U.S. senators are concerned Russia and China may outpace Washington in developing hypersonic weapons. In a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing Thursday with top defense officials, lawmakers expressed concern about the weapons that fly at five times the speed of sound, or Mach 5. Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut called the hypersonic weapons “a game-changer.” Independent Senator Angus King of Maine called them “a nightmare weapon for aircraft carriers.” “It sounds to me as if hypersonic weapons and other future weapons have been more advanced by other countries such as China, even Russia coming back into the scene in a real aggressive way … are we going to deter them from moving forward?” asked Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia. FILE – Then-Vice Adm. Charles Richard, commander of U.S. Strategic Command, speaks during a change-of-command ceremony at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska, Nov. 18, 2019,Maintaining strategic deterrence Testifying before the committee, Admiral Charles Richard, commander of U.S. Strategic Command, admitted to the ongoing competition. But he sought to reassure the senators that the U.S. has the necessary deterrence capabilities. “I am confident that this nation has the ability to produce the capabilities we have to have,” he said. “And for deterrence, again, the basic equation hasn’t changed. Can I deny you your aim, or can I impose a cost on you that is greater than what you see? I can do that if necessary.” Richard added that the U.S. maintains conventional superiority over Russia and China while maintaining strategic deterrence. Experts say, however, that hypersonic weapon systems could change the existing balance of conventional military power between the U.S. and its major competitors. According to the Congressional Research Service, the research arm of the Congress, both China and Russia have conducted numerous successful tests of hypersonic glide vehicles and both are expected to field an operational capability as early as 2020. There are two types of hypersonic weapons: cruise missiles and glide vehicles. Both are difficult to track and intercept because they can maneuver in midflight. Boosting budget for hypersonic weapons This is why continued investment is critical in the hypersonic weapons tracking layer in space, according to General Terrence O’Shaughnessy, commander of the Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command, who testified at the same hearing. FILE – Russian President Vladimir Putin, fifth left, and other top officials oversee the test launch of the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle from the Defense Ministry’s control room in Moscow, Dec. 26, 2018.“We need to continue to invest in that space sensing layer, because as we go from a ballistic missile to a hypersonic glide vehicle, it really changes the problem of maintaining custody of that weapons system throughout its entire flight,” said O’Shaughnessy. In the 2021 budget released Monday, the Trump administration proposed $3.2 billion for hypersonic weapons, a 23% increase from last year. “FY2020 represents a pivotal year for hypersonic weapon development and fielding as the department begins aggressively flight-testing capabilities across multiple domains,” Richard said in written testimony. The Trump administration has yet to specify when it will field American hypersonic weapons. New START Treaty Senators also asked top military leaders about what to expect after the New START Treaty expires in February 2021. While noting that extending the treaty is ultimately a political decision, Richard pointed to some of the shortcomings of the agreement. “It does not address a very large class of weapons that the Russians have a significant advantage in, it doesn’t constrain novel systems, and it is a bilateral treaty,” he said. He expressed a higher level of distrust in China’s intentions in nuclear weapon development. Richard said he could “drive a truck through China’s no-first-use policy,” adding, “They’re very opaque about what their intentions are. They’re very different from the Russians.” The Trump administration is seeking to forge a trilateral arms agreement with Russia and China, although China has so far refused to take part.
…
Month: February 2020
Experts: U.S. Shifts Focus Away From North Korea
U.S. President Donald Trump is shifting his priorities away from North Korea in his run up to the presidential election this year, experts said, after fruitless efforts at denuclearization talks that remain deadlocked.“I suspect the administration sees little opportunity for renewed nuclear diplomacy before the 2020 election,” said Robert Manning, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council.Trump has been reassigning U.S. officials involved in negotiations with North Korea to other posts, a move that experts think signals that his administration is putting less emphasis on denuclearization talks that failed to make a breakthrough last year.The White House announced Tuesday that Trump has nominated FILE – U.S. special representative to North Korea Steve Biegun speaks after being named by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at the State Department in Washington, Aug. 23, 2018.In December, FILE U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un sign documents that acknowledge the progress of the talks and pledge to keep momentum going, after their summit at the Capella Hotel on Sentosa island in Singapore, June 12, 2018.Trump met with Kim for the first time at the Singapore summit in June 2018. Their second summit was in February 2019 in Hanoi. It ended quickly because Washington’s call for full denuclearization and Pyongyang’s demand for sanctions relief did not mesh.An attempt to bridge that difference at working-level talks in Stockholm in October broke down, and the talks remain stalled since then.Manning said Trump is turning away from North Korea because the lack of progress made on denuclearization does little to benefit him during an election year.“Trump has made North Korea a signature issue of his foreign policy, so the failure to achieve any serious steps toward denuclearization, while North Korea continues to improve its missile and nuclear capabilities is a stain on his record on a key issue in which he is heavily invested,” Manning said.According to a confidential U.N. report to be released next month and seen by Reuters, North Korea has been FILE – National security adviser Robert O’Brien listens as President Donald Trump addresses the nation from the White House on the ballistic missile strike that Iran launched against Iraqi air bases housing U.S. troops in Washington, Jan. 8, 2020.Speaking at the Atlantic Council, a foreign policy think tank in Washington, on Tuesday, National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien said the president would meet with Kim if there is a prospect of making a deal.“If there is an opportunity to move the ball forward for the American people, he’s always willing to do that,” O’Brien said. “We will have to see as to whether another summit between the leaders is appropriate.”Douglas Paal, vice president at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said that attempting a summit with Kim could be risky for Trump, who is running for re-election. But O’Brien’s remarks suggest that the Trump administration is leaving a door open for diplomacy.“Doing deals with dictators in election years tends to benefit the opposition,” Paal said. “Trump sees no need for a summit now, but his national security adviser is covering for the possible downside.”Scott Snyder, director of the U.S.-Korea policy program at the Council on Foreign Relations, said neither Trump nor Kim has much to gain if there is no progress made through another summit.“It stands to reason that Trump would seek political benefit from another meeting [with] Kim, but would not be interested in another meeting if it will not benefit him politically or advance the U.S. national security interest,” Snyder said.“It is in the interest of both Trump and Kim Jong Un to ensure that any future meetings are accompanied by meaningful achievements,” he added.Experts think there is little chance that another summit will take place between Washington and Pyongyang this year in the current stalemate.“There is little reason to think that the two leaders will meet this year or that any new agreements will be reached,” Pollack said. “The sides simply aren’t talking to each other.”Manning thinks “for now, denuclearization diplomacy is dead.”FILE – A man watches a TV screen showing a file image of North Korea’s missile launch during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Jan. 1, 2020.However, North Korea could become a priority if it changes its position or tests more missiles, according to experts.“It’s pretty [clear] North Korea is not a priority in an election year, unless North Korea decides to make it a priority through its actions,” Paal said.Ken Gause, director of the Adversary Analytics Program at CNA, thinks North Korea could either escalate threats by testing its weapons again in an attempt to gain the U.S. attention or stay conservative, hoping that Trump will win the election.“That comes down to North Korean calculus,” Gause said. “What does Kim think? Does Kim think that it’s better to be conservative, not cause a lot of problems and hopes that Trump wins? Or does he think, ‘Hey I need to force this issue before the election?’ And, we’ll find out in the next few months.” Lee Joen and Ahn So-young contributed to this report, which originated on VOA Korean.
