| Mozambique's jihadists and the 'curse' of gas and rubies Posted: 17 Sep 2020 04:42 PM PDT  Three years into an escalating insurgency, the president admits the "resource curse" is to blame.
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| Trump keeps the world guessing on U.N. speech Posted: 17 Sep 2020 04:37 PM PDT  The White House has not said whether the president will travel to United Nations headquarters in New York to give his remarks. Other world leaders are staying home.
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| Biden on Brexit: pro-EU and pro-Irish Posted: 17 Sep 2020 05:44 PM PDT  Joe Biden, with his defense of the Northern Ireland peace accord, has issued a warning to Britain over Brexit and support for an EU bruised by Donald Trump while making it clear he would preside over the Atlantic alliance.
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| Africa's week in pictures: 11 - 17 September 2020 Posted: 17 Sep 2020 04:00 PM PDT  A selection of the week's best photos from across the continent and beyond.
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| Trump downplays legacy of slavery in appeal to white voters Posted: 17 Sep 2020 02:37 PM PDT  President Donald Trump intensified efforts to appeal to his core base of white voters on Thursday by downplaying the historical legacy of slavery in the United States and blasting efforts to address systemic racism as divisive. The president's comments marking the 233rd anniversary of the signing of the Constitution amounted to a defense of white culture and a denunciation of Democrats, the media and others who he accused of trying to indoctrinate school children and shame their parents' "whiteness." Trump has long fanned the nation's culture wars, including defending the display of the Confederate battle flag and monuments of Civil War rebels from protesters seeking their removal.
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| US accuses Hezbollah of storing explosive chemical in Europe Posted: 17 Sep 2020 02:25 PM PDT |
| Gulf between White House's words, Trump's actions on masks Posted: 17 Sep 2020 01:14 PM PDT  White House officials insist that President Donald Trump strongly supports face masks to prevent the spread of coronavirus and always has. Trump initially dismissed mask wearing for himself, then allowed himself to be seen wearing one while visiting a military hospital. On Wednesday, after the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told Congress that his mask might even be a better guarantee than a vaccine against the virus, Trump publicly undercut Dr. Robert Redfield.
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| Chad officer briefly freed by family in court fracas Posted: 17 Sep 2020 12:39 PM PDT  The military officer had just been sentenced for murder when relatives hauled him out of the dock.
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| Photos fuel concerns over in-custody death of La. Black man Posted: 17 Sep 2020 12:21 PM PDT  Graphic photos that surfaced online this week appear to show deep bruises on the face of a Black man who died following a police chase in Louisiana last year, raising new questions about whether his injuries were caused by the crash that ended the chase or an ensuing struggle with state troopers. Separately, the family of 49-year-old Ronald Greene released images of the SUV involved in the May 2019 crash — showing that the vehicle appeared to have sustained only minor damage to its driver's side. The juxtaposition fueled calls for State Police to release body-camera footage of the chase and what the agency recently acknowledged was a "struggle" to take Greene into custody after he drove off the road in rural northern Louisiana near Monroe.
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| Trump aims to boost rural turnout in critical Wisconsin Posted: 17 Sep 2020 12:12 PM PDT  President Donald Trump is aiming to boost enthusiasm among rural Wisconsin voters Thursday, looking to repeat his path to victory four years ago. Making his fifth visit to the pivotal battleground state this year, Trump views success in the state's less-populated counties as critical to another term. Earlier Thursday, in a speech at the National Archives to commemorate Constitution Day, he derided The New York Times' "1619 Project," which aims to reframe the country's history by highlighting the consequences of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans.
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| AP-NORC poll: Trump faces deep pessimism as election nears Posted: 17 Sep 2020 11:58 AM PDT  Less than seven weeks before Election Day, most Americans are deeply pessimistic about the direction of the country and skeptical of President Donald Trump's handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Roughly 7 in 10 Americans think the nation is on the wrong track, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. It's an assessment that poses a challenge for Trump as he urges voters to stay the course and reward him with four more years in office instead of handing the reins of government to Democrat Joe Biden.
