Media organizations say Australia has become a secretive state that is actively restricting the press. The leaders of the country’s major newspapers and broadcasters have made the claims at the first public hearing of a parliamentary inquiry investigating Australia’s security laws and their impact on journalism.

Australia’s media bosses say journalists must be able to do their jobs without fear. The inquiry in Sydney was told that reporters who published stories based on leaked government documents were being treated as though they had received “stolen goods.”

The Australian parliament’s powerful intelligence and security committee is investigating the impact national security laws have on press freedom.

The probe was launched after the Australian Federal Police raided a newspaper journalist’s home in Canberra and the headquarters of the national broadcaster, the ABC, in June, over stories based on leaked confidential documents. The raids were widely condemned as heavy-handed and an “utter violation” of a free media.

The ABC was targeted for publishing allegations of unlawful killings and misconduct by Australian Special Forces in Afghanistan. They were based on hundreds of pages of classified military papers.

Media chiefs are calling for so-called “public interest protections” for reporters to be able to tell sensitive stories without fear of prosecution.

Michael Miller, the executive chairman of News Corp Australasia says national security concerns are unfairly outweighing the public’s right to know.

“We may not be living in police state, but we are living in a state of secrecy,” he said. “We have many laws that criminalize journalism. They are creating a secret society that most Australians would not recognize as our own.”

Police defend raids

Senior Australian Federal Police officers have insisted the raids on the media in June were in defense of national security and that the compromise of sensitive material “could cause exceptionally grave damage or serious damage” to Australia’s interests.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has stressed the importance of a free and open press in Australian democracy.

The parliamentary inquiry into press freedom is expected to report its findings by October.
 

U.S. President Donald Trump met Friday with his national security team to discuss the U.S. negotiations with the Afghan Taliban, the White House said.

The meeting came amid media reports that both sides were close to striking a deal that would decide the fate of U.S. troops in Afghanistan after almost 19 years of conflict in the country. 

“The meeting went very well, and negotiations are proceeding,” the White House said in a statement following the meeting, which was led by the president, who is on a working vacation at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey.

Following the meeting, Trump said the U.S. was looking for a deal with the Taliban “if possible.”  

Just completed a very good meeting on Afghanistan. Many on the opposite side of this 19 year war, and us, are looking to make a deal – if possible!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 16, 2019

 
A statement issued Friday evening by the U.S. State Department said the president discussed the “status of negotiations for peace” and “the path forward in Afghanistan.”

Those who met with the president included Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, national security adviser John Bolton, Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford and CIA Director Gina Haspel.

“In continued close cooperation with the government of Afghanistan, we remain committed to achieving a comprehensive peace agreement, including a reduction in violence and a cease-fire, ensuring that Afghan soil is never again used to threaten the United States or her allies, and bringing Afghans together to work towards peace,” the statement said.

A senior administration official told Reuters that no big decision was expected to come out of the president’s meeting with his national security team, but that the “president wanted to bring U.S. troops home.”

Taliban refusal

There seems to have been no change in the Taliban’s staunch position against holding direct talks with the Afghan government led by President Ashraf Ghani, which the Taliban calls a U.S. puppet government.

U.S. officials have been insisting, though, that any agreement with the insurgent group would be tied to the start of intra-Afghan talks.

Despite assurances by the U.S., the Afghan government has expressed deep concern about being left out of the direct talks between the U.S. and Taliban. The latest round of talks concluded Monday in Qatar’s capital, Doha, where the U.S. delegation and members of the Taliban negotiating team held discussions for nine days to try to iron out differences.

Ghani said Sunday, during a speech on the first day of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, that a decision this monumental couldn’t be left to an outsider.

“Our fate cannot be decided outside of Afghanistan, not in the countries of our allies, nor in the capitals of our neighbors,” Ghani said in an apparent reference to the direct U.S. talks with the Taliban.

“Our fate would be decided inside this land. We do not want anyone to interfere in our internal affairs,” the Afghan president added.

September elections

Ghani and his government are adamant about holding the country’s presidential elections, which are due in late September, and in which Ghani seeks another five-year term in office.

Amrullah Saleh, Ghani’s running mate and former head of the country’s spy agency, said on Twitter earlier this month that only a legitimate government elected by the people could negotiate with the Taliban, and that therefore elections must be held.

“Elections will take place. Allow no poisonous propaganda to disturb your patriotism. The link between elections and the peace process is very direct and crucial. No one without a mandate from the people can negotiate settlement,” Saleh said.
The Taliban have vowed to disrupt the election by attacking polling centers and campaign rallies. The insurgent group last week warned people not to participate in the elections.

A day after the warning, a Taliban car bomb targeting Afghan security forces killed 14 people and wounded more than 140, mostly children, women and other civilians.

Significant differences

Although both the Taliban and the U.S. are citing progress in their direct talks, a U.S. official speaking on condition of anonymity told Reuters that “significant differences remained” between the two sides following the end of the eighth round of talks in Doha this week.

The officials said the differences center on U.S. demands that the insurgents publicly denounce ties to al-Qaida and other terror groups and agree to a nationwide cease-fire.

Some in the U.S. Congress are concerned that terror groups including al-Qaida and the Islamic State may find fertile ground inside Afghanistan and pose a threat to the U.S. and its allies if the U.S. withdraws from Afghanistan.

Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican and an ally of Trump, tweeted Friday following the president’s meeting with the national security team.  

