Year: 2019

French and German attempts to end the conflict in east Ukraine risk increasing tensions that were already rising in the European Union over how to handle Russia and which could complicate peace efforts. Progress at talks between Russian and Ukrainian envoys have raised hopes of convening the first international summit in three years on ending the fighting between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian government forces. But some EU states, while welcoming a summit that would involve France, Germany, Ukraine and Russia, are worried by growing talk that the EU might partially lift sanctions imposed on Moscow since its seizure of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. EU divisions over how to deal with Moscow have been growing over overtures to the Kremlin in recent months, led by Paris. Comments by French President Emmanuel Macron have especially upset governments in EU countries that were once Soviet satellite states or constituent republics. Alarmed by what they see as an increasingly aggressive Russian foreign policy, they reject anything that might smack of appeasement. “Are we to reward Russia because they have not done anything grotesque in the past few months?” one EU diplomat asked. Steinmeier Deal Sparks Protests in Ukraine, Praise in Moscow Former US diplomats to the region are cautiously optimistic but concerned that Moscow and Kyiv may have different interpretations of the deal In EU meetings, letters and speeches, divisions about Russia that were once under control are resurfacing, diplomats say. The tension could make it harder for the EU to agree new …

Britain’s Boris Johnson urged French President Emanuel Macron on Sunday to “push forward” to secure a Brexit deal and told him  the EU should not be lured into the mistaken belief that the U.K. would stay in the EU after Oct.31, the prime minister’s office said. Johnson discussed his Brexit proposal, which has been widely rebuffed in Brussels, with Macron and Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa on Sunday. “This is the chance to get a deal done: a deal that is backed by parliamentarians and a deal which involves compromise on all sides,” a senior Number 10 source said on Sunday. “The U.K. has made a big, important offer but it’s time for the Commission to show a willingness to compromise too. If not the UK will leave with no deal.” With the Oct. 31 deadline approaching, Johnson has consistently said he will not ask for another delay to Brexit, but also that he will not break a law that forces him to request one if no withdrawal deal has been agreed by Oct. 19. He has not explained the apparent contradiction in his comments.   …

Rip Taylor, the madcap mustached comedian with a fondness for confetti-throwing who became a television game show mainstay in the 1970s, has died. He was 84. Taylor died Sunday in Beverly Hills, California, publicist Harlan Boll said. The man who would become known worldwide as Rip did not have a direct line into show business. He was born Charles Elmer Taylor Jr. in Washington, D.C., to a waitress and a musician and first worked as a congressional page before serving in the Army during the Korean War, where he started performing standup. His ascent began with spots on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” where he was known as the “crying comedian.” The moniker pre-dated his television stints, however, and went back to his time in the Catskills. “I sat on a stool telling jokes, and nobody was laughing,” he told UPI in 1992. “In desperation, I pretended to cry as I begged them to laugh. That killed ’em.” It’s where he said the character “Rip” came from. Although he readily admitted stealing jokes from USO shows, the crying comedian bit got him to Ed Sullivan, where the host — forgetting Taylor’s name — would say “get me the crying comedian.” Success begat more success, and Taylor ended up on tour with Judy Garland and Eleanor Powell in Las Vegas in 1966. In his over five decades in entertainment, Taylor would make over 2,000 guest star appearances on shows like “The Monkees,” “The Merv Griffin Show,” “The Tonight Show,” “Late Night with …

Tens of thousands of French conservatives took to the streets of Paris Sunday to protest a proposed bill that would allow single women and lesbian couples to access to fertility treatments like in vitro fertilization. Currently such procedures are only offered to heterosexual couples. The bill has already passed the lower house of parliament and will be voted on by the senate later this month. If passed, the law would allow all women under 43 access to fertility treatments paid for by France’s health care system. Protesters demonstrate against a reform bill that will widen access to medically assisted procreation to lesbian couples and single women, in Paris, France, Oct. 6, 2019. It would also allow children conceived with a donated sperm to learn the identity of the father after they turn 18. The bill does not address surrogate pregnancies, which are illegal in France. Polls have found two-thirds of French voters support the bill. The protests Sunday were reminiscent of demonstrations held when French lawmakers were considering legalizing gay marriage in 2013.   …

