The Senate Intelligence Committee revealed it is still actively investigating whether elements of President Donald Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia to sway the 2016 U.S. election. VOA Senate correspondent Michael Bowman reports the committee’s chairman and the top Democrat said aggressive Russian meddling could become even more expansive, and all U.S. states must beware.
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At 52 years old, with two grown children, Newton Gunathileka thought he should be working less by this point. Instead he has never worked so hard — and earned so little.
Gunathileka, from the Sri Lankan village of Periyakulam, in the North Western Puttalam District, is among hundreds of thousands of rural Sri Lankans who have borne the brunt of the worst drought in four decades.
He has not seen any substantial rains on his farm in at least a year and has lost two harvests, resulting in a loss of more than 200,000 Sri Lankan rupees ($1,325) — and growing debts. He has now abandoned his two acres of rice paddy land and spends his time looking, mainly unsuccessfully, for other work in 40 degree Celsius heat.
“There is no work. Everyone, big or small, has lost out to the drought,” he said.
According to data released in September by the United Nations, there are hundreds of thousands of households like Gunathileka’s facing serious food security issues in Sri Lanka.
With rice production for 2017 expected to be the lowest in a decade, “over 300,000 households (around 1.2 million people) are estimated to be food insecure, with many households limiting their food intake and in some cases eating just one meal a day,” the United Nations update said.
The worst affected areas are the North Western, North Central, Northern and South Eastern Provinces that rely heavily on agriculture. The U.N. Office in Colombo said that affected households were in some cases limiting their food intake, which was hampering people’s day-to-day lives.
Eating their seed
Gunathileka, who hails from the North Western Province, said his family was now eating some of the rice that he had put away to use as seed for the next growing season.
“For the next month or two we are okay with rice, but we have been limiting eating meat, eggs and vegetables we buy from outside. The other big problem I have is my children’s higher education. If we can’t get a harvest at least by the end of the year both of them will have to work,” he said.
His daughter is taking a course in secretarial work while the son is getting ready to sit university entrance exams. The family now survives on about Rs 800 ($5) or less a day, and both Gunathileka and his wife earn cash doing whatever work they can find.
The U.N report also said that household debt was rising due to the drought. A World Food Program survey released in August said that debts of surveyed families had risen by 50 percent in the last year.
“Households reported that the amount of money owed in formal loans has not increased, indicating that families are turning to informal lenders for credit,” the WFP survey said.
Gunathileka said that he was thinking of using the deeds to his paddy rice land as collateral and seeking a small loan from local money lenders.
“The banks will not lend because I can’t show any income. [But] if I don’t get to pay back the money lenders, I lose my land,” he said.
Rain and aid
Government officials said they anticipated the island had weathered the worst of the drought, and rains expected in late October would bring more relief.
Recent rains have dropped the overall number of people affected by drought from 2.2 million a month ago to 1.7 million now, said G.L. Senadeera, director general of the government Disaster Management Center.
He said the government planned to distribute relief food packs worth Rs 5000 ($34) to about 200,000 drought-hit families and provide compensation up to Rs 8500 ($56) per acre for harvest losses this year.
The government’s drought relief efforts, which began in August and were accelerated in September, officials say, are expected to cost about Rs 2.5 billion (about $16 million), according to the Treasury department.
The World Food Programme said in its August report that of 81,000 families surveyed in the 10 worst-hit districts, only 22 percent had access to government relief by early August.
For now, Gunathileka and his wife look up to the sky each time they step out looking for work.
“All we see are clear skies. All we want to see are dark clouds over the horizon,” he said.
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Greece welcomed Wednesday a decision by senior archaeologists to conditionally permit a major tourism project in Athens, saying it cleared the way for the country to turn the site into one of Europe’s biggest coastal resorts.
The 8-billion-euro ($9.4 billion) project to develop the disused Hellenikon airport site is a key term of Greece’s international bailout and is closely watched by its official creditors and potential investors in the crisis-hit country.
Greek developer Lamda signed a 99-year lease with the state in 2014 for the 620-hectare (1,530-acre) area, once the site of Athen’s airport. But the project has faced delays, partly over a long-running disagreement between developers and those who fear it will damage the environment and cultural heritage.
Protection urged for part of site
After three inconclusive meetings in recent weeks, the Central Archaeological Council, an advisory body, recommended Tuesday that about 30 hectares (74 acres) of the 620-hectare plot under the project be declared an archaeological site.
“The decision is fine,” Deputy Economy Minister in charge of investments, Stergios Pitsiorlas, told Reuters. “The fact that a small area is declared of archaeological interest shields the whole process from future litigation.”
Pitsiorlas said the recommendation meant that archaeologists will have a closer supervision of construction work.
Backed by Chinese and Gulf funds, Lamda submitted its detailed development plan for Hellenikon in July, setting off a licensing process that will wrap up with a decree.
The Council approved the plan Tuesday and designated specific areas where construction should not be allowed. It was not immediately clear how the Council’s recommendation could affect Lamda’s construction plan.
Impact on development
Lamda said it was waiting to be officially notified over the decision before making any public statement, saying “the importance of the archaeological findings has been included from the beginning in the company’s undertakings.”
It said it should be able to assess the impact of the Council’s decision on its development plan once it has reviewed the resolutions and accompanying diagrams.
The recommendation is not binding, however, the culture ministry always respects the body’s decisions.
Greece on Monday overcame another hurdle to the project by winning an appeal over objections by forestry officials.
Hellenikon has become a major political issue in Greece, which is slowly emerging from a multi-year debt crisis.
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, whose leftist party strongly opposed it before coming to power in 2015, is now seen as keen to implement the deal to help boost economic activity and reduce unemployment, the euro zone’s highest.
Referring to the council’s decision, Deputy Foreign Minister Giannis Amanatidis said it was “a complicated process which was resolved in the best possible way.”
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The human rights group Amnesty International urged European nations on Thursday to stop sending Afghans who do not qualify for asylum back to their “deeply unsafe” home country, saying the policy risked causing serious harm to those affected.
The call comes after a steady rise in violence over recent years as the Taliban has gained ground across the country and cities including the capital Kabul have been hit by a wave of suicide attacks.
“Amnesty International is calling on all European countries to implement a moratorium on returns to Afghanistan until they can take place in safety and dignity,” the group said in a report issued on Thursday.
Sharp increase in return of refugees
It said the Afghan government should not cooperate with sending people back, despite its dependence on foreign aid.
The report follows a sharp increase in the number of Afghans returned from Europe, either as a result of forced deportation or “assisted voluntary return.” It said the total almost tripled from 3,290 to 9,460 between 2015 and 2016.
“In their determination to increase the number of deportations, European governments are implementing a policy that is reckless and unlawful,” said Anna Shea, Amnesty International’s Researcher on Refugee and Migrant Rights.
She said governments were being “wilfully blind” to evidence that violence was at a record high.
Afghans have been among the main groups of asylum seekers in Europe, with 108,455 first time asylum seekers registered in the European Union in the 12 months to the end of June, second only to Syrians, according to EU statistics agency Eurostat.
However numbers have fallen over the past year, dropping 24 percent between the first and second quarters and 83 percent between the second quarter of 2017 and the same period in 2016.
Afghanistan ‘deeply unsafe’
European governments, faced by voters angry at hundreds of thousands of arrivals from the Middle East, Africa and South and Central Asia over recent years, have cracked down, pledging to send rejected asylum seekers back to their home countries.
The policy has proved particularly controversial in Afghanistan, where many European governments say that despite widespread violence, safety is sufficient to allow returns to some parts of the country.
According to United Nations figures, at least 1,662 civilians were killed and 3,581 wounded in the first half of the year, with nearly 20 percent of civilian casualties coming in the capital Kabul itself.
“Afghanistan is deeply unsafe, and has become more so in recent years. Yet European countries are returning people to Afghanistan in increasingly large numbers, even as the violence in the country escalates,” the report said.
Jacques Dubochet, Joachim Frank and Richard Henderson have won the Nobel Prize for chemistry for their work to simplify and improve the imaging of biomolecules.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced the award Wednesday along with its $1.1 million prize.
The scientists developed a way to generate three-dimensional images of molecules, which the academy said has brought biochemistry “into a new era.”
