Month: September 2019

The decision by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to launch an impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump has complicated what already was Trump’s uncertain road to re-election next year.  Public opinion polls suggest Trump is in a weaker position for re-election than most other incumbent presidents have been, and he is counting on a strong economy and loyal supporters to overcome what is expected to be an intense turnout of motivated Democratic voters next year. …

VOA Burmese Service contributed to this report The U.S. House of Representatives has passed legislation aimed at advancing efforts to hold senior Myanmar leaders accountable for crimes committed against Rohingya and other ethnic minorities. The BURMA act was approved on Tuesday and now goes to the Senate for consideration. Andy Levin, D-Mich, arrives for member-elect briefings on Capitol Hill in Washington, Nov. 15, 2018. “Journalists, activists and anyone who is willing to use their voice to call out wrong doing must be protected. That is why Congresswoman Ann Wagner and I introduced the Burma Political Prisoners Assistance Act, Rep. Andy Levin (D) said. “This bill calls for the release of political prisoners and prisoners of conscience in Burma and directs our State Department to bolster its works to achieve this act.” Amnesty International urged the Senate to act on the legislation.  “Over two years have passed since the world witnessed atrocities committed against Rohingya women, men, and children. Yet the U.S. Congress has so far failed to speak with a united voice on the issue. Further inaction by the U.S. sets a terrible precedent for other countries and risks emboldening the Myanmar military to continue committing crimes across the country,” Amnesty International USA’s Asia Pacific Advocacy Manger Francisco Bencosme said. Last month, A U.N. fact-finding mission concluded that the Myanmar military intended to perpetrate genocide on ethnic Rohingya Muslims when it drove hundreds of thousands of them from the country in 2017. More than 700,000 Rohingya fled Myanmar’s northern Rakhine …

Sentences against four of the once most powerful men in Algeria were handed down in the middle of the night by a military tribunal in Blida after a trial which lasted two days. Former intelligence chiefs Bachir Tartaq and Mohamed Mediene were given 15-year sentences, alongside former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s brother and right-hand man, Said. Former Defense Minister Khaled Nezzar received a 20-year sentence in absentia. FILE – An Algerian man reads a local newspaper, En-Nahar, bearing a picture for the first time of former Algerian intelligence chief General Mohamed Mediene, better known as General Toufik, on the front cover in the capital, Algiers, Sept. 13, 2015. The four men, along with well-known politician Louisa Hanoun, were accused of “conspiring against the army” by allegedly meeting with a foreign intelligence chief to determine who would succeed ailing former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika. Bouteflika was forced to step down in April. Two presidential elections have been postponed since then, as a widespread popular uprising roils the country. Acting President Abdel Qader Bensalah recently set Dec. 12 as the date for new elections, and appointed members of an electoral commission to oversee the vote. Deputy Defense Minister General Ahmed Gaid Salah — said to be the most powerful man in the country — says the military will remain neutral and not try to influence the election. FILE – Algerian chief of staff Gen. Ahmed Gaid Salah presides over a military parade in Algiers, July 1, 2018. He added that the appointment of a …

A threat by Donald Trump to pull the United States out of the global postal system could lead to a “nightmare scenario” of mail going undelivered, packages piling up and American stamps no longer being recognized abroad, the U.N. postal agency said. The Universal Postal Union (UPU) has been holding an emergency meeting in Geneva to persuade Washington not to follow through on a threat to quit the agency, which sets rules to ensure mail gets delivered around the globe. The Trump administration says it wants to charge other countries more than UPU rules now permit to have letters and packages delivered in the United States. It has set a deadline of next month for rates to be raised or it will quit. Universal Postal Union (UPU) Director General Bishar Hussein attends a press conference during an extraordinary congress of the UPU in Geneva, Sept. 24, 2019. “It is really a nightmare scenario,” the UPU’s secretary-general, Bishar Hussein, told a news conference, noting that no country had ever left since the agency was founded nearly 150 years ago. It now has 192 members. “If the United States leaves, you’ll get those piles, because somehow every country has to figure out how to send mail to the United States. … A major disruption is on the way if we don’t solve the problem today.” Were the United States to quit the UPU, U.S. stamps would no longer be valid abroad, he said. He said he was “very optimistic” that a compromise …