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| ‘Steady drumbeat of misinformation’: FBI chief warns of Russian interference in US elections Posted: 17 Sep 2020 11:54 AM PDT  * Chris Wray says bureau has seen 'very active efforts by Russians' * Efforts are primarily meant to denigrate Joe BidenChristopher Wray, the FBI director, on Thursday warned that Russia is interfering in the 2020 US presidential elections with a steady stream of misinformation aimed at undermining Democrat Joe Biden as well as sapping Americans' confidence in the election process.Moscow is also attempting to undercut what it sees as an anti-Russian US establishment, Wray told the Democratic-led House of Representatives' homeland security committee in a hearing on Capitol Hill.He said his biggest concern was a "steady drumbeat of misinformation" that he said he feared could undermine confidence in the result of the 2020 election.Wray repeatedly addressed election meddling in his testimony to the House committee, saying the bureau is committed to blocking such interference efforts in this year's elections.He specifically said the bureau has witnessed "very active efforts by the Russians to influence our election in 2020".Russian agents, Wray said, were mainly trying to affect the election through "malign foreign influence", such as social media, state media and the use of proxies.He noted the Russians' efforts were meant "primarily to denigrate vice-president Biden and what the Russians see as kind of an anti-Russian establishment".Wray's testimony follows a 7 August warning by the director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center that Russia, China and Iran were all trying to interfere in the 3 November election.Multiple reviews by US intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia acted to boost Donald Trump's 2016 campaign and damage his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton. The Republican president has long bristled at that finding, which Russia officially denies despite special counsel Robert Mueller indicting Russian operatives for meddling in order to help Trump.Trump himself has repeatedly and without evidence questioned the increased use of mail-in ballots, a long established method of voting in the United States which are expected to see a surge in use this election cycle because of the risks of the coronavirus. On Thursday Trump wrote on Twitter, without evidence, that they could make it impossible to know the election's true outcome.After a series of wild tweets about election chaos, Twitter slapped a label on one of the president's tweets about voting by mail, which the president has falsely claimed is particularly vulnerable to voter fraud.On China, Wray said that the FBI is so active in monitoring Chinese efforts to acquire US technology and other sensitive information that it is opening a new counterintelligence investigation related to China "every 10 hours".Wray said the FBI is conducting multiple investigations into violent domestic extremists. He said the largest "chunk" of investigations were into white supremacist groups.The director took a question about threats of domestic terrorism, specifically about anti fascist radical activists known collectively as Antifa, which the president has repeatedly denigrated.Wray emphasized that the FBI did not view threats in terms of liberal or conservative politics. "We're focused on the violence, not the ideology," he said.
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| Dominic Raab urges US politicians to turn fire on Brussels over Brexit talks Posted: 17 Sep 2020 11:53 AM PDT  Dominic Raab, the Foreign Secretary, has urged US politicians to pressure Brussels into publicly ruling out a hard border on the island of Ireland, after the UK's own position was criticised by Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. On the third day of a visit to Washington DC that risked being overshadowed by the very public warnings from Democrats over Brexit talks, Mr Raab used a CNN interview to try to turn the spotlight onto the European Union. "I think it would be helpful for all those concerned about this to elicit the same unilateral, absolute commitment not to require any infrastructure at the border between the North and the South. So far it's actually only the UK that has said that," Mr Raab said. He added: "I think actually if the EU did come out and make the same commitment it would also help the negotiations. So I hope our American colleagues will reinforce that point on both sides."
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| US accuses Hezbollah of stockpiling weapons and ammonium nitrate across Europe Posted: 17 Sep 2020 11:53 AM PDT  State department's Nathan Sales says group 'represents clear and present danger to the US' and urges Europe to take tougher lineThe US has accused Hezbollah of storing caches of weapons and ammonium nitrate for use in explosives across Europe in recent years, with the alleged aim of preparing for future attacks ordered by Iran.The allegation was made by the state department's counterterrorism coordinator, Nathan Sales, who called on European countries to take a tougher line on the Tehran-backed Lebanese Shia political movement and militia.The claim that Hezbollah has been moving and storing ammonium nitrate around Europe comes six weeks after a warehouse full of ammonium nitrate detonated in Beirut's port, devastating the Lebanese capital.An investigation is under way into the blast and how the chemical, which is used as a fertilizer as well as in explosives, came to be left at the port for six years after being confiscated from a ship. Hezbollah is reported to have significant influence in the running of the port."I can reveal that such [Hezbollah weapons] caches have been moved through Belgium to France, Greece, Italy, Spain and Switzerland. I can also reveal that significant ammonium nitrate caches have been discovered or destroyed in France, Greece, and Italy," Sales said in a video appearance at the American Jewish Committee, a US-based advocacy group."We have reason to believe that this activity is still under way. As of 2018, ammonium nitrate caches were still suspected within Europe, possibly in Greece, Italy and Spain."Sales added: "Why would Hezbollah stockpile ammonium nitrate on European soil? The answer is clear. It can conduct major terror attacks whenever its masters in Tehran deem it necessary."The EU has designated Hezbollah's military wing as a terrorist group, but not its political wing, due to lack of unanimity on the issue. The UK and Germany have named the whole organisation as a terrorist entity earlier this year, and the US has been lobbying for the rest of Europe to follow suit."Hezbollah represents a clear and present danger to the US today. Hezbollah represents a clear and present danger to Europe today," Sales said."The bottom line is that the EU's approach since 2013 simply hasn't worked. The limited designation of Hezbollah's so-called military wing hasn't dissuaded the group from preparing for terrorist attacks across the continent. Hezbollah continues to see Europe as a vital platform for its operational, logistical, and fundraising activities. And it will continue to do so until Europe takes decisive action, as the UK and Germany have both done."The US allegations came at a time of steadily rising tension with Iran since Donald Trump withdraw the US from a 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran and began imposing a broad economic and financial embargo.This weekend, the US will claim that UN sanctions on Iran will be back in force, after a five year suspension following the nuclear agreement, though almost all the other members of the UN security council dispute the US has the right to trigger the reimposition of the sanctions.
