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.”
An Iranian man held by Somali pirates for more than four years was flown to Ethiopia’s capital Saturday after his captors released him because he needed urgent medical care.
The release of Mohammad Shariff Panahandeh means just three hostages remain in the custody of Somali pirates, according to the Hostage Support Partnership, the charity that negotiated his release.
His health had deteriorated significantly in recent weeks, lending new urgency to efforts to secure his freedom, John Steed of the Hostage Support Partnership told AFP on Saturday.
“He’s severely malnourished. He lost a huge amount of weight. It reminded me of someone who’s just been released from Belsen [a Nazi] concentration camp,” Steed said.
Shariff is also suffering from “severe stomach problems and internal bleeding,” Steed said.
Shariff arrived in Addis Ababa on an Ethiopian Airlines flight from the city of Garowe. He will receive some medical care in Ethiopia before being flown home to Iran, Steed said.
Shariff was captured with three other men in March 2015 after an attack on the Iranian fishing vessel FV Siraj.
Officials with the Iranian embassy in Addis Ababa could not be reached for comment Saturday.
Steed said no ransom was paid for Shariff, but that the pirates were likely to try to hold out for large sums before letting the other three go.
In a statement announcing Shariff’s release, the Hostage Support Partnership said Somali community leaders had been crucial in the negotiations.
Steed said the same kind of local involvement would likely be needed in the case of the final three hostages.
“We need to get them out,” he said.
Pirate attacks on maritime vessels off the Somali coast peaked at 176 in 2011 before falling off sharply in recent years.
A New York judge has ordered President Donald Trump to give a videotaped deposition in a lawsuit filed by protesters who claim they were roughed up outside Trump Tower.
State Supreme Court Judge Doris Gonzalez of the Bronx on Friday denied Trump’s effort to quash a subpoena seeking the president’s testimony.
She ordered Trump to videotape a deposition before the trial, which is scheduled to begin Sept. 26.
The lawsuit was filed by six activists who say they were assaulted by Trump security staff during a Sept. 3, 2015, protest by people upset over comments Trump made about Mexican immigrants.
The judge says Trump’s testimony is “indispensable” as someone in charge of the business and his campaign.
A lawyer for Trump did not immediately return a phone message.
Thirteen U.S. Marines arrested in July in connection with an alleged human smuggling operation in Southern California are now facing formal charges from the military.
The charges range from failure to obey an order to drunkenness and theft, and include the alleged transportation of undocumented immigrants, according to a statement from the 1st Marine Division.
Two of the Marines, Lance Corporal Byron Law II and Lance Corporal David Salazar-Quintero, were arrested on July 3 after border patrol agents found them picking up three illegal aliens along a stretch of Interstate 8, about 11 kilometers (7 miles) north of the U.S. border with Mexico.
According to court documents, Law and Salazar-Quintero admitted to having been in contact with a recruiter, who offered to pay them for transporting the illegal immigrants from the interstate to other locations.
Law told authorities he and Salazar-Quintero were never paid for the interaction, according to the complaint.
A third Marine was arrested by U.S. Border Patrol a week later, on July 10.
The other 10 were taken into custody during what some officials described as a sting operation July 25 at Camp Pendleton, a Marine Corps base located about 79 kilometers (49 miles) north of San Diego.
In a statement following the mass arrests, the Marine Corps’ 1st Division said the regiment’s commanding officer “will act within his authority to hold the Marines accountable at the appropriate level, should they be charged.”
In addition to the Marine Corps and U.S. Border Patrol, officials with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service also aided in the initial investigation.
According to the Marine Corps, none of the Marines detained as part of the investigation were assigned to the U.S. military operation to support efforts to secure the U.S. southern border with Mexico.
A bus carrying Chinese-speaking tourists crashed near a national park in southern Utah, killing at least four people and critically injuring up to 15 others, authorities said Friday.
The morning wreck near Bryce Canyon National Park left 12 to 15 people with “very critical injuries,” the Utah Highway Patrol said on Twitter.
Highway Patrol Cpl. Chris Bishop told The Associated Press that he expected the number of injured to be higher.
The tour bus with 30 people aboard crashed near a highway rest stop about 7 miles (11 kilometers) from the park entrance. It’s not yet clear what caused the crash.
Highway Patrol photos show the top of a white bus smashed in and one side peeling away as the vehicle rests mostly off the side of a road near a sign for restrooms. Authorities were tending to people on the road, and others stood around covered in shiny blankets, the photos show.
