Tens of thousands of people marched Saturday across Russia’s Far East city of Khabarovsk on the border with China to protest the arrest of the regional governor on murder charges, continuing a two-week wave of protests that has challenged the Kremlin.Sergei Furgal has been in a Moscow jail since his arrest on July 9, and Russian President Vladimir Putin has named an acting successor. Protesters in Khabarovsk see the charges against Furgal as unsubstantiated and demand that he stand trial at home.”People are offended,” said protester Dmitry Kachalin. “I think people take to the streets because their vote in the 2018 election was taken away.”Unlike Moscow, where police usually move quickly to disperse unsanctioned opposition protests, authorities haven’t interfered with the unauthorized demonstrations in Khabarovsk, apparently expecting them to fizzle out in the city 3,800 miles (6,100 kilometers) east of the Russian capital.But daily protests, peaking at weekends, have gone on for two weeks, reflecting anger at what residents see as Moscow’s disrespect of their choice for governor and simmering discontent with Putin’s rule. Local officials’ attempts to discourage people from joining the demonstrations by warning about the risk of coronavirus infection have been unsuccessful.”We had enough,” said protester Anastasia Schegorina. “We elected the governor and we want to be heard and decide ourselves what to do with him. Bring him here, and a fair and open trial will decide whether to convict him or not.”People attend a rally supporting the Khabarovsk region’s governor, Sergei Furgal, who was interrogated and ordered to be held in jail for two months, in Khabarovsk, Russia, July 25, 2020.Protesters chanted “Freedom!” and “Russia, wake up!” and carried placards voicing support for Furgal and denouncing Putin.Demonstrations were also held in other cities of the Far East, and police didn’t intervene. But in Moscow, police briefly detained several dozen activists who attempted to stage pickets in support of Furgal.Authorities suspect Furgal of involvement in several killings of businessmen in 2004 and 2005. He has denied the charges, which date to his time as a businessman with interests focusing on timber and metals.A lawmaker on the nationalist Liberal Democratic Party ticket, Furgal won the 2018 gubernatorial election even though he had refrained from campaigning and publicly supported his Kremlin-backed rival.His victory was a humiliating setback to the main Kremlin party, United Russia, which also lost its control over the regional legislature. During his time in office, Furgal earned a reputation as a “people’s governor,” cutting his own salary, ordering the sale of an expensive yacht that the previous administration had bought and offering new benefits to residents.”We want to protect Furgal,” said Evgenia Selina, who joined Saturday’s protest. “If we hadn’t elected him, he would have been living quietly with his family and working at the State Duma. He would have had a normal life.”Mikhail Degtyaryov, a federal lawmaker whom Putin named Monday to succeed Furgal, is also a member of the Liberal-Democratic Party — a choice that was apparently intended to assuage local anger. If that was the plan, it hasn’t worked.Degtyaryov, who has refrained from facing the protesters, left the city on Saturday for an inspection trip across the region.
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Month: July 2020
Family Remembers John Lewis as Fighter for ‘Least of Us’
John Lewis, the late U.S. congressman and civil rights leader, was remembered Saturday in a memorial service in Alabama as someone who fought for “the least of us.”At the service at Troy University in Alabama, on the opening day of six days of tributes, five siblings and a great-nephew spoke of Lewis as a loving and fearless family man.”He’d gravitate toward the least of us,” said brother Henry “Grant” Lewis. “He worked a lifetime to help others.”The siblings reminded the crowd of their brother’s famous injunction to make “good trouble” — ruffling feathers when it was for a righteous cause.The events that began in Troy, Lewis’ hometown, will culminate next week with his funeral in Georgia.Fraternity members sing in front of the casket of the late Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., during a service celebrating “The Boy from Troy” at Troy University, July 25, 2020, in Troy, Ala.At Saturday’s public service, Lewis lay in repose as visitors paid their respects. Later in the day, a private ceremony honored him at a chapel in Selma, Alabama, ahead of another public viewing.On Sunday, Lewis’ body will cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, where he and other voting rights demonstrators were beaten in 1965 on a day known as “Bloody Sunday.”His body will be carried to Alabama’s capital, Montgomery, where Mayor Steven Reed is encouraging people to line the sidewalks on the final leg of that journey. Officials are asking the public to wear face masks and socially distance.Ethel Mae Tyner, sister of the late Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., dries her eyes during a service celebrating “The Boy from Troy” at Troy University, July 25, 2020, in Troy, Ala.Alabama Governor Kay Ivey has ordered flags to be flown at half-staff on Saturday and Sunday in honor of Lewis.During the nearly weeklong memorial events, Lewis’ body will lie in state at the Alabama State Capitol in Montgomery, the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta and the U.S. Capitol in Washington.U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced earlier this week that visitors could pay their respects to Lewis in the U.S. Capitol on Monday and Tuesday.Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the public viewing will take place outside the Capitol instead of inside the Rotunda, where viewings are traditionally held. Lawmakers said social distancing would be “strictly enforced” and face masks would be required.Dr. Jack Hawkins Jr., university chancellor, speaks behind the casket of the late Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., during a service at Troy University, July 25, 2020, in Troy, Ala.The Georgia Democrat will be the second Black lawmaker to lie in state at the Capitol, following Representative Elijah Cummings, who died last year.Lewis’ family said that there would also be a procession through Washington next week and that members of the public would be able to pay their respects in a “socially distant manner.”Lewis’ funeral will be held Thursday at Atlanta’s historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, where the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. was once the pastor. Following the service, which will be private, Lewis will be interred at South View Cemetery in Atlanta.Lewis died last Friday at age 80 after a yearlong battle with advanced-stage pancreatic cancer.He rose to fame as a leader of the modern-day American civil rights movement of the 1950s and ’60s. At 23, he worked closely with King and was the last surviving speaker from the August 1963 March on Washington where King gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.The civil rights movement led Lewis into a career in politics. He was elected to the Atlanta City Council in 1981 and to Congress in 1986, calling the latter victory “the honor of a lifetime.” He served 17 terms in the U.S. House of Representatives from Georgia’s 5th District.
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Somalia’s Parliament Votes Out Prime Minister
Somalia’s parliament has removed Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khayre in an unexpected vote of no-confidence, the speaker of parliament said.Holding a press conference Saturday after the voting, the speaker, Mohamed Mursal Abdurahman, accused the government of Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khayre of “ineffectiveness.”
“One hundred and seventy lawmakers favored the motion against the prime minister, and only 8 lawmakers opposed,” the speaker of parliament, announced. “Therefore, the motion has passed, and we urge Somalia’s president to appoint a new prime minister.”
The speaker has accused Prime Minister Khayre and his government of not fulfilling promises they made to the nation.
“The government has failed to fulfill its national promises, including holding one man – one vote elections, and establishing a national security force capable of tightening the security,” the speaker said.
