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Concerns Persist About Fate of Captured Islamic State 

Fears that Turkey’s offensive in northeastern Syria allowed untold numbers of captured Islamic State terror group fighters to escape may be overblown, according to U.S. officials.

Since Turkish-backed forces crossed the border and began clashing with Kurdish fighters aligned with the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), there have been reports of SDF-run prisons coming under attack and of IS fighters running free.

Turkish soldiers and Turkey-back Syrian fighters patrol the northern Syrian Kurdish town of Tal Abyad, on the border between Syria and Turkey, Oct. 23, 2019.

But Wednesday, the U.S. insisted almost all of the estimated 12,000 captured IS fighters, including about 2,000 fighters from outside Syria and Iraq, were still behind bars.

“The SDF continues to hold the vast majority of the ISIS fighters who were being detained,” a senior administration official said.

“We have assets in the region and good relations with the parties on the ground and so we’re keeping a very close eye on the situation,” the official added, saying that both the SDF and Turkey had given “very strong commitments” that any escaped IS prisoners “will be hunted down and recaptured.”

FILE – A view inside a former Islamic State group prison cell in the city of Hajin in Syria’s eastern Deir Ezzor province, Jan. 27, 2019, vacated after the Kurdish-led and U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces retook the city from IS group fighters.

Estimates for how many IS fighters are on the run have varied greatly in recent weeks, prompted in part by threats from SDF leaders that they might have no choice but to pull prison guards in order to turn back the Turkish offensive.

SDF officials told VOA they never made good on their threats, and earlier this week insisted they even took steps to ensure captured IS fighters would not be able to escape.

“There aren’t any prisons in areas that Turkish forces recently have occupied,” SDF Commander, General Mazloum Abdi said Monday. “We have evacuated all prisoners in those areas and moved them to prisons under our control.”

Still, Turkey claimed last week that about 750 fighters had escaped, most of them freed by the SDF, saying about 200 had been recaptured. On Tuesday, Russia’s defense minister alleged that up to 500 IS prisoners had broken out.

James Jeffrey, State Department special representative for Syria engagement and special envoy to the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Oct. 23, 2019.

“We’d say that the number is now over 100,” the U.S. Special Representative for Syria, Ambassador James Jeffrey, told U.S. lawmakers Wednesday, just one day after testifying at a separate hearing that the number was likely in the dozens.

The whereabouts of those escaped IS fighters remains unknown, Jeffrey added, though he was contradicted less than an hour later by U.S. President Donald Trump.

“There were a few that got out,” Trump said during a speech at the White House touting the success of a U.S.-brokered ceasefire between Turkey and the SDF.

“They’ve been largely recaptured,” Trump said. “We also expect Turkey to abide by its commitment regarding ISIS, as a backup to the Kurds watching over them. Should something happen, Turkey is there to grab them.”

A Syrian Kurdish official told lawmakers that including family members, such as wives and children who were being kept separately at displaced persons camps, about 600 IS loyalists were on the loose.

President of the Executive Committee of the Syrian Democratic Council Ilham Ahmed said that figure included two fighters from Belgium, six fighters from France and 10 IS fighters whose nationalities have not been determined.

White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara, Sirwan Kajjo contributed to this report.

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Costa Rican Finance Minister Steps Down Amid Fiscal Reform Push

Costa Rican Finance Minister Rocio Aguilar resigned on Wednesday in the middle of a fiscal reform push aimed at avoiding problems with future debt payments, but which has been sharply criticized over austerity measures.

Aguilar, a 62-year-old lawyer, stepped down after being formally rebuked by the country’s comptroller, which called for Aguilar to be suspended from her post after accusing her of authorizing public debt payments last year without congressional approval.

Aguilar told a news conference that she disagreed with the comptroller’s determination.

“I only regret not achieving more things in fiscal matters,” she said.

President Carlos Alvarado praised Aguilar’s record as minister in a post on Twitter. “Her hard work was key to stabilizing and cleaning up public finances,” he said.

Aguilar’s resignation was welcomed by many upset with her support for austerity measures, but lamented by those who support the fiscal reform she backed along with the Congress.

The reform includes a tax hike plus limits on public worker salaries.

Costa Rica’s economy is expected to grow 2.6% this year, which would be the country’s lowest expansion rate in a decade.

 

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Trump Could Shoot Someone and Escape Prosecution, His Attorney Argues 

A lawyer for U.S. President Donald Trump told a federal appeals court Wednesday that the president did not have to hand over his tax returns to New York state prosecutors because he was immune from criminal investigation. 
 
William Consovoy, an attorney for the president, told the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that Trump has immunity until he leaves office and said prosecutors would not even have the power to do anything if Trump shot someone on Fifth Avenue in New York City. 
 
The remark echoed a past comment by Trump, who has said his supporters are so loyal that he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose a single vote. 
 
The case, which pits Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance against Trump, is one of several legal battles in which the Republican president is seeking to shield his personal finances from scrutiny. 

FILE – The logo of Mazars, an international organization that specializes in audit, accounting, tax and advisory services, is seen on a building in the financial district of La Defense near Paris, May 14, 2018.

Criminal probe
 
In August, Vance, a Democrat, subpoenaed Trump’s personal and corporate tax returns from 2011 to 2018, and other records from the president’s longtime accounting firm Mazars USA. The subpoena is part of a criminal probe into Trump and his family business. The scope of that probe is not publicly known. 
 
Trump sued Vance’s office in Manhattan federal court to block the subpoena, arguing that as a sitting president, he cannot be subject to criminal investigation. 
 
“We view the entire subpoena as an inappropriate fishing expedition not made in good faith,” Consovoy, a lawyer for Trump, told the three-judge panel on Wednesday. 
 
Judge Denny Chin asked Convoy if authorities would be powerless to do anything if Trump shot someone. 
 
“That’s correct,” Consovoy replied, adding that immunity would end if Trump were removed from office. 

‘No such thing’
 
Carey Dunne, a lawyer for prosecutors, urged the judges to reject Trump’s argument. 
 
“There’s no such thing as presidential immunity for tax returns,” Dunne said. 
 
Dunne assured the court that if Vance’s office obtained the tax returns, they would be kept confidential. 
 
“This case seems bound for the Supreme Court,” Chief Judge Robert Katzmann said toward the end of the argument. 

FILE – Protesters gather on Capitol Hill in Washington during a Tax Day demonstration calling on President Donald Trump to release his tax returns, April 15, 2017.

House committee’s effort
 
Earlier this month, a federal appeals court in Washington backed an effort by a House Oversight Committee to obtain Trump’s financial records from Mazars. 
 
The 2nd Circuit has put U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero’s Oct. 7 order on hold until it considers the case. Vance’s office has agreed not to enforce its subpoena for 10 days if the court rules in its favor, to give Trump time to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. 
 
