Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Tuesday pleaded for time and patience to bring the economy back from the “dead,” as his government faces blame for surging inflation evoking dark days under Robert Mugabe.

Hopes that the economy would quickly rebound under Mnangagwa, who took over after Mugabe was deposed in a coup in November 2017, have faded fast with Zimbabweans grappling with acute shortages of fuel and electricity and soaring prices.

In a state of the nation address in parliament, boycotted by the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) which disputes his election, Mnangagwa acknowledged the economic crisis as well as the need for reforms.

“I’m aware of the pain being experienced by the poor and the marginalised. Getting the economy working again from being dead will require time, patience, unity of purpose and perseverance,” Mnangagwa said.

Zimbabwe has suspended the publication of official annual inflation data since August 1. In its last official figures, inflation hit more than 175% in June, its highest level since hyperinflation under Mugabe wiped out the economy in 2009.

Mnangagwa’s opponents accuse him of lacking commitment to political reforms and using his predecessor’s heavy-handed tactics to stifle dissent.

The International Monetary Fund said last week that Zimbabwe needed to intensify reform efforts and meaningfully improve transparency to boost economic growth.

Mnangagwa and senior officials say they are doing their best to lay the foundations for future growth and blame Western sanctions for hampering recovery and deterring investment.

A United Nations human rights envoy said on Friday that Zimbabwe’s political and economic environment was deteriorating, causing anxiety as hopes fade for a long-awaited improvement in people’s living conditions.

In his address on Tuesday, Mnangagwa repeated his commitment to implement recommendations made by election observer missions to Zimbabwe’s 2018 election, as well as a commission of inquiry led by former South African President Kgalema Motlanthe.

The observers and the commission had called for broad security, political and electoral reforms.

Mnangagwa, whose election last year remains disputed by the MDC, once again invited the opposition party to dialogue.

The MDC, led by Nelson Chamisa, has refused to take part in a dialogue forum convened by Mnangagwa, insisting on talks led by a neutral mediator.

 

U.S. President Donald Trump wanted a trench filled with snakes and alligators along an electric-charged border wall topped with flesh-piercing spikes, The New York Times reports.

The newspaper says the president also suggested U.S. soldiers shoot migrants in the legs if they try to cross into the United States before staffers talked him out of it.

The Times says it based its story on interviews with more than a dozen White House officials who met with Trump on ways to stop illegal migration from Central America across the Mexican border.

Although it is unclear how serious Trump was about such proposals as a snake-filled moat, the Times paints a picture of an extremely angry president, frustrated by his administration’s inability to stop the flow of migrants, the failure of his department heads to carry out his orders, and what he regarded as their moderate approach to tackling the crisis.

The news report focuses on an Oval Office meeting in March where Trump ordered the entire 3,200-kilometer border with Mexico shut down by noon the next day.

White House aides and advisors, including his son-in-law Jared Kushner and former Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, tried to talk him out of it.

“You’re making me look like an idiot,” Trump is reported as shouting to those in attendance. “I ran on this. It’s my issue.”

Witnesses say the president cursed and ranted as he demanded a total border closure before the meeting broke up. The Times say it took nearly a week for aides to talk him out of it as not only impractical, but economically destructive.

The report says Trump had especially harsh treatment for Nielsen, regarding her as weak. He appeared to show little patience the few times she challenged him, including his proposal to shoot down drones at the border and that the government simply take land for a wall without permission from property owners. Nielsen resigned in April.

The White House has not yet commented on the report. But Trump frequently refers to the newspaper as the “failing” New York Times, regarding it as a purveyor of fake news and having a liberal bias.

Citing an escalation of violence by Islamic State-affiliated women, supervisors at the al-Hol camp in northeastern Syria are calling on the international community to find a solution for thousands of such women and children who are being held at the overcrowded refugee camp. VOA’s Mutlu Civiroglu reports from the al-Hol camp.

 

A U.S. government watchdog on Tuesday harshly criticized the Drug Enforcement Agency for its response to the opioid crisis, saying that amid a surge in opioid-related deaths the agency failed to use its most powerful deterrent and authorized an increase in pain pill output.

A report released by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz, whose office is an internal government watchdog, found the DEA was “slow to respond to the dramatic increase in opioid abuse” since 2000.

The report criticized the DEA for cutting back on use of an enforcement tool known as “immediate suspension orders,” which allows it to halt pill shipments, between 2013 and 2017.

