At least 44 people were killed and thousands moved to relief camps because of flooding caused by torrential rains in northern India’s Uttar Pradesh state, officials told AFP Saturday.
Densely populated regions on the banks of two main rivers in the state, which are overflowing because of incessant rainfall in the last 24-48 hours, are among the worst hit.
“We had confirmed 44 deaths till late yesterday night. The authorities are focusing on rescue and relief work in the affected regions,” Ravindra Pratap Sahi, vice chairman of the state disaster management authority, told AFP.
“We have moved thousands to relief shelters as there is forecast of heavy rains in the next 48 hours in most of the affected districts of the state,” Sahi said.
Officials and local media reports said most people lost their lives for a variety of reasons including wall collapses, drowning, lightning and snake bites.
Flash floods after heavy rains killed at least 17 people in western India’s Maharashtra state earlier this week.
Monsoon rains are crucial to replenishing water supplies in drought-stricken India, but they kill hundreds of people across the country every year.
Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives began the formal process of impeaching U.S. President Donald Trump this week.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced the first step in the impeachment process Tuesday, following reports that a whistleblower filed a complaint alleging Trump sought foreign interference into the 2020 election.
What triggered House Democrats to begin a formal impeachment inquiry?
Investigations into Trump’s administration and his campaign’s actions during the 2016 presidential election were already underway in six House committees at the beginning of this week. Many House Democrats already backed impeachment, but until this week opposition leaders had resisted calls for launching the impeachment inquiry. They believed such an inquiry had no chance of passing the Republican-led Senate and could end up hurting Democrats in the 2020 election.
The new whistleblower report appears to have dramatically shifted the politics of the issue.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi reads a statement announcing a formal impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Sept. 24, 2019.
Several additional House Democrats came forward in support of an impeachment inquiry. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Tuesday the House would embark on the first step of the impeachment process to determine if Trump had committed the “high crimes and misdemeanors” the U.S. Constitution lays out as the standard for removing a president from office.
What do we know about the whistleblower?
The whistleblower remains anonymous under laws protecting government workers who expose wrongdoing. But he or she is a U.S. government employee who had knowledge of Trump’s call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and spoke to other U.S. officials who shared similar concerns over the legality of the president’s actions. Although the whistleblower did not have direct knowledge of the Zelenskiy phone call, an independent investigator for the U.S. government found the allegations were credible.
The New York Times has reported the whistleblower is a CIA employee who has spent some time working in the White House during the Trump administration.
The complaint alleges a number of offenses on the part of Trump and U.S. officials. The most serious of the allegations is that Trump implied congressionally-approved U.S. aid to Ukraine was contingent upon Zelenskiy’s government providing information on the son of 2020 presidential election rival, Joe Biden. The complaint also alleges White House officials were aware of the gravity of Trump’s actions and covered up records of the phone call.
FILE – U.S. President Donald Trump is seen during a phone call at the Oval Office of the White House, in Washington, June 27, 2017.
How was the whistleblower complaint handled by the government?
Democrats are pledging to investigate both the allegations in the complaint as well as how the Trump administration handled it.
Under the whistleblower process, the complaint was summarized in a letter that was addressed to senior lawmakers in the House and Senate committees, which oversee the intelligence community. That August 12 letter was sent to the inspector general at the CIA, which worked to try to substantiate some of the allegations. But instead of sending the letter on to the lawmakers in Congress after two weeks, as required by law, Joseph Maguire, the acting director of national intelligence, instead held it from lawmakers while he consulted with the White House and the Department of Justice about the allegations.
Democratic lawmakers argue Trump administration officials tried to keep the allegations from reaching Congress, violating the procedure for dealing with such issues.
Maguire told members of Congress Thursday he had acted lawfully in initially blocking the release of the complaint due to concerns about executive privilege, a legal right of the U.S. presidency to keep some conversations and documents private.
What do we know about the Trump-Zelenskiy phone call?
The White House released a summary of Trump’s phone call with Zelenskiy Wednesday. In a memo reconstructed from the work of White House note takers, Trump asks Zelenskiy to investigate business dealings of former Vice President Biden and his son, Hunter.
A White House-provided rough transcript of President Donald Trump’s July 25, 2019, telephone conversation with Ukraine’s newly-elected president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, released Sept. 25, 2019.
Trump also reminds the Ukrainian president that “the United States has been very very good to Ukraine.” Trump ordered a freeze on $400 million of congressionally-approved aid to Ukraine just a few days before that phone call. Trump said this week the order was part of an effort to combat corruption.
Congressional Democrats say the memo is clear evidence of the president proposing a so-called “quid pro quo,” an exchange of one favor for another. But the president’s allies on Capitol Hill said the memo completely exonerated him.
What will happen next in the U.S. Congress?
The House committees investigating the president’s actions will begin building a case that could lead to the drafting of articles of impeachment.
Articles are formal charges against the president that are voted on by the entire U.S. House of Representatives.
Impeachment is a two-step process. If the House votes on and passes the articles, the president is considered impeached and the case moves to the U.S. Senate for a process that is similar to a court trial. If a two-thirds super majority of the U.S. Senate votes to convict, the president is removed from office.
Only two U.S. presidents have been impeached by the U.S. House – Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998. The U.S. Senate has never voted to remove a president from office.
How soon can we expect a vote on impeachment?
Pelosi has cautioned that there should be a careful gathering of facts so that lawmakers do not rush to judgement. But many House Democrats want to see the vote on articles of impeachment before the end of the year. The 2020 presidential election gets fully underway with the Iowa caucuses in February. Many Democrats believe it would be politically risky to have an impeachment vote occurring at the same time.
As of Friday, 225 House Democrats and one independent member of the U.S. House of Representatives support impeachment or an impeachment inquiry. Until articles of impeachment are drafted, it is unknown how many members would vote in support of impeaching Trump.
After the 24-hour storm dumped more rain on his olive trees than 55-year-old Gianluca can recall having seen in a September, the part-time farmer shook his head as he inspected his forlorn crop.
“This is the third year I have not seen much to harvest,” he lamented. “Last year was even worse, mind you. But look at this,” he said, pointing to trees with few olives and many threadbare branches.
FILE – Damaged olives hang in a grove in Nerola, 50 kilometers (31 miles) from Rome, Nov. 13, 2014.
In the distance, Lago di Bolsena shimmered and the Italian countryside just north of Rome seemed picture perfect. The sun had returned after Monday’s extreme storm and with it warm autumnal temperatures. But for all the surrounding bucolic beauty, farmers and smallholders in northern Lazio, as in much of rural Italy, are becoming alarmed at the increasingly fickle weather with erratic rainfall, spring frost, tempestuous wind and summer drought.
Farmers say the change in climate patterns across Italy is causing poor olive harvests, which are leaving in their wake predictions that the country could become dependent on olive oil imports.
That’s a remarkable turnaround for a country that many see as synonymous with olive oil — although olive trees weren’t natural to Italy and first arrived in Italy from Greece, thanks to Greeks who settled in Sicily.
By early in the first century AD, the Roman historian Pliny could brag that Italians produced more olives than the Greeks and the quality was superior.
FILE – Olive oil comes out of a tap in an oil mill in the Tuscan village of Montepuclciano, Oct. 6, 2007.
Last year, Italy saw a 57 percent plunge in the country’s olive harvest, sparking protests by thousands of Italian farmers who descended on Rome wearing orange vests, calling for climate action.