…
In Africa, US Sees Trainers as ‘Better Fit’ Than Combat Troops
The United States is trying to ease concerns about its decision to withdraw conventional troops from Africa and replace them with specialized military trainers.Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Thursday the move will leave “roughly the same number of troops on the continent,” while giving U.S. commanders the capability to bolster partner forces.Speaking with reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels, Esper said the move to swap out combat troops for trainers is based on observations by U.S. Africa Command Commander, General Stephen Townsend.“He [Townsend] thinks it’s a better fit than what we currently do,” Esper said. “The SFABs (Security Force Assistance Brigades) are specifically designed to do that train-and-assist mission, which we know partner countries there want.”The Pentagon announced Wednesday that it would start bringing home members of the Army’s 101st Airborne Division in the coming weeks, the first of many moves expected to impact the 6,000 U.S. troops currently in Africa.”It frees up, collectively, to train, over 4,000 troops” for great power competition missions, per @EsperDoD to reporters on decision to pull combat troops from Africa & replace them w/military trainers— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) February 13, 2020Officials have yet to announce how many conventional forces will be leaving, but Esper said Thursday they will be replaced by roughly a couple of hundred forces from the Army’s 1st Security Force Assistance Brigade.The brigade has previous experience working with the Afghan military and building relationships there, something that defense officials hope will pay off as they begin their missions in Africa.”We have some spotlight countries, as we call them, where we either want to build or sustain important relationships,” Esper said.Still, there are questions about how successful the trainers can be, stemming in part from their experience in Afghanistan.”The U.S. Army continues to struggle with staffing these units with the required number of skilled personnel, and with keeping personnel assigned to these units long enough to create enduring partnerships with a foreign force,” the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction said in a June 2019 report.The report also warned, “there still is not enough theater-specific training focused on the host nation’s security institutions, systems, processes and weapons.”Defense officials say they are aware of the criticisms but note that some of the concerns, like the turnover rate, apply equally to conventional forces like the ones currently in Africa. They also say the trainers will be better positioned to respond to the needs of individual partner nations.U.S. military officials also contend that American military training available through the Security Force Assistance Brigade will continue to be superior to anything offered by Russia or China, especially in the fight against terrorist groups linked to al-Qaida and Islamic State.”China and Russia do very little to help Africans combat the brutal terrorist networks plaguing them,” Africa Command’s General Stephen Townsend said in a statement Thursday, following talks in Kenya and Somalia.”U.S. training, equipment and advice directly support our African partners,” he added. But despite what Townsend and others view as a growing terror threat, Esper on Thursday ruled out sending more U.S. forces, particularly to West Africa and the Sahel.”The Sahel is principally a CT [counterterror] mission,” Esper said. “I’m not looking to put more troops in that fight.”In West #Africa, “I’m not looking to put more troops in that fight. The French are” per @EsperDoD “They [#France] are asking the European partners to provide more help””What I’m looking to do to deal w/CT [counterterrorism] threats that threaten the [US] homeland” per Esper— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) February 13, 2020 #alShabaab? @CarlaBabbVOA: “Al Shabaab has been identified by AFRICOM officials as one that wants to attack the homeland…”@EsperDoD: “I’m not sure where you got that information… I’ve not seen a final assessment on that”— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) February 13, 2020″The French are,” he said, adding that both France and the U.S. are urging European nations to do more.During a visit to the Pentagon last month, French Defense Minister Florence Parly said that while she understood the U.S. need to reposition troops away from the region, some U.S. capabilities, such as intelligence and surveillance, were irreplaceable.Pentagon Correspondent Carla Babb contributed to this report.
…
Unpacking New US Criminal Charges Against Huawei
The U.S. Justice Department is ratcheting up pressure on Huawei Technologies, announcing on Thursday new criminal charges against the Chinese telecom equipment and smartphone maker. The case against Huawei, its subsidiaries and its chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, announced in January 2019, has added to trade tensions between the U.S. and China and comes as U.S. authorities clamp down on Chinese theft of U.S. intellectual property. The new charges, contained in a superseding indictment filed in New York, accuse the company of stealing trade secrets from six U.S. companies and violating a mob-busting U.S. law. The indictment also includes new allegations about Huawei’s business activities in countries under U.S. sanctions such as Iran and North Korea. FILE – Huawei Technologies Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou leaves her home to appear for a hearing in Vancouver, British Columbia, Sept. 30, 2019.Here is what you need to know about the Huawei case and the new charges against the company: Huawei was initially charged in January 2019 in two separate federal indictments in district courts in Seattle and New York. Trade secret theft In the first case, federal prosecutors in Seattle accused Huawei of attempting to steal trade secrets from American telecom provider T-Mobile US and then obstruct justice when T-Mobile threatened to sue Huawei. The evidence against Huawei included an internal company announcement offering bonuses to employees who stole confidential information from other companies. Two Huawei subsidiaries – Huawei Device Co. Ltd. and Huawei Device Co. USA – were charged in a 10-count indictment. The charges included theft of trade secrets conspiracy, attempted theft of trade secrets, wire fraud and obstruction of justice. Iran sanctions violation In the second case, U.S. prosecutors in New York accused Huawei, Meng and other employees of taking part in a “long-running scheme” to deceive banks and the U.S. government about Huawei’s business activities in Iran in violation of U.S. sanctions. Huawei was accused of operating an unofficial subsidiary in Iran called Skycom and repeatedly misrepresenting its relationship with Skycom to banks such as HSBC and U.S. government investigators. Huawei, Huawei Device USA, Skycom and Meng were named in a 13-count indictment. The charges included bank fraud, conspiracy to commit bank fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and conspiracy to commit money laundering. FILE – People gather at a Huawei stand during the Consumer Electronics Show, Ces Asia 2019 in Shanghai, June 11, 2019.New charges The superseding indictment against Huawei was returned in New York on Wednesday. The new charges include conspiracy to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) to steal trade secrets from six U.S. companies. Enacted in 1970, RICO was used in the 1970s and 1980s to bust organized crime families in New York but has also been used against other criminal enterprises. The indictment says Huawei and its affiliates constituted an “enterprise” that engaged in a “pattern of racketeering activity” such as wire fraud and witness tampering. The superseding indictment also adds a charge of conspiracy to steal trade secrets related to Huawei’s “long-running practice of using fraud and deception” to purloin sophisticated technology from U.S. companies. Starting as early as 2000, Huawei and its subsidiaries allegedly used a variety of deceptive methods to steal trade secret information from U.S. companies. The stolen intellectual property included source code and user manuals for internet routers, antenna technology and robot testing technology, according to the indictment.
…
US Brings New Charges Against Chinese Tech Giant Huawei
The Justice Department has added new criminal charges against Chinese tech giant Huawei and two of its U.S. subsidiaries, accusing the company in a plot to steal trade secrets from competitors in America, federal prosecutors announced Thursday.The company is also accused of installing surveillance equipment that enabled Iran to spy on protesters during 2009 anti-government demonstrations in Iran, and of doing business in North Korea despite U.S. sanctions there.The case comes as the Trump administration is raising national security concerns about Huawei, the world’s largest telecommunications equipment manufacturer, and is lobbying Western allies against including the company in wireless, high-speed networks.The new indictment brought by federal prosecutors in Brooklyn adds to the legal woes in the U.S. for Huawei, which already faced charges in that district of lying to banks about deals that violated economic sanctions against Iran as well as separate trade secrets theft case in federal court in Seattle.The latest allegations accuse Huawei of plotting to steal the trade secrets and intellectual property of rival companies in the U.S. In some cases, prosecutors said, Huawei directed and provided incentives its own employees to steal from competitors by offering bonuses to those who brought in the most valuable stolen information.The company also used proxies, including professors at research institutions, to steal intellectual property, prosecutors said.The new indictment in Brooklyn includes charges of racketeering conspiracy and conspiracy to steal trade secrets.A lawyer for Huawei did not immediately return an email and phone message seeking comment.National security allegationsTrump administration officials, including Cabinet secretaries, have recently leveled national security allegations against Huawei in an effort to encourage European nations to ban the gear from next-generation cellular networks.Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Mark Esper made the pitch to Western allies during a trip to Munich this week. Attorney General William Barr, in a speech last week, lamented what he said was China’s aspiration for economic dominance and proposed that the U.S. invest in Western competitors of Huawei.The administration’s national security adviser, Robert O’Brien, asserted this week that Huawei can secretly tap into communications through the networking equipment it sells globally. The company disputes that, saying it “has never and will never covertly access telecom networks, nor do we have the capability to do so.”
