainly reformists and moderates.Friday’s elections could strengthen the hand of Iranian hard-liners, who champion confronting the West.
…
Early Voting Begins in Nevada in Democrats’ Search for Presidential Candidate
Presidential hopefuls head west to Nevada as early voting kicked off Sunday in the country’s next Democratic nominating contest. Voters are making their choice on who should face Republican President Donald Trump in the November national election. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi looks ahead to the third phase of the 2020 election cycle
…
Wales Bears Brunt as Storm Dennis Rips Across Britain
Storm Dennis roared across Britain with high winds and heavy rains Sunday, prompting authorities to issue a record number of flood warnings and alerts for England and a rare “red warning” for extremely life-threatening flooding in Wales.
The Met Office, Britain’s meteorological service, only issues its highest red warning when it thinks the weather will be so dangerous there’s a “risk to life” and that people must take immediate action to protect themselves. It was the first time a red warning has been sounded since December 2015.
Four hours later, the south Wales alert was downgraded to “amber,” which still warns of significant impact from the weather and a “potential risk to life.” The Met Office also had four other amber warnings in place in England and Wales following the torrential downpours.
Wales appeared to be bearing the brunt of the two-day storm after a month’s rain fell in the space of 48 hours. South Wales Police declared a “major incident” following multiple floods, landslides and evacuations. And Gwent Police said residents of Skenfrith, Monmouthshire, were being advised to evacuate due to the flooding.
The Met Office said the highest wind gust recorded was 91 mph (146 kph) at Aberdaron in north Wales on Saturday. It also said a total of 157.6 mm (6.1 inches) of rain fell at Crai Reservoir in the Welsh county of Powys over 48 hours to Sunday morning.The River Taff burst its banks in the Welsh town of Pontypool and severe flood warning have been issued for the River Neath in south Wales and the River Teme further north.As the wet and windy weather started to clear across parts of the south, the number of flood warnings across the U.K. declined but there were still around 350 of them in place Sunday, from the north of Scotland through to Cornwall in southwest England.John Curtin, the executive director of flood and coastal risk management at the Environment Agency, said in a tweet that at one point during the day, England had the most flood warnings and lower-level alerts in force — 594 — than on any other day on record.
The local authority in Herefordshire, an English county that borders central Wales, declared a “major incident” amid widespread flooding and said it was focusing on making sure “vulnerable residents are evacuated.” West Mercia Police, also declared a “major incident” for Shropshire, another county in central England that borders Wales.
Flood warnings could remain in place for a while since much of Britain is still saturated from last week’s Storm Ciara, which left eight people dead across Europe.
“Whilst the heaviest rain has cleared from Northern Ireland and Scotland, England and Wales will continue to see heavy rain on Sunday, with a risk of severe flooding in places,” said Andy Page, the Met Office’s chief meteorologist.
The fourth named storm of Europe’s winter season has already been blamed for the deaths of two men who were pulled Saturday from the sea in separate searches off England’s southeastern coast.Hundreds of flights were cancelled due to the high winds while train services were repeatedly disrupted by flooding, affecting tens of thousands of passengers as British families leave for the mid-winter school break.On Saturday, around 75 British army personnel and 70 reservists helped out communities in the flood-hit Calder Valley region in West Yorkshire, constructing flood barriers and repairing damaged flood defenses. I
…
Is The West Dying Or Thriving? U.S. And Europe Clash At Munich Conference
The United States and Europe appear deeply divided over the health of the transatlantic relationship following a key security conference in Germany over the weekend, attended by hundreds of political and military leaders from around the world.German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier opened the conference with a speech that accused Washington of ‘rejecting the idea of an international community’ – and warned of growing threats from Russia and China.U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, center, shakes hands with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, right, as US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper watches during the 56th Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, Feb. 14, 2020.The U.S delegation, headed by U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, rejected claims of a transatlantic rift. “Those statements do simply not fact in any significant way or reflect reality,” Sexretary of State Pompeo told the conference Saturday. “I am happy to report that the death of the transatlantic alliance is grossly over exaggerated. The West is winning. We are collectively winning. We are doing it together.”For proof, Pompeo said Europe should look to the tens of thousands of U.S. troops defending NATO’s border with Russia, and America’s lead role in defeating Islamic State.Secretary Pompeo also pledged $1 billion to help eastern European countries end their dependence on Russian gas, with the aim of boosting U.S. liquified natural gas exports.For Europe, the diagnosis appears very different. French president Emmanuel Macron said the U.S. was undergoing ‘a rethink of its relationship with Europe’ – and the continent must take charge of its own destiny. “When I look at the world as it is being shaped, and that is the theme of your conference this year, there is indeed a weakening of the West,” Macron said. “Fifteen years ago, we thought that our values were universal, that we were going to dominate the world in the long term, that we were dominant in terms of technology, military and so on, and then I look at the horizon of 10-15 years, we are going to be increasingly pushed by other agendas and other values, they are emerging.”Macron added that it was time to have a ‘strategic dialogue’ with Russia. Moscow’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov told the conference it was time to ‘abandon the cultivation of the phantom Russian threat.’ Many other European nations cited Russia’s 2014 invasion of Ukraine as evidence of the very real dangers.Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks on the second day of the Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, Feb. 15, 2020.This year’s focus on cyber security saw Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg take the stage, amid widespread accusations that social media platforms are facilitating states like Russia and China to interfere in Western democracy.“We were slow to understand the kind of information and operations that Russia and others were running online,” admitted Zuckerberg, before defending his record. “We take down now more than a million fake accounts a day across our network… We will continue doing our best, we are going to build up the muscle to do it, to basically find stuff as proactively as possible, we will try to draw the lines in the right places.”Conference organizers hailed diplomatic progress in other areas, including a public meeting between the presidents of rivals Azerbaijan and Armenia.There were high level meetings on Libya and Syria – with little tangible progress.The theme of the conference was meant to be ‘Westlessness’, defined by its protagonists as the purported decline of Western democracy. The U.S. delegation flatly dismissed those concerns, insisting the West has never been in better health.They left the conference with a clear message: China is adversary number one – and European allies should wake up to the threat.