The unexpected vote came after what analysts have termed “the explosion of a long-awaited dispute” between the president and the prime minister on the model and the timing of the country’s upcoming elections.
Khayre, a dual Norwegian citizen and former Soma Oil Company executive, was not immediately available to respond to the action. He had been prime minister of the eastern African country since March 2017.
Immediately after the voting, Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed (also known as President Farmajo) said he accepted the decision by parliament to remove Khayre and that he will nominate a new prime minister.
“Any rift between the parliament, which is the base of our government, and the cabinet of ministers will weaken the progress made so far; therefore, to save that progress, I have decided to respect and accept the decision of the parliament,” the president said in a statement published on state radio’s website.
Members of Khayre’s cabinet say they have rejected the parliament’s decision and described it as a political conspiracy against the government.
“The parliament members were meeting to debate an election law agenda when the speaker unexpectedly brought the issue of voting for a motion of no confidence against the government,” said Somalia’s minister of Internal Security, Mohamed Abukar Islow. “The vote did not go through legal parliamentary process and looked a conspiracy.”
Analysts say the action could be a big political setback for Somalia because it came a few months before the country’s elections.
“The voting was not timely and could derail the efforts to hold elections within the few remaining months,” said Abdirashid Hashi, executive director of the Heritage Institute for Policy Studies, a Mogadishu based independent, nonprofit research group.
“Now the ball is in the court of the president. He only has two options — to appoint a prime minister within the short period, who will also lead the nation into elections on time, or work on establishing an all-inclusive national unity government to avoid a vacuum,” Hashi said.
Ousting prime minsters
A Somali parliament firing a prime minister and differences between the president and the prime minister are nothing new in Somalia’s political culture.
Since the collapse of the former central military regime of Mohamed Siyad Barre, at least four presidents, going back to 2004, have had major problems with their prime ministers. Each president had three prime ministers in their respective single terms.
Of the more than 10 prime ministers the country has had since 2000, only two were not dismissed.
President Farmajo and former prime minister Hassan Ali Khayre were praised for avoiding such disputes for nearly four years now, but what seemed to be a minor difference between the two leaders escalated into an open feud this week when the two leaders attended a meeting in the central Somalia town of Dhusamareeb.
In that meeting, the country’s federal government leaders and leaders across the federal member states agreed to hold timely national elections, a move for which the prime minister campaigned.
Although the president did not openly oppose the agreement, his supporters and the speaker of the parliament wanted any decisions relating to elections to be made by the parliament, not by the federal government and state leaders. The tenure of the incumbent president and the two houses of the parliament expires later this year.
Abdulkadir Mohamed Abdulle contributed this report from Mogadishu.
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AP FACT CHECK: A More Measured Trump Doesn’t Mean Accurate
President Donald Trump in recent days suddenly acknowledged the gravity of the coronavirus pandemic and edged away from some of his most audacious falsehoods about it. That’s not to say he gave the public an honest accounting.Trump minimized the potential risk to children and those around them as he advocated reopening schools. He again marveled at the number of COVID-19 tests being performed in the U.S. even as the overwhelmed testing system crucially fails to deliver sufficient access and timely results.And he cited a low U.S. death rate from COVID-19 compared with other countries, when the global statistics appear to contradict him.All this while Trump canceled Republican National Convention events in Jacksonville, Florida, bowing to the reality that many Republicans were reluctant to go a state where the virus has been out of control. Meantime his press secretary peddled false internet rumors that the “cancel culture” led to the cancellation of a cartoon about puppies.A review of some statements from the past week:TESTSTRUMP, on the U.S. approaching 50 million tests: “This allows us to isolate those who are infected, even those without symptoms. So we know exactly where it’s going and when it’s going to be there.” — briefing Tuesday.THE FACTS: This is by no means true.In many if not most parts of the country, people who manage to get a test can wait for many days for the results because labs are overwhelmed. In the meantime, those people could be and in some cases surely are spreading infection. And many people who want a test but report no symptoms can’t get one.Some labs are taking weeks to return COVID-19 results because of the crushing workload from the surge of new cases.”There’s been this obsession with, ‘How many tests are we doing per day?'” said Dr. Tom Frieden, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “The question is, how many tests are being done with results coming back within a day, where the individual tested is promptly isolated and their contacts are promptly warned?”KIDS and COVID-19TRUMP on young people and the virus: “Now, they don’t catch it easily; they don’t bring it home easily. And if they do catch it, they get better fast. We’re looking at that fact.” — briefing Wednesday.THE FACTS: That isn’t a fact. He doesn’t have the science to reach this broad conclusion. His coronavirus task force coordinator, Dr. Deborah Birx, and other public health officials have said repeatedly that while children appear to get less sick from the virus than adults, the threat to young people and their ability to spread the virus are not understood because not enough research has been done on kids and COVID-19.Birx underscored the point Friday on NBC’s “Today” show. Whether children under 10 spread the virus the same as older children “is still an open question” she said.”We know that children under 18 are less sick, but there are some that suffer terrible consequences if they have underlying conditions,” she added. “Children under 10 do get infected. It’s just unclear how rapidly they spread the virus.”Trump has been pushing for schools to reopen and at one point threatened to withhold federal money if they don’t. While his assurances about children were unsupported, they were a step back from his earlier rhetoric that portrayed kids as practically immune to infection. “It’s very unique how the children aren’t affected,” he said in early May. “Incredible.”U.S. DEATHSTRUMP on the U.S. and other countries in the pandemic: “We’ve done much better than most. And with the fatality rate at a lower rate than most, it’s something that we can talk about, but we’re working, again, with them because we’re helping a lot of countries that people don’t even know about.” — briefing Tuesday.THE FACTS: No, the U.S. does not shine in comparison with other countries. The U.S. has experienced far more recorded infections and deaths from COVID-19 than any other country, including those with larger populations, and it lags a number of other nations in testing and containment.Trump seems to have edged away from claiming that the U.S. mortality rate is the world’s best, after being confronted on that point in his Fox News interview a week ago with Chris Wallace. His more modest boasts since, though, also are not correct.Understanding deaths as a percentage of the population or as a percentage of known infections is problematic because countries track and report COVID-19 deaths and cases differently. No one can reliably