“Researchers can now freeze biochemicals mid-movement and visualize processes they have never previously seen, which is decisive for both the basic understanding of life’s chemistry and for the development of pharmaceuticals,” the academy said.
Spain’s Catalonia region, which held an independence referendum Sunday amid a violent crackdown by federal police, could declare independence late this week or early next week.
Carles Puigdemont, the region’s leader, told the BBC the regional government would act once final vote counts are in.
Puigdemont plans to make a public statement Wednesday evening.
Catalonia authorities said 90 percent of those who voted Sunday wanted to break away from Spain and declare an independent republic.
Voters braved sometimes violent attempts by federal police to close polling stations and prevent Catalans from casting ballots in the referendum, which Spain’s high court had earlier declared invalid.
Local authorities said about 900 people were injured in confrontations with police. The crackdown prompted international criticism and calls for dialogue between Madrid and the regional government.
Labor strikes and protests shut down transportation and businesses across Catalonia on Tuesday, while Spain’s king criticized the regional government, saying its “irresponsible behavior” put the stability of Catalonia and all of Spain at risk.
On Wednesday, Spain’s National Court said it was investigating two officials in Catalonia’s police force for sedition in connection with violent protests in September. Catalonia’s police force allegedly didn’t attempt to contain the unrest that resulted when national police forces raided regional government offices in a bid to quash the independence movement.
The leaders of two pro-independence civil groups are also being investigated on similar charges, a court spokesman said.
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In a historic, unprecedented move, a Georgian political party has nominated an openly gay candidate for public office.
Running on the non-parliamentary opposition Republican Party ticket, Nino Bolkvadze, a 40-year-old lawyer and LGBT rights advocate, is seeking a city councillorship in Tbilisi, the nation’s capital and largest city.
“I want Georgia to be a better place for my children,” said Bolkvadze, a single mother of two teenage girls who was shunned by her family for coming out on the country’s most popular TV show two years ago.
Established by dissidents some four decades ago and once outlawed by the Soviet Supreme Court, Georgia’s Republican Party became a full member of The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, a liberal-centrist political group of the European Parliament, in 2007.
“Do not vote for Nino simply because she is gay, there are plenty of reasons why voters should choose her,” said Tamar Kordzaia, the Republican Party’s secretary general. She went on to list some concerns that Bolkvadze vows to tackle: “Single mothers’ programs; representing minorities; working with vulnerable social groups; creating LGBT shelters.”
Kordzaia said Bolkvadze, as both a lawyer and activist, has had direct experience working on those issues.
Politically tactical move
“Ahead of local elections, we announced [that] our doors were open for anyone willing to participate in politics,” Kordzaia told VOA’s Georgian Service, recalling how Bolkvadze’s nomination was formulated. “There were only two prerequisites—a candidate must not be pro-Russian and shall be of liberal ideology.”
Bolkvadze, one of the first to respond, was nominated amidst the tumult of a constitutional amendment forged by parliament’s ruling Georgian Dream coalition, in which legislators sought to shore up conservative populist support by constitutionally protecting marriage as “a union between a man and a woman.” While Georgian law has long defined marriage as a “voluntary union of a man and woman,” it had not been constitutionally inscribed.
LGBT activists, including Bolkvadze, say violence against sexual minorities, not same sex marriage, is Georgia’s number one LGBT issue, and yet parliamentarians appear to be pursuing a more cosmetic, populist agenda instead of tackling the more immediate threat of violence driven by homophobia.
“LGBT rights are grossly violated, and [the local] environment is hostile,” said Bolkvadze. “Almost daily I encounter cases of physical violence, stabbing, or killing. All motivated by hatred.”
Legislative proposals
Aside from nominating Bolkvadze, Georgia’s Republican Party is also advancing a “Civil Contract of Partnership,” a bill that, if passed, would legally recognize civil partnerships between same sex couples. By introducing civil partnership into legislation regulating inheritance and property transactions between couples, Republican Party officials say sexual minorities would have a legal framework within which they could exercise their rights.
Policy in the Southern Caucuses nation, where Russia controls two breakaway regions, is closely tied to the Georgian Orthodox Church.
“[The] government’s homophobic policy is backed by the church,” Bolkvadze said. “The two together are oppressive institutions.”
According to International Republican Institute polls, Georgia’s Orthodox Church ranks number one among Georgia’s most trusted institutions, whereas parliament ranks tenth.
Republican Party officials are also calling to revisit state financing for the church, a move that, according to some experts, has a legal basis.
“The constitution itself is contradictory on this,” said Paul Crego, a researcher at the U.S. Library of Congress who has studied Georgia since 1970s, who spoke with VOA’s Georgian Service in August.
“It talks about freedom of religion and conscience, and then it gives the Georgian Orthodox Church a special place,” he said. “There is also a [2002] concordat, (a treaty between parliament and the church0that ratifies some of that special status. There are some people who think that the concordat made the Orthodox Church a state church. Not quite, but close, in some areas.”
For a Georgian political party, nominating an openly gay candidate it is not considered a winning strategy. But Levan Tsutskiridze, executive director at The Hague-headquartered Eastern European Centre for Multiparty Democracy, calls it is a milestone for Georgian political culture, where minorities have long been left out.
“Political parties have been shying away from discussing their issues,” said Tsutskiridze, who called the nomination a “bold move” that could backfire in the short-term while paying dividends over time.
“Projections are not the best for Republicans at this election, but if they position themselves as a liberal party, their ideology will pay off electorally.”
LGBT milestone
For members of Georgia’s long oppressed LGBT community, Bolkvadze’s political debut is an inspiration.
“Incrementally, society will get used to LGBT people and realize that we are like everyone else we are able to coexist in the same society peacefully,” says Giorgi Tabagari, an LGBT activist.
Peaceful coexistence is something LGBT activists have had to fight for. Especially since May 2013, when police failed to contain anti-gay, Orthodox activists in downtown Tbilisi as gay rights activists were gathering along a main thoroughfare to mark International Day Against Homophobia.
At least twelve people, including three policemen, were hospitalized after sustaining injuries in separate incidents that day, which Tbilisi’s EU delegation condemned as “scenes of brutal intolerance and violence.”
Later, Tbilisi City Court dropped criminal charges against Orthodox priests who physically assaulted rights activists.
Although Tabagari, the LGBT activist, does not believe Bolkvadze’s nomination will significantly change politics in Georgia, “It will always serve as a precedent, and hopefully other political parties will be more open to bold political steps of this sort.”
Meanwhile, Bolkvadze continues her legal work and, so far, hasn’t seen any backlash from her candidacy.
“I still take public transport, still walk around, as I used to do before this announcement,” she says. “So far, so good. No aggression has been expressed.”
This story originated in VOA’s Georgian Service.
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Ford Motor Co.’s new CEO plans to cut $14 billion in costs, drop some car models and focus the company’s resources on trucks, SUVs and electric vehicles as part of a renewed effort to win over skeptical investors.
Jim Hackett, who became Ford’s CEO in May, met with around 100 investors Tuesday in New York to lay out his plans for the future. He said getting the company lean and flexible will help it handle the changes the auto industry is facing, from car-sharing to self-driving vehicles, to the shift to electric cars.
“I feel a real sense of urgency for what we’re doing here,” Hackett said.
Hackett and his executive team spent the summer reevaluating Ford’s operations after former CEO Mark Fields was ousted in May. Hackett traveled to Russia and Turkey and visited North American plants and Ford’s Silicon Valley research center as part of his review.
He said he was impressed by the talent at Ford, but wants to update factories and speed product development and decision-making. One of his first moves was to pare down the number of people reporting to him. Hackett has eight direct reports, compared to 18 for Fields.
Ford told investors it expects to reduce material costs by $10 billion by 2022 through new deals with suppliers and simpler designs. The company plans to share more parts between vehicles and reduce the options available for configuring a car. For example, customers can now order a Ford Fusion sedan in 35,000 possible combinations. Ford is reducing that to 96.
Ford also says it will cut $4 billion in engineering costs through 2022 by making fewer prototypes and reducing product-development time.
It plans to cut one-third of its engine development costs and redeploy them to electric and hybrid vehicles. Ford plans to introduce 13 new electrics and hybrids over the next five years, including a small electric SUV coming in 2020.
