Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden traveled to Florida on Tuesday to court the Latino vote in this crucial battleground state. VOA’s Brian Padden reports, nationwide, Latino voters still favor Biden over Trump, but recent polls show Biden’s advantage eroding, and Trump now holds a slight lead among Latinos in Florida, due in part to the president’s hardline policies toward Cuba and Venezuela.
…
Month: September 2020
Poisoned Russian Opposition Leader Shows Signs of Recovery
Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny has confirmed reports of his improved health following a near fatal poisoning in Siberia last month — posting to social media from his hospital room in Germany while his team insisted he plans to return home to Russia once fully recovered.
“Hi, this is Navalny. I miss you all,” he wrote in a comment accompanying an Instagram photograph of him surrounded by his wife and two children. View this post on InstagramПривет, это Навальный. Скучаю по вам 😍. Я все ещё почти ничего не умею, но вот вчера смог целый день дышать сам. Вообще сам. Никакой посторонней помощи, даже простейший вентиль в горле не использовал. Очень понравилось. Удивительный, недооценённый многими процесс. РекомендуюA post shared by Алексей Навальный (@navalny) on Sep 15, 2020 at 2:38am PDT“I can still hardly do anything, but yesterday I could breathe all day on my own. Actually on my own,” said Navalny — his first words after three weeks in a coma.
“A surprising process underestimated by many,” he quipped. “I recommend it.”
The post had over a million likes and counting within several hours — and it fueled inquiries about Navalny’s possible return to Russian politics. Within hours, his press secretary, Kira Yarmysh, dismissed journalists’ suggestions Navalny intended to remain in exile out of his concerns for his safety. “I’ll confirm again to everyone: no other options were ever considered,” Yarmysh tweeted.Все утро мне пишут журналисты и спрашивают, правда ли, что Алексей планирует вернуться в Россию. Я понимаю причину вопроса, но тем не менее мне странно, что кто-то мог думать иначе. Ещё раз подтверждаю всем: никаких других вариантов никогда не рассматривалось https://t.co/sSq5Bb4ufr— Кира Ярмыш (@Kira_Yarmysh) September 15, 2020When asked for reaction on Tuesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov demurred.
“Any citizen of the Russian Federation is free to leave Russia and return to Russia,” said Peskov.
“If a citizen of the Russian Federation recovers his health, then of course everyone will be happy about that.” A sudden sickness A leading critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Navalny fell violently ill while flying home during a campaign trip from Siberia to Moscow on August 20.
An emergency landing and subsequent treatment by Russian doctors in the city of Omsk offered few clues as to what had happened.
The Omsk doctors insisted they could find no traces of poison.
They also delayed requests by Navalny’s family to evacuate for him treatment elsewhere — a move supporters interpreted as an attempt to hide any lingering evidence of what had felled the politician. Upon his subsequent evacuation to a clinic in Berlin, German toxicologists said they discovered Novichok — a Soviet-era military grade toxin suspected in previous Russian-linked attacks in the United Kingdom — in Navalny’s blood and urine.Russia Denies Role in Latest Britain Poisoning
Russia is denying any role in the poisoning of a British couple who British authorities insist are the latest victims of Novichok — allegedly a Russian-made military-grade nerve agent first implicated in an assassination attempt on a former Russian spy and his daughter on British soil last March.The initial attack left former Russian agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, hospitalized in serious condition for several weeks before their ultimate recovery.
Anti-corruption work Navalny has long been a problematic figure for the Kremlin — detailing government corruption and excess on his popular YouTube channel.
The channel’s mix of investigative journalism and caustic humor has resonated with younger Russians in particular.
It has also landed Navalny with a long list of powerful enemies in government and business circles.
Navalny has also made no secret of his political ambitions. He tried to run a campaign for president in 2018 that ultimately was undone by a lingering criminal conviction. His supporters — and the European Court of Human Rights — agreed that the charges were levied to keep him out of the race. Investigations denied
Navalny’s associates argue the nature of Novichok — a banned military grade substance — means the attack could only have been carried out on Putin’s orders. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other Western leaders have demanded answers from the Kremlin and warned of “an appropriate, joint reaction” should answers not be forthcoming.
But the Russian government has dismissed the German demands, arguing Berlin had yet to provide proof or share evidence of its findings.
Indeed, Kremlin officials have openly floated conspiracy theories that Germany may have staged the attack in a false-flag operation to initiate another round of Western sanctions or undermine key Russian-German trade deals.
On Tuesday, Sergei Naryshkin, the head of Russia’s foreign intelligence service, insisted Navalny left Russia with no poison in his system — and that the country had long ago destroyed its Novichok reserves under existing international chemical weapons agreements.
“Therefore, we have many questions for the German side,” added Naryshkin. Similarly, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told Germany to stop “politicizing” the Navalny case during a phone conversation with German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas on Tuesday. The Kremlin has yet to approve an investigation into what felled the opposition leader — arguing it thus far sees no evidence of criminality behind whatever ailed “the Berlin patient.”
Government officials rarely pronounce Navalny’s name in public.
The Russian argument was undercut by separate toxicology reports issued by Sweden and French laboratories on Monday.
Both findings separately supported the German conclusions about the use of Novochik.
…
China Rejects Human Rights Criticism as Brussels Seeks Trade Rebalancing
Europe has called on China to take down trade barriers and rebalance the economic relationship, following a virtual summit held Monday between EU leaders and Chinese President Xi Jinping. EU officials also raised human rights issues including the crackdown on protests in Hong Kong – but Beijing is rejecting any interference in its affairs. Henry Ridgwell has more from London.
Camera: Henry Ridgwell Produced by: Rod James
…
Malaysian Road Safety Institute Pushes for Better Training of Food Delivery Riders
In Malaysia, the coronavirus pandemic has led to an increase in the number of food deliveries. But frequent accidents are raising questions about delivery driver safety. Dave Grunebaum has the story. Camera: Dave Grunebaum
…
Moderators Hold the Center of Debate Stage
President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden are spending time honing their skills ahead of their first debate on Sept. 29 at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. Also busy preparing is Chris Wallace, host of “Fox News Sunday.” He will be the moderator, selected by The Commission on Presidential Debates, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that has sponsored the debates since 1987. It is Wallace’s second time as a presidential debate moderator. Jim Lehrer holds the record for moderating 12 presidential debates. In 1996 and 2000, the late anchor of the “PBS NewsHour” moderated all three debates. “Some of the tips that Jim Lehrer had, for example, if somebody says, ‘I’ve got a seven-point plan for that.’ He would say, ‘Well, give me your first three points,” said Mary Kate Cary, a senior fellow at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, where she saw Lehrer lead a workshop on moderating debates. Cary said Lehrer explained that “if you ask a long and complicated question, you will get a long and complicated answer.” Some experts believe a moderator’s job goes beyond asking questions. “I think the most important job of the moderator is follow-up. When they give an answer, or if there is a debate occurring, to know the appropriate questions to ask in the follow-up,” said John Koch, debate director at Vanderbilt University.According to Cary, Lehrer would prepare by trying to “know everything that you possibly can about the people who are debating and all their positions so that if someone says something about a certain policy, you know immediately whether they’re making news, and you can react and say, ‘Oh, you’ve never said that before,’ and sort of point that out to the audience.” Fact vs. fiction The role of the moderator as a fact-checker is “quite controversial,” according to Jennifer Mercieca, associate professor of communications, at Texas A&M University. “In 2012, there was a huge controversy with (moderator) Candy Crowley. She fact-checked (presidential candidate Mitt) Romney during the debate. It had sort of been a tense back and forth between the two candidates, and she intervened to try to sort of move along the conversation. There was a huge outcry on the right for her doing that,” Mercieca said. Fact-checking should be the candidates’ job, according to Koch. “If Biden says something that’s not true, Trump should say something. If Trump says something that’s not true, Biden should say something. I don’t necessarily think that’s a job/role of the moderator during the 90 minutes of debate.” he said. When met with an untrue statement from a candidate, Lehrer thought “the moderator should pause and say, ‘I’d like to give you an opportunity to clarify what you just said.’ Or turn to the opponent and say, ‘Would you like to react to what he just said?’” according to Cary, who recalled Lehrer saying there is “the danger of appearing as a partisan” if he acted as a fact-checker. 2020 moderators While Wallace moderated a presidential debate in the 2016 election cycle, the other 2020 moderators are all doing it for the first time. Steve Scully of C-SPAN moderates the second presidential debate Oct.15. It will be held in Miami and is a town hall format. Undecided voters will ask the candidates questions. Scully was the backup moderator for all the 2016 debates. Kristen Welker, who covers the White House for NBC News, moderates the third presidential debate Oct. 22 in Nashville, Tennessee. There will be one vice-presidential debate — Oct. 7 in Salt Lake City, Utah. Susan Page, Washington bureau chief for USA Today, will be the moderator. “I think this is a good group of well-respected journalists,” said Cary. She recalls the best advice from Lehrer. “The quote that I always think is, ‘If anybody is quoting me, the moderator, afterwards, I have failed,” she said.