Bishop said injured victims were sent to three hospitals. One of them, Intermountain Garfield Memorial Hospital, said it received 17 patients.
A spokesman for the small hospital in the tiny town of Panguitch tweeted that three people were in critical condition, 11 in serious condition and three in fair condition. Lance Madigan said Intermountain had sent two helicopters and two planes to help transport victims.
Patients also were being taken to Cedar City and St. George, Bishop said.
Bryce Canyon has the world’s largest concentration of irregular columns of rock, called hoodoos, according to the National Park Service website. The park, about 300 miles (480 kilometers) south of Salt Lake City, draws more than 2 million visitors a year.
Remnants of tropical storm Imelda have caused serious flooding in eastern Texas, including parts of Houston, forcing evacuations, flight cancellations, school closures and causing some outages. Reports of other environmental disasters come from various parts of the world, as the United Nations General Assembly prepares to discuss climate change, which is linked to human activity such as pollution and gas-fueled transportation. Zlatica Hoke reports the Trump administration so far has shunned efforts to curb pollution, and there are no signs this will change.
Afghanistan has been awash in violence for decades, and hundreds of thousands of civilians have died in the fighting. A memorial designed to remember those lost and help survivors heal recently opened in Mazar-e-Sharif. VOA’s Mirwais Bezhan visited this exhibition and filed this report narrated by Bezhan Hamdard.
U.S. lawmakers at a congressional hearing Thursday pushed for answers on stalled peace talks with the Taliban following President Donald Trump’s suspension of the negotiations earlier this month. The open hearing followed a closed door session in which the top U.S. envoy to Afghanistan, Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, complied with a congressional demand for more information on the negotiations. VOA’s congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson has more on the questions being raised about the future of the U.S. role in Afghanistan.
The Vermont Air National Guard is due to take delivery of the first two of what will become 20 F-35 fighter aircrafts, the first guard unit to receive the next-generation fighter.
The aircraft will be based at the Burlington International Airport and are being flown to Vermont on Thursday from the factory in Fort Worth, Texas.
The delivery follows years of hard work, planning and missions in the guard’s previous aircraft, F-16s that flew continuously for weeks over New York after the 9/11 attacks and in multiple combat tours in Iraq and other areas of the Middle East.
“The F-35 coming into Burlington really secures our mission and our future for, you are talking the next three or four decades, and that allows us to serve our nation, but also to be ready to serve our state as well,” Col. David Smith, the commander of the 158th Fighter Wing that is the new home to the F-35s, said before they arrived.
But for some members of the community, the arrival of noisier aircraft marks the failure of years-long efforts to keep the Air Force from delivering the planes to an airport located among residential neighborhoods and industrial complexes in the middle of Vermont’s most populous county.
Rosanne Greco, the former chair of the South Burlington City Council and a retired Air Force colonel, said she supported basing the plane in her home city until she learned by reading the Air Force’s environmental impact statement about how noisy the F-35 is and what she feels are the dangers of having a new, unproven weapon system at a suburban airport.
“All I had to do was read what the Air Force said about the impact it would have,” Greco said. “The evidence was overwhelming it would have a very negative effect on close to 7,000 people” who live near the airport.
Smith said the Air National Guard understands the concerns of the community. The guard has modified the traffic patterns the planes will use and checked the take-off times to minimize noise disruptions. As to safety, he said that so far more than 400 F-35s have been delivered and the planes have accumulated more than 200,000 flying hours.
“It’s really important to us too to do everything we can to mitigate the impact on the community,” he said.
The Air Force describes the F-35 as its fifth-generation fighter, combining stealth technology with speed and agility. Different models are being built for the Air Force, Navy and Marines, and are being sold to American allies across the world.
It is also the U.S. military’s most expensive weapons system of all time, with an estimated total cost of $1.5 trillion over the expected half-century life of the program. The model of the planes that will be based in Burlington cost about $94 million each.
Assigning F-35s, which are designed to replace a number of aging fighter models, to Vermont shows the days are long gone when Air National Guard units received hand-me-down aircraft while new planes went exclusively to active duty Air Force units, said Ian Bryan, a retired Tennessee Air National Guard pilot who worked in Washington as a legislative liaison with the National Guard Bureau.
He said Vermont, and the guard, are at the forefront of learning how to make the best use of the new airplanes.
“Ten years from now, we need to have figured out how to use this F-35 thing and it’s going to be the lead as the wings fall off some of these old airplanes,” Bryan said.