According to Riccardo Valentini, a professor in forest ecology at the University of Tuscia in Viterbo, the development of olive trees can suffer greatly when there are sudden extremes in weather.
“Three or four days of 40 (degree Celsius) temperatures in summer, or 10 days without rain in spring — even two days of freezing temperatures in spring — are important,” he said in a recent interview with Italian media. “The alarm bell is ringing loud and clear: If we do not limit emissions and pollution levels, the land that we all know is in great danger.”
Climate change, disease and insects are reducing Italy’s production of homegrown olive oil, say scientists and farmers. Last year’s unusual weather patterns inflicted an estimated $1 billion worth of damage on the olive-oil sector, according to the national farmers’ association Coldiretti. The sharp drop in production was the worst the country has witnessed in a quarter-century.
Insects, disease
The weather is also hurting the trees by helping insect infestations — especially of a species of fly that lays eggs in the trees after burrowing into them.
FILE – Olive trees infected with a disease called Xylella fastidiosa are seen near Gallipoli in the Salento peninsula, in Apuglia, southern Italy, June 20, 2019.
Of even greater threat is a bacteria called Xylella fastidiosa, thought to have come from Costa Rica and spread by the meadow spittlebug. The bacteria starts in the leaves, turning them a rusty brown color, then proceeds into the trunks, disrupting arteries that allow the tree to absorb water.
The disease first broke out around 2013 in the southern region of Puglia, in the heel of the Italian boot. Until recently, Puglia was responsible for more than half of Italy’s olive oil production but it has slipped as a result of hundreds of thousands of olive trees dying. Last year, the region’s production plunged by 65 percent.
Altogether, an estimated one million Italian trees have died as a result of the disease, and farmers in Lazio are fearful that they will soon see what they dub “tree cemeteries.” While climate change isn’t being held responsible for the appearance of the bacteria in Italy, it is thought to have helped its quick spread.
The EU has called on Italy to create a buffer zone by cutting down diseased trees, but the work has been patchy and trees elsewhere — in Lazio and Tuscany — are showing early signs of the disease.
VOA Connect Episode 89 – Meet a homesteader who tries to get by on what he and his family make for themselves; a young seamstress who turns old clothes into fashionable new ones, and visit a church that has been turned into a brewery.
An Iranian woman sentenced in the United States for violating sanctions against Tehran was released and has returned home, her lawyer told AFP Thursday, following her country’s unsuccessful attempt at a prisoner swap.
A judge in Minneapolis sentenced Negar Ghodskani to 27 months in prison Tuesday, but determined the time she had spent in custody in Australia and the United States was enough to fulfill her punishment.
Ghodskani “is now free in Iran with her family,” her lawyer Robert Richman said in an email.
Arrested in Australia
A legal resident of Australia, Ghodskani was arrested in Adelaide in 2017 after U.S. prosecutors said she sought U.S. digital communications technology by presenting herself as an employee of a Malaysian company.
U.S. prosecutors said she in fact was sending the technology to Iranian company Fanamoj, which works in public broadcasting.
After extradition to the United States, she confessed to participation in a conspiracy to illegally export technology to Iran in breach of sanctions, according to the U.S. Justice Department.
Pregnant at the time of her arrest, she gave birth while in Australian custody. Her son was sent to Iran to live with his father.
FILE – Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif talks to journalists during a press conference in Jakarta, Indonesia, Sept. 6, 2019
Prisoner swap offered
Her case was raised by Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in April, who floated a potential prisoner swap for a British-Iranian mother being held in Tehran.
He suggested exchanging Ghodskani for Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, in jail in Tehran for alleged sedition.
Both women have been separated from their young children while being detained.
The United States is pressing other countries to join its proposed International Religious Freedom Alliance, in what diplomat Sam Brownback calls “the most significant” new human rights initiative in a generation.
“We’re going to call like-minded nations together and ask them to join this alliance and push on the issue of religious freedom and against religious persecution around the world,” Brownback, ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, said at a news briefing earlier this week. “We want to see the iron curtain on religious persecution come down.”
Brownback’s remarks came at a Monday press conference following the “Global Call to Protect Religious Freedom,” a U.S.-sponsored event on the opening day of the annual U.N. General Assembly. At the event, President Donald Trump pledged an additional $25 million to counter a trend of increasing religious intolerance around the globe.
The president’s chief envoy for that mission is Brownback. Since early 2018, the former Republican governor from the Midwestern state of Kansas has headed the office that he helped establish as a U.S. senator. He was a key sponsor of the 1998 Religious Freedom Act, as Religion News Service has pointed out.
Brownback spoke with VOA after the news conference about what his brief entails — “fighting for religious freedom all around the world for all faiths all the time,” as well as for “people of no faith.”
“We’ll stand up and we’ll do something,” Brownback said of the Trump administration, saying it employs tools ranging from private diplomacy to public designations and “sanctions against countries that persecute people for their faith.”
FILE – Rohingya refugees gather to mark the second anniversary of the exodus at the Kutupalong camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, Aug. 25, 2019.
Government restrictions on religion have “increased markedly around the world,” according to the Pew Research Center, which began tracking the issue in 2007. The Washington-based center reported this summer that “52 countries, including some in very populous countries such as China, Indonesia and Russia, impose either ‘high’ or ‘very high’ levels of restrictions on religion, up from 40 in 2007.” It found increases in the number of states enacting restrictive laws and policies, as well as in religion-related hostilities and violence against individuals.
“Approximately 80% of the world’s population live in countries where religious liberty is threatened, restricted or even banned,” Trump said Monday, using a State Department figure extrapolated from Pew’s research.
Pew does not attempt to calculate the share of people around the world who are affected by such restrictions, a spokeswoman for the center told VOA.
Brownback told VOA that he sees religious freedom, enshrined in both the U.N. Charter and U.S. Constitution, as a harbinger of whether other rights are respected or not.
“When you’re willing to protect a person’s religious freedom, you generally are willing to protect the rest of their rights,” the diplomat said. “If you’re willing to persecute a person for their religious beliefs, you’re generally willing to persecute on a number of other rights.”
Brownback said the United Arab Emirates, while “certainly not perfect,” was a model of religious freedom. “They allow faiths to practice. They allow people to build” houses of worship. “And you have this robust, dynamic, growing economy and a lot of other things moving forward.”
He added that he’s “very hopeful” about Algeria and Sudan, African countries where “there are new governments coming in” to replace oppressive regimes.
The U.S. is supporting “better security at religious institutions, where we see a lot of them destroyed around the world, people killed at these houses of worship,” Brownback said at the press conference. He noted that he’s co-hosting a conference in Morocco next week on preserving religious heritage sites.
The Trump administration, which has strong support among evangelical Christians, has been criticized for favoring certain faith groups over others.
“President Trump was elected on the promise of a ‘complete and utter shutdown’ of Muslim immigration to the U.S.,” Rabbi Jack Moline, who leads the Interfaith Alliance, told USA Today. “Since then, his administration has worked tirelessly to redefine ‘religious freedom’ as a license to discriminate.”
The alliance promotes the separation of church and state.
The role of faith-based initiatives in U.S. foreign policy has risen during the last two decades under both Republican and Democratic administrations, according to scholar Lee Marsden, noting a strong interest in curbing radical Islam after the al-Qaida terrorist attacks in September 2001.