…
Members of Congress Call on USAGM to Explain J-1 Visa Denial
A group of House and Senate members on Monday called on Michael Pack, head of the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), to justify decisions that they say risk endangering the journalists and mission of USAGM’s networks, including Voice of America.FILE – Michael Pack, President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the U.S. Agency for Global Media, is seen at his confirmation hearing, on Capitol Hill, in Washington, Sept. 19, 2019. Pack’s nomination was confirmed June 4, 2020.The nine Democratic lawmakers signed a letter to Pack requesting he explain how the agency’s actions, including not renewing visas for foreign journalists and the CEO’s comments on security risks, align with Pack’s stated desire to improve morale and the ability of the outlets to report and work more effectively.Among the nine are Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey, the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Rep. Eliot Engel of New York, chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.“Failing to renew these visas constitutes more than callous treatment of a class of employees and contractors who have put their unique skills and insights to use in service of the USAGM’s mission,” the letter read. It added that those affected by the denials provide reporting that is “often the only unvarnished, transparent and reliable news many people in foreign countries can access.”The letter questioned how USAGM’s decision to not renew J-1 visas protects U.S. national security and called on Pack to respond in writing by Sept. 30.The USAGM did not respond to VOA’s emailed request for comment.Since his confirmation in June, Pack has said in numerous interviews and communications with VOA staff that he wants to protect the agency’s editorial independence and make it more effective in achieving its mission. He has also said that government audits have revealed serious, years-long security problems that were left unaddressed by the agency’s previous leaders.Upon his arrival at USAGM, Pack fired the heads of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, and the Middle East Broadcasting Network, and attempted to replace the board of the Open Technology Fund. Amanda Bennett, director of VOA, resigned two days before Pack took charge.The CEO also announced a review of the J-1 visa process for international journalists during which several permits expired; and in August placed at least six senior agency officials on administrative leave.In a statement in July, Pack said he ordered an investigation into failures that he said compromise the agency’s ability to fulfill its mission and that “pose a threat to U.S. national security.”Republicans and Democratic lawmakers have raised concerns over Pack’s actions since he took over at USAGM. The CEO is due to testify before the Foreign Affairs Committee on Sept. 24.J-1 visa holders dismissedOn Aug. 27, the USAGM human resources department issued termination letters to several J-1 visa holders, whose visas had or were due to expire in coming months.The letters stated that USAGM was terminating the contracts because the employees’ J-1 visas had expired, meaning they were “no longer authorized to work in the United States.”A broadcast journalist told VOA the journalist’s termination letter was issued with the wrong date, and did not include a statutory 15-day notice period.At least two people received a letter despite their visa being valid until October, people familiar with the situation but who are not directly impacted, told VOA. When one of the journalists questioned the human resources department, they were told the letter was sent in error.Two members of the Indonesian language service had already returned to their country of origin before their termination letters were issued. They are among at least five VOA journalists who so far have been forced to leave the U.S. because their visas expired.The CEO’s office says it has been assessing the visa renewals on a case-by-case basis “to improve agency management and protect U.S. national security.” Members of Congress, media rights groups and U.S. journalists say the visa review process has put VOA’s journalists at risk.John Daniszewski, vice president of the Associated Press and editor at large for standards, told VOA the safety of journalists should be a priority. “Protecting journalists is very important in this world when journalism is under attack everywhere and anything that puts journalists in greater danger should be avoided,” he said.In early September, over 40 current and former VOA staff, including bureau chiefs, senior editors, and foreign correspondents, signed a letter sent to acting VOA director Elez Biberaj about the staffing changes and comments made by Pack during an interview.The letter alleged that, “Pack’s actions risk crippling programs and projects for some countries that are considered national security priorities.”It cited Pack’s interview with the conservative website and podcast The Federalist, on Aug. 27 in which he talked about his first few months at USAGM and his focus on national security issues.In the interview, Pack acknowledged those journalists who risk their lives and are “heroically motivated to get the truth to these areas” where people live under oppression.He denied purging journalists and, while discussing security issues that are under review, Pack said some staff were improperly vetted and that foreign intelligence services have been interested in penetrating U.S. government-funded media agencies since they were created, adding “It’s a great place to put a foreign spy.”Andre de Nesnera, a former news director at VOA who worked for the broadcaster for 35 years, said he signed the staff letter in response to the removal of journalists whose lives could be in jeopardy, and because of Pack’s comments in the interview.“What is so important is credibility,” de Nesnera said. “It is so difficult to get credibility. It takes a lifetime to get it and in a second you can lose it. Some of us believe that what will happen with some of Michael Pack’s statements and views is that [VOA] will become a voice for the U.S. government, which is not the case.”Pack repeated his comments that the agency would be a good place to put a spy in a Sept. 10 interview on the Sara Carter Show. Over the past 10 years, 40% of staff were improperly vetted, he said, adding that as a result, USAGM doesn’t know whether foreign agencies penetrated VOA or the other networks during that time.Jason Rezaian, a writer for the Washington Post’s global opinions, told VOA that Pack’s comments about spies were “irresponsible and fly in the face of the mandate of this illustrious and long-standing institution.” Rezaian was imprisoned for 544 days in Iran on false accusations of espionage, while he was working as Tehran correspondent for the Post.“It raises the suspicion level unnecessarily and in a big way calls into question what the Voice of America is intended to be,” he said.When accused of being a spy, “It’s impossible to win that argument,” he said. “When you’re up against people who not only believe, but are certain that two plus two equals five. You’re not going to win those arguments.”“Oftentimes these gaffes and public statements made by Western officials are used against people who are already really vulnerable, who are already being held,” Rezaian said. He cited comments made by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson when he was then foreign minister, about a teacher jailed in Iran, in which he said wrongly that she had been training journalists.“I just worried that this could mushroom into another one of those situations where suddenly many honorable hardworking journalists who are trying to bring the stories of their communities or their countries that they care about to light are going to face greater danger.”Two former Radio Free Asia journalists are currently facing espionage charges over accusations they secretly installed equipment to broadcast reports back to the service after RFA closed the Cambodia bureau. If convicted, the journalists, who are currently under court supervision, could be jailed for 15 years. Sam Chamroun, the lawyer representing them, told VOA the case is now with the Supreme Court.Journalists at VOA, RFA, and the other broadcast networks are also sometimes denied visas from restrictive countries, deported, arrested, or attacked.“The Islamic Republic and regimes like it: Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, increasingly Turkey, Egypt, you got it bad enough. We don’t need to be giving them incentives or innuendo that they can seize on to make the lives and livelihoods of journalists working around the world more difficult,” Rezaian said.Under nearly every authoritarian government “journalists have been accused of spying or undermining national security when they bring up inconvenient facts or surface inconvenient facts,” the AP’s Daniszewski said. “This is a very dangerous thing to say to suggest that journalists are spies. It makes every journalist suspect and to some degree puts every journalist in danger.”
