Indian and Chinese leaders at an informal summit Saturday sidestepped their differences and said they will tackle a huge trade deficit that has been troubling India, and enhance measures to strengthen border security.
In the coastal heritage town of Mamallapuram in southern India, where the two leaders met, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that “we have decided to manage our differences prudently,” and not let them become “disputes.” He said both sides will remain sensitive to each other’s concerns so that the relationship “will be a source of peace and stability in the world.”
Without elaborating, Chinese President Xi Jinping said “we have engaged in candid discussions as friends,” as they sat down for talks.
Their sharp differences over the disputed region of Kashmir that came to the fore in the weeks ahead of the summit did not figure into the one-on-one talks held for several hours between Xi and Modi, according to Indian officials.
China has strongly backed Pakistan in raising strong objections to India’s move to scrap autonomy in the disputed Himalayan region, angering New Delhi, which says it is its internal affair.
Saying that there had been “visible progress” since Modi and Xi held their first informal summit in China last year, Indian Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale told reporters that the summit had underlined that “there is no fundamental disruption and there is a forward-looking trajectory,” in their ties.
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi (3rd R) and China’s President Xi Jinping (3rd L) lead talks in Mamallapuram, on the outskirts of Chennai, India, Oct. 12, 2019.
The informal summits are aimed at getting past decades of mistrust that have dogged their ties since they fought a war in 1962. Parts of their borders are still disputed and both sides claim parts of each other’s territories.
The immediate focus appears to be on addressing a $55 billion trade deficit in Beijing’s favor that is a huge irritant for India, especially as it is grappling with an economic slowdown.
The two countries will establish a high-level economic and trade dialogue led by senior leaders to improve business ties and better balance their trade.
Calling the trade deficit economically unsustainable for India, Gokhale said “there is a very significant market in China and we need to find ways in which we can enhance exports and China can increase imports.”
Gokhale said Xi had welcomed Indian investment in pharmaceuticals and textiles – areas in which New Delhi has been seeking market access.
“China is ready to take sincere action in this regard and discuss in a very concrete way how to reduce the trade deficit,” he said.
Indian officials also said that both leaders also resolved to work together in facing the challenges of radicalization and terrorism, which continues to pose a common threat.
The Chinese leader has invited Modi for a third informal summit in China.
From India, Xi travels to Nepal, the tiny Himalayan country wedged between the two Asian giants. The first visit by a Chinese head of state to Nepal since 1996 comes as the two develop closer ties, raising some concern in India, which worries about Beijing’s growing influence in its immediate neighborhood.
Kathmandu hopes to sign agreements to begin infrastructure projects under Xi’s signature Belt and Road Initiative, which India has stayed away from but Nepal has joined.
Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge made athletics history Saturday when he became the first person to run a marathon in less than two hours although his remarkable effort will not be recognized by the sport’s governing body.
The Olympic marathon champion and world record holder completed a course around Vienna’s Prater Park in one hour 59:40 minutes on a cool, misty and windless autumnal morning.
Guided by rotating seven-man teams of pacesetters, many of themselves renowned athletes, and an electric pacecar that shone green lasers onto the track, Kipchoge averaged around 2.50 minutes per kilometer.
He reached the halfway mark in 59:35, 11 seconds inside the target, and ran remarkably consistently with his one-kilometer times fluctuating between 2.48 and 2.52 seconds.
For the last kilometer, the pacemakers and car peeled away and Kipchoge pointed to the crowd and smiled as he completed the run.
Kipchoge, who before the race compared the achievement to landing on the moon, said it was the biggest athletics milestone since Roger Bannister broke the four-minute mile barrier in 1954.
“I am feeling good, after Roger Bannister it took another 65 years to make history,” he said. “Now I’ve gone under two hours to inspire other people and show the world that nobody is limited.”
“I can say I’m tired. It was a hard run. Remember, the pacemakers are among the best athletes in the world, I appreciate them for doing the job.”
“It means a lot for Kenya,” he added.
The IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federations) has said it would not recognize the run as an official record because it was not in open competition and it used in and out pacemakers although its president, Sebastian Coe, had welcomed the record attempt.
The run, organized and funded by the British chemical company INEOS and dubbed the INEOS 1.59 challenge, was Kipchoge’s second attempt to break the barrier, having missed by 26 seconds in Monza two years ago.
A small boat carrying African migrants off the coast of southern Mexico sank Friday, leaving one dead and two missing, authorities said.
The boat was traveling off the southern border state of Chiapas when it listed to one side, pitching its occupants into the water, the state prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
Authorities mounted a search operation and “managed to rescue eight migrants alive,” it said.
A 39-year-old man was found dead, his body washed up on the shore. Two other migrants are missing.
All were from Cameroon, a country that has seen a growing exodus of refugees amid an increasingly violent conflict between its French- and English-speaking communities.
Chiapas is a main crossroads for migrants crossing Mexico toward the United States. They are mostly Central Americans, but in recent years there has been an increasing number of Africans, who often fly to South America and then make long treks overland and by boat.
African migrants in Chiapas regularly stage protests demanding the Mexican authorities allow them to continue their journey toward the United States.
Undocumented migrants regularly use boats to evade the authorities in southern Mexico, where the government has deployed 6,000 National Guardsmen to tighten the border, part of its efforts to crack down on irregular migration under a deal to avoid U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to impose steep tariffs on Mexican goods.
Under the deal, the Mexican government has deployed another 15,000 National Guardsmen along its northern border and accepted the return of more than 50,000 migrants seeking asylum in the U.S., who must now wait in Mexico while their claims are processed.
Robert Forster, the handsome and omnipresent character actor who got a career resurgence and Oscar-nomination for playing bail bondsman Max Cherry in “Jackie Brown,” has died. He was 78.
Forster’s publicist Kathie Berlin said he died Friday at home in Los Angeles of brain cancer following a brief illness. He was surrounded by family, including his four children and partner Denise Grayson.
Condolences poured in Friday night on social media. Bryan Cranston wrote on Twitter that Forster was a “lovely man and a consummate actor.” The two met on the 1980 film “Alligator” and then worked together again on “Breaking Bad” and the spinoff film “El Camino,” which launched on Netflix Friday.
“I never forgot how kind and generous he was to a young kid just starting out in Hollywood,” Cranston wrote.
His “Jackie Brown” co-star Samuel L. Jackson tweeted that he was, “truly a class act/Actor!!”
Actor Robert Forster arrives for the international premiere of “What They Had” at the Toronto International Film Festival in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Sept. 12, 2018.
Stumbling into acting
A native of Rochester, New York, Forster quite literally stumbled into acting when in college, intending to be a lawyer, he followed a fellow female student he was trying to talk to into an auditorium where they were holding auditions for “Bye Bye Birdie.” He would get cast in the play, the fellow student would become his wife (they had three daughters), and it started him on a new trajectory as an actor.
A fortuitous role in the 1965 Broadway production “Mrs. Dally Has a Lover” put him on Darryl Zanuck’s radar, and Zanuck signed him to a studio contract. He would soon make his film debut in the 1967 John Huston film “Reflections in a Golden Eye,” with Marlon Brando and Elizabeth Taylor.