…
Airport Encounter With Venezuelan Vice President Roils Spanish Politics
Spanish opposition parties are calling for an investigation of a mysterious midnight meeting between Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez and a senior Spanish cabinet official in Madrid’s airport last month, arguing that the session undercut Europe-wide sanctions against the Venezuelan government of President Nicolas Maduro.Lawmakers demanded at a stormy parliamentary session Wednesday that Transport Minister Jose Luis Abalos explain what was discussed at the meeting with Rodriguez, who along with 24 other Venezuelan officials is barred from entering the European Union.Abalos acknowledges that he arranged the brief stopover for Rodriguez when her aircraft landed in Spain on its way to Turkey on Jan. 20. The government argues that it seeks to negotiate democratic elections in Venezuela and that transit lounge meeting was designed to avoid a diplomatic incident.“I achieved not creating a problem in the diplomatic sphere with a government with which we want to have elections without coups,” said Abalos, echoing Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s repeated calls for elections in Venezuela “as soon as possible.”EU sanctions violatedHowever, Eliot Abrams, the U.S. State Department’s special envoy for Venezuela, told the Spanish newspaper ABC that the meeting did violate the EU sanctions, which bar leading Venezuelan officials from entering EU territory including its air space. He called for the Spanish media and Congress to investigate the Madrid stopover.Since word of the airport meeting was first leaked to the media by sources in the Spanish police, Abalos has offered shifting explanations of the encounter. After first saying that the meeting consisted of only a casual greeting, he later admitted they had talked for 20 minutes on board her airplane.Second meeting heldSpanish news outlets have since reported that Abados and Rodriguez held a second meeting for an hour in the airport’s VIP lounge.The incident has heightened suspicion among Spain’s conservative opposition that the Socialist-led government is backing away from its previous support for Venezuela’s democratic opposition.Sanchez was among the first European leaders to recognize opposition leader Juan Guaido as the interim president of Venezuela, but he has since formed a new coalition that relies on the support of the far-left Podemos party, which has longstanding ties to Maduro.Sanchez notably failed to meet with Guaido during a tour of Europe last month by the Venezuelan National Assembly president, who is recognized as interim president by the United States and more than 60 other countries. Guaido did secure meetings with the leaders of Britain, France, Germany and other nations.’Motives’ questionedThe apparent snub, which was blamed on a scheduling conflict, prompted a subtle rebuke from the United States. “We don’t know the motives of [Prime Minister] Sanchez, but urge chiefs of government to meet with the interim president to know firsthand what happens on the ground,” said Carrie Filipetti, the U.S. deputy assistant secretary of State for Cuba and Venezuela.Despite that concern, U.S. President Donald Trump praised the “close friendship and shared history” between the United States and Spain this week in announcing a coming state visit to Washington by Spain’s King Felipe and his wife.
…
Ugandan Official, Traditionalists Clash Over Female Genital Stretching
Uganda’s minister for gender and culture is facing a backlash after equating the cultural practice of labia stretching with female circumcision, known as female genital mutilation because of the damage caused. The traditional stretching of the female genitals by Bantu-speaking tribes in Uganda, Rwanda and Zambia is believed to have benefits, including greater sexual pleasure. But the pre-marriage practice is criticized for being forced on young girls, as Halima Athumani reports from Kampala. (Warning: This story includes content of a sexual nature and descriptions that some may find disturbing.)
…
Bangladesh — Home to Massive Refugee Settlement — Guards Against Coronavirus
The Coronavirus has killed more than 1,100 people worldwide, the vast majority of which are in China. So, countries around the world are being cautious by testing incoming traffic through their ports. Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar is home to thousands of refuge Rohingya that attract aid workers from different countries including China. VOA’s Muazzem Hossain Shakil filed this report from Cox’s Bazar on how Bangladesh is avoiding possible infections. Kevin Enochs narrates the story.
…
South African President’s Speech Upstaged Again by Opposition Protest, Walkout
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa barely got out the first sentence of his annual State of the Nation Address before the inevitable happened: commotion in the gallery, led by the Economic Freedom Fighters.The far-left political party — easily identifiable in parliament by their resplendent red workmen’s outfits — had teased that they would raise a fuss over the nation’s struggling electricity company and the member of Cabinet they feel is responsible. They also protested the attendance at the speech of South Africa’s last apartheid president, FW De Klerk. That commotion — which included yelling between party members and a Parliamentary officials — sucked up the first 90 minutes of the proceedings, culminating in National Assembly speaker Thandi Modise ordering them to leave. Members of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party disrupt parliament proceedings at the State of the Nation Address in Cape Town, South Africa, Feb. 13, 2020.’Our country is facing a stark reality’When he finally took the podium to speak, on his fifth attempt to do so, Ramaphosa did not mince words about South Africa’s challenges.”There are times when we have fallen short, there are times when we have made mistakes, but we remain unwavering in our determination to build a society that is free and equal and at peace,” he said, adding, “Our country is facing a stark reality.”“Our economy has not grown at any meaningful rate for over a decade. Even as jobs are created, the rate of unemployment continues to deepen. The recovery of our economy has stalled as persistent energy shortages have disrupted businesses and also people’s lives. Several state-owned enterprises are in distress and our public finances are under severe pressure. It is you, the people of South Africa, who carry this burden, confronted by rising living costs , unemployment , unable to escape , poverty, hopelessness, and unable to realize our potential as a people.”He continued to tout his nation’s great resilience and achievements — pointing to the gallery, where sat the newly anointed Miss Universe, Zozibini Tunzi and the World-Cup-winning captain of the Springboks national rugby team, Siya Kolisi. Ramaphosa also vowed a number of measures, including improvements in education, health care, land distribution, agriculture, and government financing. Ramaphoria fading? But the chaos made clear that the so-called “Ramaphoria” that marked the beginning of his term may be beginning to fade. He was brought into the office in 2018, after leading an intra-party attempt to push out unpopular, scandal-ridden President Jacob Zuma. Zuma, whose lawyers say he is ill and seeking medical treatment abroad, leading him to miss the first session of his corruption trial this month, did not attend. Ramaphosa also noted that South Africa’s role on the continent has changed as it took the helm of the African Union this year, saying, “we take up this responsibility at an important time for our continent. This year, the Africa Continental Free Trade Area agreement comes into effect. This is our moment as the people of the continent to give effect to the dreams of the founding fathers of African unity.”He added, to applause, that South Africa would host a trade summit and another summit on reducing violence on the continent later this year. But speech watchers said that behind Ramaphosa’s words lies concern over whether he can actually pull off any of these big ideas in this difficult political climate. “Even if he’s a man of great ideas and not a bad speech maker, he is struggling to get a lot of these ideas implemented and carried forward,” political studies professor Lawrence Hamilton, of the University of the Witwatersrand, told VOA moments after the speech ended.“So obviously, it’s not a great sight and a kind of national embarrassment. But we’ve seen the EFF do this kind of thing quite a lot. So I think you can overemphasize it and read too much into it, because it is in part just a kind of political theater. But I think you could also say that it’s a manifestation of how dislocated and frustrated, in particular, the youth of South Africa are.”
…
Smollett Case Revives Questions on Laquan McDonald, Justice
When a grand jury revived the criminal case against Jussie Smollett, the indictment for many people called to mind two nights on two different streets in the same big city.
On one Chicago street was a wealthy, famous black man who claimed he was a victim of a racist, anti-gay attack. On the other street was an anonymous black teenager shot 16 times by a white police officer.
A day after Smollett was charged for a second time with staging the attack, the two cases reopened divisive arguments about the role of race and class in the justice system and what fairness looks like.
