Month: September 2019

Hong Kong and Singapore have always been rivals of a sort. Government stability and transparent legal systems have attracted thousands of multinationals to both since the 1960s, giving each the title of Asian financial center. Antigovernment protests since June suddenly threaten the prowess of Hong Kong. The millions of people massing in the streets, shutting down the airport and setting fires in public places are eroding the sense of stability that multinationals want when they pick a base in Asia. Singapore is standing by now to take any Hong Kong refugees. Pro-democracy protesters react as police fire water cannons outside the government headquarters in Hong Kong, Sept. 15, 2019. Hong Kong would start giving ground to Singapore, people close to one or both places think, if the protests show signs of going on long term and especially if they drive changes in the law or keep snarling the airport. That would mean an exodus of multinationals to Singapore or at least corporate decisions to add Singapore staff rather than Hong Kong staff during Asia expansions. “It really depends how long this continues,” said Rajiv Biswas, Asia-Pacific chief economist at the market research firm IHS Markit. “If it becomes protracted and the disruptions are ongoing, then I think it does erode confidence in the financial center. Definitely it could undermine Hong Kong’s ability to compete with Singapore.” The rise of two dragons Hong Kong was described in the 1960s as one of Asia’s four economic dragons, a reference to fast industrialization …

A team of French diggers has restored three Sudanese artifacts, including a 3,500-year-old wall relief, and it handed them to the African country’s national museum Thursday, a French archaeologist said.    The three artifacts were discovered at separate archaeological sites in recent years in Sudan and were restored by a French team of experts.    The items are a wall painting of an ancient Kandaka Nubian queen, a Meroite stela and a wall relief inscription believed to be almost 3,500 years old.  A stela, discovered at Sedeinga pyramids, is displayed at the National Museum of Sudan in Khartoum, Sept. 19, 2019. “The idea is to give back to the museum the most important archaeological pieces discovered and restored,” said Marc Maillot, director of the French archaeological unit deployed in Sudan.    The wall painting was found at El-Hassa site, the stela at Sedeinga and the relief at the temple of Soleb, where French diggers along with Sudanese counterparts have conducted extensive archaeological work for several years.    On Thursday, the three artifacts were handed over to the Sudan National Museum to mark the completion of 50 years of French archaeologists’ presence in the country.    For decades, international archaeologists have worked extensively in Sudan, proving that the northeast African nation has its own extensive wealth of ancient relics and was not merely a satellite of neighboring Egypt.    Archaeologists are convinced that many kingdoms still lie buried, waiting to be discovered.  …

Any attack on Iran by the U.S. or Saudi Arabia will spark an “all-out war,” Tehran’s top diplomat warned Thursday, raising the stakes as Washington and Riyadh weigh a response to a drone-and-missile strike on the kingdom’s oil industry that shook global energy markets. The comments by Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif represented the starkest warning yet by Iran in a long summer of mysterious attacks and incidents following the collapse of Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, more than a year after President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the U.S. from the accord. They appeared to be aimed directly at U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who while on a trip to the region earlier referred to Saturday’s attack in Saudi Arabia as an “act of war.” Pompeo Visits Saudi Arabia, Meets With Crown Prince in Wake of Oil Facility Attacks ‘Iran is behind the attacks and not Yemen’s Houthis,’ US secretary of state says Along with the sharp language, however, there also were signals from both sides of wanting to avoid a confrontation. In his comments, Zarif sought to expose current strains between the Americans and the Saudis under Trump, who long has criticized U.S. wars in the Middle East. Trump’s close relationship with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has been challenged by opponents following the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi last year in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul and the kingdom’s long, bloody war in Yemen. That country’s Houthi rebels claimed the oil field attack …

