Year: 2019

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday faced pleas from Italian farmers not to impose tariffs on local produce as a local television journalist offered him a slice of Parmesan cheese to make the same point. As Pompeo drove up to the presidential palace, he was greeted by members of Italy’s largest agricultural union Coldiretti who held up banners saying “Don’t kill Italian food” and “Mr Pompeo, we are friends.” They brandished bottles of olive oil, Parma ham and other Italian specialities under a banner “A present for Trump.” Later, television journalist Alice Martinelli interrupted a photo call with Prime Minister Paolo Conte by offering Pompeo a slice of Parmesan cheese. “I have a present … the prime minister knows what I’m talking about,” she said. “It is something made best in Italy … made from the heart … so we hope you can help us in taking it to Mr. Trump please.” Pompeo smiled throughout, although he appeared surprised and handed the package to Conte as the woman was led out by two security men. According to media reports, the World Trade Organization has greenlighted the imposition of $7.5 billion of U.S. tariffs on EU exports annually as a 15-year long Airbus-Boeing row nears its climax. Italian Agriculture Minister Teresa Bellanova has sounded the alarm, saying, “The Americans import $4.5 billion worth of Italian food products, or 10 percent of our total exports.” She told La Stampa newspaper that a hike in tariffs would “seriously endanger jobs, companies …

The U.N. refugee agency is urging Tanzania’s government not to forcibly deport tens of thousands of Burundian political refugees to their home country, where it says their lives would be at risk.  The countries signed a bilateral agreement  in August to send the refugees home by the end of the year, and media reports indicate the Tanzanian government is ready to start deporting refugees to Burundi on Thursday. UNHCR spokesman Babar Baloch tells VOA his agency hopes Tanzania and Burundi will not push refugees who fled persecution. “Many refugees and asylum-seekers who have even recently arrived in Tanzania have cited persecution and fear of human rights abuses as the reason for their entry into Tanzania,” he said. “So, we hope that Tanzania … will not put refugee lives at risk by putting pressure on them to return back home.”   In 2015, Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza triggered widespread protests when he declared his intention to run for a third term. Government persecution and human rights abuses against opponents caused more than 340,000 people to flee to neighboring countries in search of refuge; around 200,000 are in Tanzania. The UNHCR, Tanzania and Burundi signed a tripartite agreement in March 2018 to facilitate the voluntary return of refugees to Burundi. Baloch says the UNHCR hopes both countries live up to this agreement and ensure that all returns are voluntary and safe. “Hundreds of refugees still continue to flee Burundi. For us as UNHCR, the conditions are not conducive at this point to …

Ugandan’s pop star and presidential hopeful Bobi Wine has denounced the government’s banning of civilian use of red berets, a symbol of his “People Power” movement that he hopes to use to oust longtime President Yoweri Museveni. The government this month gazetted the red beret and other pieces of military wear as “property of the state.” It warned people who wear or sell them that they would be prosecuted under military law, which can lead to a life sentence. “This beret ban is a sham. It is a blatant attempt to suffocate a successful threat to the autocratic status quo,” Wine, 37, said in a statement. FILE – Yoweri Museveni, who has been president of Uganda since 1986, speaks during the World Economic Forum (WEF) Africa meeting at the Cape Town International Convention Centre, Sept. 4, 2019. “But People Power is more than a red beret, we are bigger than our symbol. We are a booming political movement fighting for the future of Uganda and we will continue our struggle for democracy,” the statement said. Since he became a legislator in 2017, Bobi Wine, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, has rattled Ugandan authorities who see him as a formidable threat to end Museveni’s more than three decades in power. Wine has amassed a large support base, especially among young Ugandans who have been wooed by his bold criticism of Museveni, sometimes delivered in his lyrics. Authorities have responded by clamping down on his supporters, jailing some. Wine’s rallies have …

