In accepting the Democratic Party’s nomination for president Thursday, Joe Biden set out to make President Donald Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic the central issue in the November election. VOA’s Brian Padden reports on the conclusion of the virtual Democratic National Convention, which also strove to showcase party diversity and unity in opposition to Trump without physically gathering, to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Produced by: Barry Unger
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Month: August 2020
New York’s Pandemic-hit Chinatown Gets Reboot
New York City’s Chinatown neighborhood is struggling to get back on its feet as New York City reopens. Now, thanks to an outdoor dining project, restaurants in the neighborhood are gradually getting their customers back. VOA’s video journalist Jiu Dao reports in this piece narrated by Lin Yang.
Camera: Jiu Dao
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Hundreds in Bialystok, Poland Protest Lukashenko
Hundreds of people took to the streets of the Polish city of Bialystok on Thursday evening to demonstrate against the regime of President Alexander Lukashenko in Belarus.Protesters held a banner reading in Polish: “60 kilometers from here people are fighting for freedom.”Bialystok is a major city near the Polish-Belarusian border.Demonstrators of both Belarusian and Polish origins marched with a gigantic red-and-white former flag of Belarus, which has become the symbol of the nation’s democracy movement.The protesters marched to the front of the Belarusian consulate for a rally.Speakers at the rally who also marched with protesters were Mayor of Bialystok Tadeusz Truskolaski and his deputy Robert Tyszkiewicz, the head of the Parliamentary Team for Belarus.
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VP Nominee Kamala Harris Faces Unique Challenges, and Opportunities
As the first woman of color on a major party’s ticket, Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris is expected to galvanize the minority vote. But Harris also faces unique challenges, and opportunities, as she campaigns alongside presidential nominee Joe Biden. White House correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has this story from Wilmington, Delaware, where Harris delivered her acceptance speech.
Camera: Rob Parsell
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ECOWAS to Hold Talks with Military Junta in Mali
A delegation from the 15-nation Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) will hold talks in Mali Friday with the military junta holding ousted Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and other government leaders.The ECOWAS leaders have called for Keita’s release since the military faction arrested him Tuesday after he announced his resignation and the disbanding of the government.The M5-RFP coalition of opposition parties, which led protests against Keita, supports the mutineers and rejected ECOWAS’ position.ECOWAS leaders have imposed sanctions on Mali, blocked borders and suspended the country’s involvement in the pan-African bloc.Meanwhile, opposition leaders are urging Malians to attend a rally Friday in the capital, Bamako, in support of the military takeover.
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Malaysia Loosens Migrant Labor Ban After Business Blowback
Malaysia is relaxing new rules that bar most industries from hiring migrant workers after business groups warned the move could cripple efforts to revive an economy battered by the coronavirus pandemic.A months-long lockdown has helped keep COVID-19 cases low but pushed the country’s unemployment rate higher than it’s been in decades, knocking more than 300,000 Malaysians out of their jobs. In late July, in a bid to help get locals back to work, the Human Resources Ministry announced that all but construction and agriculture firms would have to stop hiring migrants.Business groups were caught off guard but soon panned the new rules, warning they would leave other industries that also draw heavily on foreign workers — to fill low-paid jobs, most locals don’t want — starved for labor. Analysts add that migrants rarely compete with locals for work and are more likely to create jobs for skilled Malaysians than steal them.Taking heed, Human Resources Minister Saravanan Murugan announced last week that all industries could continue to hire foreign workers but added a few potentially stifling caveats.”Employment of foreign workers must involve those still in the country,” he said in a statement reported by local media, adding that they must still have valid work permits and stick to jobs in the same sector they left.’We still need the migrants’With firms still barred by the lockdown from bringing new migrant workers into Malaysia, the minister’s reprieve fell short of the U-turn many businesses were asking for. But Michael Kang, president of the Small and Medium Enterprises Association, welcomed it nonetheless.”Especially the Malaysian economy, we still need the migrants,” he said.Even so, employers warn that the caveats the minister added will dull the reprieve’s impact and would like to see them relaxed as well. They say the lockdown has made it harder to get work permits renewed and that firms in the industries that need migrant workers most right now are the least likely to have laid them off recently, leaving them with few eligible migrants to hire back.”In that kind of situation there is no way that they are able to employ any of the foreign workers because anyway the employers in the same sector would not retrench them,” said Shamsuddin Bardan, executive director of the Malaysian Employers Federation.”That’s why we suggested that they should be allowed to employ foreign workers from other sectors that may not be required by their [previous] employers,” he added.Shamsuddin said Malaysia’s palm oil industry, the world’s second largest after Indonesia’s, was facing the greatest labor shortages at the moment and would suffer most so long as migrants are barred from crossing sectors.PPE factories straining to keep upOn the bright side, he said factories making personal protective equipment — straining to keep up with a spike in global demand during the pandemic — were likely to pick up migrant workers let go by other struggling firms within the manufacturing sector. Malaysia makes roughly two of every three pairs of disposable rubber gloves in the world.But even they are expected to struggle to keep production and packing lines staffed for long if they can only draw on migrant workers already in Malaysia. In last week’s statement, the human resources minister made no mention of letting new migrants into the country to fill jobs outside of the construction and agriculture sectors once borders reopen.If that rule stands, said Kang, “I think there will be a lot of companies in manufacturing that will shut down.”Laurence Todd, research director at the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs, a local think tank, said the widespread rebuke from business groups and the economy’s larger-than-expected Q2 slump likely convinced the government to relax its originally sweeping ban on migrant workers.Malaysia’s central bank says the economy shrank 17.1% from April through June year on year, its largest contraction in more than 20 years.’A question of tactics’But Todd doubts the government has abandoned its longstanding goal of weaning the economy off of foreign labor eventually and believes that even with the new rules relaxed authorities have signaled their intent to stick with it.”They’ve succeeded in sending a signal to businesses — and to the public, indeed — that this is the direction they want to take, and that will have some effect, I’m sure. Businesses will be thinking about the risk of having a high exposure or dependence on foreign labor,” he said.”As it became clear that the economic situation was going to be quite bad and the business reaction was as strong as it was, I think they just judged that this was not the right time to have this battle. But I still think it’s their instinct that this battle should be had, and it will be had, but it’s just a question of tactics.”The Human Resources Ministry did not reply to VOA’s requests for an interview.
