World War II veteran Henry Ochsner, who landed on the beach at Normandy on D-Day and later received the French government’s highest honor for his service, has died. He was 96.
Family friend Dennis Anderson says Ochsner died Saturday at his home in California City of complications from cancer and old age.
As part of the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division — known as the “Screaming Eagles” — Ochsner also fought at the Battle of the Bulge.
In 2017 Ochsner and nine other veterans were awarded France’s National Order of the Legion of Honor during a ceremony at Los Angeles National Cemetery.
Ochsner married Violet Jenson in 1947. He is survived by his wife, their four daughters and two granddaughters. Funeral plans are pending.
More than 2,000 people – including the U.S. ambassador and several other Western diplomats – marched in Sarajevo Sunday for Bosnia’s first-ever gay pride parade.
There were nearly as many riot police and other security forces at the march as participants after conservative Muslims and other religious groups demanded it be canceled.
The marchers waved the universal gay pride rainbow flag, beat drums, and chanted slogans.
“We demand a society which we will together fight against violence, hatred, isolation, and homophobia.” one marcher said while others decried the official non-recognition of same sex partnerships in Bosnia.
While the Bosnian government outlaws discrimination based on sexual orientation, civil unions and other rights such as adoption are still not formally allowed.
Authorities served search warrants Sunday at the Southern California company that owned the scuba diving boat that caught fire and killed 34 people last week.
Agents with the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and other agencies searched Truth Aquatics’ offices in Santa Barbara and the company’s two remaining boats, Santa Barbara County sheriff’s Lt. Erik Raney said.
The warrants served shortly after 9 a.m. are part of the ongoing investigation into the tragedy to determine whether any crimes were committed, he said. The office was ringed in red “crime scene” tape as more than a dozen agents took photos and carried out boxes.
Thirty-four people died when the Conception burned and sank before dawn on Sept. 2. They were sleeping in a cramped bunkroom below the main deck and their escape routes were blocked by fire.
The bodies of all but one victim have been recovered. The search for the final body was suspended this weekend because of strong winds and rough seas, Raney said.
“The dive teams are going to get together Monday to develop a plan. We’re hoping they’re back in the water on Tuesday,” he said Sunday.
For a judge to approve warrants, law enforcement must spell out the probability a crime was committed. Raney declined to comment on what evidence was disclosed to obtain the warrants, saying only that they are “a pretty standard” part of the investigation to determine whether crimes occurred.
Coast Guard records show the Conception passed its two most recent inspections with no safety violations. Previous customers said Truth Aquatics and the captains of its three boats were very safety conscious.
Authorities are focused on determining the cause of the fire and are looking at many things, including how batteries and electronics were stored and charged. They will also look into how the crew was trained and what crewmembers were doing at the time of the fire. The boat’s design will also come under scrutiny, particularly whether a bunkroom escape hatch was adequate.
Five crew members jumped overboard after trying to rescue the 33 scuba divers and one crew member whose escape routes were blocked by fire, federal authorities and the boat’s owner said. The crew, including the captain, said they were driven back by flames, smoke and heat.
They jumped from the bridge area to the main deck — one breaking a leg in the effort — and tried to get through the double doors of the galley, which were on fire.
That cut off both escape routes from the sleeping quarters: a stairway and an escape hatch that exited in the galley area. The crew then tried, but failed, to get into windows at the front of the vessel.
Truth Aquatics pre-emptively filed a lawsuit Thursday under a pre-Civil War provision of maritime law that could protect it from potentially costly payouts to families of the dead, a move condemned by some observers as disrespectful and callous.
The company said in a statement posted Friday on Instagram that the lawsuit is an “unfortunate side of these tragedies” and pinned the action on insurance companies and other so-called stakeholders.
The director of a prestigious research lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology resigned Saturday, and the school’s president ordered an independent investigation amid an uproar over the lab’s ties to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Joi Ito, director of MIT’s Media Lab, resigned from both the lab and from his position as a professor at the Cambridge school, university President L. Rafael Reif said. The resignation was first reported by The New York Times.
Ito’s resignation comes after The New Yorker reported late Friday that Media Lab had a more extensive fundraising relationship with Epstein than it previously acknowledged and tried to conceal the extent of the relationship.
FILE – Financier Jeffrey Epstein looks on during a bail hearing in his sex trafficking case, in this court sketch in New York, July 15, 2019.
Epstein suicide
Epstein killed himself in jail Aug. 10 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. Federal prosecutors in New York had charged the 66-year-old with sex trafficking and conspiracy, alleging he sexually abused girls over several years in the early 2000s.
In a letter to the MIT community Saturday, Reif called the allegations in The New Yorker “deeply disturbing.”
“Because the accusations in the story are extremely serious, they demand an immediate, thorough and independent investigation,” Reif wrote. “This morning, I asked MIT’s General Counsel to engage a prominent law firm to design and conduct this process.”
Reif said last month that the university took about $800,000 from Epstein over 20 years. That announcement followed the resignation of two prominent researchers from Media Lab over revelations the lab and Ito took money from Epstein after he served time a decade ago for sex offenses involving underage girls.
The New Yorker reports Epstein arranged at least $7.5 million in donations, including $2 million from Microsoft founder Bill Gates and $5.5 million from investor Leon Black.
Although MIT listed Epstein as “disqualified” in its donor database, the Media Lab did not stop taking gifts from him and labeled his donations as anonymous, The New Yorker reported, citing emails and other documents it obtained.
