U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas are hosting talks Wednesday with a group of partners and allies to discuss the situation in Afghanistan, including efforts to continue the flow of humanitarian aid to the country after the Taliban’s takeover. A U.S. State Department official said ahead of the ministerial meeting that one theme of the discussion would be seeing if the Taliban lives up to its commitments and the expectations of the international community.U.S. Secretary of State Blinken speaks to members of the U.S. embassy and Mission Afghanistan in Doha, Sep. 7, 2021.Before traveling to Germany, Blinken stressed during a visit to Qatar that the United States and others are calling on the Taliban to follow through on its pledge to allow anyone with valid travel documents to leave Afghanistan if they choose to do so. The issue has been a focus since the United States withdrew from Afghanistan at the end of August, ending a two-decade military presence and a final effort to evacuate thousands of people from the country. Many people who wanted to leave Afghanistan were unable to do so before the U.S. withdrawal. The State Department said Wednesday’s meeting would also likely involve discussion of counterterrorism issues and upholding basic human rights in Afghanistan.
…
Month: September 2021
China Chases ‘Rejuvenation’ With Control of Tycoons, Society
An avalanche of changes launched by China’s ruling Communist Party has jolted everyone from tech billionaires to school kids. Behind them: President Xi Jinping’s vision of making a more powerful, prosperous country by reviving revolutionary ideals, with more economic equality and tighter party control over society and entrepreneurs. Since taking power in 2012, Xi has called for the party to return to its “original mission” as China’s economic, social and cultural leader and carry out the “rejuvenation of the great Chinese nation.” The party has spent the decade since then silencing dissent and tightening political control. Now, after 40 years of growth that transformed China into the world’s factory but left a gulf between a wealthy elite and the poor majority, the party is promising to spread prosperity more evenly and is pressing private companies to pay for social welfare and back Beijing’s ambition to become a global technology competitor. To support its plans, Xi’s government is trying to create what it deems a more wholesome society by reducing children’s access to online games and banning “sissy men” who are deemed insufficiently masculine from TV.China Bans Men It Sees as Not Masculine Enough From TVPresident Xi Jinping has called for a ‘national rejuvenation,’ with tighter Communist Party control of business, education, culture and religionChinese leaders want to “direct the constructive energies of all people in one laser-focused direction selected by the party,” Andrew Nathan, a Chinese politics specialist at Columbia University, said in an email. Beijing has launched anti-monopoly and data security crackdowns to tighten its control over internet giants, including e-commerce platform Alibaba Group and games and social media operator Tencent Holdings Ltd., that looked too big and potentially independent. In response, their billionaire founders have scrambled to show loyalty by promising to share their wealth under Xi’s vaguely defined “common prosperity” initiative to narrow the income gap in a country with more billionaires than the United States. Xi has yet to give details, but in a society where every political term is scrutinized for significance, the name revives a 1950s propaganda slogan under Mao Zedong, the founder of the communist government. Xi is reviving the “utopian ideal” of early communist leaders, said Willy Lam of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. “But of course, huge question marks have arisen, because this will hurt the most creative and lucrative parts of the economy.” Alibaba, Tencent and others have pledged tens of billions of dollars for job creation and social welfare initiatives. They say they will invest in developing processor chips and other technologies cited by Beijing as priorities. The party’s anti-monopoly enforcement and crackdown on how companies handle information about customers are similar to Western regulation. But the abrupt, heavy-handed way changes have been imposed is prompting warnings that Beijing is threatening innovation and economic growth, which already is declining. Jittery foreign investors have knocked more than $300 billion off Tencent’s stock market value and billions more off other companies. “I expect that over the next year or two we are likely to see a very rocky relationship develop between the political elite and the business elite,” Michael Pettis, a finance professor at Peking University’s Guanghua School of Business, said in a report. Chinese officials say the public, consumers and entrepreneurs will benefit from higher incomes and more regulatory oversight of corporate giants. Parents welcome curbs announced last month that limit children under 18 to three hours of online games a week and only on weekends and Friday night. “I feel this is a good rule,” said Li Zhanguo, the father of an 8-year-old boy and a 4-year-old girl in the central city of Zhengzhou. “Games still have some addictive mechanisms. We can’t count on children’s self-control.” The crackdowns reflect party efforts to control a rapidly evolving society of 1.4 billion people. Some 1 million members of mostly Muslim ethnic groups have been forced into detention camps in the northwest. Officials deny accusations of abuses including forced abortions and say the camps are for job training and to combat extremism. A surveillance initiative dubbed Social Credit aims to track every person and company in China and punish violations ranging from dealing with business partners that violate environmental rules to littering. “Our responsibility is to unite and lead the entire party and people of all ethnic groups, take the baton of history and to work hard to achieve the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation,” Xi said when he and the six other members of the new party Standing Committee appeared in public for the first time in November 2012. The party Central Committee shifted its economic emphasis “from efficiency to fairness” in late 2020, a researcher at a Beijing think tank wrote in August in Caixin, China’s most prominent business magazine. The party moved from “early prosperity for some to ‘common prosperity’” and “from capital to labor,” wrote Luo Zhiheng of Yuekai Securities Research Institute. He said leaders are emphasizing science, technology and manufacturing over finance and real estate. Prominent economists have tried to reassure entrepreneurs. “It is impossible to achieve common prosperity through ‘robbing the rich and helping the poor,’” the dean of the school of economics at Shanghai’s Fudan University, Zhang Jun, told the news outlet The Paper on Aug. 4. The 1979 launch of market-style economic reform under then-leader Deng Xiaoping prompted predictions abroad that China would evolve into a more open, possibly even democratic society. The Communist Party allowed freer movement and encourages internet use for business and education. But leaders reject changes to a one-party dictatorship that copied its political structure from the Soviet Union and watch entrepreneurs closely. Beijing controls all media and tries to limit what China’s public sees online. As the previous decade’s economic boom fades, “Xi sees himself as the only person capable of recreating the momentum,” said June Teufel Dreyer, a Chinese politics specialist at the University of Miami. Party members who worry reforms might weaken political control appear to have decided China’s rise is permanent and liberalization is no longer needed, said Edward Friedman, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin. That means “anti-totalitarian elements of the reform agenda could be rolled back,” Friedman said in an email. “That is what Xi is doing, as manifest in his attack on purportedly gay and girlie culture as a supposed threat to a so-called virile militarism.” An Aug. 29 commentary by an obscure writer, Li Guangman, described “common prosperity” as a “profound revolution.” Writing on the WeChat message service, Li said financial markets would “no longer be a paradise for capitalists to get rich overnight” and said the party’s next targets might include high housing and health care costs. The commentary was reposted on prominent state media websites including the ruling party newspaper People’s Daily. That prompted questions about whether Beijing might veer into an ideological campaign with echoes of the violent 1966-76 Cultural Revolution, when some 5 million people were killed. Hu Xijin, the editor of the Global Times, a newspaper published by People’s Daily that is known for its nationalist tone, responded by criticizing Li’s commentary. Hu warned in a blog post against a return to radicalism. “The Cultural Revolution was a period of chaos, purposely unleashed by Mao because he felt comfortable in chaos,” Nathan said. “This is almost the exact opposite,” he said. “It is an effort to create tightly structured orderliness.”
