A Tanzanian journalist has been arrested for “publishing false information” after broadcasting a story about police brutality, his lawyer said Friday, in the latest crackdown on free press in the country.
Joseph Gandye, who works for local station Watetezi TV, was arrested Thursday in the financial capital Dar es Salaam and held in police custody overnight.
His lawyer, Jones Sendodo, said Gandye was transferred to Iringa in Tanzania’s south on Friday.
“He is accused of publishing false information,” Sendodo told AFP.
The Tanzania Human Rights Defenders Coalition, which found Watetezi TV last year, said Gandye was arrested after airing a story on August 9 about police in Iringa forcing six young detainees to sodomise each other.
His arrest comes less than a month after another Tanzanian journalist, Erick Kabendera, was detained in circumstances condemned by rights groups.
Kabendera, a respected journalist and government critic, was initially questioned over his citizenship before being threatened with sedition charges.
But in court these were dropped, and he was charged with organised crime and financial offences.
The US and British embassies in Tanzania have formally expressed their concern over a “steady erosion of due process” in the country, underscoring Kabendera’s plight as a case in point.
Accusations of “sedition” and other vague offences have been levelled against journalists and media houses under President John Magufuli, who has been criticised for his authoritarian leadership style.
Magufuli has shut down newspapers, banned opposition rallies, switched off live broadcasts of parliamentary sessions and used the cybercrimes law to jail critics.
Azory Gwanda, a Tanzanian journalist and government critic who disappeared in 2017, has never been found.
Reporters Without Borders has labelled Magufuli a “press freedom predator” and dropped Tanzania 25 places on its annual press freedom index this year.
The three Baltic countries on Friday marked the 30th anniversary of the 1989 “Baltic Way,” a historic anti-Soviet protest that involved nearly 2 million people forming a human chain more than 600 kilometers (370 miles) long.
On Aug. 23, 1989, as the Soviet Union was weakening, the gesture was a powerful expression on the part of Lithuanians, Latvians and Estonians that they were not giving up on their independence even after decades of Soviet occupation.
“People holding hands can be stronger than people holding guns,” said Estonian Prime Minister Juri Ratas in a tweet.
The celebrations come as the inhabitants of the three nations _ and many beyond _ worry about Russia’s renewed ambitions to influence the region.
“We must remember the courage and dreams of the participants. But let it also be a reminder that freedom and democracy can never be taken for granted,” Sweden’s Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom said in a statement.
The Baltic News Service recalled Friday that then-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev said Moscow “started realizing very clearly that the three Baltic nations were moving toward political independence.”
The main commemorations are taking place in Vilnius, the capital of the southern-most Baltic country, and along the Lithuania-Latvia border, with a relay-race and an exhibition. In the evening, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda will host a concert in central Vilnius.
In the Latvian capital of Riga, the three Baltic prime ministers will lay wreaths at the foot of a freedom monument.
The chain has inspired others, including a 2008 human chain in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, where a crowd of at least 100,000 people jammed Tbilisi’s main avenue.
In Hong-Kong, protesters planned Friday to form a 40-kilometer (25-mile) human chain to demand more freedoms from China, saying it was inspired by the “Baltic Way.”
The Baltic countries declared their independence from Russia in 1918 but were annexed to the Soviet Union in 1940. Friday’s events also marked the 80th anniversary of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, a secret agreement between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany that led to the occupation of the Baltic states and Poland.
The Baltic nations remained part of the Soviet Union until 1991.
President Vladimir Putin has ordered the Russian military to find a quid pro quo response after the test of a new U.S. missile banned under a now-defunct arms treaty.
In Sunday’s test, a modified ground-launched version of a Navy Tomahawk cruise missile accurately struck its target more than 500 kilometers (310 miles) away. The test came after the U.S. and Russia withdrew from the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty.
The U.S. has explained its withdrawal from the treaty by Russian violations, a claim Moscow has denied. Speaking Friday, Putin charged that the U.S. wanted to untie its hands to deploy the previously banned missiles in different parts of the world.''<br />
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He ordered the Defense Ministry and other agencies totake the necessary measures to prepare a symmetrical answer.”
Forces loyal to Yemen’s internationally recognized government have taken full control of a key southern city after overnight clashes with separatists, Yemeni security officials said Friday.
Clashes over Etq, the capital of oil-rich Shabwa province erupted late Thursday night and lasted until Friday morning, said the security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because there were not authorized to talk to the media.
The city of Etq was previously divided between Saudi-backed President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi’s government forces and a separatist militia, trained and armed by the United Arab Emirates.
The infighting between Hadi’s forces and the UAE-backed separatists,ostensibly allies in Yemen’s war against the Shiite Houthi rebels, erupted earlier this month. It has threatened to fracture the Saudi-led coalition, a group of Arab states that intervened in Yemen’s civil war in 2015, to help restore Hadi’s government to power. The previous year, the rebel Houthis overran the capital, Sanaa, and gained control of much of the country’s north.
Separatist militiamen of the so-called Southern Transitional Council, have so far seized strategic southern areas, including the city of Aden and much of the nearby Abyan province.
A Saudi-Emirati commission flew to southern Yemen last week to negotiate a truce between the government forces and separatists but has so far made no progress.
In a tweet posted early Friday, Hani Ben Braik, a separatist leader, would not admit defeat at Etq but said his militiamen chose not to pursue a battle in the city out of “respect” for the truce efforts. However, Ben Baraik warned his forces would fight back if they were attacked again.