The Trump administration is proposing to accept a maximum of 18,000 refugees in the coming year, in what would be the lowest refugee ceiling in the country’s history, the U.S. State Department said Thursday.
If the government follows through, 2020 will be the third year of significant cuts to refugee resettlement under President Donald Trump.
For now, however, the latest figure remains a proposal.
The final decision, in the form of a “presidential determination,” will be made in the coming weeks after the required consultations with Congress, a senior administration official told reporters in a phone briefing organized by the White House on Thursday.
In fiscal 2018, the first full year of the Trump administration, the ceiling was set at 45,000, and 22,491 refugees were admitted.
In fiscal 2019, the ceiling was 30,000. With only three full days remaining in the fiscal year, the U.S. is close to the limit, with 29,972 refugees admitted, according to State Department data.
Prior to Trump’s election, the refugee ceiling average was 60,000 to 70,000 every year.
The proposed ceiling is one of three fundamental changes to the resettlement program announced Thursday.
President Donald Trump tweeted, June 17, 2019, that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will begin removing millions of people who are in the country illegally.
Trump also issued an executive order that will require state and local governments to “consent” to accept refugees for resettlement.
While not a widespread issue, the order would allow states like Tennessee, which unsuccessfully sued the federal government to stop resettlement, to potentially prevent willing nonprofit organizations in the state from accepting refugees.
Additionally, the U.S. State Department is creating new categories — a procedure used rarely to meet specific needs, usually for a specific region.
For fiscal 2020, however, the total will include up to 5,000 refugees persecuted on account of their religious beliefs; 4,000 spots for Iraqis who assisted the U.S. during its operations in the country; and up to 1,500 of what the White House called “legitimate refugees” from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.
Those specific allocations would allow for a maximum of 7,500 refugees who fall outside those categories.
In an earlier time, boxes on wheels raced on American streets. Now, an energy drink company sponsors motorless, homemade car races around the world. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi takes us on this bumpy ride through Jordan.
Faith Aweko of Uganda describes herself as a “waste-preneur.” She has come up with an innovative way to transform discarded plastic bags into backpacks for everyday use. Halima Athumani reports from the town of Mpigi.
The international community must do more to tackle networks of global corruption that are fueling violence in South Sudan, according to activists. The call follows publication of a report detailing how corporations profited from the country’s civil war. The investigation by The Sentry organization, co-founded by actor George Clooney, shows the links between armed groups involved in the civil war, global oil giants, and British and American citizens. Henry Ridgwell has more.
A Zimbabwean doctor desperate to leave the country for medical treatment after his recent abduction has been blocked after police approached the High Court asserting he is “unfit to travel.”
The head of the Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association, Dr. Peter Magombeyi, was freed last week after disappearing for several days. His alleged abduction after leading a pay strike led to days of protests by health workers and expressions of concern by diplomats and rights groups, who said more than 50 government critics and activists in Zimbabwe have been abducted this year alone.
Peter Gabriel Magombeyi, acting president of the Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association, pictured in Harare in Sept. 3, 2019, had been reportedly abducted from his home over the weekend. (C. Mavhunga/VOA)
Police stopped Magombeyi from leaving for treatment in neighboring South Africa on Tuesday even after a judge ruled he could travel outside Zimbabwe as he is not under arrest. He has been recuperating in a local hospital, and lawyers have said preliminary medical assessments show possible physical harm and psychological trauma.
Magombeyi’s lawyers now say police are violating the court order, and they worry his condition will deteriorate as the drama plays out. The doctor must stay in Zimbabwe until the police application to the court is resolved.
Police dismissed accusations that they are preventing the doctor from traveling, saying they are providing him with protection “for his own personal safety.”
In the court application filed Tuesday night, police said Magombeyi should remain at the hospital until he is fit to travel, adding that they also want to sort out his security while in South Africa.
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, a non-governmental group helping the doctor, described the police assertions as “shocking.”
The government has bristled at the accusations of abductions, with President Emmerson Mnangagwa and other officials over the weekend warning against so-called “false” abductions they assert are meant to make the government look bad. Mnangagwa is attending the United Nations annual gathering of world leaders this week.
Zimbabwe’s health sector, like its economy, is in crisis. Many services are unavailable due to collapsed infrastructure, lack of medicines or unavailability of doctors and nurses who say they can no longer afford transport to return to work.
Due to climate change, the world’s oceans are getting warmer, rising higher, losing oxygen and becoming more acidic at an ever-faster pace and melting even more ice and snow, a grim international science assessment concludes.
But that’s nothing compared to what Wednesday’s special United Nations-affiliated oceans and ice report says is coming if global warming doesn’t slow down: three feet of sea rise by the end of the century, many fewer fish, weakening ocean currents, even less snow and ice, stronger and wetter hurricanes and nastier El Nino weather systems.
“The oceans and the icy parts of the world are in big trouble and that means we’re all in big trouble too,” said one of the report’s lead authors, Michael Oppenheimer, professor of geosciences and international affairs at Princeton University. “The changes are accelerating.”
These changes will not just hurt the 71% of the world covered by the oceans or the 10% covered in ice and snow, but it will harm people, plants, animals, food, societies, infrastructure and the global economy, according to the special report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
The oceans absorb more than 90% of the excess heat from carbon pollution in the air, as well as much of the carbon dioxide itself. The seas warm more slowly than the air but trap the heat longer with bigger side effects — and the report links these waters with Earth’s snow and ice, called the cryosphere, because their futures are interconnected.
“The world’s oceans and cryosphere have been taking the heat for climate change for decades. The consequences for nature and humanity are sweeping and severe,” said Ko Barrett, vice chair of the IPCC and a deputy assistant administrator for research at the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
—Seas are now rising at one-seventh of an inch (3.66 millimeters) a year, which is 2.5 times faster than the rate from 1900 to 1990.
—The world’s oceans have already lost 1% to 3% of the oxygen in their upper levels since 1970 and will lose more as warming continues.
—From 2006 to 2015, the ice melting from Greenland, Antarctica and the world’s mountain glaciers has accelerated and is now losing 720 billion tons (653 billion metric tons) of ice a year.
—Arctic June snow cover has shrunk more than half since 1967, down nearly 1 million square miles (2.5 million square kilometers).
—Arctic sea ice in September, the annual minimum, is down almost 13% per decade since 1979. This year’s low, reported Monday, tied for the second-lowest on record. If carbon pollution continues unabated, by the end of the century there will be a 10% to 35% chance each year that sea ice will disappear in the Arctic in September.
—Marine animals are likely to decrease 15%, and catches by fisheries in general are expected to decline 21% to 24% by the end of century because of climate change.
And for the first time, the international team of scientists is projecting that “some island nations are likely to become uninhabitable due to climate-related ocean and cryosphere change.”
“Climate change is already irreversible,” French climate scientist Valérie Masson-Delmotte, a report lead author, said in a Wednesday news conference in Monaco. “Due to the heat uptake in the ocean, we can’t go back. ”
But many of the worst-case projections in the report can still be avoided depending on how the world handles the emissions of heat-trapping gases, the report’s authors said.
The IPCC increased its projected end-of-century sea level rise in the worst-case scenario by nearly four inches (10 centimeters) from its 2013 projections because of the increased recent melting of ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica.