…
Hong Kong Police Arrest Organizers of Annual Tiananmen Square Vigils
Four members of a Hong Kong group that organizes the annual observances of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown were arrested Wednesday after refusing to cooperate with a police investigation into its activities. Chow Hang Tung, a barrister and vice president of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China, was detained at her office in the city’s central business district. Chow was scheduled to represent Gwyneth Ho, an opposition politician, in a bail hearing Wednesday. Ho has been charged with conspiracy to commit subversion. The Alliance identified the other detained members as Simon Leung, Sean Tang and Chan To-wai. Police last month ordered the group to turn over all information about its finances, membership and activities by September 7, accusing it of colluding with foreign agents. However, the Alliance formally informed police on Tuesday, the day of the deadline, that it had no intention of cooperating because police had not provided any evidence behind the allegation. Authorities released a statement late Tuesday warning that anyone who refuses to comply would face up to six months in jail and more than $12,000 in fines. The Hong Kong Alliance has been hosting an annual candlelight vigil in the city’s Victoria Park in remembrance of the deadly June 4, 1989 crackdown of pro-democracy demonstrators in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square by Chinese soldiers. For the past two years, authorities have banned the vigils citing pandemic restrictions. Hong Kong’s national security law, approved by Beijing in response to the massive and often violent anti-government protests in 2019, punishes anyone believed to be carrying out terrorism, separatism, subversion of state power or collusion with foreign forces with sentences up to life in prison if convicted. Some information for this report came from the Associated Press and Reuters and Agence France Presse.
…
Clashes Between South Sudan Forces Unsettle Western Equatoria State
The United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) called on military commanders and political leaders Tuesday to end clashes in Western Equatoria state following the deaths of at least five people on Monday. A joint team made up of South Sudan defense forces and Opposition Alliance forces was dispatched to Tambura to resolve the conflict, according to Major General Lul Ruai Koang, spokesperson for the South Sudan People’s Defense Forces (SSPDF). Reports circulated that fighting erupted between the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army In Opposition (SPLM/A IO) and SSPDF forces loyal to General James Nando. There are varying accusations of who was involved in the fighting that has destabilized the region and led locals to flee the town of Tambura. Koang said the fighting involved a few soldiers but not full compliments of troops. “That was not a clash between the two armies, it was a clash between elements from both sides,” Koang told VOA’s South Sudan in Focus radio program. But SPLM-IO spokesperson Major General Lam Gabriel denied that the fighting involves opposition forces. The SPLM-IO is the political wing of the opposition group. Father Emmanuel Bie Gbafu, the local parish priest, relocated to a United Nations base in Tambura for safety reasons. Displaced families are sheltering at UNMISS camps in Tambura, and thousands of residents have fled the fighting, Gbafu said. Gbafu said he heard gunshots in Tambura beginning early Monday but did not know “who was fighting who.” “We don’t know who is doing the killing, (but) civilians are dying,” Gbafu said. The violence is endangering the town’s nearly 10,000 residents, creating the risk of further displacement and increasing humanitarian needs, according to an UNMISS statement. The statement quoted UNMISS chief Nicholas Haysom as saying it is “vital” that national and local political leaders “take urgent action to resolve tensions and bring communities together to avoid further loss of life, homes, and livelihoods.” Aid workers are “caught in the crossfire while trying to carry out critical tasks,” Haysom said. He called on authorities to do more to ensure that aid agencies have safe access to people in need. South Sudan’s Joint Defense Board vowed to end tensions by separating forces in the area. “We know it’s civilian violence, but the presence of the IO and SSPDF in the areas is making the situation become more political,” SPLM-IO spokesperson Gabriel told South Sudan in Focus. But Western Equatoria State Information Minister William Adriano Baiki said the conflict in Tambura is not between two ethnic communities but between warring forces. VOA English to Africa service’s John Tanza contributed to this report.
…
Two More Victims Identified 20 Years After 9/11 Attacks
A few days before the commemoration of the attacks of September 11, two more victims killed in the attacks in New York have been officially identified, thanks to new DNA sequencing technology, the city announced on Tuesday.The head of the New York Forensic Institute said in a statement that her laboratory had identified the 1,646th and 1,647th people who had lost their lives at the World Trade Center.A total of 2,753 people died in the al-Qaida attacks on New York City’s twin towers on September 11, 2001.Among them, 1,106 people have yet to be identified, or about 40% of those who died in New York.”Twenty years ago, we promised the families of World Trade Center victims that we would do whatever we could — however long it takes — to identify their loved ones. With these two new identifications, we continue to meet our imperative obligations,” wrote New York Forensic Institute chief Barbara Sampson.Of the victims identified, one was a woman, Dorothy Morgan, who lived on Long Island and whose remains, found in 2001, were subjected to DNA testing. The second victim was a man whose remains were found in 2001, 2002 and 2006 but whose identity will remain secret at the request of his family.For Sampson, the process and techniques put in place over the past two decades to identify every victim at the World Trade Center represent “the largest and most complex forensic investigation in U.S. history.”It was made possible thanks to a new technology of DNA sequencing known as new generation, according to the Forensic Institute of New York.President Joe Biden plans to visit the three sites — New York City, the Pentagon and Shanksville, Pennsylvania — where nearly 3,000 people died in the coordinated terror attacks.
