A federal civil rights agency says Vermont’s largest hospital required a nurse to participate in an abortion over her moral objections.

The Office for Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced Wednesday that the University of Vermont Medical Center could lose some federal funding if the two parties cannot agree within 30 days on the hospital’s policies on employee participation in abortions.

The Burlington hospital says in a statement that its policies strike the balance between supporting employees’ religious, ethical and cultural beliefs, and ensuring “patients are not denied access to safe and legal abortion.”

The hospital says it is disappointed by the government’s actions.

The civil rights office says the nurse was required to participate in the abortion in May 2018.

The United States has placed sanctions on the leaders of two procurement networks it says are linked to the Iranian government for allegedly engaging in undercover acquisition activities it maintains benefited the Iranian military.

The Treasury Department said Wednesday one of the networks is led by Iranian national Hamed Dehghan, the CEO and chairman of Pishtazan Kavosh Gostar Boshra, LLC, and manager and board chairman of Ebtekar Sanat Ilya.

The agency said the network operated by Hamed Dehghan used a Hong Kong-based company to evade U.S. and global sanctions, and to target U.S. technology and components for people linked to the Iranian government and its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The Treasury Department said the second network, led by Iranian national Seyed Hossein Shariat, purchased Nuclear Suppliers Group’s aluminum alloy products for the benefit of Iran’s military.

“As the Iranian regime attempts to use complex schemes to hide its efforts to bolster its WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction), the U.S. government will continue to thwart them at every turn,” said Treasury Department official Sigal Mandelker.

The department said it also imposed sanctions on individuals linked to the networks.

The sanctions are part of an ongoing U.S. campaign to increase economic pressure on Iran over its nuclear program.

In May of 2018, President Donald Trump withdrew from a 2015 agreement with Iran and five other countries that aims to restrict Iran’s nuclear program.

Trump said Monday he would be receptive to meet with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. Rouhani said he would consider a meeting only if the U.S. first dropped its sanctions against his country.

 

The leadership of Italy’s opposition Democratic Party has given its backing to Giuseppe Conte as the possible premier of a new government coalition with the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement.

After days of frantic negotiations with the 5-Stars, the Democrats voted Wednesday in favor of Conte’s second mandate to lead what is shaping up as an uneasy alliance between the former archrivals. But the Democrats remain divided over the tie-up.

Democratic leader Nicola Zingaretti will meet President Sergio Mattarella later Wednesday to tell him he wants to forge an alliance with the 5-Stars, in a bid to avoid early elections. The president is expected to assign a mandate to the possible premier late Wednesday or early Thursday.

Conte has resigned after Matteo Salvini’s League abruptly pulled the plug on his government.

Former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis warns in a book excerpt of the bitter political divisions that seem to be tearing apart American society, echoing themes he often cited before he resigned from the Trump administration in protest.

The retired Marine general, who quit in December amid policy disagreements with President Donald Trump, says he is concerned about the state of American politics.
 
“We all know that we’re better than our current politics,” Mattis wrote in the excerpt published Wednesday in The Wall Street Journal. “Tribalism must not be allowed to destroy our experiment.”
 
Mattis said that “our own commons seems to be breaking apart” to a degree not seen in the past.
 
“What concerns me most as a military man is not our external adversaries; it is our internal divisiveness,” he wrote.
 
Much of the excerpt is a recitation of the reasons Mattis has previously given for agreeing to become the Pentagon chief despite not having known or spoken to Trump before being interviewed for the position in November.
 
Regarding his reasons for leaving, Mattis offered a slightly more pointed explanation than what his resignation letter outlined.
 
“When my concrete solutions and strategic advice, especially keeping faith with our allies, no longer resonated, it was time to resign, despite the limitless joy I felt serving alongside our troops in defense of our Constitution,” he wrote.
 
Mattis resigned shortly after Trump announced he was pulling all U.S. troops from Syria. In Mattis’ view this amounted to betraying the Syrian Kurdish fighters who’d partnered with American troops to combat the Islamic State group.
 
Mattis’ book, “Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead,” is scheduled to be published Sept. 3.

 

The outgoing United Nations Resident Coordinator in Zimbabwe, Bishow Parajuli, says the current crackdown targeting opposition demonstrators and activists is “intolerable,” because the country’s constitution allows citizens to protest.

The U.N. envoy expressed concern about the situation, telling reporters that sanctions imposed by some Western countries are not directly responsible for Zimbabwe’s slow economy.  

“The constitution provides space for people to participate in a peaceful means of demonstrations,” Parajuli told reporters during his last address in Harare. “I would say all means of peaceful demonstrations should not be threatened through violent means. And that can only add negative image on Zimbabwe, frankly.  Zimbabweans are very peaceful people, that is what I have seen, and tolerant people. And going to people in the evenings in masks and beating, that is absolutely intolerable. That should not be the right thing to do.”

President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government has said it is investigating who is behind abductions, which have left many activists injured after taking part in recent anti-government demonstrations.

Tatenda Mombeyarara, the leader of the activist group Citizens Manifesto, is still recovering in a private hospital in Harare, after he was abducted by about 10 armed men. He still insists the people who abducted, injured, tortured and left him for dead are security forces.

“The people who attacked me had AK-47s. The people who attacked me did it in a choreographed manner,” he said. “The people who attacked me acted as a unit, so these cannot be random or untrained people. So it must be one of the units of the security forces. My very best guess would be one of the trained people and I would put army at the top.”

Mombeyarara is one of the activists Harare accuses of attending a meeting in the Maldives earlier this year to plot against Mnangagwa’s government. He and several other activists are facing charges of treason.