Must have robust counterterrorism force with intel capability no matter what Taliban demands in order to protect the USA.

— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) August 16, 2019

 
“Share President Trump’s ‘hope’ that we can honorably end the war in Afghanistan with the Taliban. Certain that al-Qaida, ISIS, and other radical Islamic groups are not interested in the war ending,” Graham added.

Graham insists the U.S. should maintain a counterterrorism force inside Afghanistan, even if a deal is reached with the Taliban.

The U.S. has about 14,000 troops in Afghanistan engaged in both train-and-advise missions, as part of the U.S.-led NATO Resolute Support Mission, and in counterterrorism missions against the Islamic State and al-Qaida terror groups.

About 8,000 troops from NATO allies and partners also are stationed in the country, training and supporting the Afghan security forces.

Some of information for this report came from Reuters and The Associated Press. 

Members of China’s paramilitary People’s Armed Police marched and practiced crowd control tactics at a sports complex in Shenzhen across from Hong Kong in what some interpreted as a threat against pro-democracy protesters in the semi-autonomous territory.

The sound of marching boots and synchronized shouts echoed from the grounds Friday. Officers in green camouflage stood guard at closed entrances. A stadium security guard said “it wasn’t clear” when the paramilitary police would leave the grounds.

Chinese state media have said only that the Shenzhen exercises were planned earlier and were not directly related to the unrest in Hong Kong, though they came shortly after the central government in Beijing said the protests were beginning to show the “sprouts of terrorism.”

From a distance, police could be seen conducting drills in military fatigues, using shields, poles and other riot-control gear. In one exercise, two groups marched in formation with those in front raising shields as if to protect themselves from projectiles. Others behind held red flags and banners. The words “the law” and “prosecuted” could be seen on one.

Outside, dozens of armored carriers and trucks sat in the parking lot of the Shenzhen Bay Stadium, close to a bridge linking mainland China to Hong Kong.

Asked if Hong Kong police could maintain order or if mainland Chinese intervention is becoming inevitable, Hong Kong police commander Yeung Man-pun said that while they face tremendous pressure, “I can tell you we’re confident the police have the capability to maintain law and order.”

Weeks of protest

Germany, meanwhile, said it considers China to be a responsible actor that will respect Hong Kong laws guaranteeing freedom of speech and rule of law.

Government spokesman Steffen Seibert said Friday that Hong Kong’s 1997 Basic Law, under which the city was promised a high degree of autonomy when the former British colony returned to China, “is a Chinese law, and as such we naturally expect that the People’s Republic of China, too, won’t call into question the peaceful exercise of these rights.”

Weeks of protests in Hong Kong have been marked by increasing violence and a shutdown of the Hong Kong airport earlier this week. The demonstrators are demanding expanded political rights and the scrapping of legislation that could have seen criminal suspects sent to mainland China.

A weekend of protests began Friday night with a university student-led “power to the people” rally in Chater Garden, a public square in the financial district.

A pro-democracy march is planned for Saturday along with a separate pro-government “Save Hong Kong” rally, ahead of a major pro-democracy rally called for Sunday. Police have denied permission for the march Sunday, but protesters have ignored such denials in the past.

Airline CEO resigns

China has pressured foreign and Hong Kong companies to support the ruling Communist Party’s position against the protesters.

The CEO of Cathay Pacific Airways, one of Hong Kong’s most prominent companies, resigned Friday following pressure by Beijing on the carrier over participation by some of its employees in the anti-government protests.

Cathay Pacific said Rupert Hogg resigned “to take responsibility” following “recent events.”

The company chairman, John Slosar, said in a statement the airline needed new management because events had “called into question” its commitment to safety and security.

On Monday, Hogg threatened employees with “disciplinary consequences” if they took part in “illegal protests.”

Last week, China’s aviation regulator said Cathay Pacific employees who “support or take part in illegal protests, violent actions, or overly radical behavior” are banned from staffing flights to mainland China.

Message of ‘joy and smile’

On Friday morning, Frenchman Alain Robert, who has been dubbed “spiderman” for his unauthorized climbs of skyscrapers, hung a banner appealing for peace as he scaled the 62-story Cheung Kong Center, a landmark Hong Kong building that is the base for property tycoon Li Ka-shing’s business empire.

The banner showed the Chinese and Hong Kong flags over a handshake and a small yellow sun with a smiley face.

“The banner is to give joy and smile to the people of Hong Kong,” he told the AP as he sat in a taxi about to leave for his climb. He added that he didn’t want to get “mixed up in the political situation.”

Robert, 57, was taken to a police station afterward. It wasn’t immediately clear if he would be charged. He was banned in 2017 from returning to Hong Kong for one year after climbing another building.
 

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday the U.S.-Israel relationship can withstand the “weakness” of President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who shook diplomatic norms this week in barring two members of Congress from visiting the country.

Pelosi told The Associated Press that the “weakness of Netanyahu and the weakness of Donald Trump combined” into a policy that’s “a no.”

“We have a deep relationship and long-standing relationship with Israel that can withstand Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu,” Pelosi said. “We cannot let their weaknesses stand in the way of our ongoing relationship.”

She said the U.S. commitment to Israel isn’t dependent on either leader, a sign there may not be lasting fallout from this week’s incident, particularly in terms of foreign aid, which must be approved by Congress.

In an extraordinary move, Netanyahu, with a push from Trump, barred entry for Democratic Reps. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota ahead of their planned visit. Tlaib was later granted a humanitarian exception to visit her grandmother in the West Bank, but ultimately decided against the trip .

