U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday accused Cuba and Venezuela of attempting to hijack democratic protests in Latin America, vowing that Washington would support countries trying to prevent unrest in the region from turning into riots.
Amid recent demonstrations in a number of countries in the region, Pompeo stepped up allegations that Cuba and Venezuela had helped stir up unrest but offered few specifics to back his comments.
Pompeo cited recent political protests in Bolivia, Chile, Colombia and Ecuador and said that Colombia had closed its border to Venezuela out of concern that protesters from the neighboring country would enter.
“We in the Trump administration will continue to support countries trying to prevent Cuba and Venezuela from hijacking those protests and we’ll work with legitimate (governments) to prevent protests from morphing into riots and violence that don’t reflect the democratic will of the people,” Pompeo told an audience at the University of Louisville, in Kentucky.
U.S. relations with communist-ruled Havana have deteriorated since President Donald Trump took office in January 2017. His administration has steadily rolled back parts of the historic opening under Trump’s Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama.
The tension has focused especially on Havana’s support for Venezuela’s socialist President Nicolas Maduro, who has overseen an economic collapse and stands accused by the United States of corruption and human rights violations.
The United States and more than 50 other countries have recognized Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido as the legitimate president. Guaido invoked the constitution to assume a rival presidency in January, arguing Maduro’s 2018 re-election was a sham.
But Maduro retains the support of the military, runs the government’s day-to-day operations and is backed by Russia, China and Cuba.
In his speech on Monday, Pompeo said Maduro was “hanging on” and would continue to work to suppress the Venezuelan people, but that he was confident the Venezuelan president’s leadership would end.
“The end will come for Maduro as well. We just don’t know what day,” Pompeo said.
No other ballet dancer has crossed over into mainstream popular culture quite like Misty Copeland.
That was Copeland at the recent American Music Awards, dancing a passionate duet with partner Craig Hall as Taylor Swift sat at the piano singing her hit “Lover.”
She’s also working on a new silent film with her production company, focusing on homelessness in California. And a Hollywood biopic is in the early stages.
Now Copeland, who leaped to fame in 2015 as the first black female principal dancer at American Ballet Theatre, is the latest celebrity to host an online MasterClass, alongside Anna Wintour, Aaron Sorkin, Annie Leibovitz, Ron Howard, Natalie Portman and others.
Copeland sat down with The Associated Press recently to talk about the new series and to look back at her career, including the time spent with one of her favorite mentors: the late rock star Prince, whom she credits with teaching her to embrace her uniqueness rather than worry about blending in. The interview has been condensed for length.
AP: Your class is primarily about ballet technique. But what else do you hope to teach?
Copeland: A lot of people don’t typically look at ballet dancers as athletes, and we are. And so those components, you know, your mental health, your confidence, understanding and being able to use your life experiences to be an artist. All of those … elements are just as important as the technique that we learn since we were children. You know, dancers aren’t just up there twirling around. It looks so effortless, because we work at it for so long to make it look that way. But on top of it, you have to be an incredible actress. You have to have an understanding of adapting in the moment … you have to be very self-aware, present, vulnerable, all these things. And so it was just as important for me to speak about my life, my background, the obstacles that I’ve had.
FILE – Ballet dancer Misty Copeland, a cast member in “The Nutcracker and the Four Realms,” poses at the premiere of the film at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, Oct. 29, 2018.
AP: Not many people can dance ballet. What’s universal about it?
Copeland: At the end of the day, we’re all human beings. It’s always been really important for me to be extremely open … I’ve learned more about myself and grown, and I think other people can benefit. It’s so important, I think, especially for young kids to have an understanding that they’re not alone in that celebrities and principal dancers receive the same type of judgment or criticism.
AP: Some people think that once you danced the lead in “Swan Lake” in 2015 and then became a principal, everything was happily ever after.
Copeland: (laughs) Once I became a principal dancer, a lot of people looked at it like, ‘Oh, OK, that’s done. Like we’ve moved, we’ve grown, there’s no more racism in ballet or in the world.’ We’re SO far from that … and it’s been a tough journey. When the spotlight’s on you and there’s just so much pressure for you to perform at the top every single time you’re out there. So I went through a very difficult time experiencing the criticism that I got (around) “Swan Lake.”
AP: You tell a story about being dissed online at one point for not being able to perform the 32 fouette turns in a performance of “Swan Lake,” and doing a different step instead.
Copeland: Yes, someone filmed it in the theater and then posted it on YouTube. I’ve experienced a lot of ridiculous hate online. But this was another level … I’ve looked back at that clip of that show, and I remember just being devastated. But looking back, I don’t see anything wrong with it, you know? That (32 turns) was not even the original choreography. I love to perform, because it’s telling a story through movements. So whatever it is you’re doing, you want the audience to feel it, not just come to the theater … and wait for 32 fouettes that last, like, 30 seconds.