Forster would go on to star in Haskell Wexler’s documentary-style Chicago classic “Medium Cool” and the detective television series “Banyon,” and worked consistently throughout the 1970s and 80s in mostly forgettable B-pictures.
“I had four kids, I took any job I could get,” he said in the same interview last year. “Every time it reached a lower level I thought I could tolerate, it dropped some more, and then some more. Near the end I had no agent, no manager, no lawyer, no nothing. I was taking whatever fell thru the cracks.”
Hollywood story
It was Quentin Tarantino’s 1997 film “Jackie Brown” that put him back on the map. Tarantino said he created the role of Max Cherry with Forster in mind. The performance opposite Pam Grier became one of the more heartwarming Hollywood comeback stories, earning him his first and only Academy Award nomination. He’d ultimately lose the golden statuette to Robin Williams, who won that year for “Good Will Hunting.”
Since then, he’s worked consistently, appearing in films like David Lynch’s “Mulholland Drive,” “Me, Myself and Irene,” “The Descendants,” and “Olympus Has Fallen,” and in television shows like “Breaking Bad” and the “Twin Peaks” revival.
FILE – Brian Hook, U.S. Special Representative for Iran, attends a news conference in London, June 28, 2019. On Friday he said applying pressure on Iran works, citing the 4,000 women allowed to attend a men’s football game.
“This is another example where pressure works … with this regime,” U.S. Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook said in response to a VOA Persian question at a State Department briefing Friday.
Open stadium to women
FIFA had demanded that Iranian women be allowed to buy tickets for Thursday’s match in response to last month’s death of a female Iranian fan who self-immolated after learning that she faced months in prison for being caught disguising herself as a man to enter Azadi Stadium for a men’s club match in March. The death of Sahar Khodayari, 29, shocked many Iranians and boosted calls inside and outside the country for the lifting of the stadium ban in memory of Khodayari, whom sympathizers nicknamed “Blue Girl” for her passion for wearing the color of her Tehran team, Esteghlal.
“FIFA stood up for her and put pressure on the regime,” Hook said, referring to Khodayari. “FIFA drove up the cost of them continuing to (ban) women from attending soccer (football) games.”
Iran’s ruling Islamist clerics had imposed the ban in the early 1980s to shield women from what they viewed as the unsavory sight of raucous and semi-clad male fans at stadiums hosting men’s football.
Iranian women cheer as they hold a huge Iranian flag during a soccer match between their national team and Cambodia in the 2022 World Cup qualifier at the Azadi (Freedom) Stadium in Tehran, Iran, Oct. 10, 2019.
International rights activists have been campaigning for years for Iran to fully remove the ban by allowing female football fans to buy as many tickets as they want for domestic and international matches and letting them sit together with male fans inside stadiums.
Hook noted that some women who had come to Azadi Stadium to try to watch the Iran-Cambodia match were stuck outside after authorities refused to make more tickets available.
“The women who couldn’t get tickets were outside the stadium, and they were harassed and beaten by the Iranian regime,” he said.
Hook also criticized Iranian authorities for putting the 4,000 women who bought the limited tickets available to female fans in a “caged off” upper corner of the stadium, separate from the male fans.
“The infrastructure of Azadi Stadium is ready for the presence of women,” Iranian government spokesman Ali Rabiei said in remarks reported by state news agency IRNA on Thursday.
“But the cultural and mental infrastructure must be ready,” he added, suggesting that Iran may not be ready to make all future men’s international and domestic football matches accessible to female fans.
Ideology and pragmatism
“The Iranian regime is very ideological, but they also have a pragmatic side, which they will occasionally put on display when they think they are at risk,” Hook said. “We saw that with FIFA, and we believe that our approach is also going to help us accomplish our objectives.”
The Trump administration has been pursuing what it calls a campaign of “maximum pressure” on Iran to end its nuclear and other perceived malign behaviors.
VOA’s Dzeilana Pecanin and Ivana Kostantinovic contributed to this report.
Almost immediately after Polish author Olga Tokarczuk and Austria’s Peter Handke were awarded the Nobel Literature Prize, reactions started to pour in, lamenting Handke’s positions about war crimes in the Balkans.
Handke won the 2019 prize for “an influential work that with linguistic ingenuity has explored the periphery and the specificity of human experience” while Tokarczuk won the 2018 prize “for a narrative imagination that with encyclopedic passion represents the crossing of boundaries as a form of life.”
Praise from academy
In its motivation for Handke, the Swedish Academy says that with his debut novel “Die Hornissen” published in 1966 and the play “Publikumsbeschimpfung” (“Offending the Audience,” 1969), Handke set his mark on the literary scene.
“More than 50 years later, having produced a great number of works in different genres, 2019 Literature Laureate Peter Handke has established himself as one of the most influential writers in Europe after the Second World War,” the Academy said.
The body praised his drama, “Walk About the Villages,” and the novel, “Repetition,” saying that his writing “shows and unending quest for existential meaning.”
The Academy also singled out “A Sorrow Beyond Dreams,” in which he wrote about his mother’s suicide, calling it “short and harsh, but deeply affectionate book.”
Handke told reporters outside his home near Paris that he never thought they would choose him.
“It was very courageous by the Swedish Academy, this kind of decision,” he added. “These are good people.” The Swedish Academy is the body that chooses the winners for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
FILE – A girl inspects coffins prepared for burial in Potocari near Srebrenica, Bosnia. The remains of 33 victims of Srebrenica massacre will be buried July 11, 2019, 24 years after Serb troops executed some 8,000 Muslim men and boys.
Defense of Serbian nationalists
The 76-year-old author has been criticized for his defense of Serbian nationalists during the 1990s wars in the Balkans. He has denied that genocide took place in the Bosnian village of Srebrenica, where about 8,000 Muslims were massacred by Serb soldiers in 1995, despite a U.N. ruling to the contrary. He attended and spoke at the 2006 funeral of former Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic, who at the time was facing war crimes charges, calling him “a rather tragic man.”
Handke decried the 1999 NATO bombing against Serbian forces to stop ethnic cleansing in the Balkans and suggested Bosnian people massacred themselves.
Vlora Çitaku, Kosovo’s ambassador to the United States, commented on Twitter and later told VOA’s Albanian Service the decision to award the Nobel for literature to a genocide denier and Milosevic apologist “is a slap in the face of all the victims of the wars in Kosovo and Bosnia.”
“Have we become so numb to racism, so emotionally desensitized to violence, so comfortable with appeasement that we can overlook one’s subscription and service to the twisted agenda of a genocide?” Çitaku told VOA Thursday.
FILE – Slobodan Milosevic, center, enters the courtroom to appear before the court of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, the Netherlands, Dec. 11, 2001.
She urged the Swedish Academy to revoke this decision. So did the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Kosovo.
“We never thought we would witness so soon the amnesia and moral amnesty of those who passionately supported a killer of peoples, like your laureate Peter Handke,” the body said in a letter to the Swedish Academy.
Salman Rushdie, author of the “Satanic Verses” and most recently “Quichotte,” once criticized Handke for “a series of impassioned apologies for the genocidal regime of Slobodan Milosevic.”
On Thursday, he tweeted several responses about the award, including replying to a post by Çitaku, saying he wrote “about Handke’s idiocies 20 years ago.”