Amid global concern about raging fires in the Amazon, Brazil’s government complained Thursday that it is being targeted in smear campaign by critics who contend President Jair Bolsonaro is not doing enough to curb widespread deforestation.
The threat to what some call “the lungs of the planet” has ignited a bitter dispute about who is to blame during the tenure of a leader who has described Brazil’s rainforest protections as an obstacle to economic development and who traded Twitter jabs on Thursday with France’s president over the fires.
French President Emmanuel Macron called the wildfires an international crisis and said the leaders of the Group of 7 nations should hold urgent discussions about them at their summit in France this weekend.
“Our house is burning. Literally. The Amazon rain forest, the lungs which produces 20% of our planet’s oxygen is on fire,” Macron tweeted.
This satellite image provided by NASA shows the fires in Brazil on Aug. 20, 2019. As fires raged in the Amazon rainforest, the government denounced critics who say President Jair Bolsonaro is not doing enough.
Bolsonaro fired back with his own tweet: “I regret that Macron seeks to make personal political gains in an internal matter for Brazil and other Amazonian countries. The sensationalist tone he used does nothing to solve the problem.”
Onyx Lorenzoni, the president’s chief of staff, earlier in the day accused European countries of exaggerating environmental problems in Brazil in order to disrupt its commercial interests.
“There is deforestation in Brazil, yes, but not at the rate and level that they say,” said Lorenzoni, according to the Brazilian news website globo.com.
His allegation came after Germany and Norway, citing Brazil’s apparent lack of commitment to fighting deforestation, decided to withhold more than $60 million in funds earmarked for sustainability projects in Brazilian forests.
The debate came as Brazilian federal experts reported a record number of wildfires across the country this year, up 84 percent over the same period in 2018. Satellite images show smoke from the Amazon reaching across the Latin American continent to the Atlantic coast and Sao Paulo, Brazil’s biggest city, according to the World Meteorological Organization.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres tweeted: “In the midst of the global climate crisis, we cannot afford more damage to a major source of oxygen and biodiversity. The Amazon must be protected.”
Federal prosecutors in Brazil’s Amazon region launched investigations of increasing deforestation, according to local media. Prosecutors said they plan to probe possible negligence by the national government in the enforcement of environmental codes.
Bolivia is also struggling to contain big fires, many believed to have been set by farmers clearing land for cultivation.
Bolsonaro said there was a “very strong” indication that some non-governmental groups could be setting blazes in retaliation for losing state funds under his administration. He did not provide any evidence.
Bolsonaro, who won election last year, also accused media organizations of exploiting the fires to undermine his government.
“Most of the media wants Brazil to end up like Venezuela,” he said, referring to political and economic turbulence in the neighboring South American country.
London-based Amnesty International blamed the Brazilian government for the fires, which have escalated international concern over the vast rainforest that is a major absorber of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
The rights group this year documented illegal land invasions and arson attacks near indigenous territories in the Amazon, including Rondonia state, where many fires are raging, said Kumi Naidoo, Amnesty’s secretary general.
“nstead of spreading outrageous lies or denying the scale of deforestation taking place, we urge the president to take immediate action to halt the progress of these fires,” Naidoo said.
The WWF conservation group also challenged Bolsonaro’s allegations about NGOs, saying they divert “the focus of attention from what really matters: the well-being of nature and the people of the Amazon.”
Brazil contains about 60 percent of the Amazon rainforest, whose degradation could have severe consequences for global climate and rainfall. Bolsonaro, who has said he wants to convert land for cattle pastures and soybean farms, won office after channeling outrage over the corruption scandals of the former government.
Filipe Martins, an adviser to Bolsonaro, said on Twitter that the Brazilian government is committed to fighting illegal deforestation and that many other countries are causing environmental damage.
The Amazon will be saved by Brazil and not “the empty, hysterical and misleading rhetoric of the mainstream media, transnational bureaucrats and NGOs,” Martins said.
Sergio Bergman, Argentina’s environment minister, appealed for people to overcome political or ideological divisions to protect the environment. He spoke at a five-day U.N. workshop on climate change in Brazil’s northern state of Bahia.
“We all, in a way, understand that it is not possible to keep using natural resources without limits,” Bergman said.
Italy’s center-left Democratic Party and the country’s quirky anti-establishment Five Star Movement are exploring whether they can form a new government to spare Italians an election this year.
The one thing the two parties have in common is fear of Matteo Salvini, leader of the populist Lega Party, who hopes to sweep into power at the head of a far-right alliance in the event of a snap election he’s engineering to happen.
Brussels is becoming increasingly unsettled at the prospect of a Salvini government emerging from Italy’s political chaos, which was triggered this week when the unstable two-party coalition government formed just a year ago between the Lega and the Five Star Movement (M5S) formally collapsed amid acrimony and recriminations.
Salvini yanked his party out of the coalition government earlier this month, hoping he could ride his rising popularity to capture the prime ministership and seize what he termed “full powers.”
FILE – Giuseppe Conte, then Italy’s prime minister, speaks to journalists at an impromptu news conference in Rome, Aug. 8, 2019.
Outgoing Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, who resigned Tuesday in a rowdy parliamentary session, blamed Salvini for the unraveling of the short-lived, troubled government, accusing him of plotting to bring down the coalition, riding roughshod over his partners in government and showing disrespect for a “culture of rules.”
