Racism in America is an institutional “white man’s problem visited on people of color,” Vice President Joe Biden said Tuesday, arguing that the way to attack the issue is to defeat President Donald Trump and hold him responsible for deepening the nation’s racial divide.

Taking aim at incendiary racial appeals by Trump, Biden said in an interview with a small group of reporters that a president’s words can “appeal to the worst damn instincts of human nature,” just as they can move markets or take a nation into war.

Biden is leading his Democratic challengers for the presidential nomination in almost all polls, largely because of the support of black voters. He has made appealing to them central to his candidacy and vowed to make maximizing black and Latino turnout an “overwhelming focus” of his effort. The interview, more than an hour long, focused largely on racial issues.

“White folks are the reason we have institutional racism,” Biden said. “There has always been racism in America. White supremacists have always existed, they still exist.” He added later that in his administration, it would “not be tolerated.”

By highlighting the nation’s racial tensions and placing blame on Trump, Biden is showing that he, too, is willing to make race a core campaign issue, but from the opposite perspective of the president. Turnout and enthusiasm among black voters will be critical for the Democratic nominee, notably to try to reclaim states like Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. He also emphasized a crossover appeal to both black voters and non-college-educated white voters.

To accentuate his appeal to black voters, Biden said that he will advertise in black publications and engage with cultural institutions like the black church, black fraternities and sororities, and historically black colleges.

“The bad news is I have a long record. The good news is I have a long record,” Biden said when asked about his enduring support among black voters. “People know me — at least they think they know me. I think after all this time, I think they have a sense of what my character is, who I am.”

“I’ve never, ever, ever in my entire life been in a circumstance where I’ve ever felt uncomfortable being in the black community,” he added, suggesting that his familiarity was not matched by many of his competitors.

While he did not specify to whom he was referring, Biden said he believes there are “assertions and assumptions” made about black voters that he believes are inaccurate, and he said that “a lot of people haven’t spent much time in the community.”

Without mentioning her by name, Biden also referenced California Sen. Kamala Harris’ attack on him during the first presidential debate on the issue of busing as a solution to school desegregation.

“All I know is I don’t think anybody in the community thinks I am — what’s the phrase?” Biden asked, paraphrasing Harris’ comment that “I know you’re not a racist, Joe.”

“I don’t think anyone thinks that about me,” Biden said.

Biden was also asked whether he would select a woman or person of color as his running mate should he become the nominee. He said that while he would “preferably” do so, he is ultimately seeking a partner on the ticket who is “simpatico with what I stand for and what I want to get done.”

“Whomever I pick would be preferably someone who was of color and who was of a different gender, but I’m not making that commitment until I know that the person I’m dealing with I can completely, thoroughly trust, is authentic, and is on the same page.”

Looking ahead to the next Democratic debate in Houston in September, he said that he understands why he has a target on his back but cautioned that Democrats “shouldn’t be forming a circular firing squad and shooting” because it only helps Trump.

Trump’s reelection campaign dismissed Biden’s accusation that Trump had inflamed racial tensions in the country.

“Having moved on from the Russia Hoax, Democrats are now employing the oldest play in the Democrat playbook: falsely accusing their opponent of racism, extending it even to the President’s supporters. Calling half the country racist is not a winning strategy,” said Tim Murtaugh, the Trump campaign’s communications director.

Biden also said that the Democratic field would narrow and allow for more meaningful exchanges. In the current crowded field, he said it’s difficult to have any meaningful debate at all, calling it a “non-debate debate.”

Biden, who has been attacked most forcefully by Harris, said that he believed “those who made the most direct attacks on one another haven’t really benefited much by it at the end of the day.”

What is Labor Day?

 

Republican and Democratic U.S. senators said Russia refused to grant them visas for a visit to Moscow next week, amid disagreement within Washington and among U.S. allies over whether the country should be readmitted to the Group of Seven.

Democratic Senator Chris Murphy said on Tuesday that Russia denied him a visa. Senator Ron Johnson, a Republican, said on Monday that his visa request had been denied, which he called “a petty affront.”

President Donald Trump said last week it would be appropriate to let Russia return to the G-7 group of advanced industrialized countries, telling reporters that former Democratic President Barack Obama had wanted Russia out of what used to be the G-8 but he thought it was “much more appropriate” to include the country.

Other G-7 countries have objected.

Murphy and Johnson are Senate Foreign Relations Committee members and have pushed for sanctions. Another Republican, Senator Mike Lee, was issued a visa and intended to visit Russia, a spokesman for Lee said.

“With the collapse of recent arms control agreements and significant domestic opposition to Vladimir Putin’s authoritarian rule, this is potentially a perilous moment for our two nations’ fragile relationship, and it’s a shame that Russia isn’t interested in dialogue,” Murphy said in a statement.

The Russian embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment. But it tweeted a statement saying Johnson had not applied for a visa at the embassy. The tweet also called Johnson “russophobic” and scoffed at his saying he wanted to restore direct dialogue with Russian parliamentarians.