…
Thai Soldier’s Deadly Rampage Puts Army on Defense
Thailand’s military is facing a barrage of public scorn over the alleged security lapses and corruption being blamed for a disgruntled soldier’s deadly rampage earlier this month, shredding its slogan as the country’s keeper of peace and order.Analysts say the drubbing will bolster the campaign of those already critical of the military for its outsized political powers but doubt that the reforms army chief Apirat Kongsompong has promised in the wake of the massacre will amount to much.Sgt. Maj. Jakrapanth Thomma’s shooting spree started February 8 near an army base in northern Thailand’s Nakhon Ratchasima province and ended in a shopping mall the following morning, leaving 30 people dead including the shooter and 58 wounded. It was Thailand’s deadliest mass shooting by a lone gunman in memory.Just hours before, Sgt. Maj. Jakrapanth had railed online about being swindled by a senior officer and the officer’s mother-in-law in a real estate deal. After shooting the pair, he allegedly snatched three assault rifles and two machine guns from the base’s armory and stole an army truck, which he drove to a Buddhist temple and then on to the mall. After an hours-long search and standoff, police finally shot and killed the soldier, who had barricaded himself in the basement with hostages.Defense Ministry spokesman Khongcheap Tantravanich said the shooting may dent the trust some Thais have in the military but added that most would not hold the institution as a whole to blame.”I think they can separate about this event because it was an individual, one soldier,” he told VOA.Thailand’s military has long prided itself as a paragon of duty and discipline and used that claim to justify a history of toppling elected governments. After its last putsch in 2014, it duly named the military junta that would go on to run the country for the next five years the National Council for Peace and Order.Since last weekend’s massacre, however, that claim has taken a public beating, with mounting criticism of the military’s own competence and opaque business interests.”Because the army has sought to really build its reputation as the preserver of order for the kingdom, especially since 2014, this incident almost completely destroys that image,” said Paul Chambers, a lecturer at Thailand’s Naresuan University who studies the country’s civil-military relations.”In fact the military has now lost support from traditional backers,” he added.Chambers said the groundswell of disaffection also puts wind in the sails of the opposition Future Forward party, which has been leading the charge to curb the army’s ballooning budget and political sway since a tainted general election last year made the military man who led the 2014 coup, Prayut Chan-ocha, prime minister.The army chief has already walked back one pledge to push retired officers out of their public housing.Public pressure to follow through or go further will be tempered by the popular support the military still enjoys among many Thais, said Titipol Phakdeewanich, dean of the political science faculty at Ubon Ratchathani University.He said some Thais neither staunchly for nor against the military before the massacre may start to lean toward its critics but believes die-hard supporters will stay loyal.”Some of the people who have been supporting the military might [have] started to criticize,” he said. “But it doesn’t mean that they stop supporting the military, because there are many other factors [why] they actually support the military to remain in place.”He expects any reforms that do follow from the fallout over the mass shooting to be mostly cosmetic, avoiding what many say ails the country most — a military that refuses to subordinate itself to a truly civilian government.”The problem is that the Thai military doesn’t perceive itself as a kind of unit under the government or the Thai administration. They tend to see themself as a kind of separate unit,” Titipol said.”[In] the end, I don’t think they would change anything that would actually make it better for the country.”
…
Somali Court Sentences Mogadishu Official for Past al-Shabab Membership
A court in the Somali capital Mogadishu has sentenced an official with the city’s municipality to three years in prison for past membership of the al-Shabab militant group.The court found that Nur Ali Ahmed (Mahad Alle) was a member of the terrorist organization and failed to follow the proper process to register himself as a defector when he left the group. He claimed he left al-Shabab in 2010.During the hearing, Ahmed insisted that he reported his defection to the authorities but the court could not find a record of that. The court also established that prior to his appointment as Acting Director of Works for Mogadishu municipality; he also worked at Mogadishu’s port and at one of the city’s hospitals.Ahmed was arrested following last July’s explosion at the Mogadishu mayor’s office, which killed the Mayor Abdirahman Omar Osman and seven other regional officials.A blind female suicide bomber who was a senior aide to the late mayor as carried out the attack. The bomber went by the name Basira Abdi Mohamed although her real name was Maryam. The court released Maryam’s brother who was ordered to regularly report his movement to authorities.The court did not find evidence-linking Ahmed to the explosion that killed Mayor Osman, but his past connection with the group was established after an investigation by the security agencies.The conviction indicates a pattern of al-Shabab’s infiltration in administrations and social institutions, experts argue.Just last month, the same court found a college teacher who is the son of a senior police officer guilty of being al-Shabab’s operational leader of assassinations in Mogadishu for several years.Mohamed Haji Ahmed was sentenced to death after being convicted of assassinating three generals, a police corporal and a deputy attorney general.In the worst case, a top official in Somalia’s National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA), Abdisalam Mohamed Hassan, was found guilty in 2014 of providing photos of intelligence agents and other identifying data to al-Shabab. Hassan is now serving a life sentence.Meanwhile, a roadside explosion killed three soldiers and injured two others in the southwest of Mogadishu, Sunday. Al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the attack.
…