Month: November 2019

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.

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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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.
 

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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.

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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.
 

…

Officials in California say fierce winds that have fueled fires across the state have subsided, allowing firefighters to mostly contain blazes that raged in the north and south.

The largest fire, in the northern wine county, was 80% contained on Monday, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Cal Fire said the fire in Sonoma County, dubbed the Kincade Fire, burned more than 32,000 hectares and destroyed more than 370 structures since it began Oct. 23.

In Southern California, a blaze that erupted outside of Los Angeles on Thursday was 70% contained. The so-called Maria Fire destroyed 3,800 hectares and destroyed two structures near the community of Santa Paula, according to the Ventura County Fire Department.

A new study published Monday said invasive grasses may be contributing to more wildfires in the United States, especially in California. In the study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, ecologists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, along with colleagues at the University of Colorado-Boulder, show that locations where common Mediterranean grass invades, fires ignite three times more often. The scientists found eight species of non-native grass that correlated with increased fire risk.

The recent fires in California sparked Twitter comments on Sunday by President Donald Trump and California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Trump tweeted that Newsom had done a “terrible job of forest management.”

“Every year, as the fire’s rage & California burns, it is the same thing-and then he comes to the Federal Government for $$$ help. No more,” Trump wrote.

..Every year, as the fire’s rage & California burns, it is the same thing-and then he comes to the Federal Government for $$$ help. No more. Get your act together Governor. You don’t see close to the level of burn in other states…But our teams are working well together in…..

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 3, 2019

Newsom replied on Twitter: “You don’t believe in climate change. You are excused from this conversation.”

The wildfires across California forced nearly 200,000 people to evacuate. The fires have been fueled by seasonal Santa Ana winds, hot dry winds that blow in from the desert.

Last week, Southern California Edison said that 13 minutes before the Maria Fire broke out, the utility began to re-energize a power line in the same area where the fire erupted.

Another utility company, Pacific Gas & Electric acknowledged last week that one of its live power lines might have sparked the Kincade blaze. It said a transmission tower malfunctioned around the same time and place that the fire is believed to have begun.

California authorities blame PG&E lines for sparking last year’s wildfires that killed 85 people and destroyed entire towns. The utility, facing billions of dollars in lawsuits, was forced to declare bankruptcy earlier this year.

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Gert Boyle, the colorful chairwoman of Oregon-based Columbia Sportswear Co. who starred in ads proclaiming her as “One Tough Mother,” died Sunday. She was 95.

Company spokeswoman Mary Ellen Glynn did not disclose the cause of death. Boyle, who was chairwoman of the company board of directors, died at a Portland, Oregon, assisted living facility, Glynn said.

Boyle took over the small outdoor clothing company in 1970 after her husband died from a heart attack. At the time, she was a 46-year-old housewife and mother of three with no real business experience. But she helped build the struggling company into a national brand and retailer.

“Early to bed, early to rise, work like hell and advertise,” Boyle often said, among other pet phrases.

It was her role in an advertising campaign in the 1980s that gave her national exposure.

The ads showed Boyle putting her son, Tim, president of the company, through treacherous outdoor feats to ensure the products met her standards. An iconic photo from the campaign, which has her flexing her arm emblazoned with a “Born to Nag” tattoo, still hangs in the company’s Beaverton headquarters.

Boyle’s father founded Columbia after the family fled Nazi Germany and settled in Portland. Her husband took over the business in 1964. When he died, the business took many calls wondering if Columbia would close and the bank urged her to sell the company.

Always plucky, she entertained an offer for its sale at the time but told a prospective buyer that for the price they were offering, she’d rather run it into the ground herself.

But Columbia flourished under her leadership, and that of her son.

While Tim ran the operations as president, Gert Boyle continued to put in 40-hour work weeks well into her 80s and signed every company check.

Columbia grew and over the years acquired key brands such as Mountain Hardwear, Pacific Trail and Sorel. The company now sells products in more than 100 countries.

She was well known for her no-nonsense attitude and boisterous personality – quick to offer staff or those nearby a “Gertism” and often a few comments not fit for print.

Boyle was the first woman inducted into the National Sporting Goods Hall of Fame and often recognized for her work as a female business leader, including a book on her experience.

She had three children with her husband, Neil, who was her college sweetheart. Tim Boyle is president of the company, her daughter Sally runs Portland company Moonstruck Chocolates and her daughter Kathy is an artist.

She had five grandchildren.

