A Russia blogger has gone viral with a video prank that inadvertently goes to the heart of a debate over how much public support for Russian President Vladimir Putin enjoys after 20 years in power and counting. The discussion was launched after blogger Bashir Dokhov posted a video to Youtube in which he glues a large portrait of the Russian leader on the wall of a Moscow apartment elevator.”I’ll put a camera in the corner, too,” says Dokhov, while setting up the joke. “God forbid someone should steal him.”Putin’s picture remained, but reactions to seeing the Russian leader weren’t kind. Four-letter words abound as startled Russians enter the lift. “Why is he here?” asks one passenger. “What a nightmare!” exclaims another, who then proceeds to bow before the portrait while laughing as her friend snaps a picture.“It’s the worst thing that could possibly happen to our home,” says yet another resident. But not to Youtube. The video already has had more than 2 million views and counting after just three days. Putin’s popularity Beyond the intended laughs, the video has renewed a long simmering debate in Russia: How popular is Vladimir Putin really? According to polls, Putin has been Russia’s lone towering figure in politics for most of his 20 years in power — with popularity ratings any western politician would envy. State polling agencies find the Russian leader’s support at about 73%. Independent Russian pollsters, such as the respected Levada Center, peg that number a bit lower — at 68%.“The rating is rather stable and went up in 2019,” explains Levada’s Denis Volkov to VOA, noting the Kremlin leader’s numbers fluctuated amid the introduction of an unpopular pension reform the year prior. Putin’s peak came in 2014, when Russia’s annexation of Crimea from neighboring Ukraine saw Putin’s numbers soar to 86%.Yet dig deeper and the numbers vary. Putin’s trust and “electoral ratings” — which ask whether you would vote to reelect the president were an election held next week — prompt far less impressive results. Just 33%, according to a 2019 poll. Case in point that the Kremlin pays attention: Putin announced a slew of reforms during his annual state of the nation speech last month — later installing a new Prime Minister amid promises that the focus of his 4th term in office would be improving Russians lives.The other point of the speech? Constitutional reforms aimed — perhaps — at extending Putin’s influence beyond the end of his current and final term in 2024. Indeed, Kremlin critics have long argued that even the most scientifically rigorous samples are skewed by a lack of political alternatives, state propaganda, or misleading questions by pollsters. In that regard, Kremlin opponents saw the elevator stunt as a simple up or down vote on Putin’s performance. A case of reality at last unfiltered.“You watch these types of videos and don’t understand why Putin is still in power. There’s no more myth of 86% support,” tweeted Alexander Golovach, a lawyer affiliated with opposition leader Alexey Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, in referring to Putin’s peak approval rating.A Russian prankster glued a massive portrait of President Vladimir Putin to the inside of a residential elevator. He then placed a camera in the elevator to record people’s reactions pic.twitter.com/EwMradd3yl— The Moscow Times (@MoscowTimes) February 11, 2020“Ingenious! It’s the best sociological survey of those I know,” wrote one viewer in responding to the video on Youtube. “And probably the most honest!”Yet another factor in the Russian leader’s numbers? Geography. Surveys show Putin’s support is strongest in the regions where the leader has garnered support with a mix of anti-western rhetoric and traditional conservative values. Yet critics note those same surveys provide Russians a rare opportunity to reach out to Moscow with problems of more immediate concern. “Why bite the hand that feeds?” the argument goes. Russia’s urban centers certainly have been ground zero of opposition protests — a sentiment perhaps reflected in the Moscow elevator stunt. Indeed, the prank’s author insisted his “elevator sample” wasn’t scientific in the least. In an interview Monday with Echo of Moscow radio, the blogger Bashir Dokhov, admitted he’d simply culled the most entertaining reactions.“There were lots of times when people didn’t react at all,” says Dokhov. “Others just took selfies.”
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Month: February 2020
More US Firms Are Boosting Faith-Based Support for Employees
It has become standard practice for U.S. corporations to assure employees of support regardless of their race, gender or sexual orientation. There’s now an intensifying push to ensure that companies are similarly supportive and inclusive when it comes to employees’ religious beliefs.One barometer: More than 20% of the Fortune 100 have established faith-based employee resource groups, according to an AP examination and there’s a high-powered conference taking place this week in Washington aimed at expanding those ranks.”Corporate America is at a tipping point toward giving religion similar attention to that given the other major diversity categories,” says Brian Grim, founder and president of the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation that’s co-hosting the conference along with the Catholic University of America’s Busch School of Business.A few companies have long-established faith-in-the-workplace programs, such as Arkansas-based Tyson Foods, which deploys a team of more than 90 chaplains to comfort and counsel employees at its plants and offices. That program began in 2000.However, Grim says most companies — over the past few decades — have given religion less attention in their diversity/inclusion programs than other categories such as race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation and disabilities.Grim is an associate scholar at the Religious Liberty Project at Georgetown University and a former senior researcher with the Pew Research Center. From 2015-16, he served as chair of the World Economic Forum’s global agenda council on the role of faith.Grim’s foundation, founded in 2014, recently completed a detailed analysis ranking the Fortune 100 companies on their commitment to religious inclusion as part of those programs.Top 10 company groupsThe top 10 in the rankings featured some of America’s best-known companies – Google’s parent company Alphabet, Intel, Tyson Foods, Target, Facebook, American Airlines, Apple, Dell, American Express and Goldman Sachs.Tyson won points for its chaplaincy program; most of the others have formed either a single interfaith employee resource group or separate groups for major religions such as Christianity, Islam and Judaism. Google’s interfaith group, the Inter Belief Network, has chapters for those faiths and for Buddhists, while Intel has a group for agnostics and atheists, as well as groups for major religious faiths.One employer, the Internal Revenue Service, has a group specifically for Christian fundamentalists.Grim says several other high-profile companies — including Walmart, the largest U.S. employer – have recently decided to launch faith-based employee groups.One of the fastest growing faith-based groups, called Faithforce, was launched by Salesforce in 2017. Its founder, Farah Siddiqui, says more than 2,600 employees have signed up since then, joining 17 regional hubs on five continents.Siddiqui, a Muslim whose family is from Pakistan, said the group now includes Sikhs, Hindus, pagans and humanists, as well as followers of America’s largest faiths.”We’re a very inclusive group,” she says. “If someone has something interesting to share, we share it. There is no proselytizing.”Siddiqui said Faithforce, in somber fashion, proved its value after a string of deadly attacks on houses of worship in far-flung parts of the world – notably the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, three Christian churches in Sri Lanka and two mosques in New Zealand.”We had healing circles after each of those tragedies,” said Siddiqui, who recounted in-person visits by a rabbi and a Muslim scholar.”What we’ve done is support our employees of those faiths to show that the rest of us are here for them,” she said.ChaplainsAt Tyson Foods, the team of chaplains includes one Muslim, but is overwhelmingly Christian. However, the team’s director, Karen Diefendorf, says the chaplains are trained to provide empathetic pastoral care to employees and their families regardless of what faith – if any – the workers belong to.Diefendorf, whose career includes stints as a United Methodist minister and a U.S. Army chaplain, said there’s a key difference between pastoring and chaplaincy.”When I pastor, I only represent my denomination, my faith tradition,” she said. `”As a chaplain, I can support people who come from very different backgrounds…I ask them how their beliefs are helping them cope with what’s going on.”Often, the chaplains are sought out by employees struggling with difficulties at work or at home, but Diefendorf said her team members sometimes act proactively – for example, finding tactful ways to signal to a supervisor that his or her management practices are causing problems for workers.Her advice to other companies considering a chaplaincy team: “Making the right hire is critically important.””You want a person who has maturity, who is secure in their own faith but not spiritually conflicted in allowing others to pursue their faith,” she said.Formal theological training is an asset, but not sufficient in itself, she added. “They can have all the training in the world, but if they don’t have the right compassion in their heart, they aren’t worth a plugged nickel.”Thus far, the faith-in-the-workplace movement has mostly escaped harsh criticism. Brian Grim has taken pains to argue that faith-based employee resource groups are not a threat to LGBTQ employees, and instead should be viewed as a sign of a corporation’s overall commitment to diversity and inclusion. American Airlines is evidence of that: Its presence high atop the new religious-freedom rankings come after many years of accolades for its strong support of LGBTQ employees.”The perception out there is that religion is a dangerous topic, but some companies have found the opposite — that it reinforces the other things they care about,” Grim said.Nick Fish, president of American Atheists, said companies considering faith-based initiatives should strive to ensure they are inclusive.”Creating a work environment that is exclusionary of non-religious staff or members of religious minorities is a recipe for disaster,” he said via email. “I’d urge any employer who is considering this sort of action to instead ensure that their workplace is religiously neutral and welcoming to staff and customers of any religious belief or those who are non-religious.”