The new report projects that, under the business-as-usual scenario for carbon emissions, seas by the end of the century will rise between two feet (61 centimeters) and 43 inches (110 centimeters) with a most likely amount of 33 inches (84 centimeters). This is slightly less than the traditional 1 meter (39 inches) that scientists often use.
“Sea level continues to rise at an increasing rate,” the report said. “Extreme sea level events that are historically rare (once per century in the recent past) are projected to occur frequently (at least once per year) at many locations by 2050.”
And sea level will rise two to three times as much over the centuries to come if warming continues, so the world is looking at a “future that certainly looks completely different than what we currently have,” said report co-author Hans-Otto Portner, a German climate scientist.
The Nobel Prize-winning IPCC requires nations meeting this week in Monaco to unanimously approve the report, and because of that the group’s reports tend to show less sea level rise and smaller harms than other scientific studies, outside experts said.
“Like many of the past reports, this one is conservative in the projections, especially in how much ice can be lost in Greenland and Antarctica,” said NASA oceanographer Josh Willis, who studies Greenland ice melt and wasn’t part of the report. “We’re not done revising our sea level rise projections and we won’t be for a while.”
Willis said people should be prepared for a rise in sea levels to be twice these IPCC projections.
The oceans have become slightly more acidic, but that will accelerate with warming. In the worst case scenario, the world is looking at a “95% increase in total acidity of the oceans,” said study co-author Nathan Bindoff of the University of Tasmania.
Even if warming is limited to just another couple of tenths of a degree, the world’s warm water coral reefs will go extinct in some places and be dramatically different in others, the report said.
“We are already seeing the demise of the warm water coral reefs,” Portner said. “That is one of the strongest warning signals that we have available.”
The report gives projections based on different scenarios for emissions of heat-trapping carbon dioxide. One is a world that dramatically decreases carbon pollution — and the worst case is where little has been done. We are closer to the worst-case situation, scientists said.
Outside scientists praised the work but were disturbed by it.
“It is alarming to read such a thorough cataloging of all of the serious changes in the planet that we’re driving,” said Texas A&M University climate scientist Andrew Dessler, who wasn’t part of the report. “What’s particularly disturbing as a scientist is that virtually all of these changes were predicted years or decades ago.”
The report’s authors emphasized that it doesn’t doom Earth to this gloomy outlook.
“We indicate we have a choice. Whether we go into a grim future depends on the decisions that are being made,” Portner said. “We have a better future ahead of us once we make the right choice.”
“These far-reaching consequences can only be brought under control by acute emissions reductions,” Portner said.
Baby Archie made a rare public appearance on Wednesday as his parents, Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, continued their first official tour as a family in South Africa.
Meghan held Archie as the royal couple met with Nobel Peace Prize winner and Archbishop Desmond Tutu in Cape Town.
The youngest member of Britain’s royal family had been out of the spotlight since his christening in July. Archie, born in May, is the first child of Prince Harry and the former Meghan Markle and seventh in line to the British throne.
Tutu greeted the baby with a delighted smile.
“It’s very heartwarming, let me tell you, very heartwarming to realize that you really, genuinely are caring people,” he told the royal couple, according to a statement by his Desmond & Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation.
“We all try to make things better,” Harry replied.
Gifts for the baby included children’s books written and signed by the archbishop.
The royal couple’s 10-day, multi-country tour also includes stops for Harry in Botswana, Angola and Malawi with a focus on wildlife protection, mental health and mine clearance — a topic given global attention by Harry’s late mother, Princess Diana, when she walked through an active mine field during an Africa visit years ago.
Airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition fighting Yemen’s rebels on Tuesday killed at least 13 civilians, including children, when they hit a residential building in southern Dhale province, tribal leaders and health officials said.
The airstrikes in the district of Qataba also wounded at least 10 others, they said. The casualties were from two families.
The officials and tribal leaders said the area hit by the airstrikes is controlled by the rebels, known as Houthis, and is about 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the frontline of fighting with forces of the internationally recognized government of President Abed Rabu Mansour Hadi, backed by the Saudi-led coalition.
The rebels’ health ministry said at least 13 people, including six children and four women, were killed. Earlier on Tuesday the Houthi-run al-Masirah satellite TV put the death toll at 16.
A spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition did not answer phone calls seeking comment.
Elsewhere in Dhale, Houthi forces shot dead three people during a raid in the mountainous Awd area, the tribal leaders said.
Another four people were wounded and at least two dozen people were detained in the past three days for their criticism of Houthi rule, they said.
The health officials spoke on condition of anonymity ecause they were not authorized to brief the media, while the tribal leaders did so for fear of reprisals.
The Houthis said another Saudi-led coalition airstrike killed at least seven people, including children, on Monday in northwestern Amran province.
Tuesday’s airstrikes came four days after the Houthis said they were halting drone and missile attacks against Saudi Arabia, one week after they claimed responsibility for a strike that crippled a key oil facility in the kingdom. The U.S. and the Saudis blamed the Sept. 14 attack on Iran, which backs the Houthis. Iran denies any responsibility for the attack.
The Saudi-led coalition has been battling the Houthi rebels on behalf of an internationally recognized government since 2015.
The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people and sparked what the U.N. describes as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday that while the United States does not seek conflict with any other nation, he will not hesitate to defend America’s interests.
“The United States, after having spent $2.5 trillion since my re-election to rebuild our great military, is also by far the world’s most powerful nation,” he told a room full of world leaders. “Hopefully it will never have to use this power.”
Trump stressed that the U.S. does not seek conflict with any country.
“We desire peace, cooperation and mutual gain with all, but I will never fail to defend America’s interests,” he told the United Nations General Assembly.
Trump pointed to the regime in Iran as one of the greatest global threats, saying it oppresses its citizens at home while fueling conflicts and terrorism beyond its borders. He said as long as this continues, U.S. sanctions will not be lifted, they will be tightened.
But the U.S. president left open the door to diplomacy, noting that some of America’s past enemies are now its closest friends.
FILE – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani delivers a speech during a National Army Day parade in Tehran, Iran, Sept. 22, 2019. (WANA via Reuters)
“The United States has never believed in permanent enemies,” he said. “We want partners, not adversaries.”
After the Sept. 14 attacks on two Saudi oil installations, which the U.S. has on blamed Iran, hopes evaporated for a possible encounter between the U.S. and Iranian presidents on the sidelines of the General Assembly. Iran has denied responsibility for the attacks.
While U.S. and Iranian officials have said their leaders are not going to meet, some diplomats are holding out hope there could be an encounter to try to de-escalate tensions.
French President Emmanuel Macron met late Monday with the Iranian president and the French Press Agency reported that German Chancellor Angela Merkel would holding separate meetings with both Trump and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Tuesday.
Trade war
During his U.N. address Tuesday, President Trump also had strong words for China, saying it would not be allowed to “game” the international trade system any longer.
The outcome of his trade war could impact his 2020 re-election hopes and he sought to reassure his domestic audience.
Members of China’s U.N. delegation listen to President Donald Trump deliver remarks to the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly, in New York, Sept. 24, 2019.
“The American people are absolutely committed to restoring balance to our relationship with China,” he said. “Hopefully we can reach an agreement that will be beneficial for both countries, but as I have made very clear, I will not accept a bad deal for the American people.”
He said Washington is also watching Beijing’s actions in Hong Kong, where months of pro-democracy protests have turned violent.