Trump views the freshmen congresswomen as among his chief opponents — part of the “squad” of newly elected liberal lawmakers — and has called them out at his rallies and in racist tweets as he runs for re-election. Trump describes them as the face of the Democratic Party. 

Trump complained Friday about Tlaib’s decision against taking the trip.

“Rep. Tlaib wrote a letter to Israeli officials desperately wanting to visit her grandmother. Permission was quickly granted, whereupon Tlaib obnoxiously turned the approval down, a complete setup,” Trump tweeted. “The only real winner here is Tlaib’s grandmother. She doesn’t have to see her now!”

The two Muslim lawmakers support a Palestinian-led boycott of Israel, and barring their entry was an escalation of Netanyahu’s attempts to quash the global boycott, divestment and sanctions movement.

Both leaders are up for re-election — Netanyahu in the fall, and Trump next year. Critics of the decision framed it as stoking divisions for short-term political gain at the expense of harming the deep ties that Israel has long enjoyed with both political parties in the U.S.

Pelosi said she had “great, great, great sadness” over the decision, but she was not discouraging other lawmakers from visiting Israel.

“Members will make their own decisions about this, but I would not discourage travel to Israel,” Pelosi said.

“We have a strong relationship with Israel as well as a deep love and respect for the people of Israel. And, again, this is not going to undermine that, try as President Trump will to do that.”

Pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong are calling for support from Western nations.  As Mike O’Sullivan reports from Hong Kong, demonstrators took to the streets again on Friday, as several student leaders described what they called anonymous attempts at intimidation.

Police in Portland, Oregon, are mobilizing in preparation for Saturday when far-right protesters are expected to come face-to-face with local anti-fascist counter-demonstrators. 

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler joined leaders of the city’s religious, police and business groups to warn groups “who plan on using Portland on August 17th as a platform to spread your hate.”  Those groups are “not welcome here,” he said. 

He said all of Portland’s nearly 1,000 police officers will be on duty Saturday and will be helped by the Oregon State Police and the FBI. 

Saturday’s rally is organized by a member of the Proud Boys, which has been designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. 

Expected to join them are the American Guard, Three Percenters, Oathkeepers and Daily Stormers.

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the American Guard is a “white nationalist group,” Three Percenters and Oathkeepers are “extremist” anti-government militias, and the Daily Stormers are “neo-Nazis.”

Countering the right-wingers is Portland’s Rose City Antifa, an anti-fascist group that has called on its members to take to the streets in an opposing rally. 

Antifa in the United States have grown more visible recently and experts say antifa groups are not centrally organized, and their members may espouse a number of different causes, from politics to race relations to gay rights. But the principle that binds them — along with an unofficial uniform of black clothing and face masks — is the willingness to use violence to fight against white supremacists, which has opened them to criticism from both left and right.

At a June rally in Portland, masked antifa members beat up a conservative blogger named Andy Ngo. Video of the 30-second attack grabbed national attention.

The city’s leadership and residents are on edge ahead of the rallies. Many summer staples like music festivals and recreational events have been canceled. A 5K race has changed its course to avoid possible violence and most businesses in the area plan to close for the day. 

Zimbabweans defied a police ban Friday and held demonstrations to protest the country’s deteriorating economy.

Despite the High Court ban on planned protests, members of the Movement for Democratic Change took to the streets and clashed with police. Some of the injured accused police of derailing protests, which they said were meant to persuade President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government to breathe life into Zimbabwe’s moribund economy.

With tears on her cheeks, 32-year-old Tafadzwa Bvuta said her degree had not helped her get anything for her three children. 

“They beat us up,” she said of the police. “What have we done? All these security forces are supposed to protect us all — not just one person. Where will we go and survive? Shall we kill our kids since we are struggling to take care of them?”

Make Nyashanu, 27, said he would continue protesting because he is miserable about being unemployed.

He said police were indiscriminately beating demonstrators — even elderly ones and people not protesting. “Is this democracy?” he asked, adding that it was a peaceful demonstration but police were causing chaos.

The opposition said it will hold another protest Monday in Zimbabwe’s second largest city, Bulawayo, and will go to other cities and places until the government addresses the economy.

Government response

Information Minister Monica Mutsvangwa called the protests counterproductive, saying January’s demonstrations against fuel price increases resulted in $20 million to $30 million in losses for businesses from looting and non-productive days.

“Government calls on all progressive Zimbabweans to desist from being used by negative forces to destabilize their own country, as this will only prolong the hardships which the government is tirelessly trying to address in a more sustainable manner,” she said. “I wish to reiterate the call by His Excellency Comrade ED Mnangagwa for all patriotic Zimbabweans to resort to dialogue as a means to solve the challenges we face as a nation.”

Daniel Molokhele, the spokesman for the opposition, said his party was against Mnangagwa leading talks and accused him of stealing Zimbabwe’s last election in 2018. He said the protests would continue until Zimbabwe’s economy gets back on track.

Businesses, media and hospitals in Cameroon’s capital have been brought to a halt because of an unprecedented power failure that has gone on for nearly two weeks. The government has ordered the electric company, ENEO, to restore power within seven days but the company says it needs at least three months to repair equipment destroyed in a fire.

This loud noise from a standby generator is unusual in Cameroon’s capital, Yaounde. But for the past two weeks, many locals have become familiar with it.

