Having spent 2½ years in a government prison for collaboration with the Taliban in Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar province, Abdul Wares, 42, now mourns with his family for his son, who was killed while fighting alongside the Afghan army against the Taliban. Zabihullah Ghazi reports for VOA.

A skydiving plane crashed and burst into flames just after takeoff from a small seaside airfield on the island of Oahu, killing 11 people, officials said Saturday. 
 
Authorities initially reported that nine people died in the crash Friday evening and that three of them were customers of a skydiving company and six were employees. 
 
But the Hawaii Department of Transportation tweeted Saturday that officials later “confirmed there were 11 people on board the plane” and no survivors. The twin-engine Beechcraft King Air plane had taken off from Dillingham Airfield on the north shore of the island. 
 
The plane was operated by the Oahu Parachute Center skydiving company and the ratio of employees to customers suggested that tandem jumps may have been planned in which the customers would have jumped while attached to experienced skydivers, Tim Sakahara, a spokesman for the Hawaii Department of Transportation, told reporters. 
 
Neves described the site of the crash near the airport’s perimeter as being “quite a ways away from the runway” and said that some family members of those aboard were at the airport when the plane went down about 6:30 p.m. 
 
“In my 40 years as a firefighter here in Hawaii, this is the most tragic aircraft incident that we’ve had,” Neves said. 
 
The plane was engulfed in flames when firefighters made it to the crash site about an hour’s drive from Honolulu, Neves said. The victims were not identified. 
 
Two Federal Aviation Administration inspectors went to the crash site Friday and investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board who will investigate the crash were expected to arrive Saturday evening, said safety board spokesman Eric Weiss. 
 
The plane with two turboprop engines was manufactured in 1967, FAA records said. 
 
The phone for Oahu Parachute Center went unanswered Saturday. 
 
On its web site, the company says the jumps that it offers on Hawaii are “a magical experience. There really is no better place in the world to skydive.” Its tandem jumps are listed for prices ranging from $170 to $250. 
 
Videos from the company’s Facebook page show jumps from the same Beechcraft King Air that crashed, with customers strapped to employees and dropping from a side door of the aircraft from 10,000 feet (3,000 meters) or higher, with the Pacific Ocean and Oahu’s green mountains far below.  
  
Dillingham Airfield is used mostly for skydiving and glider flights. Hawaii shares the airfield with the Army, which uses it for helicopter night-vision training. 

Security measures were increased at one of Iraq’s largest air bases that houses American trainers following an attack last week, a top Iraqi air force commander said Saturday. The U.S. military said operations at the base were going on as usual and there were currently no plans to evacuate personnel.

The stepped-up Iraqi security measures at Balad air base, just north of the capital, Baghdad, come amid sharply rising tensions in the Middle East between the United States and Iran.

The current regional crisis is rooted in the U.S. withdrawal last year from the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers. Washington subsequently re-imposed sanctions on Iran, sending its economy into freefall and cutting deeply into its oil exports.

Gen. Falah Fares told The Associated Press by telephone that the measures include a night-time curfew, boosting security inside and near the base as well as surveillance of nearby areas. He said these measures are being carried out in coordination with the U.S.

“All unnecessary movements have been reduced,” Fares said, adding that the curfew now lasts from sunset until sunrise. He said the change was made after Balad air base, home to a squadron of Iraqi F-16 fighter jets, was hit with three mortar shells last week without inflicting casualties. The curfew had previously been from midnight to sunrise, he said.

Col. Kevin Walker, U.S. Air Forces Central Command Director of Force Protection, denied in a statement later Saturday reports that U.S. forces are evacuating contractors or any other personnel from Balad air base.

“Operations at Balad Air Base are continuing as normal. Claims that personnel are being evacuated are categorically false,” Walker said. “There are no plans at this time to evacuate any personnel from Balad.”