The company plans to reallocate $7 billion from cars to SUVs and trucks. Global demand for those vehicles is rising, and they are critical to Ford’s bottom line. Jim Farley, head of Ford’s global markets, said Ford plans more off-road SUVs like the upcoming Bronco for North America and more low-end small SUVs and seven-passenger SUVs for China.
The automaker plans to cut some cars from its lineup, but didn’t name them Tuesday. Farley said Ford will still offer small cars, like the Focus, but will stick to more expensive — and more profitable — versions.
Smarter vehicles
Ford emphasized that it’s open to new partnerships, such as its recent agreement with Indian automaker Mahindra Group to cooperate on mobility, electric cars and other projects. It is also working with ride-hailing company Lyft on self-driving technology and with China’s Zotye Automobile Co. about an electric car partnership.
The company says its vehicles will get smarter, with 90 percent of its global vehicles getting modem connectivity by 2020. That will allow things like software updates or apps that help drivers find parking. Ford can differentiate itself by offering, say, connected commercial vans that help small businesses keep track of their deliveries.
Marcy Klevorn, Ford’s head of mobility, said Ford launched a medical van service eight weeks ago that can pick up wheelchair-bound patients and take them to the doctor. The service uses Ford-developed software for scheduling appointments, and it will help the company figure out ways that consumers will eventually use self-driving vehicles.
“We have created a box of assets that we can pull out and use for various things,” Klevorn said.
Share price
Ford stuck to its previous guidance for 2017 on Tuesday. The company expects adjusted earnings of $1.65 to $1.85 for the full year. Ford earned $1.76 per share 2016.
Hackett, the former CEO of office furniture company Steelcase Inc., joined Ford’s board in 2013. He briefly led Ford’s mobility unit before being tapped as CEO.
Ford hired Hackett, in part, to turn around its share price, which has languished for the last two years even as rival General Motors Co. saw its shares rise to their highest level in seven years. Ford sunk below Tesla Inc. in market value earlier this year, even though it earned $4.6 billion in 2016 and Tesla has never made a full-year profit.
Ford’s shares rose 2 percent to close at $12.34 Tuesday before Hackett’s presentation. It’s not yet clear if his pitch will improve investors’ confidence.
“Straddling the now and the future will be tricky, especially in terms of profitability,” said Michelle Krebs, an executive analyst for the car-buying site Autotrader.com.
Investors have been critical of Ford for waiting too long to bring a long-range electric vehicle to market, as GM did with the Chevrolet Bolt. They also struggled to understand Ford’s plans to compete on autonomous cars.
“In the past few years, Ford simply hasn’t had a compelling narrative that investors could latch onto,” Barclay’s analyst Brian Johnson wrote in a recent note to investors.
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North Korea’s U.N. ambassador accused the United States on Tuesday of imposing “an economic blockade” on his country and deploying nuclear assets on the Korean Peninsula aimed at toppling leader Kim Jong Un.
Ja Song Nam said the U.S. push for countries to implement what he called “illegal and unjustifiable” U.N. sanctions on North Korea is part of America’s “frantic attempt to completely block our peaceful economy for people’s everyday lives and humanitarian cooperation.”
“The U.S. is clinging to unprecedented nuclear threats and blackmail, economic sanctions and blockade to deny our rights to existence and development, but they only result in our sharper vigilance and greater courage,” he told the General Assembly committee that deals with economic and financial issues.
The U.N. Security Council has imposed its toughest sanctions ever on North Korea in response to its continuing nuclear weapons and ballistic missile tests, with the aim of pressuring Kim’s government into returning to negotiations on denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula.
The measures include a ban on countries importing North Korean coal, iron ore and textiles and new limits on its crucial oil and petroleum product imports. But the economic pressure has had no visible impact on Kim’s government, which appears to be accelerating toward what it says is its goal: putting the entire United States within range of its nuclear weapons.
A week ago, North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho told reporters that U.S. President Donald Trump had “declared the war on our country” by tweeting that North Korea’s leadership “won’t be around much longer.” Hours later, the White House pushed back, saying: “We have not declared war on North Korea.”
No regime change
The Trump administration, referring to the tweet, stressed that the U.S. was not seeking to overthrow North Korea’s government. U.S. Cabinet officials, particularly Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, have insisted that the U.S.-led campaign of diplomatic and economic pressure on North Korea is focused on eliminating its nuclear weapons program, not its totalitarian government.
North Korea’s ambassador told the assembly committee that “our people will continue to uphold the line of simultaneous development of the state nuclear force and the economy.”
Ja said the country is committed to implementing U.N. goals to end poverty and preserve the environment by 2030 and said Trump’s announced intention to withdraw the U.S. from the 2015 Paris climate change agreement “illustrates the negative stand of the U.S. towards the sustainable development goals.”
To achieve these goals, Ja said, “we should immediately obliterate the high-handed measures of the U.S., including the sanctions imposed on the developing countries.”
And clearly aiming at the United States and other economic powers, he said the “monopolistic position” of countries that control the monetary and trade system should be destroyed at the same time.
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The recovery of eastern Caribbean islands hardest hit by recent hurricanes, including Dominica, Barbuda, Turks and Caicos, the British Virgin Islands and Anguilla, could cost up to $1 billion, a senior U.N. official said Tuesday.
“It’s going to be a large-scale rebuilding effort that will take time,” said Stephen O’Malley, the U.N. resident coordinator for Barbados and the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States, “and it will be important to do that right.”
He told U.N. correspondents in a phone briefing from Dominica that “we don’t have exact figures yet,” but for the worst-affected islands the recovery bill will be “half a billion to a billion dollars.”
O’Malley said the United Nations, World Bank and Antigua government have conducted a post-disaster needs assessment for Barbuda, whose 1,800 residents were evacuated to Antigua before Hurricane Irma damaged 95 percent of its structures on Sept. 14. And he said a similar assessment will be done in Dominca, which was ravaged on Sept. 18 by Hurricane Maria, a Category 5 storm, probably in about three weeks.
“They want to build back better and they take that very, very seriously — to make sure that that can be done,” O’Malley said.
Making plans for future
Dominica’s Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit said he wants to have the world’s first “climate-resilient nation.”
He made an impassioned case for the world to do more to help vulnerable countries cope with the effects of global warming and urged the U.N. General Assembly 10 days ago to “let these extraordinary events elicit extraordinary efforts to rebuild nations sustainably.”
O’Malley said the effects of climate change are evident in the Caribbean, where the sea is heating up.
“The fact that the Caribbean Sea heats up, it intensifies the strengths of hurricanes; it doesn’t necessarily make them more frequent but it intensifies” the storm, he said.
O’Malley said the challenge for the islands in rebuilding is: “How do you protect yourself against that? How do you ensure that you have a resilient state and a resilient economy if you know that the risk factors are going to be elevating in this next period of time?”
Immediate disaster relief critical
As for immediate disaster relief following Hurricanes Irma and Maria, he said, regional efforts and military assistance from outside the region have been critical.
He singled out the Caribbean Disaster and Emergency Management Agency which sent a ship from Barbados to Dominica with initial aid workers the day after Hurricane Maria devastated the island.
When he landed at the airport in Dominica on Tuesday, he said there were policemen from St. Kitts, soldiers from Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago securing the airport and other sites.
“That has helped the government set itself back up — that regional solidarity,” O’Malley said.
Some ‘green’ returning to Dominica
He said Dominica has also benefited from timely military support, especially helicopters and water desalination plants on naval vessels that produced water that could be taken inland and distributed.
He singled out military help to Dominica from Venezuela, United States, United Kingdom, Canada, France and the Netherlands.
Compared with the situation a week ago, O’Malley said he could already see some green returning to the almost totally brown island, streets were clear, roads were opening up, power and water supplies were being restored and the port was open. Now, he said, power and water need to be restored to everyone on Dominica and the economy needs to start operating quickly.
One year from now, if all goes according to plan, the African Union mission in Somalia will withdraw 1,500 soldiers from the country, in a crucial first step toward Somalia shedding its reliance on outside troops to maintain security and fight off Islamist militant group al-Shabab.
But the plan depends on Somali government forces being ready to protect the government and civilians from the al-Qaida-linked militants.
Last month, Somalia’s ambassador to the United Nations, Abukar Osman, told the U.N. Security Council that “the Somali National Army is not ready to take over the security of the country.” Premature withdrawal of AMISOM, he said, might be a “recipe for disaster.”