…
South Sudan Peace Activist Receives US Institute of Peace Award
South Sudanese peace activist Rita Lopidia Abraham received the 2020 Women Building Peace Award on Tuesday from the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) based in Washington, D.C. Abraham told South Sudan In Focus that her struggle for peace in South Sudan has been an uphill task full of threats from men at the negotiating table. “Sometimes when you talk to the parties and you speak truth to power, people seem to misunderstand you,” she said. “This is very sad, because at the end of the day, the purpose is for peace. But with the warring parties (in South Sudan), it’s not always the case.’’ She will receive $10,000 to be used at her discretion and will be recognized by the Institute during a celebration in the fall of 2021. Abraham, the CEO of EVE, an organization formed in 1996, said she will use part of the money to educate more women in South Sudan about their rights. “I am so passionate about young women. So, part of the cash that will come with the award I hope to invest in the incubator project, which is a young women’s leadership project which the EVE organization is running. The plight of orphans has always been in my mind. Part of the award will go towards helping orphans and street children in the South Sudan capital, Juba,” Lopidia said. Abraham, who is in her mid-30s, has been a delegate at the South Sudan peace talks in Addis Ababa and Khartoum. She signed a peace agreement in 2018 in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa on behalf of the South Sudan Women Coalition for Peace, an umbrella group of 50 women’s organizations in South Sudan and the diaspora. She said the leaders of South Sudan are lagging in implementing key provisions of the peace agreement. “I am as disappointed as other South Sudanese (because) the implementation of the peace agreement has been reduced to power-sharing. People are only focusing on what positions they can get,’’ she said. She said the parties are not talking about Chapter 2 of the agreement, which stipulates benchmarks for security arrangements in Juba and other states. She said issues in Chapter 1 of the arrangement have also not been addressed. “We still have challenges in the formations of the legislature, state governments. And there is a power vacuum in the states. This is a big challenge,” she said.
…
Rising Floodwaters Threaten Sudan’s Ancient Structures
Officials in Sudan warn that rising floodwaters could damage ancient structures including Sudan’s Royal City of Meroe if record-setting rains continue.Two weeks of heavy rain have caused record flooding of the Nile River, which has displaced tens of thousands of people and threatened archaeological sites.Floodwaters have already damaged the royal bathroom of the Meroe Kingdom, an ancient city on the east bank of the River Nile, about 200 kilometers northeast of Khartoum.Antiquities experts with the colleges of Khartoum, Nilain and Shendi universities are working to block the floodwaters from entering the ancient sites, said Umaima Hasabarrasul, who works with the Sudan National Museums in Khartoum.“These sites are under threat of being covered by floodwater. The water level has reached up to 30 cm on part of the wall. We had to call for communal interventions. Through the administrations of various colleges and other partners, we were able to put up more blocks to prevent water. Now we can only say the level of threat has reduced a little bit,” Hasabarrasul told VOA’s South Sudan in Focus.The Meroe Royal City was the capital of the Kush Kingdom established in 590 BC, which represents a series of early states located within the middle Nile, now part of Sudan. It is one of the earliest and most impressive states found south of the Sahara.The area was registered with UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in early 2000.FILE – This April 16, 2015 photo shows a general view of the historic Meroe pyramids site, in al-Bagrawiya, 200 kilometers (125 miles) north of Khartoum, Sudan.The site is important not only for telling the story of Sudan’s history, but for the African continent and the world because it shows how the Sudanese people contributed to human civilization, said Hasabarrasul.“The building reflects how Sudan, during the Meroe period, was opened to the world around. They had ties with the Mediterranean Sea cultures. On the wall inside the building, there are graphics that show and express Roman, Greece and Egypt cultures,” Hasabarrasul told VOA.After visiting the site late last week, Sudan’s information minister, Faisal Mohammed Saleh, told reporters the site is extremely important because it contains archaeological evidence of the Meroe Kingdom.“The building contains the Amun gods’ temple, it also has the royal bathroom, which is very unique. When the ongoing renovations finish soon, and we hope it will be open for the public and visitors, people will realize its beauty, and its historical meaning,” Saleh told South Sudan in Focus.Saleh said the previous administration of ousted president Omar al Bashir neglected important historical Sudanese sites for more than 30 years but the transitional government plans to do something about that.“We shall be announcing a national fundraising from all Sudanese citizens, government, companies and businesses so that we renovate the Royal City. We should all be proud of these antiquities, as we are heading towards achieving lasting peace in the country. Our history should unite all of us and the world should know Sudan’s ancient history through antiquities,” Saleh told VOA.The Royal City of Meroe also has more than 100 pyramids, part of the largest group of Nubian pyramids. Officials warn that for the first time in history, the pyramids are threatened by flooding.
…
US City Pays $12 Million in Wrongful Death of Black Woman
The U.S. city of Louisville, Kentucky, has agreed to pay $12 million to the family of Breonna Taylor, a Black medical technician who was shot to death in her apartment in March during a “no-knock” police raid linked to a bungled drug investigation. The payment in the civil suit against the mid-South city came as national and Kentucky investigators continue to probe the circumstances surrounding the death of the 26-year-old Taylor and whether three police officers involved in the incident should be criminally charged. One of the three officers who fired the shots that killed Taylor has already been dismissed from the city police department, although he is appealing his ouster. The Taylor case has drawn national attention in the U.S., part of the country’s reckoning over race relations and police treatment of minorities. Street demonstrations, some of them violent, have erupted from coast to coast since the late May death of a Black man, George Floyd, while in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Taylor’s death quickly became part of the national conversation, her name often printed on face masks people wear to fight against transmission of the coronavirus. FILE – Signs are held up showing Breonna Taylor during a rally in her honor on the steps of the Kentucky State Capitol in Frankfort, Ky., June 25, 2020.As part of the Louisville settlement, city officials agreed to various police reforms in an effort to prevent a repeat of the circumstances that led to Taylor’s death, including more thorough reviews by high-level police commanders of raids before they are carried out. The city had already passed a law named for Taylor banning use of no-knock warrants, which police often use in drug cases for fear that evidence could be destroyed if they announce their arrival. Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer fired former police chief Steve Conrad in June and last week named Yvette Gentry, a former deputy chief, as the new interim police chief. Gentry is the first Black woman to lead the force of about 1,200 officers. Lonita Baker, a lawyer for the Taylor family, said they would continue to press state and federal officials to investigate the case and present evidence to a grand jury in the hope that the officers involved will be criminally charged. FILE – This undated photo provided by Taylor family attorney Sam Aguiar shows Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Ky.The lawsuit against the city was filed by Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, who alleged that police used erroneous information when they obtained a no-knock warrant to enter Taylor’s apartment. Taylor and her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, were roused from bed by police, who said they announced their presence outside the apartment before busting their way into the housing unit. Walker says he never heard police. Walker, with a licensed gun, has said he fired once at the officers thinking intruders were breaking into the apartment. Investigators say police were returning fire when they shot Taylor several times. No drugs were found at her home. The warrant leading to Taylor’s death was one of five issued in a drug trafficking investigation of a former boyfriend of Taylor’s, Jamarcus Glover, who was arrested at a different location about 16 kilometers away from Taylor’s apartment on the same evening.