The U.S. Department of Justice has weighed in on the case, arguing that Vance must make a “heightened and particularized showing” that he needs the documents for his investigation. 
 
Though the department stopped short of saying Vance could not get the returns under any circumstances, it said it was “unlikely” he could demonstrate an immediate need for them because the U.S. Constitution bars states from prosecuting a sitting president. 

Impeachment inquiry
 
Vance’s investigation comes amid an impeachment inquiry and investigations into Trump’s finances by Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives. 
 
Two House committees are seeking to obtain Trump’s financial records from Deutsche Bank AG and Capital One Financial Corp. The 2nd Circuit is currently considering a lawsuit by Trump to block them from getting those records, which do not include his tax returns. 
 
The House impeachment inquiry focuses on the president’s request in a July phone call for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, a key Trump rival and a top contender for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. 

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Brazil Pension Reform Awaits Ratification After Clearing Senate

Brazil’s Senate on Wednesday gave its final seal of approval to a sweeping overhaul of the country’s pension system, bringing to a close months of political wrangling over the government’s keystone policy to stabilize public finances and boost growth.

The landmark bill, which aims to generate savings of 800 billion reais ($197 billion) over the next decade through a range of measures like raising the retirement age and increasing workers’ contributions, now awaits presidential ratification.

Senate President Davi Alcolumbre said that should be done by Nov. 19, once President Jair Bolsonaro returns from a series of official visits to Asia.

Investors, economists and credit ratings agencies welcomed the news, even though it was effectively a formality after the main text of the bill was overwhelmingly approved on Tuesday.

Brazil’s benchmark Bovespa stock index rose to a fresh record high just shy of 108,000 points, and the real firmed to around 4.03 per dollar, the strongest in six weeks.

Samar Maziad, senior analyst at ratings agency Moody’s, said the Senate’s green light completes a “crucial step towards preserving Brazil’s fiscal sustainability,” and that the reform supports Brazil’s credit profile and Ba2 sovereign debt rating.

“We expect the authorities to continue pushing their structural reform agenda as they seek to improve growth on a sustained basis over the coming years by encouraging private sector investment in infrastructure, and simplifying the tax regime,” Maziad said in a statement.

The Ba2 rating is non-investment grade, and the outlook is stable. In a report last month, Moody’s said failure to pursue further reforms and control spending could mean no “material improvements” in Brazil’s credit profile for years to come.

Roberto Secemski, Brazil economist at Barclays, said that although the pension reform “saga” had come to a “happy ending,” other measures were still needed to turn the country’s fiscal and economic fortunes around.

While the bill’s approval means Brazil will almost certainly avoid sliding back into recession, its deficit and debt dynamics will likely take years to improve.

“The majority of the reform savings, which will come from a slower pace in expenditure growth rather than outright reduction in spending, is back-loaded,” Secemski wrote in a client note.

“The market’s focus will now likely shift toward economic growth. We will monitor the new fiscal measures expected to be announced by (Economy) Minister Paulo Guedes next week,” he said.

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Cummings Lying in Repose at Historically Black College

Mourners, constituents and other well-wishers paid respects to U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings on Wednesday as his body lay in repose at a historically black college in Baltimore ahead of the first in a series of services.

A tan hearse with a U.S. House of Representatives seal carrying Cummings’ body arrived Wednesday morning at Morgan State University’s Murphy Fine Arts Center. A group of mourners led by Cummings’ widow, Maya Rockeymoore, followed pallbearers who wheeled the black casket with silver trimmings into the building.

Mourners, including Maya Rockeymoore, right, widow of U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings, follow behind pallbearers walking with the congressman’s body while arriving at Morgan State University ahead of a public viewing in Baltimore, Oct. 23, 2019.

The auditorium opened to the public Wednesday morning and a large group of people waiting in line began to file through.
 
Katrina Hutton, who lives in Baltimore, came out of the viewing area with tears in her eyes.
 
“He’s always been there for us and supported us,” she said. “No scandal. He’s been forthright with everything he’s done for us.”
 
Flowers were laid outside the arts center, including an arrangement from the university’s president that included a note with the message, “Congressman Cummings was a great man and will be truly missed.”
 
The Maryland congressman and civil rights champion died Thursday at age 68 of complications from long-standing health issues.

Katrina Hutton wipes tears as she leaves Gilliam Concert Hall after viewing the open casket of U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Oct. 23, 2019.

Inside the auditorium, the open casket was placed in front of the auditorium stage where it was flanked by arrangements of white flowers. Two members of the Masonic group Knights Templar, one on each side of the casket, stood guard in dark uniforms with gold trim.
 
A large screen above the stage showed photos of Cummings along with portions of his news interviews and remarks in Congress. On display were photos of him with former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren, and MSNBC hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, whose wedding he officiated in 2018.

Baltimore resident Sandra Whitehurst said she stopped by the auditorium because she wants to be able to tell her 15-year-old grandson that she was present to pay her respects to the late congressman.

Mourners wait in line for the public viewing of late U.S. Congressman Elijah Cummings at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland, Oct. 23, 2019.

“It was important to come,” she said after walking through the auditorium. “I cared about him and what he has done.”

Whitehurst said today’s youth read books about civil rights champions such as Harriet Tubman, Martin Luther King Jr. and Cummings, but don’t realize the struggle “was real.”

“I lived through Jim Crow. I lived through segregation,” Whitehurst, 72, said. “To them, it’s just a story.”

She said she was “particularly proud” of how Cummings “stood up to [President Donald] Trump” this summer, when he attacked Cummings’ majority-black district.

Morgan State University is in Cummings’ congressional district, and he served on its Board of Regents for 19 years. Following the public viewing that was to last until 5 p.m., a tribute service was to feature remarks from Rockeymoore, U.S. Rep. John Sarbanes and Baltimore Mayor Bernard “Jack” Young.

Cummings’ body will lie in state on Thursday in the National Statuary Hall of the U.S. Capitol. A wake and funeral for Cummings is planned for Friday at New Psalmist Baptist Church in Baltimore, where the congressman worshiped for nearly four decades.

A sharecropper’s son, Cummings went on to become a lawyer and elected official, most recently leading one of the U.S. House committees conducting an impeachment inquiry of Trump. He was also known as a powerful orator and passionate advocate for the poor in his Baltimore-area district.
 

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Trump to Lift Turkey Sanctions

President Donald Trump says the U.S. will be lifting sanctions on Turkey, saying he has been informed by Ankara that its ceasefire in an offensive against Kurds in northeastern Syria will be permanent.

“The sanctions will be lifted unless something happens that we are not happy with,” Trump said in a speech at the White House.

Turkey on Tuesday said there is “no need” to resume its military offensive against Syrian Kurds, saying the U.S. has told it that the Kurdish withdrawal from the northern Syrian border is complete.

