| Nigeria's slave descendants prevented from marrying who they want Posted: 13 Sep 2020 04:14 PM PDT  Campaigners fight to overturn customs and a caste system that discriminates against some Igbo people.
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| Belarus leader looks to Putin to help him cling on to power Posted: 13 Sep 2020 04:00 PM PDT |
| Officials say east Libya government resigns amid protests Posted: 13 Sep 2020 02:10 PM PDT  An interim government in eastern Libya resigned on Sunday amid street protests that erupted across the divided country over dire living conditions, officials said. Prime Minister Abdallah al-Thani submitted the resignation of his government to Aguila Saleh, speaker of the eastern-based House of Representatives, said the government's spokesman, Ezzel-Deen al-Falih. Abdallah Abaihig, a spokesman for the parliament, confirmed the government's resignation, saying lawmakers would review it in their next meeting.
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| Battle on to save Brazil's tropical wetlands from flames Posted: 13 Sep 2020 11:25 AM PDT  A vast swath of a vital wetlands is burning in Brazil, sweeping across several national parks and obscuring the sun behind dense smoke. Preliminary figures from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, based on satellite images, indicate that nearly 5,800 square miles (1.5 million hectares) have burned in the Pantanal region since the start of August — an expanse comparable to the area consumed by the historic blazes now afflicting California. Brazil's National Institute for Space Research, whose satellites monitor the fires, said the number of Panantal fires in the first 12 days of September was nearly triple the figure for the same period last year.
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| Trump ‘compromised by the Russians’, says former member of Mueller’s team Posted: 13 Sep 2020 11:22 AM PDT  Peter Strzok was removed from Russia investigation and fired by the FBI over text messages critical of Trump * Rage: Will Bob Woodward's tapes bring down Donald Trump?Donald Trump is "compromised by the Russians", a former member of Robert Mueller's investigation insisted on Sunday, contending that the president is "incapable of placing the national interest ahead of his own".Peter Strzok was removed from the Russia investigation and fired by the FBI over text messages which were critical of Trump. He has now written a memoir, Compromised: Counterintelligence and the Threat of Donald J Trump.Speaking to NBC's Meet the Press, Strzok echoed many reporters and observers who have pondered the president's behaviour towards Russia and Vladimir Putin, saying he thought Russia's hold on Trump was based on financial interests and liabilities arising from the president's pre-politics life in real estate."I think when you take a look at the Trump financial enterprise, particularly its relationship with Russian monies and potentially those related to organised crime and other elements, that those interactions have placed him in a position where the Russians have leverage over him and are able to influence his actions."Strzok also said "it is not without exaggeration that there is no president in modern history who has the same broad and deep connections to any foreign intel service, let alone a hostile government like Russia".Mueller, the special counsel appointed after Trump fired FBI director James Comey over "this Russia thing", did not establish a criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Moscow as Russian interfered in the 2016 election in the aim of assisting the Republican candidate.But Mueller did hand down multiple indictments and secure convictions of close Trump aides, while laying out extensive contacts with Moscow and multiple instances of the president appearing to attempt to obstruct justice.Trump has claimed vindication, attacking Mueller, Strzok, the FBI and the Obama administration which oversaw the beginnings of the Russia investigation. He has consistently claimed "no collusion".Strzok told NBC he "concluded the opposite"."Mueller was focusing on violations of the law," he said, "and the standard to be able to establish in a courtroom that something occurred is very, very different from the standard that a counterintelligence expert or an intelligence person would look at and judge whether or not that caused them concern."When I read the Mueller report, and certainly when I looked at the recent bipartisan Senate intelligence committee report, almost 1,000 pages, laying out all of these areas of intelligence connections between Trump and his administration [and] his campaign and Russia, that's extraordinarily concerning from a counterintelligence perspective."Trump, Strzok said, is "surrounded by people who have a pervasive pattern of contact with the Russians, and not only contact, but contact that they're hiding."Look at 2016, his campaign manager [Paul Manafort] who pled guilty and was dealing with people affiliated with Russian intelligence services; one of his foreign policy advisers who lied to us about his connection to the Russians and pled guilty [George Papadopoulos]; his former national security adviser [Michael Flynn] who didn't tell the truth to me and who pled guilty twice to not telling the truth about his contact with the Russians."This week, former New York mayor and Trump personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani said he was not aware an associate in his attempts to leverage scandal in Ukrainian politics for Trump's domestic gain – attempts which helped get Trump impeached – was a Russian agent."Look at that pervasive pattern of contact," Strzok said.The text messages which led to Strzok's dismissal – and his emergence as a bête noire of Trump and his supporters – were exchanged with Lisa Page, an FBI lawyer with whom Strzok was having an affair and who eventually resigned."I certainly regret sending the text messages that were absolutely weaponized and used to bludgeon the work of the FBI, the work of the special counsel," Strzok said. "I'll always regret that. But at the same time, the way that those were weaponized was unprecedented."It is certainly part of a pattern of activity where this administration has gone to lengths that no other administration has ever done … whether it is in the impeachment hearings with regard to Ukraine, the whistleblower, or anybody in any number of federal government agencies, if somebody dares speak the truth about this administration, this administration has shown no boundaries in going after people in ways that frankly is shocking and inappropriate."Strzok is not the only former member of Mueller's team who has written a book. On 29 September, the prosecutor Andrew Weissmann will publish Where Law Ends: Inside the Mueller Investigation.Announcing the book in July, he said he was "deeply proud of the work we did … but the hard truth is that we made mistakes. We could have done more."