He also criticized Salvini for mixing political slogans with religious symbolism, prompting the Lega leader to retort that he wasn’t ashamed of his religious faith or for having invoked the protection of the Immaculate Heart of the Madonna.
Italian President Sergio Mattarella is now consulting with the various squabbling parliamentary parties to see if a working majority can be formed to avoid fresh elections and to bring some respite to the political drama.
Italy’s president also has the option of appointing a government of technocrats, as was formed in 2011 in the wake of the Italian debt crisis. Mattarella has let it be known that he’d prefer to stave off an election until next year in order for parliament to agree on a budget, a process that normally takes three months.
Focus on longer term
But the 78-year-old head of state has also made it clear he doesn’t want yet another short-lived government. The only real possibility for a new government lies with a tie-up between the Democrats (PD) and M5S.
But many analysts are skeptical that the two parties can overcome their differences, and if so, for how long, despite their shared interest in halting the momentum of Salvini. The outgoing interior minister and the country’s most popular politician, Salvini has been building electorally thanks partly to his adeptness in dominating news cycles.
M5S, founded by the popular comic and blogger Beppo Grillo, built much of its success at the expense of the PD and has focused especially on the traditional strongholds of the left in the country’s so-called Red Belt across central Italy and in the south. The party has gone out of its way to humiliate the PD, linking it tirelessly to corruption and cronyism and accusing it of being out of touch with the working class.
A coalition between the two would be yet another oddball alliance paralyzed by internal disputes, warn analysts. While the PD is pro-European Union, M5S is skeptical and at one time wanted to ditch the euro currency.
Democratic Party leader Nicola Zingaretti, center, leaves after meeting Italian President Sergio Mattarella, in Rome, Aug. 22, 2019. Mattarella was receiving political leaders to explore whether a majority exists in Parliament for a new government.
PD leader Nicola Zingaretti has voiced considerable skepticism about a tie-up, saying in a television interview Wednesday, “Discontinuity applies to personnel, as well as content.”
But on Thursday, he left the door open, saying the archrivals could see eye to eye on issues of social justice and immigration. M5S has often been at odds with Salvini’s tough anti-migrant polices, which have helped boost the Lega’s electoral appeal.
After meeting Mattarella on Thursday, Zingaretti said he was willing to explore forming a new coalition government but “not at any cost.” He told reporters it was a gamble.
“We need a government that changes direction, an alternative to the right, with a new, solid program, a broad base in parliament which gives back hope to Italians.” If the gamble fails, “the natural way out of the crisis is new, early elections,” he added.
Warning from Berlusconi
The proposal for a possible coalition government has been rejected by former Conservative Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who also met with Mattarella. The center-right leader, whose political star has waned as Salvini’s has risen, warned against “an improvised majority that exists only in parliament and not in the country.”
Italian publisher and commentator Alberto Castelvecchi believes Zingaretti and M5S leader Luigi Di Maio will cobble together some kind of government, saying the prospect of a snap election was receding. But Castelvecchi said this would just be a delay.
“The question is not if we go to elections, but when and how,” he said.
Meanwhile, Salvini and his lieutenants are laying the groundwork for a national poll, one they intend to fight on an uncompromising “Italy First” agenda that will challenge the EU’s financial rules the Lega leader says are too restrictive.
Midweek, one of Salvini’s advisers, Claudio Borghi, raised the prospect of a Lega-led government dumping the euro, calling it “the wrong currency for Italy.”
He added, “It has impeded Italy’s growth, puts us at a competitive disadvantage and deprives the country of the freedom to choose our own fiscal policies.”
Renan Toussaint and Florence Lisene contributed to this report
PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI – Kore Lavi, a U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) food program for malnourished Haitians, ended in August amid a worsening of Haiti’s food insecurity crisis.
It is estimated that 2.6 million people, roughly a quarter of Haiti’s population, faces food insecurity in 2019. Experts say natural disasters, high inflation and the country’s socio-political and economic problems are to blame.
“Kore Lavi has served as a strong model in the ongoing development of Haiti’s National Social Protection Policy,” Alexis Barnes, acting senior development, outreach and communications officer for USAID in Port-au-Prince, told VOA via email.
“This activity was designed to be a partnership with the government of Haiti that would model through a limited sample of households a predictable, social transfer focused on consumption of nutritious foods among the most vulnerable in 21 communes,” Barnes said.
A Kore Lavi marketplace bustling with activity. (Photo: USAID)
New way to address hunger
The multimillion-dollar program began in 2013. It provided nutritious meals to 18,000 households in the southeast, northwest, central plateau and Artibonite regions, as well as the Isle of La Gonave.
Originally scheduled to end in September 2017, USAID extended the program for two more years after Hurricane Matthew in 2016, which devastated homes and food crops in many regions of the Caribbean country.
Four NGOs — the World Food Program (WFP), World Vision, Action Against Hunger and CARE — administered the program with MAST, Haiti’s Ministry of Public Works and Social Affairs (Ministere des Affaires Sociales et du Travail Haitien).
Program coordinator Laurore Antoine said organizers used innovative ways to address hunger.
“We wanted to divorce ourselves from the traditional approach,” Antoine, a Haitian official with CARE, a Geneva-based international humanitarian and international development agency, told VOA.”We wanted to kill two birds with one stone, so we boosted local production, as well.”
Vegetables for sale at the Kore Lavi marketplace (Photo: USAID)
That new approach included “fresh products” such as meat, fish and vegetables sold by program-approved vendors.