Meanwhile, the outgoing U.N. boss in Zimbabwe urged Mnangagwa’s government to continue engaging the west as part of efforts to remove sanctions imposed on the country’s leadership in 2002 following reports of election rigging. Sanctions, he says, have little to do with Zimbabwe’s current economic problems.

“If you dissect the element of sanctions, some of the countries with restrictive measures are the largest supporters of Zimbabwe from a humanitarian development point of view. So they care (about) Zimbabwe,” he said. “Yes, the perception of sanctions can mislead certain interests in terms of potential but I have seen strong interests coming to invest from some of these countries. Not necessarily these restrictions limit investments from these countries. But I think the major challenge in my perception has been wrong policies.”

The U.N. diplomat urged the Zimbabwe government to enact investor-friendly laws and to continue engaging countries that imposed sanctions on senior officials of the government and some state-owned companies in 2002. Parajuli is moving to India to head the World Food Program after serving in Zimbabwe for five years as the country’s U.N. resident coordinator.

President Donald Trump’s path to re-election next year seems to have been getting more complicated in recent weeks.

He continues to boast about a strong economy, despite warnings from a number of economists that the U.S. may be headed for a recession in 2020. Now, he must fend off primary challenges from within his own party. 

The president is now home from the G-7 summit in France, where he charted a solitary path on trade, Russia and combating climate change.

At a news conference before he left, Trump defended what some see as a chaotic approach to dealing with China on trade.

“It is the way I negotiate. It has done very well for me over the years, and it is doing even better for the country,” Trump told reporters. “It should have been done by other people. It should have been done by Bush.  It should have been done by Clinton.  It should have been done. I’m doing it.”

Economy and the campaign

During his time in office, Trump has consistently touted the strong U.S. economy at rallies around the country, including one earlier this month in Manchester, New Hampshire.

“Even though we had fake witch hunts on our back and all the other things that we had to go through, we have taken this big beautiful ship and it is being turned around very quickly,” Trump told an enthusiastic crowd.

The president has also taken to warning voters that a possible defeat next year would send the country into a tailspin.

“The fact that I won (in 2016) lifted our economy greatly. And if I didn’t win, it would go down.  And frankly, if for some reason that happened in the 2020 election, you will see this economy go down the tubes.  I will tell you that right now,” Trump told reporters earlier this month while on vacation in New Jersey.

However, the trade war with China is taking a toll, and some economists now warn of a recession next year that could cripple Trump’s chances of re-election.

Trump’s Democratic rivals, including current front-runner former Vice President Joe Biden, are targeting his handling of the economy. 

“It goes less to the underpinning of the economy than to a trade policy, a foreign policy and a domestic policy that has people wondering in the markets how stable this administration is,” Biden told reporters in Vermont this week.

Primary challengers

Trump also has a new challenger from within his own party — former Illinois Congressman Joe Walsh, who has been making the rounds on television shows, including ABC’s “This Week on Sunday.”

“I’m running because he is unfit,” Walsh said. “Somebody needs to step up, and there needs to be an alternative. The country is sick of this guy’s tantrum.  He is a child.”

Walsh may turn out to be nothing more than an irritant, given Trump’s overwhelming support among Republicans. He joins former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld, who is already in the race.  

Trouble ahead?

Primary challenges to a sitting president have been a sign of political trouble in the past.  In 1968, Democrat Eugene McCarthy challenged President Lyndon Johnson over the Vietnam War, and eventually Johnson withdrew from the race.

President Jimmy Carter survived a primary challenge from Sen. Ted Kennedy in 1980 but Kennedy highlighted Carter’s weakness as an incumbent and worries about the economy. Carter was defeated by Ronald Reagan in the general election.

In 1992, conservative Pat Buchanan launched a long shot bid against President George H.W. Bush that exposed Bush’s vulnerabilities on the economy.  Those vulnerabilities were exploited in the general election by Democrat Bill Clinton, who went on to win the presidency. 

2020 worries

Even if the Walsh and Weld bids do not amount to a serious challenge in the primaries next year, worries about what may happen if the economy weakens will be with the White House for months to come.

“In modern times, we have never expelled a president or defeated for re-election a president who is presiding over a time of robust recovery, the kind of recovery the U.S. is in at this moment,” said longtime USA Today political reporter and analyst Susan Page. “But we have also never re-elected a president who is running for re-election at a time when we are in a recession. So, that is something the White House is quite aware of.”

Trump generally gets high marks on the economy from voters in public opinion polls, usually well above his overall approval rating, which at the moment averages about 42%. 

But a recent Associated Press poll found that growing concerns about the president’s character were beginning to undermine his positive standing on the economy.

“There were some bright spots on the economy and some policies (in the poll),” said AP reporter Steve Peoples. “But overall concerns about this president’s character, the way he communicates, the way he tends to be divisive on some issues really outweighs any benefit that they are seeing from the economy.”

A recent Morning Consult-Politico poll also provided a glimpse of the political blowback that could ensue if the economy weakens during next year’s presidential campaign.

The survey found that 69% of voters would at least partially blame the president for a recession, while 19% said he would not be responsible at all. That includes 49% of Trump voters who said they would hold him at least partially responsible, while 40% would not.

The same poll also showed Trump losing to Biden in a potential 2020 matchup by a margin of 42% to 35%, while Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders edged Trump by a margin of 40% to 35%. 

Trump was tied with Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren at 35%, and he led other Democratic contenders in head-to-head matchups, including California Sen. Kamala Harris, former Texas Congressman Beto O’Rourke and South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg.

In a solemn ceremony on August 21 in Khartoum, Sudan, 11 people placed their hands on Korans to be sworn in to lead the country. The group, known as the sovereign council, will guide Sudan during a transitional period following 30 years of autocratic rule by Omar al-Bashir. The moment was historic for many reasons, including the group’s composition — the council includes two women. And the newly appointed chief justice of Sudan’s Supreme Court, Nemat Abdullah, is also a woman. 