“The safety and security of all Air Force personnel and those that provide services to the U.S. Air Force are constantly evaluated, and should there be increased threats to our people, the U.S. Air Force will put measures in place to provide the protections required,” he said.

Like neighboring Iran, Iraq is a Shiite-majority country, and has been trying to maintain a fine line between allies Tehran and Washington. There have been concerns that Baghdad could once again get caught in the middle, just as it is on the path to recovery.

Iraq hosts more than 5,000 U.S. troops, and is home to powerful Iranian-backed militias, some of whom want those U.S. forces to leave.

A new report finds nearly half of all people in the Central African Republic are suffering acute food shortages. The latest assessment by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, a joint effort by eight U.N. and International non-governmental organizations, finds more than 1.8 million people in C.A.R. are facing an emergency food crisis.  

Civil war in the Central African Republic erupted in December 2013 and continues to take a heavy toll on its people.  The country is in the midst of its so-called lean season, which goes from May to August.  

This is the period between harvests when people have depleted their food stocks and hunger is particularly acute. The World Food Program reports nearly 2 million people do not know where their next meal is coming from during this period.

WFP spokesman Herve Verhoosel says, unfortunately, the hunger crisis will not be over when the lean season comes to an end.

“Nearly 1.35 million people—almost 30 percent of the population analyzed—will be in severe acute food insecurity including nearly 275,000 people in emergency during the harvest period, meaning September and October,” Verhoosel says.

The United Nations reports more than a half million refugees have fled to neighboring countries to escape the ravages of war.  Nearly 700,000 people remain displaced within the C.A.R.  

The signing of a peace agreement in the capital Bangui in February gave rise to hopes the crisis in the country would soon be at an end.  Security conditions remain volatile, however, and attacks are continuing with increased ferocity in several parts of the country where armed groups that did not sign on to the agreement are in control.

Ongoing insecurity is hampering humanitarian operations and making it difficult, if not impossible, to provide food and other crucial aid to the civilians caught in the midst of this violence.  

The World Food Program assists about 600,000 people in the country every month.  Verhoosel says WFP and its partners are trying to reach more people in urgent need of aid.  

He says internally displaced people and refugees are the most vulnerable.  He says they are totally dependent upon international assistance to meet their food and nutritional needs.

 

White House senior adviser Jared Kushner spoke to

“I have to say that this is one of the hardest problems that exists in the world. This conflict has been going on for a very, very long time and there’s been a lot of attempts at it which have all been very well-intended and noble attempts to try and solve it. When we got involved, we looked at all these attempts and we tried to study why they didn’t work and there’s a lot of good things that were done. We tried to take the good things they did and then come up with a new approach to try to bring this forward. We thought that the economics was a very important part.”

“I find that in the real world, the way you solve problems is by really going into the details, putting forward proposals, agreeing, disagreeing on certain things – that’s very healthy,  that’s how you resolve a conflict. Remember, nobody agrees up until right before they do so. It’s not unexpected for people to posture and to criticize things but what we’re hoping to do is create a framework where we can change the discussion and get people to look at these problems differently and more granularly and hopefully in a way that can lead to some breakthroughs.”

“People are tired of the way that this has been stuck in the mud for so long and what we’re hoping we can do is get people to look at this a little bit differently, come together, share ideas, and then hopefully we can create a framework on which to move forward economically. But I will say that you can’t push the economic plan forward without resolving the political issues
as well. We’re fully aware of that and we intend to address that at a later time.”

“There’ll be praise from some places, there’ll be criticism from some places, hopefully it will be constructive. I always prefer having people share what they’re for as opposed to what they’re against and if people have constructive criticism, we’ll welcome it and we’ll try and make modifications but the hope is that we can bring all of the different people together from
Europe, from Asia, from the Middle East, and agree on this would be a good path forward if we’re able to resolve the political issues.”