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Open Technology Fund Sues USAGM, Alleges Breaching $18 Million in Contracts
The Open Technology Fund, a group that uses federal grants to promote internet freedom technologies worldwide, filed a lawsuit late Thursday against the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), alleging it has breached its contracts by withholding $18 million in funding.Filed in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, the suit asks the court to award OTF the funds it claims are due from USAGM, the parent of Voice of America.“We really see this as a last resort,” Laura Cunningham, acting CEO and president of OTF, said. “We have tried numerous ways to prevail upon USAGM to release our funds so we can resume our operations. As a result, we have no other choice but to move forward with legal action at this point.”A spokesperson for USAGM did not respond to a request for comment about the lawsuit by the time of publication.Earlier Thursday, a USAGM spokesperson said the agency “has already provided $10.9 million in U.S. taxpayer funding this year to OTF, including $1.6 million in July. Given that, USAGM was both stunned and deeply concerned to learn that OTF has decided to cancel or freeze dozens of contracts.”A running battleThe lawsuit is the latest twist in a monthslong battle between OTF, an independent non-profit organization and USAGM, a federal agency with a mission to “inform, engage, and connect people around the world in support of freedom and democracy.”At issue is whether USAGM, under its new chief executive Michael Pack, can control OTF, decide who runs the organization, how it spends money and if it receives funds.On Tuesday, OTF received an emailed letter from USAGM that gave the organization 10 days to come into compliance with its contracts, after a series of letters from USAGM asking for records, according to the suit.OTF’s leadership viewed the 10-day deadline as a threat to terminate the contract, which would mean the end of the organization and its projects.$1.6 million depositOn Wednesday, OTF leaders saw a $1.6 million deposit in the organization’s bank account.On Thursday, Rep. Michael McCaul, the lead Republican on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, tweeted about the $1.6 million, saying it came after both Republicans and Democrats expressed “serious concern” about the funding delay for July.“USAGM & Pack have a long way to go to restore our trust, & the first step is immediately transferring funding to OTF for August,” he tweeted.USAGM & CEO Pack have a long way to go to restore our trust, & the first step is immediately transferring funding to OTF for August.— House Foreign Affairs GOP (@HouseForeignGOP) August 19, 2020Internet freedom projectsFounded in 2012 at Radio Free Asia, another USAGM grantee, OTF became an independent nonprofit grantee of USAGM in November 2019. Its budget for fiscal year 2020 is $20 million, plus $9.8 million that USAGM had awarded to OTF but had been held by Radio Free Asia, according to the lawsuit.When Pack took the helm of USAGM after receiving Senate confirmation, he attempted to install new leaders at OTF. A U.S. appeals court in July blocked the staff changes.Earlier this week, USAGM announced it was reviving its Office of Internet Freedom and making two grants to firms that work on internet firewall circumvention technology. The two recipients had received contracts from OTF.“OTF is obligated to spend money that is allocated to it for internet freedom on internet freedom,” a USAGM spokesperson said Thursday.
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Police: More Than 500 Arrests Since May at Portland Protests
Police in Portland, Oregon, said Thursday they have declared a riot 17 times and arrested a total of more than 500 people during nightly demonstrations throughout the city that began in late May following the death in police custody of George Floyd in Minneapolis.Data released by the Portland Police Bureau showed fires were set by protesters on 41 of the 83 nights of protest, acts of vandalism were committed on 49 nights, and projectiles were thrown during at least 58 nights.Since the protests began on May 29, police have recorded seven nights that were free of vandalism, fireworks or intentionally set fires.”When criminal behavior occurs, especially behavior threatening the safety of those near the event or those targeted by the event, law enforcement must respond,” police said in a statement on the department’s website.Also Thursday, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction barring federal agents from dispersing or arresting journalists or legal observers during the ongoing protests. The American Civil Liberties Union had sued over the police actions.For weeks, police officials have received questions regarding where demonstrations have been taking place in the city, crimes that occur and police actions. In response, the department released a timeline of the protests.The most recent data was from Wednesday night, when police said two people were arrested and protesters lit fires, committed vandalism and threw projectiles.Police declared a riot, meaning six or more persons were engaged in “tumultuous and violent” conduct and intentionally or recklessly created a grave risk of public alarm.Protesters clashed with federal agents for the first time in weeks at a demonstration targeting a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building.Windows were spray-painted and broken before a riot was declared and authorities used tear gas and other riot control methods to break up the crowd, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported.Several officers suffered minor injuries after they were hit with rocks.
