A life-size rough wooden sculpture of U.S. first lady Melania Trump was unveiled Friday near her hometown of Sevnica in southeastern Slovenia.

Commissioned by Berlin-based American artist Brad Downey and carved with a chainsaw by local folk artist Ales Zupevc, the statue serves as a — perhaps wry — accompaniment to Downey’s exhibition in the capital Ljubljana exploring Melania’s roots in the small Alpine country.

The blocky, rustic figure was cut from the trunk of a living linden tree — whose base forms a tall plinth — in a field beside the Sava River in the village of Rozno, 8 km (5 miles) from Sevnica.

There is no attempt at an accurate likeness, to the point where the gallery in Ljubljana appears uncertain how seriously to take the statue.

“Perhaps we are simply trying vigorously to make sense of things that might only be a slapstick prank,” it says in a leaflet. “Who knows?”

Although the statue’s face is rough-hewn and unrecognizable, the figure is shown clothed in the pale blue wraparound coat that Melania wore at Donald Trump’s inauguration as U.S. president.

Downey said he wanted to “have a dialogue with my country’s political situation” and highlight Melania Trump’s status as an immigrant married to a president sworn to reduce immigration.

The sculptor, known as Maxi, was born in the same hospital as Melania Trump, in the same month, and now mostly works as a pipe-layer.

“Let’s face it,” he says in a short film being shown as part of the exhibition, “she owns half of America while I have nothing.”

Democratic 2020 hopeful Elizabeth Warren says that if elected president she would sign executive orders aimed at addressing the wage and employment leadership gap for women of color, punishing companies and contractors with historically poor records on diversity and equality by denying them contracts with the federal government.

The Massachusetts senator detailed her latest plan Friday in a post on Medium, positioning her ideas as moral and economic imperatives.

It’s the latest in a parade of proposals that have become a trademark of her 2020 Democratic presidential bid and helped boost her in the primary polls, particularly among black women.

“Our economy should be working just as hard for women of color as women of color work for our economy and their families,” Warren wrote. “For decades, the government has helped perpetuate the systemic discrimination that has denied women of color equal opportunities. It’s time for the government to try to right those wrongs — and boost our economy in the process.”

Warren’s plan comes on the eve of her appearance at Essence Fest, an annual music and cultural conference that is the largest gathering of black women in the country, with an expected 500,000 attendees. Also expected to speak this weekend at the conference in New Orleans are 2020 contenders Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Beto O’Rourke and Pete Buttigieg.

The proposals by Warren, who also posted to the Essence website, are aimed not only at black women but also at Latina, Asian and Native American women.

Additional details

To address the underrepresentation of women of color in leadership in the federal workforce, Warren says she would issue an order to recruit from historically black colleges and other minority-serving institutions; establish paid fellowships for federal jobs for minority and low-income applicants, including formerly incarcerated people; and require federal agencies to incorporate diversity into their strategic plans and mentorship efforts.

Another order targets companies and contractors disproportionately employing women of color. Under the proposal, Warren would ban companies seeking federal contracts from using forced arbitration and non-compete clauses, which she argues make it more difficult for employees to fight wage theft, discrimination and harassment, issues particularly affecting minority women. 

Contractors also would be banned from asking applicants for past salary information and criminal histories and would have to pay a $15 minimum hourly wage and offer benefits including paid family leave, fair scheduling and collective bargaining rights to all employees.
 

President Donald Trump on Friday said he may issue an executive order in an effort to add
a contentious citizenship question to the 2020 U.S. census as
his administration faces a Friday afternoon court deadline to
reveal its plans.

“We’re working on a lot of things including an executive order,” Trump told reporters outside the White House as he left for his resort in Bedminster, New Jersey. He also suggested that a query about citizenship could be added at a later date even if it is not on the questionnaire
currently being printed.

Maryland-based U.S. District Court Judge George Hazel wants the administration to state its intentions by 2 p.m.

A White House spokesman said on Thursday that officials are examining “every option” available to add the query to the decennial population survey. Trump administration officials have been scrambling in the aftermath of a Supreme Court ruling on June 27 that blocked the
inclusion of the question, saying administration officials had given a “contrived” rationale for including it. But the court left open the possibility that the administration could offer a
plausible rationale.

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross on Tuesday said the Census Bureau had started the process of printing the census questionnaires without the citizenship query, giving the
impression that the administration had backed down.

But Trump then ordered a policy reversal via tweet on Wednesday, saying he would fight on, although the government has said the printing process continues.

The census is used to allot seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and distribute some $800 billion in federal services, including public schools, Medicaid benefits, law
enforcement and highway repairs.

Critics have called the citizenship question a Republican ploy to scare immigrants into not participating and engineer a population undercount in Democratic-leaning areas with high
immigrant populations. They say that officials lied about their motivations for adding the question and that the move would help Trump’s fellow Republicans gain seats in the House and state
legislatures when new electoral district boundaries are drawn.