While it had been unusual for U.S. lawmakers to be denied travel visas, Russia has done so several times in recent years, especially those who have pushed for sanctions against Moscow over its aggression toward Ukraine and interference in U.S. elections.

And Israel this month barred two Democratic lawmakers, U.S. Representatives Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, the first two Muslim women elected to Congress, shortly after Trump called on his ally not to let them in.

Separately, senior Democratic senators said on Tuesday they had written to Trump expressing strong opposition to readmitting Russia to the G-7, citing its invasion of Crimea.

The letter was signed by Senators Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader in the Senate, as well as Jack Reed, Bob Menendez and Mark Warner, the top Democrats on the Armed Services, Foreign Relations and Intelligence committees, respectively.

Norway, until recently the main donor to a fund to curb Amazonian deforestation, on Tuesday called on Norwegian companies active in Brazil to ensure they do not contribute to the destruction of the rainforest.

Representatives of oil firm Equinor, fertilizer-maker Yara and aluminium producer Norsk Hydro attended a meeting on Tuesday with Climate and Environment Minister Ola Elvestuen to discuss the fires in the Amazon.

“They must be conscious about their supply chains and ensure that they do not help contribute to deforestation,” Elvestuen told reporters after the meeting, called on Monday in response to the blazes afflicting the vast Amazon region.

The Norwegian state is the top owner of all three firms.

Tuesday’s meeting was also attended by pension fund KLP and environmental non-governmental organizations to discuss the issue and what could be done to solve it.

The number of fires recorded across the Brazilian Amazon has risen 79% this year through Aug. 25, according to Brazil’s space research agency.

Earlier on Tuesday, Brasilia said it would not consider an offer of at least $20 million from the Group of Seven nations to fight the fires until French President Emmanuel Macron retracted “insults” against Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.

Amazon fund 

In August, Oslo suspended donations to the Amazon Fund after Brasilia blocked operations of a fund receiving the aid.

Norway has worked closely with Brazil to protect the Amazon rainforest for more than a decade, and has paid some $1.2 billion into the Amazon Fund, to which it is by far the biggest donor.

Asked on Tuesday what Norway would do with the money it was not disbursing to Brasilia, Elvestuen told Reuters: “It has not been decided yet.”

Equinor is a top oil producer in the South American country and is developing Brazil into its main production country outside its homebase. The company’s representative at the meeting declined to comment.

The oil firm later said it was important that the rainforest is protected and that it was not engaged in activity there, but was limited to offshore oil exploration and a solar farm.

“We ensure that our supply chain does not have a negative impact on the rainforest,” a company spokesman said.

Hydro has a bauxite mine and a refinery, Alunorte, located in the northern state of Para that turns bauxite into alumina, the white powder used to produce aluminium at smelters.

The company said it was working on reducing its climate and environmental footprint throughout its business and supported efforts to reduce Amazon deforestation with, for instance, research collaboration between universities in Oslo and in Para state.

“Hydro has a bauxite mine in Para that respects environmental regulations. We use significant resources to replant and rehabilitate mining areas and we have a goal to conduct one-to-one reforestation of available areas,” a company spokesman said.

“Hydro is focused on maintaining a good dialogue and good bilateral relations between Norway and Brazil.”

Yara, which makes fertilizers in Brazil and supplies Brazilian farmers with products, said that it was “very important to safeguard the rainforest.”

“This has high priority in Yara and we do our utmost to ensure compliance across the supply chain to prevent the illegal clearing of land,” said a company spokeswoman.

Separately KLP, a Norwegian pension fund with over $80 billion in assets under management, said it was contacting U.S. firms in which it was invested that did significant business with agricultural producers in Brazil to ask for “concrete actions.”

KLP had contacted U.S. firms Bunge, Cargill and Archer Daniels Midland, in which KLP has invested 453 million crowns ($50.58 million) in stocks and bonds.

Opposition parties said they would try to pass a law which would force Prime Minister Boris Johnson to seek a delay to Britain’s departure from the European Union and prevent a potentially chaotic no-deal exit at the end of October.

The United Kingdom is heading toward a constitutional crisis at home and a showdown with the EU as Johnson has pledged to leave the bloc in 66 days without a deal unless Brussels agrees to renegotiate the Brexit divorce.

The sticking point is the backstop, an insurance policy to prevent the return of a hard border on the island of Ireland.

Johnson told European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on Tuesday there was no prospect of a deal unless the backstop was abolished.

Parliament returns from its summer break next week and is preparing for a battle with Johnson, who has promised to take Britain out of the European Union at the end of October with or without an exit agreement.

Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn hosted talks with opposition parties on Tuesday, where they agreed that passing a law to force the government to seek a delay to Britain’s EU departure would probably have the most support.

“We are going to come together and do the right thing by our country,” said Anna Soubry, leader of The Independent Group for Change party. “We are up against a prime minister who has no mandate for this and I think he has no regard for parliament.”