rank countries in this regard.The statistics that do exist fail to support his assertion.In an analysis of the 20 countries currently most affected by the pandemic, the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center finds the U.S. with the fourth worst rate of deaths per 100,000 people — only Britain, Peru and Chile are seeing more reported deaths as a proportion of their populations.On another measure, looking at what percentage of reported cases lead to death, the U.S. is in the middle of that pack, with a case-fatality ratio of 3.6%Looking at deaths among all countries, not just the ones most suffering at this stage of the pandemic, the U.S. fares somewhat better but still not among the best. Its recorded 44 deaths per 100,000 compares favorably with Britain (68.6 per 100,000) as well as Spain (60.8), Italy (58) and Sweden (55.7), for example, but poorly with Canada (24), Brazil (40), Mexico (33) and dozens more countries.Disparities in reporting are only one reason not to take these numbers conclusively. Many factors are in play in shaping a death toll besides how well a country responded to the pandemic, such as the overall health or youth of national populations.’CANCEL CULTURE’KAYLEIGH McENANY, White House press secretary, on Trump: “He’s also appalled by cancel culture, and cancel culture specifically as it pertains to cops. We saw a few weeks ago, ‘Paw Patrol,’ a cartoon show about cops was canceled.” — briefing Friday.THE FACTS: No, ‘Paw Patrol’ was not canceled. Fake rumors online said it was. And it’s not about cops. It’s a cartoon about puppies. The lead puppy is a cop. There’s a firefighter puppy, too.MASKSMcENANY, when asked about Trump’s change in tone this past week in urging people to wear masks: “There has been no change. …The president has been consistent on this.” — news briefing Friday.THE FACTS: Trump’s messaging has been inconsistent, to say the least.Trump from the beginning has made clear that wearing masks is voluntary and shunned wearing one in public. He frequently ridiculed Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden for wearing a mask in public. In May, when a reporter declined to pull down his mask to ask a question at a news briefing so Trump could hear better, the president mocked by saying, “OK, because you want to be politically correct.”And Trump told The Wall Street Journal last month that some people may wear them as a political statement against him.”People touch them,” he said. “And they grab them and I see it all the time. They come in, they take the mask. Now they’re holding it now in their fingers. And they drop it on the desk and then they touch their eye and they touch their nose. No, I think a mask is a — it’s a double-edged sword.”This past week, as his poll ratings on the handling of the coronavirus have fallen, Trump on Monday tweeted a photo of himself wearing a mask and called it an act of patriotism. That evening, he was seen maskless at the Trump International Hotel in apparent defiance of D.C. coronavirus regulations, according to video footage of the event.”We’re asking everybody that when you are not able to socially distance, wear a mask, get a mask,” Trump said Tuesday at his first appearance at a coronavirus briefing since April. “Whether you like the mask or not, they have an impact.”TRAVEL RESTRICTIONSTRUMP: “You know, one day, we had a virus come in, and I closed the borders, did a lot of things that were very good. … And nobody wanted to do it. I wanted to do it. We closed the border to China. We put on the ban. We didn’t want people coming in from heavily infected China.” — briefing Tuesday.THE FACTS: He didn’t ban travel from China. He restricted it. Dozens of countries took similar steps to control travel from hot spots before or around the same time the U.S. did. The U.S. restrictions that took effect Feb. 2 continued to allow travel to the U.S. from China’s Hong Kong and Macao territories over the past five months. The Associated Press reported that more than 8,000 Chinese and foreign nationals based in those territories entered the U.S. in the first three months after the travel restrictions were imposed.Additionally, more than 27,000 Americans returned from mainland China in the first month after the restrictions took effect. U.S. officials lost track of more than 1,600 of them who were supposed to be monitored for virus exposure. VETERANSTRUMP: “On the VA, we got Veterans Choice. Nobody thought that would be possible. That’s been many decades. They’ve been trying to get Veterans Choice. It’s called ‘Choice,’ where they can go get a doctor if they have to wait on line for two weeks or five weeks or two days.” — briefing Tuesday.THE FACTS: It’s false that he achieved Veterans Choice when other presidents couldn’t. President Barack Obama achieved it. Trump expanded it. It has not eliminated delays for care, including for those with waits of “two weeks” or “two days.”The program allows veterans to see a private doctor for primary or mental health care at public expense if their VA wait is 20 days (28 for specialty care) or their drive to a VA facility is 30 minutes or more. After the coronavirus outbreak, the VA took the step of restricting veterans’ access to private doctors, citing the added risks of infection and limited capacity at private hospitals.
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Лондон диагностировал паранойю у обиженного карлика пукина…
Лондон диагностировал паранойю у обиженного карлика пукина…
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Парламентский доклад: британские власти сильно недооценили путляндскую угрозу…
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Крах мифологемы обиженного карлика пукина: о борьбе в тылу врага
Крах мифологемы обиженного карлика пукина: о борьбе в тылу врага.
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Это – целый пласт истории, который имеет важное значение для оценки того, как силы участников этой войны вели себя в окружении и как действовали в партизанском стиле. Но совок все это вымарал и выбросил, окончательно извратив историю той далекой войны
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China Accuses US of Improperly Entering Houston Consulate
China’s foreign ministry complained Saturday that American law enforcement officials improperly entered its consulate in Houston, which was ordered to close in an escalating diplomatic feud.The ministry gave no details, but U.S. federal agents checked the consulate’s doors and a locksmith was seen working on a lock Friday after Chinese diplomats left ahead of a 4 p.m. deadline to close.U.S.-Chinese relations have plunged to their lowest level in decades amid conflicts over trade, technology, Hong Kong, spying accusations and complaints of abuses against Chinese Muslims.US Closure of Chinese Consulate Expected to Bring Retaliation Analysts expect China to order the closure of a US consulate in China — possibly in the cities of Shenyang or Wuhan The Trump administration ordered the Houston consulate closed this week, saying Chinese agents tried to steal medical and other research in Texas. Beijing responded by ordering Washington to close its consulate in the southwest Chinese city of Chengdu.”As for the U.S. side’s forcible entry into the premises of the Chinese Consulate General in Houston, China expresses strong dissatisfaction and resolute opposition,” said a foreign ministry statement. “China will make a proper and necessary response to this.”The statement said that the Houston consulate was Chinese property, and that under diplomatic treaties American officials had no right to enter.In Chengdu, spectators snapped photos outside the U.S. Consulate on Saturday as police in T-shirts and surgical masks stood on the sidewalk and the closed-off street in front of the walled compound.A bus drove into the compound, but spectators saw few other signs of action. On Friday, a man was detained by police after he set off firecrackers outside the consulate at about 7 p.m., Chengdu police said on their social media account. It said the man was given a warning.