“That way the beneficiary was able to consume a nutritionally balanced meal and learn the components of that. But what’s more important is that we achieved this with a network of local vendors whom we found living in the community – in many cases they were women – in fact 86 percent of our local vendors were women,” he said.
Kore Lavi participants received a monthly allotment of food stamps that could be used to buy perishable provisions for the week. Vendors then turned in the vouchers for cash.
Kore Lavi vendor holds vouchers she can exchange for cash. (Photo: USAID)
Government solutions
Haitian opposition lawmaker Youri Latortue, who owns a poultry farm, said boosting national food production is key. He fears Haiti’s food insecurity will soon worsen if that doesn’t happen.
“When you have 3 million people who don’t have access to food on a daily basis, you are heading towards famine,” he told VOA’s Creole Service. “It’s not normal to depend on international aid agencies to feed the people. Of course it’s true that it is a humanitarian situation (crisis) that they can temporarily assist us with, but it’s not a permanent solution. The (Haitian) government needs to step in to do its part.”
Latortue said the government solution for the current crisis must include all sectors of the food production industry, both livestock and agriculture.
“That’s the only way out of this crisis,” he said.
Once a week the mountain town of Canyette comes alive with the cadence of donkeys carrying baskets of vegetables, fruits and meat. (Photo: USAID)
As Kore Lavi shutters its operations, Barnes is satisfied with the program’s accomplishments.
“Achievements include the development of the SIMAST vulnerability mapping system, which has now expanded and is supported by other donors such as the European Union, and international NGOs working on activities serving the most vulnerable,” she said.
Barnes expressed optimism that the Haitian government will keep the progress going.
“The program succeeded in demonstrating that the government of Haiti can manage a predictable social transfer activity to the most vulnerable in this country in a well-targeted and transparent manner,” she said. “Haiti’s commitment to developing the policy framework for engagement of a durable and manageable social protection system is essential to this task, and we have been proud to support our government counterparts as they vision and structure their system.”
Kore Lavi participant Marie Anna Jolicoeur, a widowed farmer and two of her five children. (Photo: USAID)
Looking forward
Does that mean the beneficiaries will maintain the level of nutrition they achieved over six years?
“The people still have problems,” Antoine acknowledged. He said things will indeed change. MAST needs access to financial resources so they can continue funding the program, he said.
Antoine hopes a micro-loan system CARE put in place to support the food program will motivate former participants to unite and borrow money to launch small businesses that can pick up where Kore Lavi left off.
“Recently, we did a resilience study using a methodology called SenseMaker, where we asked the beneficiaries to tell us how they are living, how the program changed their lives. We can tell you that (the program) required a huge effort, a lot of sacrifices, but in the end, we delivered (what we promised). So today, as we participate in the official closing ceremony, we stand proud of our work with the most vulnerable populations,” Antoine said.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo assured Canada on Thursday that the United States was working to get China to release two Canadians it detained last year on espionage charges in cases linked to a U.S. criminal charge against a Chinese technology executive.
On a visit to Ottawa, Pompeo told Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, “Please do know our team is focused on helping those two Canadians be released. We’re working on it diligently. It’s wrong that they are being held.”
Pompeo said that “China needs to honor the commitments it’s made to the world, and it’s our expectation they’ll do so.”
Ahead of their talks, Trudeau said he appreciated U.S. efforts and would be talking with Pompeo about “how we move forward on that.” Trudeau said last month that U.S. President Donald Trump had raised the issue with Chinese President Xi Jinping at one of their meetings.
China detained former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig and entrepreneur Michael Spavor in December 2018 in an apparent attempt to pressure Canada to release Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer at Huawei, the giant Chinese telecommunications company.
FILE – Huawei Technologies Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou is pictured as she exits the court registry following a bail hearing at British Columbia Superior Courts in Vancouver, British Columbia, Dec. 11, 2018.
Meng was arrested Dec. 1 in Vancouver at the request of U.S. authorities, who want her extradited to stand trial on fraud charges in the U.S. Since her arrest, she has been staying at her multimillion-dollar mansion there awaiting extradition proceedings.
China’s relations with Canada have been icy since the arrest of Meng, who is the daughter of Huawei’s founder, Ren Zhengfei.
After Trudeau spoke about the detention of the two Canadians Thursday, China’s embassy in Ottawa condemned the continued house detention of Meng.
“China adheres to the principle of equality between all countries, no matter big or small. … China-Canada relations now suffer gross difficulties, and the Canadian side knows very well the root cause,” the embassy said. “Canada should release Ms. Meng Wanzhou immediately and ensure her safe return to China, and bring bilateral relations back onto the right track.”
Some imports halted
Since the Meng arrest, China has stopped importing some Canadian products such as canola seed and meat. It also resentenced a convicted Canadian drug smuggler to death.
Kovrig and Spavor, the two detained Canadians, have been accused of conspiring to steal state secrets, but no evidence has been disclosed. They have not been allowed access to family members or lawyers while China has them in custody.
Meng is accused of lying to banks about the company’s dealings with Iran in violation of U.S. trade sanctions.
Resolution of the cases has been complicated by the ongoing tit-for-tat tariff war between the U.S. and China and their lack of success, at least so far, in reaching a new trade agreement. The U.S., however, says the trade talks are separate from the criminal case against Meng.
The United States and the Afghan Taliban have resumed peace talks in Qatar to try to conclude an agreement that would bring an end to the longest U.S. overseas military intervention.
