Backers of Bolivia’s president blocked the arrival of an opposition leader to the capital of La Paz on Tuesday and the government flew him back to his home city amid protests over the apparent reelection of President Evo Morales.
Supporters of Morales blocked Luis Fernando Camacho from leaving the La Paz airport, and Interior Minister Carlos Romero says Camacho was flown back to Santa Cruz “to protect his safety.”
Supporters of Bolivian President Evo Morales march to show their support of his apparent reelection in La Paz, Bolivia, Nov. 5, 2019.
The Organization of American States secretary-general, Luis Almagro, issued a statement on Twitter urging the government to safeguard Camacho’s right to movement.
Camacho had traveled to La Paz, saying he hoped to get Morales to sign a letter of resignation — something the president has rejected.
Camacho has been leading protests in Santa Cruz, the country’s most populous city, demanding Morales step aside following a disputed Oct. 20 election. Opponents challenge an official count that showed Morales winning with 47% of the vote and a margin of just over 10 percentage points over his nearest competitor — enough to avoid the need for a runoff against a united opposition.
Other opposition figures are merely demanding a runoff. But both complain that Morales ignored a constitutional ban on another term — he has already served 14 years — and was allowed on the ballot due to a ruling by what they consider to be a biased supreme court.
Both opposition factions also have rejected the terms of an ongoing OAS audit of the results agreed upon with the government.
The eastern city of Santa Cruz has been a hotbed of resistance to Morales, and much of the city has been largely shut down by a general strike for two weeks, with enormous crowds appearing at evening protest rallies. In the northeast city of Beni, clashes between opposing sides Monday night left 10 people injured.
The Armed Forces issued a statement Monday saying that it is keeping watch to maintain democracy and “the unity of the people.” Opposition legislator Wilson Santa María has accused the government of trying to “buy the loyalty” of the military and the police in exchange for what he called “bonuses”.
Morales, Bolivia’s first indigenous president, has accused(AP Style 1) the opposition of trying to stage a coup d’etat.
European Union leader Donald Tusk says that he won’t run to be the president of his native Poland, saying he carries too much “baggage” from his time as prime minister.
Tusk, who was prime minister of Poland from 2007 to 2014, was seen as a politician who could block the right-wing populist drift of the country, which has raised concerns about rule of law.
Incumbent Andrzej Duda, who supports the ruling Law and Justice party, faces re-election in the spring of 2020.
Tusk, speaking from Brussels, told Polish TV stations on Tuesday that “I will not be a candidate in the next presidential elections,” citing the “baggage that I carry from the time that I was prime minister.”
A group of South Carolina senators restored exceptions for rape and incest on Tuesday to a measure that would ban nearly all abortions, then sent the bill to the Senate floor for a 2020 election year fight.
The exceptions had been removed by a smaller group of senators two months ago.
The legislative back-and-forth continues as proponents worry the ban can’t get passed without the exceptions. Three Republicans joined six Democrats on the Medical Affairs Committee in refusing to advance the bill, which allowed the exceptions to be restored.
The “Fetal Heartbeat Protection from Abortion Act” would make almost all abortions illegal in South Carolina once fetal cardiac activity is detected, usually around six weeks after conception. The bill has always allowed an abortion if the mother’s life is in danger.
The committee passed the measure Tuesday on a 9-6 vote — all Republicans voting for it and Democrats against it. Some Republicans have suggested senators never take up the bill, worrying the floor debate could rile voters in the upcoming elections.
A crowd fills a South Carolina Senate hearing room as a Senate committee considers a strict “heartbeat” abortion ban in Columbia, South Carolina, Nov. 5, 2019.
Even with the rape and incest exceptions restored, the bill has faced an iffy future next year because some more moderate Republicans senators don’t want to waste days fighting over it with Democrats. They’ve suggested that lawmakers should instead wait and see what happens with similar laws in other states, and move forward only if bans elsewhere withstand legal challenges.
Similar bills have passed in recent years in Louisiana, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi and Ohio. Missouri approved a ban on abortions after eight weeks of pregnancy and Alabama lawmakers simply outlawed all abortions. All of them remain tied up in courts.