Horowitz’s report also found that between 2002 and 2013 the DEA authorized a 400% increase in production of the opioid oxycodone, and that the agency did not significantly reduce production of the pain pill until 2017.

Nearly 400,000 deaths in the United States have been linked to overdoses of opioids from 1990 to 2017, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The DEA said in a statement that it appreciated Horowitz’s assessment and that it has made improvements intended to control the diversion of opioids.

“Working with United States Attorneys’ Offices across the country, an increasing number of individuals and corporations are facing civil and criminal charges for actions that have fueled the opioid crisis,” the DEA added.

Horowitz’s report said that the DEA, which is part of the Justice Department, had recently taken steps to address the opioid epidemic, including increasing its intelligence sharing with local law enforcement agencies and launching “community outreach efforts” to raise awareness of the dangers of opioids.

Horowitz found that more progress was needed, however, and that the DEA should establish “measurable performance metrics” to determine if some of its efforts were working.

Companies like drug distributor McKesson Corp and Oxicontin maker Purdue Pharma, which have been accused of enabling opioid abuse in many pending lawsuits, have long argued that they abided by the DEA’s production quotas and that it was not their place to second-guess the agency’s determinations.
 

The Federal Communications Commission could dump rules that keep internet providers from favoring some services over others, but couldn’t bar states like California from enacting their own prohibitions, a federal court ruled.

While Tuesday’s ruling handed Trump-appointed regulators a partial victory, consumer advocates and other groups viewed the ruling as a victory for states and local governments seeking to put in their own net neutrality rules.

The FCC’s 2015 net neutrality rules had barred internet providers such as AT&T, Comcast and Verizon from blocking, slowing down or charging internet companies to favor some sites or apps over others.
 
After the FCC repealed the rules, phone and cable companies are permitted to slow down or block services they don’t like or happen to be in competition with. Companies could also charge higher fees of rivals and make them pay for higher transmission speeds.
 
Such things have happened before. In 2007, for example, The Associated Press found that Comcast was blocking or throttling some file-sharing. And AT&T blocked Skype and other internet calling services on the iPhone until 2009.

The court now says that’s all permissible — as long as companies disclose it.

But in Tuesday’s decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that the FCC failed to show legal authority to bar states from imposing any rules that the agency repealed or that are stricter than its own.

“This ruling empowers states to move forward in the absence of a federal approach to consumer protections,” said Lisa Hayes, co-CEO of the Center for Democracy & Technology.

States already have come up with their own net neutrality laws, including one in California that was put on hold until Tuesday’s court decision. Congressional Democrats have attempted, unsuccessfully, to reverse the FCC’s repeal.
 
The federal court directed the FCC to rework its order to include the impact of its repeal on public safety. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said the agency will address the “narrow issues” cited by the court.

“Today’s decision is a victory for consumers, broadband deployment, and the free and open internet,” Pai said in a statement. He maintained that speeds for consumers have increased by 40% since the agency’s 2017 repeal “and millions more Americans have gained access to the internet.”

Net neutrality has evolved from a technical concept into a politically charged issue, the focus of street and online protests and a campaign issue lobbed against Republicans and the Trump administration.
 
The FCC has long mulled over how to enforce it. The agency had twice lost in court over net-neutrality standards before a Democrat-led commission in 2015 voted in a regime that made internet service a utility, bringing phone and cable companies under stricter oversight. An appeals court sanctioned the 2015 rules.
 
After the 2016 election, President Donald Trump appointed a more industry-friendly FCC chairman. Pai repealed the net neutrality rules in 2017, saying they had undermined investment in broadband networks.
 

Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy lost a final court appeal Tuesday against an order that he stand trial on charges of illegal financing for his 2012 election campaign.

Sarkozy, who already faces a separate trial for corruption involving a judge, is accused of spending nearly double the legal limit of 22.5 million euros ($24.5 million) on his failed re-election bid.

France’s highest criminal appeal court rejected his attempt to avoid facing the charges, paving the way for a trial date to be set after multiple challenges by Sarkozy’s legal team.

Prosecutors claim the 64-year-old Sarkozy, who has spent the past few years fighting a barrage of corruption and campaign financing charges, spent nearly 43 million euros on his quest for a second term.

In the end, he was beaten by the Socialist Party’s Francois Hollande.