Turkey made its announcement hours after the five-day long cease-fire expired in the Turkish military incursion into what had been a Kurdish safe zone in northern Syria.  

The Syrian Kurds fought alongside U.S. forces against Islamic State terrorists. But Turkey considers them to be linked with Kurdish separatists who have long fought for autonomy inside Turkey. Turkey calls the Kurds terrorists.

Turkey launched its offensive after Trump ordered nearly all U.S. forces out of northern Syria two weeks ago.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, reached an agreement Tuesday on joint control of the Syrian border region.   

Video provided by VOA’s Kurdish service showed Russian military vehicles entering the city of Kobani, on the border with Turkey.

Under the agreement, Kurdish fighters would be kept 30 kilometers from the entire 440-kilometer Turkish-Syrian border, and also withdraw from the towns of Manbij and Tel Rifaat.

Defense Secretary Mark Esper talks with U.S. troops in front of an F-22 fighter jet deployed to Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2019. (AP Photo/Lolita Baldor)

Meanwhile, U.S. Defense Mark Esper arrived in Baghdad Wednesday for talks with Iraqi officials about the arrival of U.S. troops recently withdrawn from northern Syria.

Seven hundred or more troops have moved into western Iraq, where 5,000 military personnel are already deployed.  

Angry Kurds screamed obscenities and pelted a U.S. convoy with rotten potatoes as the convoy headed through the streets of Duhok in the Iraqi Kurdistan region on the way to Iraq.

Esper has said the additional troops would help defend Iraq and be available to conduct anti-terrorism operations against Islamic State insurgents inside Syria.

But the Iraqi government says the troops do not have permission to stay in the country.  

During his visit to Saudi Arabia, the U.S. defense chief said that “eventually their destination is home” back in the United States.

 

 

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FDA Wants Stronger Warning on Breast Implants About Risks

U.S. health officials want women getting breast implants to receive stronger warnings about the possible risks and complications.
 
The Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday that manufacturers should add a boxed warning – the most serious type – to information used to market and prepare patients for implants.
 

The recommendations are the agency’s latest attempt to manage safety issues with the implants.
 
In recent years, the FDA and regulators elsewhere have grappled with a link between a rare cancer and a type of textured implant, some of which have been recalled. Separately, the agency has received thousands of reports of health problems that some women attribute to the implants, including arthritis, fatigue and muscle pain.
 
The FDA will take public comment on the recommendations before adopting them.

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US Treasury Secretary to Attend Saudi Event a Year After Khashoggi Murder

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin will lead an American delegation to Saudi Arabia’s annual financial conference, a year after widespread boycotts of a prior event over the murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Saudi writer Khashoggi, a columnist for The Washington Post, was strangled and dismembered at the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018.

Dozens of top global officials and business leaders boycotted last year’s Future Investment Initiative, a lavish event dubbed “Davos in the desert,” as international outrage over Khashoggi’s killing peaked.

But Mnuchin will attend this year’s event representing the United States, a key ally of the petro-state, a Treasury Department spokesman said Wednesday.

Also in the senior delegation will be Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and advisor, The New York Times reported.

Brian Hook, the State Department’s special envoy overseeing Iran policy, will also attend, the newspaper said, citing unnamed sources.

Global firms including Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup are also planning to send top executives, according to The Washington Post.

The leaders of India and Pakistan, Narendra Modi and Imran Khan, will also attend, according to local press reports in their countries this week.

The conference, which begins next week, is aimed at drawing foreign investors to help Riyadh diversify its oil-reliant economy.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the conservative kingdom’s de facto leader, was feted by global leaders and business titans before Khashoggi’s gruesome murder.

The global fallout over the killing rendered the heir to the Arab world’s most powerful throne a pariah, casting a shadow on his reforms, putting the kingdom’s human rights record under the microscope and testing old alliances with Western powers.

The CIA has reportedly concluded that the prince, who controls all major levers of power in the Saudi government, likely ordered the killing.

A report by United Nations Special Rapporteur Agnes Callamard also said there was “credible evidence” linking him to the murder and an attempted cover up.

Eleven suspects have been put on trial in Riyadh over Khashoggi’s murder, five of whom face the death penalty, but hearings are held behind closed doors and the names of the defendants have not been released.

Amnesty International has denounced the trial in Riyadh as a “sham” and “a mockery of justice.”

 

 

 

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Swedish Envoy: US, N. Korea Talks Went Longer Than Planned

The recent nuclear negotiations between the United States and North Korea were substantive and lasted longer than anticipated, according to a Swedish diplomat who helped arrange the talks.

The upbeat analysis by Swedish Special Envoy Kent Harstedt stands in contrast to that of North Korean diplomats, who blamed Washington for failing to bring new ideas to the early October talks in Sweden’s capital.

At an event Wednesday in Seoul, Harstedt said the U.S.-North Korea negotiations lasted “many hours” and were “not interrupted.” He said he was “cautiously optimistic” the talks would continue, despite North Korea not accepting Sweden’s invitation for follow-up talks within two weeks.

“The DPRK hasn’t closed the door for continuation at this point,” Harstedt said, using an abbreviation for North Korea’s official name. “We don’t comment exactly on our dialogue with DPRK. We can just say we have a very good working dialogue with them.”

“We also have to bear in mind that this is a very, very sensitive and complicated matter to discuss,” the envoy added.

Sweden has acted as an intermediary between the United States and North Korea, since the two countries do not have official diplomatic relations. Though Sweden helped set up the U.S.-North Korean talks, Harstedt said he was not involved in the negotiations.

Immediately after the Stockholm talks, U.S. officials characterized the discussions as “good” and insisted that they want them to continue. But North Korea said it has no intention to engage in “sickening negotiations” until the United States takes unspecified steps to withdraw its “hostile policy.”

“I think it’s good that both sides expressed themselves afterwards,” Harstedt said.

Since the breakdown of the Stockholm talks, North Korea has hinted at a return to major provocations.

President Donald Trump, the self-styled deal-maker, is struggling to close big deals. He heads to the United Nations this coming week with many unresolved foreign policy challenges, including North Korea.

Last week, North Korean state media published photos of leader Kim Jong Un riding a white horse up the country’s highest mountain while warning of a “great operation to strike the world with wonder.” Similar reports have sometimes preceded major policy shifts.

Pyongyang has also issued a veiled threat it may resume nuclear or long-range missile tests — a move that would risk upsetting the nuclear talks.

North Korea has not conducted a nuclear or long-range missile test since 2017. In 2018, Kim announced a self-imposed moratorium on such tests.

Since May, Pyongyang has conducted 11 rounds of short- or medium-range missile launches. U.S. President Donald Trump has shrugged off the tests, saying short-range missiles do not threaten the United States.