…
Oregon Governor Seeks More Federal Help as Wildfires Burn
Oregon’s governor is seeking additional federal assistance as her state battles the deadly wildfires sweeping the western United States, and local residents pitched in on Tuesday to help the many people displaced by the blazes. Dozens of wildfires have burned across some 4.5 million acres (1.8 million hectares) in California, Oregon and Washington state since August, ravaging several small towns, destroying thousands of homes and killing at least three dozen people. FILE – Oregon Gov. Kate Brown speaks at a news conference in Portland, Ore., March 16, 2020.California’s Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said 16,600 firefighters were battling 25 fires on Tuesday in the most populous U.S. state after being able to largely put out two blazes on Monday. Oregon Governor Kate Brown on Monday sent a letter to the White House requesting a Presidential Disaster Declaration following the federal emergency declaration on Sept. 10. The request from the Democratic governor includes a call for additional communications resources, damage-assessment teams, search-and-rescue and debris management, as well as help with shelter and medical assistance. A search and rescue team, surrounded by red fire retardant, looks for victims under burned residences and vehicles in the aftermath of the Almeda fire in Talent, Oregon, Sept. 13, 2020.The fires have put harmful levels of smoke and soot into the region’s air, painting skies with tones of orange and sepia even as local residents deal with another public health emergency in the coronavirus pandemic. The incinerated wreckage from the fires can have a surreal appearance, with red-colored fire retardant blanketing burned residences and vehicles in communities like Talent, Oregon. ‘A total blessing’ Tens of thousands of displaced residents across the Pacific Northwest continued to adjust to life as evacuees. In the southwestern Oregon city of Phoenix, displaced families, many with young children, are sleeping in their cars and taking shelter at a local civic center or in churches, local City Council member Sarah Westover said. “It’s much more difficult to follow the COVID restrictions given the environment,” Westover said. Marcus Welch, a food service director and youth soccer coach in Phoenix, said he has been helping a group of local high school students run a community donation center to assist a mostly Latino local population whose mobile homes were burned to the ground. About 600 people have come by to pick up donations, Welch added. The high school students, whose homes were spared from the Almeda Fire, started handing out water bottles in the parking lot of a local Home Depot store last Wednesday and Thursday, Welch said. By Friday, local residents began dropping off large amounts of items, including baby supplies, clothing and canned food, Welch said. “Every day, I hear a sad story. Every day, I hear a family displaced. People are crying because high school kids are giving them food, water. … It’s been a total blessing,” Welch said. “Some people, they lost everything, so we encourage them to take everything they can.” Search and rescue personnel search for the remains of fire victims in the Bear Lakes Estates neighborhood, which was left devastated by the Almeda fire in Phoenix, Oregon, Sept. 12, 2020.Westover said the community is in grief and shock while fearing it might not be over. She and others who have evacuated still have their cars packed, ready to make an escape at a moment’s notice, she said. Her house in Phoenix was spared, but others nearby burned down. “It’s like it cherry-picked — it burned down a house, then skipped two, then burned down another. I guess that’s the way they kind of work with the embers flying around,” Westover said. Trump, BidenOn Monday, President Donald Trump, seeking reelection on Nov. 3, met with firefighters and officials in California. His Democratic challenger Joe Biden branded the Republican president a “climate arsonist” for refusing to acknowledge climate change’s role in the wildfires, while Trump said, “I don’t think science knows.” Ten deaths have been confirmed during the past week in Oregon, the latest flashpoint in a larger summer outbreak of fires. At least 25 people have perished in California wildfires since mid-August, and one death has been confirmed in Washington state. More than 6,200 homes and other structures have been lost, according to figures from all three states. Local residents told of having to make quick getaways from fast-moving wildfires. Rhonda Johnston and Chuck Johnston, of Gates, Oregon, described celebrating their 32nd wedding anniversary outside their RV playing card games and eating barbecued chicken in the parking lot of the Oregon State Fairgrounds after a hasty evacuation. “This is something you never think you’re going to go through,” Rhonda Johnston said. “We grabbed a couple days’ worth of clothes, pills, and two cars full of pictures and two dogs and a cat and our daughter.”
…
Dim Future for US-China Engagement as US Ambassador Plans Exit
The U.S. ambassador to China, Terry Branstad, announced on Monday that he would step down in early October, ending his three-and-a-half-year tenure in Beijing.In a tweet that day, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said “Ambassador Branstad has contributed to rebalancing U.S.-China relations so that it is results-oriented, reciprocal, and fair.”Ambassador Branstad has contributed to rebalancing U.S.-China relations so that it is results-oriented, reciprocal, and fair. This will have lasting, positive effects on U.S. foreign policy in the Asia-Pacific for decades to come.— Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) FILE – In this June 28, 2017, file photo, U.S. Ambassador to China Terry Branstad, left, speaks during a briefing to journalists near his family at the Ambassador’s residence in Beijing.Branstad became embroiled in controversy last week when China’s state-run newspaper People’s Daily rejected an op-ed that he had written. Pompeo tweeted last week that this showed the lack of reciprocity in bilateral relations because the Chinese ambassador to the United States “is free to publish in any U.S. media outlet.” China’s foreign ministry spokesman said Branstad’s article was “full of loopholes and seriously inconsistent with facts.”Schell, a long-time China analyst, said he believes Beijing must accept most of the responsibility for worsening bilateral relations.“I think it’s the whole framework of engagement that kept the two countries more or less stable for over 40 years,” he said. “But that framework was essentially killed by China’s very aggressive actions in the South China Sea, the Taiwan Strait, Hong Kong, and Xinjiang. And it was unnecessary.”A high-level official from the U.S. Department of State told VOA that during the ambassador’s tenure, China maintained a policy of “seek common ground while shelving differences.” The official, who asked not to be identified when discussing the current situation, said Beijing’s tactic of ignoring policy differences has seriously damaged fundamental U.S. interests.“The common ground is economic benefit, the difference, however, is differences on politics and universal values,” the official said, adding that activities such as forced technology transfer from American companies “pose a severe challenge to America’s fundamental national interest.”“The departure of an ambassador won’t change anything in this dynamic,” the official said.David Miller, former director of Research and Commodity Services with the Iowa Farm Bureau, said Branstad might also be using his return to the U.S. to help Trump win the 2020 election in a closely fought battle with former Democratic vice president Joe Biden.“Governor Branstad is well respected, particularly in Iowa. And Iowa is a swing state,” Miller said.CNN reported that Branstad is leaving his post earlier in part because Trump “asked” the former Iowa governor to come back and help him campaign. The ambassador’s son, Eric Branstad, is already working on the Trump campaign.Calla Yu contributed to this report.
…
Well-Preserved Ice Age Cave Bear Remains Found on Russian Island
Scientists at a Russian university have announced the discovery of a remarkably well-preserved ice age cave bear, with much of its soft tissue including its nose, flesh and teeth intact.In a statement, scientists from North-Eastern Federal University (NEFU) in Yakutsk say reindeer herders on Great Lyakhovsky island in the New Siberian Islands archipelago discovered the carcass in the melting permafrost. NEFU is considered the premier center for research into woolly mammoths and other prehistoric, ice age species.Scientists at the research center have hailed the find as ground-breaking. Previously, scientists had only the bone of cave bears to study. The species, or subspecies, lived in Eurasia in the Middle and Late Pleistocene period and became extinct about 15,000 years ago.Preliminary analysis suggests this specimen to be between 22,000 and 39,500 years old, but it will be carbon dated to confirm that.Recent years have seen major discoveries of mammoths, woolly rhinos, ice age foal, several puppies and cave lion cubs as the permafrost inside the Arctic Circle melts.
