Day: November 16, 2019

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says all Conservative Party candidates in the upcoming election have pledged to back his Brexit deal. 

“All 635 Conservative candidates standing at this election — every single one of them — has pledged to me that if elected they will vote in Parliament to pass my Brexit deal so we can end the uncertainty and finally leave the EU,” Johnson told London’s Telegraph newspaper in an interview published late on Saturday. 

“I am offering a pact with the people: If you vote Conservative you can be 100% sure a majority Conservative government will unblock Parliament and get Brexit done,” he said. 

The December 12 election was called to end three years of disagreement over Brexit that has sapped investors’ faith in the stability of the world’s fifth-largest economy and damaged Britain’s standing since it voted in a 2016 referendum to leave the European Union. 

Johnson, 55, hopes to win a majority to push through the last-minute Brexit deal he struck with the EU last month after the bloc granted a third delay to the divorce that was originally supposed to take place March 29. Voters in a 2016 referendum narrowly voted in favor of leaving the EU. 

Johnson’s Conservatives lead Labour by sizable margins, four polls published Saturday show. 

A YouGov poll showed support for the Conservatives at 45%, the highest level since 2017, compared with Labour at 28%, unchanged. The pro-European Union Liberal Democrats were at 15%, and the Brexit Party was at 4%, unchanged. 

A separate poll for SavantaComRes also said support for the Conservatives was the highest since 2017, at 41%. Labour’s support was at 33%. 

The Conservatives have a 16-point lead over Labour, according to an opinion poll published by Opinium Research, and a poll by the Mail on Sunday said Johnson’s party had a 15-point lead over Labour. 

…

A federal judge on Saturday ordered that a German citizen arrested on her return to the country on suspicion of being a member of Islamic State should remain in custody, prosecutors said. 
 
Authorities said the suspect, identified only as Nasim A., left Germany for Syria in 2014, married a fighter and moved with him to Iraq. There she was paid to maintain an IS-controlled house and carried a weapon. 
 
She and her husband later moved to Syria, where she also maintained a house, prosecutors said. Kurdish security forces arrested her in early 2019. 
 
The woman was arrested Friday evening in Frankfurt upon her return to Germany. 
 
The judge determined Saturday that she remain in detention because of “suspicion of being a member of a terrorist organization in a foreign country,” prosecutors said. 

…

A recent ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court has upended a long-standing legal roadblock that has given the gun industry far-reaching immunity from lawsuits in the aftermath of mass killings. 
 
The court this week allowed families of victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook school massacre to sue the maker of the AR-15 used in the attack. The case against Remington will now proceed in the Connecticut courts. 
 
Remington is widely expected to win the case, but critics of the gun industry are eyeing what they see as a significant outcome even in the face of defeat: getting the gunmaker to open its books about how it markets firearms. 
 
Lawyers for the plaintiffs are certain to request that Remington turn over volumes of documents as part of the discovery phase. Those materials might include company emails, memos, business plans and corporate strategies, or anything that might suggest the company purposely marketed the firearm that may have compelled the shooter to use the weapon to carry out the slaughter. 

Message to gun companies
 
The plaintiffs also believe the ruling will put gun companies on notice about how they conduct business, knowing they could wind up in the courts in similar fashion. 
 
“If the industry wakes up and understands their conduct behind closed doors is not protected, then the industry itself … will take steps to try to help the massive problem we have instead of do nothing and sit by and cash the checks,” said Joshua Koskoff, the Connecticut attorney who represents a survivor and relatives of nine victims who died at the Newtown, Connecticut, school on December 14, 2012.  

The case hinges on Connecticut state consumer law that challenges how the firearm used by the Newtown shooter — a Bushmaster XM15-E2S rifle — was marketed, with plaintiffs alleging Remington purposely used advertisements that targeted younger, at-risk males. One of Remington’s ads features the rifle against a plain backdrop and the phrase: “Consider Your Man Card Reissued.” 
 