“The integrity of the legal system is at stake,” said David Erickson, a former state appellate judge who teaches at Chicago Kent College of Law. If Smollett “would have walked away, everybody would have thought there is no justice in Cook County.”
A special prosecutor decided to prosecute Smollett again, 11 months after county prosecutors dropped charges that the “Empire” actor hired two men to fake the attack to further his career. He has maintained his innocence.
Delmarie Cobb, a local media and political consultant, said she thinks less about Smollett’s account of what happened, which she never believed, than about the 2014 fatal police shooting of Laquan McDonald and how it took the city a year to release the dashcam video — only after a judge ordered it — and to charge the officer with murder.
“As a black person, I am insulted by the whole thing and … all I can think about is 16 counts versus 16 shots,” she said, referring to the number of counts of disorderly conduct that prosecutors originally charged Smollett with.
She wondered about all the anger expressed by former Mayor Rahm Emanuel, former Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson and others who blasted Smollett for lying to police and smearing the city after evidence pointed to a conspiracy to mislead authorities and drum up publicity.
“Where was the outrage when Laquan McDonald was killed in the year before we discovered the video?” she asked.
What is more outrageous, Cobb said, was watching the police department throw dozens of officers working hundreds of hours onto Smollett’s case, which involved no injuries, while giving far less attention to the hundreds of shooting deaths elsewhere in the city.
The department, she added, went so far as to track down Smollett’s alleged accomplices in Africa while its rate of resolving homicide cases lags far behind other major police forces.
Erickson and others suggested that Smollett’s case also raises serious questions about political influence.
They say special prosecutor Dan Webb’s investigation was important because of what happened in the days after Smollett was first charged: Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx communicated with a member of Smollett’s family at the request of Tina Tchen, Michelle Obama’s former chief of staff.
Her actions, critics say, sent a powerful message to anyone who was paying attention.
“This told everyone if you have the right friends, you can get away with it,” Erickson said.
“The last thing a prosecutor should do is take the political temperature of anything and make decisions based on that kind of influence,” said Ron Allen, a professor at Northwestern University’s law school. “That’s utterly despicable.”
Smollett was accused of stoking racial tensions with his claim that his attackers looped a rope fashioned as a noose around his neck. Erickson and Allen believe Foxx turned the case into a lesson about influence.
“Race has nothing to do with juice in Chicago,” Erickson said, referring to political clout or influence. “People of all colors have juice in Chicago.”
Foxx said she recused herself from the matter before her office secured an indictment against Smollett, but she continued to weigh in throughout the case. She has suggested the criticism does have a lot to do with race — her race.
“I have been asking myself for the last two weeks what is this really about?” she said last year after her office dropped the charges. “As someone who has lived in this city, who came up in the projects of this city to serve as the first African American woman in this role, it is disheartening to me … that when we get in these positions somehow the goal posts change.”
On Wednesday, it was not lost on her that the six-count indictment came just weeks before an election in which Foxx’s opponents are using her handling of the Smollett case against her.
“I certainly would hope that the decision in this case was based on the facts, the evidence and the law,” she said.Marshall Hatch, a prominent minister on the city’s West Side, said he thinks the charges are part of a larger effort to siphon enough black votes away from Foxx to cost her a second term. As an example, he pointed to a television ad by one of her opponents that includes a young black woman who says she did not get the same kind of treatment in her criminal case as Smollett did.
Foxx has “done a good job for our community, and now this will be used to kind of muddy her up,” he said.
…
Pompeo Blasts UN Over List of Firms Doing Business in West Bank Settlements
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo expressed anger over the United Nations’ disclosure of a list of companies it says are conducting business in Israel’s West bank settlements, considered a violation of international law by most of the global community.The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said Wednesday it found 112 businesses with activities in Israeli settlements, including 94 headquartered in Israel and 18 in the U.S. and other countries.The U.N. Human Rights Council ordered OHCHR in 2016 to create a list of companies considered to be supportive of the settlements over U.S. objections.”I am outraged that High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet published a database of companies operating in Israeli-controlled territories,” Pompeo declared in a statement Thursday.FILE – Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delivers remarks at the State Department in Washington, Dec. 19, 2019.Pompeo said the list was “mandated by the discredited U.N. Human Rights Council,” and that it “only confirms the unrelenting anti-Israel bias so prevalent at the United Nations.”The top U.S. diplomat vowed the U.S. will “never” provide information to help OHCHR compile such lists and called on “U.N. member states to join us in rejecting this effort.”Israel, which contends the settlements are on disputed territory, fears the list could lead to boycotts of the companies that include Airbnb, Motorola, General Mills and other large international firms. Some other companies on the list are headquartered in France, Britain, the Netherlands and Thailand.While Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said disclosure of the list is a “shameful surrender” to adversaries of Israel, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Al-Maliki said the list is a victory for international law.Israel seized control of the West Bank in a 1967 war. Palestinians view the settlements and the military troops who protect the territory as obstacles to the creation of a Palestinian state.
…
Coronavirus Puts Southeast Asian Anti-Fake News Laws to Test
A bevy of new laws across Southeast Asia barring dissemination of fake news are being put to the test by the spreading coronavirus, with bloggers in at least two countries facing possible prison time for postings as short as one sentence.Authorities say they are merely trying to prevent public panic about the coronavirus, but critics say that arresting people for social media posts is excessive and stifles free speech.Many nations in Southeast Asia have passed laws against fake news in recent years. That, combined with the growing trend of single-party rule in the region, has increased the odds that authorities would crack down on questionable internet content.Members of anti-coronavirus team spray chemical into vehicles on a road in Thai Nguyen province, Vietnam, Feb. 7, 2020.At least two people in Thailand and two in Indonesia each face up to five years in prison for allegedly spreading false information about the coronavirus. Wan Noor Hayati Wan Alias, a journalist in Malaysia, faces up to six years for her posts about the virus on social media. Vietnam has threatened large fines for related false information, while Singapore has ordered websites to correct such information.“Keep this up, and people will be too scared to share their opinion about anything,” Teddy Baguilat, a former congressman in the Philippines, said.People like Baguilat are concerned about the risk of scaring off commenters, in part, because of the deadly case of Li Wenliang in China, where the media operate under tight Communist Party control.Li was among the first Chinese doctors to warn about the coronavirus, on December 30. However, a few days later, authorities forced him to retract his warning. Not only has Li himself now died from the virus, but critics see his case as a cautionary tale of authorities cracking down on information they claim is false, possibly allowing the virus to spread even further. If authorities go too far, they could threaten free speech, including press freedom, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.“The wrongheaded and misplaced charges against Malaysian journalist Wan Noor Hayati Wan Alias should be dropped immediately,” Shawn Crispin, the senior Southeast Asia representative at CPJ, said.“Reporters everywhere must be allowed to freely report and comment on the coronavirus, and to keep the public well-informed on the evolving health emergency,” he added.In the internet age many nations are struggling to deal with false information, which people fear has affected political elections from the United States to Brazil. The particular issue in Southeast Asia is that laws against fake news are more common, and nations in the region have some of the highest rates of internet growth in the world, meaning more and more Southeast Asians are new to the internet, with all its potential for misinformation.Singapore enacted the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act last year. Also last year, Vietnam’s cybersecurity law took effect, letting authorities demand that social media sites remove false information.Nurses check the temperatures of visitors as part of the coronavirus screening procedure at a hospital in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Feb. 5, 2020.Malaysia reversed its plans to enact a similar law last year, but is still arresting citizens for their online posts about the coronavirus. Indonesia’s Information and Electronic Transactions Act is becoming its de facto anti-fake news law, too, according to Ross Tapsell, senior lecturer and researcher at the Australian National University’s College of Asia and the Pacific.As these are fairly recent laws, the coronavirus is the first instance of regional news that has really affected all of Southeast Asia and forced its governments to decide how to apply their information laws to this rapidly changing epidemic. Critics fear, however, that the governments are using the messy news of the virus as an excuse to suppress unfavorable content. They say that, regardless of whether an online post is true or false, it is an overreach for the government to use such posts as a reason to lock up citizens.“While it is important for authorities to prevent the spread of disinformation, and ensure accurate information about the coronavirus, across the region we are seeing a worrying trend of ambiguously worded laws being used to prosecute citizens,” said Baguilat, who is also a board member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Parliamentarians for Human Rights group.
