Month: July 2019

CARACAS — A proposal to modify U.S. oil sanctions on Venezuela to allow crude exports to be bartered for food has divided the country’s opposition between those who say the move would stave off famine and those who predict President Nicolas Maduro would abuse it. 
 
Henri Falcon, the former governor of western Lara state, said Thursday that he wrote to the United Nations and the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs requesting such an exemption for food and medicine imports. 
 
Falcon attained international prominence last year when he broke a boycott to challenge Maduro in a vote many opposition parties deemed a sham. He faces an uphill battle to convince the United States and other opposition politicians of the merits of the program. 
 
The U.N. implemented a similar program in Iraq, another oil-dependent economy, from 1996 to 2003 to help citizens cope with U.N. sanctions after former leader Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990. 

Through early 2019, the United States was Venezuela’s largest crude importer. State oil company PDVSA got cash from the oil it sent to U.S. refiners, while it used exports to other major customers like China’s CNPC and Russia’s Rosneft to pay off debt.  
 
But since the Treasury Department sanctioned PDVSA as part of the Trump administration’s bid to pressure Maduro to step down amid a hyperinflationary economic collapse, PDVSA’s shipments to the United States have disappeared, and Venezuela’s crude production has fallen to around half of last year’s levels. 
 
That has reduced the government revenue available to import food and medicine, in short supply for years. Defenders of the sanctions argue that any oil sale proceeds are more likely to be embezzled than used to import humanitarian goods. 
 
Maduro remains in power despite the sanctions and a six-month campaign by Juan Guaido, the president of the opposition-controlled National Assembly, to get the South American country’s armed forces on his side. 
 
“While politicians are seeking to distract attention exclusively, in some cases, toward the political element — but without results, without effect — people are still dying of hunger,” Falcon said in a news conference, arguing that Venezuela was “at the doors of a famine.” 
 

‘Not viable’ 
 
But Guaido’s allies argue the best way to resolve the humanitarian crisis that has prompted more than 4 million to emigrate is to focus on ousting Maduro. 
 
Maduro long rejected offers of humanitarian aid, and recent shipments he has allowed from the Red Cross have not been enough and have been subject to insufficient controls, said Manuela Bolivar, a lawmaker from Guaido’s Popular Will party.  
 
“This program would not guarantee that the people would receive food because you have a structure of incentives to steal,” Bolivar said in a telephone interview. 
 
The U.S. Treasury on Thursday sanctioned 10 people and 13 groups involved in a food distribution program that it said had lined the pockets of Maduro and his family. 
 
Venezuela’s Information Ministry did not respond to a request for comment on the proposal. The government blames a U.S. “blockade” for its economic woes, though no U.S. sanctions prevent food and medicine imports. 
 
A senior Trump administration official said Iraq’s program was plagued by “enormous corruption” and called the proposal “not viable” in Venezuela. A U.N. investigation found that companies paid $1.8 billion in kickbacks to Iraqi officials for supply contracts. 
 
Still, Falcon’s Progressive Advance party has taken steps to make its case in Washington. Francisco Rodriguez, chief economist at New York-based Torino Economics and an adviser to Falcon’s 2018 campaign, spoke in favor of an oil-for-food program in front of a bipartisan congressional commission this week. 
 
The party has retained Canadian lobbying firm Dickens & Madson to promote its efforts, according to a July 18 filing with the U.S. Department of Justice. 
 
A separate July 15 filing said the lobbyist “intends to pursue Henri Falcon’s election as president of Venezuela.” 
 
Falcon on Thursday called that filing “false” and attributed the filing to an administrative error. He added that authorities would ensure that the program would not be plagued by corruption like Iraq’s. 

…

Islamic State’s West Africa branch on Thursday claimed responsibility for kidnapping six aid workers in northeast Nigeria.

International aid agency Action Against Hunger said that a staff member and five others kidnapped in Nigeria last week had appeared in a video released on Wednesday evening and that they were “apparently in a good condition of health.”

Islamic State in West Africa (ISWA), which split from Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram in 2016, claimed responsibility for the kidnap in a tweet published by the SITE monitoring group.

The group has carried out a number of attacks in the northeast over the last few months, including on military bases.