I wrote about Handke’s idiocies 20 years ago. I agree with you. https://t.co/tfw0hbszjS
— Salman Rushdie (@SalmanRushdie) October 10, 2019
Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama also tweeted, calling the choice to award the Nobel to Handke “disgraceful.”
Never thought would feel to vomit because of a @NobelPrize but shamelessnes is becoming the normal part of the world we liveAfter disgraceful choice made from a moral authority like the Nobel Academy shame is sealed as a new valueNO we can’t become so numb to racism&genocide!
— Edi Rama (@ediramaal) October 10, 2019
Zlatko Dizdarevic, a prominent Bosnian journalist and writer, told VOA’s Bosnian Service he was not surprised by the award.
“Nobel prize (for literature) for a long time now has not been, by itself, the proof of the high quality or greatness of someone’s work,” he said.
‘One jerk’
Another well-known Bosnian writer, Ferida Durakovic, commented on Facebook: “Nobel’s literature prize won (by) one magnificent Olga Tokarczuk and one jerk from Austria, a fan of the works of (former Serbian dictator) Slobodan Milosevic. Those who remember Balkan wars 1992-1995, remember Handke’s dishonorable liking of Milosevic’s regime in Serbia.”
Handke’s mother was Slovenian and he was raised near Austria’s border with what was then Yugoslavia, of which Slovenia used to be a part of. He has said the interest in the Balkans is rooted in his family’s history.
Florian Bieber, a Balkans analyst at Austria’s University of Graz, told VOA’s Serbian Service the problem is not even whether a good writer can be penalized for his views outside of literature, because, in this case, his views are reflected in his work.
“This makes this award very problematic because it’s not just his political statements, but he’s also written about that. He has published, as I mentioned, three books, two of them travelogues and a theater play which reflect this view.”
“I am a writer and not a judge,” Handke told The New York Times in 2006 after attending Milosevic’s funeral.
“I’m a lover of Yugoslavia — not so much Serbia, but Yugoslavia — and I wanted to accompany the fall of my favorite country in Europe, and this is one of the reasons to be at the funeral.”
But Bieber said Handke supports not Serbian values but nationalistic Serbian values.
Challenged author’s views
Bieber recalled being present at a discussion about Handke’s book, “A Journey to the Rivers: Justice for Serbia,” in 1996, where, when challenged about his views, the author used expletives.
Serbia applauded the decision of the Academy to pick Handke, with Serbia’s Culture Minister Vladan Vukosavljevic saying he should have received the Nobel Prize a long time ago, suggesting he didn’t get it because he supported Serbs during the Balkans 1990s conflicts that broke up Yugoslavia.
The writer himself told Serbian TV he was happy to be honored and speaking in Serbian, added, “Tonight we’ll have a rakija (Serbian brandy) and a glass of white wine.”
The Swedish Academy had not responded to a request for comment by VOA.
The controversy comes one year after the academy did not name a winner for the literature prize following accusations of sexual abuse and other wrongdoing by people connected to the academy.
A federal judge in New York on Friday temporarily blocked President Donald Trump from implementing a plan to deny green cards to many immigrants who use Medicaid, food stamps and other government benefits.
U.S. District Judge George Daniels’ ruling came just four days before the Trump administration was set to start enforcing new rules that would disqualify immigrants from getting legal U.S. residency if they were likely to become a burden on public welfare programs.
In his ruling, Daniels said Trump was redefining immigration rules that had stood since the late 1800s with a new framework that had “no logic.”
Allowing the policy to go into effect now, he said, would have a significant impact on “law-abiding residents who have come to this country to seek a better life.”
“Overnight, the rule will expose individuals to economic insecurity, health instability, denial of their path to citizenship and potential deportation,” Daniels wrote. “It is a rule that will punish individuals for their receipt of benefits provided by our government, and discourages them from lawfully receiving available assistance intended to aid them in becoming contributing members of society.”
Ruling in California
Almost simultaneously, a federal judge in California also blocked the policy from taking effect, but that order was more geographically limited to states involved in the case: California, Oregon, Maine and Pennsylvania, plus the District of Columbia.
The U.S. Justice Department, which was defending the administration’s policy in court, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the ruling.
The lawsuit in New York is one of several legal challenges nationwide to one of Trump’s most aggressive steps to cut legal immigration. Immigration advocates say the rule changes are discriminatory because they would deny legal residency and visas to immigrants who don’t have money. The Trump administration has said the rules would ensure that immigrants who are granted residency are self-sufficient.
FILE – An Immigration and Customs Enforcement official assists people waiting to enter immigration court in Atlanta, June 12, 2019.
Federal law already requires immigrants seeking to become permanent U.S. residents to prove they will not be a burden on the country — a “public charge,” in legal terms —but the new rules detail a broader range of programs that could disqualify applicants.
The policy is central to Trump’s longtime goal to slash legal immigration and gear it more for people with employment skills instead of toward family members. Those ideas were part of his pitch for an overhaul of immigration laws during his first year in office, but negotiations faltered in Congress.
On average, 544,000 people apply for green cards every year, with about 382,000 falling into categories that would be subject to the new review, according to the government. Guidelines in use since 1999 refer to a “public charge” as someone primarily dependent on cash assistance, income maintenance or government support.
‘More likely than not’
Under the new rules, the Department of Homeland Security has redefined a public charge as someone who is “more likely than not” to receive public benefits for more than 12 months within a 36-month period. If someone uses two benefits, that is counted as two months.
And the definition has been broadened to include Medicaid, housing assistance and food assistance under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.
Factors like immigrants’ age, employment status and English-language ability would also be looked at to determine whether they could become public burdens in the future.
Critics say the rule changes are discriminatory and would have the effect of barring immigrants with lower incomes in favor of those with wealth. The government has said the rule changes would ensure that those gaining legal residency status are self-sufficient.
Rate of using benefits
Immigrants make up a small portion of those getting public benefits, because their legal status often makes them ineligible. An Associated Press analysis of census data shows that non-citizen immigrants with low incomes have a lower rate of using Medicaid, food aid, cash assistance and Supplemental Security Income than their native-born counterparts.
For Medicaid, non-citizen immigrants are only 6.5% of participants, while more than 87% are native-born. For food assistance, immigrants are 8.8% of recipients, with over 85% of participants being native-born.
Earlier this month, Trump issued a presidential proclamation saying immigrants would be barred from entering the country unless they were to be covered by health insurance within 30 days of entering or had enough financial resources to pay for any medical costs. The measure will be effective Nov. 3. The Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, said the measure could prohibit the entry of about 375,000 people a year, mainly family members who account for a majority of people getting green cards from abroad.
VOA Connect Episode 91 – We learn that the transition to cleaner energy isn’t always about climate change, as coal miners in the American West are finding out. Yet those working in and running unprofitable mines are having to rethink their future, too, adapting their skills to survive. Also on the show this week, looking back on Andy Warhol and how his artwork still resonates today.
VOA’s Dorian Jones in Istanbul contributed to this report.
WHITE HOUSE — The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump is loading “very powerful” sanctions to impose on Turkey for its attacks on Syrian territory, but it is not yet pulling the trigger.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced Friday the president is signing an executive order to dissuade Turkey from any further offensive military action in northeast Syria.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin takes a question from a reporter after announcing the threat of sanctions on Turkey in the Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, Oct. 11, 2019.