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Officials: Situation in Afghanistan Lacking Transparency, Failing Major Objectives
The U.S. Senate votes on Wednesday on a resolution aimed at restricting President Donald Trump from taking military action against Iran without Congressional authorization. Democratic Senator Tim Kaine, who sponsored the resolution, says he intends to prevent another U.S. military engagement in the Middle East. The vote comes one day after senators on the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee heard testimony on the state of the American engagement in Afghanistan, the longest military conflict in US history. VOA’s Ardita Dunellari reports.
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Two Men Executed in Somalia for Rape, Murder of 12-Year-Old
The family of a 12-year-old girl who was raped and murdered has welcomed the execution of two men convicted for the crime in Somalia’s northeastern Puntland region.The two men, Abdifatah Abdirahman Warsame, 24, and Abdishakur Mohamed Dige, 46, were executed Tuesday by firing squad in the town of Bosaso. The execution of a third man, Abdisalam Abdirahman Warsame, 32, who is the brother of Abdifatah, was delayed for ten days.The father of Aisha Ilyas Aden said he was relieved the culprits have paid the price.“I’m feeling good,” says Ilyas Aden.Aden said the punishment will deter rape against Somali women.“There will be a strong lesson from this case,” he said. “Somali girls will be safer.”The girl was abducted near her home, gang raped and then brutally killed in the town of Galkayo in February 2019.The rape and murder of Aden sparked widespread public outcry and calls for justice. The hashtag #JusticeforAisha trended, while many chose to use her photo as their social media profiles.Authorities in Puntland arrested ten men in connection with the case. Their trial became the first televised rape trial in Somalia and the first in which DNA was used to obtain a conviction. Authorities said samples taken linked the three men to the murder and rape. The other seven were acquitted.What happened?Aden went missing on February 24, 2019 between 7 and 8 a.m., when her mother sent her to a market to do some shopping. She was kidnapped and ended up in the house of a neighbor. The neighbor, Abdishakur Mohamed Dige, lived in that house with his mother.The two other defendants were neighbors.One of the men executed Tuesday, Abdifatah Abdirahman Warsame, confessed to participating in the rape but denied involvement of her killing.He told the court that on the day of the kidnapping, Dige who took him inside his house and showed him Aisha, tied up in a room. He said he was convinced by Dige to participate in the rape.Warsame said that when he left the house, Aisha was still alive. He said Dige later told him he had to kill the girl in order to avoid being identified.Early the next morning, Aden’s body was found near Dige’s home. The prosecution showed photos of the victim’s body badly tortured, bruised and mutilated.In May last year, the court convicted the three men for the crime, and sentenced them to death. In August last year, a higher court upheld the death sentence. The Puntland region’s leader Said Abdullahi Deni then signed off the execution.Warsame testified that his brother, Abdisalam, was not involved in the rape and killing of Aden. He identified another man he says participated in the gang rape.Aisha’s father who witnessed the execution of the men said he personally checked their pulse to make sure they were dead. He said the two men asked for his forgiveness before their execution.Human rights groups said the killing of Aisha was a “serious and horrific crime” but says Puntland needed to “credibly investigate and prosecute the crime” in honor of Aisha.“We called for justice at the time, but also raised concerns about provisions in Puntland’s sexual offenses act which include the death penalty,” Laetitia Bader, a senior researcher for Human Rights Watch. She said the death penalty is worrying in a context in which abuses of due process are frequent.“Even in the most established judicial systems, due process abuses occur, particularly in high-profile and contentious cases like this one,” she said. “So Puntland should be seeking to end its use of the death penalty, even if that is an unpopular move, not the contrary.”
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US Warns Containment the Only Option for Some African Terror Groups
U.S. defense and intelligence officials are voicing renewed concerns about the spread of increasingly capable terror groups in Africa, warning some have become so powerful it is no longer possible to “degrade” them.The warnings, part of a newly released report by the Defense Department’s inspector general, echo earlier warnings by the U.S. military’s Africa Command about growing threats to the U.S. homeland.They also come as the Pentagon unveiled a proposed $740.5 billion budget for next year focused not on terrorism but on competition against China and Russia.”The terrorist threat in Africa remains persistent, and in many places, is growing,” according to Defense Department lead inspector Gen. Glenn Fine, pointing to the latest intelligence assessments of the various African affiliates of al-Qaida and Islamic State, also known as IS or ISIS.FILE – An image distributed by al-Shabab after the attack on a military base in Kenya shows Somalia’s al-Shabab militant group’s flag, said to be at the Manda Bay Airfield in Manda, Lamu, Kenya, Jan. 5, 2020.“The threat posed by al-Shabab and ISIS-Somalia in East Africa remains ‘high,’ despite continued U.S. airstrikes and training of Somali security forces,” Fine wrote in the report, based on information from U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) and the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA).In West Africa, the report concludes the terrorism landscape is just as concerning.U.S. Africa Command “has shifted its strategy from ‘degrading’ these VEOs (violent extremist organizations) to ‘containing’ them,” the report states.The report also quotes U.S. Africa Command as saying the various terror groups in West Africa “have the potential to spread through the region and impact Western interests.”Tuesday’s report on U.S. counterterror operations in Africa is the first from the inspector general to be released to the public — previous versions were classified.But public concern about the escalating dangers presented by terror groups in Africa dates back to at least November, when the United States hosted a meeting of the global coalition to defeat IS.”We agreed at the working level that West Africa and the Sahel would be a preferred, initial area of focus for the coalition outside of the ISIS core space and with good reason,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said at the time on Twitter. “ISIS is outpacing the ability of regional governments and int’l partners to FILE – U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend watches during a tour north of Baghdad, Iraq, Feb. 8, 2017.Gen. Stephen Townsend, commander of U.S. forces in Africa, told lawmakers outright that, “some of those groups threaten the American homeland today.”Just this week, the State Department and the FBI announced the launch of a new joint terrorism task force with Kenya, the first located outside of the U.S., to push back specifically against al-Shabab.FILE – U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper speaks during a press briefing at Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, Dec. 20, 2019.Yet despite fears about the expanding reach of Africa’s terror groups, Pentagon officials have been focused on plans to reduce the U.S. military footprint in Africa by perhaps 10% over the next several years — efforts U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper has described as a FILE – A member of Kenya’s security forces walks past a damaged police post after an attack by al-Shabab extremists from Somalia, in the settlement of Kamuthe in Garissa county, Kenya, Jan. 13, 2020.U.S. intelligence officials believe al-Shabab in Somalia is now raising $10 to $20 million a year through taxation, while boasting anywhere from 5,000 to 10,000 fighters.Al-Shabab has also been pumping out more social media propaganda, though military officials question just how effective it has been.IS-Somalia, while much smaller with just 100 to 300 fighters, has been resilient, and like al-Shabab, seemingly unhindered by U.S. airstrikes that kill just one or two fighters at a time.The limited impact of direct U.S. military strikes is sparing bigger concerns about the Pentagon’s focus on shifting troops from Africa.”Many partner forces in Africa will likely require assistance and advising for a long period of time before they can fully address VEO threats on their own,” the report states. “This need for ongoing operations, coupled with the often slow development of partner forces, could require ongoing commitment of U.S. military resources.”