Some analysts view North Korea’s moves as evidence Pyongyang believes it is in a stronger bargaining position, especially amid Trump’s domestic political troubles and upcoming re-election campaign.

U.S.-North Korea talks have been stalled since February, when Trump walked away from a summit with Kim in Hanoi, Vietnam. The two sides disagreed on how to pace sanctions relief with steps to dismantle North Korea’s nuclear program.

Although Trump has been reluctant to relax sanctions unless North Korea agrees to abandon its entire nuclear weapons program, he had signaled increased flexibility ahead of the Stockholm talks, speaking of the need for a “new method” to the negotiations.

It’s not clear what Washington was prepared to offer. One possibility: the United States could allow the resumption of inter-Korean economic initiatives such as the Kaesong Industrial Complex and tours to North Korea’s Mount Kumgang resort.

Such concessions could provide North Korea much-needed sources of cash without completely dismantling the sanctions regime that Washington has used to pressure Pyongyang.

On Wednesday, North Korean state media signaled Kim may not be interested in such a concession.

During a visit to Mount Kumgang, Kim slammed dependence on South Korea for the operation of the resort, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.

During his visit, KCNA said Kim would like to tear down the “backward” and “shabby” facilities built by the South. It suggested he may try to reopen the facility, regardless of progress in inter-Korean relations.

Amid a warming of relations in 2018, North and South Korea agreed to “normalize operations” at Mount Kumgang when conditions allow. Inter-Korean relations have since worsened, and international sanctions have prevented the resumption of South Korean tours.

South Korean tours of Mount Kumgang were stopped in 2008 after a North Korean soldier shot and killed a 53-year-old tourist who had allegedly wandered into an off-limits area. Since then, the resort has not seen much activity.

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Philippines Cozies up to India, Both Wary of China

The Philippines has agreed to strengthen defense ties with India, an increasingly significant Western ally in Asia, as part of its accumulation of foreign support in case fragile ties with China suddenly break down.

Last week, the presidents of India and the Philippines decided to work more closely together on defense and security in light of what the presidential office in Manila called a “fast-changing geopolitical landscape in the Asia-Pacific region.”

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte welcomed India’s role in a Philippine program to upgrade defense, the presidential office said in a statement Saturday after a visit by Indian President Ram Nath Kovind.

Duterte, despite warming up to China after taking office in 2016, is now seeking foreign ties elsewhere fearing pressure from Beijing on a maritime sovereignty dispute over the South China Sea.

“He cannot be sure of China’s one-way goodwill,” said Alan Chong, associate professor at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore. “He thought he had China as a friend. Then I think he realized that behind the smiles and the pageantry and all the economic deals, China was actually continuing to militarize its islands in the South China Sea.”

India has its own grievances with China and has been working with a other countries, including the United States,  to check Beijing’s maritime expansion.

China relations

Despite Duterte’s efforts to fostered a friendship with Beijing, with China pledging $24 billion in aid and investment to the Philippines in 2016,  hundreds of Chinese vessels stirred up concerns after passing near Philippine-held islets in the sea’s contested Spratly archipelago in April.

And, in early June, a Chinese fishing boat sank a Filipino vessel near the disputed sea’s Recto Bank, raising questions about a possible ramming incident.

Duterte is now looking for closer relations with powerful third countries, using China as a gambit, said Stephen Nagy, senior associate politics and international studies professor at International Christian University in Tokyo.

“It’s the Philippines really fishing for lots of different assistance and using China as the bait,” Nagy said. “Unofficially, the Chinese are probably not going to be happy that India has increased their relationship with the Philippines. And they will probably read it as the Philippines basically milking every cow rather than really forging a strong and enduring relationship with China.”

Duterte visited Russia earlier this month for talks that analysts say could generate arms sales. He has made efforts to cozy up to Washington this year after a strain in relations in 2016. And, in May, the president made his third visit to Japan, which like India, is working with Washington and other western countries to check China’s maritime expansion.

“As countries strategically located in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, we affirmed our shared interest to protect our maritime commons and advance the rule of law in our maritime domains,” Duterte said after meeting India’s Kovind.

Brunei, China, Malaysia, Taiwan, Vietnam and the Philippines claim all or parts of the sea. China claims 90% of the waterway as its own and it has taken a military lead there over the past decade.

India’s interests

India, located west of the Indochinese peninsula, does not claim any part of the South China Sea, but in September, it held military drills with Japan and the United States outside the South China Sea.

Even though the drills took place outside the disputed sea, India showed support of a “ruled based order” in Asian seas instead of “giving credence to Beijing’s claims,” said Jay Batongbacal, international maritime affairs professor at University of the Philippines.

New Delhi probably sees stronger Philippine defense relations as “complementary” to its ties with Japan and the United States, Nagy said.

India’s Act East policy that calls for stronger economic ties with fast-growing Southeast Asia – including the Philippines – would put further weight behind China’s rivals in the maritime dispute. India is the 15th largest investment partner of the Philippines, according to government data from Manila.

But these ties may not be enough.

“India itself is also in a way still exploring what it can do in Southeast Asia in general based on its Act East policy, but in terms of substance it is also been not moving as fast as say China,” Batongbacal said.

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Census Bureau Pivots from Verifying Places to Recruiting

A top U.S. Census Bureau official says the agency has pivoted away from verifying addresses and is now kicking off a campaign to recruit and hire as many as a half million temporary workers to help with the largest head count in U.S. history next spring.

Timothy Olson, the agency’s associate director for field operations, said Tuesday that 32,000 workers verified 50 million addresses over an almost two-month period that ended more than a week ago.

Olson called the address verification process a success.

The agency already has 900,000 people who have applied for 2020 Census jobs, but the bureau wants a potential pool of 2.7 million applicants to choose from.

The 2020 Census head count will be the first decennial census when respondents are encouraged to answer questions online.
 

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Turkey Says ‘No Need’ to Resume Offensive Against Kurds

Turkey says there is “no need” to resume its military offensive against Syrian Kurds, saying the U.S. has told it that the Kurdish withdrawal from the northern Syrian border is complete.

Turkey made its announcement hours after the five-day cease-fire expired in the Turkish military incursion into what had been a Kurdish safe zone in northern Syria.

A Kurdish official said earlier that fighters had left the border region. A senior U.S. official said that the chief of the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces, Mazlum Abdi, told Vice President Mike Pence that all Kurdish fighters have withdrawn.

A senior U.S. official said Washington is working with Turkey to see the cease-fire become permanent.

FILE – A fighter from the Syrian Democratic Forces stands guard as a convoy of U.S. military vehicles drives on a road after U.S. forces pulled out of their base in the northern Syrian town of Tal Tamr, Oct. 20, 2019.