Trump and his supporters say it makes sense to know how many non-citizens are living in the country. His hard-line policies on immigration have been a key element of his presidency and
2020 re-election campaign.

A group of states including New York and immigrant rights organizations challenged the legality of the citizenship question, arguing among other things that the U.S. Constitution
requires congressional districts to be distributed based on a count of “the whole number of persons in each state” with no reference to citizenship. Three different federal judges blocked the administration before the Supreme Court intervened.

The Supreme Court ruled that in theory the government can ask about citizenship on the census, but rejected the rationale given by the Trump administration for adding.

The administration had originally told the courts the question was needed to better enforce a law that protects the voting rights of racial minorities. Administration officials had repeatedly told the Supreme Court they needed to finalize the details of the census questionnaire by the end of June.

Even if a citizenship question is not included, the Census Bureau is still able to gather data on citizenship, which the Trump administration could provide to states when they are
drawing new electoral districts.

 

 

Norwegian authorities say a joint Norwegian-Russian expedition will assess whether a Russian submarine that sank 30 years ago is leaking radioactive material.

The Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority say a Norwegian research vessel will set off Saturday from Tromsoe, northern Norway, to the Arctic Barents Sea where the Komsomolets submarine sank in 1989.
 
Forty-two of its 69 crewmen died in a fire, and the submarine’s nuclear reactor and two nuclear warheads are still on board.

The agency said Friday that a remote-controlled submersible would be used and the work “would be demanding” as “lies deep” at about 1,700 meters (5,610 feet)  
 
Norway has found elevated concentrations of the radioactive substance cesium-137 around the wreck but said the levels were barely detectable and presented no danger.

 

Thousands of Algerians took to the streets Friday to demand new democratic leadership and celebrate their country’s hard-fought independence from colonial France.

 Amid extra-high security and resurgent anger at authorities, crowds wearing Algerian flags on their shoulders, heads and waists poured into the capital Algiers for Friday’s protest on what is a national holiday to mark Algeria’s 1962 independence.

It’s the 20th straight week of demonstrations in a revolt that helped drive out longtime President Abdelaziz Bouteflika in April.

Protesters were also venting their indignation at the arrests last week of several activists brandishing Berber emblems and of Lakhdar Bouregaa, a veteran of Algeria’s independence war.

Authorities accused the activists of threatening Algeria’s unity by celebrating Berber identity. They also say the 82-year-old veteran is damaging the army’s morale by criticizing the powerful military chief.

At Friday’s march, authorities deployed an unusually large number of police, who confiscated Berber flags from protesters entering the city. Police surrounded the plaza at the central post office that has been a nucleus of the revolt.

Protesters hope Friday’s demonstration breathes new life into the movement, which is divided over how to achieve lasting change. 
 
“Yes to a civilian state! No to a military dictatorship” read one sign; another read “No dialogue with traitors,” in reference to an appeal this week by interim President Abdelkader Bensalah for dialogue to calm the uprising. 
 

President Donald Trump celebrated the story of America as “the greatest political journey in human history” in a Fourth of July commemoration before a soggy but cheering crowd of spectators, many of them invited, on the grounds of the Lincoln Memorial. Supporters welcomed his tribute to the U.S. military while protesters assailed him for putting himself center stage on a holiday devoted to unity.

As rain fell on him, Trump called on Americans to “stay true to our cause” during a program that adhered to patriotic themes and hailed an eclectic mix of history’s heroes, from the armed forces, space, civil rights and other endeavors of American life.

He largely stuck to his script, avoiding diversions into his agenda or re-election campaign. But in one exception, he vowed, “Very soon, we will plant the American flag on Mars,” actually a distant goal not likely to be achieved until late in the 2020s if even then.

Crowd-drenching downpour

A late afternoon downpour drenched the capital’s Independence Day crowds and Trump’s speech unfolded in occasional rain. The warplanes and presidential aircraft he had summoned conducted their flyovers as planned, capped by the Navy Blue Angels aerobatics team.

By adding his own, one-hour “Salute to America” production to capital festivities that typically draw hundreds of thousands anyway, Trump became the first president in nearly seven decades to address a crowd at the National Mall on the Fourth of July.

Protesters objecting to what they saw as his co-opting of the holiday inflated a roly-poly balloon depicting Trump as an angry, diaper-clad baby.

Trump set aside a historic piece of real estate — a stretch of the Mall from the Lincoln Monument to the midpoint of the reflecting pool — for a mix of invited military members, Republican and Trump campaign donors and other bigwigs. It’s where Martin Luther King Jr. gave his “I have a dream” speech, Barack Obama and Trump held inaugural concerts and protesters swarmed into the water when supporters of Richard Nixon put on a July 4, 1970, celebration, with the president sending taped remarks from California.