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| Hizbollah 'smuggling ammonium nitrate to Europe for attacks' says US counterterrorism official Posted: 17 Sep 2020 11:41 AM PDT  Hizbollah has smuggled caches of ammonium nitrate to Europe to use in attacks, a top US counterterrorism official has said. The Iran-backed Lebanese Shia group had moved ammonium nitrate through Belgium to France, Greece, Italy, Spain, and Switzerland, Ambassador Nathan Sales, Coordinator for Counterterrorism within the US Department of State, told reporters in a briefing on Thursday. Ammonium nitrate, a chemical compound often used for explosives which is also sold commercially for use as a fertiliser, caused the August explosion at a Beirut port which killed 190 people and wounded over 6,500. Some 2,750 tonnes exploded when a warehouse caught on fire. Hizbollah, which has a political and a militant wing, is in control of parts of the eastern Mediterranean port. "Today the US government is unveiling new information about Hezbollah's presence in Europe," Mr Sales said. "Since 2012, Hezbollah has established caches of ammonium nitrate throughout Europe by transporting first aid kits that contain the substance. I can reveal that such caches have been moved through Belgium to France, Greece, Italy, Spain and Switzerland."
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| FBI director says antifa is an ideology, not an organization Posted: 17 Sep 2020 11:39 AM PDT  FBI Director Chris Wray told lawmakers Thursday that antifa is an ideology, not an organization, delivering testimony that puts him at odds with President Donald Trump, who has said he would designate it a terror group. Wray did not dispute that antifa activists were a serious concern, saying that antifa was a "real thing" and that the FBI had undertaken "any number of properly predicated investigations into what we would describe as violent anarchist extremists," including into individuals who identify with antifa.
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| Lightning storm, easterly wind: How the wildfires got so bad Posted: 17 Sep 2020 10:43 AM PDT  It began as a stunning light show on a mid-August weekend — lightning bolts crackling in the skies over Northern and Central California, touching down in grasslands and vineyards. The National Weather Service warned that the dry lightning striking a parched landscape "could lead to new wildfire." Thousands of bolts ignited hundreds of fires in California and at least one in Oregon, setting the stage for some of the most destructive wildfires the West Coast states have seen in modern times.
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| U.S. Farmers & Ranchers in Action Releases Report Spotlighting Agriculture's Role in Reaching UN Sustainability Goals at Annual Honor the Harvest Forum Posted: 17 Sep 2020 10:38 AM PDT  In a moment of possibility where financial, consumer and societal trends are converging around the need for new action on climate change, U.S. Farmers & Ranchers in Action (USFRA) this week issued a new report spotlighting the key role U.S. agriculture plays in reaching the United Nations' 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).
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| Britain backs down in Brexit 'food blockade' row Posted: 17 Sep 2020 09:18 AM PDT  Britain backed down in the "food blockade" row with Brussels on Thursday and agreed to EU demands for further details on its food and animal health regime after Brexit. The news emerged as a Government policy paper set out details of the compromise Boris Johnson struck with Tory rebels over the Internal Market Bill. The compromise makes it more difficult to trigger provisions that would break the Withdrawal Agreement and international law. Boris Johnson had accused the EU of threatening to cut off food supplies from mainland Britain to Northern Ireland during trade negotiations with the UK by withholding "third country listing". If British animals and animal products are not added to the bloc's Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) lists for non-EU countries, exports such as cheese, lamb, eggs and beef would be illegal in the EU and Northern Ireland. It will also be much harder for pets and racehorses to travel. Brussels said it needed clarity on what the UK's future rules would be from the end of the transition period on January 1, when the country leaves the Single Market and Customs Union. "Michel Barnier clearly stated that the EU is not refusing to list the UK as a third country for food imports," a commission spokesman said. "We are still waiting for comprehensive information on what the UK's future rules will be, in particular for imports, after 31 December 2020 and when these rules will be adopted." The spokesman said the UK had told Brussels it would use a modified version of EU rules on animal and public health. "We are waiting for this legislation to be put forward," he said. "We will be laying secondary legislation next month to clarify listing procedures in future," a UK government spokesman said, "we are operating the same rules and will be at the end of the transition period." The commission said listing could take place in a matter of days once the information was given. The UK was listed in 2019, once Theresa May's government showed legislation proving that the EU's SPS regime would effectively continue if there was a no deal. The prime minister used the "threat" of the blockade, which EU diplomats dismissed as "spin" and "fake news", to justify his Internal Market Bill. The Bill has no provisions over SPS but does on export declarations from Britain to Northern Ireland and state aid rules.