…
Uganda Opposition MPs Accused in Machete Killings of Elderly
Two Ugandan opposition members of parliament were indicted on Tuesday for allegedly orchestrating a wave of machete killings that left dozens dead in the south of the country, a move described as “political persecution” by their lawyer.For two months, the region of Masaka, located about 150 kilometers southwest of the capital, Kampala, has been living in terror of gangs that have killed around 30 people, mainly the elderly, in their homes at night, according to police.After two days of questioning by the police, MPs Muhammad Ssegirinya and Allan Sewanyana were indicted by a court in Masaka on three counts of murder and one of attempted murder, their lawyer, Elias Lukwago, told AFP.”They have denied all charges. … This is political persecution by the military regime of (Uganda President Yoweri) Museveni,” Lukwago said.”We condemn in the strongest terms the use of a biased judicial process to meet the political objectives of a ruling party,” he added, indicating that they would be held in pretrial detention until September 15 in the high-security prison of Kitalya, near Kampala.Ugandan police spokesman Fred Enanga explained that Ssegirinya and Sewanyana were arrested after statements by several suspects accusing them of organizing the attacks “to sow fear among the population and make people hate the government.”Both MPs are members of the National Unity Platform (NUP) of opposition leader Bobi Wine, rival of President Museveni in the disputed January election.Wine, whose real name Robert Kyagulanyi, said the accusations were mounted by the government of Museveni to discredit the opposition.“When the president recently said that the opposition was behind the killings, we thought it was a bad joke. But when the police summoned our MPs, we realized that the regime’s plan to involve the leaders of the NUP in the murders was at work,” he said.In a speech last month, Museveni called the perpetrators “pigs” and vowed their doom.FILE – Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni arrives at an African Union event in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, February 9, 2020.In power since 1986, Museveni, 76, was reelected in January for a sixth term, ahead of Wine, who denounced an electoral “masquerade.””No matter what the Museveni regime does, one day Uganda will be free, and those accused of crimes because they belong to the opposition will be released,” Wine said.In Masaka, residents called on the government to take strong action to stop the killers.”We mourn our loved ones who were killed, we live in fear of being killed by gangs armed with machetes,” Sarah Kasujja, a 45-year-old trader, told Agence France-Presse. She said her 81-year-old grandfather is one of the gangs’ victims.”Some elderly people who lived alone (…) fled their homes to find safety in the cities,” she said. “The government should be held responsible for not defending us against the killers. The army and the police were deployed, but they arrived too late.”Ugandan National Council for the Elderly President Charles Isabirye called the wave of killings a “shock to the nation.””That someone is killing elderly people who live quietly in their homes is inconceivable,” he told AFP. “We call on the government to ensure the protection of the elderly in the countryside, and the people behind (the murders) must be identified and punished.”
…
Flight 93 Crash Site Rapidly Developed from Mine to 9/11 Memorial
An abandoned strip mine near Shanksville, Pennsylvania is now home to the largest memorial related to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. VOA’s Kane Farabaugh, who reported from the crash site of Flight 93 on September 11, 2001 and the days afterwards, reports on how the location has transformed in the last twenty years.Camera: Kane Farabaugh Produced by: Kane Farabaugh
…
Hurricane Ida Power Outages, Misery Persist 9 Days Later
Hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses in Louisiana, most of them outside New Orleans, still didn’t have power Tuesday, and more than half of the gas stations in two major cities were without fuel nine days after Hurricane Ida slammed into the state, splintering homes and toppling electric lines.There were also persistent signs of recovery, however, as the total number of people without electricity has fallen from more than a million at its peak, while hundreds of thousands of people have had their water restored. AT&T, which suffered widespread cellphone outages after the storm, reported that its wireless network now is operating normally in Louisiana.As residents struggled to recover, state organizations, church groups and volunteers labored for a ninth day to hand out food, water and other necessary supplies to those left without resources when their homes were destroyed or left uninhabitable.The disparity in power restoration between New Orleans, where nearly three-quarters of the city had electricity again, and other communities where almost all residents were still in the dark prompted frustration and finger-pointing.State Representative Tanner Magee, the House’s second-ranking Republican who lives in the devastated city of Houma in Terrebonne Parish, said he’s convinced his region is being shortchanged in favor of New Orleans.”It’s very infuriating to me,” Magee said.Though water was running again in his area, most hospitals in the region remained shuttered, and the parish was in desperate need of temporary shelter for first responders and others vital to the rebuilding effort, he said.Warner Thomas, president and CEO of the state’s largest hospital system — Ochsner Health — warned that it would be “some time” before hospitals in Terrebonne and Lafourche Parish fully reopen. Emergency rooms at the two hospitals, however, were open.Carnival Cruise Line announced Tuesday that it will keep one of its ships, Carnival Glory, docked in New Orleans through September 18 to serve as housing for first responders.Kim Bass said the Louisiana heat was the hardest thing to cope with without power at her home in St. John the Baptist Parish. She said she and her husband were using a generator to keep food refrigerated but had no air conditioning. Water service was intermittent.”So, you may have water one minute, then you may not have water for the next two days,” she said.Fuel shortages also persisted across hard-hit areas of the state. More than 50% of gas stations in New Orleans and Baton Rouge remained without gasoline Tuesday morning, according to GasBuddy.com.Magee said lines to get gasoline to power up generators and vehicles in his parish involve hourslong waits.The power situation has improved greatly since Ida first hit. In the first hours after the storm, nearly 1.1 million customers were in the dark — including all of New Orleans. With the help of tens of thousands of workers from power companies in numerous states, the state’s biggest energy provider, Entergy, has been able to slowly bring electricity back, leaving only 19% of its customers in the region without power as of Tuesday.For residents in the state’s four hardest-hit parishes in southeastern Louisiana, however, that number is little comfort. Fully 98% of those residents are still without power more than a week after Ida slammed onshore with 240 kph (150 mph winds) on August 29.Power probably won’t be widely restored to St. John the Baptist Parish until September 17 and until September 29 to Lafourche, St. Charles and Terrebonne parishes, Entergy said Monday. The parishes are home to about 300,000 people.In St. John the Baptist, power has been restored to “a small pocket” of customers in the hard-hit town of LaPlace, Entergy Louisiana President and CEO Phillip May said in a Tuesday conference call. He didn’t say how many now have power there but promised the number will rise as crews work their way into the community.A parade of utility trucks on Tuesday passed by a Veterans of Foreign Wars hall in LaPlace that serves as a clearinghouse for donated water, ice and other supplies still desperately needed in the area. One truck was in the parking lot of the hall working to restore electricity.In contrast, nearly all power has been restored in the capital of Baton Rouge, and only 27% of homes and businesses are still suffering outages in New Orleans. Entergy said it expected to have the vast majority of New Orleans brought online by Wednesday.Once areas such as New Orleans have their power restored, Entergy is moving its crews into communities south and west of the city that saw more widespread damage, May said.As Entergy worked to get the lights turned on everywhere, the Louisiana Department of Health reported that the number of people without water had fallen from a peak of 850,000 to 58,000, though about 850,000 people were being advised to boil their water for safety. And grocery stores reopened in some places.Ida’s death toll in Louisiana rose to 15 people Tuesday after the state Department of Health reported two additional storm-related fatalities: a 68-year-old man who fell off a roof while making repairs to damage caused by Hurricane Ida, and a 71-year-old man who died of a lack of oxygen during an extended power outage. The storm’s remnants also brought historic flooding, record rains and tornados from Virginia to Massachusetts, killing at least 50 more people.Seven nursing home residents in Louisiana died after being evacuated during Hurricane Ida to a warehouse in the town of Independence where conditions were later determined to be unhealthy and unsafe, according to state health officials who said they’ve launched an investigation into the facility.In New Orleans, hundreds of seniors were evacuated from apartments after the electricity went out, and some were trapped in wheelchairs on the top floors of their multistory apartment complexes. The managers of some of the homes for seniors evacuated out of state without making sure the residents would be safe after the storm, New Orleans City Council member Kristin Palmer said Monday.