Sweeping goals to end poverty, inequality and other global ills are being derailed by climate change, conflicts and violence, the head of the United Nations told world leaders in New York on Tuesday, calling for a “decade of action.” Sustainable development needs more financing, investment in health and education, and broader access to technology to succeed, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said at the first high-level review of the global goals adopted in 2015. Launched with great fanfare and optimism, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) agreed by the 193 U.N. member states set out an ambitious “to-do” list tackling conflict, hunger, land degradation, gender inequality and climate change by 2030. But assessments of their progress have been bleak. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres addresses the Climate Summit in the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York. “Let us be clear: we are far from where we need to be. We are off track,” Guterres said. “Deadly conflicts, the climate crisis, gender-based violence and persistent inequalities are undermining efforts to achieve the goals. “Uneven growth, rising debt levels, heightened global trade tensions are creating new obstacles to implementation. Another assessment came on Tuesday from global business leaders who complained of being hampered by political uncertainty and market constraints in their efforts to contribute to the goals’ progress. Four in 10 chief executives said political uncertainty was slowing or stalling their efforts, and a third said closing global markets and limits on free trade were hindrances, according to a study by …

House and Senate leaders are reacting along party lines to Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s announcement of a Trump impeachment inquiry. Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is accusing Democrats of having a “predetermined conclusion” about Trump’s guilt, calling Tuesday’s developments part of an “impeachment parade in search of a rationale.” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivers remarks during a weekly Senate Luncheon press conference at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Sept. 24, 2019. “It simply confirms that House Democrats’ priority is not making life better for the American people, but their nearly three-year-old fixation on impeachment.” McConnell’s statement came just after he was part of the Senate’s unanimous consent agreement that the whistleblower’s complaint be immediately handed over to the House and Senate Intelligence Committees. McConnell’s House counterpart, Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, says Democrats are still bitter about losing the 2016 presidential election and have wanted to impeach Trump from “day one.” FILE – House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-MD) addresses a National Press Club luncheon in Washington, Aug. 7, 2019. But the Democratic chairman of the House Oversight Committee, Elijah Cummings, reminded Republicans that history will show they ignored their duty to the Constitution if they “close their eyes and put party over country.” He called Trump’s alleged appeal to another government to interfere in a U.S. election “an affront to the Constitution and a grave breach of his oath of office.” Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren has been calling for Trump’s impeachment for months …

A former U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency officer who admitted he betrayed his country for financial gain was sentenced on Tuesday to 10 years in federal prison for attempted espionage on behalf of China, the U.S. Justice Department said. Ron Rockwell Hansen, 60, of Syracuse, Utah, pleaded guilty in March to trying to pass classified U.S. national defense information to China, and admitted to receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars as an agent for the Beijing government. FBI agents arrested Hansen in June 2018 as he was on his way to the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport to board a flight to China, the Justice Department said. This photo released by the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office shows Ron Rockwell Hansen, a former U.S. intelligence officer who pleaded guilty to trying to sell secrets to China. As part of his guilty plea, Hansen acknowledged soliciting U.S. national security information that he knew China would find valuable from a fellow Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) case officer, and agreeing to sell that information to the Chinese. The documents he received from the DIA officer related to U.S. military readiness. Hansen also admitted to having advised the DIA case officer how to record and transmit the documents without detection, and how to hide and launder any funds received as payment for those secrets. Unbeknownst to Hansen, the case officer reported his conduct to the DIA and acted as an FBI informant in the case. Hansen, who is fluent in Mandarin Chinese and Russian, was hired by …

Opera singer Placido Domingo on Tuesday dropped out of a performance at the Metropolitan Opera in New York while disputing accusations of sexual misconduct leveled by several women in the classical music world. Domingo, one of the world’s leading tenors, was due to appear in “Macbeth” on Wednesday. He also suggested he would never perform at the Met again. “While I strongly dispute recent allegations made about me, and I am concerned about a climate in which people are condemned without due process, upon reflection, I believe that my appearance in this production of Macbeth would distract from the hard work of my colleagues both on stage and behind the scenes. As a result, I have asked to withdraw and I thank the leadership of the Met for graciously granting my request,” the Spanish singer said in a statement. “I am happy that, at the age of 78, I was able to sing the wonderful title role in the dress rehearsal of Macbeth, which I consider my last performance on the Met stage,” he added. More than three dozen singers, dancers, musicians, voice teachers and backstage staff have said in the past month that they had witnessed or experienced inappropriate behavior by the singer at different opera houses over the last three decades. …

World leaders involved in some of the most high profile geopolitical issues are among those set to speak on the first day of the U.N. General Assembly in New York. After opening remarks from U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, those gathered for the annual meeting will hear from a group that includes U.S. President Donald Trump, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Korean President Moon Jae-in and French President Emmanuel Macron. The addresses come a day after Swedish teen activist Greta Thunberg scolded world leaders at a U.N. summit calling for climate action, saying people are suffering and dying from the effects of global warming and that all the leaders have are empty words.  “We are in [the] beginning of a mass extinction and all you can talk about is money,” said Thunberg, who ignited a youth movement with her Friday school strikes for climate action. She said the science has been clear for 30 years, and still they are not doing enough.  “You are failing us! But the young people are starting to understand your betrayal,” Thunberg said in a voice filled with emotion. “The eyes of all future generations are upon you. And if you choose to fail us, I say we will never forgive you.” The 16-year-old warned the more than 60 presidents and prime ministers gathered in the General Assembly hall for the summit that the youth would not let them “get away with this.” She said they draw the line here and now and “change is coming,” …