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| Sheriff: Deputy on video punching Black man in Georgia fired Posted: 13 Sep 2020 10:45 AM PDT  Roderick Walker, 26, was arrested and beaten after Clayton County sheriff's deputies pulled over the vehicle he was riding in Friday with his girlfriend, their 5-month-old child and his stepson for an alleged broken taillight, his attorney, Shean Williams of The Cochran Firm in Atlanta said Sunday. The deputies asked for Walker's identification and got upset and demanded he get out of the vehicle when he questioned why they needed it since he wasn't driving, Williams said. The subsequent arrest, captured on video by a bystander and shared widely, shows two deputies on top of Walker, one of whom repeatedly punches him.
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| Domestic violence is a ‘shadow pandemic’ Posted: 13 Sep 2020 10:31 AM PDT  Approximately 24 people per minute are physically abused by an intimate partner in the United States, according to the Domestic Abuse Hotline. In what the United Nations has called a "shadow pandemic," cases of domestic violence have escalated as many women are forced to stay home with their abusers while many of their support systems have been disrupted.
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| Domestic violence is a ‘shadow pandemic’ Posted: 13 Sep 2020 10:31 AM PDT |
| Uganda and Tanzania sign $3.5bn oil pipeline deal Posted: 13 Sep 2020 10:17 AM PDT  East Africa's first major oil pipeline is expected to create tens of thousands of jobs.
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| Bernie Sanders: Biden win in November is no 'slam dunk' Posted: 13 Sep 2020 10:16 AM PDT  Bernie Sanders is warning that if onetime rival Joe Biden doesn't do more to promote his policies and reach out to Latino voters, the Democratic presidential nominee is at risk of falling short to President Donald Trump this November. Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist who left the primary race in the spring and has worked to shift Biden to the left on key issues, has made the warnings in public and private in recent days. Most recently, he went on MSNBC on Sunday to express concerns that Biden wasn't speaking up enough about his economic proposals.
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| Central American refugees stopped by Trump, then by pandemic Posted: 13 Sep 2020 09:59 AM PDT  After years of waiting in countries marred by violence, Central Americans who were finally cleared to reunite with their families in the U.S. are facing a major obstacle: the coronavirus pandemic. Only about 338 — or 12% — of 2,700 people approved to come to the U.S. through a small refugee program have arrived since a court settlement more than a year ago, according to the latest government data. President Donald Trump has shut down the program, but a judge said those already cleared could travel.
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| Groups turn to hotels to shelter fire evacuees amid virus Posted: 13 Sep 2020 09:50 AM PDT  Fearing one disaster will feed another, relief groups are putting some people who fled their homes during West Coast wildfires into hotels to reduce the spread of the coronavirus, stringing up shower curtains to separate people in group shelters and delivering box lunches instead of setting up buffets. Large disaster response organizations like the American Red Cross are still operating some traditional shelters in gyms and churches, where they require masks, clean and disinfect often and try to keep evacuees at least 6 feet (2 meters) apart. The groups say they can reduce the risk of COVID-19 in a shelter but can't keep people safe if they don't evacuate from the flames.
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| Belarus protests enter 6th week, still demand leader resign Posted: 13 Sep 2020 09:26 AM PDT  More than 100,000 demonstrators calling for the authoritarian president of Belarus to resign marched through the capital of Minsk on Sunday as the daily protests that have gripped the nation entered their sixth week. Many in the crowd, which the human rights group Viasna estimated as numbering more than 150,000, carried placards critical of Russia, reflecting concerns about President Alexander Lukashenko's planned meeting on Monday with Russian President Vladimir Putin. It would be their first face-to-face contact since the unrest broke out in Belarus after the Aug. 9 presidential election that officials say gave Lukashenko a sixth term with 80% support.
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| The Secret History of America's Only WWII Refugee Camp Posted: 13 Sep 2020 09:19 AM PDT  Elfi Strauber was 11 years old when she boarded the USS Henry Gibbins in Naples, Italy. It was the summer of 1944, and she was traveling with her parents and sister, hundreds of wounded soldiers and close to 1,000 other Jewish war refugees. The overcrowded troop ship was heading to New York, escorted by a convoy of warships and two transport vessels carrying Nazi prisoners of war -- protection against German attack.About midway through the 20-day journey, word raced among the passengers: A Nazi U-boat had been detected. The ship engines shut down. Parents clasped their hands over their children's mouths. It was late at night, and Elfi couldn't find her mother during the silent scramble to go on deck in case the ship was torpedoed. They were told to be prepared to jump into lifeboats.Not in two years of running from the Nazis, not even in an Italian concentration camp, had Elfi been separated from her mother. She wasn't ready to start now. She decided she would refuse to jump into a lifeboat without her.But before she had to act on the decision, the danger passed. They'd managed to evade detection. Within minutes, her mother emerged, sheepish. She had accidentally locked herself in a bathroom.When the ship arrived at a pier on the West Side of Manhattan, Elfi looked on as the adults around her wept with joy, overcome with relief at the lights of the city. They were among 1,000 people whom President Franklin Roosevelt had invited to stay at what would be the only refugee center in the United States during World War II. Most were Jews who had lived through concentration camps. They'd lost their homes and loved ones. They were the lucky ones.After the night on the ship, the refugees were herded by U.S. soldiers into a Quonset hut on the pier where men and women were separated. They were ordered to strip and were sprayed with DDT. Elfi obeyed, mortified, as the soldiers sprayed her hair, and all over her body, down to her toes. None of the refugees set foot in New York City proper.The next evening, an overnight train took them to Fort Ontario in Oswego, New York, an hour north of Syracuse. Elfi remembers the adults' fear and confusion when they arrived Aug. 5, 1944, and from the train saw fences encircling the camp."All we saw was a barbed-wire fence and American soldiers," said Ben Alalouf, another child refugee who made the journey. Alalouf had been born in a bomb shelter in Yugoslavia in 1941, and although he was just a toddler, he recalls the