The opposition parties are seeking to repeat what they did earlier this year when lawmakers seized control of the parliamentary agenda to pass a law forcing Johnson’s predecessor Theresa May to seek an extension to Britain’s EU membership.

They also managed to change legislation to require parliament to be sitting for several days in September and October, making it harder for Johnson to shut down parliament to pursue a no-deal, something he has not ruled out doing.

The pound hit its strongest since July 29 against the dollar and euro after the parties presented a united front Tuesday.

Call with Juncker

Britain is on course for a no-deal exit on Oct. 31 unless parliament can stop it or a new deal is reached with the EU.

The British parliament has rejected three times the withdrawal deal agreed between the last government and the EU, deepening a three-year crisis that threatens Britain’s status as one of the world’s pre-eminent financial centers and a stable destination for foreign investors.

Johnson wants the backstop removed from the deal.

He discussed his demands with Juncker in a “positive and substantive” 20-minute phone call on Tuesday following talks last week with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron and European Council President Donald Tusk.

Juncker said he was willing to look at any concrete proposals on alternatives to the backstop, as long as they were compatible with the Withdrawal Agreement, according to a readout of the call from the European Commission.

Britain said it was working “at pace to find a wide range of flexible and creative solutions” for the border with Ireland after Brexit, but it said the border discussion should be separate to the withdrawal deal.

“We are ready to negotiate in good faith an alternative to the backstop with provisions to ensure the Irish border issues are dealt with where they should always have been: in the negotiations on the future agreement between the U.K. and EU,” a government spokeswoman said.

Upcoming meeting

Johnson’s Brexit adviser David Frost is due in Brussels on Wednesday to discuss the backstop with the Commission.

EU officials say they are listening to Johnson’s arguments to replace one of the most hotly contested elements of the divorce agreement, something the bloc has previously said it will not agree to. A British official said it was felt there had been a softening in the EU’s rhetoric around the backstop.

“It’s good that there is a vibrant discussion, ideas are put forward but it’s up to the UK government to come up with concrete proposals that would be compatible with the Withdrawal Agreement,” European Commission spokeswoman Mina Andreeva said.

Juncker underlined to Johnson that the EU’s support for Ireland was steadfast and it was very attentive to the country’s interests.

Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said Britain’s proposals did not yet come close to what was needed.

“I think we need to be honest here, that the alternative arrangements that have been discussed to date do not do the same job as the backstop, not even close,” Coveney said in Prague following a meeting with Czech Foreign Minister Tomas Petricek. “So let’s not pretend that solutions exist when they might not.”

In Malawi, a report by the office of the public protector, or Ombudsman, has shown that poor conditions in public hospitals are resulting in many expectant mothers having their uteruses removed during child birth. The report faulted the Ministry of Health for failing to provide sufficient staff for Obstetrics and Gynecology departments. But health authorities say efforts are being made to address the matter.
 
The report, Woes of the Womb, released last week, says more than 100 expectant mothers received care in the country’s referral hospitals and had their uteruses removed during a six-month period last year.

“Between January and July 2018, 160 uteruses were removed in the Central hospitals only.  There are some patients who we picked up because they could substantiate their cases. We will refer them to legal aid actual claim for compensation,” said Martha Chizuma, the country’s ombudswoman.

The 37-page report follows a news article published by the privately-owned weekly Malawi News in 2018 and later a documentary aired by local radio station Zodiak Radio, in which women who had their uteruses removed at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital recounted their ordeal.   
 
Victims’ stories

An alleged victim said, “When I arrived here I was told to go for a caesarian section operation because nurses said the baby inside my womb had difficulties breathing. But a day after delivery, I was referred to another operation where they removed my uterus because they said it had gone bad.”

Other women recounted similar experiences.

A second alleged victim said “I came here on the 14th and the baby was born on the 15th through an operation. But when I returned home I came back because I was feeling dizzy. Once there, they told me that my uterus was full of puss and that they had to remove it.”

The Ombudwoman report says that it is largely because of the government’s failure “to provide sufficient staff to cater for the needs for Obstetrics and Gynecology Departments in all health facilities that there are instances of compromised quality service delivery in the country.”

“Most of the time they find themselves in situations where they are simply attending to [an] emergency. So you just go the hospital, you are ok, you just waiting for delivery. But until you become an emergency yourself, that’s when you get an assistance,” said Chizuma the ombudswoman.

The report recommends health workers who are negligent in their work face disciplinary action, a view that health rights campaigners support.  

Awaiting government response

George Jobe, the executive director for Malawi Heath Equity Network, said “Our expectation is those in authority will act on the report. Punishment should be done. But not only that, it should be timely because justice delayed is almost justice denied.”

Andrew Likaka, director of quality management of digital health for the Malawi Ministry of Health, said the report’s findings are of great concern to the government. But he added disciplinary action does not happen overnight.

“When we are talking about discipline in [the] health sector, it has to be noted that there are so many agencies that are responsible for discipline, and discipline is also taken on fairness principals. It has something to do with normal disciplinary issues; we have authorities at any level of health care that address those disciplinary [issues].”