…
Pompeo: ‘Difficult’ Afghan Peace to Help Reduce US Cost of War
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo cautioned Tuesday that ongoing peace negotiations over the future of Afghanistan will be a “difficult” process but will help reduce the cost of war and risk to America. Pompeo spoke in Washington as the Taliban and representatives of the Afghan government continued their meetings in Doha, Qatar, for a fourth day to finalize an agenda for substantive peace negotiations to end decades of Afghan conflict.The U.S.-brokered talks or intra-Afghan negotiations kicked off Saturday in the Qatari capital, where the two negotiating teams have been tasked to agree on a permanent cease-fire and a power-sharing deal to govern Afghanistan after the withdrawal of all U.S. and allied troops. “We are now delivering a set of outcomes that will reduce the costs in blood from our American servicemen and women, in treasure from the American taxpayer and risk to the USA,” Pompeo told a virtual event hosted by the Atlantic Council.Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, right, and Qatar’s Deputy Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani sign a memorandum of understanding during the U.S.-Qatar Strategic Dialogue at the State Department, Sept. 14, 2020, in Washington.“For the first time now in 20 years, Afghans sat down together to begin to pound out what a reconciled peaceful Afghanistan might look like. Under no illusion about who we are negotiating with, who these parties are, how difficult that process will be,” Pompeo said. The chief American diplomat noted that fewer than 200 al-Qaida militants remain in Afghanistan. U.S. officials maintain that nearly 19 years of military action, which began after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on U.S. cities, has degraded al-Qaida and other terrorists in the South Asian nation. The intra-Afghan talks stemmed from a landmark February deal between the U.S. and the Taliban, also signed in Doha, where the insurgents run their political office. The pact requires the Taliban to disallow al-Qaida-led terrorists to plot international attacks and begin direct peace talks with Afghan rivals to seek a negotiated end to the war. In return, Washington has begun pulling out U.S. forces from Afghanistan, bringing their number down to about 8,600 from roughly 13,000 at the time of signing the deal. All U.S. and allied troops are required to completely withdraw from the country by the end of April 2021. In an interview published Sunday, Pompeo said the withdrawal process was on track, which will close what has become America’s longest war.
…
EU-China Summit Has Some Germans Rethinking Relations With Beijing
A high-profile virtual summit among Chinese and EU leaders this week has spurred some influential Europeans to rethink their continent’s relationship with Beijing, and especially whether economic considerations have been overemphasized at the expense of human rights.Monday’s digital get-together — led by Chinese President Xi Jinping and German Chancellor and current EU President Angela Merkel — concluded with several vague commitments to “enhance mutual trust, seek mutual benefits on a win-win basis and uphold multilateralism,” according to China’s Xinhua news agency.But German politicians and news organizations were asking hard questions about Europe’s relationship with China even before the start of the talks, which had been planned pre-pandemic as a gala affair in the German city of Leipzig. The summit also included European Council President Charles Michel and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.“How do we position ourselves towards #China? Is China only a huge market or do we as the EU want to play a role in shaping the world order?” Norbert Röttgen, chairman of the Bundestag foreign affairs committee, asked in a tweet hours before the meeting began.Today the Member of the Greens Party Reinhard Buetikofer arrives for talks on Nov. 19, 2017 in Berlin.“There are at least as many German lawmakers, German members of parliament that are strongly supportive of human rights, in particular human rights in China, as you’ll find in the U.S. Congress,” said German Green Party legislator Reinhard Buetikofer, head of the EU’s Delegation for Relations with the People’s Republic of China, in a telephone interview.Gyde Jensen, representing Germany’s northernmost region in the Bundestag, is just such a lawmaker. Considered a rising star, the 31-year-old chair of the parliament’s human rights committee proudly pins a photo of herself with a Hong Kong activist on her Twitter account and believes Germany should keep Huawei out in its 5G plans.Seit über eineinhalb Jahren fordert die @fdpbt stärkere Einhaltung von Völkerrecht und #Menschenrechten in #Hongkong. Gestern habe ich @nathanlawkc getroffen und die Auslandsreise von #WangYi Revue passieren lassen.Unser Fazit: #CCP hat falsch gepokert – 🇪🇺 steht zusammen. pic.twitter.com/gEhXuBlD4P— Gyde Jensen (@GydeJ) September 3, 2020Prominent members of the academic community have lent their voices to the cause.“German governments, both past and present, have consistently prioritized trade with China over other enlightened German national interests, for example democracy and human rights,” said Andreas Fulda, a German social and political scientist who launched a petition in May calling for a reappraisal. We need to talk about Germany. Let’s start with an inconvenient truth: German governments, both past and present, have consistently prioritized trade with China over other enlightened German national interests, for example democracy and human rights. 1/16https://t.co/NcuRAAXGAH— Andreas Fulda (@AMFChina) May 26, 2020For too long, foreign trade promotion has topped Germany’s policy configurations toward China, Fulda said in an email interview. Corporate voices have been over-amplified in public discourse while “for decades hyp[ing] the significance of the Chinese market” in order to justify trade and investment “with an authoritarian China.”China, for its part, likes to remind Europeans of the economic advantages of the relationship. Ahead of Monday’s meeting, Beijing conspicuously announced that the German auto industry continued to reap profits in China, while business interests elsewhere have been pummeled by the coronavirus pandemic.“German car giants increased their sales in China, with Mercedes-Benz seeing a 21.6 percent increase in the second quarter compared with the same period last year, even as its sales in Europe dropped by 31.5 percent during the first half of the year,” said a September 9 article published in the Global Times, an arm of Chinese state media.Germany, for its part, declared China as its top single-country export destination in the second quarter of this year, surpassing the United States.Some Chinese netizens suggested that Beijing’s increased purchases from Germany were part of a strategic move to secure Berlin’s friendship. Otherwise, one wrote, European nations “would all follow the footsteps of the Czech Senate leader” who recently led a delegation to Taiwan.Senate President Miloš Vystrčil led an 89-member Czech delegation to Taipei on a trip described as honoring the spirit of Vaclav Havel, the first democratically elected Czech president following the disintegration of the Soviet bloc 30 years ago.“My view is that if we focus on money, we will lose [both] our values and money,” Vystrčil said prior to embarking on the journey.