Chinese tech giant Huawei launched its latest high-end smartphone in Munich on Thursday, the first of its mobile devices not to carry popular Google apps because of U.S. sanctions. “Today because of the U.S. ban … we cannot pre-install” Google’s applications, said Richard Yu, who heads Huawei’s consumer business group, as he unveiled the group’s latest Mate 30 and Mate 30 Pro models. But heading off fears that a phone without popular apps like Whatsapp, YouTube or Google Maps could not succeed, he stressed that the equivalent platform by the Chinese giant offered a choice of 45,000 apps through the Huawei App Gallery. Richard Yu, head of Huawei’s consumer business group, speaks on stage during a presentation to reveal Huawei’s latest smartphones Mate 30 and Mate 30 Pro in Munich, Germany, Sept. 19, 2019. Yu added that the Chinese giant was investing US$1 billion (900,000 euros) into its Huawei Mobile Services (HMS) core software ecosystem, as he urged app developers to bring their creations to the system. Huawei, targeted directly by the United States as part of a broader trade conflict with Beijing, was added to a “blacklist” in Washington in May. Since then, it has been illegal for American firms to do business with the Chinese firm, suspected of espionage by President Donald Trump and his administration. As a result, the new Mate will run on a freely available version of Android, the world’s most-used phone operating system that is owned by the search engine heavyweight. OS wars While …

VOA National Security Correspondent Jeff Seldin contributed to this report.   WHITE HOUSE — U.S. President Donald Trump is uttering his oft-cited ‘Fake News’ accusation to rebut reports he made a ‘promise’ to a foreign leader that sparked an American intelligence official to file a whistleblower complaint. “Is anybody dumb enough to believe that I would say something inappropriate with a foreign leader while on such a potentially ‘heavily populated’ call. I would only do what is right anyway, and only do good for the USA!” the president tweeted on Thursday. Trump, who has frequently accused the U.S. intelligence community of being part of a ‘Deep State’ opposition to his presidency, said he is aware that “virtually anytime I speak on the phone to a foreign leader, I understand that there may be many people listening from various U.S. agencies, not to mention those from the other country itself. No problem!” Another Fake News story out there – It never ends! Virtually anytime I speak on the phone to a foreign leader, I understand that there may be many people listening from various U.S. agencies, not to mention those from the other country itself. No problem! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 19, 2019 Trump’s comments came as the House intelligence committee held a closed-door session with Michael Atkinson, the U.S. intelligence community’s inspector general. The Trump administration is declining to comment on reports that the whistleblower, whose identity has not been disclosed, is an intelligence officer detailed to the …

New images of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wearing blackface makeup emerged on Canadian television Thursday, throwing his floundering re-election bid into further disarray. Released by broadcaster Global News, and confirmed to AFP by his campaign as being Trudeau “in the early 1990s,” the footage depicts the Liberal leader in ripped jeans and a t-shirt, his arms up and dark makeup on his face. Late Wednesday, Trudeau apologized after Time magazine published a photograph of him wearing dark makeup at a party 18 years ago. He also admitted to wearing similar makeup in his teens when he sang Harry Belafonte’s 1956 hit “Banana Boat Song (Day-O)” at a high school talent contest. “I have worked all my life to try to create opportunities for people, fight against racism and intolerance,” he told a televised news conference on his campaign aircraft. “I can say I made a mistake when I was younger and I wish I hadn’t. I wish I had known better then, but I didn’t and I’m deeply sorry for it.” “Now I recognize it was something racist to do,” he said, acknowledging that his enthusiasm for costumes — which has also included dressing as Clark Kent/Superman and a “Star Wars” rebel pilot for Halloween — has not always been “appropriate.” Trudeau, 47, whose party won a landslide victory in 2015, has already been under attack for an ethics lapse and other controversies. The controversial images are fresh blows, coming out one week into a federal election campaign with Trudeau’s …