adults' panic. "Obviously, everyone thought it was a concentration camp."This is the overlooked saga of one of the more complex refugee experiences in American history -- and it is the single example of the United States sheltering people fleeing the Nazis. The public response to rescuing refugees in 1944 was no less confounding than it is today, 75 years after the end of World War II.The world is experiencing the biggest refugee crisis since World War II: Nearly 79.5 million people worldwide have been forcibly displaced from their homes, according to the U.N. refugee agency. Meanwhile, anti-immigrant ideology is on the rise, and global anti-Semitism is alarmingly resurgent.In 1944, Americans were by no means eager to welcome refugees; many actively opposed their arrival. Before the chosen "guests" arrived in Fort Ontario, nativists were saying it was dangerous for "Nazi-controlled peoples in Europe" to immigrate.Sen. Robert R. Reynolds, D-N.C., introduced a bill in 1939 that called for halting all immigration into the United States for 10 years. "Let's save America for Americans," he argued. "Our country, our citizens first." In 1941, Reynolds would suggest building a wall around the United States that "no refugee could possibly scale or ascend."For decades, nativists had lobbied Congress to guard against a "foreign invasion." In 1924 a national-origins quota limited immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe as well as Africans, Asians and Arabs. By the 1930s, nativists focused on a new slogan: "America's children are America's problem! Refugee children in Europe are Europe's problem!"This was the political landscape when Oswego -- a city of just over 18,000 mostly blue-collar factory and mill workers -- became home to the shelter. It was supposed to be the first of many temporary relief camps. It turned out to be the only one.As the refugees settled in, some Oswegans regarded the camp with suspicion. Rumors circulated that the group was living in luxury. After a month's quarantine to ensure the refugees weren't carrying diseases, Fort Ontario held an open house -- partly to introduce the newcomers to the local community and partly to dispel rumors of fancy stoves and lavish accommodations.The camp was made up of nearly 200 buildings. Army barracks had been converted into two-story dormitories partitioned with slats of paperboard so families could live together, according to Paul Lear, a historian and superintendent of the Fort Ontario State Historic Site. Elfi and her sister shared a room with two cots; their parents were on the other side of the paperboard. Communal bathrooms and showers were down the hall. The arrangement was comfortable, although the thin, uninsulated walls provided no privacy. They would learn soon enough about Oswego's frigid winters.Frances Enwright, then 17, had lived across the street from the fort her entire life. She was used to waking up to the sound of the morning gun and going to bed with the evening gun. She would often watch the soldiers' dress parades through the fences.Her mother, born in Bari, Italy, told stories about arriving in New York at 18 and being able to get only the worst factory jobs, like cleaning sewing machines. She often spoke to her daughter in Italian.When the refugees arrived, Frances felt a kinship with them. Her four brothers were in the Army and so was her husband-to-be. "I knew my brothers were over there fighting," she said. "So that made it all feel closer -- they were there protecting the refugees."She first saw the refugees from her front porch. Townspeople were hovering at the fence, trying to speak to them. With her mother's permission, she and a couple of girlfriends ran across the street.During that first interaction across the chain-link fence, Frances spoke in English. How are you? How do you like it here? But they didn't understand. Then, she remembered that many refugees had hidden in Italy. "So I started speaking Italian," Enwright recalled recently. She is 94 and still lives in Oswego. "Oh, my God, their eyes lit up -- they were so happy to talk because now I spoke their language!"A flurry of conversations ensued. Her friends, who teased Frances when her mother spoke in Italian, were thrilled to have an interpreter. Frances took a maroon journal for autographs and asked the refugees to sign it. Pages filled up, with most messages in Italian.Seated at her kitchen table this year, Enwright said she would never forget the sadness in the refugees' eyes. Before she came to know a teenager who introduced herself as Eva Lepehne, Enwright didn't believe the stories of persecution she'd read in the news. She thought they were propaganda, an exaggeration.Eva signed Frances' book, and they became quick friends. Eva shared snippets of her life. She and her parents had fled from Germany to Northern Italy, where her mother got ill and died; her father was captured and killed by the Nazis. Her grandmother had immigrated to New York before the war. At age 13, Eva had no family left in Europe. She hid in Italy for four years with a young Jewish couple until she applied to board the Henry Gibbins and was somehow picked to come to America. On her own in a new country, Eva told her new American friend about how she passed her days caring for children at the camp.In 2004, Lepehne, who now lives in Memphis, Tennessee, and has four children, seven grandchildren and one great-grandchild, took her family to Fort Ontario to see her American refuge. Enwright happened to be volunteering as a tour guide at the Safe Haven Museum, part of Fort Ontario that memorializes its time as a refugee shelter. The two women fell into a tearful embrace, delighting in their serendipitous reunion after 59 years. They have since become regular pen pals.Interacting with the refugees, seeing their gaunt and frightened figures upon arrival and hearing their stories through the fence, many Oswegans had their eyes opened. But elsewhere, few Americans understood how dire the situation in Europe was. A 1944 poll found that less than a quarter of Americans believed that more than 1 million Jews had been killed. By then more than 5 million had been murdered. What's more, the refugees' arrival in the United States was at odds with the country's immigration policy.The State Department not only enforced strict immigration limits but also concealed information on the genocide in Europe. According to Rebecca Erbelding, a historian at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and the author of "Rescue Board: The Untold Story of America's Efforts to Save the Jews of Europe," the State Department feared that news of the mass murder of Jews in Europe would undermine its immigration stance.Her book details how, in 1943, Breckinridge Long, a patrician Missourian (and rumored anti-Semite) who managed visas for the department, suppressed harrowing information from Europe that described Hitler's plans to exterminate Jews. He later claimed he was looking out for national security. But the Treasury Department blasted the State Department and Long in a January 1944 memo to Roosevelt."If men of the temperament and philosophy of Long continue in control of immigration administration," the