The power supply disappeared on August 4th, the day a fire ripped through the city’s main power station, destroying much of the equipment, and leaving more than one million people without electricity.

The government has ordered the electric company, ENEO, to restore power within seven days but the company says it needs at least three months to repair equipment destroyed in a fire.

Henry Ndaa, manager of Divine Finance, a bank in Yaounde, now relies on the generator to keep the lights on and computers running.  But this source of power is unreliable, because at times fuel stations cannot supply enough gasoline to keep it going.

“We cannot adequately operate. We use the generator and it goes off and it is weighing negatively on us and our customers. Our members keep complaining,” he told VOA.

The power outage has paralyzed businesses, crippled hospitals, affected the water supply and forced people to dispose of huge quantities of perishable goods. Radio and TV stations cannot have regular broadcasts.  

Godlove Ndifontah, a researcher, says even the internet supply is no longer regular.

“It is horrible. I am on my machine always almost 24 on 24 [every day], preparing my projects and responding to mails from my partners.  [Now] we have to go to where there are generators in order to pay 500 francs ($510) to charge your machine or to charge your phone per hour.”

Cameroon’s minister of water and energy resources, Gaston Eloundou Essomba, says the government is taking steps to replace all of the damaged equipment and will import parts from abroad as needed.

Communication minister and government spokesperson Rene Emmanuel Sadi says power is being rationed, and urged people in neighborhoods without electricity to be patient.

“The government wishes to laud the patience, understanding and civic sense showcased by the inhabitants of the capital city. Instructions have been given to ENEO to provide a general calendar of the rationing of supply to the public of the city of Yaounde,” he said.

Authorities have not identified the cause of the August 4 fire, although they refuted newspaper reports of sabotage.  

 

 

 

“Prison proves if you are a fighter,” says Siraphop Kornaroot.

The 55-year-old Thai poet and author should know, having spent the past five years in a Bangkok jail without having been convicted of a crime. Released on bail in June, he still faces up to 45 years behind bars if found guilty at his long-running trial, currently taking place in a closed military court.

Officially, Siraphop stands accused of breaking the country’s Computer Crimes Act and strict lèse majesté law for a trio of Facebook posts and cartoons allegedly skewering Thailand’s revered royal family. But the political activist is convinced that the old posts were dredged up to punish him for his true “crime” — criticizing the military junta that had wrested power from an elected government about a month before his arrest on June 25, 2014.

Siraphop, whose pen name Rungsira roughly means “born with strength,” tells VOA he turned out to be a fighter. 

“Prison is like hell on earth. There is no human dignity in the cell,” says Siraphop, who adds he spent most of his days confined to a sweltering 5-by-12-meter room with 40 to 50 other men. “No food. No games. No books. Only drinking water.”

As a political prisoner, even conversation was denied him. He says inmates who ventured to chat with him were quickly reassigned to other cells and that he was relegated to the prison’s library detail to keep his interactions with others to a minimum.

“They try to isolate the political prisoners,” he says. “This is what life was like. Every political prisoner is treated like this.” 

Siraphop believes he could have won an early release with a royal pardon had he confessed, but says he never considered the option.

“I wouldn’t do that because I want to prove that I am innocent, that I never said anything bad about the royal family. I am anti-coup d’état, not anti-royalist,” he says.

“I think what I did was right, because otherwise how can our children live in this kind of society if I don’t stand up for myself and for my belief in civil disobedience? I don’t think it’s right that the military took power. I think people like us, the citizens, should have the power in our hands. It’s not right that we citizens are arrested for expressing our civil rights. Do we really think that this should be the standard in society?”

The junta denied Siraphop’s requests for bail seven times before finally relenting, a few weeks after the U.N. Human Rights Council’s Working Group on Arbitrary Detention issued an opinion slamming his arrest and closed-door trial in military court and calling for his immediate release.

Siraphop credits the working group’s attention for his freedom, however tenuous, but he also believes the timing of their opinion was in his favor. A pro-military civilian government had just taken over from the junta after tainted elections in March, and was eager to prove to the world that Thailand was back to democratic ways.

Siraphop and other rights activists are yet to be convinced.

In the weeks after the vote, the leaders of the 2014 coup assumed the top posts in the new government. The Constitution that the junta drafted and enacted also remains in place, as do some of the security decrees it issued.

Physical assaults on the military’s most vocal critics by gangs of armed and masked men have also picked up since the election. Dissidents taking shelter in neighboring countries have either disappeared or been forced to return home, and opposition lawmakers have come under sustained legal attack.

Siraphop’s release on bail is “one piece of good news at a time when there are strong indications that authorities haven’t shifted their approach,” says Katherine Gerson, Thailand campaigner for Amnesty International.

Thai Lawyers for Human Rights says that during the junta’s five-year run, 169 people were charged with lèse majesté, 144 with computer crimes for expressing political opinions, and 121 with sedition.

While most have been released or were never arrested, about 20 political prisoners remain behind bars, according to iLaw, another local legal rights group. All but one of those are accused of lèse majesté.

“And so there’s a considerable amount of work this new government must do both to reverse the legacy of some of the worst excesses of restrictions during the coup period, but also to look at the body of laws which, previous to the coup, were being used to silence opposition voices,” Gerson says.

In the meantime, Siraphop, a single father of three, is focused on fighting his charges and putting the pieces of his life back together.

The Justice Ministry is in the process of transferring his case to a civilian court, but the arrest ruined his home design business and his bank accounts remain frozen. His two youngest children were forced to drop out of school, one to work, the other to take up vocational training. 