…
Italian Far-Right Leader Matteo Salvini Could Face Trial for Detained Migrants
Italy’s far-right leader, Matteo Salvini, Thursday defended his position not to allow more than 100 migrants, who had been rescued at sea, to disembark from a coast guard vessel for six days last July. He said it was a shared decision with other members in the government.
Salvini, who was interior minister and deputy prime minister at the time, added that it was his duty to defend his nation as a citizen and even more so as a minister.He said he does not think he will be found guilty in a trial.The far-right leader was speaking one day after the Senate voted to lift his immunity from prosecution that had until now shielded him as a former Cabinet minister from being sent to trial. Now magistrates in Sicily will be able to press charges against him for abuse of power and kidnapping.It is not clear when such a trial will begin but should Salvini be convicted, he could face a sentence of six months to 15 years in prison. He could also be barred from holding public office.Salvini continues to promise he will return to power and says he believes in the impartiality of the judiciary.
Some Italians are voicing skepticism about the consequences of the vote now that the Senate has acted. Many say they doubt anything will occur because they think the judicial system moves very slowly.
…
‘Letters From Home’ Helps Actress Discover Her Identity
Children of immigrants, who are born in United States, often struggle to understand their own identity. A Cambodian-American actress is using her art to explore her roots through a very personal story. VOA’s Chetra Chap reports.
…
Ex-Ukraine Ambassador: State Department Leaders Lack Vision
The career U.S. diplomat who was ousted from her post in Ukraine by President Donald Trump, then was criticized by him as she testified at his impeachment hearings, warned that the State Department is facing a crisis with senior leaders who lack “vision.”
Marie Yovanovitch, accepting an award at Georgetown University on Wednesday, portrayed the department as “in trouble” and under threat even as she sought to encourage her audience of mostly students not to give up on diplomacy as a career.
Yovanovitch urged students to follow in her footsteps because the U.S. “needs diplomats that are ready and capable.”
“This country needs a robust foreign policy,” Yovanovitch, the former ambassador to Ukraine, said as she accepted the Trainor Award for excellence in diplomacy from the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University.
But she noted that the State Department is being “hollowed out” under Trump and that the art of diplomacy has become less of a priority under his administration.
“Right now, the State Department is in trouble,” Yovanovitch said in accepting the award. “Senior leaders lack policy vision, moral clarity and leadership.”
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has been criticized by former diplomats and others for not coming to the defense of Yovanovitch, a charge he has denied.
Yovanovitch praised the “quiet work of diplomacy” as a way to ensure peace and prosperity in the world.
“It sounds so old-fashioned in our high-tech world, but diplomacy is about human interaction, and creating relationships of trust is more important than ever,” she said. “It’s not as exciting as sending in the Marines, but it’s cheaper and usually more effective in the long term.”
The award, named for Raymond “Jit” Trainor, a former official at the Walsh School of Foreign Service, is presented annually to “an outstanding practitioner” of diplomacy. Recipients have included former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo and former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
Thomas Pickering, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said Yovanovitch showed courage not just at diplomatic posts in Russia and elsewhere but in her willingness to testify before Congress, when she was publicly denounced on Twitter by Trump.
“She has, in every sense of the word, acted in the highest tradition of those who serve our country,” said Pickering, himself a recipient of the Trainor Award.
Yovanovitch was making her first public appearance since her testimony to Congress about her efforts to press the government of Ukraine to address longstanding U.S. policy concerns about corruption. At that time a back-channel effort led by Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani sought to push the government of the eastern European nation to dig up political dirt to help Trump’s reelection.
Giuliani was part of a campaign that led the Republican president to order Yovanovitch’s removal from her post ahead of schedule last spring. Trump appeared to threaten her, saying she “would go through some things,” in a July phone call with the leader of Ukraine that was at the center of the impeachment case against Trump.
Yovanovitch made light of the call during the Georgetown ceremony in one of her few direct references to impeachment. “When you go through some things,” she said, drawing laughter, “to fall back on cliche you have to dig deep a little bit.”
She did not address the back-channel efforts explicitly but warned about the state of diplomacy more broadly at a time when authoritarianism seems to be on the rise.
“To be blunt, an amoral, keep ’em guessing foreign policy that substitutes threats, fear and confusion for trust cannot work over the long haul,” she said.
Yovanovitch, who was removed from her post in May 2019 with no public explanation, described to Congress a “concerted campaign” against her based on “unfounded and false claims by people with clearly questionable motives.”
Trump publicly criticized her as she testified, saying on Twitter that “everywhere Marie Yovanovitch went turned bad.” Yet, in a nearly 34-year career at the State Department, she received a series of promotions under both Republican and Democratic administrations, with positions that included ambassador to Kyrgyzstan and Armenia.
…
Amid Soaring Tensions, Leaders Prepare for Key Global Security Summit
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Pentagon chief Mark Esper will join hundreds of global leaders in Germany Friday for the three-day Munich Security Conference.Numerous security flashpoints around the world, from Syria, Yemen and Iran to Hong Kong, Ukraine and Libya, add to the growing tension and unease ahead of the summit, which takes place against the backdrop of the coronavirus outbreak and a global climate emergency.The United States’ large delegation is a sign that the Washington wants to counter accusations that it is disengaging, says analyst Elisabeth Braw of Britain’s Royal United Services Institute, who is attending the annual Munich conference.”As we speak actually the U.S. is beginning its largest military exercise in Europe in a quarter of a century,” noted Braw in an interview with VOA. “And that’s worth remembering when we talk about the U.S. disconnecting or disengaging from Europe.”US-Iran tensionsWashington’s biggest showdown in Munich is likely to be with Iran, which is sending Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif to the summit. He and several other world leaders and government ministers will be given around 15 minutes to address the conference, before question and answer sessions. Several bilateral meetings usually take place on the sidelines of the conference, which is seen as a key annual event to sustain dialogue between global strategic rivals.The U.S. killed top Iranian General Qassem Soleimani in a drone strike earlier this year. Retaliatory air strikes by Iran on U.S. bases culminated in the accidental shooting down of a Ukrainian Airlines passenger jet, killing all 176 people on board.Conference host, former German Ambassador Wolfgang Ischinger, hopes the conference will offer a lifeline for the Iran nuclear deal that the U.S. withdrew from, with Europe at the forefront of negotiations.FILE – Wolfgang Ischinger, chairman of the Munich Security Conference is seen during his closing speech at last year’s Munich Security Conference, in Munich, southern Germany, Feb. 17, 2019.”To stick to it and to expand on it through negotiations on ballistic systems, regional security architecture, the fight against terrorism. Could Iran stop supporting Hezbollah?” Ischinger suggested at a press conference Wednesday ahead of the conference.The killing of Soleimani on Iraqi soil triggered a backlash from Baghdad, and a non-binding vote in the Iraqi parliament to expel the five-thousand U.S. troops in the country.NATO is discussing taking over the training mission for Iraqi forces battling Islamic State – a proposal welcomed by U.S. Secretary of Defense Esper, who spoke to reporters en route to Europe.”To the degree that NATO can offset the U.S. presence, that would over time allow us to bring some forces home,” Esper said.Meanwhile the conflict in Syria continues to destabilize the Middle East region, with Ankara warning of revenge against Damascus for the deaths of Turkish soldiers in clashes this week.The escalating war in Libya is also top of the European agenda, with fears growing of a proxy war as global powers back rival sides in the conflict. The EU fears a spike in migrant arrivals across the Mediterranean. Europe is also pushing for the climate change to top the security agenda at the meeting.There is hope that peace talks may be progressing in Afghanistan, with reports the U.S. and the Taliban could be close to a deal.FILE – Participants are seen during a podium discussion at last year’s Munich Security Conference, in Munich, southern Germany, Feb. 17, 2019.Coronavirus fearsChina’s foreign minister Wang Yi will attend the conference against the backdrop of the coronavirus outbreak, the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, and U.S.-led efforts to halt the rise of Chinese telecoms firm Huawei.The director-general of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, will update the conference on the global fight against the spread of the coronavirus, which has been officially named as ‘COVID-19’. The WHO recently warned that the global threat from the virus could exceed that of terrorism.Meanwhile Russia’s support for rebel forces in eastern Ukraine continues to stoke tensions with Europe. France recently called for re-engagement with Moscow, and President Emmanuel Macron will attend the Munich Security Conference for the first time. His message will not be universally welcomed, says analyst Braw.”Many central and eastern Europeans would be very concerned if other European countries and the U.S. made overtures towards Russia.”Moscow will be represented by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.As global tensions soar, leaders from across the world will be confined to the historic Bayerischer Hof hotel in central Munich, for three days of what will likely be fiery talks.