Ecuadorean authorities have begun arresting shopkeepers for raising food prices as indigenous groups clashed with security forces on Sunday in a fourth day of protests against President Lenin Moreno’s austerity measures. Ecuadoreans complain consumer prices have risen sharply as a knock-on effect of Moreno’s abolition of fuel subsidies, which has also triggered the nation’s worst unrest in more than a decade. “Everyone’s raising prices with the excuse of the gasoline price rise,” said disgruntled pensioner Camilo Salazar, 65, at a food market in the coastal city of Guayaquil where prices had risen up to a third in just a few days. The government said 20 people were detained over the weekend for over-charging for products including corn, onions, carrots and potatoes, which are all subject to price controls. “There is no justification for raising the prices,” Interior Minister Maria Romo said in a statement. Ecuador’s dollarized economy had seen inflation of just 0.27 percent in 2018. Protesters bock a highway in Pastocalle, Ecuador, Oct. 6, 2019. After a two-day strike by transport unions, indigenous groups have now taken the lead in demonstrations against Moreno’s economic measures. Roads were blocked in various places again on Sunday with burning tires, branches and rocks. Some protesters threw stones at security forces, who responded with tear gas. The CONAIE umbrella indigenous group published one video showing spear-wielding inhabitants blocking a road and shouting “Down with the government!” The 66-year-old Moreno won the 2017 election and has set the oil-producing nation on a centrist track …

A homeless man wielding a long metal bar rampaged through New York City’s Chinatown early Saturday attacking other homeless people who were sleeping, killing four and leaving a fifth with serious injuries, police said. Police recovered the weapon, which was still in the suspect’s hands when he was arrested, officials said. “The motive appears to be, right now, just random attacks,” Chief of Manhattan South Detectives Michael Baldassano said, adding there was no evidence yet that the victims were “targeted by race, age, anything of that nature.” Police officers escort Randy Rodriguez Santos from the 5th Precinct to a vehicle bound for a hospital for evidence collection, Oct. 5, 2019, in New York. Randy Rodriguez Santos was taken into police custody early Saturday. Police say he has been arrested at least a half-dozen times in the past two years, three times on assault charges. Santos was escorted out of a police station late Saturday. Detectives told journalists he was being taken to a hospital for the gathering of DNA evidence. An arraignment was expected Sunday morning. It wasn’t clear whether Santos had a lawyer yet. The victims, all men, were attacked as they slept in doorways and sidewalks in three different locations in Chinatown, which is packed during daylight hours but empties out at night. Police responded to a 911 call just before 2 a.m. as one assault was in progress. They found one man dead in the street and a second with critical head injuries. A search of the …

A witness in the murder trial of a white Dallas police officer who fatally shot her black neighbor has been killed in a shooting, the Dallas Morning News reported, citing authorities. The newspaper reported that authorities said Joshua Brown, who lived in the same apartment complex as Amber Guyger and Botham Jean, was shot and killed Friday in Dallas. Guyger was still in her police uniform after a long shift when, according to her trial testimony, she mistook Jean’s apartment for her own one floor below and shot him after pushing open his unlocked door and thinking he was a burglar. Brown, 28, testified in Guyger’s trial about the September 2018 night that Jean was killed, saying he was in a hallway on the fourth floor, where he and Jean lived. He said he heard what sounded like “two people meeting by surprise” and then two gunshots. Brown, who became emotional at times and used his T-shirt and tissue to wipe his tears, said he had met Jean, a 26-year-old accountant from the Caribbean island nation of St. Lucia, for the first time earlier that day. Guyger, 31, was fired from the department soon after the shooting. She was convicted Tuesday and sentenced the next day to 10 years in prison. Friday night shooting The newspaper did not cite authorities by name for confirmation of Brown’s death. A Dallas police spokesman Saturday would not confirm to The Associated Press that it was Brown who was shot Friday. He said the …

Caviar, a food associated with luxury, is being produced for the first time in Madagascar. The product makes consumers in faraway France happy, and provides hundreds of jobs in this African country.  VOA’s Jim Randle has our story.   …