Siraphop says he is now shadowed by plain-clothes police around the clock but still takes to social media to share his thoughts on the state of Thai politics. Having endured one long stint in prison, he is stoic about the prospects of another.

“I don’t care if they come to arrest me again. Hell is not that scary anymore,” he says. “I am not fighting to win, but I want to fight to make a better life for my children.”
 

Hundreds of Google employees are calling on the company to pledge it won’t work with U.S. Customs and Border Protection or Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It’s the latest in a year full of political and social pushback from the tech giant’s workforce.

A group of employees called Googlers for Human Rights posted a public petition urging the company not to bid on a cloud computing contract for CBP, the federal agency that oversees law enforcement for the country’s borders. Bids for the contract were due Aug. 1. It is not clear if Google expressed interest. The company did not return a request for comment.

More than 800 Google employees had signed the petition by Friday morning. Citing a “system of abuse” and “malign neglect” by the agencies, the petition demands that Google not provide any technical services to CBP, ICE or the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), which provides services for refugees, until the agencies “stop engaging in human rights abuses.”

“In working with CBP, ICE, or ORR, Google would be trading its integrity for a bit of profit, and joining a shameful lineage,” the organizers wrote. They cited federal actions that have separated migrant children from parents and set up detention centers with poor conditions.

Google employees have led a growing trend in which some tech-company employees have taken public stances against their employers’ policies. Thousands of Google employees walked out last fall to protest the company’s handling of sexual misconduct claims. Employees also protested a Pentagon contract last year over work that used artificial intelligence technology to analyze drone footage.

The protests have chalked up some victories. After the walkout , Google announced new sexual misconduct guidelines, although some employees say they don’t go far enough. And the company did not renew the Pentagon contract after significant pushback.

Accusations of bias

Responding to some employee pressures has added fuel to claims from Republican pundits and lawmakers that the company is building its products to be biased against conservatives — an unfounded claim that has spawned multiple congressional hearings, although none that have produced evidence of bias.

Google was hit with criticism by President Donald Trump last week when the president tweeted he was “watching Google very closely” after a former employee claimed on Fox News — without evidence — that the company would try to influence the 2020 election against Trump.

Google has denied claims of political bias in its popular search service and other products.

Israel will allow U.S. lawmaker Rashida Tlaib to visit her family in the occupied West Bank on humanitarian grounds, the interior ministry said Friday, after barring an official visit under pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday he would not allow Tlaib and congresswoman Ilhan Omar, both Democrats, to make a planned trip to Israel.

Tlaib and Omar have voiced support for the pro-Palestinian Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement over Israel’s policies toward Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Under Israeli law, BDS backers can be denied entry to Israel.

However, Netanyahu said that if Tlaib submitted a request to visit family on humanitarian grounds, Israel would consider it as long as she promised not to promote a boycott against Israel.

Tlaib sent a letter to Israel’s Ministry of Interior Thursday requesting permission “to visit relatives, and specifically my grandmother, who is in her 90s,” adding that it “could be my last opportunity to see her.”

“I will respect any restrictions and will not promote boycotts against Israel during my visit,” Tlaib wrote in the request, which was circulated by the Ynet website Ynet and other Israeli media.

Israel’s interior ministry said in a statement it “decided on Friday to approve the entry of U.S. Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib for a humanitarian visit to her 90-year-old grandmother.”

Australia is offering vulnerable South Pacific nations $340 million to help them deal with the effects of climate change. The announcement came ahead of a visit by Prime Minister Scott Morrison to Tuvalu for the Pacific Islands Forum this week, where Australia’s reliance on fossil fuels was a dominant issue.

Australia wants to help its Pacific neighbors invest in renewable energy and make their roads, hospitals and schools able to withstand extreme weather events.

But Morrison met resistance in Tuvalu at a meeting of Pacific leaders. They have been urging Australia to phase out the use of coal that generates most of its electricity and generates billions of dollars in export earnings.

Questions about aid

That appears unlikely, and Australia recently approved a huge new coal mine in the state of Queensland to be run by an Indian company, Adani.

Island nations fear that fossil fuels are endangering their way of life as global temperatures increase and the seas rise. Some low-lying communities have already been inundated, and there are concerns that many more will follow.

Simon Bradshaw from Oxfam Australia, an independent aid organization, believes Australia’s offer of financial assistance to the Pacific needs careful scrutiny.

“There are very important questions around the details of this announcement,” he said. “Is it additional money? It does not seem so. It seems to be taken from the existing and rapidly diminishing aid budget. But, of course, the elephant in the room is still on the one hand providing some assistance, on the other hand Australia’s emissions (are) still going up. We are the world’s largest producer of coal and gas.”

Way of life in danger

Fiji’s Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama said that climate change posed “an existential threat” to island nations.

Samoa’s leader Tuilaepa Sailele has said previously that any world leader who denied the existence of warming temperatures was mentally unstable.

The Pacific Islands Forum was founded in 1971. It has 18 members, including Australia, French Polynesia, Tonga, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea.

It aims to become a “region of peace, harmony, security … and prosperity.”

Zimbabwe’s deteriorating economy is forcing many families to put their children to work to put food on the table. Child rights activists say an increasing number of children are selling things on the street to supplement family income. Columbus Mavhunga reports from Harare for VOA.
 