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Ancient Greek Theaters Return to Life in Pandemic
Lights! Crickets. Birds. Bats. Action! The ancient theater of Epidaurus, renowned for its acoustics, has reopened for a limited number of open-air performances, with organizers planning a live-streamed event Saturday for the first time in the Greek monument’s 2,300-year history.Live concerts and events have been mostly canceled in Greece this summer due to the coronavirus pandemic. But the Culture Ministry allowed the Epidaurus Theater in southern Greece and the Odeon of Herodes Atticus in Athens to host performances under strict safety guidelines. “Only 45% of the seats are occupied, the refreshments areas are closed, there is no intermission, and tickets are only issued electronically,” said Maria Panagiotopoulou, spokeswoman for the cultural organization which organized the events. “We normally have 80 performances in the summer. This year, it’s just 17. … We kept changing the plans. We planned for a September start, and then we were concerned that all events might be canceled. We ended up with something in the middle. It would have been the first summer without a performance in 65 years.” Acts from abroad were off-limits due to the pandemic, and the scheduled artists were instructed not to give encores. Stewards wearing surgical gloves and plastic visors keep spectators apart as they clamber up the steep stone amphitheater steps to find their seats. Just 4,500 of the usual 10,000 seats are being made available at Epidaurus Theatre, a honeycomb-colored stone venue with a shallow, half-funnel shape that allows music and voices from the stage to be clearly heard all 55 rows up. Surrounded by pine-covered mountains of the southern Peloponnese region, audiences also can clearly hear the sounds of birds and crickets along with the protests of people who were locked out of the theater for arriving too late. Christina Koutra, a musicologist from Athens, said she was happy to make the winding three-hour trip to Epidaurus to watch the season’s first event, a solo performance of Bach by acclaimed Greek violinist Leonidas Kavakos. “There is a feeling of harmony here. It’s a sacred place,” Koutra said from behind a face mask as she left the theater with her parents.“Culture cannot stand still. We have to take part and keep it going,” she said.The National Theatre of Greece will be performing “The Persians” by ancient Greek playwright Aeschylus for Saturday’s live-streamed show.
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Siberian Heat Wave and Melting Arctic Sea Ice Indicate Climate Change, Scientists Say
Scientists warn record Siberian temperatures and the rapid melting of the Arctic sea ice along the Russian coast indicate that climate change is occurring and may be irreversible. Siberia, famous for its bitterly cold weather, has been experiencing a tropical heat wave, with temperatures reaching a record 38 degrees Celsius June 20 in the Russian town of Verkhoyansk. This week alone, the World Meteorological Organization reports some parts of Siberia have been warmer than the U.S. states of Florida and California, with temperatures going above 30 degrees Celsius. It says the exceptional and prolonged heat is fueling devastating Arctic fires and causing a rapid decrease in the Arctic sea ice coverage.WMO spokeswoman Clare Nullis says the Arctic is heating more than twice the global average, and that is having a major impact on local populations and ecosystems.“We always say what happens in the Arctic does not stay in the Arctic,” said Nullis. “It does affect our weather in different parts of the world where hundreds of millions of people live. There was a study last week, which says that the extreme heat that we are seeing would have been almost impossible without climate change. So, it does have a clear fingerprint of climate change on it.” Since January, Scientists estimate total carbon emissions from the fires raging inside the Arctic Circle are the highest in 18 years of monitoring the phenomenon. In addition, they warn the melting of ice and thawing of permafrost will potentially release methane, a very powerful greenhouse gas into the atmosphere.Nullis tells VOA greenhouse gases are having a major impact on infrastructure and ecosystems throughout the region.“It will be very, very hard to reverse because of the law of physics,” said Nullis. “You know, the levels of carbon dioxide, which we have got in the atmosphere now, will carry on heating surface temperatures for generations to come. The lifetime of CO2 in the atmosphere runs into many, many, many decades.” A new study published in the journal Nature Climate Change warns that the iconic polar bear—a symbol of climate change—may be nearly extinct by the end of the century because of shrinking sea ice. The article suggests high greenhouse gas emissions also will likely cause a steep decline in the reproduction of other Arctic subpopulations by 2100.
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Thousands in Khabarovsk, Russia, Protest Replacement of Popular Regional Governor
Huge crowds took to the streets of the Russian city of Khabarovsk on Saturday, angered by the arrest of the region’s popular governor, replaced this week by a Kremlin appointee who had never lived in the region.Protesters were holding posters reading “Give us back Sergei Furgal, people’s governor” during an unsanctioned protest in the Far East city near the border with China, 6,100 kilometers east of Russian capital, Moscow.Journalists reporting from Khabarovsk, seven time zones east of Moscow, said Saturday’s rally was the largest since the demonstrations began this month.The governor was arrested by federal law enforcement earlier this month on charges related to multiple murders in 2004 and 2005. He was flown to Moscow, where he was ordered jailed for two months.Furgal, a member of the nationalist Liberal Democratic Party, has denied the charges.Russia’s Investigative Committee has said Furgal was suspected of involvement in several murders of businessmen before his political career began.The protesters, however, believe the charges leveled against him are politically motivated.Furgal was elected governor in 2018. His unexpected victory was seen as a challenge to President Vladimir Putin’s policies and the main Kremlin party, United Russia.
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Indonesia Frees Australian from Prison After Yearlong Sentence for Drugs
Indonesia on Saturday released an Australian man from prison on the tourist island of Bali after he served one year for cocaine possession in a nightclub.William Cabantog and club manager David van Iersel were arrested in July of last year after a police raid at the Lost City Club in the island’s Canggu neighborhood.Indonesian police caught Cabantog with 1.12 grams of cocaine in the pocket of his jeans.Cabantog, 37, was sentenced to 12 months in prison and Van Iersel, 39, to nine months.During the trial, the two convinced the judges the cocaine was for their own use.Due to Indonesia’s strict drug laws, convicted drug traffickers are often executed by a firing squad.More than 150 people are currently on death row, mostly for drug-related crimes. About one-third are foreigners.
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More Than 180 Wildfires Burning in Siberia
Wildfires continue to burn in parts of Siberia this summer as a heatwave has continued to spread in areas north of the Arctic Circle.The World Metrological Organization (WMO) has raised the alarm, saying official figures show record warming in the Arctic.”In general, the Arctic is heating more than twice the global average,” said Clare Nullis, WMO spokesperson. “It’s having a big impact on local populations and ecosystems, but we always say that what happens in the Arctic doesn’t stay in the Arctic, it does affect our weather in different parts of the world where hundreds of millions of people live.”More than 180 fires are burning in the Siberian region, with many in the northern Sakha Republic, on the Arctic Ocean.”Some parts of Siberia this week have again topped 30 degrees Celsius — so it’s been warmer in Siberia than many parts of Florida,” said Nullis.The wildfires are having effects far beyond the Arctic region, the WMO said.Firefighters are working to stop the fires.