U.S. President Donald Trump pushed Australia’s prime minister to help discredit special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, the New York Times is reporting. The Times reported Monday that during a recent telephone call, Trump asked Prime Minister Scott Morrison to help U.S. Attorney General William Barr collect information for a Justice Department probe into Mueller’s investigation.  The paper said its sources were two U.S. officials with knowledge of the call. FILE – U.S. President Donald Trump and Attorney General William Barr participate in a ceremony in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Sept. 9, 2019. The Times also reported that the White House restricted access to the call’s transcript to only a small group of officials, a move that is similar to the handling of Trump’s July phone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. That call sparked a whistleblower complaint that led House Democrats to open an impeachment inquiry into Trump. The whistleblower alleges that Trump sought Zelensky’s help in digging up incriminating information about former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter that would hurt Biden’s prospects of winning the Democratic presidential nomination.  The White House last week released a rough transcript of the call. The Times said that during his recent call with Morrison, Trump wanted the Australian government to investigate that country’s role in the origins of the Mueller probe. The paper said the FBI’s investigations into Russian interference began as a result of information given to the FBI by Australian officials.  Barr …

Police in China used drones to track down a fugitive human trafficker who had been on the lam for 17 years.  Song Jiang, 63, escaped from a prison camp in 2002 and had successfully evaded capture since then.  Police in Yongshan, in southwestern Yunnan province, received a tip on their WeChat social media page which led them to the mountains near Song’s hometown.  After unsuccessfully searching the rough terrain, police decided to deploy drones in the hunt.  During the aerial search, drones spotted a blue metal roof on the side of a steep cliff. A closer look revealed trash and proof of a human presence.  A team of officers climbed up to find  “an unkempt old man” living in a small cave. They said Song had trouble communicating after having lived alone for so long.  He used plastic bottles to fetch water from a nearby river and cooked over small open fires, police said.  Song was returned to jail to complete his sentence for trafficking women and children.   …

France will host a conference with Sudan’s international creditors to help Khartoum address debt issues as soon as the United States removes the country from its state-sponsored terrorism list, French President Emmanuel Macron said Monday. In efforts to stabilize the country and to repair an economy battered by years of U.S. sanctions and government mismanagement during Omar al-Bashir’s 30-year rule, Sudanese transition government led by Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok is holding talks with Washington to see Sudan withdrawn from the list. “As soon as the Americans make their decision, we will be able to restructure the debt together,” Macron said at a joint press conference with Hamdok in Paris. “I have decided that France will host an international conference with private and public international creditors,” he added. Macron provided no timeframe. “The precise timing of the conference will depend on the timing upon which sanctions are to be lifted,” Macron said. On the sidelines of a United Nations General Assembly last week, Hamdok expressed hope Sudan would reach an agreement with the United States “very soon.” Sudan has been unable to tap the International Monetary Fund and World Bank for support because the United States still lists the country as a state sponsor of terrorism. A senior U.S. official said in August that Washington would test the commitment of Sudan’s new transitional government to human rights, freedom of speech and humanitarian access before it agrees to remove the country from a list of state sponsors of terrorism. Macron said France …

Colombia on Monday publicly defended a dossier it says proves Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro supports guerrilla groups and drug traffickers, but removed the armed forces’ head of intelligence after widespread criticism of the report.Colombia has long accused Maduro of sheltering rebel fighters and crime gang members. The allegations reached a fever pitch last month when several former commanders from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) said they were re-arming in a video Colombian officials say was filmed in Venezuela. President Ivan Duque announced in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly last week that he would give the organization a dossier of “conclusive proof,” including photographs, of Maduro’s support for terrorist groups. The dossier included years-old, uncredited photos from news agencies taken in Colombia — not in Venezuela — which led Maduro to dismiss the dossier’s contents and sparked widespread criticism of Duque from media outlets and nongovernmental organizations. The armed forces’ head of intelligence, General Oswaldo Pena, was removed from his post because of the photographs, high-level government and military sources told Reuters. A statement from the defense ministry made no mention of Pena being fired, but said in a statement that he had presented his resignation because of “the necessity of responding for my actions.” Colombian officials defended the report’s conclusions earlier on Monday. “It’s just an issue of design and of giving credit at the foot of the photos,” Foreign Minister Carlos Holmes Trujillo told journalists. “In consequence, we are going to update using the …