Last week, Ito said Epstein gave him $525,000 for the Media Lab and another $1.2 million for his own investment funds.
Florida deal
Epstein’s July 6 arrest drew national attention, particularly focusing on a deal that allowed him to plead guilty in 2008 to soliciting a minor for prostitution in Florida and avoid more serious federal charges.
Epstein was a wealth manager who hobnobbed with the rich, famous and influential, including presidents and a prince.
He owned a private island in the Caribbean, homes in Paris and New York City, a New Mexico ranch and a fleet of high-price cars.
Phone and email messages seeking comment were left for Ito and Media Lab representatives Saturday.
OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma is expected to file for bankruptcy after settlement talks over the nation’s deadly overdose crisis hit an impasse, attorneys general involved in the talks said Saturday.
The breakdown puts the first federal trial over the opioid epidemic on track to begin next month, likely without Purdue, and sets the stage for a complex legal drama involving nearly every state and hundreds of local governments.
Purdue, the family that owns the company and a group of state attorneys general had been trying for months to find a way to avoid trial and determine Purdue’s responsibility for a crisis that has cost 400,000 American lives in the past two decades.
Family rejects two offers
An email from the attorneys general of Tennessee and North Carolina, obtained by The Associated Press, said that Purdue and the Sackler family had rejected two offers from the states over how payments under any settlement would be handled and that the family declined to offer counterproposals.
“As a result, the negotiations are at an impasse, and we expect Purdue to file for bankruptcy protection imminently,” Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery and North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein wrote in their message, which was sent to update attorneys general throughout the country on the status of the talks.
Purdue spokeswoman Josephine Martin said, “Purdue declines to comment on that in its entirety.”
FILE – Purdue Pharma offices in Stamford, Conn., May 8, 2007.
Bankruptcy case
A failure in negotiations sets up one of the most tangled bankruptcy cases in the nation’s history. It would leave virtually every state and some 2,000 local governments that have sued Purdue to battle it out in bankruptcy court for the company’s remaining assets. Purdue threatened to file for bankruptcy earlier this year and was holding off while negotiations continued.
It’s not entirely clear what a breakdown in settlement talks with Purdue means for the Sackler family, which is being sued separately by at least 17 states.
Those lawsuits are likely to continue but face a significant hurdle because it’s believed the family — major donors to museums and other cultural institutions around the world — has transferred most of its multibillion-dollar fortune overseas.
Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, who was one of the four state attorneys general negotiating with Purdue and the Sacklers, said Saturday he intends to sue the Sackler family, as other states have.
“I think they are a group of sanctimonious billionaires who lied and cheated so they could make a handsome profit,” he said. “I truly believe that they have blood on their hands.”
A gate protects the entrance of the Rooksnest estate near Lambourn, England, Aug. 6, 2019. The manor is the domain of Theresa Sackler, widow of one of Purdue Pharma’s founders and, until 2018, a member of the company’s board of directors.
In March, Purdue and members of the Sackler family reached a $270 million settlement with Oklahoma to avoid a trial on the toll of opioids there. The Sacklers could not immediately be reached for comment Saturday.
Under one earlier proposed settlement, Purdue would enter a structured bankruptcy that could be worth $10 billion to $12 billion over time. Included in the total would be $3 billion from the Sackler family, which would give up its control of Purdue and contribute up to $1.5 billion more by selling another company it owns, Cambridge, England-based Mundipharma.
Shapiro said the attorneys general believed what Purdue and the Sacklers were offering would not have been worth the reported $10 billion to $12 billion.
In their latest offers, the states also sought more assurances that the $4.5 billion from the Sacklers would actually be paid, according to the message circulated Saturday: “The Sacklers refused to budge.”
Nearly 2,000 lawsuits
In their message, Tennessee’s Slatery and North Carolina’s Stein said the states have already begun preparations for handling bankruptcy proceedings.
“Like you, we plan to continue our work to ensure that the Sacklers, Purdue and other drug companies pay for drug addiction treatment and other remedies to help clean up the mess we allege they created,” they wrote.
The nearly 2,000 lawsuits filed by city and county governments — as well as unions, hospitals, Native American tribes and lawyers representing babies who were born in opioid withdrawal — have been consolidated under a single federal judge in Cleveland.
Most of those lawsuits also name other opioid makers, distributors and pharmacies in addition to Purdue, some of which have been pursuing their own settlements.
Purdue also faces hundreds of other lawsuits filed in state courts and had sought a wide-ranging deal to settle all cases against it.
Maker of OxyContin
The company has been the most popular target of state and local governments because of its OxyContin, the prescription painkiller many of the government claims point to as the drug that gave rise to the opioid epidemic. The lawsuits claim the company aggressively sold OxyContin and marketed it as a drug with a low risk of addiction despite knowing that wasn’t true.
The impasse in the talks comes about six weeks before the scheduled start of the first federal trial under the Cleveland litigation, overseen by U.S. District Judge Dan Polster. That trial will hear claims about the toll the opioid epidemic has taken on two Ohio counties, Cuyahoga and Summit.
A bankruptcy filing by Purdue would most certainly remove the company from that trial.
The bankruptcy judge would have wide discretion on how to proceed. That could include allowing the claims against other drugmakers, distributors and pharmacies to move ahead while Purdue’s cases are handled separately. Three other manufacturers have settled with the two Ohio counties to avoid the initial trial.