Trump, according to Mnuchin, is concerned about the potential targeting by Turkish forces of civilians, civilian infrastructure, and ethnic or religious minorities.
“Also, the president wants to make very clear that Turkey not allow even a single ISIS fighter to escape,” Mnuchin told reporters at the White House.
The Treasury Department is working with the State and Defense Departments to monitor the situation and then recommend to the president at what point the sanctions might need to be instituted, according to Mnuchin, but he did not specify what particular actions would trigger them.
“We are putting financial institutions on notice that they should be careful and there could be sanctions,” said Mnuchin.
Asked by VOA what gives him confidence that this announcement will deter Turkey, Mnuchin cryptically replied there have been specific, confidential discussions that have been going on at different levels.
“These are very powerful sanctions. We hope we don’t have to use them. But we can shut down the Turkish economy if we need to,” added Mnuchin.
Support for sanctions
Prominent members of the U.S. Congress in recent days have advocated for sanctions amid a bipartisan uproar over what was viewed as a green light by Trump to allow Turkey to target the Kurds by moving some U.S. special forces out of the way along the border with Syria.
The Kurdish forces, which Turkey regards as terrorists, have been steadfast allies of the United States inside Syria in helping to destroy the Islamic State caliphate.
Members of the special forces of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) prepare to join the front against Turkish forces, near the northern Syrian town of Hasakeh, Oct. 10, 2019.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces have been holding thousands of ISIS fighters, and there are fears that in the fresh clashes between the Kurds and the Turks, those detained could escape.
The sanctions pressure from Washington is “a lesson Ankara should learn how few political friends it has in Washington,” said analyst Atilla Yesilada of Global Source Partners.
Analysts point out Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has only focused his attention on Trump, ignoring other political players in Washington.
Proposed legislation from Senators Lindsey Graham, a Republican, and Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat, “are very serious,” according to Yesilada.
“They will sanction any Turkish company that sells fuel oil, electricity to the military, and banks that vacillate these transactions. These are broad and pretty meaty sanctions,” he added.
The proposed measures also bring back onto the agenda sanctions linked to Ankara’s purchase of Russia’s S-400 missile system, under Congress’ Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA).
Erdogan and several other prominent political figures also would be individually targeted under the sanctions legislation.
“There is a significant concern in international markets about the risk of sanctions to Turkey,” said an analyst for an international bank, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
2018 sanctions
FILE – U.S. pastor Andrew Brunson reacts as he arrives at his home after being released from the prison in Izmir, Turkey, July 25, 2018.
In August 2018, Trump hit Turkey with minor sanctions over the jailing of American pastor Andrew Brunson on terrorism charges. The surprise move saw the Turkish currency collapse, falling around 30%, plunging the economy into recession. It is still recovering.
Analysts warn Turkey’s currency is widely seen as being vulnerable to new sanctions. Turkey’s corporate sector owes more than $100 billion in foreign currency-dominated debt.
“The Turkish economy is still dead in the water, confidence is still rock bottom,” Yesilada said. “The threat of U.S. sanctions is hanging over the head of the Turkish economy like a sword of Damocles and the threat to the Turkish lira.”
Threat from Europe
Additionally, Ankara is facing a sanctions threat from Europe. “Obviously it’s [sanctions are] on the table,” said France’s European Union affairs minister, Amelie de Montchalin, on Thursday.
A rapidly escalating war of words is developing between Ankara and the wider European Union over Turkey’s military operation in Syria.
Erodgan, on Thursday, threatened to send millions of refugees to the EU if it did not end its criticism.
“Turkey must understand that our main concern is that their actions may lead to another humanitarian catastrophe,” EU Council president Donald Tusk said Friday.
“And we will never accept that refugees are weaponized and used to blackmail us. President Erdogan’s threats of yesterday are totally out of place.”
Pakistan’s prime minister, Imran Khan, will visit Iran Sunday to meet President Hassan Rouhani before heading to Saudi Arabia as part of his mediation efforts to help defuse tensions between the two countries.
Khan’s peacemaking mission comes days after he announced in New York on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly that U.S. President Donald Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had both asked him to mediate with Tehran.
“Pakistan maintains close relations with Saudi Arabia and it is our strategic partner. Iran is our neighbor and friend. Pakistan wishes to prevent further deterioration in differences between the two brotherly Islamic countries,” Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said Friday.
“Very soon I will be accompanying the prime minister and we will travel to Iran, we will also visit Saudi Arabia. Our effort will be to help remove the misunderstandings and reduce the tensions to preserve regional peace,” Qureshi told reporters while speaking in his native eastern city of Multan.
The foreign minister noted Pakistan can ill-afford another conflict in the region because it is already dealing with security and economic challenges stemming from the war in neighboring Afghanistan, which entered its 19th year this month.
Washington had blamed Tehran for last month’s attack on the world’s biggest crude oil processing facility in Saudi Arabia, fueling tensions in the Middle East.
FILE – Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan meets with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Sept. 19, 2019.
Historically strained U.S.-Iran relations have deteriorated over the past year since Trump withdrew from a 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers. Trump reimposed sanctions on Iran, prompting the Shi’ite Muslim nation to gradually reduce its commitments under the deal to limit controversial uranium enrichment operations.
Tehran denies involvement in the September 14 strikes that were claimed by the Iran-aligned Houthi rebels in Yemen, which are fighting a Saudi-led military coalition.
Pakistan has traditionally relied on financial assistance and import of oil on deferred payments from Saudi Arabia. Pakistani military troops are also stationed on Saudi soil to train local forces.
But with its large Shi’ite minority and a nearly 900-kilometer border with Iran, Pakistan has stayed neutral in Middle East tensions. Islamabad declined a Saudi call a few years back to join the Riyadh-led military alliance fighting the Houthi insurgents.
Asif Durrani, a former Pakistani ambassador to Iran, says Pakistan’s natural stance has in fact provided the opportunity for the country to play the role of a mediator.
“Had Pakistan been siding with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia or Iran, such a role would have been out of the question. Therefore it is important for Pakistan to maintain a neutral stance, primarily aimed at bringing the two antagonists on the negotiating table,” Durrani said.
Adam Weinstein, a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, says Pakistan could offer Riyadh and Tehran a face-saving channel of communication and path towards de-escalation.
“Pakistan’s relationship with Riyadh is far deeper than with Tehran. However, Pakistan has demonstrated that Saudi aid doesn’t buy unquestioning submission to Riyadh’s directives and Islamabad’s position on the sidelines of the Yemen conflict is just one example of this,” said Weinstein who served in Afghanistan and works in international trade and law regulations.
Hot, dry winds sweeping into Southern California raised concerns that the region’s largest utility could widen power shut-offs Friday to prevent its equipment from sparking wildfires, as a new blaze swept through the San Fernando Valley’s northern foothills.
Southern California Edison turned off electricity to about 20,000 people in Los Angeles, Ventura, San Bernardino and Kern counties but warned that thousands more could lose service as Santa Ana winds gained strength.
Winds gusted dangerously as forecast before calming in Northern California, where Pacific Gas & Electric faced hostility and second-guessing over its widespread shut-offs.