President Donald Trump’s nominee to run the Labor Department faces a Senate confirmation hearing, even as Democrats argue that they haven’t had enough time to scour his record of legal work for corporate interests.
Although Trump tweeted in mid-July that Eugene Scalia was his pick, the committee didn’t officially receive the nomination until Sept. 11, the week before Thursday’s hearing. The Republican GOP-led Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee panel has set a vote on the nomination early next week.
A Democratic aide who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly and requested anonymity said Democratic lawmakers see the compressed timeframe as not allowing senators to properly investigate Scalia’s history as an attorney for dozens of clients. But a Republican aide, who also requested anonymity for the same reason, said all of Scalia’s required paperwork, which would include his financial disclosure and ethics agreements, has been available for committee members to review since late August.
Trump’s nomination of Scalia is opposed by the AFL-CIO, which has described him as a union-busting lawyer who has eroded labor rights and consumer protections. But business groups are squarely behind Scalia, viewing him as a reliable opponent of regulatory overreach and red tape. If Scalia is confirmed by the Senate, he’ll be the seventh former lobbyist to hold a Cabinet-level post in the Trump administration.
Scalia, 56, served for a year as the Labor Department’s top lawyer, its solicitor, during the George W. Bush administration. But most of his career has been spent as a partner in the Washington office of the Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher firm, where he has run up a string of victories in court cases on behalf of business interests challenging labor and financial regulations.
On his financial disclosure form filed with the Office of Government Ethics, Scalia listed 49 clients who paid him $5,000 or more for legal services, including e-cigarette giant Juul Labs, Facebook, Ford, Walmart and Bank of America. Disclosure records show Scalia was registered in 2010 and 2011 to lobby for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Scalia is likely to be questioned about changes the Labor Department is making to an Obama-era rule on overtime pay. The Obama regulations were scheduled to take effect in 2016 but were put on hold by a federal lawsuit.
A revised proposal issued in March raised the annual pay threshold at which workers would be exempt from overtime to $35,308 from the current $23,660, expanding overtime pay to roughly 1 million workers. The Obama plan set the threshold at more than $47,000 and would have affected an estimated 4.2 million people.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, expressed concern Wednesday over Scalia’s record on protecting government whistleblowers. Grassley said on a call with reporters that while serving as Labor’s top lawyer Scalia argued not all disclosures made to Congress are protected under federal whistleblower laws and that the separation of powers doctrine prevents whistleblowers from disclosing certain information to Congress.
Trump’s previous labor secretary, Alexander Acosta, resigned in July. He had come under renewed criticism for his handling of a 2008 secret plea deal with financier Jeffrey Epstein, who was found dead last month in his cell at a federal jail in Manhattan after a July arrest on sex trafficking charges.
Deputy Labor Secretary Pat Pizzella has been serving as acting secretary until Scalia is confirmed.
Prosecutors urged International Criminal Court judges Thursday to put on trial two alleged leaders of a predominantly Christian militia involved in a bitter conflict with Muslim forces in Central African Republic, saying they armed and incited members to attack Muslim civilians in an attempt to regain power.
Patrice-Edouard Ngaissona and Alfred Yekatom are suspected of involvement in war crimes and crimes against humanity including murder, persecution, torture and the use of child soldiers when they were senior leaders in the anti-Balaka militia. They have not entered pleas.
Prosecutor Kweku Vanderpuye told a three-judge panel at the global court that the crimes followed atrocities by Muslim forces known as the Seleka as they seized power in Central African Republic in 2013, forcing President Francois Bozize to flee into exile.
The interreligious violence left thousands dead and displaced hundreds of thousands more. Mosques, shops and homes were looted and destroyed. Bursts of deadly violence continue today despite attempts to make peace.
Vanderpuye alleged that Ngaissona was an influential leader of the anti-Balaka group and Yekatom a military leader who called himself Rambo and commanded thousands of fighters drawn from the ranks of local self-defense groups.
“From exile, Mr. Ngaissona and other members of Bozize’s inner circle used these groups,” Vanderpuye told judges. “They exploited the vengeance and hatred felt by the people to create a formidable fighting force which could defeat the Seleka, opening the way for them to reclaim power.”
However, the anti-Balaka did not limit themselves to fighting Seleka forces and instead “relentlessly terrorized” Muslim civilians as well, he said.