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National Salvation Rebels Kill Six Presidential Bodyguards in South Sudan
The National Salvation Front (NAS) is claiming its forces killed six bodyguards assigned to South Sudan’s Vice President James Wani Igga during an attack at Lo’bonok village nearly 90 kilometers from the capital, Juba. Igga was not with his bodyguards at the time.NAS General Thomas Cirilo Swaka on Thursday told South Sudan in Focus that his forces were fighting in self-defense during the Wednesday engagement. He said the presidential bodyguards were spying on NAS forces.“Everybody knows that the government in Juba under [President] Salva Kiir is the one attacking National Salvation Front. All the organizations, CTSAMM and even UNMISS, they know this,” Swaka said, referring to the Ceasefire and Transitional Security Arrangements Monitoring Mechanism and the peacekeeping United Nations Mission in South Sudan.Swaka said the presidential bodyguards were on a reconnaissance mission to map out NAS positions in the Lo’bonok area. Kalisto Ladu, press secretary in the office of South Sudan’s vice president, told VOA that eight bodyguards assigned to the vice president traveled Wednesday to Lo’bonok and were ambushed.Ladu said six of the bodyguards were killed in the attack. Earlier this year, the lay Catholic social service organization, the Community of Sant’Egidio in Rome, moderated talks between the government of South Sudan and the South Sudan Opposition Movements Alliance (SSOMA), a group that refused to sign the 2018 peace agreement.SSOMA and the government of South Sudan signed a Rome peace declaration January 14, 2020, to recommit to the Secession of Hostilities Agreement of December 2017 to avoid confrontation between the signatories and nonsignatories of the South Sudan 2018 peace agreement.Swaka, the NAS general who is also the chairman of SSOMA, blamed the South Sudan Peoples Defense Forces for reneging on the cessation hostilities agreement signed in Rome. “From March, April, May, June and July, [South Sudan] government forces marched to attack us in our bases around Loka, around Lainya and Wonduruba,” Swakasaid.He is warning civilians not to cross through areas under NAS control to avoid being caught in confrontations between NAS forces and South Sudan government forces.“We don’t have satellites to see if a vehicle belongs to a civilian or it belongs to the government,” he said. “What we know is that we are at war, and civilians should stop moving.”
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Biden, on Third Try, Aims for Summit of US Political Life
Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, a Democrat set to run against President Donald Trump in the November 3 national election, is making his third run for the White House but for the first time stands as his party’s nominee.If he wins and is inaugurated in January 2021, Biden will become the country’s 46th chief executive. By then, he would be 78, the oldest U.S. president ever elected, surpassing Donald Trump, who was 70 when he entered the White House.Biden, for 36 years a senator and for eight President Barack Obama’s second in command, defeated two dozen other Democrats for the nomination.FILE – Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden speaks during a campaign rally at Renaissance High School in Detroit, March 9, 2020.He campaigned as a reliably left-of-center politician embracing expanded health care benefits for Americans but not a universal government-paid plan that more progressive Democrats have called for. He stands for enhanced environmental programs and a re-engagement with traditional American allies overseas whom Trump has alienated at times.Throughout months of campaigning, Biden has said he wants to put an end to Trump’s “aberrant” administration.Call for dignity“We’re in a battle for the soul of America,” Biden says on his campaign website. “It’s time to remember who we are. We’re Americans: tough, resilient, but always full of hope. It’s time to treat each other with dignity. Build a middle class that works for everybody. Fight back against the incredible abuses of power we’re seeing.“It’s time to dig deep and remember that our best days still lie ahead,” he says.Biden has characterized Trump as an unfit leader of the free world, saying, “It’s time for respected leadership on the world stage — and dignified leadership at home.”If elected, Biden almost certainly would rejoin several international accords Trump withdrew from, such as the Paris climate pact and the Iran nuclear deal aimed at curbing Tehran’s nuclear weapons development.FILE – Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., chosen by Joe Biden to be his running mate on the Democrats’ 2020 national ticket, receives a virtual briefing on COVID-19 from public health experts in Wilmington, Del., Aug. 13, 2020.Months ago, Biden promised to pick a woman as his vice presidential running mate, and he followed through with the selection of California Senator Kamala Harris, who is the first Black woman and South Asian American on a major party U.S. national ticket and only the fourth woman ever selected.The Trump campaign has pilloried Biden’s choice of Harris, running ads claiming, “Now that Kamala Harris is on the ticket, the radical leftist takeover of Joe Biden is now complete.”Close to homeAmid a historic coronavirus pandemic that has swept through the U.S., Biden’s campaign up to now has been unlike any other U.S. run for the presidency in modern times. He has largely waged his presidential bid from his home in Wilmington, Delaware, with occasional forays to nearby Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for speeches and policy discussions with small groups of people.On the advice of medical experts, he has shunned traditional large political rallies for fear of catching or helping to spread the coronavirus if large crowds gathered to hear him speak. Similarly, the four-day Democratic National Convention has been conducted virtually, without the usual packed arena filled with thousands of cheering supporters.FILE – Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Joe Biden speaks at a campaign event devoted to the reopening of the U.S. economy during the coronavirus pandemic in Philadelphia, June 11, 2020.Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S. is likely to be one focus of the contest with Biden over the next 2½ months before the election.Trump for much of early 2020 belittled the importance of the coronavirus and, despite the advice of medical experts for Americans to wear face masks, said it was not for him, although he occasionally has worn one.More recently, when assessing the world-leading death toll in the U.S. that has reached more than 174,000 people, Trump said, “It is what it is.”Biden has ridiculed Trump’s coronavirus performance, noting that he claimed to be a “wartime president” in the fight against the infectious disease. But Biden said Trump had “raised the white flag” of surrender against the coronavirus.Biden and Trump are slated to debate three times before Election Day, starting in late September.