That’s why the opening of a new Turkish military base in Mogadishu is being hailed by some analysts as a possible turning point in the decades-long effort to stabilize Somalia. Turkey, which backs the Somali federal government, plans to train thousands of troops for the Somali National Army in hopes the SNA will become cohesive and powerful enough to handle the al-Shabab threat by itself.
The SNA has existed in one form or another since 2004, when the first transitional government since Somalia’s 1990s civil war was created. But a host of factors including corruption, clan rivalries, poor training and a lack of funding have undermined all attempts to make the SNA bigger and stronger.
Ahmed Moallim Fiqi, the former director of Somali National Intelligence and Security Agency, says the Turkish training base is Somalia’s best opportunity to acquire a unified, effective army.
“This has to be the factory that produces the security forces, to enable the reintegration of a balanced army and to equip them before they are put to operation,” he says.
Turkey said it wants to do that. At the opening of the base on Saturday, the chief of staff of the Turkish army, General Hulusi Akar, said that his government plans to help Somalia until the country gets “militarily stronger.”
The Turkish ambassador to Somalia, Olgan Bekar, said his government wants to “help the Somalis reclaim authority and restore order in the country.”
AMISOM threatening to leave
Fiqi says the government of Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, better known by his nickname, Farmajo, is feeling the pressure to get its forces in order.
“The Somali government is under constant reminder that time is running out for AU troops, and the only troops who can replace them are Somali soldiers,” he says.
The AU force, AMISOM, arrived in Somalia in 2007 as al-Shabab emerged to fight Ethiopian troops who invaded in late 2006 to oust a six-month-old Islamist government from power. AMISOM troops have been the main defender of Somalia’s fledging federal governments since Ethiopians left at the start of 2009.
Uganda, Burundi, Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti supply the current force of 22,000 AMISOM troops, which ended al-Shabab’s control over most of Mogadishu and other Somali cities. But after taking thousands of casualties, the countries have made noise about bringing their soldiers home.
Earlier this year the Somali government unveiled a structure for the future Somali security forces. The plan projects Somalia will have at least 18,000 regular troops and 4,000 special forces, bringing the total to 22,000.
According to military experts, the number of troops currently available to the government is likely half of that, because officials have struggled to keep soldiers on duty due to lack of regular pay.
Heightening the confusion, the troops were trained in different countries, including Uganda, Ethiopia and Djibouti, by different armies. About 500 special forces who make up the battle-tested Danab (“lightning”) unit were trained by the United States. EU forces gave some instruction, as did the United Arab Emirates.
Somali military officials say the newly-opened Turkish base will make sure all SNA troops receive the same training.
“It’s very important for the army, when they are trained outside the country, that they are brought here to have harmonized training,” says General Abdullahi Mohamed Ahmed, a senior military officer at the Somali Defense Ministry.
Finding funds
Last week, the government took steps to ease the funding shortage. Farmajo flew to Saudi Arabia to smooth relations ruffled by the diplomatic dispute between the Saudi kingdom and Qatar. Before his departure, the Somali Cabinet reaffirmed its strict neutrality in the matter.
That must have been what the Saudis wanted to hear, because upon Farmajo’s return, the government announced that it received $50 million in financial aid from Saudi Arabia, and said it will use that money to pay salaries and provide rations to the army.
Fiqi says if army can get strong enough to handle security on its own, all of Somalia’s neighbors should be pleased.
“It helps the security of the region because the countries who sent troops to Somalia say they have done so because of a threat coming from Somalia,” he says. Building a Somali army that contains that threat, he says, will give those countries “greater confidence in the Somali government.”
Spain’s National Court has decided to extradite a suspected Russian hacker to the United States.
Pyotr Levashov, a 37-year-old known as one of the world’s most notorious hackers, was arrested earlier this year while vacationing with his family in Barcelona. U.S. authorities had requested his arrest, for they want him on fraud charges and unauthorized interception of electronic communications.
The Spanish court said Tuesday the U.S. extradition request has been approved. Russia in September filed a counter-extradition request for Levashov hours before the original extradition hearing.
Authorities in the U.S. have linked Levashov to a series of powerful botnets, or networks of hijacked computers capable of pumping out billions of spam emails.
Levashov’s lawyers have alleged his arrest was politically motivated and argued that he should be tried in Spain.
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France’s interior minister says the man who fatally stabbed two young women in Marseille was a Tunisian who had lived in Italy.
Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said on France-Inter radio Tuesday that the assailant had Italian residency and a valid Tunisian passport. The attacker was killed by soldiers after Sunday’s stabbings, which were claimed by the Islamic State group.
Collomb urged more information-sharing among governments about such cases.
One of the seven IDs the attacker used in previous encounters with French police was a Tunisian passport identifying him as Ahmed H. A judicial official said Tuesday that authorities have determined that is the Marseille attacker’s true identity.
Italian news agency ANSA said Rome prosecutors had opened a terrorism investigation into Hanachi’s contacts in Italy, after reports emerged that he had lived in Aprilia, south of Rome, from about 2006-2014. Italian daily La Repubblica said he lived in an area with a sizeable Tunisian community, and had married, then divorced, an Italian woman.
The area — Aprilia, Latina and Fondi — has already seen four people expelled from Italy for alleged radicalization-related reasons, La Repubblica said.
Citing state security, Italy has since 2015 expelled more than 200 people who are suspected of radicalizing others or recruiting would-be jihadis — offenses that wouldn’t necessarily hold up in court but which the Interior Ministry uses as reason to expel them.
The French interior minister also said he has ordered an investigation into why the Marseille attacker had seven encounters with French police and had no residency papers, but wasn’t expelled from the country. His latest arrest was just two days before the stabbing, when he was picked up for shoplifting and released.
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The European Union insisted Tuesday that Brexit negotiations with Britain will not move on to the question of future relations until enough progress has been made on divorce issues, such as how much the country’s exit bill should be.
Britain desperately wants talks to move on to future trade and security arrangements but EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said that more needs to be done on the withdrawal issues first.
Juncker told the European Parliament that “we have not made the sufficient progress needed” and the legislators backed him, approving a resolution underscoring the same point with a vote of 557 to 92 with 29 abstentions. It further underscored the unity of the 27 EU nations as they face off with Britain in the talks.
The EU wants London to commit to guaranteeing the rights of EU citizens already in Britain, making sure border posts do not reappear between the U.K.’s Northern Ireland and Ireland itself and pay up for everything it had agreed to while it was a member.
Juncker said “the taxpayers in the EU 27 should not pay for the British decision” to leave, while the bloc’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, said “serious differences remain” on how many bills the U.K. still has to settle. Estimates vary widely from 20 billion euros ($27 billion) to over three times that amount.
“Serious rifts remain, especially on the financial settlement,” Barnier said. “We will not pay at 27 what has been decided at 28, it is simple as that.”
The parliamentary resolution called for postponing any move to widen the talks with Britain unless “a major breakthrough” takes place during the fifth round of negotiations in Brussels next week.
Observers said decisive progress was highly unlikely. Tuesday’s moves further dampened hopes that the EU leaders might give the green light to an expansion in the talks at a summit on Oct 19-20.
Many lawmakers were also dismissive of Britain’s Conservative government, which is widely seen as insecure and bumbling.
The head of the biggest party group in the European Parliament called for the sacking of British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson for stoking confusion over the Brexit talks.
The European People’s Party chairman, Manfred Weber, appealed to Prime Minister Theresa May: “Please sack Johnson, because we need a clear answer who is responsible for the British position.”
Weber turned Henry Kissinger’s famous observation about the many leaders in the EU onto Britain: “Who shall I call in London? Who speaks for the government? Theresa May, Boris Johnson, or even (Brexit negotiator) David Davis?”
Others are speculating that Britain might actually be stalling to make sure that the member states that trade heavily with the U.K. would buckle and concede at the last moment, sowing discord among the 27.
EPP member Tom Vandenkendelaere said the strong backing of the resolution proved differently. “If the Brits they can play their old divide-and-rule game, they’d better think again,” he said.
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After several years of struggling to make a living doing odd jobs in and around his village, 26-year-old Pushkar Singh came to New Delhi from the northern Uttarakhand state three months ago to hunt for a job.