It killed a kidnapped aid worker nine months ago.

Action Against Hunger said in a statement that the people were abducted last week near the town of Damasak in northeast Nigeria, where the insurgents were active.

“Action Against Hunger strongly requests that our staff member and her companions are released,” said the agency.

The video was published by The Cable, a Nigerian news organisation, and showed a woman sitting on the floor who identifies herself as “Grace”. Five men sit around her, some with their heads bowed.

Behind them is a sheet with the logo of the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR.

“We were caught by this army called the Calipha,” she said, before asking that the Nigerian government and Action Against Hunger secure their release. “We don’t know where we are.”

Separately, the Nigerian presidency said in a statement that the government was negotiating for the release of the kidnapped aid workers.

A source told Reuters that a driver was killed during the kidnap and that all six abductees were Nigerians.

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The U.S. House on Thursday approved legislation aimed at protecting thousands of Venezuelans living in the United States from deportation by granting them Temporary Protected Status.

The measure was adopted on a 272-158 vote after a debate that required a simple majority for passage. The same bill failed earlier this week when 154 Republicans voted against it under a procedure for quick passage that required approval from two-thirds of the 435 House members. All 158 votes against the bill Thursday were Republicans, while 39 Republicans voted in favor.

Similar legislation has not moved forward in the Senate since it was introduced in February.

Arguments for, against

Temporary Protected Status is usually granted by the Department of Homeland Security to people from countries ravaged by natural disasters or war and lets them remain in the U.S. until the situation improves back home.

Rep. Doug Collin of Georgia, the top Republican on the House judiciary panel, said he opposed the bill because recent court rulings have blocked the Trump administration from terminating the TPS designation for some countries.

“We should not ensure renewal is automatic,” Collins said. “If we do not do that, we can continue the same broken TPS designation process.”

Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida, a Republican who was a co-sponsor of the measure, urged other members of his caucus to support the bill.

“This is not to be confused with issues dealing with immigration,” Diaz-Balart said. “This is to deal with a specific case of the Venezuelans who are struggling under this oppressive regime and we should not return people back.”

200,000 Venezuelans

The Trump administration was one of the first to recognize Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido as the legitimate president of the South American nation, a step that has been taken by more than 50 other governments. Those countries contend President Nicolas Maduro’s re-election in 2018 was fraudulent.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates 200,000 Venezuelans currently living in the United States could receive TPS. Under the measure, Venezuelan nationals would be eligible to get migratory relief and work permits valid for 18 months if they have been continuously present in the U.S. since the bill’s enactment and apply paying a $360 fee.

Stuck in the Senate

Rep. Darren Soto, a Florida Democrat and sponsor of the bill, said after the vote that “we want this to be as bipartisan as possible because it gives us a better chance in the Senate.”

The TPS legislation is the fourth Venezuela-related bill adopted by the House so far this year, but none has made it yet to the Senate floor.

“Our hope is the vote today will really light a fire in the Senate to get going on the Venezuela bills,” said Rep. Donna Shalala, also a Florida Democrat.

The United Nations estimates that at least 4 million Venezuelans have left their country in recent years because of a chronic scarcity of food and medicines and a hyperinflation that reached 130,000% last year.

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British Airways, part of International Airlines Group, will resume flights to Cairo following a week-long suspension over security concerns, the airline said Friday.

“Following a thorough assessment of the security arrangements, we are pleased that our service to and from Cairo will resume from Friday July 26,” a British Airways spokeswoman said in an email.

No details were given about the airline’s security review.

British Airways had suspended flights to Cairo on Saturday for seven days “as a security precaution” as it reviewed security at the Cairo airport.

An executive of Egypt’s state-owned EgyptAir said earlier this week that British Airways’ decision was “without a logical reason” while Egypt’s aviation minister, Younis Al-Masry, also expressed “displeasure” at the decision.

Egypt’s aviation ministry said on Sunday that British Airways took the move without consulting Egyptian authorities.

Germany’s Deutsche Lufthansa AG also suspended flights to Cairo on Saturday but resumed them a day later.

Other airlines continued to operate flights to Cairo.