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US Triggers Return of Iran Sanctions at UN
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo formally notified the United Nations on Thursday that the United States is initiating a “snapback” of all international sanctions on Iran dating back to 2006. “Our message is very, very simple,” Pompeo told reporters at the U.N. “The United States will never allow the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism to freely buy and sell planes, tanks and missiles and other kinds of conventional weapons. These U.N. sanctions will continue the arms embargo.” He said President Donald Trump and his administration had “discarded the fiction” that Iran merely seeks a peaceful nuclear program. “We will never allow the Islamic Republic of Iran to have a nuclear weapon,” he said. Pompeo spoke to reporters after presenting a two-page letter to the Security Council president that said after “substantial efforts” by several members to remedy Iran’s “significant non-performance” of obligations in the deal, the U.S. was seeking reimposition of sanctions. FILE – This photo released Nov. 5, 2019, by the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran shows centrifuge machines in Natanz uranium enrichment facility in central Iran.He cited several examples related to Iran’s uranium enrichment levels and stockpiles that exceed the limits of the nuclear deal. However, all occurred after May 2018 when the U.S. withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), as the deal is formally known. One year after the U.S. pulled out, Iran responded by gradually breaching agreed upon levels. Until then, the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency had said Iran was in compliance with its obligations. The snapback move comes a week after the U.S. failed to persuade Security Council members to extend a 13-year-old embargo on conventional weapons that will expire in mid-October under the terms of the JCPOA. The United States received the support of only one other Security Council member (the Dominican Republic), and Pompeo had strong words for European allies who did not. “Our friends in Germany, France and the U.K. — the E3 — all told me privately they don’t want the arms embargo lifted either, and yet today, in the end, they provide no alternatives, no options,” Pompeo said. “Instead they chose to side with the ayatollahs.” Washington says it has an “explicit right” to invoke snapback “irrespective of its current position on or activities in relation” to the JCPOA, because the deal is enshrined in U.N. Security Council Resolution 2231. The other participants disagree.In a joint statement, the E3 pointed out the U.S. had withdrawn from the JCPOA in 2018. “We cannot therefore support this action which is incompatible with our current efforts to support the JCPOA,” they said. “We remain committed to the JCPOA despite the significant challenges caused by U.S. withdrawal.” FILE – Vassily Nebenzia, Russian Ambassador to the United Nations, addresses the United Nations Security Council at U.N. headquarters in New York, April 10, 2019.The Europeans also called on Iran to reverse the steps it had taken outside the deal and to return to full compliance. “We will not take it as snapback,” Russian U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told reporters. “The United States is not a JCPOA participant and has no right to trigger the so-called snapback, and its arbitrary interpretation of Resolution 2231 cannot change this,” Iranian Ambassador Majid Takht Ravanchi told reporters. “We are of the firm conviction that the letter sent to the U.N. Security Council president is null and void.” Iran’s U.N. Ambassador Majid Takht Ravanchi speaks to reporters at U.N. headquarters in New York, Aug. 20, 2020.In the nuclear deal, the original participants, Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, plus Germany, agreed with Iran to gradually lift the sanctions in return for limits on Tehran’s nuclear activities that would prevent it from making a nuclear bomb. A return to pre-deal sanctions would mean in addition to extending the arms embargo, Iran would no longer be allowed to enrich any uranium and would find its banking and shipping sectors subject to international scrutiny. To trigger snapback, a JCPOA member must notify the Security Council that Iran is in noncompliance. That starts a 30-day clock, during which the council would need to adopt a new resolution keeping the current termination of sanctions in place. But the U.S. will veto that, and if at the end of the 30 days there is no new resolution extending the sanctions relief, the old pre-2015 sanctions would automatically snapback. But analysts and diplomats say the U.S. effort is dead on arrival and that even if the U.S. declares success 30 days from now in reimposing sanctions, countries who disagree with Washington’s right to do so may choose to simply ignore and not enforce the old sanctions. They say this process will damage the Security Council and may ultimately lead to both the JCPOA collapsing and an unrestricted Iran ramping up its nuclear activities.
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South Sudan’s Central Bank Has No More Foreign Cash Reserves
South Sudan’s Central Bank has run out of foreign cash reserves and there is nothing the bank can do to stop the South Sudanese pound from further depreciating against the U.S. dollar, according to a senior bank official.“It’s difficult for us now at this moment to stop this rapid exchange rate because we don’t have the [foreign] reserves for us to intervene in the market,” said Daniel Kech Pouch, a bank second deputy, at a Wednesday news conference.Pouch acknowledged South Sudan’s black market is flush with U.S. dollars, but he said those dollars never make their way into the Central Bank.“There are other agencies that bring money to South Sudan that does not come through the Central Bank. And there are some commercial banks that bring money, which does not also come through the Central Bank. You know, the Central bank has no system that unifies the operation of the bank [with] the flow of money, whether inside or going outside,” Pouch told VOA.International NGOs and other agencies bring money into the country, but they sell directly to the people on the street or on the black market, according to Pouch.South Sudan’s economy has been devastated by several factors since independence in 2011, including a 5½-year civil war, a drop in global oil prices and the COVID-19 pandemic.Nearly all of South Sudan’s revenue comes from crude oil, but current output is only about 180,000 barrels per day, down from a peak of 250,000 bpd before the war erupted in 2013, according to government figures.The country’s economic troubles date to January 2012, when South Sudan suspended all oil production following disputes with Sudan over processing and transit fees for exporting Juba’s crude.When South Sudan emerged from its civil war, the government should have invested in the country’s infrastructure, said professor Marial Awou, former dean of economics at the University of Juba and vice chancellor of South Sudan’s Upper Nile University.“It will have a severe impact on the economy of South Sudan. Even people who have things to sell, there’s no one buying. When they stay in their shops, in their selling places, when they get tired, they will pack their things and go home because no one is buying from them,” Awou told VOA’s South Sudan in Focus.The Central Bank’s failure to obtain foreign currency will translate into more suffering for businesses and citizens, said Ahmed Morjan, an economics lecturer at the University of Juba.“It will be very difficult for businesspeople to import goods from the outside world and hence it will have a negative impact on what we consume. On the common man, it’s going to be serious because we will not get what we want, we will not be able to buy what we want, and our consumption of almost everything will go down,” Morjan told South Sudan in Focus.Political instability, corruption and most recently the COVID-19 pandemic explain why South Sudan’s Central Bank ran out of cash reserves, according to Morjan. He said the government should immediately ask the International Monetary Fund for a bailout as a short-term solution.“If we want a long-term solution, the country should diversify its exports and that can only be done if there’s peace. If there’s no peace then it cannot, but the immediate way to bail out the country [is] we need a bailout from some international financial institutions,” Morjan said.The U.S. dollar exchanged for 165 South Sudanese pounds Thursday in the Central Bank. On the black market, the dollar exchanged for 400 South Sudanese pounds.