…
Media Blocked From Rohingya Refugee Camp
Security forces have blocked reporters from covering a vaccination drive for internally displaced people in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, local journalists say.A spokesperson for Myanmar’s military government, Major General Zaw Min Tun, said in late August that members of the Rohingya minority would be given COVID-19 vaccines.But at least two news crews who attempted to visit a camp for internally displaced persons, or IDPs, to cover the vaccination rollout say police told them they could not enter.“Police officers said that journalists are not allowed to enter,” said Tun Tha, the editor of Western News, a Rakhine state news outlet. “If we want to enter the camp, we must seek permission from authorities.” Tun Tha told VOA Burmese that while media have been free to cover other camps without seeking permission, that was not the case at camps housing Muslims.In this June 26, 2014 photo, a girl, self-identified as Rohingya, stands close to her family’s tent house at Dar Paing camp for refugees, suburbs of Sittwe, Western Rakhine state, Myanmar.“We are free to cover Rakhine IDP camp news, whereas we need permission to cover Muslim IDP camps. It seems authorities handle approaches to the Muslim community with discrimination. We take it as disruption of media access in this regard,” Tun Tha said.A Muslim minority in a predominantly Buddhist country, the Rohingya were targeted in 2017 with a campaign that the U.N. described as “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing.” For years before, the Rohingya have been denied citizenship and other basic rights.State officials in Myanmar estimate more than 200,000 Muslim refugees are in Rakhine State.Hla Thein, a military spokesperson for Rakhine State, did not respond to a request for comment from VOA Burmese.A sweeping outbreak of the coronavirus is taxing Myanmar’s public health system that already was strained by the political upheaval after the army seized power in February from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.FILE – Newly built repatriation camps prepared for Rohingya refugees expected to return from Bangladesh are surrounded by barbed-wire, Jan. 24, 2018, in Taungpyo township, border town of northern Rakhine State, Myanmar.Khin Tharapi Oo, senior reporter with Development Media Group (DMG), told VOA Burmese that her team also was denied access to the Thet Kae-Pyin IDP camp located on the outskirts of Sittwe, capital of Rakhine State.“Camp security did not allow us to enter the camp and asked us to get [a] permit, then stopped us from taking video as well. Security even yelled at us to get out,” said Khin Tharapi Oo. “We called state authorities to [seek] permission with no avail. Other news agency reporters faced the same problem, [security would] not even let us take video or photos.”Khin Tharapi Oo said that media had been allowed to visit other Rakhine camps without any restrictions.“This is the first time Muslim refugees get vaccinated, we should be allowed to cover it. Authorities should not restrict us to cover this significant news. They do not have sound reason to restrict us,” she said. Maung Lay, who manages the camp, told VOA Burmese that at least 150 refugees who are over the age of 45 were vaccinated on August 28 and 29, and second doses are scheduled for September 26. He said the camp houses about 3,000 refugees.The media restrictions come amid a general tightening of free speech in Myanmar after the military coup.FILE – Police arrest a Myanmar Now journalist in Yangon, February 27, 2021, as protesters were taking part in a demonstration against the military coup.On September 1, police in Yangon arrested a female journalist who had been in hiding for four months. Ma Thuzar, who contributed to Myanmar Pressphoto Agency and the Friday Times News Journal, was held incommunicado for five days before authorities confirmed her arrest.The reason for her arrest and current location have not been made available, says media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF).Ma Thuzar is one of dozens of journalists currently detained in Myanmar by the military.“The way she [Thuzar] has been treated reflects the illegal, brutal and inhuman treatment to which the military junta has subjected all journalists in Myanmar for the past seven months,” RSF’s Asia-Pacific desk head Daniel Bastard said in a statement.Also detained is American journalist Danny Fenster, who has spent more than 100 days in prison since his arrest at Yangon airport in May.At a virtual hearing Monday, a court in Yangon again remanded Fenster, who is managing editor of Frontier Myanmar, in custody for a further two weeks.Elizabeth Hughes contributed to this report. This story originated in VOA’s Burmese service.
…
Report: Kenya Leads Globally in P2P Cryptocurrency Trading
Blockchain data platform has ranked internet-using Kenyans as the world’s top peer-to-peer, or P2P, cryptocurrency traders. The group’s survey shows that many Kenyans use form this of trading because they don’t have access to centralized exchanges. Lenny Ruvaga looks at the challenges and what this means for the industry in Kenya.Camera: Amos Wangwa Producer: Lenny Ruvaga
…
Paris Braces for Trial of 2015 Terror Attackers
Twenty people linked to the November 2015 terrorist attacks in France are going on trial in Paris Wednesday in proceedings expected to last nine months. Six defendants are being charged in absentia. Reports say five of the six are presumed dead in Iraq or Syria. Nine Islamic State terrorists, mostly from France and Belgium, left a trail of horror in a multi-pronged attack at the national stadium, various bars and restaurants and at a concert at the Bataclan Theater. A total of 130 people were killed, 90 of them at the concert hall. At least 490 people were injured.A 10th member of the terror cell and the only one still alive, Salah Abdeslam, was arrested in Brussels four months after the November 13, 2015, strikes. He is accused of helping the others.”This trial is really an important step for the victims, those who have been wounded or injured, and those who lost members of their families,” Michael Dantinne, professor of criminology at the University of Liege, told France 24.He added that “it is only a step in the recovery process of the victims” and that “it won’t have any magical effect.”The trial will be held in a specially constructed court in Paris and is described as the biggest in France’s modern day legal history.Some information in this report came from the Associated Press and AFP.
…
Indonesia Reports Lowest COVID Rate Since Pandemic Began
Indonesian authorities say the nation’s daily coronavirus positivity rate has dropped below 5% for the first time since the pandemic began, a strong indication the nation’s second wave of COVID-19 infections could be easing.
Indonesia’s positivity rate – the proportion of people testing positive – peaked at 33.4% in July when new cases spiked dramatically, driven by the highly contagious Delta variant, making the country Asia’s COVID-19 epicenter.
But the country’s independent COVID-19 data initiative, known as KawalCOVID-19, reported Tuesday the infection rate fell to 4.57%, the lowest since March 2020, when Indonesia’s first cases were reported. The WHO has said that a positivity rate above 5% indicates COVID-19 is out of control.
KawalCOVID-19 co-founder Elina Ciptadi told the Reuters news agency the trend is encouraging, although she cautioned that official data does not cover all cases and deaths.
The initiative reports that since the COVID-19 peak in July, when Indonesia implemented tighter restrictions on public gatherings, the average positivity rate has fallen steadily, from 23.8% in the first week of August, to 11.3% in the final week of that month, to 6.2% on average so far in September.
The Indonesian government lifted coronavirus restrictions that were eased further Monday, with most areas on Java Island downgraded, allowing conditional operation of malls, factories, and restaurants. Indonesian President Joko Widodo urged Indonesians not to be complacent, though, warning that “COVID is always lurking. When our guards are down, [cases] can increase again.”Some information in this report came from Reuters.