Four years after battling life-threatening cancer in his liver and brain, and four months after falling and breaking his hip, requiring surgery and weeks of intense physical therapy, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter took the stage September 18, unassisted, here for the Annual Jimmy Carter Emory University Town Hall, which he’s participated in, uninterrupted, for 38 years. Standing without assistance for more than 30 minutes, addressing topics ranging from current polarized U.S. politics to his favorite animal, Carter, a distinguished professor at Emory, showed no signs of fatigue or pain as he enthusiastically answered question after question from those who gathered in the cavernous campus gymnasium by the thousands to hear him speak. “Before this I really didn’t know much about President Carter,”  freshman Stephanie Teng said. “I feel so fortunate to be here.  I know that many students won’t have this opportunity in their lifetime, and this is a uniquely Emory thing, and something I’ll remember the rest of my life.” “I think it’s a problem when we overly lionize political figures, but I do have a great deal of respect for Jimmy Carter,” another freshman, Gian-Luigi Zaninelli, said.  “I’ve heard a great many conservatives being credibly critical of Jimmy Carter and basically view him as an ineffectual president,”  he said. However, Zaninelli said that comes from Carter’s presidential term, from 1977 to 1981. “Because of the good works he’s been doing over the course of the last 30 or more years, we have a high opinion of him …

Liv first met Bill in 2016 when she was a college student and $5,000 in debt from student loans. Making rent was next to impossible, she said, but Bill helped her manage her expenses and finances better. They saw each other a few times a week, and soon Bill was paying Liv’s tuition and rent. He sent her on exotic trips to Europe and Thailand. They moved in together. “He taught me how to do my taxes. He taught me how to get my own car insurance. He helped me pay back student loans,” Liv said. “He just taught me so much and he didn’t have to do any of it. “I actually grew real feelings for him.” “Actually” because Liv was 24 and Bill was 70 when they connected on SeekingArrangement, an online sugar-dating site that promotes itself as offering “upfront and honest arrangements with someone who will cater to your needs.”  Typically, the arrangements are between young women (sugar babies) and older men (sugar daddies) with money. Sugar babies seek financial assistance in return for company. Most of the sources VOA Student Union interviewed said financial arrangements often, but not always, include sex in return. “Join the more than 2.7 million students in the United States who have turned to SeekingArrangement and Sugar Daddies to avoid student debt and secure a better future,” according to their website. VOA Student Union made several attempts for comment from SeekingArrangement.  Liv said she was seeking financial support for student debt and …

A regional Chinese diplomat has rebuked the United States for being “ignorant” about his country’s ongoing key economic contributions and cooperation with Afghanistan. Arrangements are being worked out to enhance the cooperation with Kabul even under Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Yao Jing, the Chinese ambassador to neighboring Pakistan told VOA. He hailed Saturday’s successful Afghan presidential election, saying China hopes they will boost peace-building efforts in a country wrecked by years of conflicts. “We hope that with the election in Afghanistan, with the peace development moving forward in Afghanistan, Afghans will finally achieve a peaceful period, achieve the stability,” said the Chinese diplomat, who served in Kabul prior to his posting in Islamabad. China and US Clash Over ‘Belt and Road’ in Afghan Resolution China insisting on including a reference to Beijing’s $1 trillion global building program in resolution on the UN political mission in Afghanistan Earlier this month, U.S. officials and lawmakers during a congressional hearing in Washington sharply criticized China for its lack of economic assistance to Afghan rebuilding efforts. “I think it’s fair to say that China has not contributed to the economic development of Afghanistan. We have not seen any substantial assistance from China,” Alice Wells, U.S. Acting Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asia, told lawmakers. Wells, however, acknowledged that Beijing has worked with Washington on a way forward on peace as have other countries, including Russia and immediate neighbors of Afghanistan. “She is a little ignorant about what China’s cooperation with Afghanistan …

Clashes between two Turkish-backed rebel groups in the northwestern Syrian town of Afrin have left at least two fighters dead and about a dozen wounded, according to reports Sunday. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor group that has researchers across Syria, reported that fierce fighting between the al-Majd Legion and al-Sham Legion in Afrin erupted Saturday night following a disagreement over property. “Our sources have confirmed that the infighting erupted after a dispute over the ownership of a house just outside of Afrin,” Rami Abdulrahman, director of the Syrian Observatory, told VOA. Local news said the disputed house belonged to a Kurdish civilian that armed groups reportedly had seized months ago. Frequent clashes Armed confrontations among Syrian rebel factions have reportedly increased since Turkish military and allied Syrian rebels took control of Afrin after a two-month-long military campaign that ousted the Kurdish People Protection Units (YPG) from the region in March 2018, rights groups said. “This is not the first time that such clashes take place over property and revenue-sharing among rebel groups,” the Syrian Observatory added. Infighting among rebel groups has become a common issue in the region.  “There is almost one occurrence like this one on a daily basis,” said Mohammed Billo, a journalist from Afrin. “Usually when fighting gets out of control, Turkish military interferes to stop it,” he told VOA. Some rights groups have also voiced concerns about growing violations against civilians in recent months in Afrin. FILE – Kurdish fighters from the …