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Pompeo: US Stands by Belarusian People, Backs International Efforts to Examine Election
The United States on Thursday defended Belarusian protesters and said it supported international efforts to examine the recent contested election, which gave President Alexander Lukashenko his sixth term in office.“The United States has been inspired by the display of peaceful expression of the Belarusian people seeking to determine their own future,” said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in People hold a flag with a portrait of Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, main opposition candidate in presidential elections, during a rally contesting the official poll results, in Minsk, Belarus, Aug. 17, 2020.“The United States supports free and fair elections that reflect the will of the Belarusian people as a matter of principle,” said Pompeo. “The August 9 elections did not meet that standard.”The European Union said Wednesday that it would sanction Belarusian officials it identifies as involved in vote-rigging and violence against protesters.Belarusian security forces have arrested nearly 7,000 protesters in a violent crackdown on the massive demonstrations sparked by the election. There have been widespread reports of police brutality against those detained.Protesters told BBC News that they had been thrown to the ground, placed in overcrowded cells, forced to sign statements they didn’t understand and beaten black and blue with batons. They also said both men and women had been threatened with rape.Pompeo said the U.S. stood behind international investigations into the election and its aftermath.“We support international efforts to independently look into Belarus’ electoral irregularities, the human rights abuses surrounding the election, and the crackdown that has followed,” he said.Videos Chronicle Belarus Opposition Protests Hundreds of thousands of peaceful demonstrators have gathered in Minsk and other Belarusian cities demanding free and fair elections after disputed reelection of President Alexander Lukashenko Tsikhanouskaya allies formed a Coordination Council this week to call for a new election and oversee a peaceful transition of power. Prosecutor General Alexander Konyuk announced in a video statement that investigators were opening a probe into “calls for actions aimed at undermining national security,” according to the French news agency AFP. The charge bears a maximum penalty of five years in jail.Hundreds of state TV employees joined a strike Tuesday to call for Lukashenko’s resignation. Lukashenko told factory workers Monday that the country would collapse if he stepped down.
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45 Killed in Deadliest Shipwreck Off Libya’s Coast This Year
International aid organizations say 45 people, including five children, were killed in the deadliest shipwreck off Libya’s coast this year. Thirty-six survivors, mostly from Senegal, Mali, Chad and Ghana, were rescued by local fishermen after their boat’s engine exploded earlier this week. They had been at sea for two days, trying to get to Europe to apply for refugee status. Survivors are being detained in Libya with thousands of other people who unsuccessfully tried to make that journey, according to the United Nations’ refugee agency, the UNHCR. Most of the victims’ bodies are still missing. “They could only rescue the people who were there alive,” said Tarik Argaz, a UNHCR spokesperson, in a phone interview from Tunis. “A few bodies were washed to shore the next day.” More than 300 other people have also died attempting to make the journey across the Mediterranean this year, and officials say that estimate is probably very low. Libya is a transit point for migrants and asylum-seekers. FILE – Refugees and migrants from Africa sit aboard an overcrowded rubber boat leaving Libyan territorial waters, March 5, 2017.The UNHCR blames European countries for neither rescuing travelers from sea accidents nor allowing aid ships or commercial ships to dock legally to disembark survivors. The organization also blames Libyan authorities for detaining travelers arbitrarily, often in inhumane conditions and in danger from the ongoing war in that country. The EU, along with the Libyan coast guard and other forces in the North African countries, have worked together to slow the flow of migrants. “We urge [European] states to swiftly respond to these incidents and systematically provide a predictable port of safety to people rescued at sea,” wrote the UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration in a statement on Wednesday. And while the COVID-19 pandemic has closed many borders and kept vast swaths of the world’s population at home, families in Libya that are fleeing violence and extreme poverty are more desperate than ever, according to Argaz. The COVID-19 disease is caused by the coronavirus. “People are distressed right now,” said Argaz. “You have the conflict. You have the terrible conditions that refugees are living in in Libya. You have the trafficking and now you have the COVID.” The UNHCR and the IOM say 7,000 people have been returned to Libya this year after attempting the cross. And 17,000 have made it to Italy or Malta from Libya or Tunisia, three times more than in 2019.