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US Defense Secretary: Dissolving Philippines Military Pact a Move in ‘Wrong Direction’
BRUSSELS/WHITE HOUSE — U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper says dissolving the bilateral agreement with the Philippines that covers visiting U.S. military forces there “would be a move in the wrong direction.”Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte gave formal notice to the United States of his decision to scrap the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) late Monday after repeated threats to downgrade the two countries’ military alliance. The 1998 agreement provides legal permission for thousands of U.S. troops who rotate into the Philippines for dozens of military and humanitarian assistance exercises each year.”We just got the notification late last night. We have to digest it,” Esper told reporters on route to a NATO conference in Brussels.FILE – Defense Secretary Mark Esper speaks during a news conference at the Pentagon in Washington, Dec. 20, 2019.The U.S. defense secretary said the move, set to take effect in 180 days, runs counter to bilateral efforts with the Philippines and collective efforts with regional allies to push China toward abiding by international norms in the region.”As we try to bolster our presence and compete with (China) in this era of great-power competition, I think it’s a move in the wrong direction, again for the long-standing relationship we’ve had with the Philippines, for their strategic location, for the ties between our peoples and our countries,” Esper said.A senior Trump administration official echoed Esper’s remarks.”We are disappointed by the decision of the government of the Philippines,” the official said in a statement Tuesday.”The United States shares a long history with the government and people of the Philippines and recognizes that regional and global security is best served through the strong partnership that is enabled by the Visiting Forces Agreement,” the official added. “We will continue to work with our Philippine government partners to strengthen this relationship in a way that benefits both our countries.”Duterte has indicated that he favors relations with China and Russia over ties with the U.S. His spokesman said Tuesday the reason for terminating the VFA was to allow the Philippines military to be more independent.”I don’t think it’s necessarily tied to China. As you know, it’s tied to some other issues,” Esper told reporters. “So again, I’m going to take this one step at a time. I don’t get too excited about these things.”The move also comes after the top commander in Duterte’s war on drugs, former police chief Ronald dela Rosa, said his U.S. visa was rescinded following the detention of a senator critical of Duterte.U.S. credibility in the regionOne of the U.S.’s oldest allies walking away from a security pact would be a serious blow to U.S. credibility as a regional security provider, said Gregory Poling, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.Poling noted that since coming to office, Duterte has said he wishes to distance the Philippines from the United States, end their long-standing alliance, and enter a strategic alignment with China.If the VFA termination is implemented, it would allow the Philippine president to “effectively undermine the credibility of the U.S. commitment to defend the Philippines, furthering his goal,” Poling said.The VFA termination would effectively do away with the 2014 Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement between the U.S. and the Philippines and render the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty between the two countries largely hollow.The VFA is the “nuts and bolts of the Mutual Defense Treaty” and meant to help defend the Philippines against attacks, said Derek Grossman, senior defense analyst with the RAND
Corporation.”By not having the ability for U.S. troops to move freely into the Philippines, to operate there and to move military equipment into the Philippines makes it much more difficult for the U.S. to make good on its obligations under the mutual defense treaty,” Grossman added.Analysts say without access to the Philippines, the U.S. will not be in a position to rapidly respond to threats from China in the South China Sea. They say it will also weaken U.S. counterterror and intelligence gathering in the region, and undermine the ability to protect freedom of the seas and contest Chinese coercion in the South China Sea.FILE – A U.S. fighter jet takes off from the U.S. aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan to patrol the international waters off the South China Sea, Aug. 6, 2019.Bargaining tacticThe notice to terminate the decades-old military pact with Washington may be a bargaining strategy from the Duterte administration.Malacañang spokesman Salvador Panelo told reporters during a press conference Tuesday that after the VFA termination notice, the U.S.-Philippines relations “remains warm” and that “hopefully, it would be warmer.””I’ve been noticing that those who’ve been criticizing the U.S. government policies have been given the preferential attention by the U.S. government,” Panelo said. “When they are being criticized, they tend to court you back.”The termination would take effect after 180 days, unless both sides agree to keep it. A lot can happen before it expires, said defense analyst Grossman, adding that he would not be surprised if Trump and Duterte would soon take steps to reconcile the matter.In a speech late Monday, the Philippine president said Trump had tried to save the agreement but that he had rejected it.”America is very rude. They are so rude,” he said.Trump has invited Duterte and other Association of South East Asian Nation leaders to attend the US-ASEAN summit to be held in Las Vegas this March. Duterte has said that he will not attend.Steve Miller contributed to this report.
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Erdogan Threatens Military Escalation in Syria
Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is threatening to escalate fighting against Syrian government forces following Monday’s killing of Turkish soldiers. The warning comes in the face of calls for restraint from Moscow, but Erdogan is facing growing domestic pressure for an uncompromising stance.”We have given the necessary response and retaliated in kind, but this is not enough,” Erdogan said Tuesday. The Turkish military claimed to have hit more than 100 targets of Damascus forces Monday. The strikes were in response to the killing of five Turkish soldiers by artillery from Syrian forces in Idlib province. Erdogan said Tuesday he would announce what new military steps he will take. He met Monday with his military commanders to discuss the Syrian situation. In the space of a week, 12 Turkish soldiers have been killed by regime forces in Idlib. The Turkish president is facing growing domestic pressure to hit back.”What are you waiting for? Don’t beat around the bush while Turkish soldiers are being martyred in attacks carried out by soldiers of another state,” Meral Aksener, leader of the IYI Party, said in a meeting of her party’s parliamentary group.”(Syrian leader Bashar al-) Assad is a murderer, a criminal and the source of hostility,” said Devlet Bahceli, the MHP leader and parliamentary coalition partner of Erdogan’s AKP. Bahceli turned up the pressure on Erdogan, calling on Turkish forces to march on Damascus, saying until Assad’s removal, there will be “no peace.””By saying such things, they [Bahceli and Aksener] are cornering Erdogan. They are pressuring him, he may feel compelled into taking steps he doesn’t want,” said international relations teacher Soli Ozel of Istanbul’s Kadir Has University.Analysts point out Bahceli’s party is increasingly making inroads into Erdogan’s AKP nationalist voter base. “The basis of [Turkish] foreign relations needs to be viewed through the prism of domestic policy,” said analyst Sezer Aydin.Turkish soldiers drink tea in the Syrian province of Idlib, Feb. 10, 2020. Turkey said it hit back at Syrian government forces on Monday, after “intense” Syrian shelling killed five of its soldiers and wounded five others.Erdogan appears to be leaving all options on the table with the Turkish army continuing to ramp up its deployment into Idlib.Ankara set up 12 military observation posts across Idlib as part of the 2018 agreement with Moscow to create a de-escalation zone aimed at ending fighting between Syrian government and rebel forces. While Moscow backs Damascus and Ankara backs the rebels, the two countries have been cooperating to end the civil war. But the escalating violence in Idlib is putting increasing pressure on that cooperation.Tuesday, Moscow called on Ankara to end its military operations against Damascus and to enforce the 2018 deescalation agreement in Idlib. Russian diplomats accuse Turkish military forces of failing to disarm groups designated as terrorists in Idlib, a charge Ankara denies.On Tuesday, a Russian diplomatic delegation visiting Turkey to seek a solution to Idlib left for home after talks ended in deadlock.Turkish-Russian relations came under further pressure. “We genuinely hope that the [Turkish] government reviews its relations with Russia,” Bahceli said, describing recent diplomatic efforts over Idlib as “nothing but a fairy tale.”Damascus forces backed by Russian airpower are continuing to advance in Idlib. Tuesday saw rebels lose control of the last part of the critical M5 highway, which links Damascus with Aleppo, one of Syria’s main cities.U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo holds a joint news conference with Kazakh Foreign Minister Mukhtar Tleuberdi (not pictured) at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan, Feb. 2, 2020.While tensions between Moscow and Ankara escalate, Washington has been quick to offer support to its NATO ally. “My condolences to the families of the soldiers killed in yesterday’s [Monday’s] attack in Idlib. The ongoing assaults by the Assad regime and Russia must stop,” tweeted U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. “I’ve sent Jim Jeffrey to Ankara to coordinate steps to respond to this destabilizing attack. We stand by our NATO Ally #Turkey,” he added.U.S. ambassador Jeffrey is the Special Representative for Syrian Engagement and Special Envoy to the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS. Arriving Tuesday in Turkey, Jeffrey said threats were coming from Assad, and he will closely cooperate with “our ally” Turkey and wants to provide “any support possible.”Ankara’s recent rapprochement with Moscow has deeply strained Turkish-U.S. ties, with fears Turkey was abandoning its traditional Western allies.”Washington wishes to put an end to this estrangement,” said Ozel. “If you look at the statements coming from the American authorities and NATO, and they are giving more and more support for Turkey and Turkey’s position and Turkey is edging closer and closer to the United States and its allies in NATO.””Even in Ankara, they finally realize they cannot go so far with Russia, the interests are opposite to one another,” he added. “But Erdogan will not want to confront the Russians as they do have a lot of leverage over Turkey.” Washington’s strong support of Ankara, analysts say, could strengthen Erdogan’s hand when he speaks by telephone Wednesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, a call that analysts say could well determine Erdogan’s course of action in Idlib and broader trajectory of Turkish foreign policy.