“Grandpa Wong” holds a cane above his head as he pleads with riot police to stop firing tear gas — an 85-year-old shielding protesters on the front lines of Hong Kong’s fight for democracy.
Despite his age, Wong is a regular sight at Hong Kong’s street battles, hobbling toward police lines, placing himself in between riot officers and hardcore protesters, hoping to de-escalate what have now become near daily clashes.
“I’d rather they kill the elderly than hit the youngsters,” he told AFP during a recent series of skirmishes in the shopping district of Causeway Bay, a gas mask dangling from his chin.
“We’re old now, but the children are the future of Hong Kong,” he added.
“Grandpa Wong,” center left, 85, shields protesters from the police by stepping between them along with other “silver hair” volunteers in the Tung Chung district in Hong Kong, Sept. 7, 2019.
Youth lead, but all march
The three months of huge, sometimes violent pro-democracy protests in the semi-autonomous Chinese city are overwhelmingly youth-led.
Research by academics has shown that half of those on the streets are between 20 and 30 years old, while 77 percent have degrees.
But the movement maintains widespread support across the public with lawyers, doctors, nurses, teachers and civil servants all holding recent solidarity rallies, even as the violence escalates.
Groups of elderly people — dubbed “silver hairs” — have also marched.
But Wong and his friend “Grandpa Chan,” a comparatively spry 73-year-old, are among the most pro-active of this older generation.
The two are part of a group called “Protect the Children,” made up of mostly senior citizens and volunteers.
Almost every weekend, they come out to try to mediate between police and demonstrators, as well as buy protesters time when the cops start to charge.
A pair of swimming goggles dangle from the neck of “Grandpa Wong,” 85, as he rides an MTR train to the Tung Chung district in Hong Kong, Sept. 7, 2019.
‘Stay peaceful’
As another volley of tear gas bounded down a boulevard in Causeway Bay, a street lined with luxury malls and fashion retailers, Chan gripped Wong’s hand tightly, stopping his old comrade from rushing back into the crossfire.
“If we die, we die together,” yelled Chan, who eschews helmets and instead always wears an eye-catching red hat daubed with slogans.
While “Protect the Children” turn up primarily to defend the youth, Wong said he tries to warn protesters not to provoke police.
“It’s wrong to throw stones, that’s why the police beat them up,” he lamented. “I hope that police won’t hit them and the children won’t throw stuff back.”
“Everyone should stay peaceful to protect the core values of Hong Kong,” he added.
As Hong Kong’s summer of rage has worn on, the violence on both sides has only escalated.
Each weekend has brought increasingly violent bouts, with a minority of black-clad protesters using molotovs, slingshots and bricks.
Police have also upped their violence, deploying water cannons and resorting to tear gas and rubber bullets with renewed ferocity.
More than 1,100 people have been arrested, ranging from children as young as 12 to a man in his mid-70s. Many are facing charges of rioting, which carry 10 years in jail.
“Grandpa Wong,” center, 85, leans on his walking stick with other “silver hair” volunteers after intervening in a confrontation between protesters and riot police in the Tung Chung district in Hong Kong, Sept. 7, 2019.
Fears have risen for the fate for one veteran protester Alexandra Wong, known as “Grandma Wong,” who attended dozens of protests waving a large British flag.
She lives in Shenzhen, a city across the border on the Chinese mainland but has not been seen at the protests since mid-August when she appeared in videos looking injured after clashes with police inside a subway station.
‘Let the elderly look after you’
Grandpa Wong says he understands why youngsters feel they have no choice but to protest.
He has watched over the decades as mainland China has grown more wealthy and powerful while remaining avowedly authoritarian.
“If the Chinese Communist Party comes to Hong Kong, Hong Kong will become Guangzhou,” Wong sighed, referring to a nearby mainland city.
“The authorities can lock you up whenever they want,” he said.
Hong Kong’s protests were sparked by a controversial bill that would allow extradition to China, raising concerns over unfair trials given the mainland’s record of rights abuses.
But it soon morphed into a wider movement calling for democratic reform and police accountability.
“Grandpa Wong,” 85, speaks with a riot police officer along with other “silver hair” volunteers in the Tung Chung district in Hong Kong, Sept. 7, 2019.
Roy Chan, who organizes the “Protect the Children” group, says he respects what the elderly citizens do but is disappointed they feel they need to come out.
“They should have a good life at home during the last years of their lives,” he said. “But they are in a war and protecting the youth.”
Grandpa Wong’s presence at the Causeway Bay protest came to an end as riot police eventually cleared the usually bustling shopping district.
But the next day he was right back at it, this time at a protest near the city’s airport.
“Go home kiddos,” he hollered, brimming with renewed energy. “Let the elderly look after you.”
China’s trade with the United States is falling sharply as the two sides prepare for more negotiations with no sign of progress toward ending a worsening tariff war that threatens global economic growth.
Imports of U.S. goods fell 22% in August from a year earlier to $10.3 billion following Chinese tariff hikes and orders to companies to cancel orders, customs data showed Sunday.
Exports to the United States, China’s biggest market, sank 16% to $44.4 billion under pressure from punitive tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump in a fight over Beijing’s trade surplus and technology ambitions.
Beijing is balking at U.S. pressure to roll back plans for government-led creation of global competitors in robotics and other industries. The United States, Europe, Japan and other trading partners say those plans violate China’s market-opening commitments and are based on stealing or pressuring companies to hand over technology.
Employees work on the production line of a television factory under Zhaochi Group in Shenzhen, China, Aug. 8, 2019.