The crucial ninth round of talks in the yearlong dialogue process got under way Thursday in the Qatari capital of Doha amid expectations it will lead to the much-awaited peace agreement between the two adversaries.
The talks come a day after clashes with Taliban insurgents in northern Afghanistan killed two American soldiers, bringing the number of U.S military fatalities in the country this year to 14, exceeding the 2018 total.
FILE – Members of the Taliban attend the second day of the Intra Afghan Dialogue talks in the Qatari capital, Doha, July 8, 2019.
Zalmay Khalilzad, the special reconciliation envoy for Afghanistan, is leading the American side while Sher Muhammad Abbas Stanekzai is heading insurgent negotiators, said a Taliban spokesman.
“Head of occupation forces Scott Miller was also present in these negotiations,” Zabihullah Mujahid said, referring to the American commander of U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan.
Khalilzad will travel to Kabul for meetings with the Afghan leadership after concluding the meeting in Doha.
The Afghan-born chief U.S. negotiator tweeted before leaving Washington on Tuesday that “we will try and close on remaining issues. We’re ready. Let’s see if the Taliban are as well.”
The deal, if reached, would require Washington to announce a timeline for withdrawing U.S.-led foreign troops from the country. In return, the Taliban will give guarantees they will not allow transnational terrorists to use Afghan soil for attacks against other countries.
The agreement would pave the way for talks among the Taliban and Afghan stakeholders, including representatives of the government in Kabul. Those talks will focus on a permanent cease-fire and issues related to future governance in Afghanistan.
The one thing Federal Reserve officials were in broad agreement about at their last meeting was this: not tipping their hands about what happens next.
Minutes released Wednesday showed a fractious meeting on many fronts last month when a divided Fed cut interest rates for the first time in a decade. But the consensus to not reveal their intentions was clear, and may show that the steady browbeating by President Donald Trump has begun to influence how the Fed communicates.
Undercommit, and it may throw markets off course and draw more fire from Trump, who has been relentless in demanding not one but a slew of rate cuts and even a return to crisis-era bond buying to supercharge a softening but still-growing economy.
Overcommit, and it looks like capitulation to the White House, a possible blow to the Fed’s perceived status as an independent, technical agency that does not consider politics in its policy decisions.
FILE – Federal Reserve board member Jerome Powell speaks after President Donald Trump announced him as his nominee for the next chair of the Federal Reserve in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, Nov. 2, 2017.
Trump adamant on rate cuts
Yet Trump has been adamant, particularly as market data has indicated some doubt about the future of the record-setting U.S. expansion, that the Fed should act to bolster an economy that seems on many fronts to be doing fine.
Safer in that situation to “be guided by incoming information and its implications for the economic outlook” and avoid “any appearance of following a preset course” of further rate cuts — in other words to stay mum.
There were serious policy disagreements at the last meeting when the Fed voted to cut the target policy rate 25 basis points, minutes of the meeting released Wednesday show.
Some wanted no cut at all, and two voting members dissented.
Some wanted a half-point cut, and in the last set of policymakers’ economic projections, a near majority said rates should fall again by year’s end.
But since then, in public, even those who wanted deeper cuts have dialed back their language a notch.
In a Financial Times column Wednesday, Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari framed his call for the Fed to use more “forward guidance” in terms of a promise not to raise rates, not a promise to cut them.
In his first comments after the July meeting, St. Louis Federal Reserve president James Bullard said the Fed would not move again in response to changes in trade policy: It had bought its “insurance” against the administration’s trade war by cutting rates once and would now look at how the economic data responds.
All ears on Powell
But a return to “data dependence” at this point poses a dilemma for Fed chairman Jerome Powell, scheduled to speak here Friday in what will be a closely watched appearance at the central bank’s annual policy retreat in the Wyoming mountains.
With bond markets again sending a warning signal about the near-term economic future as short-term rates move above long-term ones, Powell may need to say more about what the Fed plans, or at least what is influencing its thinking.
“(W)hat Powell has to say on Friday is going to be much, much more important than these minutes,” said Mary Ann Hurley, vice president in fixed-income trading at D.A. Davidson in Seattle.
Is it inflation that is too weak, or job gains that may be too strong to sustain? If overseas data matters, would a German recession trigger lower U.S. rates?
“His main message is going to be some combination of trying to arrest the panic in fixed income markets without being seen as pandering to Trump,” said Adam Posen, president of the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
When they cut rates in July, contrary to the usual sense of a strong consensus narrative about the reason why, different policymakers seemed motivated by a hodgepodge of reasons.
Demands from the White House were not among them. Fed officials insist they are not hostages to Trump. But he may be holding their tongue.
As a top North Korean military official concluded a visit to China this week in an effort to boost military ties with Beijing, experts said Washington’s big-deal approach could push Pyongyang to deepen its military relations with Beijing, a consequence that could create a rift between Seoul and Washington.
“If we are not going to play a sophisticated strategy … then I guess we’re going to just drive North Korea into the arms of China,” said Ken Gause, director for Adversary Analytics Program at CNA. “It puts China in a greater position to drive a wedge between the United States and South Korea if North Korea is leaning toward China.”
Kim Su Gil, director of the General Political Bureau of the Korean People’s Army (KPA), returned to Pyongyang Tuesday after visiting Beijing to meet with his Chinese counterpart.
During the meeting Saturday with Zhang Youxia, vice chairman of China’s Central Military Commission, Kim said Pyongyang was ready to “strengthen friendly exchanges between the two armed forces” and bring the “two armed forces to a higher level.”