report suggested, "we may as well take down that plaque from the Statue of Liberty and black out the 'lamp beside the golden door.'"Within days of receiving the memo, Roosevelt created the War Refugee Board, tasking it to rescue and provide relief for victims of Nazi persecution. Immigration quotas did not change, but the board helped relief agencies provide resources to refugees and supervised projects in Allied countries. The immediate beneficiaries were refugees stranded in newly liberated southern Italy.In June 1944, Roosevelt approved the plan for the Emergency Refugee Shelter in Fort Ontario. Within weeks, hundreds of refugees were interviewed across Italy, and 1,000 names were selected out of 3,000 applicants. Key requirements included no men of military age (who could otherwise be fighting among the Allies), no one with contagious diseases and no separation of families.The official count of refugees who arrived in Oswego was 982, since some never showed up at the port. One baby was born during the journey, and he was dubbed International Harry by those on board.Roosevelt's invitation was not open-ended, though. The refugees signed statements agreeing to return to Europe when the war ended. They were in the United States under no official immigration quota, with no legal status. But they'd be safe.Ruth Gruber, a Jewish American, was assigned by the State Department to help escort the refugees from Naples to New York. She gave them English classes on deck, reassured them of their safety, befriended many of them and became their champion. Her memoir, "Haven: The Dramatic Story of 1,000 World War II Refugees and How They Came to America," documents the journey.After the shock of seeing the barbed-wire fence when they arrived at Fort Ontario, the refugees slowly began to feel safe. The younger children took classes set up in the camp; older students, after the month's quarantine, were bused to the city's public school.While nearly a third of the refugees were considered unemployable because of age or health issues, most adults registered to work. Some staffed the fort hospital and kitchens; others served as janitors and teachers, shoveled coal or had office jobs. The government paid those who worked full time $18 a month. Others were permitted to work outside the shelter, usually taking on heavy labor. Everyone had to abide by a curfew, with residents of the camp allowed outside it only with permission.A group of refugees started The Ontario Chronicle, an English-language newspaper devoted to editorials and news around the camp. Another group set up an internal movie theater.As the months dragged on, though, the adults grew restive. They felt plagued by the severe upstate winter and their inability to move freely, imprisoned by the fences and curfews.There was, however, a hole in the fence. Elfi's friends sneaked in and out at night and took the train to New York City. Her mother stealthily traveled one weekend to a niece's wedding in Manhattan.The children, for the most part, flourished. Although she was only 11 when she arrived, Elfi tagged along with the camp teenagers, especially David Hendell, whom she'd met in Rome. She had a crush on the boy, who was four years older. In the summertime, they'd climb rocks overlooking Lake Ontario and jump in the water, where he taught her to swim. She learned to play Spin the Bottle. "It was the first time I got kissed," she recalled.Local children would go to the camp and flip bicycles or sleds over the fence for the children there. "I remember playing in the snow," said Alalouf, who arrived in Oswego as a 4-year-old.One afternoon Ben opened the door of his family's barracks to find two older women on the threshold. "I didn't understand. One spoke to me in Italian," recalled Alalouf, who is retired in Naples, Florida, with his wife of 55 years after a career in high school administration. "My mom recognized the lady and started speaking in French with her. It was Eleanor Roosevelt. I remember the excitement of my mother; she told me after: 'The president's wife! The president's wife!'"Eleanor Roosevelt, who had publicly endorsed legislation to admit refugee children into the country, visited the shelter in September 1944. She was received with great fanfare, inspecting the grounds and meeting refugees to ensure they were being well treated and had medical supplies. The legislation, called the Wagner-Rogers Bill, was never passed.When the war in Europe ended, a national debate raged over how to handle the millions of displaced people. Returning troops had trouble finding work, and anti-Semitism was rampant.The Oswego refugees had promised to return to Europe. Yet a vast majority had nothing to return to.In late 1945, despite most Americans' disapproval, President Harry Truman issued a directive requiring that existing immigration quotas be designated for war refugees. He specifically directed that Fort Ontario's "guests" be given visas.So in early 1946, groups of the Oswego refugees climbed onto school buses, drove to Niagara Falls and formally registered at the Canadian border. They then returned as official American immigrants, eventually dispersing to 20 states.After the war, Alalouf's family found a dingy, mouse-filled apartment in Brooklyn, which he remembers happily as home. His father's first job outside the shelter was selling Nathan's Famous hot dogs in Coney Island, and his mother sold artificial flowers near their home. His brother was drafted to fight in Korea in 1951. In fifth grade, Alalouf formally changed his name from Benkl to Ben. When he was in junior high school, he became a shoeshine boy in the subway."I appreciate everything that I have in my life," said Alalouf, now 79. "My parents are the ones who sacrificed. I'm living off those sacrifices."Elfi's family moved to Manhattan, and at 18, she married her Oswego sweetheart, David Hendell. Ten years later, after having two children, they divorced. Elfi, known as Elfi Hendell, attended graduate school and has been a psychotherapist for most of her adult life.As the world has grappled with the coronavirus, she spent four months quarantined alone in her Manhattan apartment, where she has lived for 33 years. This July she finally traveled to Vermont to visit with her daughter, granddaughter and great-grandchildren for a week. "I'm fairly careful," she said. "But I got through World War II, I can't keep worrying about this."She thinks back occasionally on her life during the war, before she arrived in the United States. She remembers her sister and herself as little girls in Italy fleeing the Nazis, hiding in a convent in Rome under a fake identity, but it feels like someone else's life, like remembering scenes from a movie.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| AFNQL Marks the Anniversary of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Posted: 13 Sep 2020 09:16 AM PDT  WENDAKE, QC, Sept. 13, 2020 /CNW Telbec/ - The Assembly of First Nations Quebec-Labrador (AFNQL) wishes to mark, as it does every September 13, the anniversary of the adoption by the United Nations General Assembly of the Declaration recognizing and affirming the rights of Indigenous Peoples.