Turkey launched its offensive when President Donald Trump ordered nearly all U.S. forces out of northern Syria two weeks ago.

“The truth was that it was not in Turkey’s interest as a NATO ally to continue with that incursion,” U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said.

The Syrian Kurds fought alongside U.S. forces against Islamic State terrorists. But Turkey considers them to be linked with Kurdish separatists who have long fought for autonomy inside Turkey. Turkey calls the Kurds terrorists.

Joint control

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan have agreed on joint control of the Syrian border region.

Kurdish fighters would be kept 30 kilometers from the entire 440-kilometer Turkish-Syrian border, and also withdraw from the towns of Manbij and Tel Rifaat.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan shake hands after their joint news conference following their talks in the Bocharov Ruchei residence in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, Russia, Oct. 22, 2019.

“According to this agreement,” Erdogan said, “Turkey and Russia will not allow any separatist agenda on Syrian territory.”

Erdogan said Turkish and Russian forces would conduct joint patrols within 10 kilometers of the border, and the two countries would work together for the safe return of Syrian refugees now living in Turkey.

But Russian defense minister Sergei Shoigu also disclosed another result of the two-week Turkish offensive: the escape of about 500 people, including Islamist fighters, from captivity in northern Syria after guards left their posts.

Devastation

The United Nations said the Turkish attack has proved devastating for the region, with more than 176,000 people displaced, including nearly 80,000 children, and “critical infrastructure has been damaged.”

FILE – Members of a Syrian family use a motorcycle to flee the countryside of the northeastern Syrian town of Ras al-Ayn on the Turkish border, toward the west to the town of Tal Tamr, Oct. 19, 2019.

After Trump withdrew most American troops from the region, Putin emerged as a key powerbroker to deal with the fate of the long but narrow strip of land where Erdogan wants to create a “safe zone.” Erdogan has sought the removal of Kurdish fighters and communities established to help resettle up to 2 million Syrian refugees who have been living in Turkey.

Putin said he believed the good relations with Turkey “will let us find an answer to even the most difficult questions.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, however, said Turkey needs Syria’s permission to deploy its forces inside Syria, although Turkey so far has rejected any direct talks with the Syrian government.

Syrian state media quoted President Bashar al-Assad as calling Erdogan a “thief who robbed factories, wheat and fuel and is today stealing territory.”

The five-day cease-fire largely held, although both Turkey and the Kurdish fighters have accused each other of violations.

A spokesman for the Syrian Democratic Forces contended in a statement to VOA’s Kurdish service that although the Kurdish forces had honored the cease-fire, “Turkish army and groups supported by it continued attacking them, causing deaths and injuries among their forces.”

U.S. troops

Seven hundred or more U.S. troops have moved out of the border region, headed to Iraq, where the U.S. has already deployed 5,000 military personnel. Baghdad, however, said the new arrivals do not have permission to stay in the country.

U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper had said the additional troops would help defend Iraq and be available to conduct anti-terrorism operations against Islamic State insurgents inside Syria.

FILE – A convoy of U.S. vehicles is seen after withdrawing from northern Syria, in Erbil, Iraq, Oct. 21, 2019.

With Baghdad saying there was no agreement with the U.S. for the troops to be stationed in Iraq, Esper said on a visit to Saudi Arabia that “eventually their destination is home” back in the United States.

“The aim isn’t to stay in Iraq interminably,” Esper said, while adding that details of their deployment in Iraq would be worked out with Iraqi defense officials.
 
Meanwhile, the U.S. is keeping some troops near oil fields in northeastern Syria to protect them from being captured by Islamic State, Esper said Monday.

“We presently have troops in a couple of cities that [are] located right near that area. The purpose is to deny access, specifically revenue to ISIS and any other groups that may want to seek that revenue to enable their own malign activities,” Esper said.

In a tweet Sunday, Trump said, “We have secured the oil.”

Jeff Seldin, Nike Ching and the VOA Kurdish service contributed to this report.
 

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US Endorses Tobacco Pouches as Less Risky Than Cigarettes

For the first time, U.S. health regulators have judged a type of smokeless tobacco to be less harmful than cigarettes, a decision that could open the door to other less risky options for smokers.

The milestone announcement on Tuesday makes Swedish Match tobacco pouches the first so-called reduced-risk tobacco product ever sanctioned by the Food and Drug Administration.

FDA regulators stressed that their decision does not mean the pouches are safe, just less harmful, and that all tobacco products pose risks. The pouches will still bear mandatory government warnings that they can cause mouth cancer, gum disease and tooth loss.

But the company will be able to advertise its tobacco pouches as posing a lower risk of lung cancer, bronchitis, heart disease and other diseases than cigarettes.

The pouches of ground tobacco, called snus — Swedish for snuff and pronounced “snoose” — have been popular in Scandinavian countries for decades but are a tiny part of the U.S. tobacco market.

Users stick the teabag-like pouches between their cheek and gum to absorb nicotine. Unlike regular chewing tobacco, the liquid from snus is generally swallowed, rather than spit out. Chewing tobacco is fermented; snus goes through a steamed pasteurization process.

FILE – A woman shows portions of snus, a moist powder tobacco product that is consumed by placing it under the lip, in Stockholm, Aug. 6, 2009.

Long-term data

FDA acting commissioner Ned Sharpless said the agency based its decision on long-term, population-level data showing lower levels of lung cancer, emphysema and other smoking-related disease with the use of snus.

Sharpless added that the agency will closely monitor Swedish Match’s marketing efforts to ensure they target adult tobacco users.

“Anyone who does not currently use tobacco products, especially youth, should refrain from doing so,” he said in a statement.

Stockholm-based Swedish Match sells its snus under the brand name General in mint, wintergreen and other flavors. They compete against pouches from rivals Altria and R.J. Reynolds. But pouches account for just 5% of the $9.1 billion U.S. market for chew and other smokeless tobacco products, according to Euromonitor market research firm.
 
And public health experts questioned whether U.S. smokers would be willing to switch to the niche product.

“Snus products have a bit of a challenge” among smokers who are used to inhaling their nicotine, said Vaugh Rees, director of Harvard University’s Center for Global Tobacco Control.

U.S. smoking rate

The U.S. smoking rate has fallen to an all-time low of 14% of adults, or roughly 34 million Americans. But smoking remains the leading cause of preventable disease and death in the U.S., responsible for some 480,000 deaths annually.

The FDA’s decision has been closely watched by both public health experts and tobacco companies.
 
Public health experts have long hoped that alternatives like the pouches could benefit Americans who are unable or unwilling to quit cigarettes and other traditional tobacco products. Tobacco companies are looking for new products to sell as they face declining cigarette demand due to tax increases, health concerns, smoking bans and social stigma.

The FDA itself also has much at stake in the review of snus and similar tobacco alternatives.