FILE – Chinese President Xi Jinping and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un walk during Xi’s visit in Pyongyang, North Korea, in this picture released by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency, June 21, 2019.
Closer ties with China
The pledge to bolster military ties between Beijing and Pyongyang followed an agreement that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Chinese President Xi Jinping made during their fifth summit held in June in Pyongyang. The two leaders agreed to “maintain the tradition of high-level exchanges.”
Pyongyang and Beijing renewed relations when Kim and Xi met for their first summit in March 2018. Relations had been rocky since Kim took power in 2011 and carried out nuclear and missile tests despite Beijing’s opposition. The alliance between Beijing and Pyongyang dates to the Korean War in 1950 when the Chinese army fought on the side of North Korea against South Korea and the U.S.
Experts said while the latest military meeting was largely seen as Beijing’s effort to restore its relations with Pyongyang, including military ties, Washington’s so-called “big-deal approach” could prompt North Korea to pivot toward China, which has been more lax about enforcing sanctions.
“We can go and continue with maximum pressure like we are now,” said CNA’s Gause, referring to a key focus of U.S. policy. “And if we do, it’s going to just push China and North Korea closer together.”
VOA Interview: John Bolton’s Take on World’s Hotspots video player.
WATCH: VOA Interview: John Bolton’s Take on World’s Hotspots
What is ‘big-deal approach’?
White House national security adviser John Bolton reiterated U.S. President Donald Trump’s “big-deal approach” toward resolving nuclear issues with Pyongyang in his interview with VOA last week.
“What President Trump called the big deal, when he met with Kim Jong Un in Hanoi, is to make that strategic decision to give up nuclear weapons, and then implement it, and then all kinds of things are possible after that,” Bolton said.
Washington’s approach involves demanding that Pyongyang give up its entire nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief while maintaining pressure through sanctions. At the Hanoi summit in February, the “big-deal approach” fell apart when Kim offered only a partial denuclearization.
FILE – People watch a TV news program reporting about North Korea’s firing projectiles with a file image at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Aug. 16, 2019.
Missiles fly, talks do not
Talks between Washington and Pyongyang have been stalled since the Hanoi summit in February, but when Trump and Kim held an impromptu summit at the inter-Korean border in June, the two agreed to resume diplomatic efforts.
However, North Korea has launched six missile tests since late July. The series of missile launches suggests that North Korea has advanced its missile technology to the extent that it is capable of evading South Korea’s missile defense system.
While demonstrating the new weapons, Pyongyang claimed South Korea’s military drills with the U.S. posed a threat to its national security, prompting North Korea to take “self-defense countermeasures” in response. The joint exercises concluded Tuesday.
Pyongyang has yet to follow through on its promises to hold talks even as U.S. Special Representative to North Korea Steve Biegun is in Seoul, ready to talk with Pyongyang. Biegun arrived in Seoul on Tuesday and is expected to be there until Thursday. Although there has been some speculation that Biegun will continue on to Beijing, he’s expected to return to Washington.
Limited military support
Even if Pyongyang does not want its military, the Korean People’s Army (KPA), to be under Chinese influence because of a reluctance to give Beijing “more control over them,” North Korea could seek Beijing’s limited military support, according to Gause.
Evans Revere, acting assistant secretary for East Asia and Pacific Affairs during the George W. Bush administration, said North Korea “is reluctant to allow Beijing to dictate or dominate [the] KPA.”
However, he continued, “it is reasonable to assume that the North Koreans will press the Chinese for logistical and technical support, and perhaps even ask for more advanced weaponry.”
Scott Snyder, a senior fellow for Korean studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, said, “The KPA may also benefit from better relations with China.”
FILE – U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper, left, and South Korean Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo, right, shake hands ahead of a meeting at Defense Ministry in Seoul, South Korea, Aug. 9, 2019.
China may also seek tighter military cooperation with North Korea if the U.S. decides to deploy intermediate-range missiles in Asia. U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said earlier this month that he favored placing the missiles in Asia, which angered China.
“If we are destined for increased U.S.-[China] strategic rivalry, then it would make sense for Beijing to ensure that North Korea remain within its orbit, even while making every effort to wean [South Korea] away from the U.S. alliance structure,” Revere said.
The U.S. and former Soviet Union agreed upon the Cold War arms control treaty in 1987. It banned them from deploying their nuclear and conventional land-based missiles with ranges between 480 to 5,500 kilometers anywhere in the world.
Bolton said earlier this month that the U.S. willingness to deploy intermediate-range missiles in Asia is in part an effort to protect South Korea.
“Such a move would increase likelihood of expanded strategic military cooperation among China, North Korea and the Russians,” said Revere, adding, “The ‘great game’ in East Asia is about to get more interesting and dangerous.”
Mexican musician Celso Pina, famed as “the rebel of the accordion” for mixing eclectic styles with traditional Colombian cumbia, died Wednesday of a heart attack in his hometown of Monterrey, his record label La Tuna Records said.
He was 66 years old, according to local media.
With an interest in genres ranging from ska to hip-hop, Pina collaborated with a number of major Mexican rock artists including Cafe Tacvba, Lila Downs and Julieta Venegas. In 2002 his solo album “Barrio Bravo” was nominated for a Latin Grammy.
The composer and singer began playing music with his brothers growing up in Monterrey near the northern border, according to his official website. He picked up the accordion in his late 20s, and, still in Monterrey, learned Colombia’s celebrated vallenato style, central to the bouncy cumbia genre.