The fire danger spread to Southern California on Thursday as raging winds moved down the state.
A wildfire fueled by Santa Ana winds broke out after 9 p.m. in Los Angeles along the 210 Freeway and jumped the highway. Flames also crossed the 5 Freeway. The highways were closed because of heavy smoke. The so-called Saddleridge fire, which started in Sylmar, had consumed more than 4,600 acres by 3 a.m. Friday, fire officials said.
There were no reports of injuries, but authorities ordered mandatory evacuations in the Granada Hills, Porter Ranch and Oakridge Estates neighborhoods. Several homes were seen burning in Granada Hills, and the Los Angeles fire department said an “unknown number” of homes were potentially threatened.
A blaze also ripped through a mobile home park in Calimesa, a city about 65 miles (104 kilometers) east of Los Angeles, destroying dozens of residences. The fire started when trash being hauled caught fire and the driver dumped the load aside a road, according to Riverside County officials. An 89-year-old woman, Lois Arvickson, is missing, according to her son.
The Saddleridge fire advances into Granada Hills, California, Oct. 11, 2019.
Gov. Gavin Newsom criticized PG&E and ordinary customers complained about the inconveniences caused by the unprecedented blackouts that began midweek, with many wondering: Did the utility go too far in its attempt to ward off more deadly fires? Could it have been more targeted in deciding whose electricity was turned off and when?
PG&E, though, suggested it was already seeing the wisdom of its decision borne out as gusts topping 77 mph (122 kph) raked the San Francisco Bay Area amid a bout of dry, windy weather.
“We have found multiple cases of damage or hazards” caused by heavy winds, including fallen branches that came in contact with overhead lines, said Sumeet Singh, a vice president for the utility. “If they were energized, they could’ve ignited.”
Because of the dangerous weather in the forecast, PG&E cut power Wednesday to an estimated 2 million people in an area that spanned the San Francisco Bay Area, the wine country north of San Francisco, the agricultural Central Valley and the Sierra Nevada foothills. By Thursday evening, the weather had eased and the number of people in the dark was down to about 510,000.
Inspections and repairs were expected to resume at daybreak and power could be restored Friday to many more customers, Singh said.
PG&E cast the blackouts as a matter of public safety, aimed at preventing the kind of blazes that have killed scores of people over the past couple of years, destroyed thousands of homes, and ran up tens of billions of dollars in claims that drove the company into bankruptcy.
CEO Bill Johnson didn’t respond to Newsom’s criticisms but promised if future wind events require similar shut-offs, the utility will “do better” when it comes to communicating with customers. It’s unacceptable that its websites crashed, maps were inconsistent and call centers were overloaded, Johnson said.
“We were not adequately prepared,” he said.
For Californians, Waiting for the Power to Go Off to Avert Wildfires
Teaser Description
Californians are playing a waiting game – waiting for the power to go out. The region’s power company is cutting off electricity to reduce the risk of forest wildfires. Residents are being told to prepare. Michelle Quinn went to one town waiting for the lights to go off
Many of those affected by the outages, which could last as long as five days, were not so sure about the move.
Sergio Vergara, owner of Stinson Beach Market, situated on scenic Highway 1, on the Pacific Coast just north of San Francisco, operated the store with a propane generator so his customers could have coffee, milk, meat and frozen meals.
“I’m telling you as a plain human being, there is no wind, there is no heat,” he said. “We never saw something like this where they just decide to shut off the power, but on the other side — preventing is a good thing, but it’s creating a lot of frustration.”
But in powered-down Oakland, Tianna Pasche said: “If it saves a life, I’m not going to complain about it.”
Faced with customer anger, PG&E put up barricades around its San Francisco headquarters. A customer threw eggs at a PG&E office in Oroville. And a PG&E truck was hit by a bullet, though authorities could not immediately say whether it was targeted.
The governor said PG&E was to blame for poor management and should have been working on making its power system sturdier and more weatherproof.
“It’s decisions that were not made that is leading to this moment in PG&E history,” Newsom said. “This is not from my perspective a climate change story so much as it is a story of greed and mismanagement over the course of decades.”
Marybel Batjer, president of the California Public Utilities Commission, blasted PG&E’s communication and said the situation was unacceptable.
Experts say the big shut-off will yield important lessons for the next time.
Deliberate blackouts are likely to become less disruptive as PG&E gets experience managing them and rebuilds sections of the grid so that outages can be more targeted, said Michael Wara, a researcher on energy and climate policy at Stanford University.
Grids are built and operators are trained to keep the power on at all times, so the company and its employees have little experience with intentionally turning the electricity off in response to rapidly changing weather, he said.
“That’s a skill that has to be learned, and PG&E is learning it at a mass scale right now,” Wara said.
After a June shut-off in the Sierra foothills, PG&E workers reported repairing numerous areas of wind damage, including power lines hit by tree branches.
“That was worth it,” Wara said of the deliberate blackout. “That could have prevented a catastrophe.”
A man arrested on suspicion of stalking a female pop idol used the reflections of her pupils in photos she shared on social media and Google Street View to find where she lived.
Tokyo police declined comment on the specifics of the investigation but confirmed Friday that 26-year-old Hibiki Sato was arrested Sept. 17 on suspicion of indecent behavior in connection with stalking and causing injuries to the 20-year-old woman.
The police official, who spoke on condition of anonymity as is often policy at Japanese bureaucracies, said the case was related to the reports about a stalker and pupil images.
Police described Sato as an “avid fan.”
Public broadcaster NHK and other Japanese media reported this week that details in the woman’s selfies were used to identify the train station she frequented. They said Sato looked at other images she shared, such as her apartment, to figure out where she lived.
Police say he hurt her and committed indecent acts, such as groping her after accosting her from behind and knocking her down.
Japan has many young female performance groups.
Selfie warning
Tokyo Shimbun, a metropolitan daily which reported on the stalking case, warned readers that even casual selfies may show surrounding buildings that will allow people to identify the location of the photos.
It also said people shouldn’t make the V-sign with their hand, which Japanese often do in photos, because fingerprints could be stolen.
Cyberstalking has been a problem for years, with criminals and perpetrators of domestic violence using hacking, clandestine activation of microphones and cameras, and other methods to track their victims.
It’s unclear how prevalent the use of high-resolution photos to locate potential victims might be.
Former South African president Jacob Zuma will face trial on corruption charges after a court on Friday dismissed his application to halt the case for good.
The ruling means further scrutiny of a 1999 arms deal in which Zuma is accused of receiving bribes from French arms manufacturer Thales.
The charges were raised more than a decade ago but withdrawn, then reinstated after the National Prosecuting Authority announced there were sufficient grounds to bring Zuma to trial.
He was president from 2009 to 2018, when he was forced to resign by the ruling African National Congress party amid separate allegations of corruption linked to the controversial Gupta family. The U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday announced sanctions against three Gupta family members.
Zuma’s legal team has argued that his court case has been prejudiced by long delays and that there has been political interference in his prosecution.
Zuma has denied wrongdoing and can appeal Friday’s ruling. He made no public statements, slipping out quietly instead of addressing a crowd of supporters as in past court appearances.