AP: In the class, you have a chapter on Prince, one of your most valued mentors.
Copeland: When Prince first reached out to me, I just didn’t really understand. I was completely being trusted to go onstage with him, not even knowing what I was going to do. And it empowered me in a way that was shocking. … He used to say to me, ‘Throw on these golden crazy boots.’ And I’m like, ‘I’m a ballerina!’ He’s like, ‘No, you’re a rock star! You’re never going to be this ideal image of what a ballerina is. And that’s amazing. Use your power, your uniqueness, and … if it’s coming from an honest place, people are going to love it.’ I feel like I grew in leaps and bounds from that time we spent together.
AP: When you started dancing principal roles, there were suddenly very diverse crowds coming to ABT performances. Do you think that will last beyond the “Misty effect”?
Copeland: It’s for a bigger purpose. It’s not like, oh, just come see Misty and then when she retires that goes away. For me, it’s (about) bringing in people that have not felt welcomed or accepted in these spaces. And I know once they’re in the door, they’ll fall in love with it. It’s introducing the next generation, showing them that ballet is still alive.
AP: You’re only 37, but ballet is for the young. What do you see yourself doing 10 years from now?
Copeland: Oh my God. There’s no way I could tell you, even (what I’ll be doing) a year from now. Whenever I look back, I’m like, what? How did I end up doing all these amazing things? How is this happening to this little peanut who was sleeping on the floor of a motel at 13? Now I’m traveling the world and dancing on the most unbelievable iconic stages, and just living this unbelievable dream.
The woman who says she was a trafficking victim made to have sex with Prince Andrew when she was 17 is asking the British public to support her quest for justice.
Virginia Roberts Giuffre tells BBC Panorama in an interview to be broadcast Monday evening that people “should not accept this as being OK.”
Giuffre’s first UK television interview on the topic describes how she says she was trafficked by notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and made to have sex with Andrew three times, including once in London.
“This is not some sordid sex story. This is a story of being trafficked, this is a story of abuse and this is a story of your guys’ royalty,” Giuffre tells the program.
Andrew, 59, has categorically denied having sex with Giuffre and apologized for his association with Epstein, who died in prison in August in what New York City officials said was a suicide.
He has stepped down from royal duties “for the foreseeable future” because of his friendship with Epstein and the allegations of sexual wrongdoing with an underage girl.
He tried to contain the damage by giving a televised interview on the topic, but it backfired in part because he did not express concern for Epstein’s victims.
In the TV interview, Giuffre says she danced with Andrew at a London nightclub before having sex with him.
“It was horrible and this guy was sweating all over me,” she said. “His sweat was like it was raining basically everywhere, I was just like grossed out from it, but I knew I had to keep him happy because that’s what Jeffrey and Ghislaine (Maxwell) would have expected from me.”
She said that Maxwell told her she would have to do for Andrew what she had done for Epstein, meaning she would have to have sex with the prince.
“That just made me sick,” Giuffre said.
In his recent interview, Andrew said he had never met Giuffre. He said he had a medical condition that prevented him from sweating.
Epstein was a wealthy financier with many powerful friends. He was in prison on sex trafficking charges when he died.
The scandal is one of the worst to grip the royal household in recent decades.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday signed legislation requiring all smartphones, computers and smart TV sets sold in the country to come pre-installed with Russian software.
The law, which will come into force on July 1 next year, has been met with resistance by some electronics retailers, who say the legislation was adopted without consulting them.
The law has been presented as a way to help Russian IT firms compete with foreign companies and spare consumers from having to download software upon purchasing a new device.
The country’s mobile phone market is dominated by foreign companies including Apple, Samsung and Huawei. The legislation signed by Putin said the government would come up with a list of Russian applications that would need to be installed on the different devices.
Russia has introduced tougher internet laws in recent years, requiring search engines to delete some search results, messaging services to share encryption keys with security services and social networks to store user data on servers in the country.
U.S. President Donald Trump is striking an optimistic tone on reaching a trade deal with China, despite Beijing’s opposition to a law Trump recently signed that expresses support for pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong.
“The Chinese want to make a deal. We’ll see what happens,” the president told reporters Monday, as he departed the White House for the NATO summit in London.
The U.S. leader signed the “Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act” last week, prompting stern protests from China.
The trade deal between the U.S. and China has stalled as a result, according to the news website Axios.