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Britain’s Boris Johnson Takes on ‘The Blob’
It could have been a scene taken from “The Thick of It,” the internationally acclaimed British comedy series satirizing the inner workings of the British government.The country’s top political reporters, collectively known as the Lobby, were summoned last week to No. 10 Downing Street for a special post-Brexit briefing, but once they had arrived, those considered hostile to Brexit or Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative government were excluded.That provoked the fury of the entire Lobby with all reporters walking out in protest. Britain’s main national newspapers reacted in anger — with even pro-Johnson tabloid newspapers criticizing the rare upset of the well-established protocols of parliamentary reporting and the Conservative government’s seeming determination to pick and choose who receives briefings.“Information which should be available on the record, and of a type which was briefed freely in the past, is now being handed out as a favor to selected journalists in the expectation of favorable coverage,” said Adam Boulton, political editor of Sky News. “No. 10 is trying to control the media, and everyone in our democracy should be afraid,” he tweeted.Last week’s spat came just days after Cabinet ministers were told to boycott a flagship BBC morning radio news program, which has a reputation for criticizing government officials. The squabble is being seen as an opening skirmish in what’s likely to turn into a long-running Johnson campaign to try to refashion key British institutions in ways more favorable to the ruling Conservatives, also known as Tories.Dominic Cummings a British political strategist and special adviser to Prime Minister Boris Johnson walks into 10 Downing Street in London, July 30, 2019. Prime Minister Johnson and his chief strategic adviser, Dominic Cummings, an iconoclast who’s been likened to Steve Bannon, U.S. President Donald Trump’s onetime firebrand counselor, appear determined to remake the BBC and the civil service, curb what they see as judicial overreach and political activism by judges, sidestep the so-called mainstream media and shake up Britain’s liberal-leaning universities.Not since Britain’s Iron Lady, Margaret Thatcher, took on public institutions in the 1990s, lambasted reporters as “moaning minnies,” (Note: minny is a carp fish) and described her Cabinet ministers as lacking a backbone, has Britain’s so-called establishment been so nervous — and outraged.The wider war was declared by Cummings in his less than discreet blog last month when he complained about what he dubbed “The Blob,” a reference to the 1988 remake of a Hollywood science fiction movie of the same name in which an amorphous, amoeba-like organism devours everything in its path. Cummings’ “blob” is an eclectic mix of cautious bureaucrats, academics, the mainstream media, judges and the traditional mouthpieces of British business, the Confederation of British Industry, the CBI, and the Institute of Directors.FILE – The sun shines through a European Union flag hanging outside Parliament in London, Oct. 28, 2019.For Cummings and his boss they are reactionary forces, which are pro-European Union, liberal-leaning and far too politically correct — as well as lacking optimism about post-Brexit Britain and Downing Street’s upbeat vision of a “global Britain.”Recently, Cummings called for “weirdos and misfits” to apply for jobs in Downing Street and the government quarter of Whitehall, saying what the new Johnson government needs is “true cognitive diversity” and not “more drivel about ‘identity’ and ‘diversity’ from Oxbridge humanities graduates.”Graduates from the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge have traditionally dominated the corridors of British power.The Johnson-led and Cummings-advised government is moving quickly to combat the blob. Ministers are talking about decriminalizing non-payment of television licenses, which partly fund the BBC. And they are considering a judicial shake-up which could see Britain’s Supreme Court disbanded. Judges could see more restrictions introduced to hedge in their discretionary powers when sentencing.FILE – A street cleaner clears fall leaves from the front of 10 Downing Street, London, Britain, Nov. 6, 2019.The Downing Street door is being slammed shut on the CBI and the Institute of Directors. None of their officials was invited this month to a keynote Johnson speech outlining his plans for post-Brexit Britain.And when it comes to the mainstream media, the government is copying the Trump White House by using social media sites — from Twitter to YouTube — to promote its governing narrative. On Brexit night, Johnson did not appear on any national television programs to welcome in a new era; instead Downing Street posted a broadcast straight to the internet.Johnson supporters say the British prime minister has no choice but to take on the blob. Allister Heath, editor of The Sunday Telegraph and a prominent Johnson cheerleader, says, “It’s now or never – Boris must beat the Blob or be suffocated by it.” He says the blob exists, “but no longer in small town America: its new home is Whitehall, and it has developed a predilection for gobbling up Tory politicians and advisers.”Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban arrives for an EU summit in Brussels, Dec. 12, 2019. Others, though, see the Johnson game plan as having political affinity with the populist shake-up under way in Hungary, where Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a champion of what he once dubbed “illiberal democracy,” has taken on his country’s public institutions and battled a not dissimilar cast of foes.Last month, Orban praised Johnson as one of the “the most courageous, the most dynamic” leaders and one of the most likely “to effect change.” A former Johnson aide and influential Conservative commentator, Tim Montgomerie, returned the compliment at two research group events in December and January in Budapest, Hungary, where he praised Orban for “interesting early thinking on the limits of liberalism” and compared the two populist leaders.He said, “Long-term trends in economics and culture” are “changing how people align themselves,” and predicted Johnson’s Britain and Orban’s Hungary would forge a “special relationship.”But not all Johnson supporters are as sanguine and fear the British prime minister may be over-reaching by taking on too many powerful institutions at once. Writing in the business daily City AM, Michael Hayman, a co-founder of Seven Hills, a London-based communication consultancy, warned, “Boris has a war to fight, and he’s going to need all the friends he can get.”