Tariffs on billions in goods
U.S. and Chinese tariff hikes on billions of dollars of each other’s imports have disrupted trade in goods from soybeans to medical equipment and battered traders on both sides.
Chinese exporters also face pressure from weakening global consumer demand at a time when Beijing is telling them to find other markets to replace the U.S.
China’s politically sensitive trade surplus with the U.S. narrowed to $31.3 billion in August from $27 billion a year earlier.
China’s global exports fell 3% to $214.8 billion, while imports were up 1.7% at $180 billion. For the first eight months of 2019, exports were off 1% from a year earlier and imports were down 5.6%.
China’s global trade surplus rose 25% from a year earlier to $34.8 billion. Exports to the European Union rose 3% from a year earlier to $38.3 billion.
Trade talks in October
U.S. and Chinese negotiators are preparing for talks in October, later than initially planned, but neither side has given any sign of offering concessions that might break a deadlock over how to enforce a deal.
Beijing says Trump’s punitive tariffs must be lifted once an agreement takes effect. Washington says some must stay to ensure Beijing carries out any promises it makes.
The decision to go ahead with talks despite the latest tit-for-tat tariff hikes on Sept. 1 encouraged global financial markets.
An employee works on the production line of a robot vacuum cleaner factory of Matsutek in Shenzhen, China, Aug. 9, 2019.
In their latest escalation, Washington imposed 15% tariffs on $112 billion of Chinese imports and plans to hit another $160 billion on Dec. 15. That would extend penalties to almost everything the United States buys from China.
Beijing responded by imposing duties of 10% and 5% on a range of American imports. More increases are due on Dec. 15 in line with the U.S. penalties.
U.S. tariffs of 25% imposed previously on $250 billion of Chinese goods are set to rise to 30% on Oct. 1.
China has imposed or announced penalties on an estimated $120 billion of U.S. imports. Some have been hit with increases more than once, while about $50 billion of U.S. goods is unaffected, possibly to avoid disrupting Chinese industries.
Beijing also has retaliated by canceling purchases of soybeans, the biggest single U.S. export to China.
Holding tight to tech
The Chinese government has agreed to narrow its trade surplus with the U.S. but is reluctant to give up development strategies it sees as a path to prosperity and global influence.
Some analysts suggest Beijing is holding out in hopes Trump will feel pressure to make a more favorable deal as his campaign for the 2020 presidential election picks up. Trump has warned that if he is re-elected, China will face a tougher U.S. negotiating stance.
The center of Beijing was under lockdown early Sunday for a nighttime parade rehearsal by the Chinese military, which is preparing for Oct. 1 ceremonies to mark Communist China’s 70th anniversary.
The enormous Avenue of Eternal Peace, which leads to Tiananmen Square and runs east-west, was closed to traffic for about a dozen kilometers (7 miles) to allow troops to parade around Tiananmen Square, the symbolic heart of Chinese power.
It is where Mao Zedong in 1949 proclaimed the founding of the People’s Republic of China.
Trucks with propaganda slogans are seen on Beijing’s Changan Avenue, the city’s main east-west boulevard, during an overnight rehearsal of a military parade to mark Communist China’s 70th anniversary, in Beijing, Sept. 7, 2019.
Views blocked
Areas around the Avenue of Eternal Peace were gradually closed to traffic from late Saturday afternoon and were expected to stay off limits until Sunday morning, causing traffic jams.
Security forces blocked access to residences with views of the avenue, ordering several foreign media outlets in the area to leave their offices for the weekend.
“We warmly celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China,” proclaimed immense signs being transported by trucks heading toward Tiananmen Square.
Other rehearsals are expected each weekend leading up to Oct. 1, leaving residents facing the same restrictions, a guard told AFP.
Republic’s anniversary
Every 10 years Beijing traditionally marks the republic’s anniversary with a giant military parade.
The army said at the end of August that the next parade would be larger than those in 1999 and 2009, and even bigger than one in 2015, which commemorated the end of World War II 70 years earlier.
On that occasion, 12,000 soldiers marched.
Trucks with propaganda slogans are seen on Beijing’s Changan Avenue, the city’s main east-west boulevard during an overnight rehearsal of a military parade to mark Communist China’s 70th anniversary, in Beijing, Sept. 7, 2019.
The parade is expected to showcase some of the most advanced weaponry of the Chinese army, in an effort to drum up patriotic fervor.
But it will not be targeted “at any countries or districts,” General Cai Zhijun, a member of the Chinese Army General Staff, said last month. Cai said the size of the military parade was not a sign of aggression and the Chinese army was “committed to safeguarding world peace and regional stability.”
This year’s anniversary comes at a sensitive time for Beijing. It is in a trade war with the United States, Hong Kong is rocked by demonstrations, and it faces criticism over the treatment of Muslims in the western Xinjiang region.
China’s 2-million-member armed forces is the world’s largest and its military budget is the second-biggest, though still far behind that of the United States.
Venezuela opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez is forming a shadow government from his refuge at the Spanish Embassy in Caracas, despite an agreement that prohibited him from engaging in political activity when the embassy granted him asylum five months ago.
Lopez sought the protection of Spain’s diplomatic mission after he led a failed coup against embattled President Nicolas Maduro in April. He was backed in the effort by parliamentary president Juan Guaido, who is recognized as the transitional head of state by the United States and 50 other countries.