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LGBT activists in the Republic of Georgia this summer have been looking for ways to hold a parade on the streets of the capital, Tbilisi.   While pride parades are common across the West, activists in Georgia face strong opposition from the government and a deeply traditional society.  In a report narrated by Steve Redisch, Ricardo Marquina in Tbilisi looks at the difficult road ahead for those promoting the rights of homosexual, bisexual and transgender people.

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As part of sweeping reforms, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed appointed Meaza Ashenafi to be the first woman to lead the country’s Supreme Court. This charismatic lawyer has built a career advocating for women. VOA’S Salem Solomon has this profile.

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Electric power is slowly returning in Venezuela after a devastating blackout that ground activity to a virtual halt in a country beleaguered by a protracted political power struggle. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi reports that the Trump administration is renewing calls for the departure of embattled socialist ruler Nicolas Maduro, who remains defiant, insisting that conditions in Venezuela will improve.

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Britain’s new Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the Conservative Party leader, began assembling his political team as soon as he took office Wednesday. New Cabinet members include the country’s first ethnic minority person to head the Treasury and several women. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports Johnson’s first day on the job was marked by demonstrations by his supporters, as well as his opponents.

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Former special counsel Robert Mueller told members of Congress Wednesday that his investigation into Russian interference in the last presidential election did not exonerate U.S. President Donald Trump of allegedly trying to thwart the investigation. As Mike O’Sullivan reports, Mueller’s comments before two congressional committees drew very different responses from Republicans and Democrats.

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FBI Director Christopher Wray says China right now poses a more serious counter-intelligence threat to the United States than any other country, including Russia. In his testimony Tuesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Wray described the threat as “more challenging, more comprehensive and more concerning than any counter-intelligence threat” he can think of.  VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports.

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At least 14 people have died in two landslides in southwestern China and rescuers are looking for 42 others who are missing, Chinese state media reported Wednesday.

A landslide on Tuesday night buried 21 houses and caused at least 13 deaths in Guizhou province’s Shuicheng county, said state broadcaster CCTV.

Eleven people were rescued and sent to the hospital while another 42 remained missing. Heavy rainfall is believed to be the main cause, CCTV said.

More than 800 rescuers have been scouring the area, where continuous rainfall and the mountain’s steep slopes have hampered search efforts.

One person died and six others are unaccounted for after an earlier landslide hit a village in Hezhang county in Guizhou on Tuesday afternoon. The landslide happened at a highway construction site, the Xinhua state news agency reported.

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For the first time in four years, China’s Ministry of National Defense on Wednesday released a white paper on the country’s overall national defense strategy, disclosing that, before 2017, its military spending accounted for 1.28 percent of its GDP.

The lengthy 27,000-word white paper, titled “China’s National Defense in the New Era,” totals six chapters.
 
It is the first comprehensive white paper since the 18th National Congress of China Communist Party, held in 2012, and the 10th one since the Chinese government released its first defense white paper in 1998.
 
Some analysts said the white paper has demonstrated China’s efforts to regain international security narrative. Others, however, add that it’s nothing new, but more about repeating consistent Chinese narratives while its defense budget remains opaque.
 
Xi slogans
 
Compared to the last white paper in 2015, “this new white paper is designed to really facilitate China’s drive to what I call to earn the regional security narrative. The white paper is full of (Chinese President) Xi Jinping’s slogans,” said Alexander Neill, a Shangri-La Dialogue senior fellow for Asia Pacific security at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
 
“Following a period of quite considerable defense reform, this white paper is setting out its achievement in terms of reforms but it’s also offering a new vision for regional security with Chinese characteristics,” added the Singapore-based expert.
 
During a news conference on Wednesday morning, China insisted its armed forces are defensive in nature.
 
That, some observers believe, shows China’s attempts to dismiss international criticism that it is a rising military threat.
 
According to Hu Kaihong, spokesman at China’s State Council Information Office, the white paper responds to the international community’s interest in the development of China’s armed forces and elaborates on the distinctive feature of China’s national defense policy, which is defensive in nature.
 
A military threat?
 
“China’s national defense in the new era is never seeking hegemony, expansion or spheres of influence. And China’s national defense expenditure has been reasonable and appropriate,” Hu said.
 
According to the white paper, from 2012 to 2017, China’s defense expenditure increased from US$98 billion to $152 billion.
 