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US Health Officials Press China to Accept American Experts to Help with Coronavirus
U.S. health officials again pressed China to accept U.S. expert help to work on the novel coronavirus outbreak.The World Health Organization sent an advance team of international experts to China on Monday, but it is not yet known if Americans were part of that group. The WHO did not respond to VOA’s question about the make up of the team.Dr. Anne Schuchat, Principal Deputy Director at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, speaks at the National Press Club in Washington, Feb. 11, 2020. (Eunjung Cho/VOA Mandarin Service)Dr. Anne Schuchat, Principal Deputy Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told reporters Tuesday at the National Press Club in Washington that “CDC has provided names for the WHO team and we’re usually part of WHO teams.”Schuchat emphasized American epidemiologists, virologists, infection control experts, quarantine experts “have a lot to offer,” and that it can be very helpful for China to have outside experts in the midst of an epidemic.American experts are expected to learn more about the disease as they fight it.“It is very critical right now for us to understand all the different routes of transmission, the full severity, which can help us with our models of what the impact may be, if this spreads to many countries,” said Schuchat.Since early January, the U.S. has been offering to send experts to China to help with the coronavirus outbreak.The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on January 6 first offered to send an American team, and on January 27, the Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar reiterated the offer to his Chinese counterpart Dr. Ma Xiaowei.Medical workers in protective suits attend to novel coronavirus patients at the intensive care unit (ICU) of a designated hospital in Wuhan, Hubei province, China, Feb. 6, 2020. (Credit: China Daily)After WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus secured Chinese President Xi Jinping’s agreement to accept an international team of experts during their meeting on January 28, U.S. officials moved to incorporate the American group of experts to the WHO mission to China.“My understanding is that in the latest discussions there’s been receptivity [on the part of China],” said Schuchat.Dr. Daniel Chertow, head of Emerging Pathogens Section at the National Institute of Health, also stressed the need to send American experts to China at a coronavirus conference at the Hudson Institute Monday.“We certainly would like our experts to be present and to be part of what’s happening on the ground to answer some of the really important fundamental questions,” said Chertow. He mentioned the fatality rate and asymptomatic spread as areas that need further research.Chertow also pointed out the U.S. and China could coordinate developing vaccines and therapeutics “rather than have duplicative efforts.”American health experts also urged China to tap into America’s expertise in controlling epidemics.Lawrence Gostin, a public health law professor at Georgetown University and Director of the WHO Collaborating Center on National and Global Health Law, told VOA Mandarin Service that China should invite U.S. CDC experts and give them full access.Gostin noted, “I would call in a significant contingent of WHO’s Health Emergencies Program, U.S. CDC and other very experienced epidemic fighters. I would have them in force on the ground with full access to all information, independently verifying information so that there were true international partners with China working on this outbreak.”Meanwhile, the first group of Americans evacuated from Wuhan, the epicenter of the new coronavirus, are expected to be released Tuesday following quarantine.American evacuees from the coronavirus outbreak in China board a bus after arriving by flight to Eppley Airfield in Omaha, Nebraska, Feb. 7, 2020.Schuchat at the NPC briefing said “today is the 14th day of the quarantine of individuals who were on the first charter flight returning from Wuhan province, they’re currently being assessed to make sure they remain symptom-free and then we hope that they’ll be released to travel to their home today.”Schuchat explained the 195 people who arrived in the U.S. on January 29 have been monitored closely during the two weeks and have not come down with the virus. The group, mostly U.S. State Department employees and their families, were evacuated from Wuhan aboard a U.S. government-chartered cargo jet and flown to March Air Reserve Base in Riverside County east of Los Angeles.Also on Tuesday, the 13th case of coronavirus in the U.S. was confirmed in California in a person under quarantine after returning from Wuhan.But Schuchat stressed U.S.’s containment strategy has been successful so far. She explained the 13 individuals in the U.S. had very mild symptoms and that there’s not been widespread transmission as 11 of them traveled to the Hubei province and two others had household contact with one of the cases. Calla Yu of VOA’s Mandarin Service contributed to this story.
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Trump, First Lady to Host State Dinner in April for Spain
President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump will host the administration’s third state dinner in April, for King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia of Spain, the White House announced Tuesday.The fancy, black-tie dinner — a diplomatic tool often reserved for America’s staunchest allies — is part of a state visit scheduled for April 21 to celebrate close ties between the two countries, press secretary Stephanie Grisham said.”The visit will celebrate our two countries’ close friendship and shared history, and reaffirm our commitments to stand together to address today’s global challenges,” Grisham said in a statement.King Felipe and Trump met in the Oval Office in June 2018 during a royal tour of the U.S. to mark the 300th anniversaries of the founding of New Orleans and San Antonio, cities with historical ties to Spain.FILE – President Donald Trump, right, speaks while meeting with Spain’s King Felipe VI, left, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, June 19, 2018.Trump, at the time, praised the “outstanding” relationship between the U.S. and Spain and cited excellent cooperation between them on trade and military defense.”Just about everything you can have,” Trump said. “So we love Spain.”The relationship has weathered a few bumps in the road, however. One area of cooperation has been a long-term agreement that allows the U.S. to use two military bases in Spain. But with Trump threatening Europe with tariffs, it has been suggested that Spain might eventually dangle the base deal as leverage.Spain’s new foreign minister, Arancha Gonzalez Laya, told the Spanish daily El Pais in an interview published Sunday that she wants “to find a meeting point and a balance in which the United States finds things it considers important and Spain too. Obviously, access to the American market for Spanish products is important.”The interview followed a telephone conversation she had with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.Gonzalez Laya has said she plans to visit the U.S. in February.Past relationshipA pre-Iraq war meeting in 2003 in the Azores between President George W. Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar represented a new peak for Spain’s standing with the U.S.But the subsequent decision by Aznar’s successor, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, to pull Spanish troops out of Iraq after he took office in 2004 soured ties considerably.Barack Obama’s arrival at the White House saw relations improve, and he and Zapatero were seen as good friends. The relationship has held steady with Trump first hosting former premier Mariano Rajoy in 2017 and preparing to meet new Socialist Premier Minister Pedro Sanchez.The Trump administration’s previous state dinners were for France in April 2018 and Australia in September 2019.
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Kenya’s Boni Forest Schools Reopen 5 Years After Attacks
KIANGWE, KENYA — In Kenya’s northeast Boni Forest, on the border with Somalia, schools that were closed for five years following attacks by militant group al-Shabab have reopened. But many children are still unable to attend classes, as few teachers are willing to work in the area.Farid Sadik is one of 10 educators who have taken the challenge to teach at a school in Kiagnwe, one of the five that reopened this year after attacks by al-Shabab in 2015 prompted most teachers to flee the area“We feel there is something that needs to be done for the community because we are trained as teachers, and we are trained to work anywhere in the republic,” said Sadik.Kiangwe village is the gateway to Boni Forest, from where al-Shabab launched deadly attacks in five years ago that forced area schools to close.Kiangwe Primary School was among five that shut their doors. Since then, local children have been home-schooled or traveled long distances to receive an education. Some received no education at all.Lamu County Commissioner Irungu Macharia told VOA that local officials are doing everything to keep Boni children in school.”We have greatly improved security. We have also deployed teachers, we have a head teacher, we have a classroom teacher, ECD (early childhood development) teacher in those schools. So, the schools are running normally. We have also provided resources, books and everything,” Macharia said.But while Kiangwe Primary School resumed classes, authorities say the fear of more attacks means few teachers are willing to return.Mohamed Abuli is on the school committee.”There were issues of insecurity in our school. We enhanced security but we don’t have enough teachers. There is only one teacher per so many students,” Abuli said.There still are not enough instructors to teach the upper grades, forcing some students to stay at home.Zeinab Bakari says her teenage son has nowhere to go to advance his education.“Here we’ve got school only up to 4th grade. I don’t have the fare to send him out. It’s my loss. I am at a loss,” she said.Bakari and other families can only hope the improved security will attract more teachers so all the children can get back to school after such a long break.