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| Syria's schools open amid anti-coronavirus measures Posted: 13 Sep 2020 08:04 AM PDT  More than 3 million Syrian students started school in government-held areas Sunday, marking the first school day amid strict measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, state media reported. Syria, which had a population of 23 million before its conflict began in March 2011, has registered 3,506 confirmed coronavirus cases as well as 152 deaths in government-held areas. The actual number of cases is believed to be much higher, as the number of tests being done in the country is very low and many people in rural areas are unaware they are carrying the virus.
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| Virus America, six months in: Disarray, dismay, disconnect Posted: 13 Sep 2020 07:34 AM PDT  For years, Erin Whitehead has been a committed fan of the crisis-fueled medical drama "Grey's Anatomy." She has watched its doctors handle all manner of upheaval inside their put-upon hospital — terrifying diseases, destructive weather, bombs, mass shootings, mental illness, uncertainty, grief. On Friday, March 13, 2020, a COVID curtain descended upon the United States, and a new season — a season of pandemic — was born.
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| Angry EU rounds on Johnson's claim of Brexit blockade Posted: 13 Sep 2020 07:33 AM PDT  The European Union on Sunday rejected an incendiary claim by Prime Minister Boris Johnson that the bloc is plotting to destabilise the UK as another week of Brexit high drama beckoned, headlined by a stormy parliamentary debate in London.
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| 10 things you need to know today: September 13, 2020 Posted: 13 Sep 2020 07:10 AM PDT |
| Teacher departures leave schools scrambling for substitutes Posted: 13 Sep 2020 07:00 AM PDT  With many teachers opting out of returning to the classroom because of the coronavirus, schools around the U.S. are scrambling to find replacements and in some places lowering certification requirements to help get substitutes in the door. The departures are straining staff in places that were dealing with shortages of teachers and substitutes even before the pandemic created an education crisis. Among those leaving is Kay Orzechowicz, an English teacher at northwest Indiana's Griffith High School, who at 57 had hoped to teach for a few more years.
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| US election spotlight mostly bypasses mainline Protestants Posted: 13 Sep 2020 06:59 AM PDT  The images were vivid: President Donald Trump brandishing a Bible outside an Episcopal church in Washington that had been boarded up amid racial injustice protests. It's one of the few times that a mainline Protestant denomination entered the national spotlight amid a volatile election year abounding in political news about evangelicals and Catholics.
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| The Zhenhua files: Who is on the Chinese database? Posted: 13 Sep 2020 06:27 AM PDT  Royals The Zhenhua files contain a family tree of British royals, with profiles of the Queen, Prince Charles, the Dukes of Cambridge and Sussex, the Duchess of Cornwall and Princess Diana. Also listed is Prince Michael, the Queen's cousin, who has led a delegation of British businessmen on a trade mission to China, and Peter Phillips, the monarch's grandson. Mr Phillips was criticised earlier this year when he appeared in a Chinese television advert for a state-owned milk company. The database's entry for Prince Charles contains a brief description of his interests, including his work as a writer, polo player, entrepreneur, painter, helicopter pilot and children's writer. The Prince of Wales qualified as a helicopter pilot in 1974, after which he flew in the 845 Naval Air Squadron. He served in both the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy. Charles is thought to be a China sceptic, and skipped a state banquet with President Xi Jinping during his visit to London in 2015.