South Carolina already had a similar abortion showdown in 2018 after Democratic Sen. Brad Hutto of Orangeburg, whose has fought for abortion rights for decades, altered a bill banning a specific type of abortion into a ban on almost all abortions and dared lawmakers to pass it. Moderate Republicans couldn’t support the proposal, which failed. Democrats have added a seat since that election.
The “heartbeat” abortion bill passed the South Carolina House earlier this year after the rape and incest exceptions were added on the House floor following a speech by Rep. Nancy Mace, a Republican from Charleston who told for the first time how she was raped when she was a teen.
Gov. Henry McMaster enthusiastically supported a ban even before it was changed in the House. He has promised to sign the bill if it passes.
Sen. Richard Cash put the incest and rape ban back in the bill. Cash, a Republican from Powdersville, was elected in 2017 in a campaign promising to do all he could to end abortion.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Tuesday that the United States remains concerned about reports of China’s harsh treatment of relatives of Uighur Muslim activists and survivors of Chinese internment camps.
In a statement released by the State Department, Pompeo said the U.S. is still “deeply troubled” by reports that the Chinese government has reportedly “harassed, imprisoned, or arbitrarily detained family members of Uighur Muslim activists and survivors of Xinjiang internment camps who have made their stories public.”
The top U.S. diplomat said some of the “abuses occurred shortly after meetings with senior State Department officials.”
Over the past few years, China has established complexes in Xinjiang that it maintains are “vocational training centers” designed to combat terrorism and extremism and to teach new skills.
Beijing denies any mistreatment of the Uighurs and maintains that the detainees are at the complexes voluntarily.
Many world leaders have criticized China for setting up the complexes, where the U.N. says at least 1 million ethnic Uighurs and other Muslims have been detained.
The U.S. government and human rights groups estimate 10 percent of the Uighur population is under detention.
The nonpartisan research group the Australian Strategic Policy Institute estimates there are 143 camps where Uighurs are detained.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch has accused China of committing “rampant abuses,” including torture.
The U.S. last month broadened its trade blacklist to include top Chinese artificial intelligence startup companies. It also announced visa restrictions against Chinese government and Communist Party officials it believes are behind the detention or abuse of Muslim minorities in the region.
Pompeo also Tuesday called on Beijing to “cease all harassment of Uighurs living outside China…and to allow families to communicate freely without repercussions.”
A trade war between the world’s top two economies cut U.S. imports of Chinese goods by more than a quarter, or $35 billion, in the first half of this year and drove up prices for American consumers, a U.N. study showed on Tuesday.
Beijing and Washington have been locked in a trade feud for the past 16 months although there are hopes that an initial deal offering some relief may be signed this month.
If that fails, nearly all Chinese goods imports into the United States — worth more than $500 billion — could be affected.
U.S. imports from China subject to tariffs fell to $95 billion between January and June from $130 billion during the same period of 2018, the study released by the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) showed.
“Overall, the results indicate that the United States tariffs on China are economically hurting both countries,” the report said. “United States losses are largely related to the higher prices for consumers, while China’s losses are related to significant export losses.”
Over time, Chinese companies began absorbing some of the extra costs of the tariffs through an 8% dip in export prices in the second quarter of 2019, but that still left 17% “on the shoulders of U.S. consumers”, said the report’s author Alessandro Nicita, an economist at UNCTAD.
The sector hit hardest by the U.S. tariffs are U.S. imports of Chinese office machinery and communication equipment, which fell by $15 billion. Over time, the scale of Chinese export losses increased alongside mounting tariffs, the study said.
Other countries stepped up to fill most of the gap left by China, the study found. It named Taiwan as the largest beneficiary of “trade diversion”, with $4.2 billion in additional exports to the United States in the first half of 2019. They were mostly office and communication equipment.
Mexico increased exports to the United States by $3.5 billion, mostly agriculture and transport equipment and electrical machinery. The European Union boosted deliveries by $2.7 billion, mostly via additional machinery exports, it found.
“The longer the trade war goes on, the more likely these losses and gains will be permanent,” Nicita said. Not all of Chinese trade losses were picked up by other economies and billions of dollars in trade were lost entirely.