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Justice Thomas: Judges Must Uphold Law, Even When Unpopular
Judges must resist the temptation to bend their rulings to personal racial, religious or partisan preferences and instead uphold the rule of law, even when that leads to unpopular decisions, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas said Tuesday.“Each time a judge sidesteps or manipulates the law to achieve his or her desired outcome, the rule of law suffers and is undermined and, eventually, compromised,” Thomas said in a keynote speech during the dedication of Georgia’s new judicial center in Atlanta.Thomas is a Georgia native, born in the Pin Point community near Savannah. It wasn’t long ago that courthouses like the one being dedicated Tuesday were segregated, he noted.Segregation endured, he said, not only because of prejudices and a lack of understanding, but also because of a “lack of courage among those who knew or should have known better, especially in the judicial branch of government.”Having the courage to uphold the rule of law may lead judges to decisions that aren’t popular at the time, Thomas said.“Our decisions should not be driven by a desire to be revered or lionized for reaching certain outcomes. We are not mass media icons,” he said. “We are judges, nothing more and nothing less.”The new Nathan Deal Judicial Center is named after the Georgia governor who served from 2011 to 2019 and pushed through broad reforms to the state’s criminal justice system.On hand for Tuesday’s dedication, Deal got choked up as he thanked all the people who helped make the building possible.The new judicial center houses the state’s two appellate courts — the Georgia Supreme Court and the Georgia Court of appeals. It is also slated to be home to the new statewide business court.
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Tens of Thousands Flee Worsening Conditions in Eastern DR Congo
The U.N. refugee agency reports more than 100,000 civilians have fled worsening conditions in DR Congo’s eastern Beni Territory over the past two months. The UNHCR says attacks by armed groups in the so-called Watalinga Chiefdom, near the border with Uganda, have sent thousands of people fleeing for their lives. Attacks on villages and towns by armed groups in Congo’s lawless eastern borderland have been rising since December. This has prompted mass flight by the residents to the town of Nobili and surrounding areas. The U.N. refugee agency says many of those fleeing previously had been displaced. They had fled violence in April and only just returned to their villages in November. UNHCR spokesman, Andrej Mahecic, says the displaced are in dire need of assistance.“Tensions in the region have been rising since the launch of the government-led military operation in December against the Allied Democratic Forces or ADF,” said Mahecic. “Civilians, including those displaced in November and December, are among those targeted by armed groups, including the ADF… Many people told UNHCR staff that they now live in fear, after witnessing killings, sexual violence and abductions.” The ADF, a Ugandan Islamist group, is one of many armed groups vying for influence in the region. Local authorities estimate 252 civilians have been killed in Beni Territory since December.Mahecic says the majority of those who have fled to Nobili are being sheltered by local host communities. Others, he says, are crammed into schools and churches.“Thousands more are living in dire conditions across 100 or so informal settlements, sleeping in huts made of branches,” said Mahecic. “They are also exposed to elements and face serious threats to their safety, protection, including the lack of privacy.” Mahecic says the vast majority of displaced persons are women and children in urgent need of basic assistance and protection. He says food, shelter, water, sanitation and hygiene are scarce. And thousands of homeless children have little or no access to education.More than 5 million people are displaced in DRC, the largest number in Africa. The UNHCR says money is scarce to care for this huge population of internally displaced.The agency says the international community has donated only four percent of the $150 million it needs to assist millions of refugees and internally displaced in Congo this year.
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Indonesia Refuses to Take Back Suspected IS Militants
Indonesia’s government on Tuesday banned citizens who joined the Islamic State group in Syria from returning home because of fears they could pose a threat to national security.A furious debate has raged in the world’s most populous Muslim nation in recent weeks over how to handle hundreds of suspected militants and their families seeking to return from combat zones in Iraq and Syria, as well as those in detention, after IS lost large swathes of territory and the United States announced the withdrawal of its forces.The country has been torn between protecting citizens’ rights, especially those of women and children, and national security.”The government has no plans to repatriate terrorists,” the coordinating minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs, Mohammad Mahfud MD, said after a Cabinet meeting to discuss the return of hundreds of Indonesians held by authorities in Syria.”The state should provide security for 267 million Indonesians from new terrorist viruses,” he said.He said the government will collect more data on the identities of people who joined radical groups in the Middle East. Citing U.S. Central Intelligence Agency records, he said some 689 Indonesian citizens are currently in Syria, of whom only 228 had been identified.The government is considering the possibility of allowing children return home, especially orphans.Indonesian veterans of fighting in Afghanistan spearheaded attacks in the 2000s against local and Western targets, including nightclub bombings on the resort island of Bali that killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists.A sustained crackdown by Indonesian authorities since 2002 has reduced the threat of large-scale attacks against Western or civilian targets. But IS attacks abroad have inspired Indonesian militants to continue to plan and carry out attacks, mostly against police targets across the country, officials say.”Anybody coming back from Syria is going to have immediate credibility and legitimacy in the jihadi movement,” said Sidney Jones, the director of the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict. “There might be people coming back who can take any of these amorphous, feckless groups of extremists and drill them into shape.”
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Kenyans Mourn, Celebrate Life of Former President Moi
Thousands of Kenyans, along with a number of African leaders, streamed into Nyayo National Stadium Tuesday to attend the funeral of Daniel arap Moi, Kenya’s second president, who died last Tuesday while undergoing treatment at a Nairobi Hospital. Kenyans remembered Moi in different ways in a ceremony that seemed to have brought the country together.The youngest of Moi’s sons, Gideon Moi, led the nation in eulogizing his father.“This was our father, an elephant time memory and a compassionate heart. Throughout his years of service, he taught us to have tough feet, but keep a soft heart. Our father was a forgiving man,” said the younger Moi.Several heads of state present eulogized the former president as a Pan-Africanist, who contributed significantly to the unity of the continent.Sahle-Work Zewde, Ethiopia’s president, was among the regional leaders present.“We will always remember the fundamental role he played in the formation of our regional organization IGAD back in 1986 but also the contribution he has made in the revitalization of IGAD in 1996 when he was heading the organization, the role he has played in Sudan, to bring peace between Sudan and South Sudan, and in Somalia are also big achievements this region has registered,” said the Ethiopian leader.A woman walks past memorial placards for former president Daniel arap Moi, at his state funeral in Nyayo Stadium, in Kenya’s capital of Nairobi, Kenya, Feb. 11, 2020.South Sudan President Salva Kiir talked about how Moi was instrumental in the birth of his country, by playing a significant role in the comprehensive peace agreement with Khartoum in 2005.“As the president of the republic of South Sudan, South Sudan is the product of his work and will remain his legacy. My people respect and honor late president Daniel arap Moi,” said Kiir.Daniel arap Moi took over Kenya’s presidency upon the death of the country’s first president, Jomo Kenyatta, in 1978, and ruled until 2002. Moi was accused of serious rights violations including torture and political killings. For this, he faced local and international criticism.One of those tortured was Kenya’s former prime minister, Raila Odinga, who nevertheless eulogized Moi as a great leader.“He also made some mistakes; I was for example one of the victims, but he was also forgiving like I am also forgiving, and we made our peace and we shook hands and we worked together to bring this country a new constitution. So we remember him for the good things that he did which we want to carry forward as we move to unite our country and bring it together,” Odinga said.Herman Manyora, a political analyst based in Nairobi, said that the president led the country at a critical time, the Cold War era, when the push and pull between Western and Communist interests made other neighboring countries collapse.“When you put the bad things people talk about, against the great things he did, I think you could give him 70 percent. You know he was president at a time when there was turmoil in Africa,” Manyora said.Moi was 95. His burial is scheduled for Wednesday.