Aides to the crowd-obsessed Trump fretted about the prospect of empty seats at his event, said a person familiar with the planning who was not authorized to be identified. Aides scrambled in recent days to distribute tickets and mobilize the Trump and GOP social media accounts to encourage participation for an event hastily arranged and surrounded with confusion.

Back at the White House, Trump tweeted an aerial photo showing an audience that filled both sides of the memorial’s reflecting pool and stretched to the Washington Monument. “A great crowd of tremendous Patriots this evening, all the way back to the Washington Monument!” he said.

Many who filed into the sprawling VIP section said they got their free tickets from members of Congress or from friends or neighbors who couldn’t use theirs. Outside that zone, a diverse mix of visitors, locals, veterans, tour groups, immigrant families and more milled about, some drawn by Trump, some by curiosity, some by the holiday’s regular activities along the Mall.

Protesters earlier made their voices heard in sweltering heat by the Washington Monument, along the traditional parade route and elsewhere, while the VIP section at the reflecting pool served as something of a buffer for Trump’s event.

In the shadow of the Washington Monument hours before Trump’s speech, the anti-war organization Codepink erected a 20-foot tall “Trump baby” balloon to protest what activists saw as his intrusion in Independence Day and a focus on military might that they associate with martial regimes.

“We think that he is making this about himself and it’s really a campaign rally,” said Medea Benjamin, the organization’s co-director. “We think that he’s a big baby. … He’s erratic, he’s prone to tantrums, he doesn’t understand the consequences of his actions. And so this is a great symbol of how we feel about our president.”

The balloon remained tied down at the Mall because park officials restricted the group’s permission to move it or fill it with helium, Benjamin said.

Protesters also handed out small Trump-baby balloons on sticks. Molly King of La Porte, Indiana, a 13-year-old Trump supporter in sunglasses and a “Make America Great Again” hat, happily came away with one.

“They’re making a big stink about it but it’s actually pretty cute,” she said. “I mean, why not love your president as you’d love a baby?”

A small crowd gathered to take pictures with the big balloon, which drew Trump supporters and detractors.

“Even though everybody has different opinions,” said Kevin Malton, a Trump supporter from Middlesboro, Kentucky, “everybody’s getting along.”

But Daniela Guray, a 19-year-old from Chicago who held a “Dump Trump” sign, said she was subjected to a racial epithet while walking along the Constitution Avenue parade route and told to go home.

She said she did not come to the Mall to protest but ended up doing so. “I started seeing all the tanks with all the protests and that’s when I said, ‘Wait, this is not an actual Fourth of July,”’ she said. “Trump is making it his day rather than the Fourth of July.”

What it cost

Trump had sounded a defensive note Wednesday, tweeting that the cost “will be very little compared to what it is worth.” But he glossed over a host of expenses associated with the display of military might, including flying in planes and tanks and other vehicles to Washington by rail.

Not since 1951, when President Harry Truman spoke before a large gathering on the Washington Monument grounds to mark the 175th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, has a commander in chief made an Independence Day speech to a sizable crowd on the Mall.

Pete Buttigieg, one of the Democrats running for president, said, “This business of diverting money and military assets to use them as a kind of prop, to prop up a presidential ego, is not reflecting well on our country.” Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, is a Navy Reserve veteran who served in Afghanistan in 2014.

Investigation called for

Two groups, the National Parks Conservation Foundation and Democracy Forward, want the Interior Department’s internal watchdog to investigate what they say may be a “potentially unlawful decision to divert” national parks money to Trump’s “spectacle.”

Trump has longed for a public display of U.S. military prowess ever since he watched a two-hour procession of French military tanks and fighter jets in Paris on Bastille Day in July 2017.

Washington has held an Independence Day celebration for decades, featuring a parade along Constitution Avenue, a concert on the Capitol lawn with music by the National Symphony Orchestra and fireworks beginning at dusk near the Washington Monument.

Trump altered the lineup by adding his speech, moving the fireworks closer to the Lincoln Memorial and summoning the tanks and warplanes.

Amid all the theatrics, Trump did pay tribute to the reason for the holiday, the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. “With a single sheet of parchment and 56 signatures,” Trump said, “America began the greatest political journey in human history.”

The stepson of Malaysian ex-Prime Minister Najib Razak pleaded not guilty Friday to laundering $248 million from the 1MDB state investment fund, becoming the third person in his family to face charges in the scandal.

Hollywood producer Riza Aziz was freed on bail a day after being detained by anti-graft officials. He was solemn as he appeared in court to be charged with receiving the illicit funds between 2011 and 2012 in the U.S. and Singapore. The charge sheets said the money was misappropriated from 1MDB and channeled into bank accounts of his Hollywood company Red Granite Pictures Inc., which produced films including the Martin Scorsese-directed “The Wolf of Wall Street.”

Riza, 42, was charged with five counts of money laundering, and he could face up to five years in prison, a fine or both, on each count if he is convicted.