The country’s medical regulatory body, the Medical Council of Malawi, says it has so far confirmed 20 cases of women who had their uterus removed, and has warned it will bar all medical workers implicated in cases of malpractice.

 

Utah health officials say they are investigating 21 cases of a severe lung disease linked to vaping.
 
The state Department of Health announced the new number Monday, a jump from the five cases in teenagers and young adults reported last week.
 

The department says the cases stem from the use of a mix of nicotine and marijuana electronic cigarette products.
 
The symptoms of the disease include coughing, shortness of breath, chest pain, fatigue, nausea and vomiting.
 
The department advises that people who vape experience any of the symptoms that they should visit doctors.
 
Health officials say the first five people found with the disease were hospitalized.
 
Their conditions have improved after treatment.

A third Georgia Democrat jumped into the race to challenge Republican Sen. David Perdue on Tuesday for a seat that could help dictate the fate of the Senate in 2020.

Business executive and 2018 candidate for Georgia lieutenant governor Sarah Riggs Amico announced her candidacy with a campaign video taking aim at Perdue’s close ties to President Donald Trump.

“Senator David Perdue and Republican leaders in Washington have failed Georgia families and communities: from farmers suffering under the GOP-led trade war, to the families at risk of losing their healthcare as Republicans try to dismantle the Affordable Care Act,” Amico said in a statement.

Perdue, a former business executive, has emerged as a close ally of President Donald Trump since his election in 2014.

Amico joins former Columbus mayor Teresa Tomlinson and Clarkston mayor Ted Terry seeking the Democratic nomination.

Her announcement comes just weeks after the auto transportation company she is executive chairwoman of filed for bankruptcy, citing unsustainable labor costs compared to its non-unionized competitors.

National Republican Senatorial Committee spokesman Nathan Brand called Amico a “failed business executive” in an emailed statement and touted Perdue’s “positive record of delivering results for all of Georgia.”

Kenya has become the first country in Africa to recognize people who identify their gender as intersex during a population count starting Saturday. As Mohammed Yusuf reports for VOA from Nairobi, the third category will be listed along with male and female on census forms. 

One hundred teenage girls from secondary schools in Malawi have this month undergone “Girls in Science” camp at the Malawi University of Science and Technology (“MUST”).  The camp aims to develop girl’s interest in science fields long believed to be a male domain. Lameck Masina has the story from Thyolo district of southern Malawi.

U.S. prosecutors will seek the death penalty for a Pennsylvania man accused of bursting into a Pittsburgh synagogue last year with a semi-automatic rifle and shooting 11 people to death, according to court papers filed on Monday.

Robert Bowers, 46, shouted “all Jews must die” as he fired on congregants gathered for Sabbath services at the Tree of Life synagogue on Oct. 27, authorities said.

Bowers, who is from a Pittsburgh suburb, has pleaded not guilty in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh to a 63-count indictment and is awaiting trial though a trial date has not been set. The charges include using a firearm to commit murder and obstruction of free exercise of religious belief resulting in death, the court filing said.

“Robert Bowers expressed hatred and contempt toward members of the Jewish faith and his animus toward members of the Jewish faith played a role in the killings,” prosecutors said.

The massacre at the Tree of Life synagogue was the deadliest attack ever on Jewish Americans in the United States.

The synagogue is a fixture in Pittsburgh’s historically Jewish neighborhood of Squirrel Hill, which is home to one of the largest and oldest Jewish populations in the United States.

Bowers targeted that location “to maximize the devastation, amplify the harm of his crimes and instill fear within the local, national and international Jewish communities,” prosecutors said in court papers.

An attorney for Bowers, death penalty specialist Judy Clarke, did not return calls or an email seeking comment.

‘Drawn out and difficult’

The Tree of Life synagogue hosted multiple Jewish congregations and, according to the New York Times, some people who worshipped there have opposed the possibility of the death penalty for Bowers.

According to the newspaper, Rabbi Jonathan Perlman of New Light congregation, which met at Tree of Life, said in a letter to U.S. Attorney General William Barr that “a drawn out and difficult death penalty trial would be a disaster with witnesses and attorneys dredging up horrifying drama and giving this killer the media attention he does not deserve.”

Perlman did not immediately return an email seeking comment.

Among those killed were a 97-year-old woman and a married couple in their 80s. Two civilians and five police officers were wounded before the gunman, who was armed with an assault-style rifle and three handguns, was shot by police at the synagogue and surrendered. He has been held in jail since then.

The mass shooting followed a rise in the number of hate crimes and the number of hate groups in the United States, according to separate reports from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Amnesty International named five new prisoners of conscience in Cuba on Monday and said their detention underscored how the presidential handover last year from Raul Castro had not changed the Communist-run country’s repressive tactics.

Amnesty said there were likely many more Cubans who had been detained for peacefully expressing their views whose cases it was a challenge to document because authorities deny access to international rights groups.

All of the prisoners it listed were associated with opposition organizations in the one-party state.

