Day: October 9, 2019

Russian authorities say they intend to add an opposition-run anti-corruption foundation to a list of so-called “foreign agents” operating in the country — potentially curtailing the operations of one of the Kremlin’s fiercest critics.

In a statement released Wednesday, Russia’s Justice Ministry said an audit of the Anti-Corruption Foundation — a non-governmental organization run by opposition leader Alexey Navalny  — showed the organization was receiving foreign funding to maintain its operations.  

The move puts the group, commonly known by its Russian acronym FBK, afoul of Russia’s so-called “foreign agents” law — a controversial 2012 measure the Kremlin says is necessary to protect Russian sovereignty and that civil society leaders argue tars NGOs as traitors and spies.  

Formally, the designation opens up the FBK to increased scrutiny by authorities — as well as fines and possible suspension of its operations.

While the ministry statement provided no details on its audit, an Interfax news agency report said regulators had found two undeclared foreign donations to the FBK — one from the U.S. and another from Spain.  

Their total: just over $2,000.

FBK members rejected the foreign agent charge outright, arguing the organization had always relied on local “crowdfunding” to maintain its work.

“The foundation is sponsored inclusively by citizens of Russia, by you,” wrote FBK Director Ivan Zhadanov in a Facebook post.

“This is simply an attempt to strangle the FBK,” added Zhadanov.

The group’s founder, opposition leader Alexey Navalny, went further — arguing the move reflected the foundation’s growing influence thanks to a series of video investigations targeting corruption by Kremlin insiders close to Russian President Vladimir Putin.  

“Putin is terribly afraid of the FBK,” wrote Navalny in a post on Twitter. “He can only rely on thieves, bribe takers, and corruptioneers.

“We expose corruption” added Navalny, “and we won’t stop no matter what.”

An NGO in the crosshairs

The announcement comes amid an intensifying assault against the FBK with overt political overtones.

A longtime thorn in the Kremlin’s side, the FBK’s troubles began in earnest again this summer.

After opposition candidates — including members of the FBK — were banned from local Moscow elections en masse, the group worked to organize street protests in response.

The result: a series of mostly peaceful demonstrations that saw over 2,500 arrests — many at the hands of truncheon-wielding police and aggressive OMON (federal government) riot police security forces.

Next, authorities launched an investigation into money laundering by the FBK — accusing the organization’s members of over $15 million in illicit transactions. Coordinated raids of FBK offices across the country ensued.   

At the time, Navalny insisted the raids were prompted by an FBK plan called “smart voting” — an election tactic that coordinated voter anger around candidates who had managed to clear registration barriers.

The strategy was credited with aiding significant losses for pro-Kremlin candidates in Moscow local elections.

FBK members say they plan to expand the strategy in regional political races in 2020 — a move that observers say may have prompted renewed efforts to cripple the organization.

Indeed, the FBK has most recently drawn authorities’ ire in the form of court fines.

This week, Moscow police announced they would sue Navalny and other key FBK members for $300,000 in damages — a sum intended to cover expenses incurred by security forces while policing the rallies.  

A Moscow restaurant and several other city services have piled on with similar lawsuits.

Now faced with the prospect of the new foreign agent label, Navalny and other FBK members took to social media to plead for renewed donations nationwide.   

Throughout the day, the requests ricocheted around the internet, prompting reaction from pro-Kremlin voices online as well as public expressions of support.  

“I haven’t done that in a while,” wrote user @DaniilKen in a post on Twitter that showed a screenshot of a money transfer to the FBK.  “But it was hard not to respond to the Justice Ministry.”  

Just how many more Russians might follow now remains the key question going forward.   

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Women from across Africa are meeting at the annual Women in Tech Africa Week, hoping to bring more women into the tech industry and combat inequalities in technology use and access, especially for economic empowerment.

Francesca Opoku remembers having to physically send workers to deliver messages or documents when she started her small social enterprise in Ghana 10 years ago. Today, she works to keep up with fast-developing technology to grow her business that produces natural beauty products. She also trains women she works with in financial literacy, such as using simple mobile technology to manage their money.

“As a small African business, as you are growing and as you aspire to grow globally and your tentacles are widening, the world is just going techy,” Opoku said. “Business in the world is going techy. It’s especially relevant in small business. It’s the best way to make what you are doing known out there.”

She was at the launch of Women In Tech Africa in Accra, with events in six other countries including Germany, Kenya and Zimbabwe. Opoku said she wants to learn more about how she can use technology to make her business grow and to ensure she is not left behind in the technology divide.

Across Africa, this divide means women are 13% less likely to own a mobile phone and 41% less likely to use mobile internet than men.