Investigators claim that Sarkozy’s campaign used fake invoices to get around the campaign spending limits.

Sarkozy has rejected the charges, saying he was unaware of the fraud by executives at the public relations firm Bygmalion.

He faces a year in prison and a fine of 3,750 euros if convicted.

Thirteen other people, including a number of Bygmalion executives, have also been charged in the case.

 

 

 

 

 

Iran’s judiciary says it has sentenced a man to death for spying for the CIA, amid rising tensions between Tehran and the U.S.

Judiciary spokesman Gholamhhossein Esmaili said Tuesday two other people were sentenced to 10 years in prison for the same crime and a fourth received a 10 year sentence for spying for Britain.

Esmaili said the individual who received the death sentence has appealed and that a final decision will be made by the country’s appeals court.

The verdicts came as tensions between Iran and the U.S. continue to heighten after President Donald Trump withdrew from Iran’s 2015 nuclear agreement with world powers. Trump has also renewed sanctions that have weakened Iran’s economy in an attempt to pressure Tehran to renegotiate the deal.

Esmaili declined to identify the recipient of the death sentence.

He said the two men sentenced to 10 years for spying for the CIA were Iranian nationals Ali Nefriyeh and Mohammad Ali Babapour. The men were ordered to repay $55,000 they had received.

Esmaili said the person sentenced for spying for British intelligence was Mohammad Amin-Nasab, also an Iranian.
 
Esmaili also announced that an appeals court had reduced the prison term for President Hassan Rouhani’s brother, who had been convicted on bribery charges. Hossein Fereidoun’s sentence had been cut from seven to five years.

It was not immediately known if Tuesday’s sentences were linked to cases stemming from Iran’s announcement in July that it captured 17 spies working for the CIA.

There has been no U.S. comment on the sentences announced Tuesday.

 

 

The speaker of Nepal’s parliament, one of the country’s leading Communist Party leaders, resigned Tuesday following allegations that he raped a government worker at her home while he was intoxicated.

In the letter of resignation, Krishna Bahadur Mahara said he wants to make it easier for an independent and unbiased investigation of the allegation.

Police refused to comment. News reports said the woman accused Mahara of entering her house Sunday night while her husband was away and assaulting her.

An earlier statement issued by Mahara’s office said the allegation was baseless and that he had stepped out of his official residence for only two hours in the afternoon and was home on Sunday evening.

It said the woman had been refused a position in Mahara’s office and was likely angry as a result.

Mahara was elected speaker of the House of Representative last year after the Communist Party of Nepal won a majority of the seats in elections in November 2017.

Mahara was a leading figure of the Maoist rebels who fought a violent campaign against the government between 1996 and 2006. The Maoists entered United Nations-monitored peace talks in 2006, ending their armed revolt, and joined mainstream politics. Mahara played a key role in the peace talks with the government.

He has served as deputy prime minister, information minister and home minister.

 

Former national security adviser John Bolton says North Korea will never give up its nuclear weapons voluntarily. In his first speech after being ousted from the Trump administration, Bolton said North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un will do “whatever he can to keep a deliverable nuclear weapons capability.”  Bolton’s talk Monday coincided with a North Korean envoy’s address to the United Nations General Assembly in which he accused the United States of “provocations” that hamper the progress of talks on the situation in the region. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports.

The controversy over U.S. President Donald Trump’s phone call with the Ukrainian president continues, with Trump threatening both the whistleblower who outlined a detailed complaint about Trump’s actions as well as the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee who is now leading the impeachment inquiry. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has the latest.

British-registered companies have facilitated North Korean efforts to evade international sanctions, according to an investigation by the London-based Royal United Services Institute. The report reveals how British companies are being used to operate cargo ships smuggling coal out of North Korea. Henry Ridgwell has more from London.

South Korea showcased newly acquired F-35 stealth fighter jets to mark Armed Forces Day on Tuesday as President Moon Jae-in tries to allay concerns that his policy of engagement with North Korea may be weakening the South’s commitment to defense.

North Korea has criticized the South’s weapons procurement and its joint military drills with the U.S. military as undisguised preparations for war that were forcing it to develop new short-range missiles.

Moon has thrown his support behind dialogue to end the North’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs, urging that working-level negotiations between the North and the United States be held soon. No new dates or locations have been set.