The high school dropout is willing to do anything — cook, work as a security guard, a peon in an office. But not only has he failed to secure a job, he has not even got an interview so far.
“It’s a huge worry, not having work,” said a despondent Singh as he wondered how long he can continue staying with his relatives.
The hopes of young people like Singh had been fueled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s promise of creating millions of jobs for the country’s huge young population when he took power in 2014. Optimism rose after India won the tag of the world’s fastest growing economy.
But the Indian economy has hit a sharp slowdown, leaving tens of thousands of people struggling to find work in mega cities like New Delhi, which are magnets for migrant labor.
The economy clocked a growth rate of 5.7 percent in the April to June quarter, its most sluggish pace in three years.
The bleak number has set alarm bells ringing and raised fears that India could struggle to return to a high growth path.
“It is a cause for concern, the economy has slowed down much more than most had expected,” said D.K. Joshi, Chief Economist at rating agency Crisil in Mumbai.
Reasons for the slowdown
The slowdown has prompted critics to accuse Modi’s government of economic mismanagement.
Most attention has turned to two major measures that have disrupted the economy in the last year. Critics have slammed the government for imposing a currency change last November to flush out illegal cash, saying it slowed down businesses amid massive currency shortages and gave an unnecessary shock to a cash dependent economy.
In July, India implemented a long overdue and widely welcomed tax reform — a goods and services tax (GST) meant to clean up a complex tax regime and make it easier to do business.
But many worry that faulty implementation and multiple tax rates have created confusion for businesses struggling with the new system.
Economists point out that the currency change and GST, coming within months of each other, have made the slowdown sharper and deeper for virtually all sectors of the economy, which had already started losing pace last year.
The impact is evident in the markets of the Indian capital, which are usually the most crowded at this time of the year. It is India’s main festive season, when consumer spending hits a high. But shop owners are disappointed because customers are not opening their wallets easily.
A usually buzzing upmarket area in New Delhi wears a deserted look. Manu Talwar, the owner of a shop selling high-end mobile phones, has been struggling to make a sale in a country counted as the world’s fastest growing smart phone market, where a new device is coveted by an aspirational generation.
“You can see the market, it does not look like Diwali, the market is so down. Mobiles, accessories, people were crazy about it. As of now, iPhone 8 has launched, but there is no market,” said Talwar.
The government says it is looking for ways to rev up the economy — according to reports, it is considering spending billions of dollars to give investment a push.
Prime Minister Modi, seen as a business-friendly, reformist leader, recently announced the formation of a five-member panel to advise him on economic issues.
At the heart of the challenge is the need for jobs in a country where about 10 million enter the workforce every year. Modi had hoped to give manufacturing a push to create jobs for low-skill labor, but a flagship “Make in India’ program he launched to woo foreign investors has yet to show significant results. And a slowing economy means that jobs are even being lost in several sectors.
“To think of an overall manufacturing push of the kind China gave, or many East Asian economies that we observed in those economies, that does not seem to be a reality in India. There is a lot of ground to cover to reach that level,” said economist Joshi.
Officials are striking an optimistic note, calling the slowdown transitory, but economists warn recovery will be gradual.
That means Pushkar Singh’s hunt for a job and shop owner Manu Talwar’s hopes of the market picking up may not happen anytime soon.
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With more and more consumers shopping online, do brick-and-mortar stores stand a chance? At a pop-up shop in New York City, the future of retail is about embracing digital trends rather than resisting them. VOA reporter Tina Trinh explains.
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Police in Las Vegas, Nevada say a man opened fire on a country music concert late Sunday, killing at least 58 people and wounding more than 515 others, in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.
An edited list of mass shootings that have taken place in other parts of the world:
Paris, France
November, 2015
Terrorists claiming allegiance to Islamic State carried out several coordinated attacks in the city, including shootings of pedestrians on the street and a mass shootings at the Bataclan theatre. One hundred and thirty people were killed in the combined attacks.
Paris, France
January, 2015
Islamist gunmen stormed the office of Charlie Hebdo, a satirical weekly magazine, and killed 12 people, including the paper’s top editors and cartoonists, in anger over its satirical cartoons of Islamic terrorists and the Prophet Muhammad.
Nairobi, Kenya
September, 2013
Al-Shabab Islamist militants, who are based in Somalia, attacked the upscale Westgate mall in Nairobi, killing nearly 70 people and wounding about 175. The siege latest for three days before government troops could end the attack.
Utoya, Norway
July, 2011
A gunman disguised as a policeman opened fire at a youth camp for political activists on the small island of Utoya, northwest of Oslo. The gunman, who had been linked to an anti-Islamic group, killed 68 campers. Separately, the gunman set off a bomb in Oslo that killed 8 people.
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
April, 2011
A 23-year-old former student returned to his public school in Rio de Janeiro and opened fire on the students, killing 12 children and seriously wounding more than a dozen others, before shooting himself in the head.
Baku, Azerbaijan
April, 2009
A Georgian citizen of Azerbaijani descent killed 12 students and staff at the Azerbaijan State Oil Academy. Several others were wounded.
Winnenden, Germany
March, 2009
A 17-year-old boy shot and killed 15 people at his school, Albertville Technical High School, in southwestern Germany.
Mumbai, India
November, 2008
Islamist terrorists carried out a series of shooting and bombing attacks across the city over the span of several days, including mass shootings at two hotels, the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel and the Oberoi Trident. The attacks left 164 people dead and a further 308 people were wounded.
Moscow, Russia
October, 2002
A group of armed Chechen militants seized the crowded Dubrovka theater and took 850 people hostage. At least 170 people died in the terrorist attack.
Erfurt, Germany
April, 2002
A 19-year-old student opened fire at his secondary school, killing 16 people, including 13 teachers, two students, and one policeman, before killing himself.
Port Arthur, Australia
April, 1996
A 28-year old man opened fire at a cafe on a historic penal colony site in Tasmania, killing 35 people and wounding 23. It was the worst mass-murderer in modern Australian history.
Dunblane, Scotland
March, 1996
A gunman killed 16 children and one teacher at Dunblane Primary School before killing himself.
Montreal, Canada
December, 1989
A 25-year-old gunman shot 28 people at the École Polytechnique in Montreal, Quebec, killing 14 women, before committing suicide.
Hundreds of people took to the streets in Barcelona to protest a police crackdown in Catalonia to stop an independence referendum in the region.
Protestors, many of them students, waved the Catalan independence flag Monday and held up signs demanding more democracy outside the headquarters of the Spanish police in Barcelona. Demonstrations also took place in several other Catalan cities, including Girona and Lleida.
The violence followed a police crackdown during Sunday’s independence referendum. Officials in Catalonia said nearly 900 people were injured when police tried to keep residents from voting in the referendum, deemed unconstitutional by the Spanish courts.
Video from Sunday showed police dragging people from polling stations and beating and kicking would-be voters and demonstrators.
Spain’s Interior Ministry said Monday that more than 430 National Police and Civil Guard agents suffered injuries from the clashes.
Amnesty International says its observers witnessed “excessive use of force” by Spanish police.
European leaders on Monday urged dialogue between Spain’s government and authorities in Catalonia. A spokesman for the European Commission said the referendum was “not legal” but said that “violence can never be an instrument in politics.”
The commission, the executive arm of the 28-nation EU, said in a Twitter message that “these are times for unity and stability, not divisiveness and fragmentation.”
EU chief Donald Tusk appealed to Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajov on Monday to “avoid further escalation and use of force” in the standoff.
Turkey’s armed forces chief, General Hulusi Akar, is in Tehran for talks with Iran’s political and military leadership, including President Hassan Rouhani. His visit precedes President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit, scheduled for Wednesday, and comes as analysts suggest the use and threat of and military force are increasingly becoming part of Turkish foreign policy.
Analysts point out preliminary talks before a presidential visit are traditionally carried out by the Turkish Foreign Ministry, but note Akar’s agenda in Tehran had a strong military flavor.
Tehran and Ankara have issued thinly-veiled military threats to the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government, following its independence referendum last month. It passed with 92 percent of the vote.
News agencies on Monday reported the Iranian military had moved up heavy artillery to the Iraqi Kurdish border. The deployment matches that of the Turkish armed forces already massed on Turkey’s Iraqi Kurdish frontier, ostensibly for military drills.