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| Afghanistan peace talks begin – but will the Taliban hold up their end of the deal? Posted: 13 Sep 2020 06:23 AM PDT  Six months after the United States signed an historic accord with the Taliban of Afghanistan, the Islamic militant group has entered into talks with the Afghan government in Doha, Qatar. Meeting with the Afghan government was a condition of the U.S.-Taliban deal.That deal will end America's deadly and costly 19-year war in Afghanistan. But it did not resolve the Taliban's organized military campaign to unseat the Afghan government and rule the country under strict Islamic law. In Doha, the two sides are expected to debate a comprehensive ceasefire and discuss what the Taliban's role in governing Afghanistan should be, among other topics.Talks were supposed to begin in March. But the Taliban's continued attacks on Afghan forces made that impossible. After a brief ceasefire and the release of 5,000 Taliban detainees from Afghan prisons, talks were rescheduled for Aug. 17. Then the Afghan government refused to release its last 320 Taliban prisoners unless the Taliban released more Afghan soldiers from its prisons, leading to another delay. The commencement on Sept. 12 of the "intra-Afghan" talks represents a significant step forward in the effort to end decades of war in Afghanistan, but peace is far from guaranteed. I've been tracking the progress of the U.S.-Taliban accord in my capacity as director of the Center for Afghanistan Studies at the University of Nebraska, Omaha. My analysis finds that implementation of the Trump administration's agreement has been halting.Even on the first day of talks, conflict in Afghanistan killed and wounded more than 100 people. What's in the US-Taliban accord?The four-part agreement between the U.S. and the Taliban committed the U.S. to withdrawing most of its soldiers from Afghanistan, which it is doing. In exchange, the Taliban provided assurances that Afghanistan would no longer be used as a base from which to wage attacks against the U.S. and its allies. It also agreed to engage with the Afghan government. But the promises made by the Taliban to meet those goals were vague and very difficult to verify. Based on publicly available information, I find the Taliban has met only two of the seven conditions stipulated in its peace accord with the U.S.: releasing 1,000 Afghan prisoners and entering talks with the Afghan government.The remaining five conditions in the U.S.-Taliban deal essentially demand, in various ways, that the Taliban sever all ties with militant organizations, especially al-Qaida. Al-Qaida has long provided funds for the Taliban's insurgency in Afghanistan. In September 2001, just before the 9/11 attacks, it helped the Taliban assassinate a strong Afghan resistance leader, Commander Ahmad Shah Massoud. Broken promisesOn the first day of the intra-Afghan talks, Taliban deputy leader Mullah Beradar Akhund claimed in his opening remarks that the group had met the conditions of the U.S.-Taliban deal.But international and domestic observers of the Afghan peace process have been unable to confirm that the Taliban has severed its relationship with al-Qaida. In fact, according to a May 2020 United Nations report, the Taliban met with al-Qaida repeatedly in 2019 and early 2020 to coordinate "operational planning, training and the provision by the Taliban of safe havens for al-Qaida members inside Afghanistan." Since the U.S.-Taliban accord, violence levels in Afghanistan have actually increased. Some Taliban fighters have insisted they will continue their jihad "until an Islamic system is established," leading to concerns that the organization is not actually committed to peace. Peace deals generally have enforcement mechanisms that hold each side accountable for their pledges. That is not the case with the U.S.-Taliban deal. It contains no provisions for what will happen if the Taliban breaks their promises, beyond the U.S. pausing its troop withdrawal. The Qataris, who are hosting the Afghanistan peace talks, have no official power to pressure parties into compliance. Mutual distrust means the peace process could collapse. The Taliban does not accept Afghanistan's internationally recognized government as legitimate, though it has stood for three elections since taking power after the Taliban's regime was toppled by the 2001 U.S. invasion. That's why the Afghan government was not a party to the U.S.-Taliban agreement. Instead, the February 2020 deal merely committed the Taliban to direct negotiations with the Afghans. Hope and doubtSome U.S. government officials and former diplomats sharply criticized the concession to exclude Afghanistan's government from talks with the U.S. and the Taliban about the future of the country. "This deal is a surrender," wrote the longtime U.S. diplomat and ambassador to Afghanistan under President Obama, Ryan Crocker, in The Washington Post. [Insight, in your inbox each day. You can get it with The Conversation's email newsletter.]Polling shows the Afghan people were willing to make some compromises for peace. But many question whether the Taliban can be held accountable for what they've promised. They also fear losing the meaningful achievements that came out of international engagement in Afghanistan, such as women's empowerment, increased freedom of speech and a more vibrant press.Those rights – hard-won with American and Afghan blood – will be among the issues negotiated in the Taliban-Afghan talks. Since 2001, 2,219 U.S. troops and exponentially more Afghan civilians and soldiers lost their lives battling the Taliban. For Afghans, the fight continues to this day. The stakes of Afghanistan's peace talks are extremely high. Failure, said President Ashraf Ghani last month, is "not an option." This story is an updated version of an article originally published Aug. 26, 2020.This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.Read more: * Exchanging killers for peace in Afghanistan is wrong — and could have lasting consequences * Afghanistan's future: the core issues at stake as Taliban sits down to negotiate ending 19-year warSher Jan Ahmadzai worked in the Afghan government from 2002 to 2007 in different capacities. His last position was as scheduling manager for then-President Hamid Karzai.
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| Tory MPs urge Boris Johnson to use Brexit to impose tougher sanctions on Iran Posted: 13 Sep 2020 06:14 AM PDT  Tory MPs have accused the EU of "appeasing" Iran and called on the Government to use Brexit as an opportunity to impose sanctions on the Islamic republic. Likening the nuclear deal Brussels signed with Iran to "appeasement", they claim "the erratic and provocative conduct of Tehran" is justification for Britain to take a tougher stance like the US. Former Brexit minister David Jones and Bob Blackman, the executive secretary of the 1922 committee of Tory backbenchers, are leading the calls amid growing concerns over human rights abuses by Tehran's totalitarian regime. Writing for The Telegraph, Mr Jones, a former Welsh Secretary, said: "While still a member of the EU, Britain helped to negotiate the nuclear deal with Iran, which resulted in the suspension of all United Nations sanctions on the Islamist regime. "Despite the erratic and provocative conduct of Tehran since the deal was concluded, Britain has, with the other European powers, continued to support it. "Sadly, this has been the case for decades where policy on Iran is concerned. Even before the nuclear deal, Europe has generally pursued conciliation and arguably outright appeasement, to the extent of even overlooking vile crimes against humanity in order to avoid undermining relations with the Islamic Republic. "Why is the UK continuing to support EU foreign policy when we have already relinquished our membership of the club? Why are we standing by while Iran continues to demonstrate an undiminished commitment to malign activities, including aggressive regional destabilisation in the Middle East and the development and testing of ballistic missiles that could one day carry a nuclear warhead?" Supporting US President Donald Trump's decision not to recognise the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with Iran, he added: "The White House has been urging its closest allies to apply 'maximum pressure' to the Islamic Republic. Brexit offers Britain an opportunity to make a rational, positive change in British foreign policy and abandon timorous EU appeasement."