Cuban authorities do not comment on police activity such as the detention of dissidents, who have limited support inside the island, and dismisses them as a tiny minority of provocateurs financed by the United States to subvert the government.

“For decades, Cuba has stifled freedom of expression and assembly by locking up people for their beliefs and opposition to the government,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International.

“Over the years, the names of Cuba’s prisoners of conscience have changed, but the state’s tactics have stayed almost exactly the same,” she added.

Many Cuban activists and independent journalists are complaining of growing harassment.

They say that is a sign the government is nervous because the launch of mobile internet last December has given them more of a public platform and ability to mobilize at a time of heightened political and economic tension.

Cuba, which was already struggling with a decline in Venezuelan aid in recent years, is facing more hostility and sanctions from its longtime foe, the United States.

Cuba has also undergone a leadership transition, with Castro handing the presidency over last year to his right-hand man, Miguel Diaz-Canel.

On Monday, the head of Cuba’s largest opposition group, the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU), Jose Daniel Ferrer, said on Twitter that security forces had detained 15 activists and prevented dozens of others from reaching their local headquarters in order to prevent activities to celebrate the group’s eighth anniversary.

The Madrid-based non-governmental rights group Cuban Prisoners Defenders, which has links to UNPACU, estimates there are at least 70 political prisoners on the island.

Amnesty said it updated its own list after reviewing some of those cases.

All of the prisoners Amnesty listed on Tuesday were men who had been detained since 2015 and sentenced to one to five years of prison for “public disorder,” “contempt” or “dangerousness.”

The latter two charges are inconsistent with international law, it said. “Dangerousness” – the possibility someone could eventually commit a crime – is a catch-all used against anyone authorities do not like, critics say.

Two of the five prisoners had been badly beaten by prison officials, Amnesty cited their relatives as saying.

Two yellow burqas are on display at a television station in Kabul, bright versions of the blue ghostlike garments some women in the capital still wear. For the young women at Zan TV they are relics, a reminder of a Taliban-ruled past that few of them can recall.

Their generation is the most vulnerable, and perhaps the most defiant, as the United States and the Taliban near a deal on ending America’s longest war. Worried about losing what they’ve gained over nearly two decades, they are demanding a voice in high-level talks to determine their country’s future.

“For me, I will not submit myself to the Taliban,” said Shogofa Sadiqi, Zan TV’s 25-year-old chief director, who believes the insurgent group will have less impact as it faces a new generation. She described the burqas as a symbol of the challenges women have faced over the years and practically shuddered when asked if she’d worn one herself. Never, ever. “I don’t like it,” she said, switching to English to make her feelings clear.

About two-thirds of Afghanistan’s population is 25 or younger, with little or no memory of life before 2001. That’s when a U.S.-led invasion pushed out the Taliban, who had sheltered al-Qaida and its leader Osama bin Laden before the 9/11 attacks and imposed a harsh form of Islamic law that kept women out of public view.

Now this young generation watches as U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad negotiates a troop withdrawal in return for Taliban assurances on countering terror groups. With talks focusing on security, little else is assured. Few know what the Taliban are thinking or what they will do as international forces leave and the world’s attention moves on.

The insurgent group has recovered from its defeat and now controls roughly half of Afghanistan. With its position stronger than ever it has rejected negotiations with the Afghan government, though intra-Afghan talks on political and security issues are meant to follow a U.S.-Taliban deal. The Taliban could join the government.

As for women’s rights in this still highly conservative country, the U.S. has said it will be left for Afghans to decide.

For Karishma Naz, a 23-year-old music presenter on Zan TV — “Woman TV” in the Dari language — the uncertainty is unsettling. She doubts the Taliban have changed their beliefs and imagines two options if the “dark days” return: she will stay at home by force or leave the country, an option unavailable for many young Afghan women.

“Why are there no women to represent and defend us?” Naz asked, worried about losing the career in front of the camera that she’d wished for as a child. But as the seconds counted down to her live broadcast she adjusted her pink headscarf, straightened up and put on a smile.

Her generation has seen Afghan women become street artists, CEOs, a member of the Supreme Court and the first female winner of the televised talent show “Afghan Star.” Young Afghan women have formed an all-female orchestra and competed in the Olympics. A woman opened the country’s first yoga studio, another leads the state-run film production company and a third held a Kabul street concert with her rock band earlier this year.

They have equal rights under the post-2001 constitution, but reality often lags behind. Women still have to stand up to conservative relatives, community members and judgmental strangers. A bill criminalizing violence against women still hasn’t been passed.

Little has changed in areas controlled by the Taliban, who have said girls can be educated and even work in politics and the judiciary, though not as president or chief justice.

“This research could not identify a single girls’ secondary school open in an area of heavy Taliban influence or control,” said a report last year by the Overseas Development Institute, which interviewed more than 160 Taliban fighters, officials and civilians in seven of the country’s 34 provinces.

Maryam Sama, a 27-year-old member of Parliament, said much still needs to be done even in areas under government control. About half of all girls in Afghanistan still don’t attend school, more than half are married before age 19 and domestic violence is widespread despite billions of dollars in humanitarian aid since 2001.