About 350,000 treasure hunters from all over the world, have been scouting out a large area in the Rocky Mountains stretching from Northern New Mexico to Montana, looking for a hidden treasure. As the story goes, all one needs to do to find the loot, is to decipher the nine clues in a poem written by wealthy art collector and entrepreneur Forrest Fenn, who says he collected and hid the treasure years ago. Its lore became wildly popular after he had written a book called “The Thrill of the Chase,” talking about his life and the treasure.  While many believe the treasure is real, others think it’s a hoax. VOA’s Penelope Poulou visited the area and spoke with Fenn about the meaning of it all …

Pope Francis on Sunday decried “the culture of comfort” that leads to indifference in the face of a global migration and refugee crisis. The pope who has made caring for migrants a hallmark of his papacy spoke during a Mass for the World Day for Migrants and Refugees. “We cannot be indifferent to the tragedy of old and new forms of poverty, to the bleak isolation, contempt and discrimination experienced by those who do not belong to ‘our group,’” Francis said. “We cannot remain insensitive, our hearts deadened, before the misery of so many innocent people. We must not fail to weep. We must not fail to respond.” The pontiff has often spoken of the need to be welcoming to migrants, traveling to the Italian island of Lampedusa in 2013 on his first trip as pope to comfort refugees. His message found political resistance in Italy’s previous populist government, during which the former hard-line interior minister, Matteo Salvini, campaigned to prevent the arrival in Italy of migrants rescued at sea by humanitarian groups. During his homily Sunday, the pope also noted the weapons that fuel wars are often produced and sold in other regions “which are then unwilling to take in the refugees generated buy these conflicts.” Many migrants and refugees from conflicts throughout the world attended the Mass in St. Peter’s Square, which closed with the unveiling of a bronze statue by Canadian artist Timothy Schmalz depicting migrants packed on a boat. “This statue depicts a group of migrants …

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his rival Benny Gantz traded blame Sunday over the failure so far of efforts to reach a unity government deal following deadlocked elections.   A new round of negotiations between Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud and Gantz’s centrist Blue and White broke down Sunday and the two sides appeared far from reaching a compromise.   Likud said Netanyahu would make a “last effort” to reach a deal before informing President Reuven Rivlin he is unable to form a government.   That would leave Rivlin to decide whether to ask Gantz to try to do so or call on parliament to agree on a candidate for prime minister by a vote of at least 61 out of 120 members.   Netanyahu “will make a last effort to realize the possibility of forming a government at this stage, before returning the mandate to the president,” Likud said in a statement.   It called the latest round of negotiations a “big disappointment.”   Blue and White accused Likud of “throwing around slogans with the sole aim of generating support in preparation for dragging Israel into another round of elections at the behest of Netanyahu.”   This month’s poll was the second this year, after Netanyahu failed to form a coalition following April polls.   Israel marks the two-day Rosh Hashanah holiday beginning Sunday night and serious negotiations are not expected during that time.   Likud wants to negotiate on the basis of a compromise set out by Rivlin to …

China says its top trade negotiator will lead an upcoming 13th round of talks aimed at resolving a trade war with the United States. Vice Commerce Minister Wang Shouwen said Sunday that Vice Premier Liu He would travel to Washington for the talks sometime after China’s National Day holiday, which ends Oct. 7.   Wang repeated the Chinese position that the two sides should find a solution on the basis of mutual respect and benefit.   The Trump administration has imposed tariffs on Chinese imports in a bid to win concessions from China, which has responded with tit-for-tat tariffs. The escalating dispute between the world’s two largest economies has depressed stock prices and poses a threat to the global economy. …