The border wall literally became President Donald Trump’s signature project Wednesday. Trump used a permanent marker to sign a new portion of the rust-colored metal barrier, reinforced with concrete and rebar, rising as high as 9 meters at Otay Mesa, a suburb of San Diego that separates California from Tijuana, Mexico. “It is really virtually impenetrable,” Trump declared. “There are thousands of people over there that were trying to get in” before this portion of the barricade went up, said Trump, who described the work he inspected Wednesday afternoon as “pretty amazing.” “The wall does not answer the crisis at the border today,” said Muzaffar Chishti, director of the New York office of the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute. “The situation at the border today is not people sneaking in. The crisis at the border today is asylum-seekers showing up and voluntarily turning themselves in to the Border Patrol.” Migrants, many who were returned to Mexico under the Trump administration’s “Remain in Mexico” program, wait in line to get a meal in an encampment near the Gateway International Bridge in Matamoros, Mexico, Aug. 30, 2019. Limiting arrivals Chishti told VOA that the near-total ban on asylum implemented via administrative regulation, along with the “Migrant Protection Protocol” and metering of asylum claims at ports of entry, will have far more to do with limiting arrivals than will the wall. The president told reporters that up to 800 kilometers of border wall, about 1 meter thick, was under construction, but that it was premature …

Relatives of the victims of the 9/11 attacks who are suing Saudi Arabia for compensation obtained a coveted piece of information last week that they hope will strengthen their case. The FBI disclosed the name of a Saudi official who is believed to have helped two of the 19 hijackers who carried out the terror attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania on Sept. 11, 2001. The name, included in a 2012 FBI report on suspected Saudi ties to the terrorists, was released to lawyers representing the families of nearly 3,000 victims of the worst act of terrorism on American soil. The mystery man allegedly tasked two other Saudis living in the Los Angeles area before the 9/11 attacks — Omar al-Bayoumi and Fahad al-Thumairy — to aid Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar, who crashed American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon. FILE – Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., right, is flanked by John D’Amato, an attorney for the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, as he faces reporters in New York, July 27, 2003, with a copy of the government report on the attacks. Al-Bayoumi allegedly did such things as finding the two terrorists an apartment, co-signing their lease and paying their first month’s rent. Fourteen other hijackers forced two other airliners to crash into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center and a third into a field in Pennsylvania. “This has been a very important name to our case because it will now tie the kingdom of Saudi Arabia …

South Sudan had a vibrant print media when it separated from Sudan in 2011, with 34 newspapers and six magazines in circulation.    Today, there are only five newspapers left. Most publishers trying to establish a foothold do not last long enough to celebrate their first anniversary.    Several newspaper owners blame the country’s economic crisis for their downfall. Charles Rehan, founder of the defunct Juba Post, told VOA’s South Sudan in Focus that his paper failed to survive more than two years because of a lack of materials needed to publish the paper.    “We printed newspapers in Khartoum, and when South Sudan separated from Khartoum, we went to print in Uganda. When you bring newspapers from Uganda, the newspaper will come late,” and that affected the paper’s ability to grow, Rehan said.   Future of print    A lack of newspapers could hurt South Sudan’s future, Rehad said. Journalists serve an important function, he said, when they ask questions, investigate wrongdoing and force government officials to address the problems facing the country.    “If there is something going wrong, the journalists will say, ‘This is wrong, this is the right direction.’ But without newspapers, the country cannot develop at all,” he said.    Thomas Manase, CEO of Brisker magazine, said South Sudan has a poor reading culture that limits the growth of print media.    “In South Sudan, young people don’t like to pick up stuff to read and be informed,” Manase told VOA. In addition, he said, businesses don’t value advertising. “This has really affected our sales.”    Brisker stopped printing …