Nearly 50,000 workers at General Motors are on strike, the largest labor action against the automaker in 50 years. It comes at a critical time in the industry as the economy slows and a major industry transition looms. VOA’s Steve Baragona has more.   …

Australia will not extradite an Iranian academic to the United States, Australia’s attorney-general said over the weekend, following a 13-month detention of the researcher for allegedly exporting American-made military equipment to Iran. Attorney-General Christian Porter said in a statement that “in all the circumstances of this particular case” the academic, Reza Dehbashi Kivi, should not be extradited. “My decision was made in accordance with the requirements of Australian domestic legal processes and is completely consistent with the powers provided to the commonwealth attorney-general under our law,” Porter said. Iran releases Australian couple The statement came hours after Iran had agreed to free an Australian couple from a Tehran prison who were held on spying charges. Later Saturday, Iranian media reported that Dehbashi Kivi had already returned to Iran. Porter would not say whether the two cases were related. “The Australian Government does not comment on the details behind its consideration of particular cases,” Porter said in his e-mailed statement. “And while it is likely that because of Mr. Kivi’s nationality some will speculate regarding this matter, consistent with prior practice I do not intend to comment further on the particular details of this case, particularly when any such response from me may diminish our government’s capacity to deal with future matters of this type in Australia’s best interests.” Accused of selling US equipment to Iran According to Australia’s ABC News, the 38-year-old Dehbashi Kivi was arrested in September 2018 on accusations of sending American equipment for stealth planes or missiles …

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Saturday defended the Trump administration’s approach to Ukraine that is at the center of an impeachment inquiry. He rejected allegations it was at best inappropriate or at worst an illegal abuse of power for which Congress should remove President Donald Trump from office. Pompeo maintained that the investigation the United States sought from Ukraine’s government involved possible interference from Ukraine in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. He did not speak to Trump’s stated desire for Ukraine to specifically investigate former Vice President Joe Biden’s and his son Hunter, which impeachment investigators are focused on since a whistleblower complaint surfaced last month. Pompeo criticized the impeachment inquiry as “clearly political” and said the actions of the State Department were aimed solely at improving relations with the new government of Ukraine that took office this spring. He also said the work of a former special envoy to Ukraine, Kurt Volker, was based on the direction of the president to do just that. Kurt Volker, a former special envoy to Ukraine, is leaving after a closed-door interview with House investigators as House Democrats proceed with the impeachment investigation of President Donald Trump, at the Capitol in Washington, Oct. 3, 2019. Volker was interviewed by congressional investigators on Thursday and turned over text messages between himself and other officials. Those messages detailed their push to get Ukraine to agree to investigations into an energy company on whose board Hunter Biden sat, and 2016 election interference. In exchange, …

U.S. President Donald Trump has asked for a substantial cut in the National Security Council staff, Bloomberg reported late on Friday, citing five people familiar with the plans. The step was described by some sources cited in the report as part of an effort from the White House to make its foreign policy arm leaner. FILE – National Security Adviser Robert C. O’Brien (R) talks with White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney during a meeting on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, in New York, Sept. 23, 2019. The request to do so was conveyed to officials in the agency by current White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney and National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien earlier this week, according to Bloomberg. The reductions at the agency, in which currently 310 people work, will be carried out through attrition, Bloomberg reported. The report did not mention the exact number by which Trump is looking to cut the agency’s staff. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside regular business hours. The development comes as Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives are examining whether there are grounds to impeach Republican Trump based on a whistleblower’s account that said he asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in a July 25 phone call to help investigate Democratic political rival Joe Biden. Lawmakers are investigating concerns that Trump’s actions have jeopardized national security and the integrity of U.S. elections.   …