Remington did not respond to requests for comment after the U.S. Supreme Court denied its efforts to quash the lawsuit. 
 
Larry Keane, senior vice president and legal counsel for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, which represents gunmakers, said he expected Remington to  ultimately prevail and that it was unfair to blame the gunmaker for Adam Lanza’s crime. 
 
“Adam Lanza alone is the responsible person. Not Remington,” he said. 
 
2005 law

Suing the firearms industry has never been easy, and it was made even harder after Congress enacted the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act in 2005. The law backed by the National Rifle Association gave broad immunity to the gun industry. 
 
The plaintiffs’ chances of succeeding in this case are slim — a sentiment shared by the Connecticut Supreme Court, which said they face a “Herculean task” to prevail. 

Judges and juries generally have a tough time blaming anyone but the shooter for the crime, said Timothy D. Lytton, professor at Georgia State University’s College of Law and author of “Suing the Gun Industry: A Battle at the Crossroads of Gun Control and Mass Torts.”  

Add into the mix that Lanza himself didn’t own the firearm; he stole it from his mother after killing her in the home they shared, then went to the elementary school in Newtown, where he killed 20 children and six adults. 
 
“It makes it harder for juries to connect the dots. It’s a significant hurdle in all of these cases. It’s very rare that you have a very close time frame between the marketing of a weapon and a mass shooting,” Lytton said. 
 
Lanza’s mother purchased the Bushmaster AR-platform rifle in 2010 from a Connecticut gun shop. It’s unclear if she or her son were influenced by or had seen Remington’s advertising. 

Tough times for industry
 
Still, it’s been a tough few years for the industry. Sales plummeted with the election of President Donald Trump, and gun-control advocates have outspent perhaps his most loyal supporter: the NRA. With slumping sales, some companies, including Remington, have faced bankruptcy. And in the wake of high-profile mass shootings, corporate America has begun pushing back against the industry. 
 
AR-platform long guns have been a particular bone of contention for gun-control advocates who believe the firearms — once banned for a decade in the U.S. — are especially attractive to mass shooters for their ease of use and their ability to carry large-capacity magazines. 
 
While handguns remain used more often in mass shootings, ARs have been involved in some of the deadliest shootings, including when a gunman fired on a crowd of concertgoers outside his hotel room in Las Vegas in 2017, killing 58 people and wounding hundreds. 
 
The AR-15, its design based on the military M-16, has become one of the most popular firearms in the U.S. in recent decades. It’s lightweight, easy to customize and able to carry extended magazines, and its sales took off once the ban expired in 2004. There are now an estimated 16 million AR-platform long guns in the U.S. 

‘Embarrassing’ information
 
Robert J. Spitzer, chairman of political science at the State University of New York at Cortland and a longtime watcher of gun politics, said a case against Remington could cause “pretty embarrassing information” to come out. 

“And it is certainly possible [plaintiffs] will find memos or other documents that may significantly support their case that Remington was manifestly irresponsible in the way they marketed their guns,” he said. 

Even if embarrassing information isn’t uncovered, he said, it could have a long-lasting impact on the industry and, more specifically, Remington. Considered the oldest gunmaker in the United States, Remington — founded in New York in 1816 and now based in Madison, North Carolina — only emerged from bankruptcy in 2018. 
 
“They’re obviously in a precarious financial situation and this suit is certainly not helpful to them trying to restore their financial health,” Spitzer said. 

…

The United Nations warned Saturday that violence in Bolivia could “spin out of control,” following a night of skirmishes between security forces and coca farmers loyal to ousted President Evo Morales that left at least eight dead. 

Morales resigned under pressure from Bolivia’s police and military last Sunday after evidence of vote rigging tainted his October 20 election victory. He fled to Mexico. 

The leftist and charismatic former coca farmer has since called his ouster a “coup” and decried growing allegations of heavy-handed repression by security forces under interim President Jeanine Anez, a former conservative lawmaker. 