Honda said on Monday it would phase out all diesel cars by 2021 in favor of models with electric propulsion systems, as the Japanese automaker moves to electrify all of its European cars by 2025. Honda is the latest automaker cutting production of diesel cars to meet stringent global emissions regulations. The plan is part of its long-term goal to make electric cars, including all battery-electric vehicles, to account for two-thirds of its line ups by 2030 from less than 10% now. By next year, according to European Union emission targets, CO2 must be cut to 95 gram per km for 95% of cars from the current 120.5 gram average, a figure that has increased of late as consumers spurn fuel-efficient diesels and embrace SUVs. All new cars in the EU must be compliant in 2021. For Honda, declining demand for diesel vehicles and tougher emissions regulations have clouded its manufacturing prospects in Europe. Honda said in February it would close its only British car plant in 2021 with the loss of up to 3,500 jobs. Japan’s No. 3 automaker has said it would cut the number of car model variations to a third of current offerings by 2025, reducing global production costs by 10% and redirecting those savings toward advanced research and development. …

A global working group set up by Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Microsoft to remove extremist content will become an independent watchdog working “to respond quicker and work more collaboratively to prevent” attacks like Christchurch, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Monday. Ardern has pushed for stronger action since New Zealand’s worst peacetime mass shooting in March, when a gunman attacked Muslims attending Friday prayers in Christchurch. He killed 51 people and broadcast the attack live on Facebook. “In the same way that we respond to natural emergencies like fires and floods, we need to be prepared and ready to respond to a crisis like the one we experienced,” Ardern told reporters on the sidelines of the annual United Nations gathering of world leaders. The Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism was created in 2017 under pressure from U.S. and European governments after a spate of deadly attacks. It will now become an independent organization led by an executive director, funded by Facebook, Google’s YouTube, Twitter and Microsoft. Speaking at a joint news conference with Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, Ardern said the organization would be governed by an operating board made up of company representatives and would have an independent advisory committee composed of government and civil society members. Ardern said some of the group’s work would be to fund and coordinate academic research on terrorism and violent extremist operations and on best practices for data sharing. Sandberg said the forum had already shared some 200,000 digital …

The United Nations unveiled plans to plant urban forests over an area four times the size of Hong Kong, seeking to make Africa and Asia’s rapidly growing cities greener. The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said the pace of urbanization on both continents was contributing to climate change and planting trees could improve air quality, cut the risk of floods and heatwaves and halt land degradation. It will discuss plans to create up to half a million hectares of new urban forests – more than four times the size of Hong Kong – by 2030 in New York this week. “If you look at the urbanization data, particularly in some parts of Asia and Africa, it is happening now,” said Simone Borelli, an expert on urban forestry with the FAO. “For example, Chinese cities are growing very fast and in 20 years’ time, they may have 20% or 30% more people living there. “Unless they start planting now, they’ll find themselves in a situation where it’s too late. Trees take a long time to grow,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation on Monday. If managed well, urban forests could reduce air temperatures by up to 8 degrees Celsius (14.4 F) and cut the cost of air conditioning by up to 40%, the FAO said. The initial plan is to support 90 cities in 30 countries in Africa and Asia to create green areas, said FAO director-general Qu Dongyu in a statement. The problem is particularly severe in dry areas, …

A senior United States Treasury official was visiting Beirut on Monday, where he’s explaining the motives behind recent U.S. sanctions targeting Lebanon’s Iranian-backed Hezbollah group, Lebanon’s central bank governor said. Treasury Department Assistant Secretary Marshall Billingslea met with the prime minister and the speaker of parliament, as well as officials from the Association of Banks in Lebanon and the central bank governor. Hezbollah holds three cabinet seats, and along with its allies has more power than ever in the parliament and government. It is also among the most effective armed groups in the region, extending Iran’s influence to Israel’s doorstep. Domestically, the group’s power exceeds that of the Lebanese armed forces.  Lebanon’s Central Bank chief Riad Salameh played down reports in local media that the U.S. will impose further sanctions on the country’s dollar-strapped banking system. He said Billingslea “is not coming here to squeeze Lebanon.” A U.S. embassy statement said Billingslea “will encourage Lebanon to take the necessary steps to maintain distance from Hezbollah and other malign actors attempting to destabilize Lebanon and its institutions.” Last month, the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned Jammal Trust Bank and added it to its list of global terrorist organizations. The bank denied U.S. charges about “knowingly facilitating banking activities” for Hezbollah militants. The bank last week was forced to request self-liquidation and the move was accepted by the central bank governor.   The U.S. has been imposing sanctions on Hezbollah for years, as Washington considers the group a terrorist organization. …