Moon marked the founding of the South Korean military at a ceremony at an airbase in the city of Taegu that highlighted four of the eight Lockheed Martin F-35A jets delivered this year. Forty of the aircraft are to be delivered by 2021.

Analysts have said the F-35 stealth jets put North Korea’s anti-aircraft and anti-missile defense systems in a vulnerable position, with Pyongyang claiming that use of the jets forced it to develop new missiles to “completely destroy” the threat.

Negotiations aimed at dismantling North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs have stalled since a second summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un broke down in February over disagreements on denuclearization.

North Korea blamed the United States on Monday for a failure to restart talks, with Pyongyang’s U.N. ambassador Kim Song saying it was time for Washington to share proposals for talks that showed Washington had adopted a new “calculation method.”

South Korea and the United States have separately begun talks for a new military burden-sharing agreement to decide the portion South Korea will shoulder for the cost of stationing what is now about 28,500 U.S. troops in the country.

Moon told Trump during a summit in New York last week what South Korea would contribute, including an increase in purchases of U.S. weapons and future purchase plans, a senior official at South Korea’s presidential office said.

 

Eating red meat is linked to cancer and heart disease, but are the risks big enough to give up burgers and steak?

A team of international researchers says probably not, contradicting established advice. In a series of papers published Monday, the researchers say the increased risks are small and uncertain and that cutting back likely wouldn’t be worth it for people who enjoy meat.

Their conclusions were swiftly attacked by a group of prominent U.S. scientists who took the unusual step of trying to stop publication until their criticisms were addressed.

The new work does not say red meat and processed meats like hot dogs and bacon are healthy or that people should eat more of them. The reviews of past studies generally support the ties to cancer, heart disease and other bad health outcomes. But the authors say the evidence is weak, and that there’s not much certainty meat is really the culprit, since other diet and lifestyle factors could be at play.

Most people who understand the magnitude of the risks would say “Thanks very much, but I’m going to keep eating my meat,” said co-author Dr. Gordon Guyatt of McMaster University in Canada.

It’s the latest example of how divisive nutrition research has become, with its uncertainties leaving the door open for conflicting advice. Critics say findings often aren’t backed by strong evidence. Defenders counter that nutrition studies can rarely be conclusive because of the difficulty of measuring the effects of any single food, but that methods have improved.

“What we need to do is look at the weight of evidence — that’s what courts of law use,” said Dr. Walter Willett, a professor of nutrition at Harvard University who was among those calling for the papers’ publication to be postponed.

Willett, who has led studies tying meat to bad health outcomes, also said the reviews do not consider the particularly pronounced benefits of switching from red meat to vegetarian options.

The journal, Annals of Internal Medicine, defended the work and said the request to have it pulled before publication is not how scientific discourse is supposed to happen. Guyatt called the attempt to halt publication “silly.”

In the papers, the authors sought to gauge the potential impact of eating less meat, noting the average of two to four servings a week eaten in North America and Western Europe. They said the evidence for cutting back wasn’t compelling. For example, they found that cutting three servings a week would result in seven fewer cancer deaths per 1,000 people.

Based on the analyses, a panel of the international researchers said people do not have to cut back for health reasons. But they note their own advice is weak and that they didn’t take into account other factors, such as animal welfare and the toll meat production has on the environment.

There was dissent even among the authors; three of the 14 panelist said they support reducing red and processed meats. A co-author of one review is also among those who called for a publication delay.

Those who pushed to postpone publication also questioned why certain studies were included or excluded in the reviews. Harvard’s Dr. Frank Hu also noted that about a third of American adults eat at least one serving of red meat a day. He said the benefits of cutting back would be larger for those who eat such high amounts.

Still, other researchers not involved in the reviews have criticized nutrition science for producing weak and conflicting findings. Dr. John Ioannidis, a professor of medicine at Stanford University, said such advice can distract from clearer, more effective messages, such as limiting how much we eat.

As for his own diet, Guyatt said he no longer thinks red or processed meats have significant health risks. But he said he still avoids them out of habit, and for animal welfare and environmental reasons.

 

John Kerry got “Swift Boated” in 2004. For Hillary Clinton in 2016, it was her “damn emails.” Remembering those failed Democratic presidential campaigns, Joe Biden is determined not to get “Ukrained” in 2020.