During the period, China’s GDP and government expenditures grew at an average rates of 9.04 percent and 10.43 percent respectively while its defense expenditures increased by an average of 9.42 percent.
 

Meanwhile, China’s defense expenditures accounted for 5.26 percent of government expenditures on average and 1.28 percent of its GDP, the latter of which compared to Russia’s 4.4 percent, the U.S.’s 3.5 percent and India’s 2.5 percent.
 
“The percentage of China’s defense expenditure in GDP remained stable and grew in coordination with the increase of government expenditure,” the white paper said.
 
It added that China ranks the sixth among those big defense-spending countries in terms of defense spending as a percentage of GDP on average and is the lowest among the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council.
 
Opaque defense spending
 
But Ross Feingold, a Taipei-based political risk analyst, refuted the comparison as a distortion given other great military powers have international peacekeeping obligations.
 
The security presence of the U.S., for example, is broadly welcomed around the world whether that’s through weapon sales or actual presence of U.S. personnel or equipment, he said.
 
“Broadly speaking, there’s still a preference around the world for a U.S. [security] presence. Where China is expanding its presence, it seems to be  very bilateral, rather than [a] regional request,” Feingold added, referring to China’s naval base in Djibouti as an example.
 
Feingold said the white paper is nothing new but China’s consistent military narrative.
 
He further questioned if China’s disclosure of military expenditures between 2012 and 2017 was updated and transparent enough.
 
He said that some of China’s military spending may not be reported accurately or there remain secret budgets through Chinese state-owned enterprises which engage in research and development or even products — all that he said may not show up in the actual budget numbers.
 
While the white paper also seeks to show just how intense China’s military reforms have been since it was introduced by Xi, what’s missing in the paper is the actual turbulence that has happened to the Chinese military in the past couple of years, Neill said.
 
 

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Both Russia and China are denying their military aircraft violated South Korea’s territorial airspace during a joint air patrol Tuesday.

The alleged violation happened near a disputed group of islands claimed by both South Korea, which calls it Dokdo, and Japan, which calls it Takeshima.  

South Korea’s Defense Ministry says it scrambled multiple fighter jets after a Russian warplane ventured into its airspace over the East Sea.  

The ministry says after the South Korean jets fired warning shots, the Russian plane left South Korean territory. However, it returned a short time later, prompting the South Korean jets to fire more warning shots.

Russia’s Defense Ministry denied Seoul’s depiction of the incident, and accused the South Korean fighter jets of “unprofessional maneuvers.”  A spokesman for China’s Defense Ministry told reporters in Beijing that the patrol did not “target any third party” and flew along established air routes.  

South Korea’s Defense Ministry summoned officials from the Chinese and Russian embassies to lodge an official protest. Seoul says this is the first time that a Russian plane has violated its territorial skies.  

The flight by two Russian and two Chinese bombers, plus early warning planes from both nations, marks a notable ramping-up of military cooperation between Beijing and Moscow.  

Japan also lodged its own formal protest with Seoul and Moscow over the incident.  Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters in Tokyo that South Korea’s actions were “totally unacceptable and extremely regrettable” in light of Japan’s claim over the islands.

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Officials in Afghanistan say a suicide bomber rammed his explosives-packed vehicle into a NATO military convoy in Kabul Wednesday, killing one Croatian soldier and wounding two others.

The early morning attack occurred near a military base on the northern outskirts of the Afghan capital.

Croatian officials initially said three soldiers were wounded but later said one of them died after suffering serious head injuries.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the bombing.

Meanwhile, the insurgent group captured Keran Wa Manjan district in northeastern Badakhshan province bordering Pakistan, Tajikistan and China.

A provincial government spokesman, Nek Mohammad Nazari, told VOA the Taliban overran the district after week-long fighting. The insurgent group claimed about 40 Afghan security personnel surrendered the Taliban during the course of fighting.

The Taliban continues to inflict hundreds of casualties on pro-government forces and has captured new territory during the current fighting season amid ongoing negotiations with the United States for a political settlement to the 18-year-old war.