The representation raises expectations that women will be granted additional rights and minority groups of all types will be given a voice in a new Sudan. 

“The Sovereign Council is the culmination of the people’s quest for equality and justice,” said Ayesha Musa Saeed, a member of the council, following the ceremony.

In an interview with VOA’s South Sudan in Focus, Raja Nicola Issa Abdul-Masseh, a member of the sovereign council and a member of Sudan’s Christian minority, said the process will be slow but the new leaders are determined.

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“We shall try to rebuild our country, we shall try to rebuild our economy, we shall begin to stop all the armed movements and work for peace and justice for all Sudanese on an equal basis regardless of race or religion or any political opinion or any affiliation,” she said. “What happened in 30 years cannot be rebuilt in three years. But we shall try our best to do whatever we could.” 

A long history

Women have long played a role in Sudanese politics and protest movements. During the country’s 1964 revolution, when students stood up to a military regime, women were among those protesting on the frontlines. 

“For their participation in that revolution, they were really a small minority at that time as far as the politicized elements, and low and behold, the revolution that we sought was limited or confined from changing the government from military to civilian proved to be a social revolution,” said Abdullahi Ibrahim, professor emeritus at the University of Missouri. 

Ibrahim participated in the 1960s revolution and ran for president against Bashir in 2010. He said the revolution in the 60s was the earliest movement that guaranteed basic rights. “Women were given the vote for the first time. Young people, 18 years of age, were given the vote for the first time. Before it was 22 and above.”

In subsequent years, women joined the judicial system and were given the right to vote. In 1965, Fatima Ahmed Ibrahim became the first woman elected to parliament in Sudan and one of the first on the African continent. 

“There are many, many women in the Sudan who have been very prominent. They played a very important role,” said Abdullahi Gallab, a professor from Arizona State University originally from Sudan. “Actually, one of the very important things was that women established [was] a union, Women’s Union, a long time ago. I think one of the earliest in the Middle East and Africa. So there is a history in Sudan of prominent women assuming very important positions.”

But over the decades of Bashir’s rule, women’s rights eroded in some areas and did not advance in others. Laws restricted women’s dress and required them to seek approval from a male relative to marry. Although one-quarter of the parliament was reserved for female members, they were often viewed as being tokens with little power.

A new era

In December 2018, when protests against Bashir’s rule began, women were at the forefront. The protests were organized by the Sudanese Professionals Association, a group of doctors, health workers and lawyers. But the symbol of the revolution became a young woman, Alaa Salah, who stood on top of a vehicle, leading chants. 

“People insisted and they encouraged each other to continue, led by the Sudanese Professional Association and the umbrella of freedom and change forces — the will of the Sudanese people themselves,” said Nuha Zein, a Sudanese visiting professor at Rice University, speaking to VOA’s Africa News Tonight. “They really are now very aware of their rights, about their strength to change their destiny in Sudan.” 

Today, hopes are resting with women such as Ayesha Musa Saeed, an educator and longtime women’s rights activist named to be one of six civilians on the sovereign council. 

“She’s a highly respected lady, and she has been — she devoted all her life in activism including women and actually she closed her opening speech … after the sermon by saying that ‘I represent all the women of Sudan.’” Gallab said. “So that is Ayesha. She has been always devoting her own time and energy for women’s issues and for education.”

The other woman on the council, Raja Nicola Issa Abdul-Masseh, is a Coptic Christian. Some observers hope she can be a voice for the many ethnic and religious minorities who were persecuted under Bashir. 

“This is a new phase of Sudan’s history,” Dr. Farah Ibrahim Mohamed Alagar, chair of the Blue Nile Forum, told VOA’s Daybreak Africa. “With the nomination of this lady, Sudan is respecting the diversity — Muslims, Christians, non religions — they’re all Sudanese components and have a right to participate.”

Namibia is considering withdrawing from the rules that govern the global trade in endangered species, after countries voted last week to reject proposals to relax restrictions on hunting and exporting its white rhinos.

Namibia has the second largest population of white rhinos after South Africa. It wants to allow more trophy hunting of rhinos and export of live animals, arguing that the funds it would raise would help it to protect the species.

But countries that are party to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) voted last week against downgrading Namibia’s white rhinos from appendix I, the list of species threatened with extinction, to appendix II, a list of species with looser protections.

Minister of Environment and Tourism Pohamba Shifeta said in Geneva on Tuesday that Namibia would convene a meeting with other Southern African Development Community (SADC) member states to consider withdrawing from CITES.

“We had several submissions from SADC for downlisting our white rhino from appendix I to appendix II, but there are some who feel that Namibia’s population is still small and we contested that Namibia’s population is the second largest in the world,” said Shifeta.

The Namibian government estimated its white rhino population at 1,037 in 2017/2018. The white rhino populations of South Africa and eSwatini, formerly Swaziland, are already in appendix II.

“If CITES does not really help us to conserve our wild animals but frustrating those that are doing good I think there is no need for us to stay in CITES,” said Shifeta.

Botswana’s environmental and conservation minister Kitso Mokaila said that he was greatly disappointed by the outcome.

Mokaila said people in SADC countries have sacrificed to protect wild animals.

“They don’t plough, they don’t rear cattle or sheep or goats because wildlife destroys our livelihood,” said Mokaila.

Countries on Thursday also voted overwhelmingly to regulate international trade in giraffes, an endangered species, overcoming objections by southern African states and drawing praise from conservationists.

A succession of women who say Jeffrey Epstein sexually abused them voiced anger and defiance in a packed New York courtroom Tuesday, expressing raw emotions during a dramatic hearing less than three weeks after the financier killed himself while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

“He showed the world what a depraved and cowardly human being he was by taking his own life,” one of the women, Sarah Ransome, said at the hearing before U.S. District Judge Richard Berman.