Warns Migrants
In his own hemisphere, Trump focused on another issue that is important to his political base – the flow of undocumented migrants into the United States.
“Many of the countries here today are coping with the challenges of uncontrolled migration,” Trump said. “Each of you has the absolute right to protect your borders and so of course, does our country.”
He urged Central Americans not to pursue migration north.
“To anyone conducting crossings of our border illegally, please hear these words: Do not pay the smugglers, do not pay the coyotes. Do not put yourself in danger. Do not put your children in danger”, he said. “Because if you make it here, you will not be allowed in. You will be promptly returned home.”
FILE – Migrants, many of whom were returned to Mexico under the Trump administration’s “Remain in Mexico,” program wait in line to get a meal near the Gateway International Bridge in Matamoros, Aug. 30, 2019.
Trump also accused activists and non-governmental organizations both in the U.S. and abroad of fueling the migration crisis under the guise of social justice, saying they fuel the smugglers by encouraging people to keep coming to the U.S.
And he thanked President Andrés Manuel López Obrador of Mexico for sending 27,000 troops to his northern border to keep migrants from entering the United States.
“Mexico is showing us great respect and I respect them in return,” Trump said.
The president also sent warnings to leaders in Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba.
“The dictator [Nicolas] Maduro is a Cuban puppet, protected by Cuban body guards, hiding from own people,” he said. “While Cuba plunders Venezuela’s oil wealth to sustain its own corrupt communist rule.”
He said the United States is united behind the Venezuelan people.
President Trump only briefly touched on his diplomatic efforts with Pyongyang, noting that North Korea is a country with full of untapped potential. He did not say when he might meet again with leader Kim Jong Un.
President Donald Trump delivers remarks to the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Sept. 24, 2019, in New York.
During last year’s address, Trump drew laughter when he boasted that his administration “accomplished more than almost any administration in the history of our country.” This year, he drew neither laughs nor applause during his speech. Just very brief applause at the end.
Trump has pulled hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. funding to U.N. peacekeeping, refugee and reproductive health programs since coming to office in January 2017. He has also withdrawn from several multilateral agreements and quit the U.N. human rights council and the U.N.’s Educational and Scientific agency. But he seems to enjoy the annual exercise of addressing world leaders at the General Assembly, where he draws a large and attentive crowd.
A public health official says the number of vaping-related illnesses in the U.S. could soon climb much higher.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official said Tuesday she believes “hundreds more” cases have been reported to health authorities since last week. The CDC then put the tally at 530 confirmed and probable cases of the serious lung illness. Nine deaths have been reported.
The agency has been updating its count on Thursdays.
CDC’s Anne Schuchat made the comment during her testimony before a congressional subcommittee. The panel is holding the first hearing on the vaping illness, which resembles an inhalation injury. Health officials have not yet identified a common electronic cigarette or ingredient in the outbreak, although many cases involve vaping THC from marijuana.
Latin American countries on Monday agreed to impose sanctions on some members of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s government as part of efforts to force him out of office but expressed reservations about any use of force.
Colombian Foreign Minister Carlos Holmes Trujillo said the measures would allow governments to freeze assets belonging to Maduro-linked officials within their countries, targeting those suspected of illicit activities, corruption and human rights violations.
”This allows countries in the region to, through collective action, create the conditions for the Venezuelan people to live freely sooner rather than later. It’s a transcendental step of great significance in favor of peace and legality,” the Colombian minister said.
Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido has been recognized as Venezuela’s leader by the United States and most Western countries since January, but Maduro retains the recognition of the 193-member U.N. General Assembly.
Guaido’s team has called Maduro’s 2018 re-election fraudulent and is hoping to use the U.N. gathering of world leaders this week to rally more support after months of stalemate and failed talks.
Peru, Chile and Costa Rica have proposed an amendment to the Rio Treaty — a Latin American mutual defense treaty invoked by members of the Organization of American States earlier this month in response to Venezuela’s political and economic crisis — to rule out the use of force.
Many Latin American countries do not have legal mechanisms to implement sanctions or travel bans on Venezuelan officials, and the treaty could provide them with one, a senior U.S. official said earlier on Monday.
“It is not just an option for these countries, this treaty makes it an obligation,” Venezuelan opposition envoy Julio Borges told reporters.
The Venezuelan information ministry could not immediately be reached for comment but it has previously criticized the Rio Treaty.
The sanctions measure received 16 votes in favor from signatories of the Rio Treaty. Only Uruguay voted against and Trinidad and Tobago abstained.
The Lima Group, which includes Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Peru said in a joint statement that they did not support a military intervention to oust Maduro.
“We do not support any invocation to the use of force or military interventions,” Peruvian foreign minister Nestor Popolizio told reporters in New York.
Borges said that U.S. President Donald Trump’s attendance at a meeting solely about Venezuela on Wednesday was a “clear sign” that pressure on Maduro would increase.
The Democratic National Committee on Monday announced new criteria for the fifth presidential debate in November, requiring candidates to meet one of two polling requirements and have 165,000 unique donors.
Candidates must either receive 3 percent or more support in four national or early state polls or 5 percent or more support in two polls of the states that hold early presidential nominating contests: Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina or Nevada.
They must show a minimum of 600 unique donors per state in at least 20 U.S. states, territories or the District of Columbia, the DNC said.
The new requirements promise to further cull the large Democratic field of 19 candidates seeking to challenge Republican President Donald Trump in the November 2020 election.
Former Vice President Joe Biden has led most opinion polls so far, followed by U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders.
The sprawling field has made it difficult for lesser-known candidates to register in the minds of Democratic voters, with several polling at 1 percent or less nationally.
FILE – Democratic presidential candidate New York Mayor Bill DeBlasio walks in the Independence Fourth of July parade, July 4, 2019, in Independence, Iowa.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio ended his 2020 bid on Friday, saying the party’s rules for qualifying for televised debates had made it hard for him to continue. He failed to qualify for a Sept. 12 debate that featured the 10 leading candidates for the party’s nomination.
Criteria for the September and October debates required donations from at least 130,000 people and support of at least 2% in four DNC-approved polls.
U.S. Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey will drop out of the running unless he can raise $1.7 million over the next 10 days left in the fundraising quarter, his campaign said on Saturday.
“If we don’t have the money to grow, we are not going to stay competitive in this race,” Booker told MSNBC on Monday. “I don’t want to stick around if I’m not in this to win it.”
The next debate will be held in Westerville, Ohio, on Oct. 15 and possibly Oct. 16, depending on the number of qualifying candidates.
An Algerian military tribunal on Monday opened the unprecedented trial of a brother of the country’s longtime former president and two ex-intelligence chiefs, accusing them of plotting against the state.
Heavy security, with roadblocks leading to the courthouse in Blida, south of Algiers, marked the start of the closed-door trial, along with commotion inside the tribunal.
Said Bouteflika, brother and special counselor of former head of state Abdelaziz Bouteflika, refused to answer the judge’s questions and walked out, one of the lawyers present, Farouk Ksentini, said later, according to the TSA online news outlet, which posted a video of the lawyer’s remarks.
Another defendant, Gen. Athmane Tartag, an intelligence chief who worked directly under the president, refused to leave his cell, said Ksentini, a member of a group of lawyers for the defense.
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.
Also on trial is a former powerful intelligence chief, Gen. Mohamed Mediene, known as Toufik — a man whose name once made Algerians tremble. The leader of the leftist Workers Party, Louisa Hanoune, who for decades has been a fixture on Algeria’s political scene, was the fourth defendant.