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Ethiopia Fuels Regional Tensions with Next Phase of Blue Nile River Mega-Dam
After Ethiopia acknowledged this week it has begun to fill the reservoir at its massive dam on the Blue Nile River, observers worry that neighboring countries may feel they are running out of options to respond to a long-planned energy project that could endanger their access to fresh water.Mirette Mabrouk, a senior fellow and director of the Middle East Institute’s Egypt Studies Program, told VOA that news about the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) being filled could ratchet up tensions between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia.She believes military aggression is “option Z” in a long list of strategic moves, but remains possible.A satellite image taken May 28 shows the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile river in the Benishangul-Gumuz region of Ethiopia.“Nobody wants that kind of conflict. But I do think that if Egypt and Sudan have their backs up against the wall, it may be a final option,” Mabrouk said. “At least possibly for Egypt, with the understanding that Egypt understands very, very well that any military option is really not going to be in anyone’s favor.”In mid-July, reports emerged that Ethiopia had begun filling the 70 billion cubic meter dam, which lies along the Blue Nile tributary of the Nile River. The claims were backed by satellite images, which appeared to show the dam filling. Ethiopia had previously attributed the water to seasonal overflow.On Wednesday, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said the dam had reached its first-year target for water.Press release on the follow-up Extraordinary Meeting of the Bureau of the African Union Assembly on the #GERD. pic.twitter.com/TdhLEnz49l
— Office of the Prime Minister – Ethiopia (@PMEthiopia) July 21, 2020Ethiopia has said the dam will take up to seven years to fill. The first-year target was 4.9 billion cubic meters, Seleshi Bekele, Ethiopia’s water and energy minister said, speaking to VOA Amharic.“There is no other option. Ethiopia has its own natural rights. Ethiopia doesn’t ask for water from Egypt. It is Ethiopia’s own water resource, and, [within] its sovereignty,” Seleshi said. “Therefore … [finding] a peaceful solution is for all parties to recognize developmental goals and find a medium where there is effectual development.”But it is clear that the path forward is not sustainable if one party gets zero and the other full benefits,” he added.Support from oppositionInternally, Prime Minister Abiy appears to have gained support from some opposition parties.“We believe that it is a good thing that a certain amount of water has already started filling, and, especially when we look at the issue from the Egyptians’ perspective, their stance appears to be that they wouldn’t want a drop of water to fill,” Kejela Merdasa, public relations head of the Oromo Liberation Front, told VOA’s Amharic service. “And so, if you look at it from this perspective, it is a good sign that it is being filled. But even now, there is more work left to be done.”“The Nile dam is being built not with the intention of harming others, but so that Ethiopians can be self-reliant,” said Mulugeta Abebe, the deputy president of the All-Ethiopia Union Party. “It is great that the dam has reached this level of initial filling despite the environment where there are many internal and external armed groups, and our organization is happy to learn about the development.”Outside Ethiopia’s borders, the news has angered Sudanese and Egyptian negotiators who believe the 2015 Declaration of Principles signed by the three nations forbids unilateral filling.‘Nothing has shifted’Some observers say the new announcement hasn’t changed much. “The African leaders meeting on GERD [was] a non-event. Fundamentally, nothing has shifted. To sell it as ‘progress,’ ‘breakthrough’ is utterly misleading, if not dishonest,” Rashid Abdi, a Horn analyst tweeted.Press release on the follow-up Extraordinary Meeting of the Bureau of the African Union Assembly on the #GERD. pic.twitter.com/TdhLEnz49l
— Office of the Prime Minister – Ethiopia (@PMEthiopia) July 21, 2020“The situation is … past a dangerous moment, as Egypt, until now, has wisely not responded to [the] first filling by increasing diplomatic pressure and returning to the U.N. Security Council,” William Davison, the International Crisis Group’s senior analyst for Ethiopia, tweeted. THREAD
This week’s #GERD development at AU meeting was politically significant, as Egypt and Sudan agreed to keep negotiating despite Ethiopia beginning to fill reservoir without reaching an agreement. SU and EG had opposed that approach.
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— William Davison (@wdavison10) July 23, 2020Sudan has recorded a drop of 90 million cubic meters per day at its al-Deim station on the Blue Nile since Ethiopia began filling the dam. That could spell trouble for the nation’s access to fresh water.Sudan is 50% desert and Egypt is 96% desert, Mabrouk said, and both rely heavily on the Nile for fresh water. Egypt, for example, has about 560 cubic meters of water available per person, far less than the 1,000 cubic meters needed to be above the U.N.’s water poverty threshold.“The amount of water that Egypt gets from the Nile basin annually to date is more or less 55 billion cubic meters. Egypt uses between 80 to 90 billion cubic meters every year. And that difference has got to be made up by clever water use. And it’s mostly reuse of water,” Mabrouk said. “Egypt is very, very conscious of its water use and it’s been working on [it] a long time. It has cut down on water-intensive crops like cotton.”A quick resolution to the GERD conflict appears unlikely. Ethiopia says it will complete the dam between the year 2022 to 2023, but filling it might continue for a year or two after that, Seleshi told VOA Amharic.Horn of Africa Service’s Solomon Abate and Meleskachew Amiha contributed to this report.
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6 Days of Memorials to Begin for Civil Rights Icon John Lewis
A six-day series of events memorializing the life of the late civil rights icon and member of the U.S. House of Representatives John Lewis begins Saturday in his hometown of Troy, Alabama, and culminates next week with his funeral in the state of Georgia.A public service celebrating Lewis will take place Saturday morning at Troy University, where Lewis will lie in repose for visitors to pay their respects. Later in the day, a private ceremony will honor him at a chapel in Selma, Alabama, ahead of another public viewing.On Sunday, Lewis’ body will cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, where he and other voting rights demonstrators were beaten in 1965 on a day known as “Bloody Sunday.”His body will be carried to Alabama’s capital, Montgomery, where Mayor Steven Reed is encouraging people to line the sidewalks on the final leg of that journey. Officials are asking the public to wear face masks and socially distance.Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey has ordered flags to be flown at half-staff on Saturday and Sunday in honor of Lewis.During the nearly weeklong memorial events, Lewis’ body will lie in state at the Alabama State Capitol in Montgomery, the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta and the U.S. Capitol in Washington.U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced earlier this week that visitors could pay their respects to Lewis in the U.S. Capitol on Monday and Tuesday.Due to the coronavirus, the public viewing will take place outside the Capitol building instead of inside in the traditional Capitol Rotunda. The lawmakers said social distancing will be “strictly enforced” and face masks will be required.The Georgia Democrat will be the second Black lawmaker to lie in state at the Capitol, following Congressman Elijah Cummings, who died last year.Lewis’ family said there will also be a procession through Washington next week and said members of the public will be able to pay their respects in a “socially distant manner.”Lewis’ funeral will be held Thursday at Atlanta’s historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Martin Luther King Jr. was once the pastor. Following the service, which will be private, Lewis will be interred at South View Cemetery in Atlanta.Lewis died last Friday at age 80, after a yearlong battle with advanced pancreatic cancer.He rose to fame as a leader of the modern-day American civil rights movement of the 1950s and ’60s. At 23, he worked closely with King and was the last surviving speaker from the August 1963 March on Washington where King gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.The civil rights movement led Lewis into a career in politics. He was elected to the Atlanta City Council in 1981 and to Congress in 1986, calling the latter victory “the honor of a lifetime.” He served 17 terms in the U.S. House of Representatives from Georgia’s fifth district.