Three family members charged

Najib set up the 1MDB fund to finance development in Malaysia, but it accumulated billions in debts and U.S. investigators allege at least $4.5 billion was stolen from the fund and laundered by Najib’s associates.

Public anger over the alleged corruption contributed to the shocking election defeat of Najib’s long-ruling coalition last year, and the new government reopened investigations that had been stifled while Najib was in office.

Najib is on trial for alleged criminal breach of trust, abuse of power and money laundering linked to 1MDB. He denies the charges. His wife and Riza’s mother, Rosmah Mansor, also has pleaded not guilty to money laundering and tax evasion related to 1MDB but her trial date has not been set.

Questioned a year ago

Riza’s arraignment came a year after he was questioned by Malaysia’s anti-graft agency. U.S. investigators say Red Granite used money stolen from 1MDB to finance Hollywood films. Red Granite has paid the U.S. government $60 million to settle claims it benefited from the 1MDB scandal, and the U.S. returned the money to Malaysia.

Riza’s sister, Nooryana Najwa, has slammed the legal action against her brother.

“Despite the settlement in the U.S. and the fact that alleged wrongdoings occurred entirely outside of Malaysia, the MACC decides to press charges after a whole year of leaving this case in cold storage. He is not a criminal,” she wrote on Instagram, accompanied by a picture of her with Riza taken before his arrest.

Two new brush fires broke out overnight on the Greek island of Evia, forcing the evacuation of four villages, authorities said Friday.

The new wildfires came several hours after a major blaze led to the mobilization of more than 100 firefighters and the evacuation of another village. Firefighters managed to limit the spread of the initial fire, which was burning woodland and agricultural areas, but difficult terrain and high temperatures hampered their efforts to extinguish it. 

The fire department said that a 64-year-old man had been arrested on suspicion of starting the first fire by using a naked flame to burn dried weeds near his house. The man will appear before a prosecutor in court Friday.

The two new fires broke out simultaneously shortly before midnight Thursday, authorities said. A total of 255 firefighters, four water-dropping planes and three helicopters along with 100 vehicles and earth-moving machinery were battling the three fires.

Wildfires are common in Greece during the hot, dry summer months. Last year, the country’s deadliest fire killed 101 people in a seaside settlement outside of Athens.
 

Sudan’s ruling military council and a coalition of opposition and protest groups reached an agreement to share power during a transition period leading to elections, setting off street celebrations by thousands of people.

The two sides, which have held talks in Khartoum for the past two days, agreed to “establish a sovereign council by rotation between the military and civilians for a period of three years or slightly more,” African Union mediator Mohamed Hassan Lebatt said at a news conference.

They also agreed to form an independent technocratic government and to launch a transparent, independent investigation into violent events in recent weeks.

The two sides agreed to postpone the establishment of a legislative council. They had previously agreed that the Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC) coalition would take two-thirds of a legislative council’s seats before security forces crushed a sit-in protest June 3, killing dozens, and talks collapsed.

Joy in the streets

The streets of Omdurman, Khartoum’s twin city across the Nile River, erupted in celebration when the news broke, a Reuters witness said. Thousands of people of all ages took to the streets, chanting “Civilian! Civilian! Civilian!”

Young men banged drums, people honked their car horns, and women carrying Sudanese flags ululated in jubilation.

“This agreement opens the way for the formation of the institutions of the transitional authority, and we hope that this is the beginning of a new era,” said Omar al-Degair, a leader of the FFC.

“We would like to reassure all political forces, armed movements and all those who participated in the change from young men and women — that this agreement will be comprehensive and will not exclude anyone,” said General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, deputy head of the Transitional Military Council.

“We thank the African and Ethiopian mediators for their efforts and patience. We also thank our brothers in the Forces for Freedom and Change for the good spirit,” said Dagalo, who heads the Rapid Support Forces accused by the FFC of crushing the sit-in.

Opposition medics say more than 100 people were killed in the dispersal and subsequent violence. The government put the death toll at 62.

Sudan’s ruling military council and a coalition of opposition and protest groups reached an agreement to share power during a transition period leading to elections, setting off street celebrations by thousands of people.

The two sides, which have held talks in Khartoum for the past two days, agreed to “establish a sovereign council by rotation between the military and civilians for a period of three years or slightly more,” African Union mediator Mohamed Hassan Lebatt said at a news conference.

They also agreed to form an independent technocratic government and to launch a transparent, independent investigation into violent events in recent weeks.

The two sides agreed to postpone the establishment of a legislative council. They had previously agreed that the Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC) coalition would take two-thirds of a legislative council’s seats before security forces crushed a sit-in protest June 3, killing dozens, and talks collapsed.

Joy in the streets

The streets of Omdurman, Khartoum’s twin city across the Nile River, erupted in celebration when the news broke, a Reuters witness said. Thousands of people of all ages took to the streets, chanting “Civilian! Civilian! Civilian!”