Since a whistleblower report last week revealed that President Donald Trump asked Ukrainian officials to investigate Biden, the former vice president has struck an aggressive tone.

He has told supporters that he would beat Trump “like a drum” in a general election and that the Republican president is scared of that possibility. Biden has demanded that reporters “ask the right questions” and accused Trump of trying to “hijack” the campaign with unfounded assertions that Biden and his son Hunter had corrupt dealings in Ukrainian business and politics.

Biden has built his campaign around the idea that he can return Washington to a more stable pre-Trump era. But Biden’s ability to win will turn on his ability to navigate the turbulent, no-holds-barred vortex that Trump has imposed on American politics with his Twitter megaphone, deep well of campaign cash and phalanx of surrogates.

And while many Democratic strategists and Biden supporters give him plaudits for pushback, there remain some worries about how the storyline might affect Biden’s tenuous front-runner status.

“It’s really a no-win situation,” said Karen Finney, an adviser to Clinton in 2016, when the former secretary of state was besieged with media scrutiny and Trump criticism over her use of a private email server when she ran the State Department.

Finney credited the Biden campaign for “working the refs” by sending detailed memos to the media explaining the timeline of Hunter Biden’s service on a Ukrainian energy company board and Joe Biden’s involvement in Ukraine as vice president and for pressuring television executives not to give a platform to Rudy Giuliani, the president’s personal attorney.

Giuliani has alleged that Biden, while vice president, tried to quash a Ukrainian investigation of the company that paid Hunter Biden as a board member. The top Ukrainian prosecutor said earlier this year that his team found no wrongdoing, and there’s no evidence that U.S. law enforcement has gotten involved.

Trump, nonetheless, raised his theory in a July telephone conversation with the new Ukrainian president, asking Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate the Bidens anew. That move, now the center of a formal whistleblower complaint and the House impeachment inquiry, could be found to violate U.S. law making it a crime to solicit or accept foreign contributions in an American election.

“This is about Donald Trump, not Joe Biden,” said Barry Goodman, a Michigan attorney and major Biden donor.

But a media cacophony can smother any argument, Finney said, pointing back to Clinton and to Kerry’s 2004 campaign. Kerry, a Vietnam War veteran who’d earned a Silver Star, Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts for his service, was criticized in the summer of 2004 by a group of Vietnam veterans who — contrary to military records — questioned the service accounts that resulted in his recognition. Kerry was later admonished for not aggressively counterattacking the “Swift Boat Veterans for Truth,” despite his campaign releasing his military records.

“It’s just a tough situation,” Finney said, putting the onus on the media “to not get sucked in.”

Goodman, the Biden donor, said he’s pleased with the campaign’s strategy. But he said there are other ways to stay on offense — and not necessarily against Trump. Biden must also push back against Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, his chief progressive rivals for the Democratic nomination.

“Many Democrats are scared … of ‘Medicare for All’ and losing their private health insurance,” Goodman said, referring to single-payer health insurance proposals from Sanders and Warren. Goodman noted an ongoing United Auto Workers strike in Michigan. “Those people are striking to keep the health care they have,” he said, recommending that Biden go to Michigan and turn the issue around on his primary rivals.

Interviews with Democratic voters in early primary states make clear Biden’s challenge.

“I think that a certain amount of dirt will stick to him, even if it shouldn’t,” said Lee Williams, 69, of Fort Mill, South Carolina. A retired Navy officer, Williams backs Warren, even though he says his politics align with the more centrist Biden. “The fact is,” Williams says, “that truth doesn’t matter to Trump, so on the campaign trail, all you will hear is Biden, corruption, Ukraine.”

In New Hampshire, Ellen Bowles, a 71-year-old retired middle school teacher, said she is uncomfortable with people using their influence even if there’s no wrongdoing. Biden had been her second choice among Democrats behind Warren, but that’s no longer the case.

“I think (Biden’s) going to have to talk a lot more about what his son was doing in Ukraine,” Bowles said. “I just feel that he’s going to get tainted by that somehow.”

The Republican-led Senate on Thursday confirmed lawyer Eugene Scalia, a son of the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, as President Donald Trump’s new labor secretary.

The Senate voted along party lines, 53-44, to approve Scalia’s nomination. Republicans said his background in labor and employment law made him qualified for the post. Democrats said Scalia fought for corporations and against workers and was the wrong candidate for the Cabinet post.