A school collapsed in Kenya’s capital on Monday and killed at least seven children, officials said, while some outraged residents alleged shoddy construction. Two other children were in critical condition. “We were in class reading and we heard pupils and teachers screaming, and the class started collapsing and then a stone hit me on the mouth,” one survivor, 10-year-old Tracy Oduor, told The Associated Press. “When we got out of the gate we heard that pupils were dead. I feel so sad!” Parents wailed over the remains of The Precious Talent Top School in Nairobi, and hundreds of people gathered as emergency workers picked through debris. It was not clear whether anyone was trapped underneath. Government spokesman Cyrus Oguna confirmed the deaths, and Kenyatta National Hospital later said 64 children had been admitted, most with minor injuries. “The children here were all running away and crying,” resident Michael Otieno said. More than 800 students are enrolled at the school, officials said. It was not immediately clear why the building of corrugated metal and wood collapsed around 7:30 a.m. Construction can be poorly regulated in some fast-growing Kenyan communities. “You can easily break it with your own hands, as easy as that,” Peter Ouko, a resident, said of the building materials. “This is chicken wire, not a construction material, and someone had the guts to use this to build a construction for our kids. I think this is basically premeditated murder.” Nathaniel Matalanga, a structural engineer with La Femme Engineering Services …

Egyptian rights lawyers say security forces have rounded up hundreds of people following small but rare anti-government protests. The protests broke out in several Egyptian cities including the capital, Cairo, over the weekend, calling for President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi to step down.   All protests were quickly broken up by police. But they marked a startling eruption of street unrest, which has been almost completely silenced the past years by draconian measures imposed under el-Sissi.   Egypt Warns Media to Take Care in Coverage Amid Protests The government effectively banned all public protests in 2013 shortly after el-Sissi led the military’s overthrow of the country’s first freely elected civilian president in modern history Lawyers Malek Adly and Khaled el-Masry said Monday security forces had arrested at least 400 people in Cairo and elsewhere across the country.   El-Masry says prosecutors have questioned at least 220 people, over claims that they took part in activities of an outlawed group, a reference to the Muslim Brotherhood group, and disseminating false news.   …

Climate activists have taken to the streets of Washington, blocking key intersections as part of their effort bring “the whole city to a gridlocked standstill” to call attention to climate change. Organizers had called on people to skip work and school to participate in the protest, which follows mass rallies of young people in cities around the world Friday that drew hundreds of thousands of people demanding urgent action to combat climate change. Groups of protesters in Washington blocked several key streets and intersections Monday morning.  In one area, not far from the White House, activists pushed a sailboat into the middle of an intersection as demonstrators changed “This is what Democracy looks like.” Traffic was being diverted by police. The demonstration, called Shut Down DC, coincides with a U.N. Climate Action Summit in New York. Young People Demand Urgent Action on Climate Change video player. Embed Copy …

 At least 40 members of a wedding party, including women and children, were killed and another 13 wounded in an airstrike in southern Afghanistan Sunday night, according to a provincial council member from Helmand province. Haji Abdul Majed Akhund told VOA that the residents of Musa Qala district, the site of the attack, had informed provincial authorities of the wedding ceremony in advance. “We brought 13 members of our family to the Emergency hospital in Lashkargah city last night,” a man named Abdullah told VOA.     Helmand health officials confirmed that 13 civilians were shifted from the site of the attack to provincial capital Lashkargah. Abdul Ahad Hazem, the Helmand provincial health director, told VOA that one of them, a woman had since succumbed to her wounds.   Omar Zawak a spokesman for the Helmand provincial governor, confirmed the strike but said reports of civilian casualties were not confirmed and the government was investigating. He added that the strike, which was accompanied by a night raid on militants operating in the area, had killed 13 Taliban. Meanwhile, the Afghan Defense Ministry said at least 22 Taliban were killed, including 5 Pakistanis and one Bangladeshi, and 14 militants were arrested, in an Afghan forces’ operation in Musa Qala. A separate statement from the office of the governor of neighboring Kandahar province said the target was al-Qaida. “Last night, Afghan special forces conducted an air and ground operation in Takht Put village in Musa Qala district of Helmand province, killing five …