Congress gave the FDA the power to regulate key aspects of the tobacco industry in 2009, including designating new tobacco products as “modified risk,” compared with traditional cigarettes, chew and other products.
 
But until Tuesday, the FDA had never granted permission for any product to make such claims.
 
The FDA is reviewing several other products vying for “reduced risk” status, including a heat-not-burn cigarette alternative made by Philip Morris International. While electronic cigarettes are generally considered less harmful than the tobacco-and-paper variety, they have not been scientifically reviewed as posing a lower risk.
 

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Slovakian Foreign Minister: Reporter’s Murder ‘Changed my Country’

Slovakia’s top diplomat says last year’s murder of an investigative journalist and his fiancée has changed the Central European country and possibly altered how citizens will vote in upcoming parliamentary elections.

“I must say that this killing has changed my country and that this is a different Slovakia after the murder,” Slovakian Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajčák told VOA’s Russian Service on Tuesday. “And those who ordered the killing, which are not the same (as those) who committed this horrible crime, achieved an exact opposite of what they wanted to achieve.”

Lajčák’s comments came one day after Slovak authorities brought charges against high-profile businessperson Marian Kocner and three others in the February 2018 shooting deaths of reporter Jan Kuciak and his fiancée, Martina Kusnirov.

“Our people are now demanding full transparency, zero corruption, zero tolerance for misusing the judiciary and police,” said Lajčák. “There is no doubt that this will play a very important role also in upcoming parliamentary elections that are scheduled for February next year.”

Their killings, which police described as an expert-caliber assassination, sparked nationwide anti-corruption protests that ended the longtime rule of ex-prime minister Robert Fico and other high-level officials.

Although Fico’s ruling three-party coalition survived March 2019 elections, they’ve seen dwindling public support over resentment that legislators and police failed to respond quickly to exposés by Kuciak and other journalists linking a powerful Italian organized crime group to Slovakian government officials.

According to court documents, Kuciak received death threats directly from Kocner, whose business dealings were at the center of Kuciak’s published reports.

FILE – Candles are seen in front of a photo of journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancee Martina Kusnirova, in Bratislava, Slovakia, March 9, 2018.

Kuciak and Kusnirova were gunned down in their home outside the capital, Bratislava, in what prosecutors have called a contract hit by Kocner, who denies the charges.

Critics of the ruling coalition have also faulted police for failing to take death threats against Kuciak more seriously. Revelations of links between Kocner and security officials exposed during the case have led to more resignations in recent weeks.

Speaking with VOA, Lajčák nonetheless credited security officials for working doggedly to seek justice for Kuciak and Kusnirov, who were both 27.

“It’s extremely important to know that justice will be served, because I cannot imagine the feeling if we (hadn’t) been able to identify the killers,” Lajčák said.

“It’s an element of justice, but it’s also a very important signal, I would say, of a political and moral nature,” he added, alluding to the fact that completion of the investigative phase of the case has been viewed as a litmus test for Slovak police and judicial independence.

But the case could still have a major political impact in a general election in February, with polls showing a slide in support for the ruling Smer Party, and politicians from other parties also playing down their ties to Kocner.

Kocner, who studied journalism in college, was once himself a reporter in Soviet-era Slovakia before gravitating toward the seedy underworld of black market enterprise that flourished after the collapse of the Berlin Wall.

Kocner would sometimes invite reporters to attend press conferences he staged to discuss his real estate and development projects in what critics called a ruse to court or, if needed, intimidate reporters.

Kocner and two alleged accomplices have pleaded not guilty in the murder, while a fourth suspect confessed involvement in the shooting. A fifth man confessed to the killing and has made a plea deal with prosecutors to act as a witness in the trial of the other four.

All suspects could face life in prison on six charges, including premeditated murder.

This story originated in VOA’s Russian Service. Some information is from Reuters.

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15 Killed in Violent Protests, Clashes in Chile

Violent riots and protests erupted across Chile on Tuesday for the fifth straight day, prompting the government to extend a curfew imposed over more than half the country.

Clashes between protesters and law enforcement officials have killed at least 15 people, the government in Santiago said Tuesday.

The protests that began last week over a 4% increase in subway fares in Santiago have spread across the nation, inflamed by the frustration of ordinary Chileans who feel they have been left out of the prosperity of Latin America’s wealthiest country.

Protesters have set fire to subway stations, buses and banks, businesses have been damaged and looted, and property has been destroyed as rioters demand the resignation of conservative President Sebastian Pinera.

Late Monday, the government canceled the proposed fare hike and Pinera said he was ready to meet with the different factions and discuss ways to end the violence.

But Pinera’s efforts were rejected by an opposition angered by remarks he made soon after the protests began.

Chile is “at war with a powerful, relentless enemy that respects nothing or anyone and is willing to use violence and crime without any limits,” Pinera said without identifying the enemy.

That remark brought quick rebukes from celebrities, politicians and soccer players.
 

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Why Prime-Age US Men Are Working Less

Today’s American men are working less during their prime years than they did in the 1960s, with the biggest drop in employment among less-educated men.

In 1969, 96% of men between the ages of 25 and 54 participated in the labor force. By 2015, that rate had fallen to under 89%.

The

The decline in manufacturing jobs has hit men and women without a college degree the hardest. File photo from Sept. 18, 2019, at the Puckett Machinery Company in Flowood, Miss.

Nonworkers were more likely to be black. About one-third of nonworkers were black.

While the biggest employment drop is among less-educated men, the troubling trend now seems to be occurring among women as well. Female employment rates rose beginning in the late 1960s, but then started dropping.

“Since about 2000, you’re also starting to see declines in participation of prime-age women, especially less educated women,” says Katharine G. Abraham, author of the study and a professor of economics and survey methodology at the University of Maryland. “So you’re kind of seeing some of the same things that have been happening for a longer time to men, also beginning to happen to women.”

A changing labor market, particularly the steep decline of manufacturing jobs in the United States, has hit this group of workers particularly hard.

“If you’re a less-educated worker, it used to be that you could get a good job. Maybe you’d work in manufacturing, maybe you’d work in construction. You could have a good job without necessarily having a college education. But the labor markets really changed,” says Abraham. “For a lot of these less-educated men and, women, both of their opportunities in the labor market are less good. They can’t expect to earn the same kind of living that their fathers might have.”

File — Almost one-fourth of unemployed US men born between 1960 and 1964, don’t work because they are in prison, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Experts suggest that the rise in incarceration, and the growth in the number of people with prison records, negatively contribute to the ability of some of these non-working men to get a job. 

“People who did not work in the prior year were more likely to be interviewed while they were in prison,” Rothstein says. “Twenty-four percent of the people in group one [men born between 1960 to 1964], almost one-in-four, didn’t work because they were in prison.”