Spaceport America is no longer just a shiny shell of hope that space tourism would one day launch from this remote spot in the New Mexico desert.

The once-empty hangar that anchors the taxpayer-financed launch and landing facility has been transformed into a custom-tailored headquarters where Virgin Galactic will run its commercial flight operations.

The interior spaces unveiled Thursday aim to connect paying customers with every aspect of the operation, providing views of the hangar and the space vehicles as well as the banks of monitors inside mission control.

Two levels within the spaceport include mission control, a preparation area for pilots and a lounge for customers and their friends and families, with each element of the fit and finish paying homage to either the desert landscape that surrounds the futuristic outpost or the promise of traveling to the edge of space.

From hotel rooms to aircraft cabins, the Virgin brand touts its designs for their focus on the customer experience. Spaceport is no different.

 A social hub includes an interactive digital walkway and a coffee bar made of Italian marble. On the upper deck, shades of white and gray speak to Virgin Galactic’s more lofty mission.

Company officials say the space is meant to create “an unparalleled experience” as customers prepare for what Virgin Galactic describes as the journey of a lifetime.

Timeline not set

Just how soon customers will file into Virgin Galactic’s newly outfitted digs for the first commercial flights to space has yet to be determined. A small number of test flights are still needed.

“We were the first company to fly a commercial space ship to space with somebody in the back who was not a pilot — first time that somebody like that has been able to get out of their seats and float around the cabin,” Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides said. “So it’s happening. We have a bit more work to do before we get to commercial service.”

Billionaire Richard Branson, who is behind Virgin Galactic, and former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a Democrat, first pitched the plan for the spaceport nearly 15 years ago.

There were construction delays and cost overruns. Virgin Galactic’s spaceship development took far longer than expected and had a major setback when its first experimental craft broke apart during a 2014 test flight, killing the co-pilot.

Critics suggested the project was a boondoggle, but supporters argued that there were bound to be hard and sometimes costly lessons.

Democratic state Sen. George Munoz has enduring concerns about the business model for commercial, low-orbit travel for passengers.

“You can have all the money in the world and come back and say, ‘Was my 30 seconds of fame worth that risk?’” he said.

Munoz says New Mexico’s anticipated return on investment in terms of jobs and visitors is still overdue, with more than $200 million in public funds spent on Spaceport America in cooperation with Virgin Galactic as the anchor tenant.

New facility

At the facility Thursday, the carrier plane for Virgin’s rocket-powered passenger ship made a few passes and touch-and-goes over a runway.

Behind the spaceport’s signature wall of curved glass, mission control sits on the second floor with an unobstructed view of the runway and beyond.

There’s also space behind two massive sliding doors to accommodate two of Virgin Galactic’s carrier planes and a fleet of six-passenger rocket ships.

Virgin Galactic posted on social media earlier this week that its main operating base was now at the spaceport. And Branson said the wing of Virgin’s next rocket ship has been completed.

Chief Pilot Dave Mackay said the crew in the coming days will fly simulated launch missions to ensure in-flight communications and airspace coordination work as planned. The pilots also will be familiarizing themselves with New Mexico’s airspace and landmarks.

“New Mexico is on track to become one of the very few places on this beautiful planet which regularly launches humans to space,” Mackay said.

Whitesides said that once the test flights are complete, commercial operations can begin. He envisions a fundamental shift in humanity’s relationship with space, noting that fewer than 600 people ever have ventured beyond the Earth’s atmosphere.

“We’re going to be able to send way more than that to space from this facility here,” he said. “In another 15 years, I really hope that we’ve had thousands of people go.”

About 600 people have reserved a seat, according to the company, at a cost of $250,000 a ticket.

That buys them a ride on the winged rocket ship, which is dropped in flight from the carrier airplane. Once free, it fires its rocket motor to hurtle toward the boundary of space before gliding back down.

The latest test flight reached an altitude of 56 miles (90 kilometers) while traveling at three times the speed of sound.

Tie-dyed pilgrims and white-haired Woodstock festival veterans converged at the generation-defining site to celebrate its 50th anniversary, while Arlo Guthrie came back to sing — what else? — “The Times They Are a-Changin’.”

Bethel Woods Center for the Arts is hosting a series of events Thursday through Sunday at the bucolic 1969 concert site, 80 miles (130 kilometers) northwest of New York City.

Guthrie, an original Woodstock performer, played an evening set atop the famous hill, but said he also wanted to play at least one song near where the 1969 stage was located. Picking up a guitar, he sang the Bob Dylan classic for a group of reporters gathered on the grass under the wilting afternoon sun.

“It was a great time,” Guthrie told reporters, his long white hair flowing from a straw hat. “For me, the Woodstock festival was a celebratory end of an era. It was not the beginning of anything. It was the end of something, and it was an end of a very turbulent time that was also very wonderful.”

No overcrowding, chaos

An estimated 400,000 people showed up for the original festival on upstate New York farmland Aug. 15-18, 1969.

There won’t be overcrowding and chaos this time. Visitors need event tickets and travel passes to drive to the site through the weekend. But the site was buzzing by the afternoon, with people stopping by the on-site museum and the monument near the stage area.

“This is like a pilgrimage. Coming back to the holy land,” said Glenn Radman, a 67-year-old New Milford, Connecticut, resident stopping by the monument with his friend.

Radman was at the festival 50 years ago, as was 75-year-old Roger Dennis, an Ithaca, New York, resident who was making his first visit since that famous weekend.