…
Vaccines Offer Protection Against ‘Long COVID’, Scientists Say
New research shows that coronavirus vaccines not only offer protection against infection and serious illness – but may also help prevent so-called ‘long COVID’, where symptoms can last for weeks or months. Henry Ridgwell reports from London.Camera: Henry Ridgwell
…
Blinken to Testify About US Withdrawal From Afghanistan
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has agreed to testify next week before a congressional panel examining the country’s chaotic military withdrawal from Afghanistan at the end of its two-decade war, the longest in U.S. history.
Opposition Republican lawmakers and some Democratic colleagues of President Joe Biden have attacked his handling of the withdrawal of troops, American citizens and thousands of Afghans who worked for U.S. forces as interpreters and advisers during the war.
The criticism was especially pronounced after 13 U.S. service members died in a suicide bomb attack at the Kabul airport in the waning days of the withdrawal. Islamic State-Khorasan, an Afghan offshoot of the terrorist group operating in the Middle East, claimed responsibility for the attack.
Blinken agreed to testify before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee next Tuesday, although other congressional committees are likely to investigate the withdrawal as well.
The formal withdrawal ended more than a week ago, but about 100 Americans remain in Afghanistan, with U.S. officials vowing to help them get out if they want to leave. Thousands of Afghans are also looking to move to the United States or other countries to escape life under Taliban insurgents who took control of the country.
National polls of U.S. voters show wide support for Biden’s decision to end what he has called a “forever war” in Afghanistan, but not the way the withdrawal unfolded.
Blinken, the top U.S. diplomat, is likely to face tough questions about why the U.S. did not start evacuating American citizens sooner, especially since Biden announced his intention in April to honor former president Donald Trump’s agreement with the Taliban to end the war and withdraw American forces.
Lawmakers have also attacked U.S. intelligence-gathering for failing to forecast the rapid takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban and the collapse of the Afghan government, with President Ashraf Ghani suddenly fleeing to political asylum in the United Arab Emirates.
Republicans say they want to focus their questioning on Biden’s performance in the final weeks and days of the war, while Democrats are hoping to examine the whole of the American war effort that was conducted under four presidents — Republicans George W. Bush and Trump, and Democrats Barack Obama and Biden.
Bush launched the war in late 2001 to eradicate al-Qaida terrorist training grounds where the September 11 attacks against the U.S. were spawned. Nearly 3,000 people were killed in the U.S in attacks using hijacked U.S. passenger airliners. The 20th anniversary of the attacks is on Saturday.
Biden has called the withdrawal an “extraordinary success” and defended the decision to end the U.S. war in Afghanistan, saying he would not pass on responsibility for managing U.S. military involvement there to a fifth U.S. leader.
…
Texas Governor Signs New Republican Voting Restrictions into Law
Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law Tuesday an elections overhaul that adds more voting restrictions in the booming state. Democrats had spent months protesting what they say are efforts to weaken minority turnout and preserve the Republican Party’s eroding dominance in the state. Abbott signed the sweeping changes during a ceremony in the East Texas city of Tyler, where the surrounding county went for former President Donald Trump by a more than 2-to-1 margin last year. But it was far closer in Texas overall, with Trump carrying the state by 5 1/2 percentage points, the thinnest margin of victory by a Republican presidential nominee here in decades. The bill signing again underlined the hard right turn Texas Republicans made this year, including a new state law that took effect last week banning most abortions. Texas is among at least 18 states that have enacted new voting restrictions since the 2020 election, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. The laws are part of a national Republican campaign, including in Florida, Georgia and Arizona, to tighten voting laws in the name of security, partly driven by Trump’s false claims that the election was stolen. Opponents did not wait for Abbott’s signature to begin filing lawsuits against the new Texas law known as Senate Bill 1. The American Civil Liberties Union, minority rights groups and disability advocates are part of a broad coalition that filed separate lawsuits last week in federal court in Texas, accusing Republican lawmakers of violating the federal Voting Rights Act and intentionally discriminating against minorities. Some changes squarely take aim at the Houston area, where President Joe Biden carried the surrounding county of 1.6 million voters by a 13-point margin. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic last year, Harris County elections officials offered 24-hour polling places and drive-thru voting, which are outlawed under the new law. The county also tried sending mail-in ballot applications to more than 2 million registered voters, but going forward in Texas, any election official who tries sending an application to someone who doesn’t request one could face criminal charges.Partisan poll watchers are also entitled to more movement, and election judges who obstruct them could also face criminal penalties, which Democrats argue could lead to voter intimidation.In response to new voting restrictions in Republican-controlled statehouses, Democrats in Congress want to pass new federal voting rights protections at the federal level but have been unable to overcome opposition from Senate Republicans. White House press secretary Jen Psaki defended Biden’s approach on voting rights, saying the president had used his bully pulpit and made Vice President Kamala Harris the point person on the issue. But Psaki said the administration planned to take additional but unspecified steps to address concerns from voting rights groups. “We would say to these advocates: We stand with you,” Psaki told reporters Tuesday aboard Air Force One. “There’s more we’re going to keep working on together.”Abbott signed the bill 100 days after Democrats kicked off a summer of last-ditch maneuvers by walking out of the state Capitol to temporarily block the measure by leaving the legislature short of a quorum. More than 50 Democrats flew to Washington, D.C., in July to thwart the bill for a second time, which led to Republicans issuing civil arrest warrants in an effort to compel Democrats to return, although no one wound up being forced to come back.The protests did not achieve any significant changes to the bill, underscoring Republicans’ determination to pass the measure and the strength of their commanding majority in the Texas Capitol.
…
Millions Face Hunger Crisis as Conflict Engulfs Northern Ethiopia
The World Food Program warns that emergency food needs in northern Ethiopia are increasing, as conflict spills beyond the embattled Tigray region into neighboring Afar and Amhara provinces.The agency reports that up to 7 million people are acutely short of food and are facing a hunger crisis. They include more than 5.2 million people in Tigray who are dependent on U.N. food aid for survival. Additionally, the World Food Program reports the conflict, which has now engulfed the entire region, has thrust 1.7 million more people into hunger. This month, WFP has begun delivering emergency food assistance to communities in Ethiopia’s northern region and says it plans to reach 530,000 people in Afar and 250,000 in Amhara with food aid. Food Aid Only Reaching Half of Tigrayans in NeedAn estimated 90% of the population of Tigray is in need of aid amid ongoing conflict in the region Meanwhile in Tigray, WFP spokesman Tomson Phiri says the situation continues to deteriorate. He says aid agencies are struggling to meet the urgent food needs of more than 5 million people across the war-torn region.”In fact, WFP food stocks had been almost entirely depleted until two days ago when the first convoy in over two weeks entered the region,” said Phiri. “The WFP-led convoy of over 100 trucks carried 3,500 metric tons of food and other life-saving cargo, including fuel, as well as health and shelter items.” Phiri says WFP has only managed to get 355 trucks into the region since mid-July. While this sounds like much, he says it is not. He says 355 trucks represents less than 10 percent of the supplies needed. He says 100 trucks must enter Tigray every day to meet people’s food requirements.He says trucks get stuck in Afar because of bureaucratic delays and difficulties in passing checkpoints. He says some trucks also have been attacked and looted by people in local communities.”Apart from the escalating fighting that is in the north of the country, food security for millions across the whole of Ethiopia is also under threat due to an unprecedented funding gap for WFP activities in the country,” said Phiri.WFP is calling for $426 million to expand its emergency food operation to meet the needs of up to 12 million people throughout Ethiopia this year. The agency warns it will be forced to cut rations for people in northern Ethiopia if it does not receive the extra funding, It says it might have to stop distributing food to about 4 million people in Tigray, Afar and Amhara in the coming months if it runs out of money.November 4 will mark a year since the Ethiopian government began its military offensive to wrest control of the Tigray region from the Tigray People’s Liberation Front.