Researchers have also studied the possible impact of the opioid epidemic on labor force participation. More than 130 people in the United States die each day after abusing opioids.

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‘Just Too Much’: Meet the Uber-Rich Who Want a Wealth Tax

When the grand vacation homes of Newport Beach were empty on a beautiful Memorial Day weekend, Molly Munger decided it was time for the U.S. to consider taxing wealth.
 
 As her family’s boat moved through the harbor a few years ago, Munger, whose father is a billionaire investor, saw that many of her neighbors’ houses were sitting dark and vacant. She knew why: The owners now controlled enough money to holiday at one of their several other luxury homes. It didn’t sit right, she said.
 
“It’s just too much to watch that happen at the top and see what is happening at the bottom,” said Munger, 71, a California civil rights lawyer whose father, Charlie, built his fortune as vice chairman of Warren Buffett’s firm Berkshire Hathaway. “Isn’t it a waste when beautiful homes on the beach are empty for most of the summer?”
 
Munger is now among a handful of billionaires and multimillionaires making a renewed push for the government to raise their taxes and siphon away some of their holdings. As Democratic presidential candidates debate a new tax on wealth rather than on incomes, this group of uber-rich people is urging them on.
 
 “I believe in free markets. I’m the daughter of a capitalist. But not Darwin-like free, unregulated and red in tooth and claw,” Munger said.
 
The chief argument from these tycoons, financiers and scions is that the government could spend their money more effectively than they could on their own by improving schools, upgrading infrastructure and protecting the environment. It challenges a long-standing belief among many politicians and economists that lower taxes on corporations and investment incomes are the most efficient way to deliver growth and spread wealth down the income ladder.
 
The idea also is a direct challenge to the reputed billionaire in the White House, Donald Trump, who once backed a wealth tax but in 2017 enacted a dramatic tax cut that favored the rich.
 
Twenty people, including one who remained anonymous, signed on to a letter this summer essentially asking to be taxed more. The group included financier George Soros, Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes and heiress Abigail Disney, and others often involved in liberal causes. Bill Gates, the world’s second richest person, didn’t sign it but has since said he “wouldn’t be against a wealth tax” on a net worth that roughly exceeds $100 billion.
 
While Democrats have long pushed for higher taxes on the top income tiers, the current debate goes further — whether to impose annual taxes on what people own, not just on what they earn.

FILE – Senator Elizabeth Warren speaks during the fourth U.S. Democratic presidential candidates 2020 election debate in Westerville, Ohio, Oct. 15, 2019.

Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren has endorsed a wealth tax on holdings above $50 million that could potentially raise as much as $2.75 trillion over 10 years. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ tax would start at $32 million. At last week’s presidential debate, South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar and former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke, expressed openness to levying a wealth tax, while Tom Steyer argued for higher taxes on his own $1.6 billion fortune.
 
There were some detractors: Tech entrepreneur Andrew Yang argues wealth taxes in other nations have failed to raise enough revenues.
 
Former Vice President Joe Biden criticized the Warren and Sanders plans as “demonizing wealth” and argued instead for focusing on income taxes and raising the rates charged on earnings from investments.
 
Biden’s view is backed by many in the economic establishment, even those who say they support using the tax code to counter income inequality.
 
Larry Summers, the former treasury secretary and Harvard University president, argues a wealth tax is essentially unworkable. The richest Americans would find ways to avoid it, making it difficult to implement and unlikely to break the hold on politics by powerful companies and rich donors, he said Friday at a panel on wealth taxes at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington. Summers estimates that changes to the income tax could raise more than $2 trillion over 10 years from the top earners, but he doubts that a wealth tax would curb the influence of the richest Americans.
 
But the economists who developed the idea dispute the notion that tax avoidance is an unbreakable law of nature. Wealthier Americans paid taxes in the past when tax avoidance was viewed as freeloading, said Emmanuel Saez, an economist at the University of California at Berkeley whose work has drawn attention to the wealth tax as a fix for worsening inequality.
 
“The tax system reflects the values of society,” he said.
 
The top 1% of Americans hold nearly 40% of the country’s wealth, while the bottom 50% of Americans effectively control none of it, according to the World Inequality Database, an index Saez helped develop. Many in the wealthiest sliver of that top 1% pay lower rates than most Americans because of how their income gets taxed, according to his calculations.
 
Ian Simmons is among the well-off declaring they’re ready to pay more.
 
Simmons runs an investment fund called the Blue Haven Initiative with his wife, Liesel Pritzker Simmons. The 43-year-old joined the effort to recruit other moneyed families to support a wealth tax in the June letter.
 
The idea of taxing a relatively steady base of trillions of dollars felt consistent to Simmons with what he first learned at the Harvard University introductory economics class taught by Martin Feldstein, who was President Ronald Reagan’s economic adviser.
 
“This is really a conservative position about increasing the stability of the economy in the long term and having an efficient source of taxation,” he said.
 
Simmons’ family money came in part from mail order retailer Montgomery Ward, which opened in 1872, an innovation aided by the U.S. Postal Service. The Hyatt hotel chain that helped form his wife’s family fortune was aided by the government’s construction of the interstate highway system.
 
That’s part of the reason he supports a wealth tax — because his family’s fortune stems in part from government programs, echoing Warren’s key argument for her tax plan.
 
 When Simmons called the retired real estate developer Robert Bowditch this year to endorse the idea, the 80-year-old did the math on what it would mean for his own lifestyle. He figured it would cut into some of his charitable giving, but the returns would be much greater because the public would be able to decide in a democratic fashion on how the money would be spent.
 
 “Charitable giving by itself simply cannot provide enough money to support public goods and services, such as public education, roads and bridges, clean air,” Bowditch said. “It has to be done by taxes.”
 
Rich people have had limited success as advocates for tax hikes. In 2011, billionaire Buffett’s declaration that he paid a lower tax rate than his employees spawned President Barack Obama’s proposal to raise rates on people making more than $1 million. The so-called “Buffett rule” fizzled in Congress.
 
 In 1999, when Trump was mulling a presidential bid for the Reform Party, he proposed a one-time tax of 14.25% on fortunes above $10 million, saying at the time that it could eliminate the national debt.
 
 “It’s a win-win for the American people,” Trump said then. Asked if the president still supports the idea, the White House did not respond.

 

 

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Russia, Turkey Leaders Hold Talks on Fate of Syria Border

The presidents of Turkey and Russia met in the Black Sea resort town of Sochi on Tuesday, hours before a five-day cease-fire between Turkish troops and Kurdish fighters in northeastern Syria was set to expire.
 
The talks between Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russia’s Vladimir Putin are likely to be crucial in determining arrangements along the Syrian-Turkish border, where Ankara demands a long “safe zone” cleared of Kurdish fighters.