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Brother of Manchester Arena Bomber Sentenced to at Least 55 Years
The brother of a suicide bomber who killed 22 people in 2017 at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, has been sentenced to life in prison with a minimum of 55 years before possibility of parole. “Both brothers bore equal culpability,” said Justice Jeremy Baker, announcing FILE – Hashem Abedi, convicted August 20, 2020, of murder in the 2017 Manchester bombing, is seen in this police mugshot released by the Greater Manchester Police.Manchester-born Hashem Abedi, 23, was convicted in March of murder, attempted murder and conspiring to cause explosions. The sentencing hearing, which he refused to attend, was delayed due to the pandemic. “Although Salman Abedi was directly responsible for detonating the explosive device that evening, it is clear that the defendant had taken an integral part not only in the planning of such an event but in participating in its preparation,” Baker told the court. The youngest of the 22 people killed in the May 22, 2017, blast was 8 years old. Another 260 people were injured, and more suffered psychological effects. Because Hashem Abedi was under 21 at the time of the bombing, the minimum sentence was 30 years. Had he been of age, the starting point would have been life in prison. During sentencing, Baker noted “the substantial degree of premeditation and planning involved” in the attack. He said the motivation behind it was “to advance the ideological cause of Islamism, a matter distinct from and abhorrent to the vast majority of those who follow the Islamic faith.” In a Twitter thread Thursday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson called the attack a “horrifying and cowardly act of violence which targeted children and families.” The Manchester Arena attack was a horrifying and cowardly act of violence which targeted children and families. 1/5
— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) August 20, 2020“Those who were taken from us will never be forgotten,” he added, “nor will the spirit of the people of Manchester, who came together to send a clear message to the entire world that terrorists will never prevail.” Those who were taken from us will never be forgotten, nor will the spirit of the people of Manchester who came together to send a clear message to the entire world that terrorists will never prevail. 2/5
— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) August 20, 2020The 1,024 days that Hashem Abedi has spent in custody will be deducted from his sentence, meaning he has just over 52 years left at minimum. Baker said Thursday that he “may never be released.” A public inquiry into the attack will begin next month. It was pushed back because of police delays in providing key evidence.
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Biden Set to Formally Accept Democratic Party’s Presidential Nomination
Joe Biden formally accepts the Democratic Party’s nomination for the U.S. presidency Thursday evening in a speech that is expected to lay out his vision for the country as he seeks to defeat President Donald Trump in the November 3 election.
Biden’s speech on the fourth and final night of the Democratic National Convention comes after nearly 50 years in public office and two failed attempts for the White House in 1988 and 2008.
The speech will be the culmination of a nominating convention that was held virtually because of the coronavirus pandemic. The convention has featured some of the party’s highest-profile figures and even prominent Republicans who praised Biden in video speeches and issued urgent appeals to voters to end what they called Trump’s chaotic presidency.
The 77-year-old former senator and vice president during the Obama administration will deliver the speech in an event center in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware. While the center will be mostly empty, Biden’s speech will be delivered before his largest audience since the pandemic forced him off the campaign trail in March.
U.S. Senator Chris Coons of Delaware, a close Biden ally, said the speech would likely focus on unifying a divided country.
“He recognizes this isn’t about Donald Trump. It’s not about Joe Biden. It’s about us, and it’s about who’s going to move us forward in a way that reminds us of the best in America, not the worst,” Coons said.
Biden’s speech comes one day after Senator Kamala Harris of California made history in accepting the Democratic Party’s nomination to appear alongside Biden as the vice-presidential candidate on the November ballot. Harris urged people to fight for “the America we know is possible.”
Harris, 55, a former prosecutor, is the fourth woman to be on a major U.S. party’s national ticket, but the first Black woman and first South Asian American. Her mother was a breast cancer scientist who emigrated from India. She died in 2009. Harris’ father, an economist, came to the U.S. from Jamaica.Senator from California and Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris speaks on the third day of the Democratic National Convention, at the Chase Center in Wilmington, Delaware, Aug. 19, 2020.Addressing the third night of the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday, Harris sharply criticized President Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic and the economy, saying his “failure of leadership has cost lives and livelihoods.” Trump has continued to defend his administration’s response.
Earlier in the evening, former president Barack Obama delivered a blistering attack on Trump, his successor, saying Trump was treating the presidency like “one more reality show” and jeopardizing the democracy with inept leadership and an authoritarian style.
Responding to the speech the next day, White House adviser Stephen Miller called Obama “one of the worst presidents, if not the worst president, in U.S. history.”
In accepting the number two spot on the Democratic ticket, Senator Harris spoke of a nation with “complexities and imperfections,” and the need to put in the work to address its flaws, such as combatting racism and realizing “the promise of equal justice under the law.”
“Make no mistake, the road ahead is not easy. We will stumble. We may fall short. But I pledge to you that we will act boldly and deal with our challenges honestly. We will speak truths, and we will act with the same faith in you that we ask you to place in us,” Harris said.
Historic nomination
Biden’s choice of a Black woman of Asian America descent as his running mate broke the mold of traditional political ticket making and has excited many minorities and women in the party who were lukewarm or opposed to the 77-year-old white Biden leading the party into the fall election.
Harris pledged that a Biden-Harris administration would work to “build an economy that doesn’t leave anyone behind,” take steps to end the coronavirus pandemic, and build a community that is “strong and decent, just and kind.”Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden and running mate Sen. Kamala Harris, sign required documents for accepting the Democratic nomination for president and vice president of the United States in Wilmington, Aug. 14, 2020.”We must elect a president who will bring something different, something better, and do the important work,” Harris said. “A president who will bring all of us together — Black, White, Latino, Asian, Indigenous — to achieve the future we collectively want. We must elect Joe Biden.”
Harris also made reference to her birth at a hospital in Oakland, California, seemingly a reference to a baseless “birther” theory stoked last week by President Trump that Harris wasn’t qualified to be vice president because both of her parents were immigrants.