…

The deaths in northern Mozambique of military contractors employed by a Russian firm are raising new questions about Russia’s security presence in Africa.

Five soldiers employed by the Wagner Group, a private military firm with connections to the Kremlin, and 20 soldiers in FADM, the Mozambique Defense Armed Forces, were killed in an ambush in Cabo Delgado Province’s Muidumbe district on Oct. 27, according to Carta de Moçambique, a local publication. Insurgents were said also to have burned two vehicles in the ambush.

VOA reached out to the Mozambique government for comment but did not receive a response. Russia denies its soldiers are in Mozambique, and Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said earlier in October, “As far as Mozambique is concerned, there are no Russian soldiers there,” according to Russian state-owned media. Peskov added that his country is more focused on forging economic and security ties with African nations.

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Russia Seeks Stronger, More Positive Ties to Africa at Sochi Summit

Russia’s modern presence in Africa hasn’t always taken a positive spin, but Moscow hopes to rebrand the relationship with an ambitious new summit

But the killings last week, counterterrorism experts warn, show the growing sophistication of insurgent groups operating in the region, and bring into question the effectiveness of Russian private military contractors assisting African governments.

For more than two years, several Islamic militant groups have carried out attacks in Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado region. The government has relied on Russian mercenaries to help contain the violence and protect vast reserves of natural gas.

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Are DRC, Mozambique Insurgencies a Real IS Threat?

As terror groups in southern and central Africa commit deadly attacks and pledge allegiance to Islamic State, experts try to determine how big a threat they pose to the region and the wider world

“We are seeing them now more in a guerrilla type of war — retreat, attack, retreat, attack — creating the surprise element,” Jasmine Opperman, a researcher and terrorism expert in South Africa, told VOA. “And the Russians have been caught unaware of this level of sophistication and weapons available to the insurgents.”

Details contested

DefenceWeb, a South African security publication, reported that four of the Russian soldiers shot during the ambush were later decapitated. The fifth soldier died of wounds in a hospital, according to the site.

But experts on the region are urging skepticism of information circulating online and via social media, including photos of dismembered bodies.

“If you go into the WhatsApp, and when you look at the photographs, they are all fake, because most of the insurgents, when they do attack, they are dressed with Mozambique army or police special forces equipment,” said Yussuf Adam, an associate professor of Contemporary History at the University of Eduardo Mondlane in Maputo, Mozambique.

Adam added that the weaponry in some of the pictures shared was questionable. Those photographed are holding 12-gauge shotguns, but insurgents in the region more commonly carry AK-47s.

The Wagner Group

According to local media reports, the Russian soldiers killed in late October were employed by the Wagner Group, a private military company owned by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian oligarch with close ties to President Vladimir Putin.

“Prigozhin’s Wagner Group is almost like an official arm of state policy in Russia. I mean, obviously it’s not officially recognized, and yet its services can be a proxy for the Kremlin,” Michael Carpenter, senior director of the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, told VOA’s Russian service.

Carpenter said the arrangement is similar to “privateers” operating hundreds of years ago — state-sanctioned mercenaries or pirates who helped carry out the foreign policies of countries like England, Spain and Portugal.

“When Prigozhin goes in and provides consulting services, either personal protection services to a dictator or election support services or mercenaries who can be helpful in guarding certain strategic assets in a given country, he paves the way for other Russian corporations … to do business in those countries,” Carpenter said.

Opperman said, based on her research, Wagner does nothing without the approval of the Kremlin. “I make no distinction between Russian soldiers and the Wagner Group — the way they cooperate, at this point in time,” she told VOA.

According to local media reports, the Russian soldiers killed in late October were employed by the Wagner Group, a private military company owned by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian oligarch with close ties to President Vladimir Putin.

“Prigozhin’s Wagner Group is almost like an official arm of state policy in Russia. I mean, obviously it’s not officially recognized, and yet its services can be a proxy for the Kremlin,” Michael Carpenter, senior director of the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, told VOA’s Russian service.

Carpenter said the arrangement is similar to “privateers” operating hundreds of years ago — state-sanctioned mercenaries or pirates who helped carry out the foreign policies of countries like England, Spain and Portugal.

“When Prigozhin goes in and provides consulting services, either personal protection services to a dictator or election support services or mercenaries who can be helpful in guarding certain strategic assets in a given country, he paves the way for other Russian corporations … to do business in those countries,” Carpenter said.