“Turkey is now looking at a change in its foreign policy,” noted former Turkish ambassador to Iraq Unal Cevikoz. “Turkey is considering the threat of the use of force and the use of force as a viable option for realizing its foreign policy objectives, and that is dangerous.”
Cevikoz noted a possible increase in the Turkish military’s influence over foreign policy. Possible evidence of a growing military role in diplomatic affairs included an August visit by Russian and Iranian armed forces chiefs to the Turkish capital, Ankara. The visits reportedly focused on the ongoing civil war in Syria, where all of these countries have their military forces deployed.
Historic military role
Such a scenario is not new to Turkey. Throughout the 1990s, the peak of fighting by the Kurdish insurgent group the PKK, the military held sway over much of Turkish foreign policy.
In the 2000s, as part of his policy to demilitarize Turkish society, then-Prime Minister Erdogan ended the military role in foreign policy.
“Turkey believed that if Turkey wants to have a peaceful and stable environment in the Middle East, this could be achieved not through security policies or use of military power, but through enhancing economic cooperation,” noted Cevikoz, who now heads the Ankara Policy Center.
The 2015 collapse in Ankara’s peace process with the PKK, and the Syrian civil war, are seen as the impetus for a recalibration in Turkish foreign policy.
“When Syria became a very important area where international terrorism is now finding a fertile ground and when the civil war expanded in Syria, I think that saw Turkey is shifting back to its security policies,” Cevikoz said.
Some analysts see a more robust foreign policy backed up by force as a necessity.
“In such a turbulent and difficult region with a variety of security threats, Turkey needs hard power as part of a portfolio of instruments to influence regional developments,” said Sinan Ulgen, a visiting scholar with the Carnegie Institute in Brussels. “In that sense, hard power in this region is necessary even if it’s to advance a diplomatic objective.”
Domestic policies
Domestic politics could also be a factor driving Ankara’s more robust foreign policy approach, analysts note. In 2019, Turkey faces presidential and general elections; both are predicted to be close.
“President Erdogan increasingly has presidential elections in sight,” said former senior Turkish diplomat Aydin Selcen, who is now a regional analyst.
Ankara has strained relations with several of its Western allies. And analysts warn there are questions over its future commitment to NATO as Erdogan’s rapprochement with Moscow deepens. The Turkish President has described his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin as “a valuable friend.”
Erdogan is also looking to improve ties as he heads to Tehran.
Cevikoz said if Turkey is “serious about the secularization of its foreign policy,” then it will “have to coordinate with countries like Iran and Russia,” which are not allies.
But that will not be a permanent alliance, he said, which “in a way will leave Turkey as a kind of lone wolf in the region.”
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Even though gasoline-powered SUVs are what people are buying now, General Motors is betting that electric vehicles will be all the rage in the not-to-distant future.
The Detroit automaker is promising two new EVs on Chevrolet Bolt underpinnings in the next 1 ½ years and more than 20 electric or hydrogen fuel cell vehicles by 2023. The company sees its entire model lineup running on electricity in the future, whether the source is a big battery or a tank full of hydrogen.
“We are far along in our plan to lead the way into that future world,” product development chief Mark Reuss said Monday at a news conference at the GM technical center north of Detroit.
The event was billed as a “sneak peak” into GM’s electric future. The company also pledged to start producing hydrogen fuel cell vehicles for commercial or military use in 2020. And it promised an increase in the number of electric fast-charging stations in the U.S., which now total 1,100 from companies and governments, taking a shot at electric competitor Tesla Inc. by saying the system would not be “walled off” from electric vehicles made by other manufacturers.
Tesla has 951 fast-charging stations globally that can only be used by Tesla owners.
The hastily called event was short on specifics, and it came just a day before the CEO of Ford Motor Co., GM’s prime competitor, was to announce its business plan that likely will include electric and autonomous vehicles as priorities.
The two new GM electrics in the immediate future likely will be SUVs or a sportier car designed to compete with Tesla’s upcoming Model 3 sedan, Reuss said. The Model 3, which is now in the early stages of production, will go hood-to-hood with the Bolt, starting around $35,000 (excluding a $7,500 federal tax credit) with a range of over 200 miles. The Bolt starts at $37,495 excluding the credit.
Behind Reuss and other executives were nine vehicles covered with tarps that the company said were among the 20 to be unveiled by 2023. GM pulled away the tarps on three of them, clay models of low-slung Buick and Cadillac SUVs and a futuristic version of the Bolt that looked like half of an airport control tower glued to the top of a car body. The rest remained covered.
The company wouldn’t allow photographs of the vehicles, and it wouldn’t say if any of the vehicles it showed were the ones coming in the next 18 months.
Reuss said the new vehicles that aren’t built on the Bolt platform will have GM’s next-generation electric architecture, which he said will be more efficient with longer range than the Bolt’s 238 miles. Through August, GM has sold 11,670 Bolts, which is less than 1 percent of GM’s total U.S. sales so far this year.
Reuss promised that the new vehicles will be profitable as people become more accustomed to the advancing technology. “We can’t just flip a switch and make the world go all-electric,” he said.
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U.S. factory activity surged to a more than 13-year high in September amid strong gains in new orders and raw material prices, pointing to underlying strength in the economy even as Hurricanes Harvey and Irma are expected to dent growth in the third quarter.
The economic outlook was also bolstered by other data on Monday showing a rebound in construction spending in August. The acceleration in manufacturing activity and the accompanying increase in prices could harden expectations that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates in December.
The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) said its index of national factory activity surged to a reading of 60.8 last month, the highest reading since May 2004, from 58.8 in August.
A reading above 50 in the ISM index indicates an expansion in manufacturing, which accounts for about 12 percent of the U.S. economy. The ISM said Harvey and Irma had caused supply chain and pricing issues in the chemical products sector. There were also concerns about the disruptive impact of the storms in the food, beverage and tobacco products industries.
The hurricanes are expected to chop off as much as six-tenths of a percentage point from gross domestic product growth in the third quarter. Harvey, which pummeled Texas at the end of August, has undercut consumer spending and weighed on industrial production, homebuilding and home sales.
Further weakness is likely after Irma struck Florida in early September, causing widespread power cuts. Manufacturing outside the areas affected by the hurricanes remained strong in September. The ISM survey’s production sub-index rose 1.2 points to a reading of 62.2 in September.
A gauge of new orders jumped to 64.6 in September from 60.3 in August. Factories reported paying more for raw materials, with the survey’s prices paid index surging 9.5 point to 71.5, the highest reading since May 2011.
The dollar rose against the euro after the data. Prices for U.S. Treasuries were trading higher as were stocks on Wall Street.
Construction spending rises
In separate report Monday, the Commerce Department said construction spending rose 0.5 percent to $1.21 trillion. July’s construction outlays were revised sharply down to show a 1.2 percent plunge instead of the previously reported 0.6 percent drop. Construction spending increased 2.5 percent on a year-on-year basis.
The government said Harvey and Irma did not appear to have impacted the construction spending data as the responses from the Texas and Florida areas affected by the storms were “not significantly lower than normal.”
In August, spending on private residential projects increased 0.4 percent, rising for a fourth straight month.
Spending on nonresidential structures increased 0.5 percent, snapping two straight monthly declines.
In the wake of Harvey and Irma, nonresidential construction spending could fall in September. According to the Commerce Department, Texas and Florida accounted for 22 percent of U.S. private nonresidential construction spending in 2016.
Investment in nonresidential structures such as oil and gas wells has been slowing as the boost from recovering oil prices fizzles. Private construction projects spending increased 0.4 percent in August.
Outlays on public construction projects rebounded 0.7 percent in August after slumping 3.3 percent in July. Spending on state and local government construction projects increased 1.1 percent in August. Gains in September are likely to be curbed by the hurricanes.
Texas and Florida accounted for 15 percent of U.S. state-and-locally owned construction spending in 2016, according to the Commerce Department.
Federal government construction spending tumbled 4.7 percent to its lowest level since April 2007.
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The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to consider a bid by Samsung Electronics Co Ltd. to force customers who have filed proposed class-action lawsuits against the company to arbitrate their claims instead of bringing them to court.
The justices left intact a lower court’s ruling that purchasers of certain Galaxy smartphones made by the South Korean electronics company were not bound by a warranty provision that compelled arbitration of customer complaints.