The state that made smog famous is losing its half-century-old authority to set air pollution rules.    President Donald Trump announced Wednesday on Twitter that the Environmental Protection Agency was withdrawing California’s authority to issue stricter vehicle efficiency rules than the federal government.    The move was the latest in the administration’s efforts to loosen regulations aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions.    Thirteen states and the District of Columbia follow California’s standards. Together, they account for a third of auto sales in the United States.   ‘Devastating consequences’ California has pledged to fight the decision.    “It’s a move that could have devastating consequences for our kids’ health and the air we breathe if California were to roll over,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, said in a statement. “But we will fight this latest attempt and defend our clean car standards.”    Trump tweeted that the administration was revoking California’s air pollution prerogative “in order to produce far less expensive cars for the consumer, while at the same time making the cars substantially SAFER.”    Opponents said the action was illegal and unwise.    “It slams the brakes on technological advancement and throws a wrench into states’ ability to deal with air pollution and confront the growing risk of climate change,” Ken Kimmell, president of the Union of Concerned Scientists, said in a statement. “It’s yet another way the administration is defying science, the law and democratic norms to enable increased pollution.”    FILE – Vehicles make their way west on Interstate 80 across the San Francisco-Oakland Bay …

Efforts to secure prisons holding thousands of captured Islamic State fighters appear to be on the verge of crumbling, a development that could help strengthen the terror group’s efforts to re-emerge in Syria and Iraq.    For months, officials have said the prisons, run by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, were “good enough” to hold the fighters, many of whom were captured following the fall of Baghuz, the terror group’s last Syrian stronghold, in March.    But as efforts to repatriate IS foreign fighters to their countries of origin have stalled, and as thousands more wait to face some sort of justice, fears are growing that the prisons may be reaching a breaking point.   FILE – Syrian Democratic Forces fighters watch illumination rounds light up Baghuz, Syria, as the last pocket of Islamic State militants is attacked, March 12, 2019. “There are not prisons controlled by forces in northeast Syria that can house 10,000 ISIS fighters,” Chris Maier, director of the Pentagon’s Defeat IS Task Force, told reporters Wednesday, using another acronym for the terror group.    “This is not sustainable over time,” he added, noting that the United States’ anti-IS coalition partners “share that assessment.”    Many of the prisons are buildings, like schools, that were quickly converted into detention facilities as the U.S. and coalition forces rolled back the last of the terror group’s territory in Syria.    Soon, the prisons were close to overflowing. In March, the U.S. began sending the SDF material for repairs and refurbishment.   Yet those repairs have gone only so far, …

Nigeria’s frenetic commercial capital, Lagos, is plunged into darkness several times a day. Then its generators roar, and the lights flood back on. Nigeria is one of the world’s largest economies where businesses rely so heavily on diesel-powered generators. More than 70% of its firms own or share the units, while government data shows generators provide at least 14 gigawatts of power annually, dwarfing the 4 gigawatts supplied on average by the country’s electricity grid. The machines guzzle cash and spew pollution, but they are reliable in a nation where nearly 80 million people – some 40% of the population – have no access to grid power. Now diesel costs could spike globally, and many businesses are not prepared. Diesel prices are expected to surge as United Nations rules aimed at cleaning up international shipping come into effect on Jan. 1, with many ships expected to burn distillates instead of dirtier fuel oil. Slowing economic growth and nascent trade wars could blunt a price spike, and as the shipping industry adapts to the rules, vessels will likely consume less diesel. But in the short term their impact could be profound. Estimates vary widely, but observers warn that prices could surge by nearly 20%. A diesel-run generator is on display at Mikano head office in Lagos, Nigeria, Sept. 9, 2019. Higher costs for operating generators that power the machinery, computer servers and mobile phone towers that run Nigeria’s economy could impair growth in gross domestic product, already limping along at 1.92% …