…
European Leaders Mull Strategic Autonomy but Doubts Persist
Four years ago, newly-elected French President Emmanuel Macron called for Europe to build “the capacity to act autonomously” in security matters so that the continent would be less dependent on the United States and could decide to act without U.S. backing. Most European leaders derided Macron’s idea as far-fetched. “Illusions of European strategic autonomy must come to an end,” said Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, Germany’s defense minister.But in the wake of the U.S.-led withdrawal from Afghanistan, her position has shifted. It is time to make “the European Union a strategic player to be reckoned with,” she announced last week in a commentary for the Atlantic Council, a New York-based think tank. She isn’t alone in rethinking the future of the transatlantic security arrangement. Europe’s opinion pages have been full of columns from politicians and security advisers advocating for the continent to become more independent militarily and less dependent on Washington. European leaders have been decrying President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan as precipitous and complain Washington did not consult sufficiently with NATO allies. Armin Laschet, a contender to succeed Angela Merkel as Germany’s chancellor, said last month: “We’re standing before an epochal change.”Even traditionally pro-American British politicians like Tony Blair, the former British prime minister, and a key partner for the United States in the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan and the 2003 invasion of Iraq, questions the reliability of the U.S. as a defense partner. On Monday he said Britain should strengthen its defense partnership with Europe to combat threats. In the U.S. there is “now an overwhelming political constraint on military interventions,” which represents a serious challenge to Britain and NATO, he said, in a speech to mark the 20th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks that precipitated the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan.Strategic autonomyHowever, there is little agreement in Europe about what strategic autonomy should mean and what Europe should do with it., The 27 member states of the EU have clashed repeatedly over foreign policy, from relations with Russia to whether China is an adversary or competitor. Central European leaders are especially nervous about loosening any defense ties with Washington and remain unconvinced they could rely on the Western Europeans in a confrontation with Russia.And skeptics question whether Europe is really prepared to spend what it would take to become a serious stand-alone strategic player, especially as they struggle with the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
NATO Calls on Russia to Be Transparent With Military Exercises According to a tally by NATO Review, an allied magazine, Russia deployed between 60,000 and 70,000 troops in Zapad-2017 but only declared 12,700 personnel
On average, European Union countries spend around 1.2 percent of their GDP on defense. Russia spends 4.3 percent while the U.S. spends 3.4 percent. But in a recent debate in the House of Commons, Tom Tugendhat, a Conservative lawmaker and chair of the British parliament’s foreign affairs committee, said the lesson he drew from the Afghanistan withdrawal was the need to help reinvigorate Britain’s European NATO partners and “to make sure that we are not dependent on a single ally, on the decision of a single leader, but that we can work together.”Changes needed?
Lawrence Freedman, the influential emeritus professor of war studies at King’s College London, suspects the surge in talk about European strategic autonomy, though, is a knee-jerk reaction to what Armin Laschet has described as the “biggest NATO debacle” since the founding of the alliance.“It is always tempting but usually unwise to draw large geopolitical conclusions from specific events, however dramatic and distressing,” he noted in a commentary for The Times of London this week.The United States’ core strategic alliances in Europe and even Asia have weathered plenty of setbacks and disputes in the past, he said.“These alliances were built up over decades and remain in place. They have survived past disagreements and are unlikely to be set aside because the Biden administration mishandled the final withdrawal of its forces from Afghanistan,” he added. “The post-mortems on the withdrawal from Afghanistan will most likely conclude that there is no need to make any fundamental policy changes,” he added.Afghan Pullout Hurt Biden Politically, but for How LongExperts are divided on whether the scenes of chaos in Kabul over the past two weeks will have an impact when the 2022 mid-term elections take place
European interventions with no or little U.S. military support have not fared well. In July Macron announced that France’s anti-jihadist intervention in the volatile Sahel region, involving over 5,000 troops and launched by his predecessor in office, will end next year. The French leader has for years tried to persuade European allies to help shoulder more of the burden of the anti-terror fight in the Sahel, but to no avail. Britain, Denmark, and Sweden provided helicopter capabilities for air-mobility but little else from other European countries aside from some symbolic deployments emerged. In almost a pre-echo of Biden’s reasons for withdrawing from Afghanistan, Macron said: “We cannot secure certain areas because some states simply refuse to assume their duties. Otherwise, it is an endless task.” He added that the “long-term presence” of French troops “cannot be a substitute” for nation states handling their own affairs.Some diplomats suggest the current surge in talk about strategic autonomy will diminish as the shock of withdrawal wears off. They suggest much of the criticism should be seen as displacement activity, a way of coping with antagonistic urges. “They feel bad about leaving [Afghanistan] but they are also relieved to be out of a forever war they know couldn’t be won,” a European envoy in Brussels suggested to VOA. He asked not to be identified for this story.Other diplomats think the transatlantic security bonds will remain tight, but it will take some time for recovery from what they admit was a disorderly withdrawal.It is going to take quite a long time for the West as a whole — because it is a Western failure, a Western disaster, this is not just the UK and the U.S. — to recover from all this, to recover our reputation,” Kim Darroch, former British ambassador to the U.S. and the EU, told the BBC last month. The EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, though, says the withdrawal has offered “an opportunity for us to discuss the European Union as a geopolitical actor,” he said. “But this will require unity, in small things and in big things,” he told reporters in Brussels this week.Oxford University historian Timothy Garton Ash agrees. In an interview Tuesday he told the broadcaster Euronews: “President Joe Biden has made the case for what all Europeans are talking about, namely strategic autonomy and European sovereignty.”However, Ash, an advocate for European strategic autonomy, lamented that European powers missed the chance to show what they could do. “There were 2,500 American troops stabilizing Afghanistan. France and Britain alone have 10,000 troops and a rapid reaction force. Why didn’t we have a European conversation about what we could have done about it?”