Women In Tech Africa founder

Ethel Cofie, founder of Women In Tech Africa, an NGO that started in 2015, said addressing this gap is crucial. Her network of 5,000 women across 30 African countries is pushing the conversation about women in technology and leadership.

“There is a huge gender gap, and that is part of the conversation,” Cofie said. “When we are out here showing the world we actually exist, are doing things, what it does is, it provides avenues for us to support other women. One of the things Women in Tech has done is work with the Ghanaian Beauticians Association and Ghana traders associations. Even though these women are not necessarily as educated, they also need to be able to use tech to build their businesses.”

Cofie says the digital gap between men and women in Africa is a consequence of poverty and economic disparities. Men usually have higher incomes, and better access to mobile phones and internet data.

Education

Increasing digital access starts with education. At the G-7 summit this year, members pledged to work with developing countries to promote inclusion, equity and access for girls and women to quality education, including Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).

Faiza Adam, a network engineer, started Girly Tech this year to inspire underprivileged Ghanaian girls into STEM careers. She’s training young girls in web development, programming and robotics in Accra.

“Imagine where girls don’t embrace tech, then in five years to come, we have only males who are in the tech space — there is no diversity,” Adam said. “So, in the decision making, they tend to use the male, male, male ideas instead of female. So, when we have inclusion, or there is diversity — I bring my idea, and the guy also brings his idea from the male perspective — we come together and solve societal problems.”

Cofie and Adam both say more women in tech will mean more problems solved in their own communities. But Cofie adds that half the battles — like the gender divide — could be overcome with the right policies in place.
 

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Democratic Presidential candidate Joe Biden has for the first time called for President Donald Trump to be impeached.

“Donald Trump has violated his oath of office, betrayed this nation, and committed impeachable acts,” former Vice President Biden said in New Hamshire on Wednesday.

Trump responded on Twitter. “So pathetic to see Sleepy Joe Biden, who with his son, Hunter, and to the detriment of the American Taxpayer, has ripped off at least two countries for millions of dollars, calling for my impeachment – and I did nothing wrong. Joe’s Failing Campaign gave him no other choice!,” he said, without elaborating on the allegations of ripping off two countries for millions of dollars.

So pathetic to see Sleepy Joe Biden, who with his son, Hunter, and to the detriment of the American Taxpayer, has ripped off at least two countries for millions of dollars, calling for my impeachment – and I did nothing wrong. Joe’s Failing Campaign gave him no other choice!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 9, 2019

The White House has said it will not participate in what it calls the “unconstitutional” impeachment inquiry into Trump.

White House lawyer Pat Cipollone sent an eight-page letter to House Democratic leaders, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who are looking into whether Trump broke the law by urging Ukraine to investigate  Biden.

Cipollone accuses the Democrats of violating “fundamental fairness and constitutionally mandated due process.”

He says they are denying Trump the opportunity to question witnesses and see the evidence they are using to decide whether he should be impeached.

“All of this violates the Constitution, the rule of law, and every past precedent,” Cipollone wrote, adding that inquiry is baseless, partisan, and an attempt to toss out the results of the 2016 presidential election.

If a majority in the House of Representatives were to approve articles of impeachment against Trump, there would then be a trial in the Republican-controlled Senate where the president’s legal team would have the chance to present a defense.

Pelosi responded to the White House late Tuesday, calling the letter “manifestly wrong … the latest attempt to cover up his (Trump’s) betrayal of our democracy and to insist that the president is above the law.”

Pelosi warned that any more efforts to “hide the truth of the president’s abuse of power” will be seen as more evidence of obstruction.

Trump again denounced the impeachment inquiry, tweeting early Tuesday it is “A Total Scam by the Do Nothing Democrats” and that the whistleblower has “been so incorrect  about my ‘no pressure’ conversation” with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

A Total Scam by the Do Nothing Democrats. For the good of the Country, this Wirch Hunt should end now! https://t.co/G2nPapozye

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 9, 2019

The Whistleblower’s facts have been so incorrect about my “no pressure” conversation with the Ukrainian President, and now the conflict of interest and involvement with a Democrat Candidate, that he or she should be exposed and questioned properly. This is no Whistleblower…..

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 9, 2019

A whistleblower complaint about a July 25 call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy helped trigger a House of Representatives impeachment investigation of Trump last month.

The White House has demanded Pelosi bring the impeachment inquiry to a full vote before the entire House of Representatives if the committees want any cooperation from Trump officials.

But there is no rule preventing the House from looking into allegations of illegal activity of a president before deciding whether to bring actual articles of impeachment to a vote.