Young men banged drums, people honked their car horns, and women carrying Sudanese flags ululated in jubilation.

“This agreement opens the way for the formation of the institutions of the transitional authority, and we hope that this is the beginning of a new era,” said Omar al-Degair, a leader of the FFC.

“We would like to reassure all political forces, armed movements and all those who participated in the change from young men and women — that this agreement will be comprehensive and will not exclude anyone,” said General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, deputy head of the Transitional Military Council.

“We thank the African and Ethiopian mediators for their efforts and patience. We also thank our brothers in the Forces for Freedom and Change for the good spirit,” said Dagalo, who heads the Rapid Support Forces accused by the FFC of crushing the sit-in.

Opposition medics say more than 100 people were killed in the dispersal and subsequent violence. The government put the death toll at 62.

Government ministers from some European Union nations sought Thursday to reassure their partners in the Western Balkans during a meeting in Poland that their aspirations to join the EU have full backing in the club, despite symptoms of a loss of momentum.

German Minister of State for Europe, Michael Roth, said Berlin stands firmly by the accession process of all Western Balkans nations “because for us the Western Balkans is not the backyard of the European Union, but the inner courtyard. We are all responsible for ensuring that the prospect of EU accession remains concrete.”

Speaking in the Polish city of Poznan, which is hosting the meeting, Roth urged much more effort in that direction and the opening of accession negotiations with North Macedonia and Albania. 

Foreign, interior and economy ministers from membership candidates Montenegro, Serbia, North Macedonia and Albania, as well as potential candidates Bosnia and Kosovo, are seeking such reassurance after some European leaders raised doubts about the EU’s openness to expanding.

French President Emmanuel Macron reiterated Monday that he thinks the EU has internal work to do that takes priority over taking in new members. He said he would “refuse any kind of enlargement before a deep reform of our institutional functioning.”

Speaking Thursday in Poland, Serbia’s Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic reacted to Macron’s comments by questioning the purpose of holding such meetings “especially when some of the top European leaders are saying there’s no chance of any enlargement.”

Roth said Thursday that “only a concrete perspective that is credible and that motivates the people locally, that involves civil society, will ultimately make the necessary reforms possible” and will pave the accession road.

He said the process will stimulate development in various walks of life in the region, but that above all “it is also about regional cooperation and reconciliation,” like in the case of difficult dialogue between Serbia and Kosovo, whose relations are marked by bloodshed.

“There is still a great deal to be done,” Roth said.

Arguments for enlargement

Bulgaria’s Foreign Minister Ekaterina Sachariewa pointed to huge improvement in the strained relations her EU member country achieved with North Macedonia thanks to the accession efforts. That should serve as an inspiration and an example for overcoming other problems among Western Balkan nations.   
 
Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz said that including Western Balkans nations in the EU would increase regional stability and development and spread the EU’s values to more of Europe.  
 
He pledged 500,000 euros from Poland for a fund developing investment in the region.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister Theresa May, Polish President Andrzej Duda and Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki plan to join the gathering Friday.

Poland is hosting the summit in Poznan because it currently presides over the so-called Berlin Process that brings the Western Balkan nations together with EU member states. Initiated by Germany, the process is meant to promote EU membership for the Western Balkans although there is no set time frame.
 

Pakistan’s prime minister is expected to become the first head of state to meet the Taliban leadership since the militant group’s ouster from power in 2001. An Afghan official confirmed, on the condition of anonymity, that the move has the Afghan government’s consent. 

“It’s coordinated with the Afghan side,” the official said, adding that Pakistan was expected to brief the Afghan government after the meeting.
 
The news broke on Pakistan’s state media early Thursday.    

“Special Assistant to Prime Minister Naeem-ul-Haq has said Imran Khan will meet the Taliban leader soon for the peaceful resolution of Afghan crisis,” a story published on Radio Pakistan’s website said.  

A similar meeting was set up in February in Islamabad but was canceled at the last minute after strong objections from the Afghan government. Haq said that a recent visit by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to Pakistan, however, which both sides hailed as a success, helped in confidence-building. 

The announcement Wednesday by Haq at a conference in Islamabad came on the same day that Pakistan also confirmed that Khan is scheduled to visit Washington for three days later this month and will meet President Donald Trump on July 22. 

The development is seen in the region as signaling a thaw in a relationship that has been rocky since Trump came to power. Last year, the U.S. suspended more than $1.6 billion in security aid to Pakistan.  

Talks with Taliban

The news about Khan’s meeting also comes at a time when a U.S. team is holding its seventh round of negotiations with a Taliban delegation in Doha, Qatar. 

A Taliban spokesman, Suhail Shaheen, told Al Jazeera on Wednesday that the two sides have made “spectacular progress” during the current round and completed “80 to 90 percent” of the work on a draft agreement to end the conflict that started in 2001.

At the same time, an intra-Afghan dialogue in Doha, hosted jointly by the Qatari and German governments, is scheduled for July 7-8. 