…
British Finance Minister Unexpectedly Resigns
British Finance Minister Sajid Javid announced his resignation Thursday, a development that came unexpectedly as Prime Minister Boris Johnson reorganizes his Cabinet.Javid’s resignation followed reports of tensions between him and Johnson’s top advisor, Dominic Cummings.His announcement came less than one month before he was scheduled to unveil his first budget and as the government tries to negotiate a new relationship with the European Union by the end of the year.The 50-year-old Javid is a former banker who transitioned into politics, serving first as interior minister.Javid said in his first speech before parliament his experience as a banker prepared him to be a politician because both professions are disliked by the public.
…
With Impeachment Over, Critics See Trump ‘Retribution Tour’
In the week since his acquittal on impeachment charges, a fully emboldened President Donald Trump is demonstrating his determination to assert an iron grip on government, pushing his Justice Department to ease up on a longtime friend while using the levers of presidential powers to exact payback on real and perceived foes.Trump has told confidants in recent days that he felt both vindicated and strengthened by his acquittal in the Senate, believing Republicans have rallied around him in unprecedented fashion while voters were turned off by the political process, according to four White House officials and Republicans close to the West Wing who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about private conversations.Since then, Trump and his aides have moved with haste to clear his administration of those he sees as insufficiently loyal, reaching all the way back to the time of former special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election.Democrats and outside analysts are raising red flags that Trump is exhibiting a post-impeachment thirst for vengeance that’s gone beyond bending norms and could potentially cause lasting damage to institutions.Some Republican senators, including Tennessee’s Lamar Alexander, Maine’s Susan Collins and Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski, said they found Trump’s effort to pressure Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy inappropriate. But they also expressed hope following his acquittal that Trump had learned a lesson from the episode.Murkowski acknowledged Wednesday that “there haven’t been very strong indicators this week that he has.”After Trump vented on Twitter this week about federal prosecutors recommending up to nine years in federal prison for his confidant Roger Stone, the Justice Department abruptly announced that it would reevaluate the recommended sentence. Justice officials insisted the timing was coincidental; they’d already been planning to pull the recommendation.Stone was convicted in November of tampering with a witness and obstructing the House investigation into whether the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia to tip the 2016 election. The Justice Department move to back away from the sentencing recommendation prompted the four attorneys who prosecuted Stone to quit the case. One left the Justice Department altogether.In recent days, the White House has yanked a senior Treasury Department nomination away from a former Justice Department official who supervised the prosecutions of several of Trump advisers. The administration also fired an EPA official who claims he was ousted because he was deemed too friendly with Democrats.Trump even suggested this week that the Pentagon investigate and potentially discipline former White House aide Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who provided damaging testimony about the president in the impeachment inquiry.That came after White House officials last week told Vindman and his twin brother, also an Army officer who had been detailed to the White House National Security Council, that their services were no longer needed and that they would be reassigned to new duties by the Pentagon. Security then escorted the brothers off White House grounds.“We are witnessing a crisis in the rule of law in America — unlike one we have ever seen before,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a speech on the Senate floor Wednesday. Schumer called for the Justice Department’s independent inspector general to probe the department’s action in the Stone case. Later, House lawmakers announced Attorney General William Barr would come before them next month to answer questions.Former Justice Department officials struggled to recall a precedent, describing it as norm-shattering turmoil that raises troubling questions about the apparent politicization of an agency meant to function independent of White House sway.“I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Michael Bromwich, a former federal prosecutor and Justice Department inspector general who has been representing former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe in a criminal investigation before the same U.S. attorney’s office.Trump turned testy during an Oval Office appearance when reporters asked him about interfering in the Stone case and whether he learned anything from his impeachment ordeal.He slammed the four prosecutors who recommended the stiff sentence for Stone and asserted they “ought to apologize for a lot of the people whose lives they’ve ruined.”He described the lesson he gleaned from being just the third president to endure an impeachment trial: “Democrats are crooked. … They’re vicious, they shouldn’t have brought impeachment and that my poll numbers are 10 points higher because of fake news.”Trump said he did not order Justice Department officials to change Stone’s recommended sentence, though he claimed he would have had the “absolute right to do it” if he had wanted to. He used Twitter early Wednesday to congratulate Barr “for taking charge of a case that was totally out of control and perhaps should not even been brought.”As Democrats called for an investigation, several Republican lawmakers strained to defend Trump’s actions.“Certainly, the president is entitled his opinion, and there would have been nothing wrong with the president picking up the phone, as I understand it, and talking to Justice,” said Sen. John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican. “But I think this is a situation where the tweet was very problematic.”Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican and Trump confidant, said he agreed the sentencing recommendation was excessive, but didn’t think the president should have tweeted about an ongoing case.Throughout his presidency, Trump has shown he doesn’t like to wait for anything, let alone the end of a criminal case. But at moments, he has been willing to show restraint.Early in his presidency, aides say, it took Trump an extraordinary measure of restraint to hold back on firing Attorney General Jeff Sessions in the months after he recused himself from the Russia investigation. The president reluctantly heeded the advice of his advisers and Republican allies not to dismiss the former Alabama senator until after the 2018 midterm elections.But on the night of the election, as Republicans held onto the Senate but lost the House, Trump turned to those at a campaign party and said, simply, “I’m doing it now.” Sessions was asked to resign the next day.Similarly, Trump knew that the likely outcome of his impeachment trial would be acquittal at the hands of the GOP-controlled Senate. Reluctantly, he acquiesced to the advice of his aides and agreed to wait to retaliate for the probe, which he deemed a conspiracy conjured up by Democrats and the so-called Deep State, until the official verdict was reached.Now, though, Trump is once again unleashed.Some of his targets are far out of the public eye. Trump this week withdrew the nomination of Jessie Liu, a former U.S. attorney who oversaw federal prosecutions in the District of Columbia, for a senior Treasury Department post.Liu had supervised the prosecution of several cases inherited from Mueller’s probe into Russian interference into the 2016 election. Among those prosecuted under Liu’s watch were Stone, 2016 deputy campaign chairman Rick Gates and former national security adviser Michael Flynn.Last week, a spokeswoman for former national security adviser John Bolton charged that the White House was “suppressing” the publication of Bolton’s memoir about his time in the Trump administration with invalid claims that the manuscript includes classified material.Bolton, according to excerpts of the manuscript leaked to the media during the Senate impeachment trial, says Trump told him he was conditioning the release of military aid to Ukraine on whether its government would help investigate Joe Biden and his son.Sen. Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat, accused Trump of being on a “retribution tour” and suggested that Senate Republicans — with the exception of Utah’s Mitt Romney, who voted with Democrats to convict Trump on the abuse of power count — encouraged the president by turning a blind eye to his conduct.“It’s pretty clear the president of the United States did learn a lesson: the lesson he can do whatever he wants, whenever he wants, he can abuse his office, he’ll never ever be held accountable by this Senate,” Brown said.