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| The National Museum of Finland returned Pueblo Tribes' ancestral remains from its collection for reburial in Mesa Verde, Colorado Posted: 17 Sep 2020 09:18 AM PDT  The ancestors and grave items, which are estimated to date back to the 13th century and were part of the National Museum of Finland's Mesa Verde collection, have been repatriated to the Hopi Tribe, the Pueblo of Acoma, the Pueblo of Zia, and the Pueblo of Zuni, indigenous tribes of the United States, to be reburied on Saturday 12 September 2020. This repatriation respects the 2007 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and its Article 12 on indigenous peoples' right to the repatriation of their human remains. This repatriation is the first to return grave findings of the indigenous peoples in the Mesa Verde region from abroad to the representatives of the descendants. The National Museum of Finland and representatives of the indigenous peoples of the Mesa Verde region carried out the return, in cooperation with the Finnish and United States authorities. The four-year repatriation process also came up in the meeting between President of the Republic of Finland Sauli Niinistö and President of the United States Donald Trump in October 2019.
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| UK bids to reassure over N.Ireland after Biden warning Posted: 17 Sep 2020 08:27 AM PDT  Britain on Thursday played down a warning by White House candidate Joe Biden of potential fallout on a future UK-US trade deal amid a Brexit war of words with the European Union.
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| US sanctions 2 Lebanon-based firms, Hezbollah-linked person Posted: 17 Sep 2020 08:23 AM PDT  The United States considers the Iran-backed Hezbollah a terrorist organization and has imposed sanctions on many of the militant group's officials in the past. The new wave of sanctions comes as Lebanon is passing through its worst economic and financial crisis in decades.
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| U.N. Accuses Venezuelan Officials Of Crimes Against Humanity Posted: 17 Sep 2020 08:20 AM PDT  United Nations investigators are accusing Venezuela's government of crimes against humanity. A panel appointed by the U.N. Human Rights Council says President Nicolas Maduro and other top officials were involved in systematic human rights abuses, including extrajudicial executions, forced disappearances and torture. A more than 400-page report from the U.N. team says the violence was part of an effort to crack down on opposition to Maduro's government.
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| U.N. Accuses Venezuelan Officials of Crimes Against Humanity Posted: 17 Sep 2020 08:20 AM PDT United Nations investigators are accusing Venezuela's government of crimes against humanity. A panel appointed by the U.N. Human Rights Council says President Nicolas Maduro and other top officials were involved in systematic human rights abuses, including extrajudicial executions, forced disappearances and torture. A more than 400-page report from the U.N. team says the violence was part of an effort to crack down on opposition to Maduro's government.
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| Feds explored possibly charging Portland officials in unrest Posted: 17 Sep 2020 08:05 AM PDT  The Justice Department explored whether it could pursue either criminal or civil rights charges against city officials in Portland, Oregon, after clashes erupted there night after night between law enforcement and demonstrators, a department spokesperson said Thursday. The revelation that federal officials researched whether they could levy criminal or civil charges against the officials — exploring whether their rhetoric and actions may have helped spur the violence in Portland — underscores the larger Trump administration's effort to spotlight and crack down on protest-related violence. The majority of the mass police reform demonstrations nationwide have been peaceful.
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| Infection rates soar in college towns as students return Posted: 17 Sep 2020 07:48 AM PDT  Just two weeks after students started returning to Ball State University last month, the surrounding county had become Indiana's coronavirus epicenter. Out of nearly 600 students tested for the virus, more than half have been positive. Dozens of infections have been blamed on off-campus parties, prompting university officials to admonish students.