…
Gender Reveal Events Grow in Popularity, Risk
The massive El Dorado wildfire in the U.S. state of California was reportedly started by a reveal party, a growing trend in the United States in which couples come up with increasingly elaborate ways to announce the gender of their expected child. For some couples, the revelation of the baby’s gender has become an important milestone, like a baby shower. But some are saying reveal parties have gotten out of control, as couples vie for the most dramatic reveal and the accompanying social media attention. FILE – A helicopter prepares to drop water at a wildfire in Yucaipa, Calif., Sept. 5, 2020. The blaze is being blamed on a gender reveal party, when a pyrotechnical device sparked a wildfire that has burned thousands of acres.Jenna Karvunidis, whom the media call the inventor of the reveal party, says social media influencer clout and the money that can generate is pushing couples to extremes. “The problem is that it’s monetary,” she told the Daily Beast. “The platforms are rewarding this more extravagant content because that’s how you get the sponsorship opportunities. … And so, they have to up the ante with more and more spectacles.” It’s not clear if Karvunidis is, in fact, the inventor of the gender reveal party, but her 2008 post to social media helped cause the trend to go viral. Her idea was simple by today’s standards: Invite a few friends and family members over, bake a modest cake with pink icing in the center to indicate the unborn baby is a girl and post some photos on a blog. Karvunidis told the Daily Beast that her reveal party wasn’t to get attention from strangers but rather to celebrate a healthy pregnancy and get her estranged mother excited. Cakes no longer seem to cut it. One expecting couple hollowed out a watermelon, filled it with blue jello and then had an alligator chomp on it to reveal the gender. Another couple hired a small plane to dump small colored balls on attendees.Another aviation-themed reveal caused a plane crash when a small aircraft that was supposed to dump 1,300 liters of pink water flew too low and crashed. Luckily, no one was injured. Some are jumping out of planes to add to the drama. In one case, a man parachuted from a plane toward event guests with a smoke canister emitting colored smoke to reveal the gender. Yet another couple built a complex Rube Goldberg machine to reveal the gender of their coming baby. Some of the events have produced painful viral video, including a recent video of a Massachusetts man accidentally firing an explosive canister of blue smoke directly into his crotch. Flare hits dad-to-be in the crotch at a gender reveal party pic.twitter.com/tpkpNN9qOd— The Sun (@TheSun) September 13, 2020But now, the parties may be causing massive damage like the El Dorado fire, which started east of Los Angeles and has burned around 5,600 hectares so far. A massive 2018 fire in Arizona is also blamed on a gender reveal event gone wrong. It’s unclear if the fires will cause a pause to the gender reveal trend, but a quick online search reveals numerous resources for parents wanting to plan their event, and it’s likely most parties don’t involve gators, planes or explosive devices. There are also signs the trend is going global with a couple recently lighting up the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, in blue to announce they were expecting a boy. Karvunidis, however, says she has had enough. “Stop it. Stop having these stupid parties,” she wrote on Facebook.
…
China Rejects Human Rights Criticism as EU Seeks Trade Rebalance
Europe has called on China to take down trade barriers and rebalance their economic relationship, following a virtual summit held Monday among EU leaders and Chinese President Xi Jinping. European leaders also raised human rights concerns, but Beijing has rejected what it calls interference in its affairs. Monday’s videoconference was a substantially downsized version of the original plan to hold a face-to-face summit among all 27 European Union heads of state and the Chinese president in the German city of Leipzig. A resurgent coronavirus pandemic in Europe forced the change of plan. The virtual meeting was attended by Xi, along with European Council President Charles Michel; European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the council of the EU. European Council President Charles Michel arrives for an online press conference at the European Council building in Brussels, Sept. 14, 2020.Speaking at a press conference after the meeting, Michel reiterated demands for China to open its markets. “Europe needs to be a player, not a playing field,” he told reporters. “Today’s meeting represents another step forward in forging a more balanced relationship with China.” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen attends an online press conference at the European Council building in Brussels, Sept. 14, 2020.Von der Leyen was more direct. “We expect that the market access barriers in China will be removed,” she said. Europe has voiced frustration at its lack of access to Chinese markets and at having to compete with state-backed industries. Brussels sees the current trade relationship with China as deeply unfair, but is not seeking a trade war, said analyst Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute at the University of London. “The reality is that the EU would want to be strengthening its economic relationship with China with some adjustments,” he told VOA. “I think COVID-19 has changed a lot of things in terms of the relationship with China. Many of these countries have found China less than an entirely reliable trading partner or supplier of essential goods like medical supplies. So, some of that will change. But they really don’t want to have an economic decoupling with China,” Tsang said. Human rightsThe trade talks were overshadowed by growing criticism in Europe of China’s human rights record. The EU has requested that Beijing end its clampdown on pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong following the imposition earlier this year of a so-called “national security law,” which critics say effectively ends the right to protest and freedom of speech. The law will allow the Communist Party to markedly expand its power in and tighten control of the Asian financial hub. Europe has voiced growing alarm over China’s treatment of the Muslim Uighur population in Xinjiang province, where human rights groups say millions of people are being detained amid reports of forced labor and sterilizations. China denies the accusations. Speaking at a press conference after the summit, Merkel said Europe would continue to raise these issues with Beijing. “The human rights dialogue will continue. (Chinese President Xi Jinping) offered this,” Merkel said. “So, there are already points of contact for further joint action. But that does not mean that there is agreement on these issues.” European Council President Charles Michel, top right, speaks with China’s President Xi Jinping, top left, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, bottom right, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel during a virtual summit, Sept. 14, 2020.The United States has also repeatedly raised concerns over China’s human rights record. Speaking on France Inter radio Tuesday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo asked Europe to take a tougher stance. “We’ve always said that when human rights are under risk — whether it’s the inability to practice one’s religion and one’s faith, or the simple ability to speak and exercise the basic rights of conscience — that the United States has a role in making clear that that’s unacceptable,” Pompeo said. “It’s what we’ve done with respect to what’s taking place in western China. It’s what we’ve done in other parts of the world. It’s what we hope and we expect of other nations around the world. And we think the Europeans understand this risk in the same way that we do. We hope that they’ll take actions that reflect the seriousness with which these human rights violations need to be viewed.” Reaction from XiChina’s state-run Xinhua news agency reported that Xi rejected any interference in Chinese affairs during Monday’s virtual summit, particularly on human rights. The Brussels-Beijing relationship is strained, analyst Tsang said. “Governments generally, and the EU as a whole, also take a more robust stance, reflecting the shift in public opinion towards China.” The EU is China’s top trading partner, and analysts say Beijing wants to avoid further disputes amid its trade war with the United States. Brussels said it will continue to bring up security and human rights concerns, even as it seeks more trade.
…
Malawi’s Liberalized Abortion Bill Sparks New Debate
Anti-abortion activists in Malawi are protesting plans by the National Assembly to debate a bill that would allow abortion in cases of rape and incest. Malawi’s abortion rights activists argue the Termination of Pregnancy Bill would help prevent the 12,000 deaths annually from illegal, unsafe abortions.Abortion is currently illegal in Malawi and punishable by a maximum of 14 years in prison except in cases where pregnancy threatens the life of a woman.Proponents of the Termination of Pregnancy Bill say the restriction is forcing women to seek illegal abortion services mostly from untrained personnel. Government statistics indicate that 70,000 women in Malawi have illegal abortions each year and 17 percent of them die from the procedure.Dr. Amos Nyaka is vice chair for the Coalition for Prevention of Unsafe Abortion, which is championing liberalized abortion laws in Malawi.“From a public health point of view, it is important to address this issue of complications that arise from termination of pregnancy. That’s why it is important that this bill be discussed, at be looked at about how we can protect women from dying from termination of pregnancies,” said Dr. Nyaka.The bill would also allow victims of rape, underage sex and incest to end their pregnancies.Woman preparing meals in Dowa distrcit in central Malawi. Statiststics show that 70,000 women in Malawi have illegal abortions each year and 17 percent of them die from the procedure. (Lameck Masina/VOA)At a press conference Monday, anti-abortion activists, mostly religious groups, asked the National Assembly not to discuss the bill, which is expected to be presented during the current sitting of parliament.Thomas Msusa is the chairperson for the Episcopal Conference of Malawi.He said the government should not champion the measure, which he said promotes killings.“But if they don’t really listen to what we are saying, we will call for another cause of action. Whether it will be the same as what we did in 2016 or another way of doing things, until what God calls us for, should be listened,” said Msusa. In 2016, a group of anti-abortion activists led by the Catholic Church marched to parliament to stop lawmakers from discussing the legislation.Brian Banda, the presidential press secretary, told reporters in the capital, Lilongwe, Monday that President Lazarus Chakwera cannot prevent parliament from discussing the measure.“What the president says is people who have views against this bill, they should discuss. Being a private members’ bill, they should lobby members of parliament on how they can deal with this matter,” said Banda.The lawmakers are expected to debate the bill before the current sitting of parliament ends on October 23.