…
2020ers Look to Super Tuesday Even as 2 Other States Loom
Nevada votes next and then South Carolina. But top Democrats vying for their party’s presidential nomination are already looking ahead to the biggest prize on the primary calendar: Super Tuesday, the slate of contests when more than a dozen states go to the polls.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren is holding a town hall on Thursday night in the Washington suburb of Arlington, Virginia, a day before Sen. Bernie Sanders makes two North Carolina stops, then hits Texas. Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, will campaign in California between fundraisers in San Francisco and Silicon Valley.
All four states vote March 3, along with a crush of others, from Alabama to Colorado and from Maine to Utah, as well as Warren’s home state of Massachusetts and Sanders’ native Vermont. More than 1,300 delegates to the Democratic National Convention are at stake, about a third of the total.
Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders is accompanied by his wife Jane O’Meara Sanders and other relatives as he speaks at his New Hampshire primary night rally in Manchester.The focus on Super Tuesday comes at a pivotal point in the campaign. For Sanders and Buttigieg, who have emerged in strong positions after contests in Iowa and New Hampshire, the travel gives them an opportunity to show their national appeal and woo larger concentrations of nonwhite voters. For struggling candidates like Warren, it’s a signal that they are still in the fight.
And for everyone, it’s a chance to prove they won’t cede this swath of delegate-rich states to Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire former New York mayor who has spent months building his campaign around Super Tuesday. He campaigned in Tennessee on Wednesday and will be in Texas and North Carolina on Thursday.
“All bets are off this cycle,” said Texas Democratic strategist Colin Strother, who is bullish on Bloomberg’s chances of resonating in his state and beyond.
So far, there’s no sign that candidates are completely bypassing Nevada or South Carolina. Every leading contender will be in Nevada this weekend as early voting begins. Democrats will caucus there on Feb. 22.
But some are shifting their resources as they begin an awkward balancing act of paying attention to the remaining early states while stockpiling enough money to keep themselves in the conversation in the bevy of contests unfolding next month. Warren, for instance, will be in South Carolina on Friday but is pulling television advertising from the state after this weekend. Some of that money will instead go to the Super Tuesday state of Maine.
Bloomberg, who is self-funding his campaign, doesn’t have to make such considerations. He’s skipped the first four states to deploy a political shock-and-awe campaign after that, spending heavily on television ads while already hiring more than 2,100 staffers in 40 states and U.S. territories, including all voting on Super Tuesday.
Past candidates have tried to forgo the early states in favor of larger ones voting later, with little success — including another former New York mayor, Rudy Giuliani, in 2008. But Bloomberg is making a larger bet on doing so than anyone has. He’s worth an estimated $60 billion and has already spent more than $200 million to hastily build a campaign infrastructure — with promises of plenty more where that came from.
The candidates doing battle before Super Tuesday, meanwhile, are a study in contrasts. Warren has deep campaign infrastructure in around 30 states but little momentum. Former Vice President Joe Biden left New Hampshire for South Carolina before the polls even closed on Tuesday, has important connections there and is counting on that to carry him in other southern Super Tuesday states. But he, so far, has fared worse than Warren.
Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar placed a strong third in New Hampshire but hasn’t yet built a national campaign, while Buttigieg is on a roll but faces questions about his appeal beyond the early majority-white states.
Fresh off his New Hampshire win, Sanders has already predicted victory in Nevada and California, pointing in part to his campaign’s outreach to Hispanic voters. But he’s also bet on record turnout that never materialized in Iowa, despite his efforts to grow the electorate.
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., acknowledges supporters at a primary election night rally, Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2020, in Manchester, N.H.Warren and Sanders have been sharply critical of Bloomberg, accusing him of trying to buy the election. In a memo coming out of New Hampshire, Warren’s team sought to reassure supporters that it will find its political footing on Super Tuesday, arguing the senator should win the minimum support required to claim delegates, at least 15%, in 108 of the 150 districts voting, or two-thirds of the Super Tuesday map.
“Warren is poised to finish in the top two in eight of 14 Super Tuesday states and `”n the top three in all of them,” Warren’s campaign manager, Roger Lau, wrote.
States like Texas and California are so large that on-the-ground retail politicking often doesn’t work well there. But Super Tuesday state residents have already seen weeks of Bloomberg ads, Strother said, and that could potentially already be swaying those participating in early voting, which is underway in places like Minnesota.
“It’s unprecedented what he’s doing and the money he’s spending,” Strother said. “He’s running a national campaign, which is what all these other candidates wish they could do.”
…
Powerful Quake Hits Off Northern Japan; No Tsunami Danger
A powerful earthquake hit off Japan’s northern coast on Thursday, but there were no reports of serious damage or injuries and no danger of a tsunami, officials said.
Japan’s meteorological agency said the quake measured a preliminary magnitude of 7 and was located far off the northeastern coast of Japan’s northern main island of Hokkaido. It was centered 60 kilometers (100 miles) below the ocean’s surface and east of Etorofu island, a Russian-held island that is also claimed by Japan.
NHK public television showed video monitors and shelves shaking at its office in Kushiro on the southeastern coast of Hokkaido.
Hokkaido prefectural police said they had received no reports of damage or injuries. Officials said the quake was unlikely to cause any because of its depth and distance from the coast.
…
Japan Reports First Death from Coronavirus
Japan’s health ministry says a woman infected with the new virus has died, becoming the country’s first confirmed fatality.
Health minister Katsunobu Kato announced Thursday that the victim is a woman in her 80s who had been treated at a hospital near Tokyo since early February after developing symptoms. Her infection was confirmed after her death.
Japan has confirmed 247 cases of the virus, including 218 from a cruise ship quarantined at the port of Yokohama, near Tokyo, amid growing fears of the spreading virus.
…
Sudan Says Agreement Reached With USS Cole Victims
Sudan’s transitional government said Thursday it has signed an agreement with the families of the victims of the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole as part of its efforts to be removed from a U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism.Sudanese officials said the settlement was signed last week in Washington, but did not release the terms of the deal.There was no immediate comment from the U.S. government.The October 12, 2000, attack occurred while the USS Cole was refueling in the southern Yemeni port of Aden, killing 17 sailors and wounding more than three dozen others. Al-Qaida claimed responsibility for the attack.Sudan was accused of supporting al-Qaida, but denied any link to the bombing.The United States added Sudan to its list of state sponsors of terrorism in 1993, but since the ouster of longtime leader Omar al-Bashir last year there have been talks about incremental steps Sudan could take to earn removal.Sudan’s interim leaders say that step is crucial for it to carry out economic reforms and development in the country.