“But if we turn into an Islamic emirate we will have no voice,” Sama said, referring to the Taliban’s name for its self-styled government. “If anything happens in Afghanistan, if anything goes wrong, all the responsibility goes back to the United States and the people at this (negotiating) table.”

One of the few women who spoke with Taliban leaders during their meetings with representatives of Afghan society this year in Moscow and Qatar is former lawmaker Fawzia Koofi, who pushed past her uncomfortable memories of the Taliban’s rule to attend in the interest of peace.

Taliban representatives told her they regretted many things that had occurred and said women were forced to stay at home because of the insecurity at the time. She didn’t believe it.

The Taliban still don’t support women’s rights according to international principles, she said. A Taliban statement at the Moscow talks said the group is committed to women’s rights within the framework of Islam “and then Afghan tradition.” It also criticized immorality and indecency “under the name of women’s rights.”

“I think the new generation of people in Afghanistan will not be able to accept this kind of approach,” Koofi said.

She told the Taliban that a girl born in the final months of their rule would now be 18. “She knows how to use all the technology and the opportunities of the world, and if you try to oppress her or deprive her of her rights, definitely she will use her abilities to inform the world,” she recalled during an interview.

Then she excused herself for a meeting, one that was a reminder of how fragile Afghan women’s gains can be.

A young former TV presenter was shot dead on her way to work in Kabul earlier this year. Her parents accused her husband, and they told Koofi they’ve faced attacks from people angry that he, the man, was blamed. Could she help?

President Michel Aoun said Monday that Lebanon had a right to defend itself, likening Israeli drone strikes to a “declaration of war” amid rising tensions between the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement and Israel.

Israel’s military said its northern command was on high alert at the borders with Syria and Lebanon, as Lebanon’s Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri urged diplomats to help prevent an escalation.

After two drones crashed Sunday in Beirut’s southern suburbs, which are dominated by Hezbollah, the heavily armed movement warned Israel to await a response.

In a Sunday speech, the leader of Hezbollah, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, issued the toughest threats to his enemy in years and said the drones had launched a “new phase.”

While Israel has not claimed the Beirut drone attack, Nasrallah deemed it the first Israeli attack inside Lebanon since the two sides fought a deadly month-long war in 2006.

Only hours later, a Palestinian faction said Israeli drones had struck a military position it holds in Lebanon’s Bekaa valley before dawn Monday.

“What happened was similar to a declaration of war which allows us to resort to our right to defending our sovereignty,” the Lebanese president’s office quoted Aoun, a political ally of Hezbollah, as saying Monday on Twitter. “We are a people seeking peace, not war, and we don’t accept anyone threatening us in any war.”

Aoun discussed the “Israeli assault” with the country’s United Nations Special Coordinator Jan Kubis on Monday, the presidency said. He told Kubis the attacks in the Dahyeh suburbs and in the Bekaa violated U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701 that ended the July 2006 war.

Aoun and Hariri called for Lebanon’s Higher Defense Council to meet Tuesday.

‘Blatant violation’

Hariri said his government wants to avoid a “dangerous escalation” of tensions with Israel. But this requires the international community rejecting Israel’s “blatant violation,” he told ambassadors from the U.N. Security Council’s five permanent members.

The Western-backed Hariri, whose coalition cabinet includes Hezbollah, told the diplomats their countries must help to preserve stability in Lebanon. “Any escalation could develop into a regional cycle of violence that nobody can predict the extent of,” he said.

Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz said his country remained vigilant about the possibility of a Hezbollah attack under orders from its regional arch-foe Iran.

“Undoubtedly, the situation is tense. One does not know what a new day will bring,” Steinitz, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet, said in a video interview with Israel’s YNet news website.

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said he spoke on Monday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and reiterated U.S. support for Israel.

Had a great conversation with Prime Minister

A coalition of 19 states and the District of Columbia, led by California and Massachusetts, said on Monday they will sue the Trump administration to stop a sweeping new rule to indefinitely detain migrant families seeking to settle in the United States.

The lawsuit, which is to be filed in federal court in California, will be only the first of what is expected to be a flurry of lawsuits aimed at blocking the rule, officially published on Friday, from taking effect in October.

However, the Trump administration’s effort to overturn a two-decade-old legal settlement limiting how long migrant children can be detained is likely to face more than just legal hurdles.

Even if the courts allow the rule to take effect, there are also practical problems: paying for thousands of additional family detention beds.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has only three family detention facilities — two in Texas and one in Pennsylvania — that have between 2,500 and 3,000 beds, Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Kevin McAleenan said in announcing the new rule last week.

More than 42,000 families, mostly from Central America, were arrested along the U.S. southern border just last month. The July arrest numbers are at record highs, even though they have dropped more than half compared with levels seen in May.

“Even if the number of border crossings doesn’t go back up in the fall, all this (new rule) would enable them to do is to detain a relatively small percentage of the arriving families for longer,” said Kevin Landy, a former ICE assistant director responsible for the Office of Detention Policy and Planning under the Obama administration.