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Arrests of Zimbabwe Journalist, Opposition Leader Worry OHCHR
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said it is “concerned” that authorities in Zimbabwe may be using the COVID-19 pandemic as a pretext to clamp down on citizens’ freedoms. This week, police arrested a prominent investigative journalist and an opposition leader, accusing them of inciting public violence.Journalist Hopewell Chin’ono and politician Jacob Ngarivhume have been jailed since Monday on allegations of inciting public violence — through social media — ahead of a planned July 31 government corruption protest. Both men have denied the charges.In Geneva on Friday, OHCHR spokesperson Liz Throssell said Zimbabweans have a right to protest corruption or anything else.“Merely calling for a peaceful protest or participating in a peaceful protest is an exercise of recognized human rights,” she said. “We are also concerned at reports of police using force to disperse and arrest nurses and health workers for infringing lockdown restrictions as they were trying to protest for better salaries and conditions of work… While recognizing the government’s efforts to contain the pandemic, it is important to remind the authorities that any lockdown measures and restrictions should be necessary, proportionate and time-limited, and enforced humanely without resorting to unnecessary or excessive force.”Late Friday, Chin’ono was denied bail by the Magistrate Courts, one day after the courts denied bail to Ngarivhume. Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights said it would appeal the rulings to the High Court next week.Earlier in the week, bail hearings for Chin’ono and Ngarivhume were cut short on two consecutive days. Officials said they wanted to leave early to ensure they comply with a dusk-to-dawn curfew imposed in Harare on Wednesday as part of new restrictions to contain the coronavirus.Beatrice Mtetwa of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, who is representing Chin’ono, was not amused.“We find this extremely frustrating because constitutional rights like the right to liberty have now been suspended through failure to make appropriate arrangements,” she said. “Surely, they should make arrangements such as bail to take staff home so that constitutionally guaranteed rights like liberty are not unnecessarily infringed. It’s extremely frustrating. It makes a mockery of the need to come to court within 48 hours. It makes a mockery of the requirement that bail (application) be heard urgently.”Announcing the curfew, President Emmerson Mnangagwa said he was aware that some rights would be infringed upon. But Mtetwa was not convinced.“If you want to make excuses for trampling on people’s rights, you are absolutely free to do so but it is not what the constitution provides for,” she said. “Bail matters are always heard on an urgent basis. You can sit right into the night as long as you make arrangements to take the court staff home. So, it cannot be an excuse that the president has decreed. The president has no power to suspend constitutional rights.”Getting into a waiting prison vehicle Friday, Chin’ono had this to say to waiting reporters:“We are being persecuted for talking about corruption and we won’t be bowed.” Asked about his spirits, he said, “I am fine.”Nick Mangwana, the secretary of Zimbabwe’s ministry of information, did not answer phone calls from VOA.
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Trump Administration Officials Press Schools to Reopen
U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration continued to make the case Friday for schools to reopen for the academic year, saying schools and teachers are “essential” despite a nationwide surge in coronavirus cases.”It is our firm belief that our schools are essential places of business, if you will, that our teachers are essential personnel,” White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said at a news briefing Friday.When asked why Trump is canceling the Republican convention but is encouraging schools to open, McEnany said children are “not affected in the same way as adults” and that “we can make precautions and take measures to protect” children.Several studies have suggested that children are less likely to become infected by the coronavirus than adults and are more likely to have milder symptoms.However, Deborah Birx, a member of the White House coronavirus task force, told the television program Today on Friday that it was “still an open question” on how quickly young children can spread the virus. She also said that children with underlying health conditions can “suffer terrible consequences” if they become infected.U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said during a talk Friday at Marian University in Indianapolis that “opening up our schools again is the best thing for our kids.”“It’s also the best thing for working families,” he added, arguing that having children return to classrooms is a necessary step to seeing more parents return to their jobs.Presumptive U.S. Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden on Friday told the ABC television affiliate in Phoenix that Trump “just wants to order schools to open because he’s afraid if he doesn’t, it will hurt his reelection chances.”On Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that school leaders and local officials take into account the virus’ rate of transmission in their area in deciding when to reopen schools. It recommended that students return to in-person learning if there is minimal or moderate spread in an area.
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US-China Hostility Reaches New Level, Experts Say
Amid rising diplomatic tensions, China has ordered the United States to close its consulate in Chengdu. Experts see the move as retaliation for the U.S. closing of China’s consulate in Houston, and they say it reflects a new level of hostility between the two countries ahead of U.S. presidential elections in November. VOA’s Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports from Washington.Videographers: Stella Hsu, Zoom video interviews; Jela de Franceschi, Skype interview
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US Sees Significant Decline in Fatalities Among Afghan Forces, Civilians
The U.S. peace envoy to Afghanistan said Friday that violence in the war-torn country had lately been “too high,” but that fatalities among Afghan government security forces battling the Taliban insurgency had dropped 35 percent to 40 percent compared with the same period in 2019.Zalmay Khalilzad, the special representative for Afghan reconciliation, also noted that no American or coalition solider had been killed by the Taliban since the United States FILE – Newly freed Taliban prisoners sit at Pul-i-Charkhi prison, in Kabul, Afghanistan, May 26, 2020.Khalilzad said Friday that he was pleased to see the Afghan government had released more than 4,400 insurgent prisoners out of the promised 5,000 in its custody. In turn, the Taliban have released 861 from the objective of 1,000 Afghan forces, he added.“Most of the distance has been traveled in this difficult road but the last mile remains very challenging,” the U.S. envoy said. He added that Washington was committed to working with both sides to help complete the prisoner release so that intra-Afghan negotiations could begin.Khalilzad spoke a day after the Taliban announced that if the prisoner swap is concluded before the Muslim festival of Eid ul Adha starting July 31, the insurgent group was ready to engage in intra-Afghan talks immediately after the three-day festivities.600 still heldBut the Afghan government has refused to free a last set of about 600 insurgent prisoners, saying they were involved in serious crimes, including killing innocent Afghans. The Taliban have denounced the charges as baseless, saying Kabul is using “lame excuses” to delay the peace process.Washington has also repeatedly urged the Afghan leadership to wind up the prisoner swap to pave the way for the peace talks. The Taliban have ruled out participation in the talks until all their 5,000 prisoners are set free.Khalilzad said that the United States has been delivering on its commitments since signing the agreement with the Taliban and has been reducing the number of U.S. forces to the level of 8,600 personnel, as well as vacating five bases in Afghanistan.The remaining American troops and their coalition partners are required to withdraw by July 2021.“But the withdrawal is very much conditions-based and we will see whether the Taliban honor their commitments, because our decisions, our commitments, are contingent on their commitment,” Khalilzad said.He elaborated that, among other commitments, the Taliban are required to prevent transnational terrorists from using insurgent-held Afghan territory for attacks against the U.S. and its allies. The insurgents, he added, have also committed to participate in the intra-Afghan talks and agree on “a comprehensive permanent cease-fire.”