“The coup leaders massacre indigenous and humble people for asking for democracy,” Morales said on Twitter late Friday, following reports of mounting deaths.  

Anez has blamed Morales for stoking violence from abroad, and has said her government wishes to hold elections and meet with the opposition to mend fences.  

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet warned escalating violence could usurp the democratic process. 

“I am concerned that the situation in Bolivia could spin out of control if the authorities do not handle it … with full respect for human rights,” Bachelet said in a statement. 

“Repressive actions by the authorities … are likely to jeopardize any possible avenue for dialogue,” she added. 

The violence in Bolivia adds to growing unrest in the region, including in neighbor Chile, where protests over social inequalities boiled over into riots that left at least 20 dead. 

Ecuador, Venezuela and Argentina have also seen widespread strikes, protests and riots in recent months.

Bullet wounds 

Cochabamba regional ombudsman Nelson Cox said hospital records in the coca farming region showed the “vast majority” of Friday’s deaths and injuries were caused by bullet wounds. 

“We are working with the national ombudsman’s office to conduct autopsies … and seek justice for these victims,” Cox told Reuters. 

Supporters continue to agitate for Morales, blocking major highways, cutting oil pipelines and launching mass protests in the streets of La Paz, El Alto and in coca farming regions long loyal to him. 

Though the capital, La Paz, was calm Saturday, highway blockades prompted panic on the streets, with many rushing to hoard groceries as supplies ran low and prices rose. 

Bolivia’s national ombudsman said Friday that total deaths had hit 19 since the October 20 election, a number that has accelerated over the last week. 

The rising body count prompted Morales to strike a more conciliatory tone with the government of Anez in recent days. 

“For the sake of democracy … I have no problem not taking part in new elections,” Morales told Reuters in an interview in Mexico City. 

Morales’ party, now the opposition, has asked for a session of both chambers of Bolivia’s legislature this Tuesday to discuss a plan for holding the elections to replace the interim government. 

Anez, meanwhile, has moved quickly away from Morales’ leftist rule. 

On Friday, Bolivia asked Venezuelan officials to leave the country. The Andean nation also accused Cuba, once a close ally, of stoking unrest following Morales’ resignation. 

Anez spoke with Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guiado on Saturday. She said she was pleased to establish relations with a 
“democratic Venezuela.” 

“We have the same objectives, and I hope soon we can cry freedom for Venezuela, as it so rightly deserves,” she said in the televised meeting. 

…

Five supporters of former president Evo Morales were killed Friday in violent clashes between protesters and security forces in Bolivia, according to an AFP correspondent who saw the bodies at a hospital.

Authorities did not report any deaths in the riots outside Cochabamba, though it said 100 people were detained. Media reports said eight were wounded.

Clashes had broken out Friday in the suburbs of Cochabamba, where thousands of coca growers were trying to reach the city center 11 miles (18 kilometers) away to join a protest against interim leader Jeanine Anez.

But they were blocked by police, who stopped them from crossing a bridge.

The protesters carried “weapons, guns, Molotov cocktails, homemade bazookas and explosive devices,” Cochabamba police commander Colonel Jamie Zurita said.

“They used dynamite and deadly weapons like the Mauser 765 (rifle). Neither the armed forces nor the police are equipped with such a caliber, I am worried,” he said.

The crowd was dispersed after dark by riot police, who were supported by the army and a helicopter.

Morales resigned and fled to Mexico after losing the support of Bolivia’s security forces following weeks of protests over his disputed Oct. 20 reelection.

With the five protesters killed Friday, the death toll from the unrest rises to 15 with more than 400 wounded.

…

The Hong Kong government is probably considering measures to strengthen its crackdown on anti-government protesters after Chinese President Xi Jinping issued a direct warning, urging the city to “end violence and restore order,” analysts say.