Guaido says that he has named Lopez to form a “center of government,” or shadow cabinet, to prepare for an eventual takeover by the opposition, as U.S. sanctions bite into Maduro’s remaining lifelines.
Spain says the conditions under which they took in Lopez have not changed. But Maduro’s growing isolation and Venezuela’s deteriorating economy may be forcing the hand of EU governments, which have been trying to broker a deal between Maduro and his opponents on terms for new elections.
FILE – Venezuelan opposition leader and parliamentary president Juan Guaido addresses lawmakers of the National Assembly, in front of an image of Venezuelan independence hero Simon Bolivar, in Caracas, Venezuela, Sept. 3, 2019.
“The conditions on which protection was granted have not varied nor are they affected by the decision of president Juan Guaido to name Lopez General Coordinator for the creation of a center of government,” Spain’s foreign ministry told VOA in a written statement.
In what opposition spokesmen say could be a fatal blow for the Maduro administration, China’s national oil company announced this week that it is suspending oil production in Venezuela due to growing logistical complications and tightened U.S. sanctions. China and Russia have been Maduro’s largest customers.
The Spanish Embassy does not allow Lopez to give interviews. Nor is he permitted to hold political meetings. But he is in daily contact with his father, Leopoldo Lopez Gil, a Spanish national and member of the European Parliament. Speaking to VOA by phone from Brussels, Lopez Gil said his son is busy online with other members of the “shadow cabinet” appointed by Guaido.
“He receives reports and interfaces electronically with economists, jurists, engineers and other experts formulating plans to deal with the desperately urgent problems that a new government would face,” Lopez Gil said.
“We want to be positioned to take the bull by the horns without falling in the mud as happened in Panama,” he said, referring to the days of heavy fighting that followed the 1989 U.S. invasion of Panama to topple Gen. Antonio Noriega.
FILE – Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro leads a rally condemning U.S. economic sanctions imposed on Venezuela, in Caracas, Aug. 10, 2019.
Exiled Venezuelan retired admiral Ivan Carratu, who maintains a network of contacts inside Venezuela’s military, says that Lopez’s project is unlikely to attract support from Venezuela’s armed forces, who hold the key to any peaceful transition of power.
“The main purpose of the shadow government is to project the figure of Lopez as future president in whatever scenario unfolds,” Carruto said.
Even if Maduro is ousted, Lopez Gil said, outside military assistance may be needed to counter armed resistance that is likely to develop from radical pro-Maduro “colectivos” headed by Cuban advisers and linked with Colombian leftist guerrilla groups controlling vast chunks of Venezuelan territory.
Lopez Gil said a “reactivation” of guerrilla activity announced last week by FARC leader Ivan Marquez — who is based in Venezuela — is “highly worrying.”
Colombian security analyst Jose Marulanda Marin believes the effort to form a parallel government is likely to have “little effect,” but he worries about attempts to assassinate key participants who are now living in exile in Colombia. Those include former parliamentary speaker Julio Borges, who was named last week as foreign minister in the shadow cabinet.
U.S. coordination with the shadow government is being handled through a Venezuelan Affairs Unit (VAU) at the American Embassy in Colombia. The unit is directed by U.S. diplomats who were expelled from Venezuela after being accused of supporting coup plots last year.
“The VAU will continue to work for the restoration of democracy …the security and well-being of the Venezuelan people …interacting with the government of interim president Juan Guaido,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said.
Officials in Afghanistan Saturday announced that security forces have recaptured a key northeastern district from the Taliban after five years, as heavy clashes raged in provinces elsewhere in Afghanistan.
The Taliban has intensified attacks even as its representatives are engaged in a fresh round of peace negotiations with the United States in Qatar for ending the 18-year-old Afghan war, America’s longest overseas military intervention.
The Afghan Defense Ministry said the fighting for renewed control over Wardoj in Badakhshan province killed about 100 Taliban insurgents, including their key commanders. It claimed Afghan security forces “carried out this operation successfully without sustaining any losses.”
The ministry asserted in its statement that the Taliban’s so-called shadow governor, Qari Fasihuddin, was among the dead. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid denied government claims, telling VOA that fighting was still raging in the district and rejected as “enemy propaganda” the claim that Fasihuddin had been killed. It was not possible to verify from independent sources claims made by either side.
Badakhshan borders three neighbors of Afghanistan, including China, Pakistan and Tajikistan.
The Taliban has, meanwhile, continued attacks in surrounding provinces of Kunduz, Takhar and Baghlan, overrunning new territory and killing scores of government forces.
Afghan security forces take position during a battle with Taliban insurgents in Kunduz province, Afghanistan, Sept. 1, 2019.
Mujahid said in a statement Saturday that Taliban fighters have besieged Qala Zal district center in Kunduz a day after capturing nearby Khanabad district. He said the insurgents have also made advances in Baghlan’s capital, Pul-e-Khumri, tightening days of siege around the city.
Afghan officials have so far not offered any comments on Taliban battlefield claims.
Heavy fighting, meanwhile, has been raging in western Farah province near the Iranian border. Both Afghan officials and the Taliban have made conflicting claims about the ongoing fighting in the provincial capital, also named Farah.
On Thursday, a Taliban suicide car bomber attacked a foreign military convoy in the national capital of Kabul, killing more than a dozen people. An American soldier and a Romanian soldier were also among the dead, bringing the total number of U.S. military fatalities this year to 16.