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Kenya Vows Security After Al-Shabab Lamu Road Attack
Kenya has stepped up security on the road that connects northeast Lamu County to the rest of Kenya after al-Shabab terrorists killed three people on a public bus in January. The attack is the second on public transportation near the border with Somalia in as many months.Raymond Juma has been a driver on the road between Lamu and the city of Momabasa for years.On January 3 the insecurity of Kenya’s northeast caught up with him and 47 passengers.“I saw some armed men waving at me to stop, and they shot three times in the air. I knew these were not policemen. I decided to speed off, then they fired at the back and front tires of the bus and one bullet hit the window. I drove up to 100 meters, then the bus stalled. I ordered the passengers to get off and everybody ran for safety,” he said.A Kenyan police officer observes motor vehicle traffic near the scene where armed assailants killed three people and injured two others in Nyongoro area of Lamu County, Kenya, Jan. 2, 2020.Juma’s bus was not the only one on the road that day.While he escaped, al-Shabab gunmen ambushed other buses, killing three people. Since then Kenyan authorities have beefed up the security along the road.Leah Wangare said this is the first time she is traveling in more than a year.“Our government has provided us with enough security to escort us on the road. Traveling on this road was not easy, to think about traveling on this road, it scares you. You don’t know what will happen on the way,” she said.Pennina Yeri said the journey takes more hours and can be tiring at times.“Police escort is making us take a long time on the road. At every station we are stopped, inspected, people are asked to produce IDs. Some don’t have them. It takes long before you get to your destination,” said Yeri.Lamu County Commissioner Irungu Macharia said the roads are safe.“Nobody is allowed to move without security escort because we don’t want incidents where people are asked to alight and are killed indiscriminately. So, at least that security is provided. So, we can reassure those who use our roads that they are secured,” said Macharia.But al-Shabab has no qualms about attacking security forces in addition to the road traffic they are protecting.In December, at the Somalia border, gunmen attacked a bus, killing 11 people — eight of them police officers.
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2 More Arrested over Vietnamese Truck Deaths, UK Police Say
British police said on Tuesday that two more arrests had been made over the deaths of 39 Vietnamese migrants found in the back of a truck near London last year while investigations indicated they had died of overheating and lack of oxygen.
The victims, who included two 15-year-old boys, were found on an industrial estate in Grays in Essex, about 20 miles (32 km) east of London in October.Mostly from Nghe An and Ha Tinh provinces in north-central Vietnam, their deaths shone a light on the human smuggling trade.Autopsies had concluded that the provisional cause of death was a combination of hypoxia – oxygen deprivation – and hyperthermia – overheating – in an enclosed space.Essex Police said a 22-year-old man had been arrested in Northern Ireland on Sunday on suspicion of manslaughter and facilitating unlawful immigration. He was now in custody in Essex.Last week, British police along with German authorities detained Gheorghe Nica, 43, who was wanted on a European Arrest Warrant, at Frankfurt Airport.Nica, who lives near Grays, appeared in court on Saturday accused of 39 counts of manslaughter and one count of conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration and is due to reappear at London’s Old Bailey court on March 16.”Our teams are continuing to progress hundreds of lines of inquiry and are working with the National Crime Agency and other law enforcement agencies from across the globe to further their lengthy and complex investigation,” Essex Police said.Maurice Robinson, the British driver of the truck who hailed from Northern Ireland, admitted last November plotting to assist unlawful immigration and acquiring criminal property.British authorities are also trying to extradite Eamonn Harrison, 23, from Ireland on charges of manslaughter, human trafficking and immigration offenses. He is due at Dublin’s High Court on Wednesday.Police have said the Vietnamese victims were found not long after the container arrived in Britain from Zeebrugge in Belgium. The refrigerated unit was picked up at Purfleet dock, not far from Grays, while police believe the truck cab was driven over from Ireland.
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Justice Dept. Won’t Oppose Probation for ex-Trump Aide Flynn
The Justice Department said Wednesday that it would not oppose probation for former Trump administration national security adviser Michael Flynn — a more lenient stance than prosecutors took earlier this month, when they said he deserved prison time.The latest sentencing filing still seeks a sentence of up six months, but unlike before, prosecutors explicitly state that probation would be a “reasonable” punishment and that they would not oppose it.It was not clear why the Justice Department appeared to soften its position, though prosecutors did suggest Flynn deserves credit for his decades-long military service.“There is no dispute that the defendant has an unusually strong record of public service,” prosecutors wrote.As part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, Flynn pleaded guilty in December 2017 to lying to the FBI about his conversations with the then-Russian ambassador to the United States during the presidential transition period. He cooperated extensively, leading prosecutors to initially support a sentence of probation.He was to have been sentenced the following year, but after he was sharply rebuked by the judge during the sentencing hearing, he abruptly asked that it be postponed so that he could continue cooperating with the government in hopes of getting additional credit for his behavior and avoiding any prison time.Since then, though, he has fired his lawyers and replaced them with new ones who have taken a sharply adversarial approach toward the prosecution. They have raised allegations of government misconduct that a judge has rejected. Earlier this month, they asked to withdraw his guilty plea — a request that is still pending.Prosecutors are expected to more fully respond to that request soon.The Justice Department says that though Flynn did provide assistance to their investigation and that a judge may consider that in fashioning a sentence, any claims of acceptance of responsibility are hard to reconcile with his request to withdraw his guilty plea.They also opted not to call him in the trial last year of a business associate after they said he had changed his account.He’s due to be sentenced Feb. 27.
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Putin Picks New Ukraine Negotiator After Ties Thaw a Little
The Kremlin said on Tuesday that a senior Ukrainian-born Russian official was now in charge of managing Moscow’s relations with Ukraine, a move likely to be seen by some politicians in Kyiv as further evidence of a slight thaw in ties.President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Dmitry Kozak, deputy head of the Russian presidential administration, was now the most senior Kremlin official when it came to Ukraine.Kozak, a lawyer by education, was born in what used to be Soviet Ukraine.Vladislav Surkov, seen as a hardliner by many in Kyiv, had previously overseen Russia’s relations with Ukraine, a role that saw him negotiate and advise Putin on the subject. Peskov said Surkov still worked for the Kremlin, but did not elaborate.Relations between Moscow and Kyiv were derailed after Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimea region in 2014 and Moscow-backed separatists launched an uprising in the Donbas, eastern Ukraine, that has killed more than 13,000 people. Russia denies any role in the conflict.Russia and Ukraine are wrangling over how to implement a peace deal on the Donbas, but major disagreements remain and full normalisation is far off.Under Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, there has been some movement however with a peace summit held in Paris in December with the leaders of Russia, France and Germany. That was followed by a large-scale prisoner swap.Zelenskiy on Tuesday appointed a former lawyer called Andriy Yermak as his chief of staff.Yermak, who was involved in negotiating prisoner swaps with Russia, told the Ukraine 24 TV channel on Monday that he had met Kozak and thought he was an improvement over Surkov.”It seems to me that he (Kozak) is more inclined to dialogue. And on the issues on which I spoke with him, I can say that we had constructive communication, without which nothing would be possible of what we have already seen,” Ukraine’s UNIAN news agency cited Yermak as saying.
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Deepfakes: Silicon Valley Prepares to Battle the Latest Election Threat
Images of a reborn Princess Leia, or a youthful Robert DeNiro are bewitching illusions for movie-goers. But concern that the same technology could be weaponized to incite chaos in an election is leading to “deepfake” bans on social media, and a race to develop detection tools. Matt Dibble reports.