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Trump Signs Executive Orders to Lower Prescription Drug Prices
U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday signed four executive orders aimed at lowering the prices Americans pay for prescription drugs, as he faces an uphill reelection battle and criticism over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Trump has previously proposed most of the changes made by the executive orders he signed Friday, but this was the first time they had made it into signed executive orders. One order would allow for the legal importation of cheaper prescription drugs from countries like Canada, while another would require discounts from drug companies now captured by middlemen to be passed on to patients, Trump said. Another measure seeks to lower insulin costs, while a fourth, which may not be implemented if talks with drug companies are successful, would require Medicare to purchase drugs at the same price that other countries pay, Trump said. Executives of top drug companies have requested a meeting to discuss how they can lower drug prices, the president said. “We will see what those discussions indicate, but the agency is prepared to move forward,” said Medicare chief Seema Verma. Pharmaceutical industry weighs inThe orders received swift pushback from the pharmaceutical industry. The move was “a reckless distraction that impedes our ability to respond to the current pandemic – and those we could face in the future,” the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America said in a statement. Wall Street analysts were skeptical that the orders would have much effect on drugmakers and said they could prove difficult to implement in practice. “We believe they are likely geared more towards deriving campaign talking points rather than producing tangible, material effects,” Brian Abrahams, a biotech analyst at RBC Capital Markets, said in a note. Shares of several drugmakers ticked up as Trump outlined the plan, recovering some of the day’s losses. Congress not on boardTrump repeatedly has called for lowering the cost of prescription drugs, but Congress has not yet passed a major drug price reform. Many of the administration’s past efforts to cut drug prices, including its plan to force insurers and other health care payers to pass rebates on to patients, have stalled amid industry pushback. “Reviving a rebate reform proposal now does not address the underlying flaws – that it will drastically increase Medicare premiums for America’s seniors and most vulnerable,” the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association, whose members negotiate rebates for health care payers with drugmakers, said in a statement. Paying the rebates directly to seniors in the form of discounts could cut their drug costs by as much as $30 billion, or as much as 30%, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said in a Friday press call. Trump is under fire for surging coronavirus cases in the United States and beset by decreasing poll numbers ahead of November 3 elections. On Friday, he also said that the White House would propose a health care bill soon but offered few details. Drugmakers often negotiate rebates or discounts on their list prices in exchange for favorable treatment from insurers. As a result, insurers and covered patients rarely pay the full list price of a drug.
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Kenya Urged to Revive Education in Northeast to Stop al-Shabab Recruiting
Conflict experts are warning that Kenya’s failure to restore education in its troubled northeastern regions will help terrorist group al-Shabab recruit local youth. A report from the International Crisis Group calls on Kenyan authorities to cooperate with the locals to improve security and train teachers for the schools.Kenya’s northeastern region has begun the process of finding more teachers to lead classes when schools re-open next January.
The closure of schools due to the COVID-19 pandemic gives the region time to hire teachers from the region after the non-local teachers fled the area due to insecurity.Khalif Sheikh Issack is the Garissa County education chief. He says the region is looking for at least 1,500 teachers to fill the gap left by others who left the region due to al-Shabab attacks.“The target is to recruit only local teachers from Garissa, Wajir, and Mandera so that the issue of insecurity and teachers who come from outside these counties who were facing imminent danger is removed,” Issack said. “The recruitment is ongoing, and we pray maybe we would raise enough local teachers. One aspect that is being addressed is direct recruitment of teachers, fresh teachers, they are also calling back those from this region who retired. They are being put back on contract, and any other teacher who deserted the service either for greener pastures or discipline cases were called back.”The Teachers Service Commission, which is tasked with hiring and deployment of teachers, pulled the educators from the region after four teachers were killed in January and February by al-Shabab.
The TSC said they did not want to lose more teachers to the Islamist militant group.
Ahmed Ismail Dugow, an elected member of Wajir County Assembly, whose area borders Somalia, says there has been no schooling in the area for some time. “Education in my area has been affected, the learning institution has been completely shut down,” Dugow said. “Over 15 primary and eight secondary schools have been closed since the teachers left because of insecurity in my area, specifically villages and towns bordering with Somalia.”Murithi Mutiga is the Horn of Africa project director at the International Crisis Group. He says the teachers’ absence gives the terror group a good opening to recruit youth who can join them in their fight against the Kenyan and Somali governments.“Al-Shabab have found that targeting teachers, it can empty the schools of those tutors, leave a lot of young people without education and make them more vulnerable to radicalization and possible recruitment,” Mutiga said.The wave of attacks has led to more security operations in Kenya’s northeast, which has also created a climate of mistrust between the local population and security forces.
Mutiga says the authorities need to work closely with the community to defeat al-Shabab.“We are just urging them to reprise that approach to ensure communities have confidence in authorities, focus on gathering intelligence, and then that may give them a better chance of rowing back al-Shabab’s campaign,” Mutiga said.The militant group has carried out attacks against Kenyan targets since the government sent troops to Somalia in 2011. Kenya has vowed to remain in Somalia until the country restores normalcy and stability.
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UN Human Rights Office Concerned About Arrests of Zimbabwe Journalist, Opposition Leader
The Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights says it is “concerned” that authorities in Zimbabwe may be using the COVID-19 pandemic as a pretext to clamp down on citizens’ freedoms. This week, police arrested a prominent investigative journalist and an opposition leader, accusing them of inciting public violence. Journalist Hopewell Chin’ono and politician Jacob Ngarivhume have been jailed since Monday on allegations of inciting public violence — through social media — ahead of a planned July 31 government corruption protest. Both men have denied the charges.FILE – Transform Zimbabwe leader Jacob Ngarivhume gestures as he addresses a Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) Alliance launch rally at White City Stadium in Bulawayo on Sept. 2, 2017.In Geneva Friday, OHCHR spokesperson Liz Throssell said Zimbabweans have a right to protest corruption or anything else.“Merely calling for a peaceful protest or participating in a peaceful protest are an exercise of recognized human rights,” said Throssell. “We are also concerned at reports of police using force to disperse and arrest nurses and health workers for infringing lockdown restrictions as they were trying to protest for better salaries and conditions of work… While recognizing the government’s efforts to contain the pandemic, it is important to remind the authorities that any lockdown measures and restrictions should be necessary, proportionate and time-limited, and enforced humanely without resorting to unnecessary or excessive force.” Late Friday, Chin’ono was denied bail by the Magistrate Courts, one day after the courts denied bail to Ngarivhume. Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights said it would appeal the rulings to the High Court next week.Earlier in the week, bail hearings for Chin’ono and Ngarivhume were cut short on two consecutive days. Officials said they wanted to leave early to ensure they comply with a dusk-to-dawn curfew imposed in Harare Wednesday as part of new restrictions to contain COVID-19. Beatrice Mtetwa of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, who is representing Chin’ono, was not amused.“We find this extremely frustrating because constitutional rights like the right to liberty have now been suspended through failure to make appropriate arrangements,” said Mtetwa. “Surely, they should make arrangements such as bail to take staff home so that constitutionally guaranteed rights like liberty are not unnecessarily infringed. It’s extremely frustrating. It makes a mockery of the need to come to court within 48 hours. It makes a mockery of the requirement that bail (application) be heard urgently.”Announcing the curfew, President Emmerson Mnangagwa said he was aware that some rights would be infringed upon. But Mtetwa is not convinced.“If you want to make excuses for trampling on people’s rights, you are absolutely free to do so but it is not what the constitution provides for,” said Mtetwa. “Bail matters are always heard on an urgent basis. You can sit right into the night as long as you make arrangements to take the court staff home. So it cannot be an excuse that the president has decreed. The president has no power to suspend constitutional rights.”Getting into a waiting prison vehicle Friday, Chin’ono had this to say to waiting reporters.“We are being persecuted for talking about corruption and we won’t be bowed. (Coco: “And your spirits?”) I am fine,” said Chin’ono.Nick Mangwana, the secretary of Zimbabwe’s ministry of information, did not answer phone calls from VOA.