The White House letter comes after another move by the Trump administration that Democratic leaders call obstruction.

The State Department refused to let U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland answer questions from House committee members Tuesday.

Sondland had flown from Europe and was willing to appear. But his attorney, Robert Luskin, said Sondland “is a sitting ambassador and employee of State and is required to follow their direction.”

Luskin said Sondland was “profoundly disappointed” at not being given the chance to talk.

The Democratic chairs of the House Intelligence, Foreign Affairs and Oversight Committees have now subpoenaed Sondland to testify.

Trump tweeted that Sondland would have appeared before a “totally compromised kangaroo court where Republican rights have been taken away, and true facts are not allowed out for the public to see.”

Sondland, a Trump donor, was one of several diplomats who advised the Ukrainian leadership about how to carry out Trump’s demands after his July phone call with Ukraine’s Zelenskiy. During that call, Trump urged Zelenskiy to investigate Biden for alleged corruption tied to his son Hunter Biden’s job with a Ukrainian gas company

According to a U.S. intelligence whistleblower, Sondland and other diplomats exchanged a series of text messages in which the diplomats wondered why roughly $400 million in badly needed aid to Ukraine was frozen.

Reports say there was a five-hour-long gap between text messages, during which Sondland telephoned Trump.

The next message assured one diplomat there was no “quid pro quo” of any kind with Ukraine, followed by Sondland writing, “I suggest we stop the back and forth by text.”

Democrats want to know what happened in those five hours and why the text messages came to a sudden halt.

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Calm prevailed in Iraq on Wednesday after a week of anti-government protests left more than 100 dead, prompting the United States to call on the country’s government to exercise “maximum restraint”.

In Baghdad – the second most populous Arab capital – normal life has gradually resumed since Tuesday.

Traffic has again clogged the main roads of the sprawling city of nine million inhabitants. Students have returned to schools, whose reopening was disrupted by the violence.

On Tuesday, security restrictions were lifted around Baghdad’s Green Zone, where government offices and embassies are based.

Iraq descended into violence last week as protests that began with demands for an end to rampant corruption and chronic unemployment escalated with calls for a complete overhaul of the political system.

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US Condemns Iraq Violence, Urges Government to Exercise ‘Restraint’

Demonstrations in Iraq began with demands for an end to rampant corruption and chronic unemployment

The demonstrations were unprecedented because of their apparent spontaneity and independence in a deeply politicized society.

Protesters were met with tear gas and live fire. On Sunday night, scenes of chaos engulfed Sadr City, the Baghdad stronghold of influential Shiite leader Moqtada al-Sadr, who called for the government to resign.

At least 13 demonstrators died in Sadr City, where the military recognized “excessive force outside the rules of engagement” had been used.

‘Tragic loss of life’

According to official figures, the week of violence in Baghdad and across southern Iraq killed more than 100 people, mostly protesters but including several police, with more than 6,000 others wounded.

Uncertainty over the identify of the perpetrators persists, with authorities blaming “unidentified snipers”.

Amnesty International said Wednesday that the authorities’ pledge to set up an investigation into the deaths was “already ringing hollow as protesters continue to be harassed and threatened into silence”.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has condemned the violence.

During a call with Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi, Pompeo said “those who violated human rights should be held accountable”, the State Department said in a statement.

“The secretary lamented the tragic loss of life over the past few days and urged the Iraqi government to exercise maximum restraint.

“Pompeo reiterated that peaceful public demonstrations are a fundamental element of all democracies, and emphasized that there is no place for violence in demonstrations, either by security forces or protesters.”

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‘Silencing’ of Iraq Protests Coverage Feared After Attacks

Raids over the weekend carried out by unidentified gunmen have added to concerns for freedom of expression that were first flagged when authorities implemented a near-total internet blackout after anti-government protests erupted last week

UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab also called Abdel Mahdi to express worry over the violence.

“I raised concerns about the response to recent protests – the need to respect peaceful protest & media freedoms,” he wrote on Twitter Wednesday.

Internet shutdown

While calm has returned to the country, uninterrupted internet access has not.

Cyber-security NGO NetBlocks blamed the state for imposing “a near-total telecommunication shutdown in most regions, severely limiting press coverage and transparency around the ongoing crisis.”

For a week, internet access has been progressively limited. First, access to certain social media sites disappeared, followed by internet connections for telephones, computers and even virtual private network (VPN) applications. 

Since Tuesday, connection had intermittently returned to Baghdad and the south of the country.

But on Wednesday, NetBlocks reported on Twitter that the internet was “cut again across most of #Iraq”, adding that social media and mobile services were “highly disrupted”.