All four are charged with plotting against the state and undermining the army.
The charges center on March meetings between the four. Hanoune’s lawyer, Rachid Khane, said the meetings aimed to examine Algeria’s political situation amid protest marches for the resignation of Bouteflika, who was seeking a fifth mandate despite infirmities following a stroke.
Some within the administration saw more sinister designs, reportedly including plotting to fire powerful army chief Ahmed Gaid Salah.
The trial was closed to all but families of the defendants, and it was unclear how long it would last.
A demand to postpone the trial was rejected, trial lawyers said at the end of the first day.
Lawyers for Toufik, who headed the dreaded DRS security service until 2015, said ahead of the hearing that their client was ailing after hurting his shoulder in a prison fall and recovering from an operation.
“He’s not in a state to explain himself, listen to questions, defend himself or be judged,” Miloud Brahimi was quoted as saying in the newspaper Le Soir d’Algerie.
Judges considered he was fit to stand trial.
If found guilty of the charges, the defendants risk five to 10 years in prison — or death, if the plot is proven and if it was concocted in very particular circumstances.
FILE – Algerians invade the streets during a demonstration in Algiers, Sept. 20, 2019.
Street protests
The four defendants were arrested in early May, a month after protesters, with the help of army chief Gaid Salah, forced Bouteflika to resign after two decades in power. His bid to seek a fifth term despite infirmities following the 2013 stroke — and rampant corruption in his regime — triggered the pro-democracy street protests. The demonstrations have continued for 31 consecutive weeks.
Suspicions about a potential plot were reportedly raised after a first meeting, held on March 27 at a state residence, between the four on trial.
Salah, an authority figure in the gas-rich North African country which currently has no elected president, has repeatedly referred to a plot in a series of speeches. He has claimed protesters are being manipulated by networks of “the gang” — his term for Said Bouteflika and his entourage.
With his brother, the then-president, rarely seen in public, Said Bouteflika is widely reported to have become a decision-maker while creating an informal circle of favorites who allegedly enriched themselves.
The army chief used his claims of a vast conspiracy to press for — and get — a date set for presidential elections. The administration and parliament fell in line and announced elections for Dec. 12.
A powerful typhoon battered southern South Korea, injuring 26 people and knocking out power to about 27,790 houses, officials said Monday.
Typhoon Tapah earlier lashed parts of Japan’s southern islands with heavy rains and winds that caused flooding and some minor injuries.
South Korea’s interior ministry said Monday the typhoon also caused strong winds and heavy rainfall in southern South Korean cities and towns on Sunday and Monday. The storm did not make landfall on the peninsula as it moved northeast and weakened Monday.
The ministry said one person was hurt seriously and the 25 others had minor injuries. Some South Korean media had reported three deaths, but the ministry said none of those deaths was caused by the typhoon.
It flooded streets, damaged houses, and led to about 250 flight cancellations in 11 airports in South Korea, according to the ministry report.
South Korean weather officials said the typhoon likely caused light rain in eastern coastal towns in North Korea but won’t likely cause damage there.
Typhoon Tapah hit the southern Japanese island of Okinawa on Friday and Saturday and left 18 people with minor injuries. The storm disrupted air and train travel in the region during what is a three-day holiday weekend.
“Game of Thrones” resurrected the Iron Throne at Sunday’s Emmy ceremony, ruling as top drama on a night of surprises in which “Pose” star Billy Porter made history and the comedy series “Fleabag” led a British invasion that overturned expectations.
“This all started in the demented mind of George R.R. Martin,” said “Game of Thrones” producer David Benioff, thanking the author whose novels were the basis of HBO’s fantasy saga.
Porter, who stars in the FX drama set in the LGBTQ ball scene of the late 20th century, became the first openly gay man to win a best drama series acting Emmy.
“God bless you all. The category is love, you all, love. I’m so overjoyed and so overwhelmed to have lived to see this day,” said an exuberant Porter, resplendent in a sparkling suit and swooping hat.
Amazon’s “Fleabag,” a dark comedy about a dysfunctional woman, was honored as best comedy and earned top acting honors for its British creator and star, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, and a best director trophy.
Phoebe Waller-Bridge, winner of the awards for outstanding lead actress in a comedy series, outstanding comedy series and outstanding writing for a comedy series for “Fleabag.”
“This is getting ridiculous,” Waller-Bridge said in her third trip to the stage to collect the top trophy.
Her acting win blocked “Veep” star Julia Louis-Dreyfus from setting a record as the most-honored performer in Emmy history.
“Nooooo!” a shocked-looking Waller-Bridge said as Louis-Dreyfus smiled for the cameras. “Oh, my God, no. Thank you. I find acting really hard and really painful. But it’s all about this,” she said, her acting trophy firmly in hand.
In accepting the writing award earlier, she called the Emmy recognition proof that “a dirty, pervy, messed-up woman can make it to the Emmys.”
Porter, a Tony and Grammy Award winning actor, relished his groundbreaking moment, quoting the late writer James Baldwin, Porter said it took him many years to believe he has the right to exist.
“I have the right, you have the right, we all have the right,” he said.
English actress Jodie Comer was honored as best drama actress for “Killing Eve.” She competed with co-star Sandra Oh, who received a Golden Globe for her role and would have been the first actress of Asian descent to win an Emmy in the category.
“My mum and dad are in Liverpool (England) and I didn’t invite them because I didn’t think this was going to be my time. One, I’m sorry, two I love you,” Comer said after saluting Oh.
Bill Hader won his second consecutive best comedy actor award for the hitman comedy “Barry.”
Peter Dinklage, named best supporting actor for “Game of Thrones,” set a record for most wins for the same role, four, breaking a tie with Aaron Paul of “Breaking Bad.”
“I count myself so fortunate to be a member of a community that is about nothing but tolerance and diversity, because in no other place I could be standing on a stage like this,” said Dinklage, a little person.
“Ozark” star Julia Garner won the best supporting drama actress trophy.
The auditorium erupted in cheers when Jharrel Jerome of “When They See Us,” about the Central Park Five case, won the best actor award for a limited series movie.
“Most important, this is for the men that we know as the Exonerated Five,” said Jerome, naming the five wrongly convicted men who were in the audience. They stood and saluted the actor as the crowd applauded them.
It was the only honor for the acclaimed Netflix series of the evening; “Chernobyl” won the best limited series honor.
HBO retained its durable front-runner status, with a total of 34 awards from Sunday and last weekend’s creative arts ceremony.
Alex Borstein accepts the award for outstanding supporting actress in a comedy series for “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” at the 71st Primetime Emmy Awards on Sunday, Sept. 22, 2019, at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles.
But streaming hit new Emmy heights, powered by Amazon Prime winners “Fleabag,” “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” and a “Very English Scandal,” and Netflix’s “Bandersnatch (Black Mirror),” honored as best movie. Netflix collected 27 awards and Amazon nabbed 15.
Michelle Williams, honored as best actress for her portrayal of dancer Gwen Verdon in FX’s limited series “Fosse/Verdon,” issued a call to arms for gender and ethnic equality.
She thanked the network and studio behind the project for “supporting me completely and paying me equally because they understood … when you put value into a person, it empowers that person to get in touch with their own inherent value. And where do they put that value, they put it into their work.”