Meanwhile, Obama delivered a speech taped in historic Philadelphia saying that for nearly four years Trump “has shown no interest in treating the presidency as anything but one more reality show that he can use to get the attention he craves.”In this image from video, former President Barack Obama delivers a speech, taped in Philadelphia, during the third night of the Democratic National Convention, Aug. 19, 2020. (Democratic National Convention via AP)Obama warned that Trump’s reelection could undermine democracy and said he had hoped Trump would take the job of president seriously and “discover some reverence for the democracy that had been placed in his care.”“Donald Trump hasn’t grown into the job because he can’t,” Obama said. “And the consequences of that failure are severe. One-hundred-seventy-thousand Americans dead. Millions of jobs gone, while those at the top take in more than ever. Our worst impulses unleashed, our proud reputation around the world badly diminished, and our democratic institutions threatened like never before.”Obama’s speech was extraordinary because former presidents rarely publicly criticize a sitting president.
After excerpts of Obama’s comments were released earlier Wednesday, Trump responded, criticizing Obama as having been ineffective and putting U.S. democracy in danger.
“When I listen to that and I see the horror that he’s left us, the stupidity of the transactions that he made. Look what we’re doing. We have our great border wall. We have security,” Trump said at an afternoon press conference. “Look how bad he was, how ineffective he was.”‘Setting an example’
Many who spoke emphasized Biden’s character and fortitude in overcoming major losses in his life, including the deaths of his first wife and young daughter in a 1972 car accident and more recently, in 2015, the death of one of his grown sons, former Delaware attorney general Beau Biden, from brain cancer.
Obama said Biden knows the true strength of the United States “comes from setting an example the world wants to follow,” and that Biden and Harris have plans to get the coronavirus pandemic under control, expand medical coverage, rescue the U.S. economy and “restore our standing in the world.”In this image from video, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks during the third night of the Democratic National Convention Aug. 19, 2020. (Democratic National Convention via AP)Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who lost to Trump in her 2016 bid for president, urged people to turn out to vote as she advocated for Biden and Harris in her convention address Wednesday.“This is the team to pull our nation back from the brink, but they can’t do it without us,” Clinton said. “This can’t be another woulda, coulda, shoulda election. If you vote by mail, request your ballot now, and send it back right away. If you vote in person, do it early. Most of all, no matter what, vote.”
Trump has been making campaign stops and holding news conferences during Biden’s week in the political spotlight, traveling to several political battleground states.
On Thursday, he is visiting near Biden’s boyhood home in Scranton, Pennsylvania.Republicans are staging their virtual national convention next week, starting Monday and culminating with Trump’s renomination acceptance speech at the White House Aug. 27.
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Trump to Speak Near Biden’s Hometown Shortly Before DNC Acceptance Speech
U.S. President Donald Trump is taking his reelection campaign Thursday to Old Forge, Pennsylvania, a town less than nine kilometers from Joe Biden’s birthplace, hours before Biden formally accepts the Democratic nomination for president.Trump’s campaign said his speech in the Keystone State would address what it calls “a half century of Joe Biden failing America.”Trump’s visit to the battleground state comes as recent opinion polls have him trailing Biden. Biden will deliver his acceptance speech hours later from his home in Wilmington, Delaware as the four-day virtual Democratic National Convention nears an end.Trump has been making campaign stops and holding news conferences during Biden’s week in the political spotlight, traveling to several political battleground states. Republicans are staging their virtual national convention next week, starting Monday and culminating with Trump’s renomination acceptance speech at the White House on August 27. Trump won Pennsylvania in 2016 by less than one percentage point, or 44,000 votes. But Trump, who has since clashed with Pennsylvania’s Democratic governor over efforts to reopen its economy in the midst of the pandemic, has trailed Biden, whose campaign is working to recapture the state that Democrats won from 1992 through 2016. Polls indicate Biden, the former vice president in the Obama administration, is well-positioned to win Pennsylvania with his deep roots in Scranton and his appeal to white working-class and Black voters in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.Biden spokesman Andrew Bates said that Trump has “put the health of countless families across the Keystone State in danger and plunged the strong economy he inherited from the Obama-Biden administration into a tailspin.”Trump’s campaign is concerned about losing support among suburban voters, particularly women, in the areas around Philadelphia. The campaign hopes to offset the loss by pushing for high voter turnout among rural and exurban voters.
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Zimbabwe to Summon Vatican Representative Over Catholic Bishop’s Alleged Insults
President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government says it is summoning the Vatican’s diplomatic representative to Zimbabwe to explain what it calls insults directed at the president by local Catholic bishops. The priests last week issued a statement condemning the deteriorating human rights situation in Zimbabwe.Late Wednesday, Zimbabwe’s justice minister, Ziyambi Ziyambi, said President Emmerson Mnangagwa was concerned about the statement, which Catholic bishops released last week.In the statement, the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops Conference raised concerns over what it called the deteriorating human rights situation in Zimbabwe.The clergymen called on the government to address the concerns instead of denying them.Ziyambi said the statement was an “insult” to President Mnangagwa.“Given that the venerable bishops represent the Catholic Church, government is compelled to directly engage the Vatican to ascertain whether or not such statements reflect the official attitude of the Holy See towards Zimbabwe’s leadership or whether these are merely the views of the various individuals concerned. Notwithstanding the deliberately provocative and divisive nature of the pastoral letter, the President’s commitment to the path of engagement with all religious communities remains steadfast and solid,” he said.On Thursday, a group of former Catholic priests in Zimbabwe urged the government to soften its position toward the church and instead attend to issues the Catholic bishops raised in their statement.One of them is Abel Makahamadze, who is now a pastoral care giver with a private company in Harare.“Our government is operating from a position of fear, by and large. And because of that, there is lack of trust of anyone who is within their circles. I think what needs to happen now is to come to a point where we agree and acknowledge about what is on the ground. The reality on the ground is that there is a crisis in the country. Yes, we may decide to disagree on the origins of that crisis but the starting point is that there is a crisis,” said Makahamadze.On Wednesday, Ziyambi dismissed claims that there was a crisis in Zimbabwe. However, a hashtag #ZimbabweanLivesMatter has trended strongly on social media since the beginning of the month.That follows a number of pro-democracy activists going into hiding, saying they fear being arrested for organizing an anti-government protest last month, which security forces thwarted.Journalist Hopewell Chin’ono and opposition leader Jacob Ngaruvhume have been in prison for a month on charges of stoking violence ahead of the July 31 march against poverty and corruption.