…
In a First, Disabled Malawi Fashion Designers Show Off Their Creations
Disabled fashion designers have long struggled against discrimination, especially in developing countries such as Malawi. To combat the problem, Malawian fashion brand House of Xandria on Saturday organized the country’s first fashion show featuring creations by designers with disabilities. Lameck Masina reports from Blantyre.
Camera: Dan Kumwenda
…
New Zealand to Lift Many COVID-19 Restrictions
New Zealand is easing the coronavirus lockdown for nearly the entire country first imposed last month after the Pacific nation reported its first confirmed COVID-19 case in six months.Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Monday that the nationwide alert level will be lowered to Level 2, allowing schools, businesses and offices to reopen. The new orders will not apply to Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city and the epicenter of the current outbreak that began when a 58-year-old man tested positive for the delta variant of COVID-19 in mid-August. The nation has posted 821 confirmed COVID-19 cases during the current outbreak, including 20 new cases on Monday. Auckland will remain under strict stay-at-home orders until September 14, keeping all schools, offices and businesses shut down with only essential services remaining operational.Prime Minister Ardern has embraced a strategy of totally eliminating COVID-19, saying it was necessary to “go hard” with the strict lockdown in order to prevent a widespread outbreak. New Zealand imposed a strict lockdown in the early days of the pandemic that has led to just 3,814 confirmed infections and just 27 deaths among its five million citizens. FILE – New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern receives the first Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine at the Manurewa Vaccination center in Auckland, New Zealand, June 18, 2021. (Alex Burton/NZ Herald via AP)Only 25 to 30 percent of all New Zealanders have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Officials say the government is nearing a final agreement to secure more doses of the two-shot Pfizer vaccine within days. Hong KongHong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam announced Tuesday that beginning September 15, travelers from mainland China and the nearby enclave of Macao will be allowed to enter the semi-autonomous city without a mandatory quarantine. Lam told reporters that it will allow a total of 2,000 travelers from both places on a daily basis, but they will be required to show proof of a negative COVID-19 test prior to arrival. FILE – A visitor sets up his camera in the Victoria Peak area to photograph Hong Kong’s skyline, Sept. 1, 2019.Lam also said Hong Kong residents will be allowed to return to the city from the mainland without undergoing quarantine, so long as they did not travel to any high-risk areas. The new changes are part of the government’s new “Come2HK” program aimed at reviving the city’s tourism industry, which sustained major losses during the first year of the pandemic as Hong Kong pursued a “zero-Covid” elimination strategy. But the city will continue to impose travel restrictions on travelers from foreign countries, prompting growing frustration among Hong Kong’s business community. Some information for this report came from the Associated Press and Reuters.
…
Biden to Survey Storm Damage in New York, New Jersey
U.S. President Joe Biden is traveling Tuesday to New York and New Jersey to survey damage from the remnants of Hurricane Ida that brought flooding rains and tornados to the region.Biden on Monday approved major disaster declarations for the parts of New York and New Jersey hardest hit by the storm last week, freeing up financial assistance from the national government. The aid will be available for businesses and individuals in six New Jersey counties and five in New York, where record rainfall swelled rivers, overwhelmed drainage and sewage systems and flooded many roadways, homes and stores. FILE – Cars and trucks are stranded by high water, Sept. 2, 2021, on the Major Deegan Expressway in Bronx borough of New York as high water left behind by Hurricane Ida still stands on the highway hours later.The storm killed at least 50 people in six Eastern states, including 27 in New Jersey and 13 in New York, after leaving a trail of devastation and killing at least 12 others in the southern state of Louisiana, 2,100 kilometers away, where the hurricane first came ashore from the Gulf of Mexico. In the heavily populated New York-New Jersey region, some of the victims who drowned were trapped by rapidly rising water in basement apartments, while others were swept away in cars as torrents of water filled streets. The storm also spawned tornadoes that damaged homes and businesses. New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy toured flood-damaged areas of Lambertville on Monday, the national Labor Day holiday. He said Biden’s disaster declaration would allow individuals to receive financial assistance, including money for temporary housing and home repairs and low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses. Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop said damage to city infrastructure was estimated at $35 million. New York Governor Kathy Hochul said an initial assessment showed that the storm damaged more than 1,200 homes in her state and caused about $50 million in damage to public infrastructure and property. FILE – President Joe Biden talks with New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell as he arrives at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport in Kenner, Louisiana, Sept. 3, 2021, to tour damage caused by Hurricane Ida.In Louisiana, hundreds of thousands of people could be without electricity for weeks, as repair crews face the daunting task of untangling downed power lines and transformers blocking roadways. Some material in this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
…
Myanmar Resistance Movement Calls for Nationwide Uprising
The main underground group coordinating resistance to Myanmar’s military government called for a nationwide uprising on Tuesday.The National Unity Government views itself as a shadow government composed of elected legislators who were barred from taking their seats when the military seized power in February.The group’s acting president Duwa Lashi La called for revolt “in every village, town and city in the entire country at the same time” and declared what he called a “state of emergency.” A video of his speech was posted on Facebook.The country has been wracked by unrest since the military ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, with a low-level insurrection in many urban areas. There has been more serious combat in rural areas, especially in border regions where ethnic minority militias have been engaging in serious clashes with the government’s troops.The shadow government’s prime minister, Mahn Winn Khaing Thann, said in a separate statement posted online that the move was taken due to “changing circumstances” that required the complete abolition of the ruling military government. He did not elaborate.There were no immediate signs of heightened resistance activity, although some student groups and ethnic armed organizations expressed solidarity.The National Unity Government is popular inside Myanmar, but its actual power and influence is hard to measure. It has frequently issued sweeping proclamations and policy statements declaring the military government and its actions invalid and illegal, but they’ve had little real-world effect. It controls no territory, does not directly control any armed force and has won no diplomatic recognition from foreign countries. Members of its shadow Cabinet are in hiding inside Myanmar and in exile.Duwa Lashi La called on the ethnic militias, some of whom have declared themselves in alliance with the resistance, to “immediately attack” government forces and “fully control your lands.” The ethnic armed forces, which have been fighting for decades for greater autonomy from Myanmar’s central government, operate independently of the National Unity Government.Duwa Lashi La called for a “people’s revolution” and asked for all soldiers and police to join the “people’s defense forces.” He also warned civil servants against going to their offices.He advised people to heed their personal safety and not travel unnecessarily, as well as to stock up on food and medicine, guidance it has offered on at least one past occasion when it warned of trouble ahead. He said people should help the defense forces where they can, including with information about government military forces.The resistance movement against the military takeover had established “people’s defense forces” in many areas, but they mostly operate locally and when active, carry out small-scale hit-and-run guerrilla operations.