Warranties with arbitration clauses have become common in consumer electronics and other industries. Courts and regulatory agencies increasingly are scrutinizing arbitration agreements that seek to limit options for resolution of future disputes.
The Samsung case involves two smartphone buyers from California who separately filed proposed class-action lawsuits in 2014 over concerns about the products’ performance and resale value.
Neither Daniel Norcia, who owned an Galaxy S4 device, nor Hoai Dang, who owned an SIII, saw the arbitration provisions when they bought the phone because the language was placed deep inside the warranty booklet and not mentioned on the box, according to their legal papers.
The agreement states that all disputes must be resolved through arbitration, and specifically rules out class actions.
Samsung tried to force the customers to arbitrate their claims, but a unanimous three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco denied the request in January. The court said Samsung did not provide proper notice of the arbitration provision and neither customer had expressly consented to be bound by it.
Appealing to the Supreme Court, Samsung noted that the 9th Circuit decided that the warranty was valid except for the arbitration provision. Samsung argued that the 9th Circuit ruling violated a U.S. law called the Federal Arbitration Act that requires arbitration agreements to be treated equally with other contracts.
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Animals that make the water their home are uniquely sensitive to changes in their liquid world. Oysters are very good at filtering dirty water, and crayfish are very sensitive to changes in water quality. Now scientists in the Czech Republic are using these sensitive bottom dwellers to monitor water quality in a business where clean water matters. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports.
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Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont says the region has won the right to demand an independent state after Sunday’s controversial referendum on independence. Spain’s government has banned the vote it declared unconstitutional and has sent police and riot forces to stop the balloting. Clashes between the police and voters left hundreds of people injured. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports.
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Muslim women in Austria were forced by police to remove their face coverings, as a law banning religious and other coverings came into effect Sunday.
Under the ban, wearing a ski mask off the slopes, a surgical mask outside hospitals and party masks in public is now also prohibited.
Those who defy the ban could face a fine of nearly $180. Police are authorized to use force if people resist showing their faces.
The government says the law, which says faces must be visible from the hairline to the chin, is about protecting Austrian values.
Muslim groups have condemned the law, saying just a tiny minority of Austrian Muslims wear full-face veils. Full veils remain rare in Austria despite the surge of migrants and refugees into Europe in 2015, but they have become a target for right-wing groups and political parties.
The law, similar to ones in France and Belgium, also applies to visitors including the large numbers of Arab tourists who vacation in the Alpine country.
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Spain wants to bring a halt to Sunday’s independence referendum in Catalonia, calling it a “farce.”
Enric Millo, Madrid’s representative in Catalonia, said Catalonia’s president Carles Puigdemont and his team “are solely responsible for all that has happened today and for all that can happen if they do not put an end to this farce.”
Police in riot gear smashed the front door of a polling station with a hammer in Catalonia Sunday where the regional leader was expected to cast his vote in the banned independence referendum.
Scuffles between the police and voters erupted outside the polling center in Sant Julia de Ramis, near the Catalan city of Girona.
Catalan leader Puigdemont was scheduled to cast his vote at Sant Julia de Ramis, but instead voted at Cornella del Terri in the province of Girona.
Catalans began voting Sunday in the disputed independence referendum, while police seized the ballots of at least one polling station.
Spain’s Interior Ministry said on Twitter more ballot boxes would be snatched as police continued their deployment in Catalonia.
A regional government spokesman said voters could cast their ballots at any polling station, instead of their designated one, since Spanish authorities have sealed off some polling stations and confiscated ballots. Clashes between police and voters were reported in several districts.
There are reports of Spanish police firing rubber bullets at voters. A Catalan spokesman says 73 percent of polling stations are open, but their computer system is suffering constant hacking attacks.
Jordi Turull, Catalonia’s government spokesman, called on Catalans to continue to carry out their right to vote “in a civic and peaceful manner,” in the face of police blocking voters from some polling stations.
Turull said the police actions are reminiscent of the “repression that is a reminder of the Franco era,” a reference to Spain’s dictatorship from 1939 – 1975.
Spain’s Constitutional Court suspended the vote and the Spanish central government says the vote is illegal.
Hundreds of people in favor of the referendum camped out in schools and other designated polling places in an attempt to keep them open for Sunday’s vote.
Millo, the highest-ranking Spanish security official in the northeastern region, said Saturday police had already blockaded half of the more than 2,300 polling stations designated for the referendum vote.
He said Spanish authorities also had dismantled the technology Catalan officials had planned on using for voting and counting ballots, which he said would make the referendum “absolutely impossible.”
Catalan officials said they would move forward with the vote despite the actions taken by Spain’s central government.
Police have received orders to avoid the use of force.
Spanish Culture Minister Inigo Mendez de Vigo said Friday the independence vote violates Spanish law and the government will not accept the results of the referendum.
Catalonia represents a fifth of Spain’s $1.32 trillion economy and enjoys wide self-government. The region has about 5.5 million eligible voters.
It is not clear if the Catalans would vote for independence.
Polls in the northeastern region show support for self-rule waning as Spain’s economy improves. But the majority of Catalans say they do want the opportunity to vote on whether to split from Spain.
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Spanish riot police burst into polling stations across Catalonia on Sunday confiscating ballot boxes and voting papers to try to halt a banned referendum on a split from Spain as Madrid asserted its authority over the rebel region.
Police broke down doors to force entry into voting stations as defiant Catalans shouted “Out with the occupying forces!” and sang the anthem of the wealthy northeastern region. In one incident in Barcelona, police fired rubber bullets.
The referendum, declared illegal by Spain’s central government, has thrown the country into its worst constitutional crisis in decades and deepened a centuries-old rift between Madrid and Barcelona.
Despite the police action, hundreds-strong queues of people formed in cities and villages throughout the region to cast their votes. At one Barcelona polling station, elderly people and those with children entered first.
“I’m so pleased because despite all the hurdles they’ve put up, I’ve managed to vote,” said Teresa, a 72-year-old pensioner in Barcelona who had stood in line for six hours.
The ballot will have no legal status as it has been blocked by Spain’s Constitutional Court and Madrid for being at odds with the 1978 constitution.
A minority of around 40 percent of Catalans support independence, polls show, although a majority want to hold a referendum on the issue. The region of 7.5 million people has an economy larger than that of Portugal.
However much voting takes place, a “yes” result is likely, given that most of those who support independence are expected to cast ballots while most of those against it are not.
Large crowds
Organisers had asked voters to turn out before dawn, hoping for large crowds to be the world’s first image of voting day.
“This is a great opportunity. I’ve waited 80 years for this,” said 92-year-old Ramon Jordana, a former taxi driver waiting to vote in Sant Pere de Torello, a town in the foothills of the Pyrenees and a pro-independence bastion.
The Catalan government said voters could print out ballot papers at home and lodge them at any polling station not closed down by police.
Elsewhere, people were not able to access the ballot boxes.
In a town in Girona province where Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont was due to vote, Civil Guard police smashed glass panels to open the door and search for ballot boxes.
Puigdemont voted in a different town in the province. He accused Spain of unjustified violence in stopping the vote and said it created a dreadful image of Spain.
“The unjustified, disproportionate and irresponsible violence of the Spanish state today has not only failed to stop Catalans’ desire to vote… but has helped to clarify all the doubts we had to resolve today,” he said.
Catalan emergency services said 38 people were hurt, mostly with minor injuries, as a result of police action. The government said 11 police officers were injured in clashes.
Around 70 polling stations had been raided by police, Spanish Interior Minister Juan Ignacio Zoido said.
The aim of the raids was to seize referendum material and not to target people wanting to vote, another senior government official said.
“We have been made to do something we didn’t want to do,” said Enric Millo, the central government’s representative in Catalonia, at a news conference.
One analyst said the scenes being played out across Catalonia on Sunday would make it harder for Madrid and Barcelona to find a way forward.
“I think it is going to make the clash more intense and make it more difficult to find a solution,” said Antonio Barroso of Teneo Intelligence.
Puigdemont originally said that if the “yes” vote won, the Catalan government would declare independence within 48 hours, but regional leaders have since acknowledged Madrid’s crackdown has undermined the vote.