Stepping up the suppression, however, may backfire, fueling tensions in the city and further hurting its economy if protesters refuse to back down, they add.

Xi told a summit in Brazil Thursday that “persistent radical and violent crimes have seriously trampled on the basic principle of ‘one country, two systems’ scheme” in Hong Kong, the state news agency People’s Daily reported.

Xi’s warning

“Stopping the violence and restoring order is Hong Kong’s most urgent task at present,” he said.

Xi also expressed support for the city’s chief executive, Carrie Lam, the Hong Kong police, and its judiciary in punishing what he called “violent criminals.”

“The Chinese government is unwavering in safeguarding its sovereignty, security and developmental interests, implementing the ‘one country, two systems’ scheme and deterring any interference by foreign forces in Hong Kong affairs,” he added.

While a reiteration of Beijing’s long-held stance, Xi’s remarks are effectively a direct order for Lam to get tough and end the city’s five months of political unrest, said Sang Pu, a critic and Hong Kong commentator.

“This [stance] was reiterated by Xi Jinping in his statement in Brazil and this Brazil statement makes sure that suppression overrides and prevails everything else. And this suppression will not go away very easily,” Sang said.

On Friday, protesters continued to paralyze parts of Hong Kong for a fifth day, forcing schools to close and blocking some main roads, as university students barricaded campuses and authorities struggled to calm the violence.

Lam also condemned an “attack” in London on Hong Kong Secretary for Justice Teresa Cheng during a confrontation with protesters, during which Cheng suffered “serious bodily harm,” according to Hong Kong government statement. Lam said the incident was barbaric and violated the principles of a civilized society, the Hong Kong government said.

More emergency measures?

Sang said he believes Lam is considering emergency measures such as curfews or cutting off the Internet, as Xi’s statement followed a short-lived tweet by China’s tightly censored Global Times, saying that the city government was expected to announce a curfew this weekend.

The tweet was quickly deleted as by editor-in-chief Hu Xijin because there wasn’t sufficient information to back it up.

Media speculation was rife in Hong Kong that a meeting of ministers chaired by Lam late Wednesday was devoted to discussing emergency measures including the curfew. That led the city government to issue a press statement Thursday to clarify what it calls “rumors … totally unfounded.”

Sang said he believes the deleted tweet was meant to test the level of tolerance or fear for curfews among Hong Kongers while Lam gauges pressure from the outside world in deciding her next move.

Were Lam to step up the suppression against protesters, the city’s political crisis would worsen, as protesters would not back down, Sang said.

“Even if they’re tired, even this battle will not be the winning battle, they will still stride on because actually they have no other choices,” he said.

The reason is, he said “that if they now step back and then forgo any resistance anymore, the real suppression will come.”

“Many people including me myself and many other Hong Kongers will be arrested at home and even disappear suddenly,” he said.

Escalation to hurt economy

The city’s political crisis appears to be deteriorating as internal conflicts aren’t easy to resolve, but any further escalation of tensions will badly hurt the city’s economy, said Liao Qun, chief economist at China CITIC Bank International.

Hong Kong “has already slipped into a recession in the third quarter and I expect to see another negative growth in the fourth quarter,” he said.

The recession will continue if the unrest fails to cool, he said, “However, if things cool down, we may begin to see a mild rebound.”

The economist warned that the city’s economy would take another hit if legislation under consideration in the U.S. Congress to impose sanctions on those responsible for human rights violations in Hong Kong were to become law, but that would not force China to change how it rules Hong Kong, said Shi Yinhong, an international relations professor at Beijing’s Renmin University.

The act, he said, “will definitely have a serious adverse impact on the China-U.S. relations, the Chinese economy and Hong Kong’s financial stability.”

“No matter how large an impact there is, the People’s Republic of China government’s determination to safeguard its sovereignty over Hong Kong and the city’s stability won’t waver,” he said.

Shi added that Beijing will firmly support the Hong Kong government’s decisions to solve its political crisis even if Lam decides to invoke her emergency powers.