Controversy over prospective peace deal
Taliban and American negotiators say they have drafted a framework agreement after nearly yearlong negotiations that could lead to withdrawal of all U.S.-led NATO troops from Afghanistan in return for guarantees the Islamic insurgents will not allow transnational militant groups to use the country again for international terrorism.
The Taliban said Friday its negotiators have over the past two days held fresh meetings in Qatar with U.S. chief negotiator Zalmay Khalilzad accompanied by American commander of international forces, Army General Scott Miller, in Afghanistan.
FILE – U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad attends Afghan peace talks in the Qatari capital, Doha, July 8, 2019.
“Both meetings were positive and resulted in good progress,” said insurgent political spokesman Suhail Shaheen without discussing further details.
Shaheen told VOA “not a single soldier” from U.S. and NATO missions will stay in the country under the withdrawal timetable outlined in the framework agreement with American negotiators. In return, he said, the Taliban has promised not to allow anyone to use Afghan soil against other countries. Shaheen, however, would not disclose the deadline for foreign troops to leave Afghanistan.
Khalilzad told an Afghan television station earlier this week the deal finalized with the Taliban “in principle” will have to be approved by U.S. President Donald Trump before it is signed. The document, he said, would require 5,000 American troops to leave five Afghan bases within 135 days.
However, the Afghan-born American diplomat would not say when the residual roughly 8,600-member U.S. military force will withdraw from the country. He stressed that the Taliban will also be required to participate in intra-Afghan negotiations over a permanent ceasefire and the political future of the turmoil-hit country.
The Afghan government, however, has expressed serious reservations and concerns over the perspective U.S.-Taliban deal after Khalilzad discussed its “key details” with President Ashraf Ghani during his visit to Kabul earlier this week.
Presidential aide Waheed Omar told reporters Friday the government believes the framework agreement does not effectively bind the Taliban to abide by their commitments. He said Afghanistan needs a permanent, not temporary, peace to avert another war in the country. Omar did not elaborate further.
A high-level U.S. defense delegation is scheduled to visit Pakistan and Afghanistan next week. Randall Schriver, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs, made the announcement Thursday evening at the Pakistani embassy in Washington. Schriver, appointed to his current position by President Donald Trump in January 2018, attended the embassy’s annual celebration of Pakistan’s Defense Day.
Shriver said his intent “and our team’s intent, is to be aspirational,” saying the parties will be “talking about where we can go in the future, how we can strengthen and improve cooperation, all the challenges notwithstanding.”
Shriver cited Pakistan’s contribution in several of the U.S.-led security initiatives, citing “the very important work in trying to achieve peace in Afghanistan,” as well as Pakistan’s participation in a maritime security initiative known as Combined Task Force 150, a multi-nation effort led by the United States designed to “deter, disrupt and defeat attempts by international terrorist organizations” that seek to use the maritime domain as venues for attack or as a means to transport personnel, weapons and other materials. CTF 150 is based in Bahrain.
Randall Schriver, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs, is seen in an official U.S. Defense Department photo.
While U.S. and Pakistan relations, including, if not especially, military relations, have been turbulent in recent years, both sides seemed ready to look at the positive as Schriver announced his plans to visit Islamabad. Shriver cited “the shared sacrifices we’ve made as our two countries have been involved in the long war on terror,” adding “we have strong foundation for this relationship” and “we jealously guard our special role in this relationship between our defense establishments and our militaries; we think it is one of the strongest pillars in the foundation for this relationship.”
Schriver described ongoing negotiations with the Taliban as being “at a critical junction,” stating “we’re hopeful but we have not crossed the finish line yet,” adding “we appreciate everything Pakistan has done to get us to this point.”
For his part, Pakistani ambassador to the United States Asad M. Khan told VOA that “this will be the highest exchange on the defense side after the prime minister’s visit, it is significant; as the assistant secretary himself said, defense is a key pillar of the relationship; I’m sure his visit will provide a good opportunity to both sides to review where we stand on the defense relationship and what more can be done.” Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan paid a high-profile visit to Washington and met with U.S. President Donald Trump in the Oval Office in July. Asked if Schriver would be meeting with Khan while in Islamabad, Khan replied that “I still don’t have all the details of the program; he’s an important visitor, we will try to get as many meetings as we can.”
FILE – President Donald Trump gestures as he greets Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan as he arrives at the White House, in Washington, July 22, 2019.
Nolan Peterson, an incoming visiting fellow in unconventional warfare at the Heritage Foundation whose exclusive interview with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Afghanistan and Iran was published in The Daily Signal on Friday, told VOA in a phone interview that Schriver’s trip signals U.S. intention to stay engaged and maintain a strategic interest in the region even as talks are ongoing that could result in significant U.S. troop drawdown from Afghanistan.
That interest, he said, also has to do with “not letting China have free reign” in the region as the latter seeks to deepen its footprint through the “One Belt, One Road” economic and strategic initiative.
Peterson also pointed out that although the United States has not openly taken sides on the tension between Pakistan and India surrounding the Kashmir region, Pakistan “is going to be excited about having any U.S. visits,” which he thinks will “certainly play in their favor.” “Anytime a visiting U.S. official arrives in a country, countries like to use that as evidence that they’re being supported by the U.S.”
Ultimately, U.S. official visits to foreign capitals are designed to “keep us engaged and show the countries that we care,” Peterson said.
Pentagon officials told VOA that in addition to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Schriver will also be visiting Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan on his trip next week.