Opperman said, based on her research, Wagner does nothing without the approval of the Kremlin. “I make no distinction between Russian soldiers and the Wagner Group — the way they cooperate, at this point in time,” she told VOA.

Military cooperation expansion

Eugene Chausovsky, senior analyst at Stratfor, an intelligence analysis company, told VOA that Russia aims to support regimes under threat internally and to some degree isolated on the world stage. He calls it the “Syria model.”

“It comes in and supports a regime that’s been coming under threat from opposition forces,” he said. “And there’s been a lot of openings for Russia to do so in Africa.”

Moscow has pursued versions of this strategy in the Central African Republic, Mozambique and Sudan.

“Russia is looking to portray itself as a great power globally, and it is recognized that one of the places it has to do that is Africa,” said Judd Devermont, the director of the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank focusing on foreign policy.

“They need permissive markets to sell their energy and security deals. And as time went on they also started to see Africa as a place where they could make points at the U.S. to show that if the U.S. is not engaged, Russia is,” Devermont said. “And so we have seen them sign military deals and create their economic engagement.”

Eugene Chausovsky, senior analyst at Stratfor, an intelligence analysis company, told VOA that Russia aims to support regimes under threat internally and to some degree isolated on the world stage. He calls it the “Syria model.”

“It comes in and supports a regime that’s been coming under threat from opposition forces,” he said. “And there’s been a lot of openings for Russia to do so in Africa.”

Moscow has pursued versions of this strategy in the Central African Republic, Mozambique and Sudan.

“Russia is looking to portray itself as a great power globally, and it is recognized that one of the places it has to do that is Africa,” said Judd Devermont, the director of the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank focusing on foreign policy.

“They need permissive markets to sell their energy and security deals. And as time went on they also started to see Africa as a place where they could make points at the U.S. to show that if the U.S. is not engaged, Russia is,” Devermont said. “And so we have seen them sign military deals and create their economic engagement.”

…

Protesters in Lebanon rallied Sunday to call for President Michel Aoun’s ouster as part of a push for sweeping changes that have already brought the resignation of the country’s prime minister.

The protests in Beirut came hours after supporters of Aoun turned out to show their support for the president.

Aoun gave an address near the presidential palace in southeastern Beirut in which he said his supporters and the anti-government protesters should work together on anti-corruption efforts.

But in their later demonstration, the protesters rejected Aoun as a leader to deliver reforms, saying all of Lebanon’s political establishment needs to go.

The protests began last month in support of a complete overhaul of Lebanon’s sectarian-based politics. Under the current system, the president must be a Maronite Christian, the prime minister a Sunni Muslim and the parliament speaker a Shi’ite Muslim.

The demonstrators have also blamed the political establishment for rampant corruption and poor public services.

…

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said Sunday that “the worst is yet to come” with an oil spill that has affected more than 200 beaches on the country’s coast.

“What came so far and what was collected is a small amount of what was spilled,” Bolsonaro said in an interview with Record television.

He said he did not know if additional oil would impact his country’s coastline, but that “everything indicates that the currents went to the coast of Brazil.”

Oil slicks have been appearing for three months off the coast of northeast Brazil and fouling beaches along a 2,000 kilometer (1,250 mile) area of Brazil’s most celebrated shoreline.

Crews and volunteers have cleaned up tons of oil on the beaches.

Officials say it not yet possible to quantify the environmental and economic damage from the oil slicks.

The government on Friday named a Greek-flagged tanker as the prime suspect behind the oil slicks.

The ship Bouboulina took on oil in Venezuela and was headed for Singapore, it said.

The space agency Inpe said Friday there might still be oil at sea being pushed by currents and it could reach the states of Espiritu Santo and Rio de Janeiro in southeast Brazil.

…

Under Armour Inc. is being investigated by federal authorities over its accounting practices.

The athletic gear company said Sunday that it has been cooperating with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice on their investigations for two years.

The company said it firmly believes its accounting practices and disclosures were appropriate.

Under Armour reports earnings for the third quarter Monday.

The investigation was first reported by The Wall Street Journal, which said the probe involves whether the retailer shifted sales from quarter to quarter to make results appear stronger.

Under Armour founder Kevin Plank stepped down as CEO last month. The company has struggled since its explosive sales growth petered out in 2017. Last year it announced job cuts as part of a restructuring effort.

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Iran will not lift its ban on talks with the United States, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Sunday, describing the two countries as implacable foes on the eve of the 40th anniversary of the seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.