The prosecutor told judges that the anti-Balaka fighters used child soldiers to commit atrocities, recounting the story of one former child soldier who told prosecutors he was ordered to stab or cut off the ears of Muslim prisoners.
“When the prisoner was exhausted we would dig a shallow grave about knee height, put him in and then the chiefs will come back and kill him,” Vanderpuye said, quoting the former child soldier.
Ngaissona, who was chief of Central African Republic’s soccer federation when he was arrested on an ICC warrant in Paris last year, faces 111 charges. Yekatom, who was turned over to the court in 2018, faces 21 charges.
Yekatom’s lawyer, Mylène Dimitri, argued that her client cannot adequately defend himself because prosecutors are withholding evidence that they have collected in their investigations into crimes by the Seleka.
Yekatom “is defending himself in the dark,” Dimitri told the panel.
Central African Republic’s government asked the ICC in 2014 to investigate crimes allegedly committed by both the Seleka and the anti-Balaka. So far, no Seleka fighters have been publicly targeted by the court’s chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda.
Judges will likely take months to decide whether to send the suspects to trial.
Cameroon’s law courts are at a standstill as lawyers for a third day Wednesday defy government threats and continue to protest what they say are widespread unbearable rights violations that include torture, illegal and prolonged detention of accused persons.
Observers say the strike may compromise the national dialogue ordered by President Paul Biya to solve the separatist conflict rocking the country.
Three hundred and eighty cases have been on the schedule at the Ekounou tribunal in Cameroon’s capital, Yaounde, since Sept. 16 and none of them have been heard.
Patrick Mbella, 45, who is in pre-trial detention for aggravated theft, says when he arrived at the court on Wednesday morning, his lawyer was not there.
The Ekounou Tribunal is seen in Yaounde, Cameroon, Sept. 18, 2019. (M. Kindzeka/VOA)
Mbella says he does not know what to do after the judge asked that he be taken back to detention because the government had not succeeded in convincing the lawyers to call off their strike.
Peter Seme of the Cameroon Bar Association, outside the Ekounou tribunal, read out what he called a statement from the country’s lawyers explaining why they stopped working. He listed rights violations that included the cruel humiliation of detainees by authorities.
“The appearance of naked detainees at public hearings, the extortion of confessional statements through torture and fraud, prolonged illegal detentions, situations of abusive detentions despite release orders, silence concerning some complaints made by lawyers, the refusal to acknowledge receipt of correspondences with written proof thereof,” Seme said.
Members of the Cameroon Bar Association ignored a Sept. 5 resolution adopted during a meeting convened by the government for them to call off the strike action.
Cameroonian President Biya had given instructions for judicial processes to be sped up after a prison protest last July over poor conditions that included overcrowded detention centers.
Cameroon’s minister delegate to the Minister of Justice Jean de Dieu Momo speaks at his office in Yaounde, Cameroon, Sept. 18, 2019. (M. Kindzeka/VOA)
A delegate at Cameroon’s Ministry of Justice, Jean de Dieu Momo, says nearly a million cases that were to be heard in courts all over the country this week have been affected. He offered reassurances to the lawyers, saying the government has called on the military, the police and others in the judicial system to immediately address the lawyers’ concerns.
“It is our job to make sure that the lawyers are independent, working freely without any disturbance from anyone. Lawyers, magistrates, military, people involved with security are together to work, to find out sustainable solutions,” Momo said.
Government officials expect the lawyers to call off their action soon.
Pierre Bayo, political analysts and lecturer at the University of Yaounde says the lawyers’ strike may affect the national dialogue Biya announced Sept. 10 to resolve issues in his country, which is in the midst of a separatist conflict that pits its French and English-speaking populations against each other.
He says most of the lawyers who initiated the strike had defended separatist leaders who had been sentenced to life in prison by a military tribunal and also Maurice Kamto, the man who claims he won last year’s elections – a victory he alleges was stolen by Biya.
“Besides the Anglophone problem today, even more acrimonious in this country is the Kamto political leadership,” Bayo said.
Many had expected Kamto – who is now facing eight charges amounting to treason at a military tribunal in Yaounde – and some separatist leaders to be granted clemency by Biya to take part in the national dialogue. Biya declined, saying justice would take its course.
Pakistan has ruled out talks with India until India reverses recent controversial actions in the disputed Kashmir territory. Pakistan also turned down India’s overflight request for its prime minister’s upcoming visit to the United States.
Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan alleged while speaking to reporters Wednesday that “extremist nationalist Hindu racists” are currently in control of the government in India.