A judge cleared the way Tuesday for OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma to stay in business while it pursues bankruptcy protection and settlement of more than 2,600 lawsuits filed against it in a reckoning over the opioid crisis. At the first court hearing since the Chapter 11 filing late Sunday, Purdue lawyers secured permission for the multibillion-dollar company based in Stamford, Connecticut, to maintain business as usual — paying employees and vendors, supplying pills to distributors, and keeping current on taxes and insurance. The continued viability of Purdue is a key component of the company’s settlement offer, which could be worth up to $12 billion over time. Under the proposal, backed by about half the states, the Sackler family, which owns Purdue, would turn the company, its assets and more than $1 billion in cash reserves over to a trust controlled by the very entities suing it. The Sacklers have also agreed to pay a minimum of $3 billion of their own money to the settlement over seven years, as well as up to $1.5 billion more in proceeds from the planned sale of their non-U.S. pharmaceutical companies. “This is a highly unusual case in that the debtors have pledged to turn over their business to the claimants,” U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain said. “All of the claimants, in essence, have the same interest in maximizing the value of the business and avoiding immediate and irreparable harm.” Attorney Joe Rice, who represents a group of plaintiffs in the Purdue Pharma bankruptcy, …

International Criminal Court judges said Tuesday that the court’s prosecutor can appeal against the rejection of her request to open an investigation into crimes linked to the long-running conflict in Afghanistan. In April, a panel of judges rejected the proposed investigation, saying it would not be in the interests of justice because an investigation and prosecution were unlikely to be successful as those targeted — including the United States, Afghan authorities and the Taliban — are not expected to cooperate. Seeking leave to appeal, Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said that reasoning ran contrary to the court’s goal of prosecuting grave crimes when national authorities are unwilling or unable to do so. Bensouda must now file a detailed appeal that will be considered by judges, a process likely to take months. FILE – Public Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda attends the trial for Malian Islamist militant Al Hassan Ag Abdoul Aziz Ag Mohamed Ag Mahmoud at the International Criminal Court in the Hague, the Netherlands, July 8, 2019. Her November 2017 request to open an investigation angered Washington because as well as alleging that crimes were committed by the Taliban and Afghan security forces, Bensouda said she had information that members of the U.S. military and intelligence agencies were involved in crimes. Her request said they allegedly “committed acts of torture, cruel treatment, outrages upon personal dignity, rape and sexual violence against conflict-related detainees in Afghanistan and other locations, principally in the 2003-2004 period.” Earlier this year, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said …

She’s done a lot with the place. Like anyone who has ever spruced up their home, Melania Trump will have a few new touches to showcase Friday when guests visit the White House for only the second state dinner of the Trump presidency. There’s refreshed wall fabric in the Red Room, repurposed draperies in the Green Room and restored furniture in the Blue Room. And those are just some of the home improvement projects the first lady has overseen to keep the well-trod public rooms at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. looking their museum-quality best. Some of the projects were long overdue. Sunlight streaming into the Red Room had left some of the wall fabric “so faded it was almost pink,” said Stewart McLaurin, president of the White House Historical Association, which helps finance upkeep of some rooms in the 132-room mansion. First lady Jacqueline Kennedy founded the private, nonprofit organization in 1961. “Those rooms should always look their very best and it was just very faded and really, really needed to be done,” McLaurin said. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his wife, Jenny, and guests for Friday’s three-course state dinner in their honor should have an opportunity to check out the spiffed-up public rooms. Repurposed draperies are seen in the Green Room of the White House in Washington, Sept. 17, 2019. They are among the improvement projects that first lady Melania Trump has overseen to keep the well-trod public rooms looking their best. In her role as caretaker, the first …

Comcast’s NBCUniversal will name its upcoming streaming service “Peacock,” offering a broad slate of original content, including “Dr. Death” starring Emmy and Golden Globe winner Alec Baldwin, the company said on Tuesday. Peacock, which will also offer classic sitcoms like “The Office” and “Parks and Recreation”, is scheduled to launch in 2020, NBCUniversal said. The company owns traditional television network NBC, whose logo features a peacock. The service will compete with streaming giant Netflix and Walt Disney Co.’s upcoming Disney+ streaming service as well as other digital subscription options, as traditional media companies seek to attract online viewers. Details on pricing and distribution will be announced closer to launch, the media company said. Reuters had reported in January that an ad-free version of the NBC service will be available for about the same price as other subscription video services. Peacock will also have other shows such as a reboot of “Battlestar Galactica” and original comedy “Rutherford Falls,” the company said.   …