…
Poisoned Russian Opposition Leader Posts Photo from Hospital Bed
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny published a photo of himself in a Berlin hospital bed Tuesday as he recovers from a nerve agent poisoning last month in Siberia.Navalny, surrounded by his family as he sat up in bed, said he was pleased to be able to breathe independently.“I miss you all,” Navalny wrote in the post on Instagram. “I can still hardly do anything, but yesterday I could breath all day on my own.”It is the first publicly shared image of Navalny since he was airlifted to Berlin’s Charite Hospital two days after becoming sick during a flight in Russia on August 20.Navalny’s spokeswoman confirmed shortly after the photo’s posting that the 44-year-old planned to return to Russia.Germany, France and Sweden have concluded that Navalny was poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent, a Soviet-era agent that Britain said was used on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury, England two years ago.Western countries have requested an explanation from Moscow, which says the accusations that it was involved in the poisoning are unfounded. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday that Moscow needs Germany to provide information about the case to clear up what happened.Peskov said Russian authorities cannot understand why French and Swedish laboratories were allowed to test Navalny’s medical samples and Russia was not.Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has accused the West of using Navalny’s poisoning as an excuse to impose new sanctions on Moscow.Navalny’s illness has further strained ties between Russia and the West. Relations deteriorated to a post-Cold War low after Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and Skripal and his daughter were poisoned.German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been pressured to punish Moscow by postponing work on a nearly completed natural gas pipeline from Russia to Germany.
…
Pompeo: Confident There Will Be Effective Competitors to Huawei from Western Vendors
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Tuesday he is confident there will be effective 5G competitors to China’s Huawei from Western vendors at comparable costs, adding that he believes Western technologies will come to dominate telecommunications.
“I am confident that there will be a cost-effective deliverables from Western trusted vendors that can deliver the same services, or better services, at comparative cost,” Pompeo said during an Atlantic Council event.
In what some observers have compared to the Cold War arms race, the United States is worried 5G dominance would give China an advantage Washington is not ready to accept.
With U.S.-China relations at their worst in decades, Washington has been pushing governments around to world to squeeze out Huawei Technologies Co, arguing that the firm would hand over data to the Chinese government for spying.
Huawei, founded in 1987 by a former engineer in China’s People’s Liberation Army, denies it spies for Beijing and says the United States is trying to smear it because Western firms are falling behind in 5G technology.
Pompeo said countries had come to recognize the costs of putting “untrusted” vendors in their systems.
“Over time, I think the world will come to recognize that’s not the right path and you will see Western technologies that are verifiable, trustworthy and transparent come to dominate the telecommunications markets,” he said.
5G, which will offer much faster data speeds and become the foundation of many industries and networks, is seen as one of the biggest innovations since the birth of the internet itself a generation ago.
…
South Sudan: No Money to Pay Civil Servants’ Overdue Salaries
South Sudan’s finance minister said his ministry does not have the money to pay government workers their past due salaries, dismaying civil servants who have been waiting for their paychecks since April or May. Government employees told VOA they are finding it more and more difficult to feed their families as their savings dwindle and commodity prices skyrocket.Fifty-three-year-old civil servant Fouzia Lukadi, who resides in the Gudele neighborhood of Juba, wakes up at about 6 a.m. each day and heads to the customs market where she buys food, then resells it in front of her house to earn money to feed her children.“We are suffering and trying our best to help our children. Surviving is really hard, but we are struggling. All of us are now selling things in the markets, selling small goods such as tomatoes, onions, and sweet potatoes to help the family,” Ludadi told VOA’s South Sudan in Focus program.Juma Abdullah works as a boda-boda, or motorcycle taxi driver, to supplement his meager earnings as a government employee.Abdullah told South Sudan in Focus many public servants like him have started working a second job to put food on the table.“Our salaries are off and on and life keeps on becoming hard each and every day, so I have decided to buy a motorcycle so that I can work as a boda-boda man, just to provide for my family. People’s livelihood in Juba is really getting tough, especially for the civil servants,” said Abdullah. Lukadi and Abdallah called on the finance ministry to pay their salaries in arrears.Finance Minister Salvatore Garang Mabior appeared last week before the National Assembly’s business committee to explain why the government has not paid civil servant salaries for nearly five months. Mabior told the panel that the COVID-19 lockdown has devastated the global economy, including crude oil prices and revenue from South Sudan’s oil production.After the price of oil on international markets plummeted, South Sudan’s production level dropped from about 250,000 barrels a day to around 170,000 barrels per day in March, according to Mabior.More than 19 South Sudanese institutions have yet to remit revenues to the National Revenue authority, money the government relies on to pay civil servant salaries, according to Mabior.
…
EU Mulls Migration Pact in Shadow of Lesbos Fire
Five years after a wave of asylum seekers flooded into Europe, the region is facing another reckoning on migration, with familiar bickering and lack of consensus on the way forward.The numbers of arrivals are far smaller today than they were in 2015. The iconic images now driving migration back into the headlines are no longer of drowned toddlers, but rather of the thousands of migrants left homeless by fires at a squalid Greek island camp.Whether the European Union can finally come together on migration will be tested when its executive arm next Wednesday unveils a long-awaited migration and asylum pact that will need member state approval to become reality.”It’s going to be a very tough negotiation,” predicted former EU official Stefan Lehne, now an analyst at the Brussels-based Carnegie Europe policy institute.“Everybody agrees the current situation is a mess,” Lehne said of the patchwork of migration initiatives, but, he added, there remains little agreement on how to fix it.Migrants flee from the Moria refugee camp during a second fire, on the northeastern Aegean island of Lesbos, Greece, Sept. 9, 2020.Cannot afford to fail?The European Commission pact is expected to emphasize initiatives toward countries of origin and transit to keep asylum seekers from leaving, beef up border patrols and push for more burden sharing of migrants already within EU borders.The fire that devastated Europe’s largest migrant camp on the Greek island of Lesbos last week has lent urgency in coming up with solutions.Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotaki, who has called for more EU support in building a new structure — and in handling the migrant influx in general — called the blaze and its aftermath a “warning bell” for the 27-member bloc.“Europe cannot afford a second failure on the migration issue,” he said.European Council President Charles Michel, left, makes statements after his meeting with Greece’s Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis at Maximos Mansion in Athens, Sept. 15, 2020.So far, however, less than half of EU member states, along with Switzerland, have offered to take in a few hundred accompanied minors from the now-devastated Moria camp. Several hundred more have been voluntarily moved to tent camps on the island, leaving most of Moria’s more than 12,000 initial inhabitants still sleeping outside.These and other recent migrant numbers dwarf those of 2015, when roughly one million asylum seekers reached European shores. While Germany opened its doors, welcoming the majority of them, others, particularly eastern European countries, slammed them shut.By contrast, about 48,000 migrants have reached Europe so far this year, according to the International Organization for Migration, most via the Mediterranean — with another 268 dead or missing en route.Dozens of African migrants wait to be assisted by a team of aid workers of the Spanish NGO Open Arms, after spending more than 20 hours at sea, in the Central Mediterranean sea, Sept. 8, 2020.“We no longer have the arrival numbers we had in 2015-2016—which means in principle we should be able to talk about migration management and the challenges in a more rational, pragmatic way,” said Marie De Somer, head of migration and diversity at the European Policy Center, a Brussels research institution.But she added, “The divisions remain strong.”Toughening stancesFive years after the migrant crisis, states like Greece, on the frontlines of the influx, are still demanding greater burden-sharing from other bloc members, with some reluctant to do more.