Samim Arif, a deputy spokesman for Ghani, said a number of government officials will be among the 64 participants traveling from Kabul. He clarified, though, that the officials will be attending in their personal capacity.

So far, the Taliban leadership has refused to meet, in an official capacity, with the representatives of a government it calls a “puppet” of the Americans.

Atif Mashal, Afghanistan’s ambassador to Pakistan, said keeping the government on board was key to progress in the peace process.  

“If there is a dialogue between Afghans, in the region or outside, we have no problem with it. But, it will not help unless it has a clear agenda and is coordinated with the Afghan government,” said Atif Mashal, Afghanistan’s ambassador to Pakistan. 

Doha participants

He emphasized, however, that in case of “negotiations,” the Afghan government had to be a key participant. 

The list of participants attending the Doha meeting includes women, civil society activists, and representatives of Afghan journalists.

Haji Deen Mohamamd, a deputy of the High Peace Council in Afghanistan, said four deputies of the High Council, as well as former national security adviser Dr. Rangeen Spanta and former deputy foreign minister Hekmat Khalil Karzai, also will attend.

Former President Hamed Karzai, who led a similar conference in Moscow that excluded the Afghan government, will not attend the upcoming meeting, but he welcomed the intra-Afghan dialogue, according to his office. 

Saudi Arabia said Wednesday that hip-hop star Nicki Minaj would perform in the ultraconservative kingdom as it sheds decades of restrictions on entertainment. 
 
The female rapper is known for her outlandish, provocative style and hits like “Anaconda,” where she raps about her “big fat” backside. Her lyrics are often laced with profanity, and her skin-bearing music videos often include twerking. Christian groups criticized her 2012 Grammy Awards performance, which included dancing priests and an exorcism. 

Jeddah World Fest
 
Saudi organizers announced she would be the headline act at the Jeddah World Fest on July 18. The concert, which in line with Saudi laws is alcohol- and drug-free, is open to people 16 and older and will take place at the King Abdullah Sports Stadium in the Red Sea city.  
 
Reactions on social media ranged from shock and joy to criticism and disappointment. In a profanity-laced video posted on Twitter and viewed more than 37,000 times, a Saudi woman wearing a loose headscarf accuses the Saudi government of hypocrisy for inviting Minaj to perform but requiring women who attend the concert to wear the modest full-length robe known as the abaya. Most Saudi women also veil their hair and faces.  
 
“She’s going to go and shake her ass and all her songs are indecent and about sex and shaking ass and then you tell me to wear the abaya,” the Saudi woman says. “What the hell?” 
 
Saudi organizers said the concert would be broadcast globally and covered by MTV. Other performers will include British artist Liam Payne and American DJ Steve Aoki. The kingdom is also promising quick electronic visas for international visitors who want to attend.  
 
Over the past several months, the kingdom has seen performances by Mariah Carey, Enrique Iglesias, the Black Eyed Peas, rapper Sean Paul, and DJs David Guetta and Tiesto. That’s despite the widespread international backlash since October over the killing of Saudi critic and writer Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents close to the crown prince in the kingdom’s consulate in Turkey. 

Marked contrast
 
Such concerts are a stark change from when Saudi morality police would raid establishments that played loud music. 
 
Gender segregation between single men and women is still enforced in many restaurants, coffee shops, public schools and universities, but other rules have loosened, with women now allowed to drive and attend events in sports stadiums. 

Fifteen Syrian women who fled to neighboring Lebanon because of the Syrian conflict are taking up the fight against an increasing issue among young Syrian female refugees: dropping out of school and getting married.

The women, who live in the Arsal refugee camp in northern Lebanon, have established Women’s Social Rally to empower women and girls in such camps by helping them handle the burden of war and displacement. 

Supported by Lebanese aid workers and specialists, the team seeks to raise awareness among the refugees to avoid child marriage and keep girls in school.

Radwa Hassoun, the head of the women’s network, told VOA that women, particularly young girls, have paid the heaviest price of the war in Syria’s patriarchal society and continue to be vulnerable in refugee camps. Hassoun says she hopes her team can help ease the burden by empowering women to take matters into their own hands and address the daily issues they are encountering.

“We noticed that domestic violence is on the rise among the refugees,” Hassoun said. “Most importantly, there is an increase in the rates of child marriage and school dropouts, especially among young girls. Therefore, we decided to work together within the camp to combat this crisis.”

The Lebanese border town of Arsal, in the Bekaa Valley, is home to at least 6,000 Syrian refugee families. Aid groups say the refugees struggle to cope as they lack basic services.

Hassoun said harsh conditions have forced many families to pull their children out of schools and marry off their young girls as a way to escape their financial burden.
 
Throughout the Arsal camp, Women’s Social Rally works to spread awareness among girls and their families by organizing campaigns, Hassoun added. 