…

Student protesters are barricading themselves at universities across Hong Kong, stockpiling makeshift weapons and turning campuses into what look like war zones. It marks a dangerous new phase in Hong Kong’s 5-month-old anti-government protests.

Hong Kong Polytechnic University now looks something more like a fortress. Hundreds of students have hunkered down, laying bricks to obstruct police vehicles they are certain eventually will arrive, and setting up multiple levels of security checkpoints. Inside, students arm themselves with whatever they can, including arrows, bricks and molotov cocktails.

Hong Kong has seen 24 weeks of protests, but what is taking place here is new. Students barricading themselves in at universities, preparing for extended confrontations. It’s the start of what could be a dangerous new phase of anti-government protests.”

WATCH: Inside Campus Fortresses, Hong Kong Students Prep for Battle

Inside Campus Fortresses, Hong Kong Students Prep for Battle video player.

Embed

Copy

Link

Students don’t want to give their names. But this protester is eager to defend the aggressive tactics.

“We have seen the police brutality in Hong Kong … how can we tolerate that?”

This is going on in at least five Hong Kong campuses. Many schools canceled class for the semester. At the Chinese University of Hong Kong, police moved in earlier this week, prompting a night of clashes that looked more like battles for territory. Police later accused the students of turning the campuses into “weapons factories.”

But this protester says that’s unfair.

“The violence between us and the police is imbalanced. You can see that. We just use the things we have, just only some bottles or some plastic. But the police have the gun, have the tear gas. So the violence between us and the police is totally unbalanced.”

In the downtime, the students test their weapons, which sometimes don’t work. A light moment that masks the gravity of what they’re doing.

“All the protesters are scared. Because maybe we will die. But we think if we don’t stand up this day, all the freedom in Hong Kong will lose. So there is no way to [go] back for us.”

These are student protesters who know they’ll probably lose, but who nonetheless are prepared to fight.

…

Millions of Americans have been watching the U.S. House of Representatives impeachment inquiry hearings into President Donald Trump. Mike O’Sullivan reports from Los Angeles, some voters support the process and others agree with Trump that it’s politically motivated.
 

…

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, in a televised speech to the nation earlier this week, announced that his government would release three prominent Taliban members in exchange for two Westerners abducted by the Taliban as a confidence-building measure with the insurgent group.

“We have decided to conditionally release three Taliban prisoners who have been detained outside of Afghanistan with the help and coordination of our international partners and have been kept in Bagram prison [north of Kabul] in Afghanistan for some time,” Ghani said.

The Western hostages are American Kevin King and Australian Timothy John Weeks who have been in Taliban’s captivity since 2016 when they were abducted from the capital, Kabul. Both were professors at the American University of Afghanistan.

Conflicting reports

Since Ghani’s announcement of the deal Tuesday, there have been several conflicting reports about the whereabouts of the three inmates, with no comments from the Afghan government.

Some reports say the inmates have been transferred to Qatar where the Taliban has a political office, while other reports allege they are still in Afghanistan.

However, a spokesperson for the Afghan Taliban told VOA Friday that the inmates have not left the prison, and he blamed the U.S. for the failure of the swap.

“As per the deal with the Americans, our prisoners were to be taken to the mutually agreed safe location and freed there. We would have then released and handed the American (and his colleague) over to them,” Zabihullah Mujahid explained in a Pashto-language audio message he sent to VOA, implying that the talks were with the U.S. not the Afghan government.

U.S. officials have not immediately reacted to the Taliban claim.

The Afghan Ministry of Defense declined to comment on the issue or the whereabouts of the inmates. An Afghan diplomat Wednesday confirmed to Reuters, on condition of anonymity, that the deal has fallen apart.

In announcing the decision, Ghani said while it was not “easy,” it was “necessary.”

“I have said this several times that enduring and dignified peace requires us to, one day, pay its bitter price. But this price would not come at the expense of the republic,” Ghani added.