A global education fund is providing tens of thousands of Sahelian children in crisis with a quality education, bringing hope to boys and girls who have known nothing but violence and sorrow in their young lives. Education Cannot Wait, a funding mechanism set up at the World Humanitarian Summit in 2016, globally is helping more than 1.4 million children in emergencies go back to school. More than 75 million children caught in conflict, natural disasters and other emergencies are being deprived of an education.  Children in the Sahel, a region just south of the Sahara Desert, are among the most vulnerable.  In Central Mali, armed conflict has forced the closure of more than 900 schools, depriving an estimated 280,000 children of an education. Director of the nonprofit Education Cannot Wait Yasmine Sherif (L. Schlein/VOA) The director of Education Cannot Wait, Yasmine Sherif, recently returned from a mission to Mali.  She describes the heart-wrenching condition of children she met in a camp for displaced people in the city of Mopti.  She told VOA of the psychological distress suffered by children forced to flee for their lives with nothing but the clothes on their backs. “They have fled some horrifying violence in the North.  I spoke to several of them – young girls who saw their homes, their huts being burnt down, fleeing from villages where summary executions took place. They are very traumatized, very traumatized,” she said. Despite their frightful experiences, Sherif said the children arrive with their dreams of a …

Iraqi authorities lifted a dayslong curfew in Baghdad on Saturday that anti-government protesters had defied, as the toll from four days of violent unrest rose to 72 killed and hundreds injured. Traffic ran as normal through the Iraqi capital and streets and main squares were otherwise quiet. Concrete barriers blocked off areas where protesters in the thousands clashed with police during the week. Iraq’s semi-official High Commission for Human Rights said security forces had detained hundreds of people for demonstrating but then let most of them go. Police snipers shot at protesters Friday, Reuters reporters said, escalating violent tactics used by the security forces that have included live fire, tear gas and water cannons. The security forces have accused gunmen of hiding among demonstrators to shoot at police. Several police officers have died. Anti-government protesters set fires and close a street during a demonstration in Baghdad, Oct. 4, 2019. Security forces opened fire directly at hundreds of anti-government demonstrators in Baghdad, killing some protesters and injuring dozens. The protests over unfair distribution of jobs, lack of services and government corruption erupted Tuesday in Baghdad and quickly spread to other Iraqi cities, mainly in the south. It is the deadliest unrest Iraq has seen since the declared defeat of Islamic State in 2017 and has shaken the year-old government of Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi. The government has responded with vague reform promises that are unlikely to placate Iraqis. Powerful Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who has a mass popular following and …

Singers and songwriters from U.S. tribes and Canada’s First Nations are using their art to honor and raise awareness of missing and murdered indigenous people. The following is a small sampling of their efforts. “Little Star” The stop-motion animated video featuring the song “Little Star” was produced by Ontario filmmaker Sarah Legault. Sung by Cree singer and songwriter iskwē, or “blue sky woman,” the song was written to protest injustice surrounding the murders of two indigenous youth in Canada — 15-year-old Tina Fontaine, a member of the Sagkeeng First Nation in Manitoba, whose body was later pulled from the Red River in Winnipeg in 2014; and Colten Boushie, 22, a member of the Red Pheasant Cree First Nation in Saskatchewan, who in 2016 was fatally shot by a white farmer. In both incidents, the cases against their accused murderers were dismissed.   “Missing You” Singer and composer Joanne Shenandoah is one of the most critically acclaimed Native American artists today. A member of the Wolf Clan of the Oneida Nation of the Haudenosaunee Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy and based in Syracuse, New York, Shenandoah is a founding board member of the Hiawatha Institute for Indigenous Knowledge. The song “Missing You” is an original composition, written to honor tens of thousands of missing and murdered indigenous women. The video was produced by Television, Radio and Film graduate seniors Peter Conway, Elijah Goodell and Sarah Rebetje at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.   “Sky World” Written by Theresa Bear …