“I will not let him win in death,” another woman, Chauntae Davies, told the court. 

Federal prosecutors appeared at the hearing to ask the judge to formally dismiss their case against Epstein. Berman explained why he gave the women and their lawyers an opportunity to address the court.

“The victims have been included in the proceeding today both because of their relevant experiences and because they should always be involved before, rather than after, the fact,” Berman said at the outset of the hearing.

Epstein, who once counted U.S. President Donald Trump and former President Bill Clinton as friends, was arrested on July 6 and pleaded not guilty to federal charges of sex trafficking involving dozens of girls as young as 14.

The 66-year-old was found dead Aug. 10 in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) in Lower Manhattan. An autopsy concluded that he hanged himself.

Prosecutors accused Epstein of arranging for girls to perform nude “massages” and other sex acts, and paying some girls to recruit others, from at least 2002 to 2005. Some of the women said he raped them.

“The fact that I will never have a chance to face my predator in court eats away at my soul,” said Jennifer Araoz, another of the women.

“I feel very angry and sad that justice has never been served in this case,” Courtney Wild, another accuser, told the hearing.

Davies told the court Epstein hired her to give massages.

She said Epstein raped her the third or fourth time they met on his private island and continued to abuse her.

Berman ordered prosecutors and defense lawyers for Epstein to appear in court after the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s office said it wanted to dismiss the indictment against the financier in light of his jail cell death.

‘Curious’ death

During the hearing, attorney Brad Edwards, who represents women who say they were sexually abused by Epstein, said the financier’s “untimely death” was “curious,” adding: “More so, it makes it absolutely impossible for the victims to ever get the day in court that they wanted, and to get full justice. That now can never happen.”

At the hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Maurene Comey said the law required the dismissal of the case in light of Epstein’s death, but said the government’s investigation was ongoing.

“Dismissal of this indictment as to Jeffrey Epstein in no way prohibits or inhibits the government’s ongoing investigation into potential co-conspirators,” Comey said.

Epstein’s death has triggered investigations by the FBI, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Inspector General and the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, which runs the detention facility.

Epstein’s arrest in New York came more than a decade after Epstein avoided being prosecuted on similar federal charges in Florida by striking a deal that allowed him to plead guilty to state prostitution charges.

That deal, which has been widely criticized as too lenient, resulted in Epstein serving 13 months in a county jail, which he was allowed to leave during the day on work release.

Brittany Henderson, a lawyer with Edwards’ firm, read a statement from another victim, Michelle Licata.

“I was told then that Jeffrey Epstein was going to be held accountable, but he was not,” she said of the earlier investigation. “The case ended without me knowing what was going on. … I was treated like I did not matter.”

Civil lawsuits

Multiple women have filed civil lawsuits against Epstein’s estate since his death, saying he abused them and seeking damages. Some have alleged the abuse continued after his plea deal and even while he was on work release from his previous jail sentence.

Just two days before his death, Epstein signed a will placing all of his property, worth more than $577 million, in a trust, according to a copy of the document seen by Reuters.

Another woman, who chose not to give her name, told the hearing that Epstein’s death must be investigated.

“We do need to know how he died. It felt like a whole new trauma. … It didn’t feel good to wake up that morning and find that he allegedly committed suicide,” she said, holding back tears.

Another unnamed woman said she came to New York to become a model and was victimized by Epstein.

“I’m just angry,” she said, “that he’s not alive to have to pay the price for his actions.”

Uganda’s national airline has launched commercial operations with a flight to the Kenyan capital.
 
Uganda Airlines’ inaugural flight to Nairobi on Tuesday carried mostly government and airline officials following a ceremony to re-launch the carrier that collapsed in 2001.
 
Uganda Airlines owns two planes. Four more have been ordered, including two Airbus jets.
 
The carrier will fly to regional destinations such as the Somali capital, Mogadishu.
 
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni championed the revamped airline as a symbol of national pride, calling it “a new baby” in June.
 
Authorities acknowledge the airlines faces challenges but hope it will survive as the East African nation becomes an oil producer.
 
Uganda Airlines is expected to face competition from carriers such as Kenya Airways, which operates regular flights between Nairobi and Entebbe.

An eastern Sudanese port city remained volatile Tuesday after tribal clashes last week killed at least 37 people, including a child, activists said.

The fighting in Port Sudan, in the Red Sea province, erupted last Thursday between the Bani Amer tribe and the displaced Nuba tribe.

The Sudan Doctors Committee said late Monday at least 17 people of the 37 were killed by gunshots. More than 200 were wounded, including children.

The clashes came just days after the formation of a power-sharing government by the pro-democracy movement and the generals who overthrew the country’s longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir.

Sudan’s new joint military-civilian council on Sunday declared a state of emergency in Port Sudan, deployed troops to the area and sacked the provincial governor and its top security official.

The state-run news agency said 700 troops with 100 vehicles arrived in Port Sudan to enforce security in the city.

Maj. Gen. Bashir al-Mahdi said security in the Red Sea province was stable and that the dispute between the two tribes “is being settled peacefully,” according to the SUNA report.

Activist Thouiba al-Gallad said dozens of houses were burned in the violence in Port Sudan, 825 kilometers (512 miles) east of the capital, Khartoum. The clashes subsided after authorities declared a state of emergency and deployed more troops in the streets on Monday.

“There are lots of weapons,” said al-Gallad, warning that new fighting could flare up anytime.

Rebel groups in the Nuba Mountains and eastern Sudan condemned the violence, saying the clashes were “disgrace to the Sudanese revolution.”