Reactions among Afghans were mixed, with some hoping that it would lead to the beginning of direct dialogue between the Afghan government and the Taliban, who have refused so far to talk to the Afghan government, calling it a “puppet” regime. Others viewed it as an insult to the victims of the terror attacks carried out by the militants in Afghanistan over the years.

Who are the inmates?

The three prisoners are prominent Taliban leaders, including Anas Haqqani, the younger brother of the Taliban’s deputy, Sirajuddin Haqqani, who leads the Haqqani Network, a U.S.-designated terror group. The others are Mali Khan, a senior member of the Haqqani Network who has family relations to the founder of the terror group, and Qari Abdul Rashid Omari, who was in charge of southeastern Afghanistan for the Haqqani Network before his arrest.

Mali Khan was arrested in 2011 in a U.S. forces raid in Afghanistan’s Paktika province. Omari and Anas Haqqani were arrested in 2014 while traveling in the Persian Gulf, according to Long War Journal, a think tank following developments related to the Afghan war.

“Khan, Rasheed, and Anas are three dangerous Taliban commanders, and the Taliban has been seeking their release since their capture,” Bill Roggio, founder of Long War Journal and senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told VOA.

“Khan has served just about every position within the Haqqani Network, including its operations commander for eastern Afghanistan. Rasheed served as the Haqqani’s military commander in eastern Afghanistan. And Anas is a key propagandist, fundraiser and ambassador for the Haqqanis,” Roggio added.

Of the three, Mali Khan is viewed by experts as the most influential member of the Haqqani network, both because of his age and his close family ties to the founders of the network. He has alleged family ties to both Jalaluddin Haqqani and his son Sirajuddin Haqqani. Khan’s sister is Sirajuddin Haqqani’s mother, and Jalaluddin Haqqani’s sister is married to Khan’s uncle.

Concerns

There are concerns among some analysts that, if released, the three members of the Taliban would return to the battlefield.

“I have no doubt that the three will return to the fight in some capacity. For instance, Anas can resume his role even if confined to Qatar or another country,” analyst Roggio said.

“All three provide the Taliban a key propaganda victory, and will, at the minimum, aid the group in fundraising,” he added.

Michael Semple, a longtime expert on Afghanistan, however, believes that risks associated with their release are not so much about their return to battlefield.

“Now I personally think that the risks associated with releasing them are more about propaganda and morale rather than as operational,” Semple told VOA. “All three of them have long been replaced in roles they had.”

Confidence building

While Ghani sees the prisoner release as a confidence building measure, analyst Semple believes the Taliban don’t. They rather see it as a matter of prestige that they “look after their own,” he said.

“I do not believe that the leaders of the Taliban movement entered into this deal as a confidence building measure to bring peace about,” Semple said.

Sher Jan Ahmadzai, director of the Center for Afghanistan Studies at the University of Nebraska-Omaha, believes that these goodwill gestures have to be part of a larger mechanism.

“Prisoners exchange, talks, meetings and cease-fire should result in a permanent peace not in the release of prisoners with no permanent peace guarantees,” he said.

Jason H. Campbell, a policy researcher at Washington-based Rand Corp, echoes Ahmadzai’s concerns.

“The question I still have is whether this exchange is a first step of something larger or just a one-off attempt to build some degree of trust,” he said.

“If it is the former, Ghani is taking a big political risk as the Taliban understand that if nothing else materializes, it can have a negative impact on the political unity in Kabul,” he added.

Refusing to talk to the Afghan government, the Taliban have held nine rounds of direct talks with the U.S. in Qatar’s capital city, Doha, with both sides closing in on a deal, before President Donald Trump called off the talks in September, citing increased violence in Afghanistan perpetrated by the militants in an attempt to gain more leverage at the negotiation table.

VOA’s Ayaz Gul contributed to this story from Islamabad.

…