“I would say that the political side and the economic side are two very robust efforts and to digest both of them at one time would be very, very hard so it was necessary to break them up, so the question is – which one do you put first? Our thought was that it was better to put the economic plan first. It’s less controversial. Let’s let people study it, give feedback. Let’s try to finalize if we can all agree on what that could look like in the event of a peace agreement.”

“We view our job as to try. It’s very easy to find reasons why this could fail – we think about that all the time – but our job is to try to be more optimistic and to come up with situations that could maybe change the paradigm and I hope that by seeing this plan that we’ve spent a lot of time working on for a better economic future for the Palestinian people and for the region, people will start to look at this problem through a slightly different lens and maybe that leads to some badly needed breakthroughs.”

 

An Ecuador court ordered the release Thursday of a Swedish national who has ties to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and who was accused of computer hacking, because his detention was deemed “arbitrary.”

Ola Bini had been arrested while trying to travel to Japan April 11, the same day Ecuador rescinded Assange’s seven-year claim to asylum in their London embassy.

“There was effectively a violation to (Bini’s) right to freedom,” and his detention was “illegitimate and arbitrary,” Judge Patricio Vaca said in his ruling, ordering his immediate release.

The court will require Bini to periodically appear before authorities and banned him from leaving the country as investigations continue over his alleged hacking attacks.

“Today we have shown my innocence for the first time and we will continue to demonstrate my innocence,” Bini told reporters after being released a few hours after the hearing.

“I am not free as long this illegitimate investigation is going on,” Bini said earlier, and his lawyers insisted the entire case against him was baseless.

Ecuador has linked Bini to WikiLeaks’s Assange, a damaging charge because Quito has declared that any person close to the Australian was therefore involved in a plot to destabilize President Lenin Moreno.

Assange’s case, which has upset defenders of press freedoms and human rights, revolves around WikiLeaks publishing thousands of classified military and diplomatic documents in 2010.

He is currently spending a year in prison in Britain for violating bail when he fled to the Ecuadoran embassy in 2012 to avoid sexual assault accusations in Sweden.

And Assange could face 175 years in prison under U.S. charges of violating the Espionage Act. An extradition hearing is set for February.
 

What would you do if you found a lost wallet? New research suggests that your answer may depend on what you find inside.

In 38 out of the 40 countries studied, people were more likely to return a lost wallet if it contained money. The finding, which goes against existing models of human behavior, could help policymakers find ways to encourage people to be more honest in social and business settings.

Economic models predict that people are more likely to be dishonest if there’s money on the line. Financial self-interest isn’t the only important factor, though. The new study suggests that it’s also important for people to see themselves as honest.

Self-interest versus self-image

In order to investigate how self-interest and self-image interact in the real world, a research team led by Alain Cohn of the University of Michigan used a classic moral dilemma: finding a lost wallet.

The researchers turned in 17,303 “lost wallets” to employees at public places like banks, theaters and post offices in 355 cities spread across 40 countries. The transparent plastic showcased the contents: business cards, a grocery list and a key. In addition to those personal items, some wallets contained money, $13.45 in local currency, adjusted for the country’s purchasing power, and others contained none.

The researchers tallied the number of wallets returned and investigated whether the people who received them were less likely to return them if they contained money, as expected.

“To our surprise, the answer is overwhelmingly no,” Cohn said in a teleconference.

Money made a difference

In nearly all of the countries studied, people were more likely to return a lost wallet that contained money than one that didn’t. Participants in Switzerland and Norway were most likely to reach out to the owner, and those in China and Morocco were least likely, but the trend persisted across the globe. On average, the return rate rose from 40 percent when the wallet didn’t contain money to 51 percent when it did.

Raising the financial stakes strengthens the effect.

In the U.S., U.K. and Poland, the researchers increased the amount of money from $13.45 to $94.15. With even more to gain from dishonesty, people were more likely to return the lost wallet. The average percentage of wallets returned jumped from 61 percent to 72 percent when the amount of money was increased.