U.S. chief negotiator Zalmay Khalilzad has arrived in the region for a new round of talks with insurgent interlocutors in Doha, the capital of the Gulf state of Qatar. The two adversaries are said to have come closer to signing an agreement in the nearly year-long dialogue.

The deal, if approved, would require Washington to announce a timetable for American troops to leave Afghanistan in exchange for assurances the Taliban will not allow transnational terrorists to use insurgent-controlled areas for international terrorism. The insurgents, under the deal, will immediately engage in intra-Afghan negotiations to discuss a permanent cease-fire and an inclusive governing system.

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Russian boxer Maxim Dadashev has died from injuries sustained in a fight in Maryland, the Russian boxing federation announced Tuesday. 

“Maxim Dadashev has died in the United States following injuries sustained during his fight with Subriel Matias,” the federation said in a statement.

The 28-year-old underwent emergency brain surgery in Washington after his super-lightweight bout with Puerto Rican Matias on Friday was stopped in the 11th round by his cornerman James “Buddy” McGirt.

Dadashev, known as “Mad Max,” was unable to walk to the dressing room and was immediately hospitalized.

Doctors operated to relieve pressure from swelling on his brain.

“Right now, he’s in critical condition, but the doctor told me that he’s stable,” Dadashev’s strength and conditioning coach, Donatas Janusevicius, had told ESPN after the operation.

McGirt said after the fight he “couldn’t convince” his fighter to stop, but opted to throw in the towel when he saw him “getting hit with more and more clean shots as the fight went on.”

“One punch can change a whole guy’s life,” McGirt said.

Russian boxing chief Umar Kremlev told Russian media that Dadashev’s body would be repatriated home and that his family would receive financial aid.

Dadashev took an unbeaten 13-0 record into the 140-pound non-title fight.

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A senior U.S. official tasked with finding a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian issue told the United Nations Tuesday that international law and consensus are not the keys to resolving the decades-old dispute.

“Those who continue to call for international consensus on this conflict are doing nothing to encourage the parties to sit down at the negotiating table and make the hard compromises necessary for peace,” Special Representative for International Negotiations Jason Greenblatt told a meeting of the U.N. Security Council. “In fact, they are doing the opposite –  allowing people to hide behind words that mean nothing.” 
 
Greenblatt said that international consensus is often “nothing more than a mask for inaction.”
 
“So let’s stop kidding ourselves. If a so-called international consensus had been able to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it would have done so decades ago. It didn’t,” he said. “This conflict is also not going to be resolved by reference to “international law” when such law is inconclusive.”
 

Israel Begins Demolition of Palestinian Homes

Homeowners said they had permits from the Palestinian Authority to build but Israel says the area is closed to construction

Greenblatt also took aim at the Security Council resolutions agreed on the issue since 1967 – all are binding under international law – saying they have not succeeded and would not provide a path to peace.
 
The council has laid out the basic principles for a negotiated peace in its resolutions, including land-for-peace, affirming the vision of a two-state solution, and endorsing the so-called Quartet’s (U.N., Russia, U.S. and European Union) road map. More recently, in December 2016, it said Israeli settlements on Palestinian land are illegal under international law and a major obstacle to peace.
 
The international community has been awaiting a proposed peace plan from the Trump administration. Greenblatt, along with President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and advisor Jared Kushner, have been working on the proposal for many months.

Nine in Ten Palestinians Distrust US Economic Plan: Poll

President Donald Trump’s administration presented the economic part of its Israeli-Palestinian peace proposals, dubbed ‘Peace to Prosperity, in the Bahraini capital Manama on June 25-6

Greenblatt said Tuesday that Trump has not decided when the political plan would be released, but that when it is, it would not be ambiguous. An economic road map was unveiled to mixed reviews at a conference in Bahrain in late June.
 
“I ask all of you to reserve judgment until we publish, and you read, the 60 or so pages that detail what peace could look like,” Greenblatt said. “Achieving that vision will require difficult compromises by both parties, if they are willing to make such compromises. But we believe both sides will gain far more than they give.”  
 
He emphasized that a solution could not be forced upon the parties and said, “Unilateral steps in international and multilateral fora will do nothing to solve this conflict.”
 
The Trump administration came in for widespread international criticism in December 2017 when it took the unilateral step of recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and announcing that it would move its embassy there.
 