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| UK lawmaker: Trial of woman held in Iran since 2016 deferred Posted: 13 Sep 2020 06:04 AM PDT  A British lawmaker says a new trial that a woman with dual nationality expected to face in Iran on Sunday has been postponed, with no new date arranged. After speaking to dual-national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe's husband, Richard Ratcliffe, Parliament member Tulip Siddiq said in a tweet that the "trial" has been postponed. Siddiq added that Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 42, is "relieved, frustrated, stressed and angry" and that once again the dual British-Iranian national is "being treated like a bargaining chip."
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| Black scientists call out racism in the field and counter it Posted: 13 Sep 2020 06:03 AM PDT  University of Washington ecologist Christopher Schell is studying how coronavirus shutdowns have affected wildlife in Seattle and other cities. "I wear the nerdiest glasses I have and often a jacket that has my college logo, so that people don't mistake me for what they think is a thug or hooligan," said Schell, who is African American. Tanisha Williams, a botanist at Bucknell University, knows exactly which plants she's looking for.
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| Iraq's top Shiite cleric backs early parliamentary elections Posted: 13 Sep 2020 05:28 AM PDT  Iraq's top Shiite cleric on Sunday threw his support behind the prime minister's announcement that parliamentary elections will be held ahead of schedule next year, saying the timing should not serve the interests of political groups. Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani's comments came in a statement released by his office after a meeting with the U.N. envoy to Iraq, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert. Sunday's meeting was the first public face-to-face between al-Sistani and a foreign official since the spread of coronavirus in Iraq earlier this year.
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| Grandson of Harding and lover wants president's body exhumed Posted: 13 Sep 2020 05:18 AM PDT  The grandson of U.S. President Warren G. Harding and his lover, Nan Britton, went to court in an effort to get the Republican's remains exhumed from the presidential memorial where they have lain since 1927. James Blaesing told an Ohio court that he is seeking Harding's disinterment as a way "to establish with scientific certainty" that he is the 29th president's blood relation. The dispute looms as benefactors prepare to mark the centennial of Harding's 1920 election with site upgrades and a new presidential center in Marion, the Ohio city near which he was born in 1865.
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| Officials: Egyptian policemen detained over detainee's death Posted: 13 Sep 2020 05:17 AM PDT |
| Bloomberg to spend at least $100M to help Biden in Florida Posted: 13 Sep 2020 05:15 AM PDT  Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is committing at least $100 million to help Joe Biden's presidential campaign in the crucial battleground state of Florida. Bloomberg's late-stage infusion of cash reflects Democrats' concerns about the tight race in a state that is a priority for President Donald Trump. A victory for Biden in Florida, the largest of the perennial battleground states, would significantly complicate Trump's path to reaching the 270 Electoral College votes needed to secure a second term.
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| Mali coup: Opposition rejects transition deal as 'power grab' Posted: 13 Sep 2020 05:10 AM PDT  The country's military leadership is accused of ignoring demands made by other groups during talks.
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| As Trump played down virus, health experts' alarm grew Posted: 13 Sep 2020 05:00 AM PDT  Public health officials were already warning Americans about the need to prepare for the coronavirus threat in early February when President Donald Trump called it "deadly stuff" in a private conversation that has only now has come to light. "We're preparing as if this is a pandemic," Dr. Nancy Messonnier of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told reporters on Feb. 5. "This is just good commonsense public health."
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| Whistleblower's claims on Russian interference fit pattern Posted: 13 Sep 2020 04:41 AM PDT  A whistleblower's allegation that he was pressured to suppress intelligence about Russian election interference is the latest in a series of similar accounts involving former Trump administration officials, raising concerns the White House risks undercutting efforts to stop such intrusions if it plays down the seriousness of the problem. There is no question the administration has taken actions to counter Russian interference, including sanctions and criminal charges on Thursday designed to call out foreign influence campaigns aimed at American voters. Russian President Vladimir Putin "is not deterred," said Connecticut Rep. Jim Himes, a Democratic member of the House Intelligence Committee.
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| Russia polls test Putin's grip on power in wake of protests and Navalny poisoning Posted: 13 Sep 2020 04:24 AM PDT  Russians went to the polls on Sunday in regional elections that could prove a test for President Vladimir Putin and the ruling United Russia party. The president's approval ratings have sunk to historic lows this year amid a struggling economy, while protests continue in Russia's far east and neighbouring Belarus. The votes for governors and local councils are also being held in the shadow of the poisoning of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who remains in a German hospital after suddenly falling ill in Siberia last month. Mr Navalny's team are running a "smart voting" campaign, which encourages supporters to back whichever candidate in their area has the best chance of beating United Russia, whether they be from communist or nationalist parties. Around a third of the Russian electorate is eligible to take part in polls in 41 of the country's regions.
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| Israel to set new nationwide lockdown as virus cases surge Posted: 13 Sep 2020 03:51 AM PDT  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday announced a new countrywide lockdown will be imposed amid a stubborn surge in coronavirus cases, with schools and parts of the economy expected to shut down in a bid to bring down infection rates. "Our goal is to stop the increase (in cases) and lower morbidity," Netanyahu said in a nationally broadcast statement. The tightening of measures marks the second time Israel is being plunged into a lockdown, after a lengthy shutdown in the spring.