“While the results were initially surprising to us, we were not the only ones who did not anticipate this pattern,” Cohn said.

The researchers asked economists and non-economists to predict the outcome of the study. Both groups incorrectly predicted that the more money the wallet contained, the less likely the participants would be to return it.

Although the respondents believed that people were more likely to keep lost wallets that contained money, another group surveyed felt that the more money they found in a lost wallet, the more it would feel like stealing if they kept it. 

“The evidence suggests that people tend to care about the welfare of others and they have an aversion to seeing themselves as a thief,” Cohn said.

Selfless tendencies

Do people think only of themselves when considering a dishonest act, or do they think of others as well? To test this, the researchers removed the keys from some of the wallets in the U.S., U.K. and Poland and found that the average return rate was 9.2 percent higher when the wallets contained a key.

Since the key is valuable to the wallet owner but not the wallet finder, an increase in the return rate for wallets with a key shows that people consider how others may be harmed by their dishonesty.

While other studies have shown that people weigh the monetary rewards against the damage done to their self-image when acting dishonestly, this is the first field study to show that this is a global phenomenon.

“It’s so much work to run a study across so many national cultures and with so many observations. This is not an easy thing to pull off and to do it in such a controlled, really well-organized way, this is really something,” said Nina Mazar, a professor of marketing at Boston University who was not involved in the study.

In the case of a lost wallet, the right thing to do is clear. 

Most scenarios aren’t so obvious, though, and researcher Cohn suggests that a next step could be to study cases “where perhaps it’s less clear whether doing the wrong thing is actually being seen as wrong.” 

The study underscores the importance of self-image concerns in decision making, and exploring the more nuanced situations can help researchers understand why people choose to act dishonestly, which can help policymakers encourage civic honesty around the world.

Hong Kong police sharply criticized anti-government protesters for besieging their headquarters but refrained from using force to disperse them, in a contrast to the violence that erupted in the city last week.

The protesters ended their overnight siege of the police headquarters building Saturday morning, leaving peacefully after a night of throwing eggs and drawing graffiti on the walls of the complex.

“Police have shown the greatest tolerance to the protesters who assembled outside PHQ, but their means of expressing views have become illegal, irrational and unreasonable,” a police statement said.

Hong Kong police were criticized for using force last week, when they sprayed tear gas and shot rubber bullets at protesters. The violence left dozens injured on both sides.

Demonstrators are demanding the full withdrawal of a controversial extradition bill and the resignation of the territory’s pro-Beijing leader Carrie Lam.

Mostly peaceful protest

On Friday, thousands of mostly student protesters dressed in black set up roadblocks in a generally peaceful protest. The protests again forced the temporary closure of Hong Kong’s government offices over security concerns.

Friday’s demonstrators also urged Hong Kong officials to retract the description of the June 12 protest as a riot; to release all the protesters arrested and drop charges against them; and to conduct an inquiry into the use of force by police during recent protests. The government has not responded directly to these demands.

On Tuesday, Lam had offered an apology for the political crisis and unrest sparked by the proposed law.

Challenge to Xi

The Hong Kong protests pose the greatest challenge to Chinese President Xi Jinping since he took office in 2012. The Chinese government had supported the extradition proposal and accused protest organizers of colluding with Western governments.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said President Donald Trump plans to discuss the Hong Kong issue with Xi at the upcoming Group of 20 summit in Japan, June 28-29.
 

Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz has defended the continued detention of a blogger who has served jail time for allegedly insulting the Prophet Muhammad.

Cheikh Ould Mohamed Ould Mkheitir came to world prominence when he was sentenced to death in December 2014 for blasphemy.

He then repented, and an appeal court in November 2017 downgraded the sentence to a two-year jail term.

His lawyers say he should have been released immediately, having spent four years behind bars, but he is still in custody.

Speaking at a press conference late Thursday ahead of presidential elections, Abdel Aziz defended Mkheitir’s continued detention, saying it was justified by “his personal security as well as the country’s.”