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Heavy Rain Brings Australia’s Bushfire Crisis Closer to an End
Authorities in Australia say heavy rain could extinguish all of the fires in New South Wales state by the end of the week. Parts of eastern Australia have seen their heaviest downpours in more than 30 years. Australia is a land of extremes. Some towns have gone from drought to flood in a day as heavy rain has fallen in New South Wales, and parts of Queensland.FILE – This image from a video, shows flooded fields on Gold Coast, Australia, Jan. 18, 2020.Some drought-hit farmers have had their best rainfall in a decade, while emergency authorities warned of “life-threatening” flash flooding.Since Friday, Australia’s biggest city, Sydney, has been drenched by almost 400mm of rain. That amount usually falls over four months. More downpours are predicted later this week.The deluge is helping a marathon firefighting effort.A huge bushfire south of Sydney that burned for more than 70 days and destroyed 300 homes has finally been put out. Also extinguished is the so-called Gospers Mountain “mega-blaze” north-west of Sydney.FILE – Trees are engulfed in flames as a bushfire spreads in Adaminaby, New South Wales, Australia, Jan. 9, 2020, in this still image from a video obtained from Ingleside Rural Fire Service.On Tuesday, 26 bush and grass fires were still burning across the state of New South Wales with 4 not yet contained. Some of these blazes have been burning for weeks and even months.David Elliott, the New South Wales emergency services minister, says the heavy rain has caused chaos in some areas, but could put out all of the state’s bushfires within days.”We expect that a number of local government areas will be given natural disaster declarations, which will allow for extra funding, extra support and, of course, make the appropriate response from our emergency services,” he said. “The silver lining, of course, is the fact that we now look like we might see the end of this six month firefighting campaign.”In Western Australia, the clean-up continues after a tropical cyclone crossed the state’s northwestern coastline at the weekend bringing destructive winds and torrential rainfall.The Australian bushfire crisis began in September. At least 33 people have been killed and thousands of homes destroyed. More than 11 million hectares of land — an area the size of England — has been left scorched.
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Sinn Féin Achieves Unprecedented Results in Ireland’s General Election
Ireland’s main opposition party Fianna Fail won the most seats in the country’s 160-seat parliament, one more than the outsider, left-wing Sinn Fein, which scored an unprecedented result in Saturday’s general election. Sinn Fein, notorious for its links with the outlawed Irish Republican Army, won nearly 25% of the vote in a tight race with two mainstream parties, Fianna Fail and Fine Gael. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports, the success of an outsider party reflects voter discontent with politics as usual.
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German Decision on Huawei 5G ‘Imminent,’ Says Ambassador
Germany’s closely watched impending decision on whether and to what extent to allow Huawei, the Chinese tech giant, to enter its next generation telecommunications infrastructure may yield a result as early as Tuesday, sources tell VOA.The decision “is imminent,” says Emily Haber, German ambassador to the United States, in answer to a question raised by VOA Monday afternoon concerning the German government’s stance with regard to Huawei.“Any decision we take will factor in the relevance of the trustworthiness of the provider,” Haber added.VOA has since learned from diplomatic sources that “imminent” could mean as early as Tuesday February 11th when German lawmakers convene in Berlin.Jacob F. Kirkegaard, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Peterson Institute for International Economics, thinks Germany could end up following Britain’s precedence and reach a compromise solution “between Merkel’s permissive ‘few limits suggestion and the more restrictive line called for by many backbench MPs, led by Norbert Roettgen,” Kirkegaard told VOA.Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel is seen as wanting to work with Beijing in order to secure German business interests in China, while Roettgen, also a member of the governing Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and chairman of the influential Foreign Affairs Committee in the Bundestag, has made no secret of his mistrust of Huawei.Roettgen pinned his tweet from November 23rd following a CDU vote in which he declared the unanimous vote a huge victory and an unambiguous declaration of where CDU stands on this issue.Unser #Initiativantrag zu #5G wurde beim #cdupt19 einstimmig beschlossen – ein Riesenerfolg! Die Debatte kommt in den #Bundestag. Klare Position der @CDU gegen Einfluss ausländischer Staaten in deutsche kritische Infrastruktur & für eine europäische Lösung! pic.twitter.com/W3uvLAxWJU— Norbert Röttgen (@n_roettgen) November 23, 2019CDU position “against foreign influence in critical German infrastructure” as well as its determination to find a European solution are “clear,” he tweeted, “next comes the parliamentary debate” which could take place Tuesday in Berlin, sources tell VOA.In Kirkegaard’s opinion, Germany could also impose a ceiling on Huawei’s market share and attempt to prevent the company from supplying “core network” components, a measure Britain has recently announced, in spite of Washington’s strong objection.He nonetheless points out that given the 5G technology’s largely “cloud”-based feature, it remains “technically unclear” how core and peripheral distinction could be meaningfully established.Should the German parliament vote Huawei out of Germany’s 5G telecommunications infrastructure, it would be a huge surprise to many, including Kirkegaard. Should it happen, it would constitute a “huge defeat for Merkel,” he says, even as Merkel’s party is thrown into turmoil as her designated successor Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer announced her decision to step down as chairman of the CDU on Monday.It remains to be seen whether the latest development within the CDU could affect the German parliament’s debate on Huawei.Speaking along with the German ambassador at an event hosted by the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies Monday afternoon, Piotr Wilczek, Poland’s ambassador to the United States, said “there’s been a big effort” on the part of all EU countries “to provide Brussels with our positions” on the issue of Huawei.“Now we’re in the process of discussing this in more detail,” Wilczek said, in answer to VOA’s question on his country’s position with regard to Huawei. “Poland and I believe Romania are the only countries that have signed a declaration with the United States, stating just that we’ll be very careful in choosing providers and providers should be very reliable,” he added, without naming any company by name.“This is a very complicated issue … a difficult decision,” he says, “because it’s about the quality of services, of various providers; we know some of them are very much advanced, and some of them are not so much advanced but perhaps more reliable.”Earlier, Norbert Roettgen, the German lawmaker who has openly expressed his concerns about Huawei, stated that when it comes to which providers to be let in, “You don’t just need technical certainty, you need the suppliers to be politically trustworthy, too.” A bill that Roettgen helped draft requires that any company designated as “untrustworthy” be excluded “from both the core and peripheral networks.”Roettgen tweeted on February 8 that the United States and the EU “could team up to counter China’s 5G dominance.” “We share the same security concerns and should cooperate to expand alternatives.” He added that “but to do so, we must know that tariffs against Brussels are off the table. Partners don’t threaten one another,” in a reference to tariffs U.S. President Donald Trump has said he would impose on a number of European imports, including on German automobiles.The #USA & EU could team up to counter #China’s #5G dominance. We share the same security concerns & should cooperate to expand 🇪🇺 alternatives. But to do so we must know that tariffs against Brussels are off the table. Partners don’t threaten one another. https://t.co/ZPvZFKWNYq— Norbert Röttgen (@n_roettgen) February 8, 2020Huawei has repeatedly denied that it is beholden to the Chinese government and its political demands. China’s top envoy to Berlin has made it clear that Beijing “will not stand idly by” should Germany’s decision on Huawei turns out to be unfavorable to Beijing. “If Germany were to make a decision that led to Huawei’s exclusion from the German market, there will be consequences,” Wu Ken is quoted as saying. Whichever way Germany decides, its decision likely will have significant impact on the other European Union countries. Political influence aside, the fact that Germany takes up about 30% of the EU’s 5G market is “enough for pan-EU operators to follow its lead,” according to the Peterson Institute’s Kirkegaard.
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US Lawmakers Say Trump’s Proposed Cuts to Foreign Aid Headed to the Trash Can
President Donald Trump is proposing a steep 21% cut in aid the United States provides to foreign countries, and the State Department says it stands by the draft budget. But U.S. lawmakers, who control the budget process, say the proposed cuts in foreign assistance would weaken U.S. national security and global leadership. VOA’s Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports from Washington.
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