Sen. Lamar Alexander, chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said he received more than 30 letters of support for Scalia from small-business owners, workers, former career lawyers at the Labor Department, where Scalia once worked, and more.

“It is important for the Department of Labor to create an environment to help employers and employees succeed in today’s rapidly changing workplace,” said Alexander, R-Tenn.

Scalia spent the bulk of his career as a partner in the Washington office of the Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher firm, where he rang up a string of victories in court cases on behalf of business interests challenging labor and financial regulations. He also served for a year as the Labor Department’s top lawyer during the George W. Bush administration.

“The president has sent us a corporate lawyer who’s fought over and over to stop workplace protections, to undermine worker safety, to depress workers’ wages over and over and over again,” said Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio.

The AFL-CIO opposed the nomination, calling Scalia a union-busting lawyer who has eroded labor rights and consumer protections.

“We will not forget this betrayal by the Trump administration, and we will never stop fighting to ensure all working people have the safety protections on the job they deserve,” said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka.

Business interests viewed Scalia as a sturdy opponent of government overreach and backed his nomination.

FreedomWorks, a conservative group that helped launch the tea party movement, said Scalia’s confirmation “is a victory in the fight against outdated, burdensome workplace regulations that neither protect employees nor encourage job and wage growth.”

Scalia becomes the seventh former lobbyist to hold a Cabinet-level post in the Trump administration.

On his financial disclosure form filed with the Office of Government Ethics, Scalia listed 49 clients who paid him $5,000 or more for legal services, including e-cigarette manufacturer Juul Labs, Facebook, Ford, Walmart and Bank of America.

Disclosure records show Scalia was registered in 2010 and 2011 to lobby for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Trump’s previous labor secretary, Alexander Acosta, resigned in July after renewed criticism for his handling of a 2008 secret plea deal with financier Jeffrey Epstein. Epstein was found dead last month in his cell at a federal jail in Manhattan after his July arrest on sex trafficking charges.

Deputy Labor Secretary Pat Pizzella has been serving as acting secretary.

 

The commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said Monday that destroying arch-rival Israel has become an “achievable goal” thanks to his country’s technological advances.

“This sinister regime must be wiped off the map and this is no longer… a dream (but) it is an achievable goal,” Major General Hossein Salami said, quoted by the Guards’ Sepah news site.

Four decades on from Iran’s Islamic revolution, “we have managed to obtain the capacity to destroy the imposter Zionist regime”, he said.

Salami’s comments, while not unusual for Iranian officials, come amid particularly heightened international tensions over Iran’s nuclear program and a series of incidents that have raised fears of a confrontation between Tehran and its other main regional rival, Riyadh.

The United States, which withdrew from a landmark nuclear deal between Iran and world powers in 2018, has imposed a campaign of “maximum pressure” — with vocal support from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The comments by the commander of Iran’s ideological army were given prominent coverage by the Tasnim and Fars news agencies, close to ultra-conservative political factions.

The official IRNA agency also carried his remarks, but placed more emphasis on his assertion that Iran was growing stronger and would finally beat its foes despite “hostility” towards it.

In contrast, foreign ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi in a tweet wished “Happy (Jewish) New Year to our Jewish compatriots and to all true followers of great prophet Moses (PBUH)”, an acronym for ‘peace be upon him.’

Mousavi’s greeting was written in Persian, English and Hebrew.

Iran only has a few thousand Jews left compared to between 80,000 and 100,000 before its 1979 revolution.

The country has been consistently hostile towards Israel since its revolution, and Tehran openly supports anti-Israeli armed groups including Palestinian Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

‘Cancerous tumour’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, an outspoken opponent of any rapprochement between Tehran and the West, has charged that “Iran calls for Israel’s destruction and they work for its destruction each day, every day, relentlessly.”

He welcomed his ally U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision in May 2018 to pull out of the landmark nuclear accord between Tehran and world powers, arguing the deal would “enable Iran to threaten Israel’s survival.”

Israel considers Iran its archfoe and has carried out hundreds of strikes in neighboring Syria against what it says are military targets of Iran and its Lebanese military ally Hezbollah.

It has vowed to keep Iran from entrenching itself militarily in the war-torn neighboring Arab state.

In June 2018, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei reaffirmed Tehran’s long-held position that Israel is “a malignant cancerous tumour that must be removed and eradicated.”