Shawn Neudauer, a spokesman for ICE, said the agency could not comment on potential increases to the agency’s detention capacity.

The new rule seeks to scrap the 1997 agreement, known as the Flores settlement, which puts a 20-day limit on how long children can be held in immigration detention. 

The court overseeing the settlement expanded its interpretation in 2015 to apply not just to unaccompanied children but also to children traveling with their parents.

Trump administration officials have said the detention limits have become a “pull” factor for migrants who bet that if they show up at the U.S.-Mexico border with a child and ask for asylum, they will be quickly let go to wait for a hearing in U.S. immigration court. Trump has decried this as a “catch-and-release” practice.

Without more space, that practice is likely to continue, Landy said. “The longer they keep those families, the fewer new arrivals they can detain, which means the Border Patrol is releasing more people overall” while a small percentage of families suffer the impacts of prolonged detention, he said.

Funding questions 

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said in a statement on Monday that the rule is unlawful and “callously puts at risk the safety and well-being of children.”

McAleenan last week said ICE’s family facilities meet “high standards” including appropriate medical, educational, recreational and dining operations and private housing.

Setting up those types of “family residential centers,” as the agency calls them, can be more expensive than facilities dedicated only to adults.

Congress mandates how much ICE can spend on immigration detention, and the 2019 budget has $2.8 billion earmarked to pay for 49,500 beds for solo adults — but only 2,500 beds for parents and children.

However, ICE is currently detaining more than 55,000 immigrants, a record high, a small percentage of them at family facilities, according to agency statistics.

The Department of Homeland Security has been able to stretch its budget by reprogramming funds from other areas to pay for more detention, but there are limits on how much money it can move without congressional approval.

Democrats in Congress are trying to put more limits on ICE’s detention spending for the next fiscal year.

Congresswoman Nita Lowey, a New York Democrat who chairs the U.S. House of Representatives’ Appropriations Committee, said the aim of proposed controls in the 2020 budget is to “tighten the reins on the administration’s practice of transferring funds for purposes other than those intended by Congress, including the dramatic expansion of interior immigration enforcement.”

ICE has also had a hard time finding communities willing to accept the construction of facilities in their backyards, said Theresa Cardinal Brown, a former policy adviser at U.S. Customs and Border Protection now at the Washington-based Bipartisan Policy Center.

It is also not clear how the family detention rule will work with another Trump administration policy pushing thousands of Central American families back to Mexico to wait out their U.S. court hearings there instead of in the United States, she said. 

“They are putting out policies without having an operational plan in place,” said Cardinal Brown. “It’s a throwing-spaghetti-against-the-wall-type approach.”

More than 85,000 Venezuelan migrants crossed into Ecuador from Colombia in the last month, ahead of new visa restrictions from Quito that took effect Monday, the Colombian government said.

The number of migrants entering Ecuador at the Rumichaca border crossing reached 11,000 over the weekend, an uptick of 30% compared to normal traffic, according to figures from Colombia’s migration agency.

Colombia is home to some 1.4 million Venezuelans who have fled a deep political and economic crisis that has caused long-running shortages of food and medicine. Hundreds of thousands of others have passed through the country on their way to Ecuador, Peru, Chile and other destinations.

Ecuador will now require a visa for Venezuelan citizens, part of stricter immigration policies being implemented in several countries.

The new rule will not stop people from migrating out of necessity, but will instead increase the number of people using informal crossings, Colombia’s Foreign Minister Carlos Holmes Trujillo said in a statement.

“The passage of migrants through unauthorized areas, the so-called ‘shortcuts,’ boosts crime and human trafficking, putting people at risk,” said Trujillo. “It also stops the state from identifying the population that is entering, meaning migration figures are not known with certainty and necessary policies cannot be implemented to tend to that population.”

Unlike its neighbors, Colombia has not put in place stringent immigration requirements, instead encouraging migrants who entered the country informally to register with authorities so they can access health care, school places and other social services. 

Colombia said this month it would give citizenship to more than 24,000 children born in the country to Venezuelan migrant parents, to prevent the children from being stateless and less able to access public services.

Some 320,000 Venezuelans currently live in Ecuador. The government estimates that figure could increase to nearly half a million by the end of the year.

US President Donald Trump said Monday he had no need to help mediate between Pakistan and India over tensions in disputed Kashmir because Prime Minister Narendra Modi feels he has it “under control”.

On August 5 Modi’s Hindu-nationalist government revoked the autonomy of the Muslim-majority territory where tens of thousands of people have been killed in an uprising against Indian rule since 1989, most of them civilians.

Earlier this month, Trump said he was ready to step in, but at a meeting with Modi at the G7 in France, Trump said “the prime minister really feels he has it under control”.

Trump added he and Modi spoke about Kashmir “at great length” on Sunday.

New Delhi’s contentious decision angered Pakistan, which has fought two wars with India over the region, and Prime Minister Imran Khan said Monday he would continue fighting for the rights of Kashmiris.