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COVID-19 Spreads Inside Ethiopian Detention Centers
Ethiopia arrested thousands of protesters, opposition members, and journalists during July’s sectarian unrest. Health workers and local officials say some of those detained have contracted COVID-19 and are concerned the virus is spreading in overcrowded prisons and makeshift detention centers. Simon Marks reports from Ziway, Ethiopia.Tiksa Negeri contributed to this report
Producer: Jason Godman
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Teen Climate Activist Greta Thunberg Meets Angela Merkel
Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg and three other teen activists had a 90-minute meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin Thursday to press their demands for tougher action to curb climate change.Along with Thunberg, the young activists included Luisa Neubauer of Germany and Belgians Anuna de Wever van der Heyden and Adélaïde Charlier. During their meeting they presented an open letter they wrote to world leaders last month.The letter calls on leaders to immediately end all fossil fuel subsidies, halt all investments in fossil fuel exploration and extraction and establish annual, binding carbon budgets. It has since been signed by 125,000 people including NGOs, academics, intellectuals and artists.Germany currently holds the six-month rotating presidency of the European Union.Merkel has in the past lauded the youth activists for putting pressure on politicians to act against global warmingFollowing the meeting, Thunberg told reporters she urged Merkel – and all leaders – to start treating the climate situation like a crisis, and get out of their “comfort zones and prioritize the future ahead of the now” and be brave enough to think long-term.The coronavirus outbreak has prevented the Fridays for Future movement that Thunberg inspired from holding its mass rallies in recent months.The young activist first came to world attention in 2018 when she started cutting classes on Fridays to protest outside the Swedish parliament for action on climate. She was soon joined in Sweden by other young activists, and her message quickly spread around the world, prompting young people to follow her example.
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US Judge Dismisses Trump’s Lawsuit to Block Subpoena for Tax Records
A U.S. judge on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit by President Donald Trump that sought to block enforcement of a grand jury subpoena for eight years of his personal and corporate tax records.U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero said granting the relief Trump sought would be an “undue expansion” of presidential immunity.Jay Sekulow, a lawyer for Trump, told Reuters the president would appeal the ruling and seek to delay enforcement of the subpoena.The subpoena is related to an investigation by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance. In a court filing last month, Vance said his investigation was tied to “alleged insurance and bank fraud by the Trump Organization and its officers,” among other things.A spokesman for Vance declined comment.Trump, who is campaigning for re-election in November, has fought efforts by lawmakers and prosecutors to obtain his tax records, which should shed light on his financial dealings. He has also defied decades of precedent as a presidential candidate by refusing to release tax returns.
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Ex-Trump Adviser Bannon Charged in Alleged Fraud Scheme
President Donald Trump’s former political adviser Steve Bannon has been charged by federal prosecutors in New York with conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with a fundraising campaign to support the building of a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico. A Justice Department statement said Bannon and three others were indicted “for their roles in defrauding hundreds of thousands of donors in connection with an online crowdfunding campaign known as “We Build the Wall” that raised more than $25 million.” “The defendants allegedly engaged in fraud when they misrepresented the true use of donated funds. As alleged, not only did they lie to donors, they schemed to hide their misappropriation of funds by creating sham invoices and accounts to launder donations and cover up their crimes, showing no regard for the law or the truth,” Inspector-in-Charge Philip R. Bartlett said. All four defendants have been arrested.
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WHO Begins Discussions on Russia Vaccine
The World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) Europe office said it has begun discussions with Russia regarding the COVID-19 vaccine that the nation approved last week without the advanced trials normally required to prove a vaccine works.In a virtual news conference from the organization’s Copenhagen office, the WHO Europe’s senior emergency official Catherine Smallwood said there have been several direct discussions between Russia’s teams and the WHO’s pre-qualification colleagues, primarily on how the organization is going to assess the potential vaccine.The WHO Europe’s regional director, Hans Kluge, said that while any potential vaccine is good news, all must go through the same vigorous assessments. Smallwood added “This concern that we have around safety and efficacy is not specifically for the Russia vaccine, it’s for all of the vaccines under development.” Smallwood acknowledged that the WHO was taking an “accelerated approach” to try to speed development of coronavirus vaccines but said “it’s essential we don’t cut corners in safety or efficacy.”Kluge cautioned that even once a vaccine or vaccines are approved, that will not be the end of the pandemic. “The end of the pandemic will be the day when everyone of us will take the responsibility and have been learning how to behave with the virus. And that depends on us, that day can even be tomorrow.”
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Nigerian Authorities Blamed for Lingering Kaduna Violence
Sectarian violence in Nigeria’s Kaduna State has lingered for decades, claiming thousands of lives and forcing thousands more from their homes. In late July, gunmen killed at least 43 people — making it 178 people killed so far in the southern part of Kaduna since the start of the year. The Nigerian government has deployed more security forces but local community leaders and right groups accuse authorities of willful neglect. Timothy Obiezu reports from a village in Kaduna that was recently attacked.Camera: : Emeka Gibson
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