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| Cyprus: UN call to revive peace talks gets edgy welcome Posted: 17 Sep 2020 07:36 AM PDT |
| Top U.S. diplomat for East Asia calls China 'lawless bully' Posted: 17 Sep 2020 07:18 AM PDT |
| Survey: Democrats and Republicans Divided on Top Threats to US – COVID vs. China Posted: 17 Sep 2020 07:06 AM PDT |
| New info emerges on poisoning of Putin critic Alexei Navalny Posted: 17 Sep 2020 06:44 AM PDT  Associates of Vladimir Putin's biggest critic say he was likely poisoned with Novichok by way of a water bottle in his hotel room.
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| Biden wades into Brexit, issues warning over U.S.-U.K. trade deal Posted: 17 Sep 2020 06:39 AM PDT  The British government has for years hoped that President Donald Trump would give them the post-Brexit trade deal they crave. "We can't allow the Good Friday Agreement that brought peace to Northern Ireland to become a casualty of Brexit," Biden said in a tweet.
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| Biden wades into Brexit, issues warning over U.S.-U.K. trade deal Posted: 17 Sep 2020 06:39 AM PDT  "We can't allow the Good Friday Agreement that brought peace to Northern Ireland to become a casualty of Brexit," Biden said in a tweet.
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| Gay marriages rise 5 years after Supreme Court ruling Posted: 17 Sep 2020 06:33 AM PDT  Five years after the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriages around the U.S., more than a half million households are made up of married same-sex couples, according to figures the U.S. Census Bureau released Thursday. Since 2014, the year before the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same sex marriages, the number of married same-sex households has increased by almost 70%, rising to 568,110 couples in 2019, according to the Census Bureau's American Community Survey. Of the 980,000 same-sex couple households reported in 2019, 58% were married couples and 42% were unmarried partners, the survey showed.
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| Barr under fire over comparison of virus lock-in to slavery Posted: 17 Sep 2020 06:23 AM PDT |
| Virus hits Lebanese prison as inmates jockey for release Posted: 17 Sep 2020 05:49 AM PDT  Lebanon's largest prison grappled with an alarming coronavirus outbreak on Thursday as many inmates refused to take preventative measures or get tested under the impression that catching the virus could speed up their release as part of a rumored general amnesty, the head of the country's doctors union said. Over 200 of the 3,000 detainees at Roumieh Prison have tested positive in recent days, Sharaf Abu Sharaf, president of Lebanese Order of Physicians, told The Associated Press. The outbreak in the prison east of Beirut, notorious for overcrowding, comes as Lebanon is witnessing a sharp increase in coronavirus cases and deaths.
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| Ukraine urges Jewish pilgrims stuck at border to turn back Posted: 17 Sep 2020 05:32 AM PDT  Ukraine on Thursday strongly warned thousands of Hasidic Jewish pilgrims who have been stuck on its border for days that it won't allow them into the country due to coronavirus restrictions. Ukrainian authorities said about 2,000 people have gathered at the border with Belarus, in hope of traveling to the Ukrainian city of Uman to visit the grave of an important Hasidic rabbi who died in 1810, Nachman of Breslov. Thousands of the ultra-Orthodox Jews visit the city each September for Rosh Hashana, the Jewish new year.
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| Commvault Announces Climate Week Webinar with Forrester, Microsoft, WeTransfer Posted: 17 Sep 2020 05:30 AM PDT  Commvault (NASDAQ: CVLT), a recognized global enterprise software leader in the management of data across cloud and on-premises environments, announced today that it is bringing together an esteemed panel of industry experts to participate in a webinar focused on the environmental impact of data and how business can work to make it more sustainable. In recognition of Climate Week, Forrester, Microsoft, and WeTransfer will join Commvault on September 21 at 10:00 AM EDT / 4:00 PM CET to lead a conversation about how intelligently managing data can maximize its benefits, while minimizing the impact on the planet. The webinar, titled "Data is the New Oil? And Other Thoughts," will coincide with the United Nations General Assembly in New York City, and is part of several activities being hosted out of the Global Goals House in Berlin.
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| Celestica Releases 2019 Sustainability Report Posted: 17 Sep 2020 05:30 AM PDT |
| Joe Biden was told to stop 'lecturing' the UK after he warned Boris Johnson not to break his Brexit deal with the EU Posted: 17 Sep 2020 05:25 AM PDT  The Democratic presidential nominee waded into the UK's row with the EU over the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement on Wednesday night.
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| Lebanon's Hezbollah accuses U.S. of obstructing government formation Posted: 17 Sep 2020 05:19 AM PDT |
| Lebanon's Adib does not want to deviate from cabinet mission, source says Posted: 17 Sep 2020 05:17 AM PDT |
| Austrian minister to Trump: No, we do not live in forests Posted: 17 Sep 2020 03:45 AM PDT  The Austrian government has spoken up to correct U.S. President Donald Trump's claim that people in its country live in "forest cities." Trump recently cited Austria and other European countries as models of good forest management that U.S. states like California, which has seen devastating wildfires lately, should learn from. In an article Thursday for the London-based Independent, Austria's agriculture minister sought to set the record straight.