“And so the next time a woman and, especially a woman of color, because she stands to make 52 cents on the dollar compared to her white male counterpart, tells you what she needs in order to do her job, listen to her,” Williams said.
Patricia Arquette won the trophy best supporting limited-series or movie actress for “The Act.” She paid emotional tribute to her late trans sister, Alexis Arquette, and called for an end to prejudice against trans people, including in the workplace.
Ben Whishaw took the category’s supporting actor trophy for “A Very English Scandal,” admitting in charming British fashion to a hangover.
Alex Borstein and Tony Shalhoub of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” won best supporting acting awards at the ceremony, which included early and varied messages of female empowerment after the hostless ceremony.
“I want to dedicate this to the strength of a woman, to (series creator) Amy Sherman-Palladino, to every woman on the ‘Maisel’ cast and crew,” Borstein said, and to her mother and grandmother. Her grandmother survived because she was courageous enough to step out of a line that, Borstein intimated, would have led to her death at the hands of Nazi Germany.
“She stepped out of line. And for that, I am here and my children are here, so step out of line, ladies. Step out of line,” said Borstein, who won the award last year.
Shalhoub added to his three Emmys which he earned for his signature role in “Monk.”
The awards opened without a host as promised, with an early exchange pitting Ben Stiller against Bob Newhart.
“I’m still alive,” Newhart told Stiller, who introduced him as part of a wax museum comedy hall of fame that included Lucille Ball and George Burns.
Kim Kardashian West and Kendall Jenner drew some mocking laughter in the audience when they presented their award after Kardashian West said their family “knows firsthand how truly compelling television comes from real people just being themselves.”
An animated Homer made a brief appearance on stage until he was abruptly crushed, with Anderson of “black-ish” rushing in to, as he vowed, rescue the evening. He called “Breaking Bad” star Cranston on stage to tout the power of television from its beginning to the current golden age.
“Television has never been bigger. Television has never mattered more. And television has never been this damn good,” Cranston said.
British tour operator Thomas Cook collapsed after failing to secure rescue funding, and travel bookings for its more than 600,000 global vacationers were canceled early Monday.
The British government said the return of the firm’s 150,000 British customers now abroad would be its largest repatriation in peacetime history.
The Civil Aviation Authority said Thomas Cook has ceased trading, its four airlines will be grounded, and its 21,000 employees in 16 countries, including 9,000 in the UK, will be left unemployed.
The debt-laden company had said Friday it was seeking 200 million pounds ($250 million) to avoid going bust, was in talks with shareholders and creditors to stave off failure. The 178-year-old firm also operated around 600 UK stores.
CAA said it had arranged an aircraft fleet for the British repatriation effort lasting two weeks beginning Monday.
“Due to the significant scale of the situation, some disruption is inevitable, but the Civil Aviation Authority will endeavor to get people home as close as possible to their planned dates,” it said in a statement.
Most of Thomas Cook’s British customers are protected by the government-run travel insurance program, which makes sure vacationers can get home if a British-based tour operator goes under while they are abroad.
Thomas Cook, which began in 1841 with a one-day train excursion in England and now operates in 16 countries, has been struggling over the past few years. It only recently raised 900 million pounds ($1.12 billion), including from leading Chinese shareholder Fosun.
In May, the company reported a debt burden of 1.25 billion pounds and cautioned that political uncertainty related to Britain’s departure from the European Union had hurt demand for summer holiday travel. Heat waves over the past couple of summers in Europe have also led many people to stay at home, while higher fuel and hotel costs have weighed on the travel business.
The company’s troubles were already affecting those traveling under the Thomas Cook banner.
A British vacationer told BBC radio on Sunday that the Les Orangers beach resort in the Tunisian town of Hammamet, near Tunis, demanded that guests who were about to leave pay extra money for fear it wouldn’t be paid what it is owed by Thomas Cook.
Ryan Farmer, of Leicestershire, said many tourists refused the demand, since they had already paid Thomas Cook, so security guards shut the hotel’s gates and “were not allowing anyone to leave.”
It was like “being held hostage,” said Farmer, who is due to leave Tuesday. He said he would also refuse to pay if the hotel asked him.
The Associated Press called the hotel, as well as the British Embassy in Tunis, but no officials or managers were available for comment.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino says soccer’s world governing body “cannot wait any more” and has been “assured” by Tehran that the authorities will allow women spectators into the arena when Iran hosts its next international match.
Infantino’s comments follow a FIFA delegation visit to Iran over the conservative Shi’ite leadership’s longtime ban on women at major men’s sporting events — a policy that turned more tragic with the recent death of a young woman who was being punished for trying to sneak into a stadium disguised as a man.
Iran is scheduled to play Cambodia in a 2022 World Cup qualifier on October 10 at Azadi Stadium in Tehran.
“In these productive discussions, FIFA reiterated its firm and clear position that women need to be allowed to enter football matches freely and that the number of women who attend the stadiums be determined by the demand, resulting in ticket sales,” FIFA said in a September 21 statement summarizing the delegation’s visit to Tehran and Azadi Stadium.
FIFA further said it would work with Iran’s national soccer federation, the FFIRI, to ensure that women spectators could get into the Iranian soccer league’s matches in future.
The delegation “discussed the need to open stadiums for women to attend national matches. In that respect, FIFA announced that it will, based on the operational plans and results of the [October 10] game, collaborate with the FFIRI in developing an operational protocol and related requirements for matches in the Iranian football league to be opened for women as well.”
There was a social outcry upon news that 29-year-old Iranian Sahar Khodayari had died earlier this month after dousing herself with gasoline and setting herself alight on September 2 following charges over her bid to see a match in March.
FILE – Iranian women cheer as they wave their country’s flag after authorities in a rare move allowed a select group of women into Azadi stadium to watch a friendly soccer match between Iran and Bolivia, in Tehran, Oct. 16, 2018.
Iranian officials have sometimes allowed select groups of women into specific areas to watch soccer matches or other men’s sporting events in the past, but have resolutely held the line for nearly four decades at general admission for women.
Khodayari, nicknamed “The Blue Girl” after the colors of her favorite team, Esteghlal, had reportedly suffered burns over 90 percent of her body in the self-immolation.
A sister had told RFE/RL that the girl suffered from bipolar disorder and that her mental state had deteriorated after her arrest and hearing that she could spend six months in prison.
Iranian President Hassan Rohani has mostly failed to deliver on pledges to open up some aspects of Iranian society, including reforms that could help lift Iranian women from distant second-class status under the law.
Iranian women exercise at a football school in Tehran, Sept. 14, 2019.
FIFA has received frequent criticism for its perceived failure to confront Iran’s and others’ gender-based discrimination.
On August 25, Iranian Deputy Sports Minister Jamshid Tahizade announced that women would be allowed to attend the Cambodia match.
But Tehran has dithered on the issue in the past, apparently prompting the FIFA visit this month.
“FIFA’s position is firm and clear,” the group said in its recent statement. “Women have to be allowed into football stadiums in Iran. For all football matches.”
Protesters on Hong Kong vandalized a subway station and defaced a Chinese flag Sunday during another weekend of pro-democracy demonstrations.
Thousands also rallied inside a shopping mall in Sha Tin. Protesters later built a barricade across the street and set it on fire.
Riot police fired tear gas to disperse some of the protesters.