“Nobody can resist cumbia,” Pina wrote in his last tweet before his death, ahead of concerts planned in the United States, one of about 30 countries he had toured, according to his profile on the Spotify music streaming platform.
“The rebel of the accordion has left us. His music united Latin American cultures and captivated Americans,” the U.S. Embassy in Mexico wrote on Twitter.
VOA correspondent Ayaz Gul contributed to this report from Islamabad.
The death toll from a suicide bomb attack at a wedding in the Afghan capital, Kabul, last week has risen to 80, officials said.
The initial death toll from Saturday’s blast was 63 but jumped to 80 after 17 civilians died from their wounds in recent days, Interior Ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi said Wednesday.
“Seventeen others have succumbed to their injuries in hospital and over 160 are still being treated either in hospitals or at home,” Rahimi said.
A man mourns for victims of the wedding hall bombing during a memorial service at a mosque in Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 20, 2019.
The blast, Kabul’s deadliest attack since January 2018, was claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
Survivors said hundreds of guests were inside the hall when the blast occurred near the stage where the musicians were. “All the youths, children and all the people who were there were killed,” witness Gul Mohammad said. One of the wounded, Mohammad Toofan, said that “a lot of guests were martyred.”
The bride’s father told TOLO television station that 14 members of his family were killed in the bombing and three were still missing.
“I know that this will not be the last suffering for Afghans. This suffering will continue. This will not be the last incident to happen against innocent people,” the groom, identified as Mirwais, told the private Afghan news station.
The Taliban, who are set to resume peace talks with the U.S., condemned the attack as “barbaric.”
WASHINGTON – A researcher at the University of Kansas was indicted on federal fraud charges Wednesday for allegedly concealing ties to a Chinese university while doing research funded by the U.S. government, the U.S. Justice Department said.
Feng “Franklin” Tao, 47, an associate professor at a University of Kansas center that conducts sustainable technology research, was charged with one count of wire fraud and three counts of program fraud.
The indictment came amid increased concern by U.S. officials about the risk from China to U.S. universities, part of a broader effort by President Donald Trump’s administration to confront Beijing over what Washington sees as the use of
sometimes illicit methods for acquiring rapid technological advancement.
Intelligence officials have issued dire warnings about the threat of intellectual property theft or even espionage, amid an ongoing trade war with China.
China denies such activities.
U.S. authorities said Tao hid the fact that he was working full time for Fuzhou University in China while conducting research at the University of Kansas funded through U.S. Department of Energy and National Science Foundation contracts.
Five-year pact
The indictment alleges that Tao signed a five-year contract in May 2018 with Fuzhou that required him to be a full-time employee of the Chinese school. Kansas required Tao to file an annual conflict-of-interest report, but Tao “falsely claimed” he had no conflicts of interest in those reports, the Justice Department said.
The indictment says Tao fraudulently received more than $37,000 in salary from the Energy Department and National Science Foundation.
A Justice Department spokesman said Tao had not entered a plea.
Department of Justice officials in Kansas did not immediately respond to questions about whether Tao is a U.S. citizen or whether he was working with classified materials.
If convicted, Tao faces up to 20 years in federal prison and a fine of up to $250,000 on the wire fraud count, and up to 10 years and a fine up to $250,000 on each of the three program fraud counts.
The University of Kansas cooperated and assisted in the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s probe of Tao.
The U.S. State Department has approved a possible $8 billion sale of F-16 fighter jets to Taiwan, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said on Tuesday in an official notification to Congress.
The potential deal is for 66 aircraft, 75 General Electric Co engines, as well as other systems, the agency said in a statement, adding it served the interests of the United States and would help Taiwan maintain a credible defense.
China has already denounced the widely discussed sale, one of the biggest yet by the United States to Taiwan, which Beijing considers a renegade province. It has warned of unspecified “countermeasures.”
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch, a Republican, has welcomed the proposed sale of the Lockheed Martin Corp F-16 jets.
“These fighters are critical to improving Taiwan’s ability to defend its sovereign airspace, which is under increasing pressure from the People’s Republic of China,” he said in a recent statement.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Fox News on Monday that President Donald Trump notified Congress of the sale last week.
Pompeo told Fox News the sale was “consistent with past U.S. policy” and that the United States was “simply following through on the commitments we’ve made to all of the parties.”
In Tapei, President Tsai Ing-wen said the sale would help Taiwan build a new air force and boost its air defense capacity.
In a post on Facebook, Tsai said she was grateful for Washington’s “continuous support for Taiwan’s national defense.”
“With strong self-defense capacity, Taiwan will certainly be more confident to ensure the cross-strait and regional peace and stability while facing security challenges,” she said.
Taiwan unveiled its largest defense spending increase in more than a decade last week, amid rising military tensions with China.
U.S. envoy for North Korea Stephen Biegun says the Trump administration is ready to resume stalled negotiations over North Korea’s nuclear program.
Speaking Wednesday in Seoul where he was meeting with South Korean officials, Biegun said the United States is “prepared to engage as soon as we hear from our counterparts in North Korea.”
President Donald Trump wrote on Twitter earlier this month that he had received a letter from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un expressing a desire “to meet and start negotiations” after the conclusion of U.S.-South Korean joint military exercises, which ended Tuesday.
North Korea considers the exercises a threat to its existence, and since late last month it carried out six short-range ballistic missile tests that Kim said were in response to the drills.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Tuesday he was concerned about the latest missile tests, disagreeing with Trump, who has shrugged off their importance.