His successor, President Cyril Ramaphosa, has vowed to crack down on the widespread graft that has eroded support for the ANC, which has ruled the country since the end of the harsh system of white minority rule known as apartheid in 1994.
The scandals around Zuma also severely hurt investor confidence in South Africa’s economy, the most developed in sub-Saharan Africa.
An international panel of air safety regulators Friday harshly criticized the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) review of a safety system on Boeing Co’s 737 Max jet that was later tied to two crashes that killed 346 people.
The Joint Authorities Technical Review (JATR) was commissioned by the FAA in April to look into the agency’s oversight and approval of the so-called MCAS anti-stall system before the fatal crashes.
“The JATR team found that the MCAS was not evaluated as a complete and integrated function in the certification documents that were submitted to the FAA,” the 69-page report said.
“The lack of a unified top-down development and evaluation of the system function and its safety analyses, combined with the extensive and fragmented documentation, made it difficult to assess whether compliance was fully demonstrated.”
Boeing’s top-selling airplane has been grounded worldwide since a March 10 crash in Ethiopia killed 157 people, five months after a Lion Air 737 MAX crashed in Indonesia, killing 189 people on board.
The JATR draft report, obtained by Reuters ahead of its release Friday, also said the FAA’s long-standing practice of delegating “a high level” of certification tasks to manufacturers like Boeing needs significant reforms to ensure adequate safety oversight.
“With adequate FAA engagement and oversight, the extent of delegation does not in itself compromise safety,” the report said. “However, in the B737 MAX program, the FAA had inadequate awareness of the MCAS function which, coupled with limited involvement, resulted in an inability of the FAA to provide an independent assessment of the adequacy of the Boeing proposed certification activities associated with MCAS.”
FAA Administrator Steve Dickson said in a statement he would review the panel’s recommendations and take appropriate action following the “unvarnished and independent review of the certification of the Boeing 737 MAX.”
China’s state press and internet were notably lacking in fresh attacks on the NBA Friday, in a possible sign that authorities were working to de-escalate a bitter political row.
The American basketball league suffered a ferocious backlash after Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey voiced support for Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests on Twitter.
But after adoring fans cheered on the Los Angeles Lakers and Brooklyn Nets in a Shanghai exhibition game Thursday night, China’s censors and propaganda machine avoided further inflaming the issue.
In contrast to days leading up to the pre-season game, when state media editorials ripped into the NBA for interfering in Chinese affairs, the government-controlled press barely mentioned the issue Friday.
Chinese fans react during a preseason NBA basketball game between the Brooklyn Nets and Los Angeles Lakers at the Mercedes Benz Arena in Shanghai, China, Oct. 10, 2019.
For the first time in several days, none of the top-trending items on dominant social media platform Weibo were centered around attacks on the league.
China’s internet is heavily censored, and the ruling Communist Party directs social media outlets to block or downplay content it does not like.
Beijing allows citizens to vent online when it serves party interests, with state press often leading the charge, but the party deeply fears social instability and abruptly puts the lid on hot topics that threaten to boil over.
Hu Xijin, top editor of the nationalist tabloid Global Times, said both sides now want to cool the feud down, according to the New York Times.
“I think this issue will gradually de-escalate — Global Times will not push to keep it hot,” Hu said in response to the paper’s request for comment.
“I also hope the American side won’t make any moves to escalate it.”
Fierce reaction
China reacts fiercely to any questioning of its sovereignty over semi-autonomous Hong Kong, which has endured months of protests demanding democratic freedoms.
Thursday’s game was not aired in China after local broadcasters boycotted it to protest Morey’s comments and the NBA’s support for his freedom of expression.
The fracas posed a particular dilemma for authorities after outraged social media users began lashing out at Chinese fans as “traitors,” threatening to split national opinion.
The NBA, which has a huge fanbase in China, has been caught between the Chinese anger and U.S. politicians, who accused the league of failing to more forcefully push back against Beijing in order to protect its business interests.
The league has clearly sought to avoid inflaming the issue, cancelling a series of scheduled publicity events in Shanghai without explanation.
Normally outspoken players like Lakers superstar LeBron James have brushed past reporters without comment while in China.
The Lakers and Nets travel to the southern city of Shenzhen Friday for their second of two promotional games, set for Saturday.
After seeking asylum in the United States at the Mexican border, Pablo Sanchez was placed in a detention center and is now facing what has become an increasingly common scenario under President Donald Trump: deportation to Cuba.
Since the end of the Obama administration, the number of Cubans deported from the U.S. has increased more than tenfold to more than 800 in the past year as the Trump administration enforces a new policy inked just days before it took over. It is also imposing its own sharp limits on who is eligible for asylum. That’s an unwelcome development for growing numbers of asylum-seeking Cubans who had long benefited from a generous U.S. approach and their government’s unwillingness to take its people back.
For decades, Cubans fleeing the communist-governed island had for the most part enjoyed unique privileges. Even after the cold war ended, they were given a certain path to legal residence once they touched U.S. soil through the policy known as “wet foot, dry foot.”
No more wet foot, dry foot
But an agreement reached during the final days of the Obama administration ended that and required Cuba to take back citizens who receive deportation orders going forward and consider on a case-by-case basis the return of the thousands of other Cubans who had received such orders over the decades but remained in the U.S. because their country wouldn’t take them back.
Since Trump took office, more Cubans arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border have encountered new limits, including a policy introduced last month that denies protection to asylum seekers who have passed through another country before reaching Mexico and have not sought asylum there.
Despite the new agreement, Cuba remains reluctant to take its people back, and is one of 10 countries that the U.S. government labels “recalcitrant.” That makes it difficult for the administration to enforce its aggressive measures against asylum — and leaves many Cubans in limbo.
Barbara Rodriguez shows a photograph on her phone of her talking to her husband, Pablo Sanchez, at her home in Hialeah, Fla., Aug. 6, 2019.
Many, like Sanchez, are baffled by their predicament.
Sanchez is married to Barbara Rodriguez, a naturalized U.S. citizen who lives in Miami, but was unable to apply for a visa in Cuba to join his wife in the U.S. because the Trump administration pulled most of its embassy staff out, outsourcing family-related visa petitions to consular services in Colombia or Guyana. Rodriguez claims Sanchez was facing increasing political persecution after having brushes with local authorities over such episodes as damaging a referendum ballot as a sign of protest.
The couple agreed he had to get out of Cuba, saying they had learned he was being investigated and could face jail time. Feeling they had no time to waste — and with no visa services available in Cuba — Sanchez traveled to Nicaragua and through Mexico to seek asylum in the U.S., at a port of entry where authorities detained him and later sent him to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for long-term custody.
“This is plain cruel, despite arriving in this country and demonstrating that you are persecuted and that you have credible fear. After all, this gets thrown away,” said his wife, Rodriguez, who talks to Sanchez on the phone daily. “The worse thing is that now I feel all that is left for him is deportation.”
Cuban welcome mat?
It is unclear how the Cuban government treats people who are deported from the U.S., but rights advocates and lawyers say they could face retaliation for claiming asylum, especially those who claimed they were being persecuted. By contrast, deportees to Mexico and Central American countries typically get a warm welcome home.
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla told The Associated Press the increase in deportations stems from the country “diligently fulfilling its commitments” outlined in the accord with the Obama administration, but at the same time he blasted the U.S. for cutting consular services in Havana.