“One way to block America’s political infiltration is to ban any talks with America. It means Iran will not yield to America’s pressure,” Khamenei, who is Iran’s top authority, was quoted by state TV as saying.

“Those who believe that negotiations with the enemy will solve our problems are 100% wrong.”

Relations between the two foes have reached a crisis over the past year after U.S. President Donald Trump abandoned a 2015 pact between Iran and world powers under which Tehran accepted curbs to its nuclear program in return for lifting sanctions.

Washington has reimposed sanctions aimed at halting all Iranian oil exports, saying it seeks to force Iran to negotiate to reach a wider deal. Khamenei has banned Iranian officials from holding such talks unless the United States returns to the nuclear deal and lifts all sanctions.

The anniversary of the seizure of the U.S. Embassy shortly after Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution is marked in Iran with annual demonstrations of crowds chanting “Death to America” across the country.

The embassy capture cemented the hostility between the two countries which has remained a central fact in Middle East geopolitics and an important part of Iran’s national ideology.

Iran, which accused the United States of supporting brutal policies of its ousted Shah, held 52 Americans for 444 days at the embassy, which it called the Den of Spies.

“The U.S. has not changed since decades ago … it continues the same aggressive, vicious behavior and the same international dictatorship,” Khamenei said. “Iran has a firm, iron will. It will not let America return to Iran.”

Washington’s European allies have opposed the Trump administration’s decision to abandon the nuclear pact. Iran responded to U.S. sanctions by gradually scaling back its commitments under the nuclear agreement and has said it could take further steps in November.

Khamenei poured scorn on French President Emmanuel Macron for trying to promote talks between the foes. Macron tried to arrange a failed meeting between Trump and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York in September.

“The French president, who says a meeting will end all the problems between Tehran and America, is either naive or complicit with America,” Khamenei said in remarks reported by state television.

…

Bangladesh said Sunday plans to relocate thousands of Rohingya living in overcrowded refugee camps to a remote island were “uncertain” after authorities failed to gain support from U.N. agencies.

Dhaka had wanted to begin its long-held plan this month to move 100,000 people to the mud-silt island of Bhashan Char, amid growing frustration with the presence of the squalid tent settlements in its southeastern border towns.

Bangladesh has said thousands of Rohingya families have volunteered to relocate, with some 3,500 of the Muslim minority due to be moved between mid-November to February during calm seas.

But the plan was in doubt as the U.N. has not supported the relocation so far, Bangladesh disaster management and relief minister Enamur Rahman told AFP.

“This has become uncertain,” Rahman said of the relocation to the island, which takes around three hours to reach by boat.

“They [U.N. agencies] still haven’t agreed to the relocation plan.”

Aid agencies including the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the World Food Program (WFP), which held meetings with the government, told him the island was “isolated” and “flood-prone.”

The agencies set out a list of conditions that had to be met, including a regular shipping service between the islet in the Bay of Bengal and the mainland, Rahman added.

The organizations provide humanitarian aid to the nearly one million Rohingya in the vast camps, including 740,000 who fled a military crackdown in Myanmar in August 2017.

“We won’t do anything forcefully,” he said, adding that at least two ships were set to ply the waters between the site and the mainland.

A U.N. official told AFP on Sunday that “U.N. agencies cannot support a move for which [they] have no technical information.”

Dhaka is due to hold another round of talks with the agencies on Wednesday, Rahman said.

Global activist group Fortify Rights said last month it interviewed 14 Rohingya at three camps, including some who appeared on lists of refugees allegedly willing to go, and found none had been consulted “and all opposed it.”

Other groups have also expressed misgivings about moving people to the island, which is regularly hit by devastating cyclones.

…

In Beirut, thousands of people turned out Sunday to show their support for Lebanon’s president. 

The demonstration was held near Michel Aoun’s presidential palace in southeastern Beirut. 

The show of support for Aoun is in direct contrast to the protests Lebanese citizens began staging across the tiny Mediterranean country last month, demanding a complete overhaul of Lebanon’s sectarian-based politics. 

The demonstrators have also blamed the political establishment for rampant corruption and poor public services. 

Another anti-government protest, however, is slated for later Sunday in central Beirut. 

…

Israel’s prime minister says the military will continue to strike its enemies, including through covert missions, after a weekend flareup of violence in the Gaza Strip.

Benjamin Netanyahu spoke his weekly Cabinet meeting Sunday, a day after Israel struck a series sites linked to Gaza’s Hamas rulers in response to a late-night barrage of rocket fire. Although no one claimed responsibility for the rockets, Israel holds Hamas responsible for all attacks coming out of the territory.