Providers had told customers earlier in the day they were unable to provide a timetable for a return to uninterrupted service, information on restrictions, or any other details.

Iraqi authorities have not commented on the restrictions, which according to NetBlocks have affected three quarters of the country. In the north, the autonomous Kurdish region has remained unaffected.

The tentative calm returning to Baghdad comes ahead of Arbaeen, the massive pilgrimage this month that sees millions of Shiite Muslims walk to the holy city of Karbala, south of Baghdad.

Nearly two million came last year from neighboring Iran, which has urged citizens to delay their travel into Iraq in light of the protest violence.

Its supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Monday “enemies” were trying to drive a wedge between Tehran and Baghdad, in an apparent allusion to the protests.

The demonstrations and accompanying violence have created a political crisis in a country torn between its two main allies – Iran and the United States.

With political rivals accusing each other of allegiance to foreign powers, President Barham Saleh called Monday for “sons of the same country” to put an end to the “discord”.

He called for a “national, all-encompassing and frank dialogue… without foreign interference.”

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Officials are working urgently to retrieve the bodies of 11 elephants that died after trying to save each other from a waterfall in a national park in central Thailand.

Park rangers had initially thought six adult elephants had died Saturday while trying to save a three-year-old calf that had slipped down the falls.

But Monday, a drone found the bodies of five more elephants in the waters below the fall in Khao Yai National Park.

Authorities have strung a net downstream to catch the bodies as they float down the fast-moving waters. There is concern that the rotting bodies will contaminate the water.

Officers expect the bodies to reach the net in a few days. The elephants will be buried and the area sealed with hydrated lime to prevent contamination, the Bangkok Post reported.

This is not the first such incident at the waterfall, known as Haew Narok (Hell’s Fall). In 1998, eight elephants died at the same site.

Park officials put up fencing to keep the wild animals away from the area, but that has not worked.

The park is home to about 300 of Thailand’s approximately 3,000 wild animals.

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More than one-third of new mothers in four poor countries are abused during childbirth, a study published Wednesday in the medical journal The Lancet.

The study, carried out in Ghana, Guinea, Myanmar and Nigeria by the World Health Organization, found that 42% of the women experienced physical or verbal abuse or some form of stigma or discrimination at maternity health facilities.

The study also found a high number of caesarean sections, vaginal exams and other procedures being performed without the patient’s consent.

Of the 2,016 women observed for the study, 14% said they were either hit, slapped or punched during childbirth. Some 38% of the women said they were subjected to verbal abuse, most often by being shouted at, mocked or scolded.

An alarming 75% had episiotomies performed without consent. The procedure involves surgically enlarging the opening of the vagina.

The authors of the study urged officials to hold those who mistreat women during childbirth accountable. They also urged the governments to put into place clear policies and sufficient resources to ensure that women have a safe place to give birth.

Among the specific steps proposed by the study are: making sure all medical procedures are performed only after getting an informed consent; allowing the patient to have a companion of their choice in the delivery room; redesigning maternity wards to offer the maximum privacy; and making sure no health facility tolerates instances of physical or verbal abuse.

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President Donald Trump on Tuesday awarded one of the nation’s highest civilian honors to Edwin Meese, best known for serving as President Ronald Reagan’s attorney general.

Meese, who received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, had a longstanding connection to Reagan that included serving as his chief of staff when Reagan was California’s governor. After Reagan became president, Meese served as his chief policy adviser before going on to serve as the nation’s 75th attorney general.

“He was a star,” Trump said. “Ed was among President Reagan’s closest advisers as the administration implemented tax cuts, a dramatic defense buildup and a relentless campaign to defeat communism.”

Meese was an early Trump critic who ended up supporting him and helping lead his transition team. Surrounded by family and friends in the Oval Office, the 87-year-old recalled some 30 years of working with Reagan at the state and national level and in his retirement.

“Ronald Reagan was a pivotal part of my life and I am always grateful to him,” Meese said.

Meese stayed active in conservative circles following his time in the Reagan administration as an author, speaker and fellow at the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation.  
 
Meese resigned as attorney general in August 1988 after becoming ensnared in a probe of Wedtech Corp., a New York defense contractor. An independent prosecutor began looking at Meese’s record of assistance to Wedtech. A 14-month corruption investigation ended in a decision not to prosecute Meese, but a report by the Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility said Meese had violated ethical standards.

Trump said Meese delivered “monumental change for the American people” as attorney general and cited the Reagan administration’s efforts against drug use, which Trump said proved successful with lower drug use by young adults.

“Would you like to make a comeback?” Trump joked before presenting Meese with the award.
 

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