As all the other parties jockey for control along the border, the United States was stumbling from one problem to another getting its troops out of Syria in an abrupt withdrawal ordered by President Trump. Iraq’s military said Tuesday that American forces leaving Syria did not have permission to stay in Iraq, seemingly contradicting U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper who said a day earlier the forces would remain to help fight the Islamic State group.
 
After the Iraqi statement, Esper said he would speak to the Iraqi defense minister Wednesday and underlined that the U.S. has no plans to keep the troops in Iraq “interminably” and intends to “eventually get them home.”

It seemed another instance of the U.S. scrambling to set its policy after Trump surprised many by ordering Americans out. The U.S. pullout opened the door to Turkey to launch its offensive against Kurdish fighters on Oct. 9; after a storm of criticism, Washington moved to broker the cease-fire that came into effect Thursday night. Amid fears the Islamic State group could exploit the withdrawal to recapture oil fields now in Kurdish hands, the U.S. is considering keeping some troops in Syria to help the Kurds protect them.
 
Meanwhile, Russia has stepped into the void to strengthen its role as a power broker in Syria. Seeking protection after being abandoned by the Americans, the Kurds turned to the Syrian government and its main ally, Russia. The Syrian army has advanced into parts of the area, and Russia deployed its troops in some areas to act as a buffer force.

Russia has powerful sway on all sides. Turkey has suggested it wants Russia to persuade the Syrian government to cede it control over a major chunk of territory in the northeast. The Kurds are hoping Russia can keep Turkey out and help preserve some of the autonomy they carved out for themselves during Syria’s civil war.
 
Syrian President Bashar Assad has vowed to reunite all the territory under Damascus’ rule. On Tuesday, Assad  called Erdogan “a thief” and said he was ready to support any “popular resistance” against Turkey’s invasion.
 
“We are in the middle of a battle and the right thing to do is to rally efforts to lessen the damages from the invasion and to expel the invader sooner or later,” he told troops during a visit to the northwestern province of Idlib.

The immediate question was the fate of the U.S.-brokered cease-fire, which was to run out at 10 p.m. (1900 GMT) Tuesday evening.

Erdogan said 1,300 Syrian Kurdish fighters had yet to vacate a stretch of the border as required under the deal. He said 800 fighters had left so far. The Kurdish-led force has said it will carry out the pullout.

If it doesn’t, Erdogan warned Tuesday, “our offensive will continue from where it left off, with a much greater determination.”

“There is no place for the (Kurdish fighters) in Syria’s future. We hope that with Russia’s cooperation, we will rid the region of separatist terror,” he said.

Under the accord, the Kurdish fighters are to vacate a stretch of territory roughly 120 kilometers (75 miles) wide and 30 kilometers (20 miles) deep between the Syrian border towns of Tal Abyad and Ras al-Ayn.

But that leaves the situation in the rest of the northeastern border unclear. Currently, other than the few places where Syrian troops have deployed, they are solely in the hands of the Kurdish-led fighters _ a situation Ankara has repeatedly said it cannot tolerate. Turkey considers the fighters terrorists, because of their links to Kurdish insurgents inside Turkey.

Turkey wants to control a “safe zone” extending more than 400 kilometers (250 miles) along the border, from the Euphrates River to the Iraqi border. There, it plans to resettle about 2 million of the roughly 3.6 million Syrian refugees currently living in Turkey.

Russia sent a new signal to Turkey about the need to negotiate directly with Assad. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov emphasized that only Damascus could authorize the Turkish troop presence on the Syrian territory.
 
Assad gave a symbolic show of Damascus’ goal of regaining the border, visiting troops in northwestern Idlib province, where his forces are battling rebels. Idlib is adjacent to an enclave along the border that Turkey captured several years ago in another incursion. Turkey also has observation points inside Idlib, negotiated with Russia, to monitor a cease-fire there between the government and opposition fighters and jihadi groups.
 
Assad called Erdogan “a thief, he stole the factories and the wheat and the oil in cooperation with Daesh (the Islamic State group) and now is stealing the land.”
He said his government had offered a clemency to Kurdish fighters _ whom it considers separatists _ to “ensure that everyone is ready to resist the aggression” and fight the Turkish assault.

Syrian state media reported Tuesday that government forces entered new areas in Hassakeh province at the far eastern end of the border, under the arrangement with the Kurds.

Turkey’s incursion into Syria has led to an international outcry, which has in turn enraged Erdogan, who has accused his NATO allies of not standing by Turkey.

European Council President Donald Tusk on Tuesday condemned the incursion and called on Turkey, which is a candidate for EU membership, to pull out troops.

“No one is fooled by the so-called cease-fire,” Tusk told EU lawmakers. Any course other than a Turkish withdrawal “means unacceptable suffering, a victory for Daesh (the Islamic State group), and a serious threat to European security,” he said.

German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer proposed the establishment of an internationally controlled security zone in Syria, “with the inclusion of Turkey and Russia.”

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Trump Likens House Impeachment Inquiry to ‘Lynching’

President Donald Trump injected racial overtones into the House impeachment inquiry Tuesday by comparing the Democratic-led investigation into his handling of U.S. policy toward Ukraine to a “lynching.” The highest-ranking African American in Congress warned Trump about making the comparison.

Lynchings, or hangings, historically were mostly used by whites against black men and mostly in the South beginning in the late 19th century amid rising racial tensions in the U.S. By comparing the impeachment process to a lynching, Trump is also likening Democrats to a lynch mob.

Under pressure over impeachment, blowback over his Syria policy and other issues, the Republican president tweeted Tuesday: “So some day, if a Democrat becomes President and the Republicans win the House, even by a tiny margin, they can impeach the President, without due process or fairness or any legal rights.

“All Republicans must remember what they are witnessing here – a lynching. But we will WIN!”

House Majority Whip Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., criticized Trump’s word choices.

“That is one word no president ought to apply to himself,” Clyburn said on CNN after the president’s tweet was read to him. “That is a word that we ought to be very, very careful about using.”

Trump has a habit of trying to portray himself as the victim.

His tweet came a day after he lashed at critics of his decision – since rescinded – to schedule a major international economic summit for 2020 at one of his Florida golf properties. He lamented at one point during remarks Monday about “you people with this phony emoluments clause.”

The emoluments clause is in the Constitution and bans presidents from receiving gifts or payments from foreign governments.

A whistleblower’s complaint that Trump was attempting to use his office for personal political gain during a July 25 phone conversation with Ukraine’s president led House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to open the impeachment inquiry.

Trump insists he did nothing wrong. He characterizes the conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy as “perfect” and argues that sore-loser Democrats are still trying to overturn the 2016 election that put him in the White House.

Whites used lynchings as a way to resolve anger toward blacks across the South, where people were blaming their financial problems on newly freed slaves that lived around them, according to the NAACP.

 

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