Netanyahu said Israel is in a “very sensitive” security environment to its north, south and east.

He said: “We will continue to act in all fronts for the security of Israel, both through open means and also through secret means, at sea, in the air and on the ground.”

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A court in Bangladesh’s capital granted bail Sunday to micro-credit pioneer and Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus over the firing of three employees by Grameen Communications, where he is chairman.
 
Acting Chairman of the 3rd Labor Court in Dhaka, Zakia Parveen, granted the bail when Yunus appeared before the court. The country’s High Court had set a Nov. 7 deadline last month for him to appear in person. It had asked authorities not to arrest or harass Yunus before the deadline.
 
Court official Wasiur Rahman said the court granted bail of 10,000 takas ($120) in bonds in each of the three cases.
 
Defense lawyer Mustafizur Rahman Khan said Yunus would not be required to appear in person before the court until any indictments are handed down.
 
The labor court had earlier issued an arrest warrant for Yunus after he failed to appear because he was abroad.
 
The three employees filed the cases in July, saying they were terminated illegally after seeking to form a trade union.
 
Yunus founded Grameen Bank, which provides small loans to impoverished people, and shared the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize with the organization.
 
Yunus, who now travels extensively across the world to promote social business, has faced several investigations by the government of Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who has frosty relations with him. He was removed from the bank after surpassing retirement age.
 
A government-appointed investigation had earlier said that Grameen Bank violated its charter as a micro-lender by creating affiliates that did not benefit the bank’s shareholders, and recommended the government merge those businesses with the bank. Yunus maintains that those businesses are independent and should remain so.
 
Hasina was reportedly angered by Yunus’ 2007 attempt to form his own political party backed by the influential army when the country was under a state of emergency and Hasina was behind bars. Hasina came to power in a 2008 election and ordered an investigation of Yunus, who has close relations with the West.
 
Currently, Grameen Bank has about 9 million members, 97% of whom are women. With 2,568 branches, the bank provides services in 81,677 villages, covering more than 93% of the total villages in Bangladesh.

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Turkey’s defense ministry said at least 13 people were killed Saturday in a car bombing near a market in the northern Syrian border town of Tal Abyad. 
 
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the ministry blamed the attack on the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), the Kurdish component of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). 
 
The ministry called on world leaders to take a stand against the YPG, describing it as a “cruel terror organization.” 
 
Turkey has designated the YPG a terrorist group, but the U.S. considers it a key ally in the fight against the Islamic State group. 
 
Ankara seized control of Tal Abyad last month after the Turkish military and its allied Syrian militia launched an incursion into northeastern Syria against the SDF, following President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw U.S. troops from the region. 
 
A 120-kilometer safe zone was established in Syria between the towns of Tal Abyad and Ras al-Ayn as part of an Oct. 17 cease-fire agreement between Turkey and the U.S. that also required the YPG’s withdrawal from the area. 

‘Legitimate defense operations’
 
The Syriac Military Council, which is part of the SDF, said Saturday without claiming responsibility that “the SDF continues its legitimate defense operations against the ongoing attacks of the Turkish army and its jihadi factions in the eastern and southern areas of Ras al-Ayn, especially in the Khabour area and the villages around Tal Tamr.”   
 
On Friday, Turkish and Russian troops began patrolling northern Syria to ensure the withdrawal of Kurdish forces.   
 
The U.N. has estimated that prior to the cease-fire, the incursion killed hundreds of people and displaced nearly 180,000 others. 
Local doctors in northeast Syria told VOA that civilian deaths and injuries have continued since the cease-fire took effect. 
 
“Although the cease-fire agreement has been signed between the U.S. and Turkey, as well as Russia and Turkey, the fighting has not stopped for a second,” said Hesen MI Memmed, the head of Tal Tamr Hospital. “On the contrary, attacks have become more fierce and violent.” 
 
He expressed his concern that hospitals in the region were running out of medical supplies as the number of casualties continued to increase. 

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Egypt’s Islamic State affiliate, Sinai Province, has sworn allegiance to the new leader named by the group following the death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the affiliate said on Telegram on Saturday.

Sinai Province, which has waged an insurgency against the Egyptian state, posted pictures of around two dozen fighters standing among trees, with a caption saying they were pledging allegiance to Abu Ibrahim al-Hashemi al-Quraishi.

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