“We know that from the point of the view of the law, he should be freed, but for security reasons, we cannot place the life of more than 4 million Mauritanians at risk,” he said.

“Millions of Mauritanians took to the streets to demand his execution. His release would mean that chaos would be allowed to take root in the country,” he added.

Mkheitir’s lawyer, Fatimata Mbaye, told AFP that the president’s comments were “shocking.”

Her client, she said, was being held in “arbitrary detention. … This young man is not being held in a place known to the judicial system.”

Abdel Aziz is scheduled to step down after presidential elections, whose first round is taking place Saturday.

He came to power after a military coup, was elected in 2009 and again 2014, and cannot serve beyond a two-term limit.

In an open letter published Friday, a group of 10 rights groups, including the media watchdog Reporters Sans Frontieres (Reporters without Borders, RSF), called on Abdel Aziz to use his final weeks in office to end the “illegal detention.”

Failing to resolve this problem would greatly overshadow his legacy, they said.

Mkheitir, believed to be in his mid-30s, was accused of challenging decisions taken by the Prophet and his companions during holy wars in the seventh century.

In April, Justice Minister Dia Moctar Malal told the National Assembly that Mkheitir was in “temporary detention” and that “only the Supreme Court can rule on his fate.”

The case surrounding Mkheitir, also spelt Mkhaitir, unleashed fierce passions in the conservative Muslim state.

The appeal court decision triggered angry protests, prompting the government in April 2018 to harden religious laws so that showing repentance for blasphemy and apostasy could no longer prevent the death penalty.

The law was approved despite an appeal by the African Union’s human rights body for the government to review the bill.

The Mkheitir case contributed to Mauritania falling 17 spots in RSF’s 2018 World Press Freedom Index, the biggest drop of any African nation.
 

Pakistan’s Punjab province Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) this week said it killed two prominent Islamic State (IS) operatives in the province and closed “a big chapter” in the history of Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K) in the country.

The CTD statement Thursday said security forces acted based on credible intelligence and raided a house where the suspects were staying. It added the ensuing nighttime shootout led to the death of Rizwan and Saqi, members of IS’s Khorasan branch.

“CTD Team Multan got a credible source information from a secret agency on four to five terrorists belonging to the Terrorist Organization DAESH (IS-K) including most wanted Red Book POs (Proscribed Persons) Rizwan and Saqi,” the statement said, using the Arabic acronym for IS. 

The “CTD team raided the place and challenged the terrorists to surrender, but the terrorists started firing at CTD officers,” the statement added.

Officials say three other suspected IS members fled, leaving behind a large cache of weapons.

The group, staying in Multan city’s Royal Orchard Housing Society neighborhood, was allegedly planning a terror attack against Pakistan’s security forces, according to officials.

Officials said a search continues for the other suspects.

The CTD statement traces the IS group to the kidnapping of U.S. citizen and aid worker Warren Weinstein from Lahore in August 2011. A suspected U.S. drone strike against al-Qaida in Pakistan in January 2015 inadvertently led to the death of Weinstein.

According to Pakistani officials, the same IS operatives were involved in the kidnapping and subsequent killing of several Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) officers in Multan city.

IS in Pakistan

Pakistani military officials in the past have repeatedly denied IS-Khorasan is thriving in the country, alleging the group only imposes a threat from neighboring Afghanistan. They say their raids on the group’s members are rare and minimal.

IS-K was founded in 2015 as IS’s branch for Central Asia, targeting parts of modern-day Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Analysts and government officials were initially expressing skepticism about IS-K’s existence. Since early 2017, however, the group has been responsible for nearly 100 attacks against civilians in Afghanistan and Pakistan, as well as roughly 250 clashes with U.S., Afghan and Pakistani security forces, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Amjad Shoaib, a defense analyst and retired army general, told VOA that despite efforts by officials in Islamabad, IS-K officials have been able to conduct isolated attacks, mostly by crossing the border with Afghanistan. He said that most IS-K members belonged to Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a U.S.-designated terror group. 