Meanwhile, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson on Friday announced that China’s foreign minister Wang Yi will lead a delegation to Islamabad from September 7-10 for the third trilateral dialogue between China, Pakistan and Afghanistan, as well as visits to Pakistan and Nepal. Wang’s visit, the spokesperson said, is designed to further solidify bilateral friendship and mutual trust, and tighten the shared “common fate” between the two countries, including pushing for the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor to move forward “in a high quality manner.”
The U.S. House Judiciary Committee is planning to vote to determine the parameters for conducting an impeachment probe of President Donald Trump.
Politico first reported the development, saying its report was based on “multiple sources briefed on the discussions.”
The committee is expected to vote on the details next week.
A draft of the resolution is expected to be released Monday morning, according to Politico.
The article said Democrats are “hopeful that explicitly defining their impeachment inquiry will heighten their leverage to compel testimony from witnesses.”
It is doubtful, however, that the probe will lead to any charges against the president.
Articles of impeachment would have to be voted on by the full House and it is doubtful that the Republican Senate would vote to remove the president from office.
Various legislative committees are looking into a number of matters concerning the president, including his failure to release his tax returns, his payment of hush money to stop embarrassing stories becoming public, and the spending of taxpayer money at the president’s hotels and properties.
A major prisoner swap between Russia and Ukraine is underway — with multiple reports citing the transfer of prisoners out of Moscow’s Lefortovo Prison as well as the arrival of a Ukrainian state-emblemed plane to Vnukovo airport in the Russian capital Saturday morning.
While the exact number, list, and timing of the exchange is not yet publicly known, the leaders of both countries have insisted a significant exchange was imminent in recent days.
“We will finalize our talks on the exchange, and I think it will be rather large-scale,” said Russian President Vladimir Putin while addressing the issue at an economic forum in the far eastern city of Vladivostok on Thursday.
“And also it will also be a good step forward toward the normalization” of relations, added Putin.
Putin’s comments followed Ukraine’s release of Volodymyr Tsemakh, a former commander of Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, by a court in Kyiv on Thursday.
The release was not without controversy: Ukrainian security services have identified Tsemakh as a key witness to the downing of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17, which was shot down over east Ukraine in July of 2014, killing all 298 people aboard.
Dutch prosecutors investigating the tragedy had urged the government in Kyiv to prevent Tsemakh’s extradition, saying he is “a person of interest” in their work.
Yet recently elected Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy came to power promising to bring Ukrainian prisoners in Russia home and end the conflict in East Ukraine.
In July, Putin and Zelenskiy held their first phone talks since the new Ukrainian leader took office.
At the time, a Kremlin spokesman said the two leaders discussed a stalled peace agreement for Ukraine’s Donbas region as well as the possibility of prisoner exchanges “from both sides.”
The values that Americans view as important have shifted over the last two decades, as younger Americans place less significance on patriotism, religion and having children.
A recent poll shows that 42% of Millennials and Generation Z (ages of 18-38) view patriotism as “very important” compared to almost 79% of people over age 55.
Hard work is the attribute all Americans value the most with 89% of respondents saying it’s a very important quality. Tolerance for others, financial security and self-fulfillment also topped the list.
Overall, about half of people — 48% — say religion is very important to them, down from 62 percent in 1998. While 67% of older Americans view religion or a belief in God as very important, just 30% of the younger group felt the same.
Click on graphic to enlarge
When it comes to having children, 43% say it’s very important. That’s down from 20 years ago, when 59% of people said that becoming a parent was very important.
Forty percent of people say increasing diversity and tolerance of different cultures and races is a step forward, 14% see it as a step backward, while the biggest majority, 43%, say it is both a step forward and a step backward.
Issues like religion and patriotism have traditionally been politically important. However, the changing views of the emerging generation suggest those topics might not be at the forefront in the coming years and politicians will have to adjust their platforms and strategies accordingly.
House Democrats are demanding information on the use of taxpayer money at President Donald Trump’s hotels and properties, including during Vice President Pence’s trip this week to Doonbeg, Ireland. The push is part of an expanded effort this fall to investigate the president’s financial entanglements and business practices.
The House Judiciary and Oversight and Government Reform committees announced Friday that they sent a series of letters regarding “multiple efforts” by the president, vice president, and other Trump administration officials to spend taxpayer money at properties owned by Trump. They say the spending could violate the Constitution and bolster the case for Trump’s impeachment.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., said in a statement that the spending is “of grave concern” to his committee, which is investigating whether to recommend articles of impeachment to the full House. House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Elijah Cummings, D-Md., said that his panel “does not believe that U.S. taxpayer funds should be used to personally enrich President Trump, his family, and his companies.”
FILE – House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, a Democrat, prepares for a television interview at the Capitol in Washington, July 26, 2019.
The letters come after Pence stayed at Trump’s resort in Doonbeg , Ireland, this week. Doonbeg is on the other side of Ireland from Dublin, where he had meetings. The Democrats also sent letters to the White House and Secret Service about Trump’s suggestion earlier this month that his Miami-area golf course host next year’s Group of Seven summit with foreign leaders. The Democrats say those instances, among others, could violate the Constitution’s emoluments clause, which bans the president from taking gifts from foreign governments.
The push comes as Democrats are trying to keep public attention on their investigations of Trump. They have spent much of the year probing episodes detailed in special counsel Robert Mueller’s report, which did not exonerate the president on obstruction of justice. But lawmakers say they think the American public may have even more interest in Trump profiting off of his presidency as they weigh whether to move forward on impeachment.