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| Some UK bars to close early amid rising COVID-19 infections Posted: 17 Sep 2020 03:41 AM PDT  Britain imposed tougher restrictions Thursday on people and businesses in parts of northeastern England as the nation attempts to stem the spread of COVID-19 before the colder winter months. Health Secretary Matt Hancock told the House of Commons that the new measures would include a ban on residents socializing with people outside their own households, ordering leisure and entertainment venues to close from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. and restricting bars and restaurants to table service only.
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| Israeli and Dubai diamond exchanges sign trade agreement Posted: 17 Sep 2020 03:21 AM PDT |
| What the world forgets about Angela Merkel Posted: 17 Sep 2020 02:55 AM PDT  Two years ago, I and millions around the world were shocked to learn that after a long stint in office that had begun when most of today's world leaders were minor regional officials or television hosts, Angela Merkel would not seek a fifth term as chancellor of Germany. Now perhaps just as many of us have a hard time believing that she really intends not to run again next year, despite her recent assurances to the contrary.How could she actually go? Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, Merkel's political heir, has made a hash of leading the Christian Democratic Party, which is now seeking a new chair; despite being considered the leading candidate as recently as 2019, Kramp-Karrenbauer now says that she will not seek the chancellorship herself. Meanwhile, Merkel's handling of COVID-19 has been widely praised; after decades of making what some had considered an idol of fiscal prudence, she is now insisting upon massive public investment in the ailing European economy, dictating the terms of continental engagement with China (whose ambitions she rightly fears), and facing down Russian aggression. For years it was impolitic to say so, but it is now undeniable: Germany stands alone at the head of European affairs every bit as much as it did during the time of the Hohenstaufens and the Hohenzollerns.What is often forgotten is that for all her cunning, the most salient feature of Merkel's leadership is its undeniably moral character. (How many of her glib American admirers, I wonder, are aware that she voted against legalizing same-sex marriage in 2017 and insists to this day that "marriage is a man and a woman living together"?) It was Merkel who took it upon herself to accept one million refugees in 2015, the victims of a crisis in whose making Germany and the rest of the continent had played no meaningful part. This was not an easy decision for her or for her country, but it was necessary. Men (in this case President Obama) make messes, and it is women who clean them up, often thanklessly. For reminding the world of the obligations that wealthy nations have toward the global poor, she deserves our lasting thanks. She showed us that even in its death throes, Christian democracy and the whole world of vanished humanism that it represents is the noblest political force to have emerged out of the ashes of the Second World War.It is one thing to have the right views. It is another entirely to be able to put them into effect and another thing still to do so with the quiet intelligence and personal dignity that have been characteristic of Merkel during her many years in power. She is among many other things a welcome antidote to cloying and at times frankly condescending ra-ra girl power stylings of so many female politicians in our own country. Unlike so many world leaders of either sex, she has a genuinely fascinating (and highly enigmatic) personality, and a life outside the realm of glad-handing summits, news conferences, and soundbites. I remain steadfast in my assertion that she is the only living politician whose memoirs I would be interested in reading.How will history remember Merkel? The iron force of her personality may have been enough to continue the Christian democratic experiment in Germany long after the old post-war optimism had exhausted itself everywhere else on the continent (to say nothing of the United States). There is no indication that it will outlast her or that its twin enemies, the antinomianism of the left or the atavism of the new nationalist right, will be held in check by its moral example.But the ephemerality does not lessen her achievement. It makes it all the more remarkable.Want more essential commentary and analysis like this delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for The Week's "Today's best articles" newsletter here.More stories from theweek.com How a productivity phenomenon explains the unraveling of America How the Trump-Russia story was buried The conservatives who want to undo the Enlightenment
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| Justice Dept.: Sedition charge may apply to protest violence Posted: 17 Sep 2020 02:25 AM PDT  In a memo to U.S. attorneys Thursday obtained by The Associated Press, the Justice Department emphasized that federal prosecutors should aggressively go after demonstrators who cause violence — and even sedition charges could potentially apply. Attorney General William Barr has been pushing his U.S. attorneys to bring federal charges in protest-related violence whenever they can, keeping a grip on cases even if a defendant could be tried instead in state court. The memo cited as a hypothetical example "a group has conspired to take a federal courthouse or other federal property by force," but the real thing took place in Portland, Oregon, during clashes that erupted night after night between law enforcement and demonstrators.