The dispute between the two tribes — mainly over water but also other resources — started in May in the eastern city of al-Qadarif, where seven people were killed, before it flared up again last week in Port Sudan.

Few public officials are as close to the ground as America’s mayors and, in general, they seem to agree on what needs fixing in the country today. 

Not surprisingly, economic development and infrastructure top the list. Downtown development is a consistent theme across U.S. cities, big and small, with an eye toward people-based strategies.

“Primarily targeting the people who live in cities and leveraging them as an asset for economic growth,” says Christiana McFarland, research director at the National League of Cities (NLC). “So thinking about arts and culture, whether it’s new art installations that can bring additional quality of life to the city that helps attract and retain trained people who want to live in the city and then also become the workforce for the city.”

Each year, the NLC analyzes examines speeches given by the nation’s mayors in order to gain insight into the state of American cities. This year, NLC says it looked at

U.S. disappointment with Zimbabwe’s government keeps growing amid the heavy-handed response of authorities to any form of opposition, a senior State Department official said on Monday following a crackdown last week against protesters.

“The disappointment just keeps getting worse and worse, unfortunately,” said the official, speaking on background to reporters. “The government seems to be getting even more violent in their response to any form of opposition.”

The official said Washington had made clear to the government of President Emmerson Mnangagwa what it would take to improve relations between Zimbabwe and the United States. 

U.S. officials have previously called on Mnangagwa to change Zimbabwe’s laws restricting media freedom and allowing protests.

Mnangagwa’s government last week banned anti-government protests by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, which accuses the authorities of political repression and mismanaging the economy. Police fired tear gas to disperse crowds and barred access to the MDC’s Harare offices.

Anger among the population has mounted over triple-digit inflation, rolling power cuts and shortages of U.S. dollars, fuel and bread.

In March, President Donald Trump extended by one year U.S. sanctions against 100 entities and individuals in Zimbabwe, including Mnangagwa, saying his government had failed to bring about political and economic changes.

Brazil’s Foreign Ministry on Monday ordered its ambassadors in Europe and other G-7 countries not to take vacation for the next two weeks in order to coordinate a diplomatic response to global concerns over the fires raging in the Amazon rainforest, two sources with knowledge of the matter said.

The move comes after Brazil sent a circular to diplomats last week with talking-points about the country’s environmental record in a bid to help respond to public criticism.

The decision to suspend vacations for ambassadors in certain countries was taken by Minister of Foreign Affairs Ernesto Araújo after an emergency meeting with President Jair Bolsonaro on Sunday evening, the two sources said.

France and Ireland have threatened to tear up the EU-Mercosur trade deal, 20 years in the making, over the fires.

The office of French President Emmanuel Macron even accused Bolsonaro of lying when he played down concerns over climate change at the G20 summit in June.

Some ambassadors were already on vacation and had to return to their posts, the sources said.

Embassies have also been told to post to their social media pages with information such as that forest fires happen every year in the Amazon and that the current fires are not out of control.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday “there’s a really good chance” he would meet with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in the coming weeks to try to negotiate a new deal to curb Tehran’s nuclear weapons program to replace the 2015 international deal that Trump withdrew from last year.

Trump, speaking at the end of the G-7 summit of top world leaders in France, said, “I think Iran is going to want to meet.”

The U.S. leader said the economic sanctions he reimposed on Iran a year ago “are absolutely hurting them” as Trump has sought to sharply limit Iran’s international oil exports.

But Trump predicated any meeting with Rouhani on the condition that Iran not create more overseas tensions with military advances and attacks. He said a new deal would have to ban Iranian nuclear weapons and ballistic missile testing and cover a longer period than the 10-year time frame dictated by the 2015 accord.

Trump added, “I have good feelings about Iran…incredible people.” But he said it was too soon to meet over the weekend with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who was a surprise visitor at the G-7 summit in the Atlantic coastal town of Biarritz, at the invitation of French President Emmanuel Macron.

The French leader has been trying to broker U.S.-Iran peace talks. Macron told a joint news conference with Trump that he has had conversations with Rouhani and that the Iranian leader is willing to meet with Trump.

Macron said he had reached the “very cautious” conclusion that Washington and Tehran could reach an agreement if Trump and Rouhani meet.

Macron said France “will play a role” in the U.S.-Iran talks if they occur, along with the other signatories to the 2015 accord Trump pulled out of — Britain, Germany, the European Union, China and Russia.

Trump said Zarif’s visit to Biarritz was not a surprise to him.

Trump said he was in contact with Macron and that, “I knew everything he was doing and approved whatever he was doing.”

Macron had met with Zarif on Friday in Paris before the G-7 summit opened, but Macron invited him back to the site of the summit after tense exchanges among the world leaders about Iran at their Saturday night dinner.

Iran and the United States have been in a state of heightened strained relations since Trump withdrew last year from the international agreement that restrained Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. Trump then added more sanctions, particularly targeting Iran’s key oil sector, that have hobbled the country’s economy.

Trump said Monday he is not seeking “regime change” in Iran, but wants the country to “stop terrorism.”

“I think they’re going to change.  I really do.  I believe they have a chance to be a very special nation,” Trump said.

Macron had lunch with Trump Saturday, and, according to French sources, outlined his plan to ease the West’s tensions with Iran. The French leader is calling for allowing Iran to export its oil for a short time, fully implement the 2015 agreement, reduce conflict in the Gulf region and open new talks.

Macron on Monday said Iran would need new funding to help stabilize its economy. Trump said that would not include outright cash grants but rather letters of credit that “would be paid back very quickly.”

 

It was music to the ears of Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson. 

The British will be able to strike a “fantastic deal” with the United States once Britain has thrown off the “anchor” of the European Union, U.S. President Donald Trump told Johnson during a convivial bilateral meeting at the G-7 summit in the French resort of Biarritz, where they breakfasted Sunday on scrambled eggs and veal sausages.