The paper did not analyse the effect of Chinese tariffs on U.S. imports into China because detailed data was not yet available.
It also does not capture the most recent phase of the trade war — including 10% tariffs on about $125 billion worth of additional Chinese goods imported into the United States that took effect on Sept. 1 — beyond noting that it is likely to add to existing trade losses.
Two youths were shot dead and several other people were wounded in clashes between Guinean police and protesters at a funeral march for those killed in recent anti-government demonstrations, the authorities and the family of one of the victims said.
Violence erupted as hundreds marched in the capital Conakry carrying coffins of people killed in unrest since mid-October that has shaken the poor West African country.
Demonstrators have taken to the streets over suspicions that President Alpha Conde is seeking to prolong his rule.
According to an opposition toll, around 15 protesters have been killed during the weeks of bloody clashes with security forces, with dozens injured. The government has said one police officer was killed, but have not given an updated number of casualties.
At Monday’s march, hundreds of people including relatives and opposition figures marched on foot or by motorbike through the Bambeto neighbourhood, bearing aloft the coffins of 11 of those killed since Oct. 24 draped in the national flag.
The marchers chanted “Justice for the dead” and “Alpha, killer” as they made their way from the hospital where victims’ remains had been held and a mosque where pre-burial prayers were planned.
Clashes broke out on the route, with youths hurling stones at riot police who responded with tear gas. Witnesses said they also fired live rounds into the crowd.
Abdourahim Diallo, 17, was shot in the stomach at “point-blank” range when he went to attend the funeral of a friend who was killed two weeks ago, his sister Diariana told AFP. She said he died of his injuries in hospital.
The security ministry subsequently said that a second youth had died.
The main candidates to become Spain’s next prime minister clashed Monday over how to handle Catalonia’s independence drive, ahead of a repeat election that opinion polls show could be as inconclusive as the one in April.
Opinion polls suggest a third of voters are still unsure who they will vote for Sunday, meaning Monday’s televised debate could be decisive. At this stage, polls point to a stalemate, with no party or bloc of parties having a majority.
FILE – People’s Party (PP) candidate Pablo Casado speaks in Madrid, Spain, April 28, 2019.
Catalonia’s regional capital, Barcelona, has been rocked by weeks of sometimes violent protests since nine separatist leaders were sentenced to jail in mid-October for their role in a failed independence bid.
“You don’t believe in the Spanish nation,” the leader of the conservative People’s Party (PP), Pablo Casado, told acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, accusing him of being too soft on the Catalan separatists.
Sanchez, a Socialist, is leading in opinion polls but has lost support, while right-wing parties have grown more popular since last month’s rallies in Catalonia saw some protesters wreak havoc and throw Molotov cocktails at police.
Leader of VOX party, Santiago Abascal, arrives at a televised debate ahead of general elections in Madrid, Spain, Nov. 4, 2019.
Right-wing parties are now competing on which would take a harder line on the restive region, hoping to attract more votes Sunday.
“There’s a permanent coup d’etat in Catalonia,” said the leader of the far-right Vox party, Santiago Abascal, saying PP and the Socialists, which have dominated Spanish politics for decades, were both to blame.
Vox won its first parliamentary seats in April and opinion polls show that, boosted by anger over Catalonia protests, it can now hope to win more than 40 seats, up from 24 in the previous ballot. There are 350 seats up for grabs.
Poll results
FILE – Spain’s Socialist leader and acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez attends a rally to mark the kick off his campaign ahead of the general election in Seville, Spain, Oct. 31, 2019.
Sunday’s parliamentary election will be the fourth in four years for Spain. New parties have emerged after the financial crisis, fragmenting the political landscape and making it much harder to form governments with stable majorities.
Polls carried out by GAD3, Sigma Dos and NC Report and published Monday pointed to the Socialists winning but falling short of a majority, with their numbers dropping to about 120 seats from the 123 they won in April. Vox was projected to become the third-biggest party.
PP would get more seats than in April, while the liberal Ciudadanos would be the most damaged by the repeat election.