“I was here 50 years ago right on this day, and it was one of the most powerful experiences of my life. And I just had to be back here,” Dennis said, standing by the monument.

Dennis went to the concert with his brother and turned 26 years old that Sunday. His brother died years ago, which made the visit Thursday a bit melancholy.

“But the memories the energies of this festival were just unbelievable,” he said. “And I feel that.”

Access to the field is usually open, but Bethel Woods is setting restrictions this weekend to avoid a repeat of the chaos that engulfed the site in 1969.

Baby boomer crowd

Guthrie’s evening performance drew a crowd heavy on baby boomers, many with psychedelic-print shirts. In contrast to the 1969 show, there were plenty of seats and well-stocked vendors selling food, wine and beer.

Guthrie’s show was to precede a screening Thursday night of the Woodstock documentary at an amphitheater on the site.

Bethel Woods is hosting a long weekend of events featuring separate shows by festival veterans like Carlos Santana and John Fogerty.

Photographers like Henry Diltz are exhibiting their festival shots for the anniversary and other places are hosting musical performances, but this site holds a special place for many music fans.

“Being here reminds me of what it’s like to feel differently,” said Helen Rothberg, “to live in a community, to feel joy.”

North Korea has launched a fresh round of projectiles toward the sea off its east coast, South Korea’s military reported, Pyongyang’s latest apparent outburst of anger at continued U.S.-South Korean military drills.

The North fired two projectiles Friday from Gangwon province in the northeast part of North Korea, according to a statement from Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff. The statement gave no other details, but said South Korea’s military is on alert for additional launches.

North Korea has conducted six launches in about the past three weeks. Combined with a series of aggressive statements toward South Korea, the launches mark a return to a more provocative stance for North Korea, which has refused to hold talks with Seoul or Washington. 

Though it isn’t clear what North Korea launched Friday, the North’s other recent tests involved short-range ballistic missiles that appear designed to evade U.S.-South Korean missile defenses.

North Korea is banned from any ballistic missile activity under United Nations Security Council resolutions. But U.S. President Donald Trump says he has “no problem” with the missile tests, saying they can’t reach the United States. 

Last week, Trump said North Korean leader Kim Jong Un offered a “small apology” for the launches and vowed to stop them as soon as the current round of U.S.-South Korean military exercises end. 

This round of drills is scheduled to end on Aug. 20. 

North Korea has long complained that the drills are aggressive. U.S. military leaders say the exercises are defensive, and necessary to maintain readiness. 

Trump last week called the drills “ridiculous and expensive,” but said he signed off on the latest round because it helped prepare for “the turnover of various areas to South Korea.” 

“I like that because it should happen,” Trump said. 

On Friday, the NoThe current drills are designed in part to test South Korea’s ability to retake operational control from the U.S. during wartime.

Though the drills have been scaled back and renamed in an attempt to preserve the idea of talks, North Korea is still not happy and wants the drills to end completely. 

North Korea has directed most of its recent outbursts toward its neighbors in the South. 

On Friday, the North’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) took aim at South Korean President Moon Jae-in, calling him an “impudent guy” and a “funny man.” 

“We have nothing to talk any more with the South Korean authorities nor have any idea to sit with them again,” said the statement, which quoted a spokesperson at the semi-official Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Country. 

The comments come a day after President Moon pledged to work toward the unification of the two Koreas by 2045 — a bold proposal for a leader who is set to leave office in 2022. 

Moon and Kim met three times in 2018, promising to bring in a new era of inter-Korean relations. Those talks have since broken down, amid North Korean complaints about continued military cooperation between South Korea and the United States. 

In his speech Thursday, the anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War Two, Moon insisted a unified Korea would become a global world power and eventually overtake Japan economically. 

North Korea doesn’t seem very impressed. KCNA on Friday called Moon’s remarks a “foolish commemorative speech” that was enough to “make the boiled head of a cow provoke a side-splitting laughter.”

VOA’s Michael Atit contributed to this report from Khartoum.

The United States has imposed a visa ban on the former director general of Sudan’s national intelligence and security services for his alleged involvement in gross human rights violations.

The State Department, in announcing the ban Wednesday, said it has “credible information” that Salah Abdalla Mohamed Mohamed Salih, also known as Salah Gosh, “was involved in torture during his tenure as head of NISS.” 

Gosh, 63, resigned his position as security chief in April, after the military forced out Sudan’s president, Omar al-Bashir. Gosh had worked with the security force for nearly four decades, according to The National, a Middle East news organization. He faces charges in Sudan of incitement and involvement in the deaths of protesters who pressed for Bashir’s removal after 30 years in power.   

The ban blocks Gosh and his family members from entry to the United States. That includes his wife, Awatif Ahmed Seed Ahmed Mohamed, and his daughter, Shima Salah Abdallah Mohamed.

“We will continue to hold accountable those who violate human rights,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a tweet. 

Reactions from Sudanese

Sudanese citizens had a mixed reaction to the U.S. move.

“This is a clear message to members of the Transitional Military Council in Sudan that the American government has not forgotten the atrocities committed in June against the peaceful protesters,” Khartoum resident Hiba Fagiri told VOA. “They want to remind them that those atrocities were a violation of human rights.”

Businessman Ali Hassan was skeptical, though, insisting, “We are not going to gain anything from this sanction because even if he has wealth, the Sudanese are not going to gain anything from him. This is a political game from the American government to threaten those who are coming to rule Sudan and they may even come and loot our resources.”