“Only an extremist and not-normal mind would place Kashmir under curfew for 45 days,” Khan said. “It is not a normal government, and until they lift the curfew in Kashmir and reverse the revocation of (Article) 370, there is no chance of talks with them,” Khan said of India.
Last month, India revoked a decades-old constitutionally provided special autonomy for its part of the divided Himalayan region and placed millions of Kashmiris under tight curfew restrictions, as well as a total communications blackout, to suppress protests and dissent.
India’s crackdown has detained hundreds of politicians, activists, doctors and lawyers in Kashmir without being charged
Khan said that in his upcoming address to the United Nations General Assembly next week, he will raise the Kashmir humanitarian crisis stemming from the Indian actions.
Pakistan also administers a part of Kashmir and claims the territory in its entirety. The recent Indian steps have raised military tensions between the nuclear-armed rival nations.
Indian leaders defend their latest actions in Kashmir, saying they will improve security and bring economic prosperity to India’s only Muslim-majority state, where separatist armed groups have waged a violent insurgency for over three decades.
In a statement Tuesday, Amnesty International condemned India for its Kashmir lockdown and detention of people under the region’s controversial “repressive Public Safety Act (PSA).
“The continued use of draconian laws against political dissidents, despite promises of change, signals the dishonest intent of the Indian government. Thousands of political leaders, activists and journalists continue to be silenced through administrative detention laws,” said Aakar Patel, the watchdog’s country head.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi confirmed the denial of New Delhi’s request for allowing Prime Minister Narendra Modi to use Pakistani airspace for his official trip starting Friday to Germany and the U.S.
“Keeping in view the situation in occupied Kashmir, and India’s attitude witnessed in the tyranny and oppression (facing Kashmiris), and the violations of rights in the region, we have decided not to grant this request,” he said.
Indian officials insisted their request for the use of Pakistani airspace was in line with international “protocol for VIP” flights.
Islamabad’s overflight refusal means Modi will have to undertake a relatively longer alternate route for his flight.
Currently, Islamabad allows only civilian flights from India to use its airspace.
Pakistan blocked its airspace for all flights from India in February when the two countries came close to the brink of a third war over Kashmir. The airspace was reopened by the Pakistani government in July, but not for flights carrying Indian leaders since New Delhi canceled Kashmir’s autonomy.
U.S. President Donald Trump says he has meetings scheduled with both Khan and Modi next week, asserting his contacts with both the leaders have helped ease the latest tensions between their countries.
“I’ll see Prime Minister Modi, and we’ll be meeting with India and Pakistan (prime ministers),” Trump told reporters on Monday. “And I think a lot of progress has been made,” he said, without further elaboration.
Developing economies could face disruption from the shock waves of Britain crashing out of the European Union with no deal, according to analysts.
Brexit will affect not only Britain’s relations with the European Union, but also with hundreds of other countries with which Britain currently trades on EU terms, as Brussels sets trade policy for the entire EU bloc.
London has negotiated new post-Brexit trade arrangements with several countries, including Central American nations, Switzerland and South Korea, among others. That leaves hundreds of states — from smaller economies to relative giants like Japan and Canada — with whom trade would revert to World Trade Organization terms after a no-deal Brexit.
Striking new trade deals won’t be easy, said professor Anand Menon at a “Changing Europe” program at Kings College London.
FILE – A fruit stall displays fruit at a market in London, Aug. 7, 2019. Among Kenya’s exports to Britain are fruits and vegetables.
“Many countries with whom we try and do trade deals will say to us, ‘Yes, that would be great. We’d quite like to know what your relationship with the European Union is going to be before we sign anything with you, though.’ So, all roads lead to Brussels,” Menon said.
Such uncertainty doesn’t help countries that sell goods to Britain. For example, Kenya exports cut flowers, fruits and vegetables, with total exports to Britain estimated at $400 million per year.
Bangladesh exports nearly $4 billion worth of goods to Britain, which are currently traded under the EU’s preferential rules of origin that allocate zero or low tariffs on goods from developing countries. A no-deal Brexit will likely mean disruption, said Max Mendez-Parra, a trade expert at the Overseas Development Institute.
“The problem is that that will erode the preference that some of these countries receive. So for example, the advantage that a country such as Bangladesh and Cambodia have on certain products because they have access with a lower tariff, that would be removed.”
Speaking last month, Akinwumi Adesina, head of the Africa Development Bank, warned that the combination of a no-deal Brexit and the U.S.-China trade war were hitting African economies.