…
Pre-trial Hearings to Resume for 5 Charged in September 11 Attacks
The U.S. prosecution of five people accused of planning and aiding the September 11, 2001, terror attacks resumes with pre-trial motions Tuesday after a break of a year and a half due to the coronavirus pandemic. Khalid Shaikh Mohammad, a senior al-Qaida official and alleged mastermind of the attacks, is facing trial along with his co-defendants before a military commission at the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.Trial of Accused 9/11 Mastermind Restarts, Days Before 20th Anniversary Mohammed and his co-defendants, who have been locked up at the “War on Terror” prison at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for nearly 15 years, will appear in the military tribunalThey face charges that include conspiracy, attacking civilians, murder, hijacking aircraft and terrorism. If convicted, they could face the death penalty. The process to hold trials for those accused in the attacks has been slowed by legal challenges between prosecutors and defense lawyers regarding what evidence can be used. The sparring involves both issues involving classified material and the use of information obtained during interrogations that defense lawyers argue was tainted by torture. The attacks involved nineteen men affiliated with al-Qaida hijacking four planes, crashing two of them into the World Trade Center towers in New York and crashing another into the Pentagon, just outside Washington. The fourth plane crashed into a field in the state of Pennsylvania. The attacks killed nearly 3,000 people. The United States responded by launching an invasion of Afghanistan to target al-Qaida and push the Taliban, who had harbored the terror group, from power. U.S. military operations in Afghanistan lasted just short of 20 years, coming to a close at the end of August as the Taliban once again seized control of the country.
…
Trial of Accused 9/11 Mastermind Restarts, Days Before 20th Anniversary
The prosecution of alleged September 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four others restarts Tuesday, just days before the 20th anniversary of the attacks, stirring new hopes for justice and retribution. Mohammed and his co-defendants, who have been locked up at the “War on Terror” prison at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for nearly 15 years, will appear in the military tribunal here for the first time since early 2019. But after a 17-month halt due to the coronavirus pandemic, the proceedings appear likely to continue where they left off, mired in the defense’s efforts to disqualify most of the government’s evidence as tainted by the torture the defendants underwent in the Central Intelligence Agency’s, or CIA’s, custody. On Sunday, the new military judge, Air Force Colonel Matthew McCall — the case’s eighth — signaled a slow start, deciding that an initial hearing focused on his own qualifications will take place on Tuesday. Lawyers for both sides are allowed in a war crimes tribunal to question a new judge for possible bias. The rest of the week will mostly involve meetings with the military prosecutors and defense teams. With scores of motions lined up to demand evidence that military prosecutors refuse to hand over, defense attorneys said the pretrial phase could easily last another year, placing far over the horizon any hope for a jury trial and verdict. Asked if the case could ever reach that point, one defense attorney, James Connell, replied, “I don’t know.” Lasting impact of torture Attorneys say the five defendants — Mohammed, Ammar al-Baluchi, Walid bin Attash, Ramzi bin al-Shibh and Mustafa al-Hawsawi — are all weak and suffer the lasting effects of severe torture endured in secretive CIA “black” sites between 2002 and 2006. Added to that, the attorneys say, is the cumulative impact of 15 years in harsh, isolated conditions since arriving. They will appear in an ultra-secure military commissions courtroom surrounded by fences of razor wire, each with his own defense team. In the audience will be family members of some of the 2,976 people they are accused of murdering two decades ago, as well as a large contingent of reporters to mark the confluence with the somber anniversary on Saturday. The five face the death penalty on charges of murder and terrorism in the war crimes tribunal. They are represented by attorneys assigned by the military, as well as pro-bono lawyers from the private sector and non-governmental organizations. Open and shut? Since the case started, prosecutors have regarded it as open-and-shut, even without the tainted information reaped from the brutal CIA interrogations. Instead, prosecutors maintain that the defendants all provided solid evidence of conspiring in the 9/11 attacks during so-called “clean-team” interrogations conducted by the FBI in 2007, after the five arrived at Guantanamo. But defense attorneys argue that the 2007 interrogations were hardly “clean” because the FBI also took part in the CIA’s torture program, and their interrogations carried a similar menace. The defendants, still feeling the impact of torture at that time, spoke to the FBI under the real fear that it would start again, the defense contends. “Make no mistake, covering up torture is the reason that these men were brought to Guantanamo” instead of the U.S. federal justice system, said Connell, who represents Baluchi. “The cover-up of torture is also the reason that we are all gathered at Guantanamo for the 42nd hearing in the 9/11 military commission,” he said. Delays To prove their case, the defense is demanding huge amounts of classified materials that the government is resisting turning over on everything from the original torture program to conditions at Guantanamo to health assessments. Defense lawyers also want to interview dozens more witnesses, after 12 already appeared before the court, including two men who oversaw the CIA program. The demands have delayed the trial, but the defense blames the government for actively hiding materials relevant to the case. Alka Pradhan, another defense attorney, noted that it took the government six years to admit that the FBI took part in the CIA’s torture program. “This case wears you down,” she said. “They are withholding things that are normal procedure in court.”
…
UK Gov’t Eyes Tax Hike to Pay for Care for Older People
U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson plans Tuesday to fulfill a election promise to grapple with the rocketing cost of the long-term care needed by Britain’s growing older population. To do it, he appears set to break another election vow: not to raise taxes. Johnson is scheduled to tell Parliament how his Conservative government will raise billions to fund the care millions of Britons need in the final years of their lives. That burden currently falls largely on individuals, who often have to deplete their savings or sell their homes to pay for care. One in seven people ends up paying more than 100,000 pounds ($138,000), according to the government, which calls the cost of care “catastrophic and often unpredictable.” Meanwhile, funding care for the poor who can’t afford it is placing a growing burden on overstretched local authorities. Johnson has been tight-lipped about his plans, which are being unveiled to the Cabinet on Tuesday morning before he makes a statement in the House of Commons. But the prime minister said late Monday he would “not duck the tough decisions needed.” He is expected to announce an increase in National Insurance payments made by working-age people to fund care and the broader National Health Service, which has been put under immense strain by the coronavirus pandemic. That would break the firm promise in Johnson’s 2019 election platform not to hike personal taxes. Breaking promises is hardly novel for politicians, but those enshrined in British parties’ election manifestos have long been considered binding on governments. Johnson’s rumored plan has alarmed many Conservative lawmakers — both because it involves breaking a firm election commitment, and because the burden would fall on working-age people and not retirees. Jake Berry, one of a crop of Conservative lawmakers representing northern England seats won from the Labour Party with promises of investment and new jobs, said the proposed plan would help affluent, older voters at the expense of younger, poorer ones. And William Hague, a former Conservative leader, said breaking an election promise would be a “loss of credibility when making future election commitments, a blurring of the distinction between Tory and Labour philosophies, a recruiting cry for fringe parties on the right, and an impression given to the world that the U.K. is heading for higher taxes.” Attempts to reform the care system have stymied British governments. Johnson’s predecessor, Theresa May, campaigned in a 2017 election on a plan to cut benefits to retirees and change the way they pay for long-term care. The idea was quickly dubbed a “dementia tax” by opponents, and May ended up losing her majority in Parliament.
…