Wayne Lee contributed to this report. WHITE HOUSE — U.S. President Donald Trump, in his latest remarks explaining his requests to foreign governments to investigate his political opponents, is asserting he has a constitutional duty to fight corruption. “This is not about politics. This is about corruption. If you look and read our Constitution and many other things, I have an obligation to look at corruption,” Trump said to reporters on Friday at the White House. At the heart of the Democrats’ impeachment inquiry in the House of Representatives, which the opposition party controls, is what the intelligence committee’s chairman, Adam Schiff, describes as “a damning call in which the President pressured a foreign power to investigate a political rival, harming national security.” Schiff tweeted on Friday that “Trump believes he can pressure a foreign nation to help him politically. It’s his right.’ Every Republican in Congress has to decide: Is he right?” It comes down to this. We’ve cut through the denials. The deflections. The nonsense. Donald Trump believes he can pressure a foreign nation to help him politically. It’s his “right.” Every Republican in Congress has to decide: Is he right? https://t.co/DpftzJ0ydN — Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) October 4, 2019 In a significant development, Republican Senator Mitt Romney of Utah, tweeted: “By all appearances, the President’s brazen and unprecedented appeal to China and to Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden is wrong and appalling.” By all appearances, the President’s brazen and unprecedented appeal to China and to Ukraine to investigate …

The office of the U.N. high commissioner for human rights has harshly criticized Iraq’s deadly crackdown on people protesting against corruption, lack of jobs and basic services, including electricity and clean water. At least 42 people reportedly have been killed in a series of demonstrations in Iraq this week. Hundreds have been injured and dozens detained.  The U.N. human rights agency says it considers Iraq’s response to the peaceful demonstrations excessive and unjustified. It urges Iraqi authorities to talk with protestors, who it says have legitimate grievances that need to be heard. Spontaneous demonstrations have been taking place across the country this past week. U.N. human rights spokeswoman, Marta Hurtado, said most of the protestors are young and unemployed. She said they are demanding the government provide them with jobs and basic services and respect their economic and social rights. Hurtado said Iraqis have a right to express their grievances in a peaceful way and without interference. Anti-government protesters set fires and close a street during a demonstration in Baghdad, Oct. 3, 2019. “We are worried by reports that security forces have used live ammunition and rubber bullets in some areas and have also fired tear gas canisters directly at protesters,” Hurtado said. “We call on the Iraqi government to allow people to freely exercise their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. The use of force should be exceptional, and assemblies should ordinarily be managed without resort to force.” She said international law prohibits the use of firearms, …

VOA Connect Episode 90 –  Explore some old-time pastimes, from riding a steam locomotive, to watching a wingwalker take to the sky, and digging into the original Buffalo wings. Plus, see how one small town reinvented itself to become an artist’s paradise …

Want to know what esthetician Jana-Leigh Scheaffer does for fun?  Here’s a hint, it’s a predominantly male sport and it involves major stunts.  We promise you will enjoy watching her walk in the air, literally.   Reporter: Philip Alexiou; Camera: Philip Alexiou, Martin Secrest; Adapted by: Jacquelyn De Phillips …

There are a lot of reasons small towns in America are fading away – factories closing down, family farms closing up and the eternal draw of big city living. But some towns are fighting back with innovative ideas.   Meet a family of artists in Lewellen, Nebraska, population 200, trying to keep their main street alive and pulsating.   Reporter/Camera: Deepak Dobhal …

European cheese makers complained Thursday of being held “hostage” in a transatlantic trade battle that had nothing to do with them after the United States slapped 25% tariffs on the sector in retaliation for state aid to aerospace group Airbus. The dismayed reaction came a day after the World Trade Organization gave Washington the green light to slap punitive tariffs on a range of European products, including spirits and cheese, in punishment for illegal EU aircraft subsidies. FILE – An Airbus A350 takes off at the aircraft builder’s headquarters in Colomiers near Toulouse, France, Sept. 27, 2019. “What is happening is absurd; we have to see if the American customers are willing to accept the price increase,” said Giuseppe Ambrosi, president of Italian dairy association Assolatte. Earlier, the consortium that oversees production of Parmesan said U.S. consumers could expect to pay $5 per kilo (2.2 lbs) more for the hard Italian cheese. In the jargon of trade negotiations, cheese is what is sometimes referred to as an “offensive” product for the European Union — one it has a particular interest in selling and thus one that is particularly vulnerable to punitive tariffs. While sales of dairy products account for less than 5% of EU agri-food exports to the U.S. market, the symbolic importance of European cheeses has made them a target for trade officials seeking to make a point while limiting the hurt to American consumers. High-profile products like Parmesan or various kinds of blue-veined cheeses have been targeted periodically …