“We’re going to do a very big trade deal, bigger than we’ve ever had with the U.K., and now at some point they won’t have the obstacle, they won’t have the anchor around their ankle, because that’s what they have,” Trump said. 

Later, U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton said the special relationship had “never been stronger.” 

“Enjoyed accompanying Donald Trump at his working breakfast with Boris Johnson where we collaborated on ways to further deepen our security and economic relationship with the UK,” Bolton tweeted. 

 The U.S. embrace was welcome news for Johnson, who has invested politically in a close relationship with Trump and presented a fast-tracked Anglo-American trade deal as a major ingredient in the “global Britain” future he and other Brexiters have advertised. 

Johnson has been buoyed by Trump’s praise of him since he succeeded Theresa May as prime minister. The U.S. leader has described him as “Britain Trump” and talked enthusiastically about the trans-Atlantic partnership the pair will forge.

Widening rifts

For a Britain struggling to work out its place in the world after it relinquishes its membership in the European Union, set for Oct. 31, the future challenge will be to balance relations between the U.S. and Europe, analysts say.

Johnson can’t afford to fall out with Britain’s European neighbors, especially if he wants to find a way out of the Brexit impasse and leave on good terms with the EU and a future trade deal.

Maintaining the balance won’t be easy amid widening rifts between Washington and Brussels on a host of key issues, including climate change, relations with Russia, rising nationalism, the role of multilateralism, and raging economic warfare between the U.S. and China. 

Analysts say it will be made trickier by having to deal with a U.S. president who sees diplomacy as a zero-sum game, and French President Emmanuel Macron, who appears eager to define dividing lines between Europe and the U.S.

On Sunday, Macron surprised fellow G-7 leaders by announcing that Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif would fly to Biarritz for unexpected talks on the summit’s sidelines — a bid to revive the 2015 nuclear accord from which the U.S. withdrew last year.

Britain has long had to navigate between the U.S. and Europe, and since World War II has positioned itself as the diplomatic interface between Washington and the Europeans. Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair used to talk about Britain being a trans-Atlantic bridge.  

That go-between role will likely be more difficult to pull off in the coming years, especially if Britain crashes out of the EU acrimoniously and without an exit deal, which analysts say could poison Britain’s relations with Europe.

‘Agonizing choices’ ahead

Brexit has coincided with an apparent inflection point in trans-Atlantic relations, with the U.S. and western Europe drifting further apart with unpredictable policy shifts.

“Agonizing choices face the United Kingdom this year, some of them immediate and obvious,” according to former Conservative lawmaker and columnist Matthew Parris. “But the biggest is less apparent, yet will shape our nation’s future in a way that no wrangles about EU deals ever can. Does Britain’s destiny lie with the States? As two global blocs, Europe and America, diverge, we shall be making that decision whether we know it or not.” 

Britain is as divided on that — whether its future lies with Europe or America  — as it is on the immediate issue of Brexit itself. Do its economic fortunes lie to the West or East? Is it more culturally and philosophically tied with the U.S. or Europe? The dilemma is further complicated by the likelihood that even after Brexit, Europe will remain its single largest trading partner. But Britain will need to compensate for the likely loss of post-Brexit trade with Europe and is eager for a trade deal with the U.S.

At his first G-7 summit as prime minister, Johnson trod a careful line — announcing Britain may be leaving the EU but maintaining that it isn’t leaving Europe. He maintained unity with the Europeans on Iran, climate change, international trade and Russia, pushing back, along with other EU leaders, on Trump’s idea for Russia to be readmitted to the G-7, from which it was ejected after Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea.

Despite that, Johnson appeared not to disrupt his relationship with Trump. Even British detractors of the new prime minister acknowledged Monday he managed to maintain poise on the geopolitical high wire he has to tread. 

Johnson may have been aided inadvertently by Macron’s decision as summit host not to issue a final communique, avoiding the kind of highly public dust-ups that derailed last year’s event in Canada. 

For more than a century, countries have raced to build the world’s tallest buildings with concrete and steel. Now, a quiet contest in constructing tall wooden buildings, from Amsterdam to Tokyo, underlines growing environmental concerns over concrete.

With rapid advances in engineered wood, and authorities relaxing building codes, wooden structures are sprouting across Europe, Canada, the United States, and in the Asia Pacific region.

At 73 meters (240 ft), Amsterdam’s Haut building is said to be the world’s tallest wooden residential tower.

Vancouver plans a 40-storey building it says will be the world’s tallest, a title also claimed by Sumitomo Forestry’s 350-meter (11,150 ft) skyscraper in Tokyo.

“The interest is definitely being driven by environmental concerns — the amount of damage we’re doing with concrete is unbelievable,” said John Hardy, a sustainability expert in Bali, Indonesia.

“Bamboo and wood are carbon sequestering materials. So the other advantage of building with them is that you will look better to your children and grandchildren,” he said.

Construction of office towers, bridges, airports and highways is booming in developing nations across the world.

The manufacture of steel, concrete and brick accounts for about 16% of global fossil-fuel consumption — and up to 30% when transport and assembly of the materials is considered, according to the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies.

Concrete is also blamed for rampant sand mining, which has damaged the environment and hurt livelihoods in Southeast Asia.

In addition, an abundance of concrete has worsened urban flooding, and made cities hotter, environmentalists say.

In contrast, wood requires fewer fossil fuels to transport and assemble, and also effectively stores large amounts of carbon — trapped as the trees grew — for years, helping curb emissions, said Andy Buchanan, professor of timber design at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand.