The group also provides psychological support for survivors of domestic violence and sexual abuse, in addition to documenting violations and registering marriages, divorces and births. 

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, since the start of the Syrian conflict in 2011, more than 560,000 civilians, including women and children, have been killed and 2 million injured. The war has also displaced more than 12 million Syrians, with about half fleeing mainly to Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon. Authorities in Beirut estimate nearly 1.5 million Syrian refugees are in Lebanon.

Child marriage

According to Girls Not Brides, a global partnership of civil society groups from 95 countries working to end child marriage, about 41% of Syrian female refugees in Lebanon married when they were under 18. It predicts many other child marriages remain undocumented given that many of these unions are not registered.

“Child marriage is the biggest challenge we are trying to face. Many of these marriages end up with divorce and young girls find themselves with children they need to take care of, and this will result in a broken family,” Hassoun said.

She said her team of activist women desperately needs a safe house where it can host abused women and their children who have been disowned by their families.

According to the Vulnerability Assessment of Syrian Refugees in Lebanon, a report published in 2018 by the World Food Program (WFP), 69% of Syrian refugees in Lebanon are living below the poverty line, while female-headed households remain more vulnerable than ones headed by males.

“Child marriage remains a concern, with three in 10 girls between the ages of 15 and 19 currently married, a notable increase of 7% from 2017,” the report said.

Providing protection

The United Nations considers child marriage a human rights violation that threatens a girl’s health and prevents her from fulfilling her potential.

Himaya, a Lebanon-based NGO that provides school programming on child abuse, self-protection and rehabilitation, has found that a majority of girls in Syrian refugee camps are married by their parents, in most cases without their knowledge.

In one case, during one of their psychosocial sessions investigating child marriage among Syrian refugees, Himaya workers interviewed a 12-year-old girl named Sarah who accidentally learned about her father’s plan to marry her off in order to repay his debts.

“Sarah told us that she didn’t want to marry and that she wanted to stay in school. But her family’s financial problems caused her to feel guilty and responsible,” Lama Yazbeck, the executive director of Himaya, told VOA.

Yazbeck said that they were able to keep Sarah in school and eventually persuade her father not to marry off his daughter at such an early age. 

“Early marriage will take its toll on girls’ overall state, especially when they haven’t fully grown physically, mentally, emotionally and psychologically. Early marriage will also hinder girls from their rights of engaging and participating in their lives,” Yazbeck warned.

A rights group is warning that a former Egyptian presidential candidate may die in prison due to medical neglect, meeting the same fate as former president Mohamed Morsi, who collapsed in court last month after having spent almost six years behind bars.

The Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies released a statement Thursday alleging that Egyptian authorities are deliberately denying Abdel-Moneim Aboul Fotouh — a viable contender in Egypt’s first genuine presidential race of 2012 — “direly-needed healthcare” for his chronic illnesses. The statement added that the 68-year-old politician was facing “imminent death.”

Aboul Fotouh was arrested in February 2018, after voicing harsh criticism of the ruling regime of president Abdel-Fattah El-Sissi. The statement says he has diabetes, hypertension and chronic heart and prostate conditions that require surgeries.

 

Some of Mexico’s federal police remain in revolt over the force’s planned dissolution and absorption into the newly created National Guard.

Striking police continued to hold a federal police command center in the Mexico City borough of Iztapalapa Thursday morning. Meanwhile, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador repeated his suggestion that rank-and-file police were being manipulated by his political adversaries.

Lopez Obrador declined to name the “dark forces” he says are responsible, but says his security secretary Alfonso Durazo will provide details later.

On Wednesday, federal police held the command center and blocked key highways around the capital. They expressed concerns about potentially losing their salaries, benefits and seniority if they transferred to the National Guard and being left unemployed if they don’t join the new force.

 

A super tanker believed to be breaching European Union sanctions by carrying a shipment of Iranian crude oil to war-ravaged Syria has been detained in Gibraltar. 

In a statement, authorities on the British overseas territory at the tip of Spain said the port and law enforcement agencies, assisted by the Royal Marines, boarded the Grace 1 early Thursday.

It added that the vessel was believed to be headed to the Baniyas Refinery in Syria, which is a government-owned facility under the control of Syrian President Bashar Assad and subject to the EU’s Syrian Sanctions Regime. 

Syrian sanctions

The EU, and others, has imposed sanctions on Assad’s regime over its continued crackdown against civilians. They currently target 270 people and 70 entities. 

The Gibraltar authorities didn’t confirm the origin of the ship’s cargo, but Lloyd’s List, a publication specialized in maritime affairs, reported this week that the Panama-flagged large carrier was laden with Iranian oil. Experts were said to have concluded that it carried oil from Iran because the tanker was not sending geographic information while in Iranian waters. According to a United Nations list, the ship is owned by the Singapore-based Grace Tankers Ltd. 

According to the data firm Refinitv, the vessel likely carried just more than 2 million barrels of Iranian crude oil. Tracking data showed that the tanker made a slow trip around the southern tip of Africa before reaching the Mediterranean.