Khan said he planned to embark on a diplomatic tour soon to raise the issue in international forums including the UN General Assembly in September.

“I will tour the world and tell them what is happening… the Modi government is pursuing a policy which brought havoc globally in the past,” Khan said in a televised broadcast.

“Many Muslim governments, which are not openly supporting us due to their business interests, will sooner or later support our position… It is imperative that we should stand by Kashmiris. We should give a message to Kashmiris that we are with them.”

Fallen movie mogul Harvey Weinstein pleaded not guilty to two new charges of sexual predatory assault Monday as a judge postponed his trial until next year.

Weinstein, already indicted over two sexual assault allegations, was slapped with the additional counts in a new indictment put before a court in New York.

Judge James Burke postponed the start of the trial from next month to January 6, 2020 to give Weinstein’s defense time to prepare.

Weinstein, 67, laughed and said “not really” when the judge asked him whether he wanted to go to trial.

It was not immediately clear if the new indictment contained accusations by new women.

Once one of the most powerful men in Hollywood, Weinstein has been accused of harassment and assault by more than 80 women, including stars such as Angelina Jolie and Ashley Judd.

But the “Pulp Fiction” producer has only faced charges involving two women — one who alleges he raped her in 2013, the other who claims he forcibly performed oral sex on her in 2006.

New York prosecutors announced on Thursday that they had filed a new indictment against the 67-year-old. The original accusations against him were a catalyst for America’s #MeToo movement.

According to U.S. media, the new indictment will include testimony from actress Annabella Sciorra, known for her appearances in the hit television series “The Sopranos.”

Sciorra helped trigger the #MeToo movement in October 2017 when she told The New Yorker magazine that Weinstein raped her at her home in Manhattan in 1993.  

Weinstein has always insisted his sexual relationships were consensual and is again expected to enter a not guilty plea on Monday.

Sciorra reportedly approached prosecutors too late for her allegations to be included in the original indictment, The New York Times reported, citing a letter written by the prosecutor in charge of the case.

The judge denied a prosecution request that Sciorra be allowed to give evidence at Weinstein’s trial because she had not testified before a grand jury as is procedure under U.S. law.

Prosecutors hope the new indictment will allow her to testify. The number of accusers appearing in court can influence the verdict, as seen in the 2018 conviction of Bill Cosby.

Weinstein’s lawyers have denounced the new indictment as a “desperate” last-minute move and are expected to ask for the indictment to be dismissed.

His attorneys have also asked for the trial to be moved, arguing that intense coverage in New York’s tabloids has meant he won’t get a fair trial.

A decision will also likely come Monday but the request is expected to be rejected.

 

U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday he would likely host the 2020 G-7 summit at one of his properties, the Trump National Doral Golf Club resort in Florida.

No final decision has been made for next year’s venue, when it is the U.S.’s turn to stage the annual gathering. But Trump, who often touts the beauty and amenities of his clubs and hotels, says the posh, palm tree setting would be perfect for meetings with the leaders of France, Germany, Italy, Britain, Japan and Canada.

He said other leaders “love the location of the hotel, they also like the fact is it right next to the airport for convenience. And it is Miami, Doral, Miami, so it is a great area,” he said as this year’s summit in the Atlantic coastal town of Biarritz, France wound down. “We haven’t had anything that could even come close to competing with it, especially when you look at the location.”

The club’s web site touts “a new generation of style and service,” and has four golf courses, including the “Blue Monster” that has hosted major championships in the past and charges golfers $250 to play an 18-hole round.

Other G7 leaders have often staged the summits they hosted in locales far removed from major cities, to promote the natural beauty of the sites, such as at the three G7 gatherings Trump has attended in Italy, Canada and France.

“So many places are so far away, the drive is so long, they need helicopters,” Trump said. Doral “is somewhere you can be at within minutes of landing.”

Even so, he praised the setting in Biarritz, saying, “We can learn from what they did here, even architecturally, the way the rooms were set up and designed.”

Trump critics have often attacked him for maintaining ownership of his vast global real estate empire during his presidency and promoting it, even as he has turned over its management to his two oldest sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump.

Government watchdogs have criticized the fact that foreign governments frequently book their diplomats at Trump’s hotel in downtown Washington blocks from the White House, so they are effectively paying the U.S. leader for a place to sleep.

But the Trump Organization, the president’s corporation, says it donates profits – $151,470 last year –  from the hotel revenues generated by the foreign nationals to the U.S. Treasury.

The Trump Organization says it makes the donation so as not to violate the U.S. Constitution’s prohibition against foreign governments giving “emoluments” – foreign gifts and money – to American presidents without Congress’ permission.

Immigrants, including sex workers, in Botswana could get a lifeline as the southern African country’s cabinet is due to decide on offering free Anti-Retroviral (ARV) treatment to foreigners. An estimated 30,000 migrants in the diamond rich country are HIV positive. Mqondisi Dube has more from Gaborone.