All possible scenarios for deals to form a government are fraught with difficulties. Sanchez on Friday ruled out forming a “grand coalition” with PP.
Debating Catalonia
Leader of Ciudadanos’ party Albert Rivera and debate moderator Maria Casado arrive at a televised debate ahead of general elections in Madrid, Spain, Nov. 4, 2019.
Challenged by his rivals on Catalonia, Sanchez said he had tackled the protests with a firm and proportional response. He added that, if elected prime minister, he would amend the country’s laws to make clear that organizing an illegal independence referendum, like Catalonia’s regional leaders did in 2017, is a crime.
Sanchez, who became prime minister in June last year after parliament ousted the conservatives in a corruption scandal, has been acting prime minister since the April election.
He also hit back at Casado and at Ciudadanos leader Albert Rivera, saying they were “the two representative of the cowardly right in front of an aggressive far-right,” condemning their deals at local and regional levels with Vox.
FILE – Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias speaks during a plenary session at Parliament in Madrid, Spain, Sept. 11, 2019.
The leader of far-left Unidas Podemos, Pablo Iglesias, with whom Sanchez failed to strike a deal to form a government after the April ballot, told Sanchez he “was wrong” if he thought the right would help solve the Catalan problem, saying dialogue with the separatists was the only solution.
While all agreed that a slowing down of Spain’s economic growth will be a major issue for who becomes prime minister, the candidates also clashed on economic policies, and in particular on taxation, with Casado saying: “In order for the Spaniards not to lose their jobs, Sanchez must lose his.”
Vox’s Abascal had not focused much on immigration in the April ballot — unlike many far-right party leaders facing elections in Europe — but took a harder line Monday, accusing Sanchez of not controlling who enters Spain.
More than 400 inmates across the state of Oklahoma were released from prison Monday in accordance to reforms approved by voters in 2016 to downgrade many crimes from felonies to misdemeanors.
The reforms were signed into law earlier this year and retroactively made simple drug possession a misdemeanor. It also made any theft, vandalism, shoplifting and robbery worth less than $1,000 a misdemeanor rather than a felony.
Under the changes, Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board approved the commutation of 462 inmates unanimously and it was made official by the Republican Governor Kevin Stitt, who has made reducing Oklahoma’s highest-in-the-nation incarceration rate one of his top priorities
According to Stitt’s office, releasing the prisoners will save the state an estimated $11.9 million annually.
As Mali began three days of mourning Monday for 54 people killed in a militant attack last week, locals expressed fear about a surge in violence and some analysts called for stepped-up military intelligence and collaboration.
“We can’t stay idle every day when people attack our camps, kill tens or even hundreds of our soldiers,” activist Dr. Abdoul Kane Diallo said of Friday’s assault on a northeastern military outpost.
He was indignant because, though authorities were alerted immediately of the daytime assault, “no reinforcements came, which is very surprising.”
The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack.
According to local sources, militants had infiltrated the area at least several days in advance. On Friday, they allegedly commandeered a Malian military supply truck, killing its driver and substituting one of their own. Then they loaded the truck with explosives and drove it into the camp. Unsuspecting soldiers let in the familiar truck, accounting for the high number of casualties.
Yaya Sangare, Mali’s communications minister, said 10 troops survived the attack.
Call for collaboration
Political activist Fatagoma Togola called for better cooperation among intelligence teams representing Mali, France’s anti-terrorist Operation Barkhane and MINUSMA, the U.N. Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali.
“Military intelligence and state security forces must cooperate and considerably expand their activities throughout Mali, especially in the north,” Togola said.
Diallo said civilians should collaborate with Mali’s military against terrorists.
“It’s high time people mobilized,” he told VOA. “We should not wait and allow everything to be destroyed.”
Insecurity has grown in recent months in Mali’s midsection and Burkina Faso’s northern region, with jihadists attacking schools and warning teachers not to provide Western-style instruction.
In September, nearly 40 soldiers were killed in two separate jihadist attacks on two military bases.
This report originated in VOA’s Bambara Service and French services, with Bambara managing editor Bagassi Koura contributing.