FILE – African Development president Akinwumi Adesina gives a press conference in Ouagadougou, Sept. 13, 2019.
“The industrial capacity has fallen significantly, and so the demand, even for products and raw materials from Africa, will only fall even further. So, the effect of that could have a ripple effect on African economies as the demand for their products weaken from China,” Adesina said.
Britain, meanwhile, is stepping up its search for new trade deals. International Trade Secretary Liz Truss is visiting New Zealand, Australia and Japan this week. Many of these nations’ companies have large investments in Britain and fear the chaotic fallout of a no-deal Brexit.
For smaller economies, the impact is likely to be less severe, Mendez-Parra said.
“African countries seem to be more relaxed, developing countries are more and more relaxed — except some specific countries that trade a lot with the U.K. — about the prospect of a no-deal [Brexit]. And this is because the U.K. has lost over many years the sort of importance as a destination of exports for many of these countries.”
A no-deal Brexit would hit the economies of many EU states like Ireland, Germany and the Netherlands. But it is in Britain where the impact will inevitably be hardest-felt.
Police have opened a criminal investigation in the apparent arson of a home belonging to the family of former National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) chief Valeria Gontareva, which was razed early Tuesday in Kyiv.
Gontarevа, who recently spoke with VOA’s Ukrainian Service from her home in London, has warned that a series of unfortunate events are evidence that her life and the lives of family members are being threatened as a result of financial reforms she oversaw during her tenure as NBU chief from 2014-2017.
FILE – Valeria Gontareva, former chair of the National Bank of Ukraine, speaks during an interview in London, Britain, Sept. 14, 2019.
Currently a senior policy fellow at the London School of Economics, Gontareva told VOA that she was hospitalized with broken bones after being struck by a car while walking through the streets of London on Aug. 26.
Ten days later, her daughter-in-law’s vehicle was set on fire in front of the family home in Kyiv, which was burned to the ground Tuesday. On Sept. 12, one week after the car was torched, Ukrainian police raided another of Gontareva’s Kyiv residential properties.
Gontarevа has told various news outlets that all of these events are tied to grievances held by banking tycoon Ihor Kolomoisky, the former owner Privatbank, the country’s largest lender, which was nationalized in 2016 as a part of Gontarevа-led reforms under former president Petro Poroshenko.
Gontarevа and her Ukrainian colleagues elected to nationalize Privatbank under Ukraine’s Finance Ministry after an audit revealed $5.5 billion in unaccounted funds. The move to nationalize was strongly supported by the International Monetary Fund, which saw nationalization of banks engaged in fraud as a key step to eradicating corruption.
An oligarch’s return
Kolomoisky, who returned to Kyiv after the April 2019 election of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, had been living in Switzerland and Israel since Privatbank was nationalized.
He and Privatbank’s original investors have been closely watching a series of new reforms being undertaken by Zelenskiy to see whether the nationalization may be reversed.
FILE – Ukrainian business tycoon Ihor Kolomoisky speaks with journalists on the sidelines of the Yalta European Strategy annual meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine, Sept. 13, 2019.
“Kolomoisky wants the withdrawal of all Privatbank lawsuits against him all over the world, and the National Bank is hindering him,” Gontarevа told VOA, explaining that she has also been named as a key witness in various international fraud cases against Zelenskiy over his former ownership of Privatbank.
It was also reported that the search of Gontarevа’s home came 48 hours after Kolomoisky met privately with Zelenskiy.
On Tuesday, Ukrainian Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk told the Financial Times that the president is seeking a settlement with Kolomoisky over Privatbank’s nationalization, which would contradict Zelenskiy’s vigorous reform agenda and possibly upset Western backers.
FILE – People walk past a branch of PrivatBank, the country’s biggest lender, in Kyiv, Ukraine, April 18, 2019.
According to the Financial Times, IMF officials have warned that a reversal of Privatbank’s nationalization would endanger nearly $4 billion in standby funding reserved to help Ukraine recover the $5.5 billion it lost recapitalizing Privatbank.
“Whatever solution we find, we have to find it together with the IMF,” Honcharuk was quoted as saying.
On Tuesday morning, Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov took to Twitter to note that the fire coincides with a Kyiv visit by IMF officials.
Although Gontarevа said she has been criticized by some Ukrainians who say the alleged threats are part of an effort to bolster her asylum claims in the West, she told VOA the issues are much bigger than her life alone.