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| Navalny associates say Novichok was found on water bottle in his hotel room Posted: 17 Sep 2020 01:52 AM PDT  Alexei Navalny's associates say that the nerve agent used to poison the Russian opposition leader was found on a water bottle in his hotel room shortly after he fell ill on the plane back to Moscow. Mr Navalny, President Vladimir Putin's most prominent critic, was on a ventilator in a medically induced coma for weeks after falling suddenly ill on a flight from Siberia to Moscow last month. Several European laboratories independently confirmed that the top Kremlin critic had been poisoned with the Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok, previously used in the attack on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal in Salisbury. Mr Navalny's team revealed in a social media post on Thursday that the poison was found on one of the free water bottles that his colleagues retrieved from his hotel in the Siberian city of Tomsk shortly after Mr Navalny became unwell on the plane. The 44-year-old opposition leader was in Tomsk with his team in mid-August filming a video for an anti-corruption investigation and headed back to Moscow while some of his colleagues stayed behind, according to his spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh. Mr Navalny's colleagues went to his room as soon as they heard that he lost consciousness on the plane that later had to make an emergency landing. He was treated by Russian doctors in Siberia for two days before his medical evacuation to Germany.
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| Colombian Cops Killed, Maimed, and Sexually Abused Protesters During Anti-Police Uprising Posted: 17 Sep 2020 01:33 AM PDT  CALI, Colombia—The video shows two cops kneeling on a lone man in the street. He's prone and helpless, yet the officers continue to exert deadly force. As the man calls out that he can't breathe, onlookers plead for mercy. Later the man is pronounced dead, the video goes viral, and anti-police protests begin to sweep the country.Sound familiar? While the scene bears an eerie resemblance to the killing of George Floyd, the victim in this case was Bogota-based engineer and law student Javier Ordóñez. He was killed in the early hours of Sept. 9, allegedly for not following COVID-19 social distancing restrictions.Large-scale demonstrations against police brutality began the next day in Bogotá and soon spread to Medellín, Cali, Popayán, and other major cities. The protests have been compared to the Black Lives Matter and "Defund the Police" movements in the U.S. However Colombian authorities reacted to these marches with a brand of ferocity seldom seen stateside, repeatedly using live rounds and firing indiscriminately into crowds of unarmed civilians, and thus further fanning the flames of unrest.Minority Group Fears 'Genocide' in Trump-Backed Honduras"The police are systematically repressing us. They're depriving us of the fundamental right to peaceful protests," Alejandro Lanz, co-director for the human rights NGO Temblores, told The Daily Beast. "They are escalating the violence without regard to human life."Since then at least 13 protesters have been killed and 209 wounded. Multiple women also came forward to say they were sexually abused by officers after being detained. The crackdown was swiftly condemned by groups like Amnesty International and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and prompted charges of "state terrorism" from several media outlets in the country.In one telling incident, an underage protester died after being shot four times at close range, despite police claiming he was hit by "stray rounds." In another episode, three young female protesters were arrested and taken to a precinct bunker miles away from the demonstration site in Bogota. There the women said they were groped by officers who offered to "overturn" their arrest in return for sexual favors. The women eventually escaped when the precinct commander returned to the base and ordered them released. As they came under fire the protests turned violent, eventually leading to 194 officers injured and dozens of police stations being set on fire. Such intense resistance prompted the former Colombian president and current senator, Álvaro Uribe, to call for "a national government curfew, armed forces in the streets with their vehicles and tanks, deportation of foreign vandals, and capture of intellectual authors." For their part, demonstrators said they'd been left with little recourse to get their message across."This is all happening because of oppression," said Astrid Olaya, an activist and grade-school teacher in Cali, during an interview with The Daily Beast. "The people are only raising their voices, but unfortunately, in order to be heard, they must resort to vandalism. That's sad but it's also reality."Gimena Sanchez-Garzoli, a Colombian expert with the Washington Office on Latin America [WOLA], said the public's "grievances are legitimate" while also calling authorities' response a "disproportionate use of force [for] lethal or maiming purposes." "[Police] actions being caught on video and circulating all over just makes the anger grow," she said. "I Can't Breathe."All that roiling anger brings us back to the original video, which shows the killing of law student Ordóñez while in police custody, and which first spurred national outrage.According to witnesses, Ordóñez, 46, was accosted by a squad of officers just after midnight in the middle-class Villa Luz neighborhood in northwestern Bogotá. Police later claimed the father of two was in violation of coronavirus restrictions punishable by fine. However, witnesses also report the arresting officers appeared to know and verbally identify the victim, indicating he may have been deliberately targeted, according to a report by the North