Accountability

Joshua White of The Sentry, a Washington-based investigative and policy group that tracks money connected to African war criminals, told VOA that the visa ban “sends a clear message to members of the former regime that the United States is continuing to hold them accountable for human rights abuses and corruption that occurred under the former regime.”

The Sentry also encourages a freeze on the financial assets of Gosh, his relatives and any collaborators, said White, who directs policy and analysis for the organization.

“We think that is really the gold [standard], in terms of what needs to happen,” White said.

He called for the United States, the European Union and the African Union to impose financial sanctions “to really bring true accountability but also … to ensure that these individuals don’t continue to perpetuate a cycle of violence, don’t continue to steal from state assets.” 

Zimbabwe’s deteriorating economy is forcing many families to put their children to work. Child rights activists say an increasing number of children are selling items on the street to supplement the family income.

On a busy corner, a 16-year-old we shall call Tribunal sells wares. Tribunal said this has been her story for the past two years since her mother died and she dropped out of school. She now lives with her 22-year-old sister. She said she gets about $5 a day in sales.

Tribunal said she actually wishes for a decent life and does not want to sell stuff here, but that she felt she could not force her father to pay her school fees because he is no longer employed. Tribunal said her father is even failing to pay fees for her 12-year-old brother, which she is now doing. She said she hopes her brother makes it in life.

On Thursday, Health and Child Welfare Minister Obadiah Moyo said President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government was aware of the plight of Tribunal and other children. He said Harare was working with organizations like UNICEF and other rights groups to remedy the situation.

Ratidzai Moyo, a program manager at children’s rights group Childline Zimbabwe, said her organization has noted an increase in the number of youngsters being forced into working to survive as the economic situation deteriorates.

“But now with the economic challenge, with one community where a child has to sell maputi [roasted corn], for example, and they don’t bring any income because nobody bought from them, then the parent rewards those who sold, with food. And the one who did not sell, you didn’t bring any money home, how do you expect to eat? So, we [are] now engaging parents that you should not punish children by withdrawing food. Yes, things are hard, and it would be hard to do if it is something they have to do after school. So, they won’t be able to sell anything,” said Moyo.

The economic turmoil is blamed for a rise in political tensions in the African nation. Anti-government protests are scheduled for Friday. The government has threatened to stop the demonstrations.

Up to nine people were killed Saturday when a pickup truck stuffed with passengers overturned while trying to cross a flooded road near the South Sudanese capital, Juba.  

Stark photos of the accident in Luri village raised a question: Why did the driver try to cross a road that was overrun by a fast-moving stream — a road that sits atop a 3-meter embankment, and that lacks any kind of guardrail to protect cars that might be pushed over the edge by rushing waters?

The way local residents describe it, they have no other choice.  The bridge that once carried them over the stream collapsed in 2012.  A concrete road was built next to the collapsed bridge but is not elevated enough to safely carry commuters over the water when the stream is running high.

Local resident Stephen Wani said every rainy season, residents on the northern side of the stream are cut off from the hospital on the southern side. “Once our people become sick here, we will just die because we can’t go and access health services on the other side,” Wani said.

So they try to cross the stream, too often without success. Luri residents say more than 50 people have drowned in the last three months alone trying to cross.  Many were travelers from other areas. 

After the accident on Saturday, relatives sobbed and dozens more stood watch quietly while volunteers recovered bodies from the water.

Elizabeth Ajawa, 30, was one of the survivors.  Ajawa said she and 21 other commuters boarded a Toyota Land Cruiser at the Customs Taxi Park to travel to Mundri in former Western Equatoria state.

She said when the group reached the site of the old bridge, security personnel told the driver not to cross because the road was flooded.  He said the driver agreed not to cross — but several hours later tried to drive slowly over the road when authorities were not looking.

“Our car was carried by the water and we fell into the water. I don’t know how I managed to come out. It was only God who brought me out of the water,” Ajawa told VOA’s South Sudan in Focus.  

Mary Albino, another survivor seated in the back of the vehicle, said she managed to swim to shore.

“They [the driver and conductor] told us go. Just when we reached the middle of the [road], two wheels became disconnected and were carried away. That was how we fell in the water. We were four people outside the pickup. When I fell, my legs got stuck on a rock, and then I started to swim to the other side,” Albino said.

Luri County Commissioner Emmanuel Paul Fartakin said the driver ignored instructions not to cross.

“We have standing orders with the traffic and security personnel at the bridge,” Fartakin told South Sudan in Focus. “They order every vehicle to stop and wait until the water subsides before they cross. … That driver came at 2 p.m. and was asked to wait at the bridge. But unfortunately, he escaped at 8 p.m. when the security personnel got busy and didn’t realize he was leaving.” 

Luri County resident Pitia John said even though government officials know many people die trying to cross the water, they look the other way.

“This [road] has killed many people within three months,” John said. “Every time people drowned, government officials hear about it but don’t take any action to fix the bridge.  Sometimes officials even visit the bridge and promise residents it will be fixed, but once they leave, they never come back.”

Fartakin said the national government had contracted with the IBMC construction company to repair all bridges leading to Luri County beginning with the Kapori, Kabu and Gudelle bridges.

Nashville-based singer/songwriter Alex Di Leo recently released his sophomore EP, “Strange Open Land.”  This is the follow-up to his debut EP, “So We Go”  —a 2016 release that landed Di Leo on the top 20 at more than 100 college radio stations around the U.S.