The timing for the interdiction of the Grace 1 was politically sensitive as tensions between the U.S. and Iran grow over the unraveling of a 2015 nuclear deal with President Donald Trump’s withdrawal last year.

Iranian nuclear deal

In recent days, Iran has broken through the limit the deal put on its stockpile of low-enriched uranium and plans on Sunday to boost its enrichment. Meanwhile, oil tankers near the Strait of Hormuz have been targeted in mysterious attacks as Iranian-backed rebels in Yemen launch bomb-laden drones into Saudi Arabia. The U.S. has rushed thousands of additional troops, an aircraft carrier, B-52 bombers and F-22 fighters to the region, raising fears of a miscalculation sparking a wider conflict.
 
There was no immediate reaction from Syria, which has suffered severe fuel shortages as a result of the civil war and Western sanctions that have crippled the country’s oil industry, once the source of 20 percent of government revenues.

Iran, which has provided vital military support to Assad, extended a $3 billion credit line for oil supplies beginning in 2013 but the Iranian aid dwindled as Washington restored tough sanctions. In November, the U.S. Treasury Department added a network of Russian and Iranian companies to its blacklist for shipping oil to Syria and warned of “significant risks” for those violating the sanctions.

Fabian Picardo, Chief Minister of Gibraltar, which has in the past been a transit port for energy shipments without known buyers, said he has informed the EU about developments.

In a statement, the British government welcomed the “firm action” by authorities in Gibraltar.
 

Taliban and U.S. negotiators are scrambling to rewrite a draft agreement that will outline the withdrawal of American and NATO troops from Afghanistan and a verifiable Taliban guarantee to fight terrorism ahead of an all-Afghan peace conference Sunday.

Officials familiar with the talks, but not authorized to speak about them, say negotiations went late into the night Wednesday and were to resume again Thursday, the sixth day of direct talks between the insurgents and U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad.

Suhail Shaheen, spokesman for the Taliban’s political office in Qatar, told The Associated Press Thursday that “the talks are continuing and they will continue tomorrow as well. We have made some progress.”

Previously he said that a draft agreement was being rewritten to include agreed-upon clauses. On Thursday he said the two sides had broadened their discussion, without elaborating.

Troop withdrawal timing

Until now the two sides had been divided on the withdrawal timetable, with the United States seeking more time.

Taliban officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, earlier said the U.S. was seeking up to 18 months to complete a troop withdrawal even as U.S. President Donald Trump told Fox News earlier this week that a withdrawal had quietly begun and that troop strength had been cut to 9,000. The president’s statement has since been contradicted by a senior U.S. official, who said the force strength is unchanged at about 14,000.

Still, Trump’s statements reinforced the president’s often stated desire to leave Afghanistan and end America’s 18-year war, the longest in his country’s history.

Trump eagerness helps Taliban

His eagerness to pull out has strengthened the position of the Taliban, who effectively control half the country and won a key concession in the planning of the upcoming peace gathering, which will include no official delegation from the Afghan government.

Germany and Qatar, who are co-sponsoring the dialogue and issuing the invitations, said participants will attend “only in their personal capacity,” a condition President Ashraf Ghani has strenuously opposed. He has made no comment on Sunday’s meeting.

The Taliban have steadfastly refused to talk to Ghani’s government, calling it a U.S. puppet, but have said government officials can attend the conference as private citizens.

In a tweet Wednesday, Shaheen said 60 people will attend the peace gathering, which Khalilzad called an “essential element” in achieving a peace agreement in Afghanistan.

Atta-ul-Rahman Salim, deputy head of a government-appointed peace council, said the delegation from Kabul will include a cross-section of Afghanistan’s civil society, including women’s rights activists.

“It is a good first step to hear each other’s side,” he said.

Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who attended two previous meetings with the Taliban in Moscow, told The Associated Press he won’t be attending the Doha gathering because he will be in China. But, he added, “I fully support the coming intra-Afghan dialogue in Doha and am in the picture.”

U.S. federal courts and states that challenged the Trump administration’s decision to include a citizenship question on the country’s 2020 census are asking for clarity after the Departments of Justice and Commerce suddenly reversed what had been an acceptance of finalizing the questionnaire without inquiring about citizenship status.

The Supreme Court has ruled that the government’s reasoning for including the citizenship question did not meet standards for a clear explanation of why it should be asked during the count of people in the United States that takes place every 10 years.

The matter seemed further settled Tuesday when the DOJ and Commerce Department made public statements and comments in legal cases that the process of printing the census was going forward without a citizenship question in order to meet deadlines for carrying out the count on time.

The News Reports about the Department of Commerce dropping its quest to put the Citizenship Question on the Census is incorrect or, to state it differently, FAKE! We are absolutely moving forward, as we must, because of the importance of the answer to this question.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)