“The IS has been unable to find recruits who are willing to pledge allegiance to [IS leader] Abu Bakr (al-)Baghdadi,” Shoaib said. 

According Shoaib, “Unlike the TTP, IS has no organized cell, no commander, and no command and control center within Pakistan.”

IS in Baluchistan

In May, IS’s Amaq news agency claimed the group had created a new branch called Islamic State Province of Pakistan (ISPP). The group a month earlier claimed a suicide attack against the Shiite Hazara minority that left 21 people dead and more than 50 others injured in Quetta, the capital of Pakistan’s restive Balochistan province.

Some observers charge that after IS lost its self-proclaimed caliphate territory in Iraq and Syria, the group is likely seeking to find refuge in less stable areas such as Balochistan.

According to the Pak Institute for Peace Studies (PIPS), an Islamabad-based research group, IS-K in the region is likely using al-Qaida’s strategy by creating “regional affiliates” to help establish itself in Pakistan. It found that militant organizations and separatists could be easy targets for the group.

PIPS concluded, “Banned organizations have contributed to waging the attacks claimed by IS.”

The World Food Program says it has begun a partial suspension of food aid in Sanaa, Yemen, which is controlled by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, because food is being diverted from the beneficiaries. 

The World Food Program reported Thursday that 850,000 Yemenis in Sanaa would miss out on desperately needed rations.  The agency said it could not reach agreement with Houthi authorities to take measures to prevent the diversion of food from the most vulnerable people in Yemen.

It said it had been forced to take the measure as a last resort because of a breakdown in negotiations.  WFP spokesman Herve Verhoosel said Houthi authorities had refused to introduce a biometric registration system that would ensure those in need of aid would receive it.

“WFP’s priority remains to feed the hungriest children, women and men in Yemen.  But as in many conflict areas, some individuals seek to profit from preying on the vulnerable and diverting food away from where it is most needed. … Unfortunately, we are yet to reach agreement,” Verhoosel said.

UN Food Chief Warns Aid Suspension in Yemen Likely to Start This Week

David Beasley calls on Houthis to implement agreements to allow
World Food Programme to operate independently

Verhoosel said the integrity of WFP’s humanitarian operation was under threat and its ability to help those in need had been undermined by the criminal actions of a few.  He said WFP would continue to seek cooperation from Sanaa-based authorities.  

He said the agency was ready to immediately resume food distribution once an agreement was reached on an independent identification exercise and the rollout of a biometric registration system.

In the meantime, he said, WFP will maintain nutrition programs for malnourished children and pregnant and nursing mothers during the suspension period. 

George Weah once heard the roar of adoring crowds as one of Africa’s greatest soccer players. He became Liberia’s president in January 2018, and a year and a half later, crowds are sounding less positive about him.
 
About 10,000 people attended an anti-government protest in Monrovia earlier this month. Most were angry about Liberia’s struggling economy. Many feel that Weah is not doing enough to tackle rising inflation.

Some accuse senior officials of stealing the country’s money, including $25 million intended to be infused into the economy to mop up an excess of local currency.
 
Precillia Dehme, 33, runs a dry goods stall. She voted for Weah in 2017 but regrets her decision.
 
“I sell for my children to survive. … I’m finding life difficult for my children” as the cost of living rises, Dehme said. “We don’t know what’s going on in the country.” She said Weah was doing “nothing for me” and that she would not vote for him again.

But not all people have turned their backs on Weah. Money changer Munya Sherif, 35,  doesn’t blame him for the country’s economic difficulties.
 
“All the problems in this country were caused by the past government. We need to give the government a chance to do their work,” Sherif said. “Other people think that George Weah is not able to run this country. But I believe that if they give George Weah a chance, he would do better.”
 