“It is a shame to politicize the human bond between people and between nations,” he said.
A chartered U.S. government flight landed in Havana on Sept. 27 with 96 Cubans aboard, and another with 120 arrived Aug. 30. U.S. officials say Cuba’s acceptance of this limited number of deportees is a small step, but they believe the nation is still largely unwilling to work with the U.S. on repatriations. They note 39,243 Cubans living in the U.S. with deportation orders.
“Cuba is kind of a thorn in their side in this area,” said Julia Gelatt, senior policy analyst at the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute.
Cuba remains on a U.S. government list of “recalcitrant” nations with nine other countries: China, Vietnam, Iran, Bhutan, Cambodia, Eritrea, Hong Kong, Laos and Pakistan.
Thousands seeking asylum
About 21,000 Cubans have presented themselves to officials at U.S.-Mexico crossings since last October, triple the number seen the previous 12 months, according to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection statistics.
Thousands more Cubans have been stranded in northern Mexico cities on wait lists to request asylum and through a program that forces migrants to wait south of the border for their asylum cases to play out.
Of the Cubans who have been allowed into the U.S., many have been released from custody while they await court dates for their asylum cases, but hundreds have been turned over to ICE custody.
About 5,000 Cubans have received deportation orders since the new U.S.-Cuba agreement, and 1,300 of them have been deported, according to ICE data.
Luis Dayan Palmero left Cuba in April, traveling from Guyana to Brazil and Colombia, before passing through Central America and arriving in northern Mexico in August.
He crossed the Rio Grande and surrendered to Border Patrol agents, who sent him to Matamoros, Mexico. He now has a U.S. court appearing set this month.
“I plan to ask for asylum, and whatever happens is what God wants,” Palmero said.
The former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine was removed from her post after insisting that Rudy Giuliani’s requests to Ukrainian officials for investigations be relayed through official channels, according to a former diplomat who has spoken with her.
The ambassador, Marie Yovanovitch, is scheduled to testify before congressional lawmakers Friday as part of the House impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump. Democrats say they expect her to appear despite the White House’s position that no administration officials cooperate with the probe.
Yovanovitch was recalled from Kyiv in May as Giuliani — who is Trump’s personal attorney and has no official role in the U.S. government — pushed Ukrainian officials to investigate baseless corruption allegations against the Bidens.
In a July 25 call, Trump told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that Yovanovitch was “bad news,” according to a partial transcript released by the White House.
FILE – Rudy Giuliani is seen with Ukrainian-American businessman Lev Parnas at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, Sept. 20, 2019. Parnas has been arrested with another associate of Giuliani’s, Igor Fruman, a Belarus-born U.S. citizen.
Neither Giuliani nor Trump have specified their objections. But a former diplomat, recalling a recent conversation with Yovanovitch, said she was removed after insisting that a request for Ukrainian officials to join in an investigation be relayed according to long-established protocol.
The former diplomat said Yovanovitch refused to do “all this offline, personal, informal stuff” and made clear that the U.S. government had formal ways to request foreign governments’ help with investigations.
The former diplomat insisted on anonymity to disclose the private conversation.
The State Department traditionally relies on mutual legal assistance treaties, under which U.S. and foreign officials agree to exchange evidence and information in criminal investigations.
Friday hearing
Yovanovitch is scheduled to speak to the House Intelligence, Foreign Affairs and Oversight and Reform committees behind closed doors Friday as part of the impeachment investigation. Despite Trump’s assertion that his administration will not cooperate, three people familiar with the deposition said that Yovanovitch is expected to appear. The people requested anonymity to discuss the closed-door meeting.
On Thursday, 10 Democratic senators sent a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo demanding an explanation for Yovanovitch’s removal before the end of her three-year assignment.
“In particular, her early recall raises questions about whether you put the personal interests of the President above the Department’s career personnel or U.S. foreign policy,” they wrote.
Earlier this week, the White House sent Congress a letter outlining its opposition to the impeachment probe and refusing to cooperate with requests for information, including interviews with administration officials. The House committees have moved to subpoena officials instead.
Giuliani associates arrested
Even before the testimony, the attention on Yovanovitch was renewed Thursday after U.S. prosecutors arrested two Florida businessmen tied to Giuliani, charging them with campaign finance violations. An indictment filed in the case alleged that the men, who were raising campaign funds for a U.S. congressman, asked him for help in removing Yovanovitch, at least partly at the request of Ukrainian government officials.
Yovanovitch has led U.S. embassies in Kyrgyzstan and Armenia and is now a State Department fellow at Georgetown University. The director of the Georgetown program, Barbara Bodine, said the former envoy is declining all requests for interviews.
Former colleagues of Yovanovitch said Trump allies’ characterizations of her as politically motivated are off-base.
She is “a top-notch diplomat, careful, meticulous, whip smart,” and unlikely to have badmouthed Trump, either to Ukrainian officials or her colleagues, said John Herbst, a predecessor as ambassador in Ukraine who worked alongside Yovanovitch there in the early 2000s.
Yovanovitch has always known that the role of diplomat “wasn’t about her” but about “serving American national interests and supporting the people around her,” said Nancy McEldowney, a former U.S. ambassador to Bulgaria who now directs a Foreign Service program at Georgetown.
U.S. diplomats are pushing back on Turkey’s incursion into northeastern Syria, labeling the military maneuver a “very big mistake” that could have significant consequences on the security situation in the region and beyond.
The criticism from Washington, echoed by European officials and members of the United Nation’s Security Council, came as Turkish artillery and war planes pounded Kurdish positions on the Syrian side of the border for a second straight day Thursday, forcing thousands of civilians to flee.
Turkey, in a letter to the United Nations, said its response would be “proportionate, measured and responsible.”
But top U.S. officials warned that even if Ankara can make good on such assurances, the consequences of its incursion into Syria are dire.
People run to take cover after mortars were fired from Syria, in Akcakale, Turkey, Oct. 10, 2019.
“This was a mistake for Turkey to do,” a senior U.S. State Department official told reporters late Thursday.
“The Turks have given us general guidelines of where they want to operate and what their military goals are,” the official said. “We think they’re all a bad idea.”
Urged Turkey to rethink operation
U.S. President Donald Trump, criticized for essentially giving Turkey a “green light” to proceed with the military operation by ordering U.S. special forces operating near the border to pull back, also pressed Ankara to rethink its decision.
….We have one of three choices: Send in thousands of troops and win Militarily, hit Turkey very hard Financially and with Sanctions, or mediate a deal between Turkey and the Kurds!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)
FILE – Syria’s United Nations Ambassador Bashar Jaafari listens during a U.N. Security Council’s meeting on Syria, Sept. 19, 2019, at U.N. headquarters.
Some U.N. Security Council members, though, went further Thursday.
“We call upon Turkey to cease the unilateral military action as we do not believe it will address Turkey’s underlying security concerns,” Germany’s Deputy U.N. Ambassador Jürgen Schulz said on behalf of the Security Council’s five European members plus Estonia, which will join the council in January 2020.