But he has also said that Tehran has never called for the Jews to be “thrown into the sea”, unlike Arab leaders such as the late president Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt.

Iranian generals routinely express the desire to destroy Israel or claim to be able to wipe out Tel Aviv.

However, official discourse in recent years has generally taken care to clarify that the Jewish state will cease to exist because of its own “arrogance”, not because of an attack by Iran.

When election results confirmed that an Arab alliance had emerged as the third largest bloc in Israel’s parliament, its leader Ayman Odeh reached for the Old Testament, tweeting in Hebrew from Psalm 118 that the stone which was rejected had become the cornerstone.

His message: The Arab community, long shunted to the margins of Israeli society, is going to use its newfound influence to set the country on a more equitable path.

The results left the two biggest parties deadlocked, but marked a victory for the Arab bloc and put Odeh in a strong position to become the first Arab opposition leader, an official role that would allow him to receive high-level security briefings and meet visiting heads of state. Outraged at what they see as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s racist policies and incitement, most of the bloc recommended his opponent, former army chief Benny Gantz, as prime minister, the first time Arab parties have backed an Israeli candidate since 1992. 

The potential for newfound influence has forced Arab citizens to confront a dilemma going back to Israel’s founding: Working within the system might secure social gains for the marginalized community, but risks legitimizing a state that many feel relegates them to second-class status and oppresses their Palestinian brethren in the occupied territories.

“We truly want to support Gantz,” said Abed Abed, a food wholesaler in the Arab town of Nazareth in northern Israel. “But at the same time we are Arabs, and the people in Gaza and the West Bank are our brothers. If Gantz goes to war in Gaza tomorrow, then we can’t be part of it. So we’re in big trouble.”

Israel’s Arab citizens make up 20% of the population of 9 million and are descended from Palestinians who remained in Israel following the 1948 war that surrounded its creation. They have citizenship and the right to vote, they speak Hebrew and attend Israeli universities, and have increased their presence in a wide array of professions, from medicine to tech startups.

‘Second-class citizens’

But they still face widespread discrimination, particularly when it comes to housing, and accuse Israeli authorities of ignoring crime in their communities, contributing to soaring homicide rates. They also have close family ties to Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, and largely identify with the Palestinian cause. 
 
That has led many Israelis to view them as a fifth column allied with the country’s enemies, fears Netanyahu has repeatedly exploited to whip up his right-wing base in election campaigns.

The Joint List of Arab parties has vowed to use its political influence to address day-to-day struggles while remaining outside any government. No Arab party has ever sat in an Israeli government, and none of Israel’s main parties have invited them to do so.

The issues Arab leaders face, and the limited means available to address them, were on display Wednesday in the northern town of Shefa Amr, known in Hebrew as Shfaram, where Israeli forces demolished two homes that had been built without permits. That ignited clashes between local youth and Israeli police, who detained around a dozen people.

“They consider us second-class citizens,” said Sabri Hamdi, one of several angry residents who gathered outside the police station. “They want us to despair and leave the country, but we will not.”

Aida Touma-Sliman, an Arab lawmaker from Odeh’s party, arrived shortly after the clashes ended. The crowd outside the police station parted to let her through, and she met with Israeli officers inside to press for the release of the detainees. After about 15 minutes, she emerged with what she said was a commitment from the police to process the cases quickly.

“Change is not going to happen in a few days. It’s a long battle,” she told The Associated Press. “We gained three seats but the political situation in Israel hasn’t changed. The racism is still there.”

Rights groups say systematic discrimination in planning and approvals has restricted the growth of Arab communities for decades, forcing those with growing families to build without permits and leaving them vulnerable to home demolitions.

Odeh listed housing equity among the Joint List’s top demands in a New York Times op-ed in which he endorsed Gantz while refusing to join his government. 
 
He called for more resources for law enforcement, better access to hospitals, a rise in pensions for all Israelis and programs to combat domestic violence. He also called on the next government to revive the peace process with the Palestinians and to repeal a controversial law passed last year declaring Israel the nation-state of the Jewish people.

“Arab Palestinian citizens can no longer be rejected or ignored,” Odeh wrote. “The only future for this country is a shared future.”