The protest organizers are a group of opposition and civil society activists who call themselves the Council of Patriots. Radio talk show host Henry Costa, one of the leading figures, said, “We want the president to publish his assets. We think it’s very important. We want to know what he had before becoming president, how he is able to build all of these properties and acquire new ones in a relatively short period of time when he didn’t do that before coming to power.”
 
The protest group has issued a long list of other demands, including extensive reform programs and the firings of several officials, including the finance minister. The group is threatening more protests if the government fails to act on its petition within a month.
 
Weah has called for a national round-table discussion to hear people’s views on how best to revive the economy.  

“As Liberians they have a right to make their views clear,” said Eugene Nagbe, minister for information. “As a government our response is a nationalistic one, a general one, and this is why Mr. President recognized that there are alternative views. Because of the alternative views, he said, ‘Come to the table so that we can have a discussion.’ ” 
 
Talks have started with the International Monetary Fund about a program to address poverty and inflation. But until the effects of this trickle down to the masses, the protests against Weah are likely to continue.

U.S. President Donald Trump has ordered immigration enforcement officials to conduct a mass roundup of migrants who have received deportation orders, in an operation that is expected to begin Sunday, according to The Washington Post.

The newspaper said the operation would target up to 2,000 families in large cities that are major immigration destinations, including Houston, Chicago, Miami and Los Angeles. It said the information about the raids was based on three U.S. officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Trump tweeted Monday that the United States would start deporting “millions of illegal aliens” from the country next week, but the announcement appeared to catch the country’s immigration officials by surprise.

Administration officials said the deportation plans have been under consideration for months, but immigration officials said earlier this week that raids on migrant families were not imminent.

The Post said discussions about the scope of the operation continued Friday at the White House, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Acting DHS Secretary Kevin McAleenan has warned that an operation to arrest migrants in their homes and at work sites risks separating children from their parents.

Acting ICE Director Mark Morgan told reporters this week that the operation was necessary for the integrity of the immigration system.

He said families could not be exempted from immigration law and said the law “must be applied fairly and equally.” He urged families with deportation orders to turn themselves in to immigration officials.

The Post said ICE was planning to “use hotel rooms as temporary staging areas to detain parents and children until all the members of a family are together and ready for deportation.”

Trump administration officials say the 1 million migrants who have been issued final deportation orders but are still living in the U.S. will be targeted first in the operation. However, the highest U.S. deportation total for a single year was recorded in 2013, when about 435,000 were sent home.

It is unusual for public officials to disclose law enforcement raids in advance, for fear of alerting the targets of the raids, and possibly endangering police and other law enforcement personnel.

Immigration activists say the president is using the operation for political purposes and warn that it is causing fear in the immigrant community, leading migrants to miss work and school.

Administration officials say such operations can have a deterrent effect on other migrants considering crossing into the United States illegally.

Join us every Wednesday as Shaka and his guests discuss topics of special interest to Africans, including politics, economic development, press freedom, health, social issues and conflict resolution.

 

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If you want to know what’s trending in news, health, sports and lifestyle, then tune in to Africa 54. Airing Monday through Friday, this 30-minute program takes a closer look at the stories Africans are talking about, with reports from VOA correspondents, and interviews with top experts and analysts. Africa 54 also serves viewers with timely information about health, education, business and technology. And for the young and young at heart, Africa 54 provides a daily dose of pop culture, including music, fashion and entertainment.

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Meet the Team:

Vincent Makori is the Managing Editor of Africa 54, Voice of America’s daily TV program for Africa. He also serves as a producer and writer for Africa 54. Vincent is a versatile journalist with 20 years of experience, working in Africa, Europe and the U.S. He has been at VOA for more than 11 years.