“I wish that they would not” launch the missiles, the top U.S. diplomat told CBS News.
The two latest projectiles, fired last Friday, flew 230 kilometers into the waters off North Korea, but, aimed differently, could reach South Korea as well as American troops and civilians living there.
Trump has voiced his discontent as well, not about North Korea’s missile tests, but about the costs of the military drills with Seoul.
President Donald Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in, left, walk up to view North Korea from the Korean Demilitarized Zone from Observation Post Ouellette at Camp Bonifas in South Korea, Sunday, June 30, 2019.
Asked about the missile tests, Trump told reporters, “I have no problem. These are short-range missiles.”
Trump called the missiles “smaller ones.” He said earlier this month that Kim had sent him “a really beautiful letter” that included a “small apology” for conducting the missile tests.
The U.S. leader has held out hope that he can bring about Pyongyang’s denuclearization by the time his first term in the White House ends in January 2021.
Pompeo acknowledged in the CBS interview, however, that the United States and North Korea “haven’t gotten back to the table as quickly as we would have hoped” to continue the nuclear weapons talks.
Pompeo said the U.S. knew “there will be bumps along the way” in the negotiations.
“We hope Chairman Kim will come to the table and a get a better outcome” than by maintaining North Korea’s nuclear arsenal, he said.
“It will be better for the North Korean people,” Pompeo concluded. “It’ll be better for the world.”
China hopes to welcome the United States “back to the negotiating table” to discuss global efforts to limit climate change at a United Nations summit to be hosted by Chile in December, its top climate change envoy said on Tuesday.
Xie Zhenhua, China’s Special Representative for Climate Change Affairs, told journalists during a visit to a solar energy plant outside the Chilean capital Santiago that China would provide “full support to the Chilean presidency of this meeting.”
The summit was “strong proof that a multilateral negotiation process is successful, that multilateralism is working,” he said.
Asked if the U.S. approach to the threat of climate change under President Donald Trump and the U.S.-China trade dispute might affect the outcome in Santiago, Xie replied: “China and the U.S. has many differences but we do have some common grounds on climate change issues as well and we welcome them back to the negotiating table on climate change, we are very open to that.”
Trump has signaled his intention to withdraw the United States from the 2015 Paris climate accord and been dismissive of regulations aimed at slashing greenhouse gas emissions. He has also expressed his preference for bilateral trade pacts over multilateral agreements.
In July, China pledged on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Osaka to show “the highest possible ambition” in the fight against climate change. Experts and policy advisors say the world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitter could introduce new and more stringent carbon targets next year.
Xie said China would back a bid by the U.N. secretary-general and climate change envoy to persuade all countries to update their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) goals to keep global warming to well below two degrees centigrade.
“The most important objective is to identify the new NDCs for the post-2020 period and link those new NDCs together with the financial support from the developed countries as promised,” Xie said. “To have that financial support in place is very important and that’s the objective we would like to achieve.”
China is a key investor in Chilean renewable energy projects and manufactured half of the solar panels at the 110MW Parque Quilapilún solar plant Xie visited with environment minister Carolina Schmidt.
Gen. David Berger, the new U.S. Marines commandant, acknowledged Wednesday that he is concerned about deteriorating relations between Japan and South Korea, both key regional allies, but expressed hopes politicians would work out a resolution.
Berger stressed that Japan and Korea have common interests despite their differences, such as the threat posed by China and pursuing stability in Asia.
“I’m optimistic it will get worked out,” said Berger, during his first trip to Japan after being appointed to his post.
Besides meetings with Japanese government and military officials, his visit also includes going to the southern islands of Okinawa, where most of the U.S. forces here are based. He heads to South Korea later this week.
Bilateral relations worsened after Tokyo removed South Korea’s preferential trade status in early July. South Korea has decided to do the same to Japan, with the new rules taking effect in September.
Seoul sees Japan’s move as retaliation for South Korean court rulings that Japanese companies compensate South Koreans forced into labor during World War II. Japan says it is a security issue.
Berger declined to comment on what might happen if South Korea makes good on the threat to end an agreement with Japan to share military intelligence, called the General Security of Military Information Agreement, or GSOMIA, which went into effect in 2016. He said such sharing was important from a military standpoint, and discussions were ongoing outside the military.
“I never said I was not concerned. We are. What I did say is we have a common focus on an assessment of what the near and long-term threats are. But absolutely we should all be concerned when any part of any alliance has some challenges,” said Berger.
“I am confident that the right leaders are talking. I am confident that we all share a common view of the threat to stability in this region.”
While in Okinawa, Berger will go to Henoko, where a U.S. Marine air base is being built on a coastal landfill. The Henoko base, decades in the making and backed by the Japanese government, would replace a base that’s considered noisy and dangerous and is in a crowded residential area of Okinawa.
Many residents want the base moved completely off Okinawa, and its new governor, Denny Tamaki, was elected last year while pushing that demand.
Berger played down worries about delays and said construction was going smoothly, while stopping short of giving a detailed timeline.
He said he earlier checked out the construction of a Marines facility in U.S. Pacific territory of Guam, where some of the Marines from Japan will be transferred.
“I think the progress is solid,” he said, adding that the overall plan to begin the moves in the early 2020s is “on track.”
Japan sees the U.S. as its most important ally. Berger said the military of the two nations work closely together.
“This is the most consequential region for us. Our alliance with Japan is an essential part of that,” he said.