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Goldman Sachs, Malaysia Reach $3.9B Settlement Over 1MDB
Malaysia’s government said Friday that it had reached a $3.9 billion settlement with Goldman Sachs in exchange for dropping criminal charges against the bank over bond sales that raised money for the 1MDB sovereign wealth fund, which was looted of billions of dollars in a massive scandal. Malaysian and U.S. prosecutors had alleged that the bond sales organized by Goldman Sachs provided one of the means for associates of ex-Prime Minister Najib Razak to steal billions over several years from a fund that was ostensibly set up to accelerate Malaysia’s economic development. Najib is on trial on multiple corruption charges linked to the scandal after his election ouster in May 2018. Goldman and two of its former executives were charged in December that year with alleged breaches of securities laws, including misleading investors over the bond sales. Another 17 former and current Goldman executives were also charged last year over alleged roles in the fraud. FILE – The logo for Goldman Sachs appears above a trading post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Dec. 13, 2016.The finance ministry said in a statement that Goldman agreed to pay $2.5 billion in cash and guarantee that Malaysia gets at least $1.4 billion in proceeds from assets bought with the bond money that have since been seized around the globe.It said the deal was a sharp jump from Goldman’s previous offer of $1.75 billion in 2019 and would avoid lengthy and costly court battles. The settlement came after a new government, which includes Najib’s Malay party, took power in March following a political coup. It is lower than the $7.5 billion settlement that the previous government had sought. “With today’s settlement amount and the monies that Malaysia has already received from the U.S. Department of Justice, more than $4.5 billion will be returned to the people of Malaysia,” the ministry said, adding that the government was committed to recovering other outstanding assets. It said the deal showed that Goldman acknowledged misconduct by its two former employees and would not affect Malaysia’s charges against fugitive Malaysian financier Low Taek Jho, identified as an alleged mastermind of the fraud, and other parties in the scandal. Najib set up 1MDB when he took office in 2009. It accumulated billions in debts, and U.S. investigators allege at least $4.5 billion was stolen from the fund and laundered by Najib’s associates. Public anger over the alleged corruption contributed to the country’s first change in its governing coalition since independence from Britain in 1957. The new government installed in 2018 reopened investigations into the scandal that had been stifled under Najib’s administration.Najib is currently on trial on multiple graft charges. He denies the charges and has called it a political attack. His wife, Rosmah Masnsor, and stepson, Riza Aziz, were also charged in the case. Prosecutors recently dropped charges against Riza following a settlement slammed by critics as a sweetheart deal. It came after the ruling alliance that ousted Najib collapsed in February, with two-time Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad resigning in protest when his party formed a Malay-centric government with Najib’s party and several others. The king subsequently appointed fellow party leader Muhyiddin Yassin as prime minister despite Mahathir’s insistence that he had the support of a majority of lawmakers.
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Turkey’s President Prays With Hundreds at Hagia Sophia Mosque
Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, prayed with hundreds of worshippers Friday inside the Hagia Sophia, the first prayers since the sixth-century Byzantine landmark was redesignated a mosque two weeks ago.The president was joined by other officials, including his son-in-law and finance minister. Only 500 people were allowed inside the mosque because of coronavirus restrictions, while thousands more prayed outside in Sultanahmet Square.Initially an Orthodox Christian cathedral, the mosque’s mosaics depicting Christian figures were covered during the Friday prayers.Erdogan read verses from the Quran, while wearing a white prayer cap. Ali Erbas, head of Turkey’s religious authority, addressed worshippers afterward.“The longing of our nation, which has turned into a heartbreak, is coming to an end today,” Erbas said from the pulpit.“Hagia Sophia will continue to serve all believers as a mosque and will remain a place of cultural heritage for all humanity,” the Turkish president said.Erdogan’s enthusiasm was matched by President Shavkat Mirziyoyev of Uzbekistan, who spoke with Erdogan over the phone.President @RTErdogan spoke by phone with President Shavkat Mirziyoyev of Uzbekistan. pic.twitter.com/uzusJahlyh
— Turkish Presidency (@trpresidency) July 24, 2020 Mirziyoyev expressed his “pleasure” over the mosque’s reopening and “wished for the historic development to have auspicious results for the Turkish nation and the Islamic world.”Not all have voiced similar sentiments over the Hagia Sophia’s renewed status as a mosque.The 1,500-year-old UNESCO-listed site was initially an Orthodox Christian cathedral that became a mosque following the Ottoman conquest of Istanbul in 1453. In 1934, modern Turkey’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, converted it to a museum — a status Erdogan overturned July 10.Christian church leaders and officials from the United States, Russia and Greece have voiced their consternation, and UNESCO has questioned Erdogan’s decision.“Hagia Sophia is an architectural masterpiece and a unique testimony to interactions between Europe and Asia over the centuries,” said Audrey Azoulay, director-general of UNESCO.“This decision … raises the issue of the impact of this change of status on the property’s universal value,” the organization said in a statement July 10.
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Хабаровск взбунтовался. В отставку обиженного карлика пукина! #поддержиХабаровск
Хабаровск взбунтовался. В отставку обиженного карлика пукина! #поддержиХабаровск.
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Я не перестаю восхищаться жителями Хабаровского края, которые вторую неделю отстаивают свои права и показывают пример всей стране, что мы имеем права и обязаны требовать и высказывать свое недовольство без лидеров, а в данном случаи за своего губернатора. И розовые очки спали там у многих, если раньше они просили обиженного карлика пукина разобраться в данной ситуации, то теперь только отставка, даже создали петицию
Петиция здесь: https://www.change.org/p/конституционный-суд-российской-федерации-государственная-дума-российской-федерации-отстранить-президента-россии-путина-в-в-от-занимаемо?signed=true
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