The recent attacks on Saudi Arabia’s crude oil hub at the Abqaiq and Khurais production facilities reveal that even a nation with a sophisticated military and a massive defense budget is still vulnerable to drone strikes. The United States says satellite images and intelligence information show Iranian weapons were used in the aerial attacks that have shut down half of the kingdom’s oil production. Security experts say this latest incident sparks growing concern over the rapid evolution of technologies expanding drones’ offensive capabilities.   Unidentified U.S. officials have been telling Western media that more than a dozen attacks targeted the installations from a west-northwest direction and not from the southwest as claimed by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen who said they carried out the coordinated assault.    In July, the Houthis, who are fighting a Saudi-led coalition war in Yemen, showed off their Iranian-made weapons long-range cruise missiles, dubbed “Al-Quds”, and explosives-laden “Sammad 3” drones that reportedly can hit targets as far as 1,500 kilometers away. No previous attack, since the Yemen conflict began four years ago, however, has interrupted oil supplies. But the assaults have taken 5.7 million barrels of oil a day off the world’s markets.  They have also exposed the vulnerability of the pumping heart of Saudi Arabia’s oil industry. Defense analysts say the attacks have exposed structural problems in the kingdom’s defenses. They say the systems – albeit sophisticated – are designed to defend against traditional-style attacks – and not asymmetrical ones from the air by …

It may be possible to help tackle climate change while still munching on the occasional bacon sandwich or slurping a few oysters, a new study suggested on Tuesday. Scientists found that diets in which meat, fish or dairy products were consumed only once a day would leave less of a footprint on climate change and water supplies than a vegetarian diet including milk and eggs, in 95% of countries they analysed. That is partly because raising dairy cows for milk, butter and cheese requires large amounts of energy and land, as well as fertilisers and pesticides to grow fodder, emitting greenhouse gases that are heating up the planet, the study said. Diets that contain insects, small fish and molluscs, meanwhile, have as similarly small an environmental impact as plant-based vegan diets but are generally more nutritious, said researchers at the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future. They calculated greenhouse gas emissions and freshwater use for nine different diets – ranging from one meatless day a week and no red meat, to pescatarian and vegan – in 140 countries. Many climate activists and scientists have called for a shift to plant-based diets to keep climate change in check and reduce deforestation, since producing red meat requires a lot of land for grazing and growing feed. Agriculture, forestry and other land use activities accounted for nearly a quarter of man-made greenhouse gas emissions from 2007-2016, the U.N. climate science panel said in a flagship report last month. But there is no …

Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani escaped an attack on his campaign rally in Parwan province that killed 24 people and wounded more than 30 others Tuesday. The president was about to address the rally when a suicide bomber on a motorcycle detonated his explosives near the military facility where the gathering was held. Nasrat Rahimi, a spokesman for Afghan Ministry of Interior, tweeted that no one inside the building was harmed and the rally continued after the incident. Qasim Sangeen, the head of Parwan provincial hospital told VOA bodies of the dead and wounded had been taken to a provincial hospital. This is the first security incident since July 28, the official beginning of the election campaign in Afghanistan.   The Afghan Taliban have taken responsibility for the attack, warning people to stay away from rallies and election related gatherings, promising to carry out further attacks on election activity. “If despite the warnings they go to such meetings and get harmed, it is their responsibility,” a message from Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said. Afghan security forces work at the site of a suicide attack near the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sept. 17, 2019. Afghans are expecting a higher level of violence in the run up to the September 28 election due to a breakdown in peace talks between the United States and Taliban earlier this month. The insurgent group has intensified its regional outreach, taking a trip first to Moscow and more recently to Iran. “The main purpose was to …