“Renewed armed hostilities in the northeast will further undermine the stability of the whole region, exacerbate civilian suffering and provoke further displacements, which will further increase the number of refugees and IDPs [internally displaced persons] in Syria and in the region,” he told reporters while flanked by his colleagues.
‘Maximum restraint’
Russia, which objects to the presence of the U.S.-led coalition against IS in parts of Syria, said, “All sides should exercise maximum restraint.”
Russian ambassador Vassily Nebenzia also signaled Moscow might block a unified statement from the 15-member Security Council if it fails to address “other issues that are in the Syrian file.”
In this photo taken from the Turkish side of the border between Turkey and Syria, in Akcakale, Sanliurfa province, southeastern Turkey, smoke billows from targets inside Syria during bombardment by Turkish forces, Oct. 10, 2019.
Meanwhile, the mainly Kurdish fighters in the region appealed Thursday for help to “save our people from genocide.”
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said it “confronted an incursion attempt” by Turkish forces in Tal Halaf, and also a cell of Islamic State fighters in an area south of Ras al-Ayn. Kurdish official Diyar Ahmed said the area was surrounded by Turkish forces.
“Turkish planes have been striking from the air. At the same time, their heavy weapons haven’t stopped, they aren’t stopping in firing on the village, and civilians have been both wounded and lost their lives,” Ahmed said.
Also Thursday, the U.N. Refugee Agency warned that civilians are now in harm’s way, with tens of thousands of people on the move to escape the fighting as weather conditions worsen.
U.S. officials have sought to make clear that Turkey will bear full responsibility for protecting civilians and ensuring that no humanitarian crisis takes place.
U.S. United Nations Ambassador Kelly Craft address the U.N. Security Council after a failed vote on a humanitarian draft resolution for Syria, Sept. 19, 2019, at U.N. headquarters.
‘Will have consequences’
“Failure to play by the rules, to protect vulnerable populations, failure to guarantee that ISIS cannot exploit these actions to reconstitute, will have consequences,” U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Kelly Craft said.
In Washington, senior U.S. officials warned Turkey against engaging in ethnic cleansing and warned the Turkish military to avoid “indiscriminate artillery, air and other fires directed at civilian populations.”
“We’re not seeing significant examples of that so far but we’re very early [in the Turkish military campaign],” a State Department official who briefed reporters said, adding, “we’re very, very concerned.”
In the U.S., where both Democratic and Republican lawmakers have been critical of President Trump’s handling of the situation and of Turkey’s action, a group of Republican lawmakers announced their intent to introduce legislation to sanction Ankara.
“President Erdogan and his regime must face serious consequences for mercilessly attacking our Kurdish allies in northern Syria,” Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney, chairwoman of the House Republican Conference, said in a statement.
A U.S.-based green economy group says some of the world’s most popular chocolate companies are not so sweet when it comes to human rights and sustainability.
Green America gives Godiva chocolate an F in efforts to reduce child labor and deforestation in cocoa production and supply chains.
Ferroro and Mondelez were both rated D while giant manufacturers Lindt and Hershey were given C. Mars and Nestle were rated C+.
Top-rated candymakers, including Endangered Species, Equal Exchange, and Tony’s Chocolonely all earned an A.
“Children should be able to enjoy candies that aren’t made by child laborers and these child laborers should be enjoying their childhoods rather than being forced to work in dangerous conditions,” Green America’s Charlotte Tate said.
“The aim of Green America’s scorecard is to help consumers feel confident about choosing chocolates that are ethically sourced with high-quality ingredients.”
Activists estimate that 1.6 million children of poor families work in Ghana and Ivory Coast harvesting cocoa beans for chocolate production. Most cocoa farming families earn about $2 a day.
The activists also say unsustainable cocoa farming has decimated rainforests.
Low-rated Godiva was the only company to respond to the report so far, saying it “ensures ethical sourcing through agreements with our suppliers to comply with our Godiva code of conduct which explicitly prohibits the use of forced child labor.”
The U.S. will hand over to Iraqi authorities nearly 50 Islamic State members who were transferred from Syria in recent days, two Iraqi intelligence officials said Thursday.
The officials said the IS members were expected to be handed over by Friday. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.
The move comes after Turkey began a military offensive into northern Syria against U.S.-backed Kurdish-led fighters of the Syrian Democratic Forces who are holding more than 10,000 IS members. Those include some 2,000 foreigners, including about 800 Europeans.
It wasn’t immediately clear why the 50 IS fighters would be transferred to Iraq, but the group’s self-declared caliphate once sprawled across a large part of both Iraq and Syria. Since the IS was defeated earlier this year, Iraq has held IS captives in secure prisons and tried IS militants in court, including some French foreign nationals.
Before the Turkish assault began, there were already fears that Kurdish-led forces could divert forces from guarding IS prisoners or might not be able to secure them at a time when IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi made a point of calling on followers to free captured fighters. There are over two dozen detention facilities in northeastern Syria.
After the Turkish offensive began, concerns that some facilities may be struck in the fighting or abandoned by guards heightened fears the prisoners would not remain secured.
President Donald Trump said Wednesday that some of the “most dangerous” IS members had been moved, but he provided no details. Trump said before the assault began that Turkey would be responsible for all IS fighters in the area, though it wasn’t clear how that would be implemented.
U.S. officials said Wednesday that two British militants believed to be part of an IS group that beheaded hostages and was known as “The Beatles” were moved out of a detention center in Syria and taken into U.S. custody.
It wasn’t clear whether they were among the 50 prisoners the Iraqi intelligence officials said were being transferred to Iraq.
The two men, El Shafee Elsheikh and Alexanda Amon Kotey, along with other British jihadis, allegedly made up the IS cell nicknamed “The Beatles” by surviving captives because of their extraction, the official said.
Barr wants to bring the two men back to the U.S. to face prosecution, the official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.
In 2014 and 2015, the militants held more than 20 Western hostages in Syria and tortured many of them. The group beheaded seven American, British and Japanese journalists and aid workers and a group of Syrian soldiers, boasting of the butchery in videos released to the world.
Among the journalists they killed was American James Foley, who was first, followed by fellow Americans Steven Sotloff and Peter Kassig, British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning and Japanese journalists Haruna Yukawa and Kenji Goto. The beheadings, often carried out on camera, horrified the world soon after IS took over much of Iraq and Syria in 2014.
The two British men were captured in January last year in eastern Syria by the Kurdish forces amid the collapse of IS. Their detention set off a debate in the U.S. and Europe over how to prosecute their citizens who joined IS.
IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared a so-called caliphate in 2014 in large parts of Syria and Iraq that the extremists controlled. IS was defeated in Iraq in 2017 and in March the SDF captured the last sliver of land that was held by IS.
SDF has handed over hundreds of IS fighters to Iraqi authorities over the past two years, including Europeans while some were repatriated to their home countries.
Earlier this year, Iraq tried 12 French IS fighters whom the SDF handed over to Baghdad in January sentencing most of them to death.
France at the time said the Iraqi court has jurisdiction to rule in the cases, though a spokeswoman reiterated the French governments opposition to the death penalty.
Trump and other U.S. officials have repeatedly pressed other nations across Europe and the Middle East to take back the detainees from their countries. But international leaders have been largely reluctant and have been slow to take any back.
NO we can’t become so numb to racism&genocide!