More attractive 

Each cubic meter of timber used in construction stores a carbon equivalent of over 900 kilograms (2,000 pounds) of CO2 emissions, meaning a reduction of 135 kg-360 kg of CO2 emissions per square meter of floor area, said Buchanan.

Innovations such as glue-laminated timber, laminated veneer lumber, and cross laminated timber — strips of wood glued together to make beams — are creating more uses for structural timber in residential and commercial projects, he said.

Structural timber is much lighter than concrete, cuts risks in earthquakes and can “create far more attractive interiors,” he said.

“As tall timber buildings become more popular, the perceived disadvantages — fire safety, durability and the supply chain — are being overcome with good design, excellent case study buildings, and technology for engineered-wood products.”

Examples are easy to find, from London’s nine-story residential Stadthaus to Melbourne’s 10-storey Forte apartment building.

A 54-meter (177 ft) wooden building in Vancouver that was thought to be the world’s tallest was quickly overtaken by an 85-meter (280 ft) tower in Norway.

Amsterdam’s 73-meter Haut will begin handing over its 55 apartments from 2021. Vancouver’s planned 40-story building will include 200 flats, while the 70-story Tokyo tower is slated to be completed by 2041.

“New technology, combined with accurate computer fabrication, now enables a wooden building to be assembled incredibly fast, like a giant piece of flat-packed furniture,” said Andrew Lawrence, a timber specialist at Arup, which designed Haut.

“Wood is ideally suited for lower rise buildings, but it is really exciting that engineers and architects worldwide are experimenting with the use of wood for taller structures,” he said.

Such buildings are particularly suited to cities, where buildings are constantly being adapted and refurbished for new uses, said Eleena Jamil, a Malaysian architect who has designed residential and commercial structures with bamboo and wood.

“Cities go through fast-paced changes. The advantage of using bamboo and timber is that they are easy to dismantle, reuse and adapt, compared to concrete,” she said.

But with excessive logging and deforestation already a problem in many Southeast Asian countries, it is important to balance demand for wood with “tighter regulations and more efficient management of forests,” she cautioned.

Wood first 

Under pressure to act on a material that produces 7% of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions, cement manufacturers also have been experimenting with lower-carbon concrete.

Authorities in several U.S. states are exploring the use of carbon-injected concrete that will use less cement while trapping carbon emissions.

Meanwhile, policy initiatives are hastening the move to wood from steel and concrete.

In New Zealand’s Christchurch, where authorities have encouraged a more environment-friendly approach after a 2011 earthquake that flattened much of the central business district, timber is a favored material.

The city, which creates about 600,000 square meters of new buildings each year, has the opportunity to store the equivalent of 30,000-200,000 tons of CO2 emissions per year if all new buildings were made of wood, said Buchanan.

Regions including British Columbia and Tasmania have adopted a “wood first” or “wood encouragement” policy that requires building designers to show that they have considered wood as an option.

Japan has a law to promote use of wood in public materials.

Such policies are “probably the most effective to encourage greater use of wood as a construction material, especially if supported through a carbon encouragement grant,” Buchanan said.

But the decision to use wood must be a considered one, said Amy Chow, a designer in Hong Kong who curated a show on wood, paper and bamboo.

“You can’t start off saying: let’s build this out of wood,” she said.

“It has to be the culmination of a process to determine what works best in that context, what is most sustainable, cost effective and efficient,” she said.

Mary Banda – not her real name – is a 35-year-old HIV positive sex worker from neighboring Zambia who cannot afford life-prolonging anti-retroviral drugs.

Like many sex workers living with HIV in Botswana, she also cannot afford to travel back home to receive free treatment.

That is why Banda welcomes legislation before the Botswana cabinet that, if passed, would provide free ARVs to HIV positive foreigners. 

“If they do that it will be a good idea because some of us are dying here,” she said.  “Maybe someone will be getting (the) tablets back home, and when they get finished, they don’t have money to go back and take the tablets.”
 
Banda says a number of sex workers she knew in Botswana have died from AIDS-related illnesses due to lack of treatment.
 
Immigrants and sex workers in Botswana afflicted with the HIV virus that causes AIDS could get a lifeline as the southern African country is due to decide on offering free Anti-Retroviral (ARV) treatment to foreigners.  An estimated 30,000 migrants have HIV in Botswana, which has the third highest HIV prevalence in the world.  Experts say refusing to offer free ARV treatment is making it harder for Botswana to eradicate the virus.

Tosh Beka, who is head of the sex worker rights group Sisonke, says Botswana has about 1,500 foreign sex workers in need of ARV treatment.

“If they are infected and are not getting any help and we are saying we want zero infections, then it means we are doing nothing,” he said.
 
Botswana’s has an estimated 30,000 HIV positive foreigners but only 7,000 are getting treatment, according to the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).
 
PEPFAR coordinator Dan Craun-Selka says the agency supports offering free ARVs for all and has pledged to provide funding to Botswana. 

“Once the government changes this policy, it will help bring about epidemic controls in this country,” he said. “That is something that really needs to take place. We have discussed this with ministries and it’s now with the cabinet for their decision.”
 
Botswana became the first country in southern Africa to provide free ARV treatment to HIV positive citizens.
 
The measure has been partially credited with reducing Botswana’s high rate of HIV infection from 25 percent of the population down to 21 percent.
 
But Botswana still has the third highest HIV prevalence in the world, after Lesotho and eSwatini.

National AIDS Coordinating Agency director Richard Matlhare says free treatment for HIV positive foreigners would further reduce the virus’s spread. 

“We must look at the overall bigger picture of ending AIDS and not leaving anyone behind,” he said.  “On the other hand, we must look at the prevailing policies on the ground, and the cabinet must make a determination.”

Botswana’s cabinet is expected to make a decision before the country holds general elections in October.