Riot police patrol inside Hong Kong International Airport in Hong Kong, Sept. 22, 2019.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong has cut back rail and bus access to its airport in a move designed to avoid an anti-government protests at one of the busiest airport hubs in the world.
“There are calls online for using fake boarding passes, fake air tickets or fake flight booking information to enter the terminal buildings…the Airport Authority reminds that such behavior could amount to forgery or using false instrument,” the authority said in a statement warning demonstrators to stay away.
Damaged ticket machines are seen inside Sha Tin MTR station after an anti-government rally at New Town Plaza at Sha Tin, Hong Kong, Sept. 22, 2019
On Saturday, police fired tear gas at demonstrators who vandalized a light rail station.
A proposed bill that would have allowed some Hong Kong criminal suspects to be extradited to mainland China for trial sparked the months-long, anti-government demonstrations.
The extradition legislation has been withdrawn, but the demonstrations continue.
Dissenters have since broadened their demands for the direct election of their leaders and police accountability.
More than 1,300 people have been arrested since the demonstrations began in early June.
A bus crash on a mountainous road in northwest Pakistan Sunday killed 25 passengers and injured 20 others, police said.
Abdul Wakil, a local police officer, said the accident happened in the Chilas distract on the bus’ route from Skardu to the city of Rawalpindi.
Wakil said rescue efforts were facing difficulties in the remote mountainous terrain due to lack of needed equipment and resources.
Such road accidents are common in Pakistan where motorists largely disregard traffic rules and safety standards on battered roads. Last month a speeding bus fell off a mountainous road into a river in the northwest, killing 24 passengers.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is facing his first major crisis on how to respond to the attacks on Saudi oil facilities, which he blamed on Iran. In response to the attacks, President Donald Trump has approved the deployment of U.S. troops — defensive in nature — and military equipment to Saudi Arabia. VOA’s Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine looks at Pompeo’s close relationship with the president and his leadership skills on display at this critical moment.
U.S. President Donald Trump is denying he said anything “wrong” in a telephone conversation with the new president of Ukraine during which Trump allegedly urged him to investigate the son of former vice president and 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden.
Democrats meanwhile stepped up their criticism of the president for what they characterized as an attempt to engage a foreign leader in a scheme to damage the candidacy of Trump’s leading rival in the 2020 campaign.
Trump tweeted Saturday morning he had a “perfectly fine and routine conversation” on July 25 with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and that, “Nothing was said that was in any way wrong.”
Trump accused Democrats and the news media of ignoring allegations against the Bidens and creating a false story about him.
“The Fake News Media and their partner, the Democrat (sic) Party, want to stay as far away as possible from the Joe Biden demand that the Ukrainian Government fire a prosecutor who was investigating his son, or they won’t get a very large amount of U.S. money, so they fabricate … a story about me …”
The Fake News Media and their partner, the Democrat Party, want to stay as far away as possible from the Joe Biden demand that the Ukrainian Government fire a prosecutor who was investigating his son, or they won’t get a very large amount of U.S. money, so they fabricate a…..
Trump urged Zelenskiy about eight times during their conversation to investigate Biden’s son, according to news reports citing people familiar with the matter. The sources were quoted saying Trump’s intent was to get Zelenskiy to collaborate with Trump lawyer Rudolph Giuliani on an investigation that could undermine Biden.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko on Saturday denied Trump had pressured Zelenskiy during the call, telling the media outlet Hromadski that Ukraine would not take sides in U.S. politics even if the country was in a position to do so.
FILE – Rudy Giuliani speaks at the Wall Street Journal CEO Council in Washington, Nov. 14, 2016.
Trump and Giuliani have pushed for an investigation of the Bidens for weeks, following news reports this year that explored whether a Ukrainian energy company tried to secure influence in the U.S. by employing Biden’s younger son, Hunter.
Democrats are condemning what they perceive as a concerted effort to damage Biden, who has been thrust into the middle of an unidentified whistleblower’s complaint against Trump. Biden is currently the leading candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination.
The Trump administration has blocked procedures under which the whistleblower complaint would have normally been forwarded by the U.S. intelligence community to members of the Democrat-controlled Congress, keeping its contents secret.
FILE – Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, left, gestures next to U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, during a bilateral meeting in Warsaw, Poland, Sept. 1, 2019.
However a series of leaks have indicated the complaint is based on multiple events, including the July telephone conversation between Trump and Zelenskiy, two people familiar with the matter said. The sources were granted anonymity in order to discuss the issue.
One person briefed on the call said said Trump urged Zelenskiy to investigate Hunter Biden, who served on the board of a Ukrainian energy company. The controversy unfolded amid a White House-ordered delay in the delivery of lethal military assistance to Ukraine, but the unnamed source was quoted saying Trump did not mention U.S. aid in his conversation with Zelenskiiy.
Biden said late Friday that if the reports are accurate, “then there is truly no bottom to President Trump’s willingness to abuse his power and abase our country.” Biden also called on Trump to disclose the transcript of his conversation with Zelenskiy so “the American people can judge for themselves.”
The intelligence community inspector general has described the whistleblower’s August 12 complaint as “serious” and “urgent,” conditions that would normally require him to forward the complaint to Congress. Trump has characterized the complaint as “just another political hack job.”
The standoff raises new questions about the extent to which Trump’s appointees, including the acting director of national intelligence Joseph Maguire, are protecting the Republican president from congressional oversight.
Democrats maintain the administration is legally required to give Congress access to the complaint. House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff said any attempt by Trump to urge a foreign country to “dig up dirt” on a political foe while withholding aid is inappropriate.
“No explicit quid pro quo is necessary to betray your country,” Schiff tweeted Friday.
House Democrats are also battling the administration for access to witnesses and documents in ongoing impeachment investigations.
The whistleblower case has lawmakers investigating whether Giuliani traveled to Ukraine to pressure the government to help Trump’s reelection chances by investigating Hunter Biden and whether his father intervened in the country’s politics to help his son’s business.
Late in the administration of then-President Barack Obama in 2016, Joe Biden was sent to Kiev armed with a threat to withhold billions of dollars in government loan guarantees unless the country cracked down on corruption. Biden’s primary demand was to fire the chief prosecutor at the time, Viktor Shokin, for ineffectiveness. Shokin was fired shortly thereafter.
But before the vice president arrived in Kiev, Shokin had already opened an investigation into Burisma Holdings, a natural gas company on which Hunter was a board member receiving $50,000 per month. Burisma is owned by Mykola Zlochevsky, a Ukrainian businessman and politician.
While Republicans are suggesting the senior Biden used the loan money as leverage force an end to the Bursima investigation, Bloomberg News, citing a former Ukrainian official and Ukranian documents, reported that the probe had been dormant since 2015, long before Biden’s trip to Kyiv.
Giuliani had meetings this year in New York with Shokin’s successor, Yuriy Lutsenko. Around the same time, Ukraine revived the case against Burisma. The New York Times reported Lutsenko relaunched the probe to “curry favor from the Trump administration for his boss and ally.”
The reported timeline appears to be more consistent with Biden’s contention that he was pushing for the ouster of a prosecutor who was failing to rein in rampant corruption, instead of seeking the firing of a prosecutor threatening a company linked to his son.
During a CNN interview Thursday, Giuliani initially said “No” when asked if he had asked Ukraine to investigate Biden, but said seconds later, “of course I did.”