Pre-election poll

A poll carried out by the Israel Democracy Institute at the start of the year, before Israel’s unprecedented back-to-back elections, found that 76% of Arab citizens were in favor of their parties joining an Israeli government and 65% were proud to be Israeli, the highest rate recorded since 2003. The nonpartisan think tank polled 536 Arab citizens, with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.

It also found that 58% of Arab citizens were dissatisfied with their leaders, something the pollsters attributed in part to their prioritizing the Palestinian cause over domestic issues. But for many Arab citizens, the two are inseparable.

“Domestic concerns cannot be separated from the general political oppression exercised over the Palestinians,” says Nijmeh Ali, a political analyst at Al-Shabaka, a Palestinian think tank. To do so is an attempt to undermine the political legitimacy of Arab leaders and “depoliticize” what is seen as institutionalized discrimination, she said.

The dilemma over how much to engage in politics continues to divide Arab citizens. The three lawmakers from the hard-line nationalist Balad party, which is part of the Joint List, refused to endorse Gantz.

“It’s clear that Palestinians inside [Israel] want more influence,” said Heba Yazbak, a newly elected Balad lawmaker who recently completed a Ph.D. in sociology at Tel Aviv University. “But if you ask any Palestinian in this country if they want us, as the Arab parties, to join a government of occupation, a government whose budget is devoted to the occupation, to besieging Gaza, the answer will be no.” 
 

A Uighur scholar imprisoned in China since 2014 was jointly awarded a top European human rights prize on Monday, an accolade likely to draw the ire of Beijing.

Ilham Tohti, 49, is serving a life sentence on charges of separatism for advocating the rights of Uighurs, a Muslim minority in the northwestern Xinjiang region of China.

The Vaclav Havel Human Rights Prize, named after the Czech ex-president, dissident and writer, was awarded by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) to Tohti and the Youth Initiative for Human Rights (YIHR), a group created in 2003 to help foster postwar reconciliation in the Balkans.

Rights groups say the Uighurs have suffered a severe crackdown that has seen millions interned in re-education camps whose existence China denied until recently.

Earlier this month, the prosecutor’s office in Xinjiang said one in five arrests made in China in 2017 took place in the region, even though it represents just two percent of the country’s population.

Beijing had already slammed the PACE last month for nominating Tohti for the Vaclav Havel prize, saying it was effectively “supporting terrorism”.

“Today’s prize honors one person, but it also recognizes a whole population in giving the entire Uighur people a voice,” said Enver Can of the Ilham Tohti Initiative, which received the award on Tohti’s behalf, according to a Twitter post by the PACE.

The YIHR’s prize was accepted by Ivan Djuric of YIHR Serbia, who warned about the growing danger from a resurgence in nationalist parties and policies in a region where ethnic divisions have often flared into violence.

“Don’t play deaf to the sound of war drums from the Balkans… “We’re not strangers, we’re Europeans,” the council tweeted, quoting Djuric.

Liliane Maury Pasquier, president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, said on Twitter, “In honoring them [both prize winners], we also send a message of hope to the millions of people they represent and for whom they work: human rights have no frontiers.”

 

 

 

Democratic presidential candidate Cory Booker says he’s hit the $1.7 million fundraising goal he set for his campaign about a week ago, ensuring he has enough money to continue his White House bid.

Booker says on his website he’s “proud of this grassroots team — thank you.”

The New Jersey senator had said on Sept. 21 that if he failed to raise the money by Monday he’d end his 2020 bid. The plea prompted support from politicians including former rival New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand  and former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, who hopped on an all-staff phone call Sunday to encourage Booker’s team.
 
Booker’s campaign manager said the money would go toward ballot access and hiring staff, among other things.
 
Booker raised $4.5 million during the second quarter but spent nearly $1 million more than that.

 

 

An expert monitoring a fast-moving glacier on the Italian side of the Mont Blanc massif says a small section has picked up speed and could break off in the coming days.

 
Fabrizio Troilo, a glaciologist with the Safe Mountain Foundation, said Monday that the piece — measuring some 27,000 cubic meters (953,390 cubic feet) — is moving at 60 centimeters (23.6 inches) a day.
 
That is about twice as fast as a massive 250,000-cubic-meter (8,827,683-cubic feet) chunk that also risks breaking off from the Planpincieux glacier.
 
Troilo said the smaller piece “could collapse in the next days or week,” but that such collapses are annual events and would have no impact on the rest of the valley.
 
Experts say the increased melting rate has been linked to climate change.