Greenblatt raised the issue of Jerusalem, saying that the Palestinians continue to assert that East Jerusalem must be the capital of a future Palestinian state.
 
“But let’s remember, an aspiration is not a right,” Greenblatt said. He then added that his statement should not be interpreted as an indication of the content of the political part of the peace plan.
 
“Aspirations belong at the negotiating table,” he added. “And only direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians can resolve the issue of Jerusalem, if it can be resolved.”
 
The status of Jerusalem is seen internationally as a final status issue that must be resolved at the negotiating table.
 
Several council members took issue with Greenblatt’s demotion of international law and consensus.
 

“For us, international law is relevant; international law is not futile,” said German Ambassador Christoph Heusgen. “We believe in the force of international law; we do not believe in the force of the strongest.”
 
He emphasized that council resolutions are binding under international law.
 
“For us, international law is not menu a la carte,” Heusgen added. He noted that there are many instances where U.S. diplomats insist on the respect and implementation of council resolutions, such as on North Korea.
 
Russia’s envoy, Vassily Nebenzia, also challenged Greenblatt’s assertions.
 
“This international consensus is international law, because Security Council resolutions are international law – they merely need to be complied with,” Nebenzia said. “The matter lies not with a lack of international consensus; rather the matter has to do with the fact that there is utter disregard for this internationally-acknowledged consensus by the United States at present.”

While the Trump administration’s peace plan has yet to be delivered, it is seen by some as already dead on arrival, as the Palestinians have rejected Washington’s ability to be an impartial mediator after its decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

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The White House predicted Tuesday that Congress would approve a critical new agreement restoring the government’s ability to pay its bills for the next two years by suspending the country’s debt ceiling and at the same time setting annual spending limits through 2021.

“I think it’s a deal that will get through,” said White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow. “I think people are signing on. Democrats and Republicans. It isn’t everything we hoped for, but it got through the debt ceiling. That’s so important, we’re not going to default on American securities.”

The agreement reached Monday between President Donald Trump and top Republican and Democratic congressional leaders is likely to avert another partial government shutdown like the 35-day standoff that shuttered many operations late last year and into January. But contentious spending issues on specific items could still emerge in the days before 2019 budgets for government agencies expire at the end of September. 

The pact calls for $1.37 trillion in agency spending in the fiscal year starting Oct. 1 and slightly more in 2021, with more funding for the military and domestic social programs.

Both Republican and Democrat lawmakers in Washington have railed against the country’s chronic overspending. The government has not had a balanced, no-deficit budget — when tax receipts equal spending — since 2001, and there have only been five such years since the 1960s.

With the country’s current $22 trillion debt ceiling lifted for two years, the long-term debt total will continue to increase as government spending in Washington surpasses the tax revenues it collects from individuals and businesses, perhaps adding another $2 trillion over the next two years.

‘Abdication of fiscal responsibility’

Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget in Washington, called the new agreement “a total abdication of fiscal responsibility by Congress and the president.” 

“It may end up being the worst budget agreement in our nation’s history, proposed at a time when our fiscal conditions are already precarious,” she added.

According to MacGuineas, “Trump will have increased discretionary spending by as much as 22 percent over his first term, and enshrine trillion-dollar deficits into law.” She added that Congress should cancel its annual August recess and “return to the negotiating table for a better deal. If they don’t, those who support this deal should hang their heads in total shame as they bolt town. This deal would amount to nothing short of fiscal sabotage.”

Senator Ted Cruz, a conservative Texas lawmaker, also assailed the White House accord with congressional leaders, calling it “yet another missed opportunity to rein in excessive government spending.”

“This deal irresponsibly jacks up spending by $320 billion without real offsets [in spending cuts], and suspends the debt limit into 2021,” Cruz said. “Instead of finally dealing with our nearly $1 trillion deficit and $22 trillion debt, this deal just kicks the can down the road again.”

Praise for deal

Trump in the past sharply criticized big spending packages, but said on Twitter that he was pleased with the new deal.

“This was a real compromise in order to give another big victory to our Great Military and Vets!” Trump said on Twitter.

The two top congressional Democrats, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, said the deal “will enhance our national security and invest in middle-class priorities that advance the health, financial security and well-being of the American people.”