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| Defiant Belarus protesters set to march despite crackdown Posted: 13 Sep 2020 03:16 AM PDT  Belarus moved police vans and barbed wire into the centre of the capital Minsk on Sunday ahead of a new mass demonstration called for the eve of crunch talks between President Alexander Lukashenko and his main ally, Russia's Vladimir Putin.
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| Greek PM demands more EU help to handle homeless migrants Posted: 13 Sep 2020 02:39 AM PDT  Greece's prime minister demanded Sunday that the European Union take a greater responsibility for managing migration into the bloc, as Greek authorities promised that 12,000 migrants and asylum-seekers left homeless after fire gutted an overcrowded camp would be moved shortly to a new tent city. Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis blamed some residents at the Moria camp on the Greek island of Lesbos for trying to blackmail his government by deliberately setting the fires that destroyed the camp last week. Human rights activists have long deplored the squalor at the Moria refugee camp, which was built to house 2,750 but was filled with some 12,500 people who fled across the sea from Turkey.
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| Libyan medics already faced war, now the pandemic is surging there too Posted: 13 Sep 2020 02:00 AM PDT |
| Simon Coveney: 'Post-Brexit trade agreement still possible' says Irish minister Posted: 13 Sep 2020 01:57 AM PDT  A post-Brexit trade agreement can still be secured, the Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney has said adding that no deal would represent a failure of politics. The Irish Government has said the British Government's plans represents a "serious risk" to the peace process amid acrimony in the negotiations with the EU. Mr Coveney told the BBC's The Andrew Marr Show: "Both the British and Irish economies are going to be damaged significantly and that will be a significant failure of politics not anything else." He said there were difficult times as countries recovered from Covid-19 but Britain and the EU needed to press on and reach an accord. "It is possible to get agreement, it will probably be a basic pretty thin agreement." Coveney responded to a suggestion made by Boris Johnson that the EU could blockade British food to Northern Ireland. "There is no blockade proposed, and that is the kind of inflammatory language coming from No 10 which is spin and not the truth. "That is the whole basis of the Northern Ireland protocol which the UK designed, along with the EU together to protect peace in Northern Ireland… and that the British government is now looking to renege upon, which is why you sense a frustration in my voice." Ireland is "arguably, your closest friend", Mr Coveney added. "The British Government is behaving in an extraordinary way and British people need to know that, because outside of Britain the reputation of the UK as a trusted negotiating partner is being damaged." The European Union is considering legal action against the UK after Mr Johnson pressed ahead with plans to override parts of the Withdrawal Agreement.
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| Paulette rolls toward Bermuda; Sally threatens Gulf Coast Posted: 12 Sep 2020 11:49 PM PDT  Residents of Bermuda were urged to prepare to protect life and property ahead of Hurricane Paulette, while Tropical Storm Sally threatened to intensify into a hurricane as it approached the U.S. Gulf Coast. Paulette gained hurricane status late Saturday and was expected to bring storm surge, coastal flooding and high winds to Bermuda, according to a U.S. National Hurricane Center advisory. Bermuda's government announced that L.F. Wade International Airport would close Sunday evening, and government buildings would be closed on Monday and Tuesday.
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| Winds a worry as death toll reaches 33 from West Coast fires Posted: 12 Sep 2020 10:41 PM PDT  Nearly all the dozens of people reported missing after a devastating blaze in southern Oregon have been accounted for, authorities said over the weekend as crews battled wildfires that have killed at least 33 from California to Washington state. The flames up and down the West Coast have destroyed neighborhoods, leaving nothing but charred rubble and burned-out cars, forced tens of thousands to flee and cast a shroud of smoke that has given Seattle, San Francisco and Portland, Oregon, some of the worst air quality in the world. The so-called red flag warnings stretched from hard-hit southern Oregon to Northern California and extended through Monday evening.
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| Trump pushes into Nevada, questions integrity of election Posted: 12 Sep 2020 10:30 PM PDT  Kicking off a Western swing, President Donald Trump barreled into Nevada for the weekend, looking to expand his path to victory while unleashing a torrent of unsubstantiated claims that Democrats were trying to steal the election. Trump defied local authorities by holding a Saturday night rally in tiny Minden after his initial plan to hold one in Reno was stopped out of concern it would have violated coronavirus health guidelines. Unleashing 90-plus minutes of grievances and attacks, Trump claimed the state's Democratic governor tried to block him and repeated his false claim that mail-in ballots would taint the election result.
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| Gunman sought after California deputies shot in patrol car Posted: 12 Sep 2020 08:28 PM PDT  Authorities searched Sunday for a gunman who shot and critically wounded two Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies who were sitting in their squad car — an apparent ambush that drew a reward for information and an angry response from the president. The 31-year-old female deputy and 24-year-old male deputy underwent surgery Saturday evening, Sheriff Alex Villanueva said in a late-night news conference. "They performed in an admirable fashion in spite of grave adversity," Villanueva said Sunday during a conversation with local religious leaders.
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| Philippines deports US Marine in transgender killing Posted: 12 Sep 2020 06:57 PM PDT  A U.S. Marine convicted of killing a Filipino transgender woman was deported Sunday after a presidential pardon cut short his detention in a case that renewed outrage over a pact governing American military presence in the Philippines. Joseph Scott Pemberton said in a farewell message that he was "extremely grateful" to President Rodrigo Duterte for pardoning him and expressed his "most sincere sympathy" to the family of Jennifer Laude, who he was convicted of killing in 2014 in a motel northwest of Manila after finding out that she was a transgender. In his nearly six years of confinement, Pemberton said he spent "much time contemplating the many errors" he committed the night Laude died.
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