“We have been focused on the Mueller report and that is a very small part of the overall picture,” said Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, a member of the Judiciary panel. “We must get America focused on the ongoing violations against basic Constitutional principles.”
In addition to looking at Trump’s use of his properties, two House committees are continuing to investigate his relationship with banks with which he did business. And the Judiciary panel is also expected to investigate hush money payments that Trump paid to kill potentially embarrassing stories.
Rhode Island Rep. David Cicilline, another Democrat on the Judiciary panel, says he believes that the misuse of public funds or financial corruption make Americans especially angry. And while people have heard a lot about the Mueller report, he says they may know less about the emoluments clause.
“I think you’ll see a lot more of that in the coming months,” Cicilline said.
Many attending U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s college lecture Friday in his home state of Kansas listened for clues about whether he might run for the Senate next year, though it could be many months before anyone finds out.
Three Democrats and four Republicans are already actively running for the seat held by Republican Senator Pat Roberts, who isn’t seeking a fifth term, and several others are expected to join them. Weeks after Pompeo said a run is “off the table,” though, he is still creating a buzz and looming over the race, as only he has enough name recognition and support among Kansas conservatives to afford to wait until next June’s filing deadline to decide.
If he does run, Pompeo would enter the race as the favorite.
“It’s the Pompeo decision, and then everything else trickles down,” said Joe Kildea, a vice president for the conservative interest group Club for Growth.
Other candidates don’t have the luxury of waiting and the field is likely to grow, with GOP Representative Roger Marshall of western Kansas expected to announce his candidacy Saturday at the state fair.
FILE – Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts, right , Sen. Cory Gardner of Colorado, speaks Nov. 5, 2015, during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington.
Pompeo wasn’t expected to directly address the speculation about his interest in running during his speech Friday at Kansas State University, but that hasn’t stopped others from suggesting he’s the person for the job. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell identified Pompeo as his preferred candidate shortly after Roberts announced in January that he wasn’t seeking re-election.
The GOP hasn’t lost a Senate race in Kansas since 1932, but many Republicans worry about a repeat of the governor’s race last year. Kris Kobach, a nationally known advocate of tough immigration policies, narrowly won a crowded primary, alienated moderates and lost to Democrat Laura Kelly. He launched his Senate campaign in July.
For Kobach’s GOP detractors, Pompeo would solve their perceived problems. His entry would likely clear most of the Republican field, and GOP leaders believe Pompeo would have no trouble winning in November 2020, making it easier for Republicans to retain their Senate majority.
And WDAF-TV reported that Kansas’ other senator, Republican Jerry Moran, told reporters Wednesday at a Kansas City-area event that he didn’t know Pompeo’s current thinking “but I wouldn’t be surprised if he entered that race.”
Fellow Republicans concede that Pompeo, a former congressman and CIA director, has reasons not to run, including the prestige that comes with being the nation’s top diplomat. He’s currently dealing with weighty issues such as new sanctions on Iran from the Trump administration, a tariff war with China and questions about whether hopes for nuclear talks with North Korea are fading.
“I think he can’t say that he’s wanting to run for Senate now,” said Tim Shallenburger, a former two-term state treasurer and Kansas Republican Party chairman. “He’s got to wait, and I think he can afford to wait.”
FILE – Then-Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach is pictured in Lenexa, Kan., June 8, 2017.
Kobach, who served as Kansas’ secretary of state but first built his national profile on immigration issues, has argued that as a Senate nominee, he’d benefit from the higher turnout that normally comes with a presidential election year and a greater focus on issues such as immigration. Some local Republican leaders agree and feel less anxious about Kobach’s possible nomination victory.
Other GOP candidates include Kansas Senate President Susan Wagle; Dave Lindstrom, a Kansas City-area businessman and former Kansas City Chiefs player; and Bryan Pruitt, a conservative gay commentator. Also, Marshall has been flirting with running for months, and other potential Republican candidates include Alan Cobb, president and CEO of the Kansas Chamber of Commerce, and Matt Schlapp, the American Conservative Union’s president.
The Democratic candidates with active campaigns are former federal prosecutor Barry Grissom, former Representative Nancy Boyda, and Usha Reddi, a city commissioner in the northeast Kansas city of Manhattan.
Don Alexander, a manufacturing firm owner who is the GOP chairman in Neosho County in southeastern Kansas, said it’s early to be trying to size up the race, almost 11 months before the August 2020 primary. He said he and other Republicans trust Pompeo to “know where he’s needed most.”
President’s support seen
“I’m sure the president doesn’t want him to leave,” said Helen Van Etten, a Republican National Committee member from Topeka.
But Van Etten said comments from Pompeo that he’ll stay on as secretary of state as long as Trump will have him leave an “open door” for a Senate bid.
Some Republicans, such as Alexander, take Pompeo at his word that he won’t run. Others, including Shallenburger, read Pompeo’s statements as meaning he isn’t interested right now but that he may reconsider if he doesn’t like how the race develops.
“He can announce on the filing deadline and cause most of the people in there to get out,” Shallenburger said.
VOA Connect Episode 86 – Choosing to be childless is a growing trend in the United States. We also explore the world of vintage drag race cars, and head to New York, where visually impaired people can get a ride though a park on a tandem bike.
What does a home mechanic do with time, money, and a vintage car? Make a dragster and take it to the track, of course. Members of the Nostalgia Drag Racer League make their fun one fast quarter-mile (.4km) trip at a time.