Kudlow said, “We were able to keep out any restrictions on our deregulation efforts, which is very important to us. Defense strength was maintained. No restrictions on border activity. So, it’s a pretty good deal under the circumstances, that’s the way I would put it.”

He described the spending increases, both for defense programs favored by Trump and Republicans, and domestic social welfare programs advanced by Democrats, as “very modest.”

“Right now jobs are booming and consumer spending is really booming,” Kudlow said, “so that bodes very well for the economy, for the prosperity cycle, and also to in the longer term get those deficits down.”

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Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s approval rating hit a new high because of his anti-crime work and populist appeal across class lines, a survey shows.
While many nations and groups around the world criticize him, Duterte earned a net satisfaction rating of 68 in the second quarter of 2019, according to a July 8 public opinion survey by Manila area research institution Social Weather Stations. The rating marked a new “personal record high,” the president said on his office website. He had scored 66 in March as well as in June 2017.

The president fared well in the heavily watched survey of 1,200 adults because his anti-crime campaign has made people feel safer in urban neighborhoods, common Filipinos and scholars in the country say. Duterte, elected in 2016, got there in part by letting police shoot drug crime suspects on the spot, outraged overseas rights groups believe.

Duterte also makes sense to common people because of speech and demeanor that cast him as a political outsider, analysts say. Fast economic growth has given him a boost, they observe.

“The way he presents himself is that he speaks street language,” said Maria Ela Atienza, political science professor at the University of the Philippines Diliman. “He looks like a person who does things immediately, even of course at the expense of rule of law.”

Anti-crime wave

Duterte vowed after taking office to eradicate major crimes within three to six months. The 74-year-old leader has acknowledged personally killing criminal suspects while mayor of the second-largest Philippine city, Davao.

On the presidential office website, Duterte once swore he would “eradicate everyone involved in the illegal drug trade.”

Crime decreased to 115,539 incidents logged in the first quarter this year, down 3.3% from the same period of 2018, domestic media outlet BusinessWorld says, citing police figures.

Populist aura

The Middle class resents the failed promises of previous presidents, adding to their satisfaction with Duterte, Atienza said. Past administrations were lighter on crime, including corruption.

The middle class is solid, thanks to economic growth of more than 6% every year since the president took office.

“Duterte has created an aura for himself. It’s probably quite difficult to knock down,” said Eduardo Araral, associate professor at the National University of Singapore’s public policy school. “He is seen as an ordinary guy, (an) outsider.”
Criticism from domestic political opponents tends to raise his popular appeal, casting him as an “underdog,” Araral said.

Condemnations offshore

New York-based advocacy group Human Rights Watch has estimated there have been more than 12,000 extrajudicial killings under Duterte, nearly double an official figure of 6,600. Teenagers are among the dead. “The Philippine government’s brutal ‘war on drugs’ has devastated the lives of countless children,” the group said in a June 27 report.

Western governments as well as the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights have questioned the extrajudicial killings since 2016, sparking sharp rebuttals from Duterte.

He called former U.S. President Barack Obama, for example, a “son of a whore” in 2016 over Obama’s comments about the Philippine anti-drug campaign. Duterte later apologized for the remark.

A lot of people in the Philippines want the U.N. Human Rights Commission to investigate the extrajudicial killings even if Duterte himself gets high satisfaction ratings, said Renato Reyes, secretary general of the Manila-based Bagong Alyansang Makabaya alliance of leftist causes.

“We would rather look at how people stand or at how people rate the policies of the government rather than look at the overall quote, unquote, ‘satisfaction and approval ratings,’” Reyes said.

Three-year honeymoons

Three previous Philippine presidents also posted high net satisfaction ratings in the first half of their terms. They were Fidel Ramos, Corazon Aquino and later, her son Benigno Aquino. Ratings for all three fell in the second half of their terms, Social Weather Stations data show.

Duterte acknowledged the second-quarter approval figure without suggesting a reason. He must step down in 2022 due to the country’s limit of one term per president.

“As always… if you are satisfied with my work, then I’m happy. If you are not satisfied, then I’ll work more,” Duterte said July 9 in a statement on the presidential website.
 

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