 

Airstrikes targeted Syria’s last major rebel stronghold in the northwestern province of Idlib on Monday, killing at least four people, including a woman and her child, opposition activists sad.
 
The attacks come as Syrian government forces turn their focus on another rebel-held town in Idlib, Maaret al-Numan, following gains they made last week.

The troops have been on the offensive since April 30, and have also captured all rebel-held areas in the adjoining Hama province, as well as the town of Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib. From the town, they are now pushing north.

The opposition’s Syrian Civil Defense rescue group, also known as White Helmets, said the airstrikes and artillery shelling targeted the village of in Basqala and nearby places. Three people died in Basqala and the fourth, a man, in another village close by, Maaret Harmeh.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights gave a higher toll, saying the airstrikes killed six people in Idlib, including three in the village of Basqala on the southern edge of the province. Among the three killed in Basqala were a woman and her child, it said. The differences between the Observatory’s death toll and that of the White Helmets could not immediately be reconciled.

State news agency SANA said troops are pounding insurgents’ positions in the town of Maaret al-Numan and several nearby villages. It said insurgent fired rockets in government-held villages inflicting casualties among the civilian population.
 
Maaret al-Numan, like Khan Sheikhoun sits on the highway linking Damascus with the northern city of Aleppo, Syria’s largest. Government forces are trying to eventually open that highway.

The months of fighting have also displaced more than half a million toward northern parts of Idlib, already home to some 3 million people.

Also Monday, Turkey’s defense minister, Hulusi Akar, said Turkish and U.S. troops will soon begin joint patrols as part of a deal for a so-called safe zone in northeastern Syria. He said a joint helicopter flight has already taken place.

Akar made the comments days after announcing that a Turkish-U.S. joint operation center for the safe zone had started working under the command of one Turkish and one American general.

Turkey has been pressing for a safe zone, running east of the Euphrates River toward the Iraqi border, to push U.S.-allied Syrian Kurdish militias away from its frontier. Ankara considers the Syrian Kurdish fighters as terrorists linked to an insurgency within Turkey.
 
Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday renewed a threat of a Turkish military offensive in the region if the safe zone is not established.

“If we are forced into a path that we don’t desire, if we are kept waiting, all of our preparations have been completed and we will execute our plans,” Erdogan said.

Hussam Alhallak and his wife kept thinking that the war in Syria would end, or that at least conditions would improve. But it persisted, with gunfire in the streets and bombings that drove the couple and their two young children into their basement for protection.
 
They just wanted to move away from the violence.

The family fled as refugees to Turkey and two years later to the United States, where they are rebuilding a life for themselves far away from war-torn Syria, in the small, working-class city of Rutland, Vermont.
 
They learned English, and the couple attended community college classes in accounting, all while Alhallak was working early in the morning at a bakery. In February he was offered a job as a tax accountant.
 
“This is my dream,” said Alhallak, 36, who was an accountant in Damascus. “Thank god for everything. Yeah, yeah, I’m very happy now.”

The family has made great strides in a short time. But three years ago, when Rutland’s former Mayor Christopher Louras announced a plan to relocate up to 100 refugees there, it wasn’t clear how they would be received.

The plan initially divided the economically depressed city of about 16,400. While some Rutlanders were eager to welcome the new residents and pitched in to gather supplies for them, others raised concerns that the refugees could be security threats or economic burdens and felt the resettlement plan was developed in secret.
 
Then the election of President Donald Trump, who expressed hostility toward Muslim immigrants, threw the plan into question , and Louras lost his bid for reelection in 2017, attributing the loss to his support for the refugee resettlement.

Just three families, including Alhallak’s, arrived before Trump imposed a ban on travelers from certain majority-Muslim countries. Community members welcomed those families, gathering furniture and other goods for the newcomers and offering ongoing support, from helping them learn English to spending time with the children and getting the families summer swim passes for the city pool.
 
The refugee families in Rutland have “integrated really well” and have mostly been accepted, according to Amila Merdzanovic, director of the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants in Vermont.
 
The kids are in school and “have a lot of friends,” Merdzanovic said. “I would say they have done really, really well.”

Current Mayor David Allaire did not return a phone call seeking comment.
 
Alhallak’s wife, Hazar Mansour, who was a French teacher in Syria and studied French literature, described Rutland as “a magical place.”

“We like Rutland,” said Mansour, 37, who says the people in her community are “very nice.”
 
In Turkey, work was hard to find and when Alhallak did get jobs, they didn’t pay enough to support the family, he said. Some Turkish people also do not like Syrians, he said.
 
“I really like Vermont,” said their daughter, Layan, age 12. “In Turkey I had trouble getting along with kids because they kept being rude to me. … I really get along here.”

Once a month, the family travels to Albany, New York, or Burlington, Vermont, to stock up on food from Middle Eastern grocery stores. They speak mostly Arabic at home so their kids will retain the language, and the family planned to attend services at a mosque in Colchester, Vermont, for a recent holiday.
 
The other two families also are doing well, Merdzanovic said.
 
Alhallak’s family of five, now living in a small apartment, will soon have a new house, thanks to Habitat for Humanity of Rutland County. Volunteers are building the house with donated building supplies.

When word spread through a newspaper that more money was needed to start construction, Alhallak’s co-workers at Casella Waste Systems Inc. rallied to raise $16,000, which the company matched, in a matter of weeks.
 
Alhallak and Mansour both miss and worry about their relatives in Syria. They are able to text them, but phone calls are difficult because of poor service, they said. Mansour’s father, who was a professor, was shot and killed in the war as he was returning home from work in 2012.

They hope to one day bring Alhallak’s father and Mansour’s mother, who is sick, to Vermont. They may try to bring siblings, too.
 
“In the future I have a plan,” Alhallak said.