Markets have reacted cautiously but calmly to the situation so far, though credit rating agency S&P said on Friday that protracted tensions in Catalonia could hurt Spain’s economic outlook. The region accounts for about a fifth of the economy.
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Iranian diplomats say they expect President Donald Trump to abandon the international deal restricting Tehran’s nuclear activities. They are intensifying their lobbying of European governments, especially the signatories to the agreement, France, Britain and Germany, hoping they can dissuade the U.S. administration from repudiating the agreement.
And in the event the U.S. repudiates the deal, then Tehran is urging Europeans not to join Washington in re-imposing sanctions.
The Iranians say if Europe and the other signatories, Russia and China, stick with the deal and don’t join a renewed sanctions regime, then Tehran will continue to adhere to the agreement.
Iran’s foreign secretary, Mohammad Javad Zarif, highlighted that appeal in an interview with British newspapers published Saturday, warning that if Europe followed Washington’s lead if the Trump administration abandons the deal, Iran would resume uranium enrichment and other aspects of its nuclear program at a more advanced level than before the deal was struck.
Trump on deal
The U.S. State Department is due to certify to Congress in two weeks time whether Iran has been complying with the terms of the deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA. Trump has said he has made up his mind already, but hasn’t told European leaders his decision, including Britain’s Theresa May, who asked him reportedly at a bilateral meeting at the UN last month.
Trump has been a stern critic of what his predecessor, Barack Obama, saw as a signature foreign policy achievement.
Dubbing it a “bad deal,” Trump pledged during his campaign for the White House last year to rip up the agreement. And in New York in a speech last month at the UN, he described the deal as an “embarrassment,” saying it was “one of the worst and most one-sided transactions the United States has ever entered into.”
Although the Trump administration has not offered any examples of JCPOA non-compliance by Iran, the belligerency of the President’s comments has heightened impressions that he’s laying the groundwork for the State Department to withhold certification on October 15. The administration is required to report to Congress every 90 days on the deal.
Iran’s intense lobbying effort has two main purposes, say analysts: to get the Europeans to press Washington not to walk away, and in the event President Trump does, to try to ensure the Europeans don’t follow suit — a move that could increase strains between Trump’s Washington and European leaders to a possible breaking point.
European impact
The Europeans would be placed in a lose-lose position, if the U.S. abandons the nuclear deal. Under the agreement’s provisions, any signatory can require the UN Security Council to vote on a resolution to continue the deal’s sanctions relief — a U.S. veto would result in the sanctions on Iran snapping back into place automatically.
That in turn would present the Europeans with the uncomfortable choice of either complying with a UN resolution or re-imposing sanctions against their own policy views. Either way, it would likely compound increasingly tense transatlantic relations.
European signatories to the deal have all publicly defended the nuclear agreement, which placed limits on Iran’s nuclear program designed to prevent Tehran from developing weapons in return for a lifting of international sanctions.
European ambassadors to the U.S. have been highly visible and vocal in Washington in recent days defending the agreement and insisting Iran has remained in compliance. That conclusion was supported last week by U.S. Marine Gen. James Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who in written testimony to a Senate committee said: “The briefings I have received indicate that Iran is adhering to its JCPOA obligations.”
Interviewed by National Public Radio, German envoy Peter Wittig, said Friday: “We believe it would be a mistake to walk away from the deal while Iran is complying.”
European envoys mounted a full-court defense of the nuclear deal last week at a think tank event, arguing Iran is complying with the deal that was struck in July 2015 and implemented since January 2016.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel talked midweek on the phone about Iran with President Trump, expressing her support for the deal. Although, according to German officials, she offered a sympathetic ear to the U.S. leader’s complaints about human rights abuses by Iran and destabilizing activities in the Middle East, including missile development, Tehran’s support for Houthi rebels in Yemen and for groups like Lebanon’s radical Shi’ite movement Hezbollah.
Part of the European lobbying effort on Trump’s Washington — from leaders and envoys — has been to argue that the nuclear deal shouldn’t be sacrificed because of those other areas of concern.
And there has been a quid pro quo hint from the Europeans that they will be more forward-leaning and cooperative with U.S. efforts to contain Iran on other fronts. “European foreign ministers tell me that they would join us in confronting other Iranian misdeeds,” if the Trump administration doesn’t abandon the deal, John Kerry, the former U.S. Secretary of State wrote in an opinion article for the Washington Post published Friday.
“Nothing in the agreement is preventing us from facing the challenges raised by Iran on other issues,” according to French Ambassador Gerard Araud.
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Casinos in the world’s biggest casino hub of Macau extended a 14-month winning streak in September with revenue up 16.1 percent, priming for a bumper national holiday week, which is expected to see strong visitor traffic in the southern Chinese territory.
Macau, a former Portuguese colony and now special administrative region, is the only place in the country where casino gambling is legal.
Government data Sunday showed monthly gambling revenue was 21.4 billion patacas ($2.66 billion) in September, within analyst expectations of growth between 11-17 percent.
Two typhoons
September saw the tail end impact from two typhoons in August, which caused massive destruction and unprecedented flooding.
Many casinos shut down for several days and had problems accessing fresh water and power, but big resorts on Macau’s Las Vegas style Cotai strip were left relatively unscathed.
Macau’s government this week will release a 15-year plan to boost tourism with key objectives including rebranding Macau into a multiday destination and managing local tourism capacity.
Typically during national holidays, Macau’s tiny peninsula and adjoining islands are inundated with swarms of visitors putting pressure on creaking infrastructure and transport.
Casino executives have said that hotels are fully booked for the official holiday period, Oct. 1-8.
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Turkey’s largest foreign military base in the world opened Saturday in Mogadishu, in a ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by Somali leaders, top Turkish military officials and diplomats.
Somali Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire and the head of the Turkish military, General Hulusi Akar have jointly inaugurated the 4 square kilometer (1.54 square mile) facility, which holds three military residential complexes, training venues, and sports courts. It had been under construction for the last two years.
General Akar said the base is the biggest sign of how Turkey wants to help Somalia.
“We are committed to help [the] Somali government, and this base will cover the need for building strong Somali National Army. And it is biggest sign showing our relationship.”
Speaking at the inauguration ceremony, Prime Minister Khaire highlighted the significance of the training base for his country.
“Today our country goes to the right direction toward development and the re-establishment of Somali Army, capable and ready for the defense of their nations,” said Khaire “This base is part of that on ongoing effort.”
More than 200 Turkish military personnel will train some 1,500 Somali troops at a time, according to Somalia’s defense Ministry. The Somali prime minister said it will manufacture an inclusive united Somali Army.
“This training base has a unique significance for us because it is a concrete step taken toward building an inclusive and integrated Somali National Army,” said Khaire. “My government and our Somali people will not forget this huge help by our Turkish brothers. This academy will help us train more troops.”
The inauguration ceremony was held amid tight security around the base located in the Jaziira coastal area in southern tip of the capital.
Hulusi Akar, the Turkish Army chief said, “the Turkish government would continue to support our Somali brothers until their country becomes militarily stronger.”
Other diplomats who attended the event said the training is part of an international effort to strengthen the Somali National Army to a point where it can take over security responsibilities from African Union troops currently fighting al-Shabab militants. The African Union has said it wants to begin withdrawing troops from Somalia next year.
Prime Minister Khaire said the base also will help to defeat the extremism and the ideology that drives young Somali men into violence and terrorism.
“To defeat terrorism and fight against the poverty, we have keep in mind that building our national security and eliminating corruption is the key,” he said.
Somalia has a significant number of military personal, but they are ill-trained and poorly equipped. Last week, the government repeated its plea for world leaders to lift an international arms embargo.
The U.S. already had deployed dozens of American soldiers to Mogadishu, and their presence marked the first American military forces in Somalia, except for a small unit of counterterrorism advisers, since March 1994.
The United Arab Emirates also has a military facility where they train the Somali Army, which many politicians condemn for taking orders directly from UAE commanders.
“The good news is not only the opening of this training base but also …that when Turkey trains our troops it will also equip them,” said Somali Military Chief, Ahmed Mohamed Jimale.
Al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab is attempting to overthrow the Somali government and install a strict form of Islamic law throughout the country. On Friday, 30 people were killed when al-Shabab militants stormed a Somali military army base in the town of Barire, 47 kilometers southwest of Mogadishu.