American Congress on Latin America [NACLA]."Before the police knocked him to the ground, [Ordóñez] appealed to his right to appear before the appropriate authorities if he had committed any illegal act. But the police simply held him down and began to shock him," NACLA reported.In the video shot by an onlooker, Ordóñez can be heard to say, "Por favor, no mas, me ahogo." [Please, no more, I can't breathe.] An autopsy revealed that Ordóñez had been Tasered more than a dozen times, also suffering blunt-force blows that left him with cranial fractures and a ruptured liver.Unfortunately, Ordóñez is only the latest in a long line of victims of police and military violence against civilians in Colombia. According to the U.N. Human Rights Commission, there were 15 extrajudicial killings by the country's security forces last year. Other sources, including a recent op-ed in The Washington Post, put the number much higher—claiming there have been as many as 639 homicides and almost 250 sexual assaults by police and soldiers since 2017.Two days after Ordóñez's murder, Defense Minister Holmes Trujillo offered a mea culpa of sorts, stating that "the National Police apologizes for any violation of the law or ignorance of the regulations [that] may have been incurred."By that point, however, the video of Ordóñez's gruesome death had been viewed by hundreds of thousands of people all over the world and the anti-protest crackdown was ongoing.Sergio Guzmán, the director of Colombia Risk Analysis, called Trujillo's apology "too little, too late" in an interview."There will be no attempts made at big changes [to police conduct] in the near future," as any such plans for reform would be "dead at birth," Guzmán said. "So that's where the apology problem is unfortunately magnified."Colombia's current president, Iván Duque, is a far-right Trump acolyte who campaigned on a strict law-and-order, pro-business platform. Duque has also shied away from reconciliation talks or meeting with victims' families."Duque and his ministers have not shown much empathy nor interest in victims of violence nor in changing the way the police operate against the general populace," said WOLA's Sanchez-Garzoli, who also accused Duque of pursuing policies aimed at rolling back human rights."Among the rollbacks we've seen is efforts to restrict social protests," she said. "The Cops Can Kill Us As They Please."Despite a 2016 peace agreement meant to end its long-running civil war, Colombia has been caught up in a wave of violence during Duque's first two years in office. That includes a string of mysterious massacres, as well as assassinations of leftist social leaders and activists. The country has also been hard hit by the pandemic, with per capita cases of COVID hovering among the highest in the world and leading to stark increases in unemployment and poverty.All of that made for something of a perfect storm when news of Ordóñez's killing broke."Colombians have been glued to social media, TV and radio, hearing about the protests concerning police brutality in the U.S. So when the video of Javier Ordóñez surfaced it just detonated all of these underlying frustrations and anger that had built up," said WOLA's Sanchez-Garzoli.Human rights director Lanz said there is a common ground underlying both nations' anti-police movements—in that both are triggered by creeping authoritarian tendencies and enabled by the sharing capacity of social media."We need to think globally about how we can change this notion of the police force in public space," Lanz said. "The police in all countries, not only in the United States and Latin America, tend to criminalize black people, young people, and LGBTQ people, and that directly impacts our freedoms and the right to engage in social movements."But there are intrinsic differences between BLM and what is happening in Colombia, said security analyst Guzmán."In the U.S. the problem relates to white supremacy," he said, whereas in Colombia the issue is more one of "impunity" for police officers. Instead of being tied to race, Guzmán described it "more as a cultural problem from within the police, the way the police work, the way they aren't held accountable" for their actions."This should be changed," he said, "but there is no favorable political environment for that."Activist Olaya agreed that the problem in her country was more about abuse of power for political and economic ends, as opposed to racial prejudice."In some ways I think our movement is very similar to what is happening in the U.S. [...] but a difference is that the police attack and intimidate us to protect the power of the elites and the oligarchs. There is no question we live in a dictatorship, and the [the cops] can kill us as they please without any implications."Some scholars have argued persuasively that the problems of racial injustice in the U.S. are also tied to questions like class inequality and neoliberal agendas. But what does seem to separate the two countries' police reform movements is a matter of scale. While some high-profile cases, like those of Breonna Taylor and Tamir Rice, tragically remain unresolved in the U.S.—in Colombia unsolved murders by security forces are the norm. Low wages and a lack of training mean that crooked cops are an endemic problem, and the nation's police force remains one of the most unethical in the hemisphere. "Colombia still has weak political capacity compared to the U.S.—the rule of law is far less ingrained in police forces [and] issues of corruption are also more of a concern," said Robert Bunker, a research director with the U.S. security firm C/O Futures."In Colombia a police officer is expected to literally get away with murder," Bunker said. "In the U.S. they are expected to be punished for such a heinous act."Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. 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