…
‘We’re Losing Children’: South Sudan Ignores Reports on Oil Pollution, Birth Defects
The oil industry in South Sudan has left a landscape pocked with hundreds of open waste pits, the water and soil contaminated with toxic chemicals and heavy metals, according to four environmental reports obtained by The Associated Press.The reports also describe alarming birth defects, miscarriages and other health problems among residents of the region and soldiers who have been stationed there.Abui Mou Kueth’s infant son, Ping, was born with six fingers on both hands, one stunted leg, a deformed foot and kidney swelling.“I was shocked the first time I saw the baby,” she said, cradling him in her arms. “I am worried about his future.”FILE – Baby boy Ping Mayak Geer, who was born with six fingers on each hand, one stunted leg, a deformed foot and kidney swelling, lies on his mother’s lap, Nov. 28, 2019, in Nairobi, Kenya.The Associated Press obtained the reports and supporting documents from people with close knowledge of the oil operations, one of whom works in the industry. They’ve never been released publicly.“South Sudan is running one of the dirtiest and poorest managed oil operations on the planet,” said Egbert Wesselink, the former head of a European coalition of more than 50 nonprofit organizations focused on the impacts of the country’s oil sector.“I don’t think there’s a single major industrial operation on earth that’s getting away with this,” he said.There’s been no clear link established between the pollution and the health problems.But community leaders and lawmakers in the oil-rich areas in Upper Nile and Unity states accuse South Sudan’s government and the two main oil consortiums, the Chinese-led Dar Petroleum Operating Co. and the Greater Pioneer Operating Co., of neglecting the issue and trying to silence those who have tried to expose the problem. An AP reporter was detained and questioned by government officials and government security forces working on behalf of the oil companies.Neither company responded to multiple requests for comment on the reports, and did not answer detailed questions sent by email and text from AP.The reports show that the government and the oil companies have been aware for years that contamination from drilling could be causing severe health problems, but little has been done to clean up the mess.Residents stand next to a white container previously used for hazardous chemicals that was then used for several years to hold drinking water before the oil company put a stop to the practice, near Paloch, South Sudan, Oct. 1, 2018.Waste pits, birth defectsThe oil rich area around Paloch, a city in Upper Nile state, is dotted with exposed pools of toxic water. A chemical junkyard in Gumry town, about 45 minutes from Paloch, was strewn with overflowing containers of black sludge that seeped into the ground and were surrounded by toxic waste, when an AP reporter visited in September 2018. “We’re losing children,” said Nyaweir Ayik Monyuak, chairman of the Women’s Association in Melut. The 43-year-old lost two children of her own between 2008 and 2011.She and a dozen other women, crowded on a tattered L-shaped sofa in a dimly lit shed in Melut, told harrowing stories. Six had lost babies in the last 10 years. And all of them knew someone who had struggled to conceive, had miscarriages or had given birth to a child with deformities such as stunted limbs or concave skulls. FILE – Nyawiir Adoup, 37, who miscarried one baby and whose second baby was born dead without a nose or eyes, stands in her yard in Paloch, South Sudan, Sept. 29, 2018.The studiesThe two earliest surveys were performed in 2013 and 2016 by South Sudan’s government. They found oil pollution across the region and soil and water samples showed contamination, including mercury levels in the water that were seven times what is permissible under U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standards.Local residents reported increased miscarriages, stillbirths and incidents of “malformed newborn babies” that didn’t survive, and soldiers stationed there were also falling ill. In July 2018, Greater Pioneer, which is made up of the state-owned China National Petroleum Corp., the Malaysian state-owned Petronas as well as South Sudanese and Indian drillers, commissioned a study that found significant oil spillage and water pollution at the waste treatment facility at some oil operations that had been abandoned during the civil war.A November 2018 report, commissioned by Dar Petroleum, found “extremely high” levels of hydrocarbons — chemicals such as benzene that make up oil and natural gas and can cause serious health effects. It also documented 650 waste pits filled with water contaminated with arsenic and lead, and millions of liters of water contaminated with drilling chemicals sitting in ponds.South Sudan’s oil ministry instructed Dar Petroleum to move ahead with the proposed cleanup, according to a December 2018 letter seen by the AP.But Dar Petroleum — a consortium that includes China’s state-owned China National Petroleum and Sinopec, along with companies in Malaysia and Egypt and South Sudan’s state-owned oil company — never acted, according to two people with close knowledge of the oil operations in the area who didn’t want to be named for fear of their safety.AP sent detailed questions to China National Petroleum Corp. and Sinopec, but neither company responded.FILE – A reservoir of polluted water next to an oil field is seen from the air in Paloch, South Sudan, Sept. 27, 2018. The oil industry in South Sudan has left a landscape pocked with hundreds of open waste pits with contaminated water and soil.‘Public health emergency’There is no definitive proof that the pollution caused the health problems. South Sudan’s crippling five-year civil war killed almost 400,000 people, displaced millions and plunged pockets of the country into famine.But Rick Steiner, an oil pollution adviser in Alaska, said there is substantial medical literature linking hydrocarbon exposure with birth defects. “The pollution is a public health and environmental emergency,” he said.South Sudan’s petroleum minister, Awow Daniel Chuang, said until there’s scientific evidence tying health problems to oil pollution, no conclusions should be drawn.In July 2019, the Greater Pioneer Operating Company flew baby Ping and his parents to Nairobi, Kenya, and then to Berlin for what they thought would be medical treatment. Ping’s father, Cornelius Mayak Geer, says the company told him that they would first do tests to determine if Ping’s deformities were tied to oil pollution. If they found a link, Geer says they told him, they would pay for treatment. But the family returned from Berlin last month after loads of tests, but no treatment for the baby. Geer said the company told him the child’s problems were genetic, and not caused by oil pollution. But they never shared any test results with him.“The baby still cries day and night because of the pain and not feeling well,” he said. “They’re just buying time until the baby dies.No one watchingEnvironmental experts say there is little incentive for multinational companies to do anything because it is easy to get away with things in impoverished countries like South Sudan.Oil accounts for almost all the country’s exports, according to the World Bank. And South Sudan is trying to revive its economy by expanding the industry.“No one’s really watching. The government is neither willing nor able to monitor and enforce its own environmental laws,” said Luke Patey, senior researcher studying China’s oil investments in Africa at the Danish Institute for International Studies.He said the result is “a vicious cycle of negligence.”
…
China’s Hubei Province Reports a Record 242 New Coronavirus Deaths
Authorities in the central Chinese province of Hubei say 242 more people have died in the outbreak of a new coronavirus that has killed more than 1,300 people since December.The announcement of the new death toll comes after China said Wednesday that the number of new cases had dropped for a second consecutive day. Health officials in Hubei, the epicenter of the 2-month-old outbreak, said they changed their detection methods from a laboratory test to computerized body scans. The changes in detection methods have boosted the number of total confirmed cases in Hubei to nearly 15,000.World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus greeted news of the slowdown with caution Wednesday, saying the outbreak “could still go in any direction.” Shanghai’s Mayor Ying Yong attends a news conference after the annual session of the local parliament in Shanghai, China, Jan. 20, 2017.The outbreak has led to the firing of Jiang Chaoliang as the ruling Communist Party chief in Hubei, just days after the province’s top two health officials were removed from their posts. The official Xinhua news agency says former Shanghai Mayor Ying Yong will replace Jiang, who had been criticized by the public for his handling of the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus.The virus is believed to have emerged late last year at a seafood market in the city of Wuhan that was illegally selling wildlife. A CCTV reporter stands near the quarantined Diamond Princess cruise ship, Feb. 13, 2020, in Yokohama, near Tokyo. Life on board the luxury cruise ship, which has dozens of new virus cases, can include fear, excitement and soul-crushing boredom.Cruise ship newsAlso Thursday, 44 more people aboard a cruise ship docked off the Japanese coast have tested positive for the virus, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 218. The Diamond Princess has been under quarantine since last week after it was learned that a former passenger who had disembarked in Hong Kong had tested positive for COVID-19. All passengers have been confined to their cabins and will be not be allowed to leave the ship until Feb. 19. Medical officers prepare a sample for loading on to a helicopter for testing in Sihanoukville, Cambodia, Feb. 13, 2020. The Westerdam cruise ship anchored Thursday off Cambodia for health checks on its 2,200 passengers and crew.Meanwhile, another cruise ship, the Westerdam, finally anchored off the waters of Cambodia Thursday after being at sea for nearly two weeks. The ship had been turned away by Japan, Thailand, Taiwan and the Philippines, as well as the island of Guam, because of unsubstantiated fears the ship;s 2,200 passengers and crew had been infected. A team of health officials will board the ship to conduct health checks on the 1,455 passengers and 802 crew members before they will be allowed to finally disembark.The death toll from the coronavirus is higher than the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2002-03, which is believed to have killed 774 people and sickened nearly 8,100 in China and Hong Kong.
…