The news site quotes a source close to Trump’s negotiating team as saying the trade talks were “now stalled” because of the legislation, and time was needed to allow Chinese President Xi Jinping’s “domestic politics to calm.”
China says it is also taking other steps to retaliate against what it sees as U.S. support for Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement.
FILE – Protesters hold U.S. flags during a rally at Edinburgh Place, in Hong Kong, Nov. 28, 2019.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry said Monday it is slapping sanctions on U.S.-based non-governmental organizations that have acted “badly” during the recent protests in Hong Kong. NGOs affected by the sanctions include Human Rights Watch, the National Endowment for Democracy, and Freedom House.
China also announced Monday that it “has decided to suspend reviewing the applications for U.S. warships to go to Hong Kong for (rest and) recuperation as of today.”
A foreign spokeswoman said, “China urges the United States to correct its mistakes, stop any deeds and acts of interference in Hong Kong affairs and China’s internal affairs.”
Senior U.S. officials have repeatedly called on the Chinese government to honor its promises to the Hong Kong people who say they want the freedoms and liberties that they have been promised in the Sino-British Joint Declaration, a U.N.-registered treaty.
“The United States stands firmly in support of asking the Chinese leadership to honor that commitment, asking everyone involved in the political process there to do so without violence, and to find a resolution to this that honors the one country two systems policy that the Chinese leadership signed up for,” U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told an audience Monday at the University of Louisville in Kentucky.
FILE – A pro-democracy protester walks past a poster featuring Chinese President Xi Jinping, left, and U.S. President Donald Trump at the campus of the University of Hong Kong, in Hong Kong, Nov. 6, 2019.
In another development, Reuters reports that hundreds of Hong Kong office workers came together during their lunch break Monday, the first in a week of lunchtime protests to show their support for pro-democracy politicians who were handed a resounding victory in district polls last week.
Protests erupted in Hong Kong in June over the local government’s plans to allow some criminal suspects to be extradited to the Chinese mainland.
Hong Kong officials withdrew the bill in September, but the street protests have continued, with the demonstrators fearing Beijing is preparing to water down Hong Kong’s democracy and autonomy nearly 30 years before the former British colony’s “special status” expires.
A statue of U.S. civil rights leader Rosa Parks has been unveiled in Montgomery, capital of the southern state of Alabama.
The unveiling Sunday marks the 64th anniversary of the day Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a public bus to a white man.
“Today, on the second official Rosa Parks Day, we honor a seamstress and a servant, one whose courage ran counter to her physical stature,” said Mayor Steven Reed, the city’s first African American mayor. “She was a consummate contributor to equality and did so with a quiet humility that is an example for all of us.”
On December 1, 1955, Parks was on her way home when she was asked to vacate her seat for a white man. She refused.
Her subsequent arrest led to the 381-day boycott of the Montgomery bus system, organized by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., then pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.
The statue is located at Montgomery Plaza, about 9 meters from the spot where Parks is believed to have boarded the bus.
Parks’ small act of defiance made her a major symbol of the civil rights movement.
A U.S. State Department official accused China of attempting to erase the Muslim identity of Uighurs by seeking to demolish or close places of worship in Xinjiang in northwest China.
The official, who spoke to VOA on the condition of anonymity, said the Chinese Communist Party in its campaign against the Uighur minority has removed religious symbols from places of worship, imposing strict surveillance on them.
“As part of its ongoing attempts to eradicate the Islamic faith and “re-educate” Muslims, Beijing has closed or destroyed mosques, shrines, burial grounds, and other Islamic structures, perhaps more,” the official told VOA.
“Mosques permitted to remain open have been stripped of certain features like minarets and domes and are heavily monitored by surveillance cameras and security personnel,” the official said, adding that Beijing’s acts have denied Muslims the ability to practice their faith in public.
Artush Eshtachi Grand Mosque is seen in Artush, in China’s northwest Xinjiang province. (Photo by Marie Bourquin; photo courtesy of Bahram Sintash)
An estimated 13 million ethnic Uighurs and other Turkic Muslim minorities are believed to live in the Xinjiang region.
The Chinese government since early 2017 has been accused of a harsh crackdown in the region through detention and forceful “re-education” of the people who are accused of being disloyal to the government’s ideology.
Chinese officials, however, have called the alleged detention program a “vocational” training and said their efforts in Xinjiang are aimed at curbing the threat of Islamic extremism.
The U.S. government and rights organizations say at least one million Uighurs are being held in the camps where they are exposed to torture and forced labor. Outside the camps, the minority population is put under stringent control where simple religious practices are prohibited.