Old-school intimidation tactics
“Independence of the National Bank guarantees the independence of monetary policy, exchange rate policy, and the macro stability of the Ukrainian economy,” she said, apparently warning that Kolomoisky’s efforts to seek compensation for the loss of Privatbank represents a return to the old-school intimidation tactics of the oligarchic era.
Kolomoisky, who denied any involvement in the injuries or property damages sustained by Gontareva or her family, spoke with reporters on the sidelines of the Yalta European Strategy conference in Kyiv on Sept. 13.
Asked about the London hit-and-run that left Gontareva temporarily wheelchair-bound, Kolomoisky reportedly said with a smug grin: “I promised to send her a plane, not a car.”
London police said they were not treating the incident as suspicious.
Official statements
FILE – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy speaks during a meeting with law enforcement officers in Kyiv, Ukraine, July 23, 2019.
On Tuesday, Zelenskiy’s office issued a statement calling the fire at Gontarevа’s home “a brutal crime, the rapid investigation of which should be a priority in the work of the law enforcement agencies.”
“Everyone should feel protected in Ukraine, regardless of their past or current positions and political views,” he said.
On Sept. 5, NBU board members issued a statement supporting Gontarevа’s claims that the car and house fires and London car accident are part of an organized intimidation campaign.
“Kolomoisky wants the withdrawal of all Privatbank lawsuits against him all over the world,” the former chairman of the NBU says. “And the National Bank is hindering him.”
“We regard this as a real threat to the personal integrity of the regulators who have implemented and continue to reform the financial sector, and in this way endeavor to undermine the central bank’s ability to fulfil its purpose,” the statement said.
The U.S. Embassy in Ukraine has expressed support for Gontarevа, calling for “a prompt and impartial investigation into incidents involving former NBU chairman Gontareva and her family.”
Tunisia’s independent electoral commission Tuesday confirmed the stunning victories of two political outsiders in the first round of presidential voting — results seen as a major rebuff of the post-revolution political establishment.
Final results place law professor Kais Saied and business tycoon Nabil Karoui in first and second place respectively, capturing more than 18% and 16% of the vote. They now face a runoff in what is Tunisia’s second-only free and democratic presidential election.
Tunisian presidential candidate and law professor Kais Saied speaks during a press conference in Tunis, Sept. 17, 2019.
But the bigger story may be the losers, starting with Prime Minister Youssef Chahed, who received just over 7% of the vote. Defense Minister Abdelkarim Zbidi also scored in the single digits. Turnout was less than 50% — another marker of voter disaffection.
Tunisian journalist Tarek Mami of France Magreb 2 radio says Tunisians got rid of one system during the revolution — that of autocratic President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. Now, they’re getting rid of the system that replaced him. Widespread corruption and soaring food prices helped to fuel voter anger.
Saied and Karoui have one thing in common — both are newcomers when it comes to running for office. Both also kept low profiles during campaigning these past weeks, but for different reasons.
FILE – Nabil Karoui, Tunisian media magnate and would-be presidential candidate, submits his candidacy to Tunisia’s electoral commission in the capital, Tunis, Aug. 2, 2019.
Karoui was jailed in August on corruption allegations — a move his supporters claim was politically motivated. Saied rejected state election funds and large rallies, favoring door-to-door campaigning. Saied is a social conservative and a frequent legal commentator on television. Karoui scored points with the poor for his foundation’s charitable works.
Social entrepreneur Wala Kasmi didn’t vote for Saied and was surprised by the results.
“But at the end, I think I’m happy about not the full results, but the results, because I think we are back to eight years ago, challenging the status quo, claiming a new model, a new system. … I think he’s the new voice of the revolution,” Kasmi said.
This is the first round in the election season. October’s legislative vote comes next, offering another test of whether Tunisians will continue to sanction the political establishment.
Living conditions have improved greatly since 2000 even for the world’s poorest people, but billions remain mired in “layers of inequality.”
That is the assessment from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s third annual report on progress toward U.N. Sustainable Development Goals – 17 measures that most countries have pledged to try to reach by 2030. Those efforts are falling short, says Bill Gates.
“As much progress as we’re making, a child in many countries still over 10% are dying before the age of five. And in richer countries it is less than 1%. So the idea that any place in the world is still 10%, some almost 15%, that’s outrageous, and it should galvanize us to do a better job,” Gates told VOA.
The 63-year-old Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist sat down with VOA at the foundation’s offices in advance of the report, which was released to coincide with the opening of the United Nations General Assembly.