“If we give in to the pressure, we risk making the same mistakes we made in 2015. We risk giving people false hopes,” said Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, who has declined to take in minors from the Moria camp.Still, Carnegie’s Lehne believes member states are more in harmony today on one aspect.“In 2015, you really had big divisions between one group of countries that was very much for opening the borders and allowing refugees to come—and another group very much opposed,” he said.Lehne believes that has changed.“Everybody in Europe now agrees it has to be a managed process. It cannot simply be opening borders and letting everybody in,” he said.Turkish special forces team patrol on a speed boat along the Maritsa river at the Turkish-Greek border near Karpuzlu village, in Edirne region, Turkey, March 11, 2020.In recent years, the EU has beefed up its border patrols and paid transit countries like Turkey, Libya and Morocco to keep migrants on their shores. In Niger, France opened a migrant processing center to screen asylum-seeking claims thousands of kilometers from European shores.Far-right parties have also surged in recent years, partly riding on their anti-immigration platforms, helping to shape Europe’s tougher migration stance.For their part, rights groups have accused front line countries of foot-dragging or failing to allow vessels carrying migrants to land—and Greece of escorting migrant boats back to Turkish waters.The coronavirus pandemic, activists say, has also offered new pretexts to turn back ships carrying migrants over health concerns.Michael Newman, a migration policy advisor for humanitarian group Medecins Sans Frontieres, said he was “appalled” at the EU’s bureaucratic discussions on migration “when disasters are unfolding in front of our eyes.”“I think we come short of words to describe both the situation lived by migrants, and authorities’ response,” he added.By contrast, EU lawmaker Nicolas Bay, of France’s far-right National Rally party, said that Brussels bureaucrats risked rolling out an overly soft migration policy, offering incentives for more migration.“By piling laxity on top of laxity, they’re adding to the (migration) drama,” he told French radio.Some of these arguments are playing out among EU member states. Analyst De Somer, of the European Policy Center, noted a broader skepticism of reaching member state agreement on a migrant deal.De Somer, however, suggested the Lesbos fire might help act as a catalyst.“One thing it did do,” De Somer said, “is to showcase to the wider public the urgency and importance of coming up with a European solution.”
…
Oregon Governor Says State Has Been ‘Pushed to Its Limits’ by Wildfires
Oregon Governor Kate Brown says her state has been “pushed to its limits” by the historic wildfires that have destroyed hundreds of hectares of land and wiped out entire communities. Brown told reporters Monday night that she has asked President Donald Trump to issue a major disaster declaration for the Pacific Northwest U.S. state, which would make additional federal resources available to beleaguered firefighters and other emergency personnel. President Trump had already issued a federal emergency declaration for Oregon last week. Flames from the Beachie Creek Fire burned through Fishermen’s Bend Recreation Site in Mill City, Oregon, Sept. 13, 2020.Andrew Phelps, the director of the state’s emergency management agency, said 10 people have been confirmed dead, with 22 other people reportedly missing. Weather forecasters predict thunderstorms for Oregon on Thursday, which could help firefighters contain the fires and clear the air of smoke that has blanketed the state since the fires began. Air quality across Oregon has been characterized by state environmental officials as “hazardous” or “very unhealthy.” Visibility has been less than a half-kilometer in some places, according to the National Weather Service, making it dangerous to drive. Bobcat fire approaches Sierra Madre and Arcadia communities in California, Sept. 13, 2020 in this picture obtained from social media. (John Mirabella via Reuters)The infernos, brought on by several weeks of record heat and dry wind, have destroyed more than a million hectares of land across Oregon, Washington state and California. A combined 35 people have been confirmed dead in the wildfires in the three states. President Trump participates in a briefing on wildfires in McClellan Park in McClellan Park, California.During a visit to California to speak with state officials about the fires, President Trump once again brushed aside concerns about climate change as a catalyst for the increasing number and intensity of such fires and reiterated his call for Western states to practice better forest management. “When trees fall down after a short period of time, they become very dry — really like a matchstick,” Trump said when he arrived. “And they can explode. Also leaves. When you have dried leaves on the ground, it’s just fuel for the fires.” But during the briefing, Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom, a vocal critic of the president, noted that 56% of the land in California is federally owned, so the federal government has a major responsibility to improve forest management along with the state. Newsom also challenged Trump on his open skepticism about climate change. “We feel very strongly the hots are getting hotter, the dries are getting dryer,” the governor said. “Something has happened to the plumbing of the world, and we come from a perspective, humbly, that we assert the science that climate change is real. Please respect the difference of opinion out here with respect to the fundamental issue of climate change.” Trump appeared to side with Newsom, but then predicted that the climate “will start getting cooler.” When pressed again on climate change by California Secretary for Natural Resources Wade Crowfoot, Trump said “I don’t think science knows actually.” Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden speaks about climate change and wildfires affecting western states, Sept. 14, 2020, in Wilmington, Del.Before the president’s meeting, former vice president Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential candidate, denounced Trump as “a climate arsonist” during a speech from his home state of Delaware. The former vice president said Trump’s approach is to ignore the facts and “deny reality,” calling that a full surrender to the effects of climate change. Steve Herman contributed to this report.
…
Ethiopia Unveils New Currency Notes
Ethiopia has introduced new bank notes to shore up the country’s struggling economy and slow the hoarding of currency and illegal trade activities. Prime minister Abiy Ahmed said the improved design and security features on new Birr notes for denominations of 10, 50 and 100 will make counterfeiting difficult. A new 200 denomination currency note has also been introduced. Ethiopia is spending more than $97 million to print the new currency. The Ethiopian government intends to turn the 5 Birr note into a coin format. Ahmed said in a statement that money outside the banking system has been rising, affecting how commercial banks can turn assets into cash. He added that the outside money also bolsters corruption and illegal trade activities. Quartz Africa reported Ethiopia last introduced a new money denomination at the end of the Ethiopian-Eritrean civil war two decades ago.
…
President Trump to Host Ceremony Normalizing Relations Between Israel, UAE and Bahrain
U.S. President Donald Trump will host a signing ceremony at the White House Tuesday for the normalization of relations between Israel and the Arab states of the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, UAE Foreign Affairs Minister Abdullah bin Zayed and Bahrain Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Alzayani will sign the so-called “Abraham Accord” on the South Lawn of the White House. The Israel-UAE deal was initially reached on August 13 between Israel and UAE, with Bahrain announcing last Friday that it will also formally recognize the Jewish state. Under the Abraham Accord, Prime Minister Netanyahu has agreed to halt plans to annex portions of the West Bank. But observers say the agreement is a further sign of a shifting dynamic in the Middle East, with more and more Arab nations growing closer to Israel, leaving the Palestinians isolated.Dana El Kurd of the Palestinian Policy Network think tank Al-Shabaka, told VOA last week the normalization deal between Israel and Bahrain is further evidence that Arab governments are abandoning the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative, without receiving “anything tangible related to the Palestinian cause or statehood project.”The Trump administration is touting the deals between Israel, U.A.E. and Bahrain as key foreign policy victories with just two months remaining before the November 3 presidential election. Former vice president Joe Biden, Trump’s Democratic opponent, said he supports more countries normalizing relations with Israel in response to a recent VOA question, but also said he believes “that Israel has to be prepared to work toward a genuine two-state solution” with the Palestinians.
…