Vincent has covered a wide range of stories including the Africa Union Summit in Lusaka, Zambia, The U.N. General Assembly in New York, International Trade and Technology Fairs in Berlin and Hanover Germany. The International AIDS Conference, in Mexico City, Mexico, and the G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

He has interviewed people of all walks of life, including high ranking officials and presidents, among them, former U.S. President George W. Bush, President Bingu wa Mutharika of Malawi, former President of Ghana John Kufuor, President Ifikepunye Pohamba of Namibia ; Noble Laureate Wangari Maathai and academic luminaries like Professor Ali Mazrui.

He holds a post-graduate degree in mass communication from the School of Journalism of the University of Nairobi and a Bachelor of Arts Degree, majoring in English Literature from Moi University, Kenya. He has attended numerous training programs in journalism, in Kenya, Germany and the U.S.

Linord Moudou is the producer & host of the Africa Health Network on Africa 54. She also produces and hosts Health Chat on the Voice of America radio, a live call-in program that addresses health issues of interest to Africa.

She started her career with Voice of America television as the producer & host of Healthy Living, a weekly health news magazine covering African health issues including malaria, TB and HIV/AIDS. She also shared new discoveries and medical breakthroughs, and provided tips and advice on how to prevent diseases and live a healthier life.

Before joining VOA, Linord worked as a broadcast and print journalist, traveling between Africa, Europe and the United States. In 2000, she created, produced, and hosted “Spotlight on Africa,” a bilingual (French-English) television and radio program on Public Access Television and New World Radio in Washington, D.C. With “Spotlight on Africa,” Linord dedicated herself to promote a more positive image of Africa internationally, through information and entertainment.

Her print experience includes “Africa Journal,” a Corporate Council on Africa publication, and AMINA Magazine, a Paris-based magazine about women of Africa and the Diaspora.

Linord Moudou was born and raised in Côte d’Ivoire. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism and media productions from George Mason University, and a certificate in television and radio productions from the Columbia School of Broadcasting. The veteran broadcaster is fluent in French, English and conversational in Spanish and Creole.
 

Internship Opportunities

In the competitive and changing television industry, nothing is more valuable for job-seekers than “real world” experience. The Straight Talk Africa internship program offers motivated and outstanding students exciting opportunities to experience practical journalism. In addition to helping to get our weekly studio programs on-the-air, interns also produce a final project for their portfolios. Projects include writing and producing promos, stories, and even full-length documentary or magazine shows.

Watch our interns in action

For more information and/or send your resume to: 
africatv@voanews.com, 
Attention to Clara Frenk.

Each morning, Daybreak Africa looks at the latest developments on the continent, starting with headline news and providing in-depth interviews, reports from VOA correspondents, sports news as well as listener comments.

Officials in Charlottesville, Virginia, have voted to divest the city’s operating budget investments from any entity involved in the production of fossil fuels or weapons.

 

WVIR-TV reports the City Council voted 4-1 last week to complete those divestments within the next 30 days.

 

Supporters of divestment argued that weapons and fossil fuels do not align with the city’s strategic plan goals, including being responsible stewards of natural resources.

 

Officials said fossil fuel and weapons companies make up only a small portion of the city’s operating fund investment portfolio. They said the divestment will have little or no financial impact on the city.

 

Several cities worldwide have fully committed to divestment from fossil fuels according to 350.org’s Fossil Free project, including other college towns like Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Berkeley, California.

 

 

 

A U.S. State Department official has called for an end to Kosovo’s taxes on Serbian goods so that European Union-mediated talks on resolving the dispute between the former war foes could resume.

Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Palmer said Monday full normalization of relations between Serbia and its former province is “essential” for the future of Western Balkans.

Kosovo declared independence in 2008 which Serbia does not recognize. The EU-mediated dialogue has stalled after Kosovo introduced a 100% tariff on all goods coming from Serbia and Bosnia last year.

Palmer said the tariffs present an “obstacle” for the dialogue and should be “lifted or suspended in such a way that would allow for the parties to return to the negotiating table.”