This year’s report uses geography and gender as lenses for examining progress, particularly in terms of health and education.
It finds “an increasing concentration of high mortality and low educational attainment levels” in Africa’s Sahel region as well as in parts of Pakistan, Afghanistan and northern India. People in those regions experience “multiple deprivations, including some of the highest fertility rates in the world, high levels of stunting and low vaccine coverage,” the report says.
Disadvantages fall more heavily on women than on men. Girls generally get less formal education than boys; those in sub-Saharan Africa average two fewer years of education. And even when girls obtain a good education, they’re less likely to parlay it into paid work.
“Globally, there is a 26 percentage point gap between men’s and women’s labor force participation,” according to the report.
Monitoring progress on these fronts aligns with the Gates Foundation’s commitments, which include improving global health and aiding development in low-income countries. Since its start in 2000, the foundation has spent billions on efforts such as improving vaccines and nutrition, combatting malaria and other diseases, supporting innovative toilet designs to improve sanitation, and ensuring good data collection to identify problems.
As the news site Vox has pointed out, the Gates Foundation each year outspends the World Health Organization and most individual countries on global health. It has built the world’s largest trust — $46.8 billion as of December, according to its website.
That has led some to question philanthropy’s role in development.
“The billions of dollars available to Gates, Rockefeller and Wellcome might be spent with benevolent intent, but they confer extensive power. A power without much accountability,” Wellcome communications director Mark Henderson wrote last week in Inside Philanthropy, announcing that the London-based health charity – second in spending after Gates – would increase its transparency.
Israelis are voting Tuesday in general elections as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces a challenge from former military chief Benny Gantz.
Polls show Tuesday’s contest too close to call, with Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party tied with Gantz’s centrist Blue and White party, with neither predicted to win a majority of seats in the 120-member Knesset, Israel’s parliament. Ten parties could win seats in the legislature.
That could possibly leave Avigdor Lieberman, a former defense minister and one-time Netanyahu ally but now a rival, as the kingmaker to form a coalition government. Lieberman, the head of the Israel Beitenu party, could double his seats in parliament from five to 10. His campaign slogan is to “make Israel normal again,” a motto aimed at combating what he says is the undue influence of Israel’s ultra-Orthodox parties on political life in the country.
Netanyahu made a last-day nationalist campaign pitch Monday saying if he wins re-election, he would annex all the Jewish settlements in the West Bank over the protests of Palestinian leaders.
He told Israeli Army Radio, “I intend to extend sovereignty on all the settlements and the (settlement) blocs,” including “sites that have security importance or are important to Israel’s heritage.”
Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving leader, is facing his toughest political fight to win a record fifth term to stay in power even as he is confronting possible corruption charges. Israel is staging its second national vote in less than six months, with Netanyahu unable to cobble together a parliamentary majority to form a government after the April vote.
A man hangs up an Israeli flag at a polling station as Israelis begin to vote in a parliamentary election in Rosh Ha’ayin, Israel September 17, 2019.
Gantz has presented himself as an honorable alternative to Netanyahu.
“Blue and White under my leadership will change the direction of the ship of state of Israeli democracy,” he wrote in the Maariv newspaper. “No more instigating rifts in an attempt to divide and conquer, but rather quick action to form a unity government.”
In the run-up to the election, Netanyahu has tried to bolster his nationalist support, along with an assist from his long-time friend, U.S. President Donald Trump, who last weekend floated the possibility of a mutual defense pact between the decades-long allies.
Trump said such a treaty “would further anchor the tremendous alliance between our two countries.”
The U.S. also has another link to the Israeli election, with the Trump administration expected to release its long-delayed Israeli-Palestinian peace plan soon after the vote. The U.S. in June unveiled a $50 billion plan to boost Palestinian economic fortunes, but neither the Palestinians nor Israelis attended the announcement in Bahrain.
Netanyahu has made several campaign pledges in an attempt to win over nationalist voters. He vowed to annex the Jordan Valley, an area Palestinians consider as key farmland in any future Palestinian state. In protest, the Palestinian Authority held a cabinet meeting in the Jordan Valley village of Fasayil on Monday, a day after Israel’s Cabinet met elsewhere in the valley.
“The Jordan Valley is part of Palestinian lands and any settlement or annexation is illegal,” Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh said at the start of the meeting. “We will sue Israel in international courts for exploiting our land and we will continue our struggle against the occupation on the ground and in international forums.”