According to an investigation by Uyghur (Uighur) Human Rights Project (UHRP), a D.C.-based organization funded by the National Endowment for Democracy, between 10,000-15,000 of mosques and other sites, amounting to about 40%, were demolished in each city, county and township all over Xinjiang since late 2016.
Bahram Sintash, who led the investigation, told VOA that in addition to local testimonies, satellite imagery of the sites confirm a “systematic destruction” of at least 140 Uighur religious places.
Satellite imagery with a comparative analysis of Artush Eshtachi Mosque. (Photo courtesy of Bahram Sintash)
“I have been able to compile a list of over 140 mosques, shrines and cemeteries which have been confirmed or are suspected to have been fully demolished or desecrated since 2016,” Sintash told VOA in an interview.
The UHRP report found that among the demolished sites was Keriya Mosque in Hotan prefecture, a major historic building dating back to the 13th century and enlisted as a protected cultural site.
“Although China demolished many mosques in Xinjiang, it left some mosques untouched in big cities including the Korla Jama Mosque. In my findings, the mosque is one of the “selected” tourist destinations for Korla city. Therefore, the government kept the Korla Jama Mosque not for the sake of local Uighur communities and their prayer needs, but as pre-selected tour location to pretend its “protection” of Islam in that city and to lie to the international community and reporters,” said Sintash.
VOA could not independently verify UHRP’s report.
United Nations and human rights watchdogs in the past have continuously blamed Chinese officials for preventing independent bodies to have access to the region to investigate the alleged abuses. They say local population in the region are prevented from contacting the outside world, including their relatives who live in the diaspora.
The United Kingdom earlier this week urged China to give U.N. observers “immediate and unfettered access” to the region following a recent leak of classified Chinese government documents that rights groups say offer clear evidence of Beijing using detention camps as brainwashing centers.
Satellite imagery with a comparative analysis of Sultanim Cemetery in Hotan city, in China’s northwest Xinjiang province. (Photo courtesy of Bahram Sintas)
Abduwaris Ablimit, a New York-based Uighur from Artush city in southern Xinjiang, said Uighurs living in the diaspora struggle to know the whereabouts of their loved ones stranded in Xinjiang due to communication restrictions. He said many of them turn to aerial imagery from airplanes to track changes made to their neighborhoods.
“When I was searching for my neighborhood mosque and other mosques around my hometown this year through google imagery, I was startled to find out that they were gone except for a few mosques.” Ablimit told VOA.
He said he had lost contact with his parents and brother in 2017, and one year later he found out that they were taken to “the concentration camps”.
Unknown gunmen opened fire on a church in eastern Burkina Faso Sunday, killing at least 14 people.
Officials say the attack took place in the town of Hantoukoura, near the border with Niger.
Soldiers are hunting for the attackers who fled on motor scooters after gunning down worshipers during a Sunday mass.
No one has claimed responsibility, but Islamic extremists are suspected.
Christians and others had lived peacefully in the Muslim majority country until a series of attacks blamed on jihadists spilled over from neighboring Mali last year, leaving hundreds dead.
An Irish citizen, who converted to Islam, traveled to Syria to join Islamic State and ended up marrying a British militant, has been arrested on arrival at Dublin airport Sunday.
Lisa Smith, 38, who served in the Irish Defense Forces before going to Syria, had been deported from Turkey with her 2-year-old daughter.
“On her arrival in Dublin, Lisa Smith was met by An Garda Síochána,” Irish Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan said, using the Irish name for the national police force. “This is a sensitive case and I want to reassure people that all relevant state agencies are closely involved.”
Irish Deputy Prime Minister Simon Coveney told Irish national broadcaster RTE that officials had been trying to repatriate Smith since learning of her presence in a refugee camp in March. He said the primary concern was for the toddler who is an Irish citizen because of her mother’s nationality. The child is now with Smith’s relatives in Dundalk.
Authorities plan to question Smith extensively before deciding on what action to take. She has denied fighting for IS or training female soldiers for the militancy.
Many European countries and the United States have resisted bringing back their citizens who joined Islamic State.
Australia’s most populous state on Sunday rolled out traffic cameras that can detect a driver using a mobile phone.
Andrew Constance, New South Wales’ Minister for Roads said the “world-first” technology would target illegal cell phone use through “fixed and mobile trailer-mounted cameras.”
Officials say 45 cameras will be installed across the state over the next three years.
Transport for NSW, which manages the state’s transport services, said the cameras will operate round the clock and in all weather conditions.
For the first three months, drivers caught illegally using a cell phone will get a warning, after that offenders will receive steep fines and penalty points on their driver’s license.
Some 329 people have died this year on New South Wales’ roads, Reuters news agency reports. NSW officials hope to cut the number of road fatalities by 30% by 2021, the report said.
