YCLOAK

The Sengwer, an indigenous hunter-gatherer community in western Kenya, presented a petition Monday morning to the government in Nairobi demanding the return and protection of what they call their ancestral lands. The community says it faces threats of eviction as Kenya’s government takes over conservation of the country’s forests and water supplies.

Hundreds of members of the Sengwer, a community that lives in the Embobut forest, spent two days marching from their ancestral land in Kenya’s North Rift Valley to Nairobi in hopes of meeting President Uhuru Kenyatta.

Dressed in traditional regalia, they sang traditional songs as they arrived in Nairobi with the petition to the government.

85-year-old Moses Leleu took part in the march.

Leleu says, “As a community, we are yet to be recognized as a Kenyan tribe. That’s one of the main reason we are here. The second is that we have been evicted several times from our ancestral land. We are now living in a small portion in these lands and still face imminent eviction. We want to go back to the areas we have been evicted from and be recognized as the owners of our ancestral land.”

Hunter-gatherer communities in Kenya are facing threat of eviction as the government takes over management of the country’s forests and water catchment areas.

Embobut forest is listed as one of the five most important water catchment areas in Kenya.

Since the 1970’s, Kenya’s government, through its Forest Service guards, has carried out a series of forceful evictions of the Sengwer in Embobut.

An Amnesty international report said that during evictions in 2017, forces burned more than 300 houses, injured hundreds and killed a Sengwer man.

Amnesty International’s director in Kenya, Irungu Houghton, walked with the Sengwer in Nairobi Monday.

“Their community is not considered by the economists to have economic value to this country nor are they considered to be politically very powerful. But they are Kenyans and they deserve their rights like other Kenyans. But in addition, they are indigenous people, which means they have a responsibility to the Earth that is very different from the rest of us. Their land is ancestral; they have for centuries been responsible for taking care of the forests in places like Embobut in Elgeyo Marakwet,” Irungu said.

Speaking to VOA, a senior Kenya Forest Service official said Embobut forest was “a government-gazetted forest and not an ancestral land. The official said the Sengwer were not a tribe but a “clan within another community that is not laying claim to the forest.”

The Embobut forest is not the only area witnessing disputes between indigenous people and the government.

In August, the government announced plans to evict thousands they considered “encroachers” in sections of Kenya’s Mau Forest, arguing that the move was to save the Mau ecosystem, which is threatened by heavy deforestation and encroachment.

In a report last month, Human Rights Watch asked the government to stop the “excessive use of force” during the Mau evictions and uphold proper guidelines in the ongoing process.

Kenya’s Ministry of Environment and Forestry set up a task force late last year to advise the government on how to resolve disputes regarding indigenous people’s claims to forest lands that are critical to Kenya’s conservation efforts. The task force is set to present its findings to the ministry this month.

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It was by Vladimir Putin’s swashbuckling standards all rather low-key. There was no riding horses bare-chested or allegedly saving a television crew by shooting a tranquilizer dart at a wild tiger which obligingly appeared from out of nowhere in the woods.

No stripping to the waist to wade deep in the waters of mountain rivers to catch fish. Nor was there was any flying on an ultralight alongside endangered Siberian white cranes supposedly nudging them on to their migration path.

The Russian leader’s hike Monday on the eve of his 67th birthday in the Siberian wilderness seemed more contemplative than trailblazing — a contrast with other presidential birthdays.

Accompanied by defense minister Sergei Shoigu, a 64-year-old Siberian native, as well as a state media crew, Putin is pictured picking mushrooms and sitting on an elevated spot overlooking the Yenisei River chatting.

“Super,” he says to Shoigu, “we are a bit higher than the clouds.” The video and photographs lapped up by the Russian media seemed almost elegiac in tone.

Is Putin preparing the country for change? Or was he and his aides using his 67th birthday as just another occasion to keep people guessing?

It isn’t the first time that Russia’s defense minister has vacationed with Putin in Siberia, but it comes just days after the normally reclusive defense chief gave his first extensive media interview in seven years, in which he lauded his role in reviving the Russian armed forces “as if by magic.”

For some, Shoigu, whose poll ratings are second only to Putin in terms of popularity, appeared to be auditioning — either to replace the country’s prime minister, the long-serving, some say long-suffering, Dmitry Medvedev, or even with the presidency in mind.

Others are taking the combination of interview and hike as a sign that Shoigu has already been earmarked to succeed Putin. Or is that what the Kremlin want people to think, while in fact no decision has yet been made?  

Anyone’s Guess

One Russian commentator, Alexander Pokrovsky of Tsagrad TV, wondered if in fact Shoigu in his interview was taking leave of the military in preparation for retirement, not promotion.

Since his election last year to his second consecutive term as Russia’s leader, the big political question in Russia has been whether Putin will change constitutional rules governing presidential term limits and remain in power after 2024, or whether instead he will step aside after orchestrating a managed leadership transition.

With the clock ticking, apprehension is building and with it a sense that Russia is being held hostage waiting for the big decision.

“Politics is all about perceptions, and whether the president and his political technologists like it or not, 2019 has been the year when people began seriously and openly talking about 2024,” according to Mark Galeotti, author of the book, “We Need To Talk About Putin.”

But, Galeotti acknowledges, in a series of articles for the Dutch website Raam op Rusland, that it is hard to tell what Putin’s intentions are given his style of governance is “by indirection, by hints and whispers.” The result, though, he says, is dysfunction because “no long-term political strategy can be elaborated” until Putin has decided whether he’ll stay or go.

No Hurry

A Kremlin insider told VOA he suspects Putin won’t make up his mind for some time. “Why does he need to? He has another two or three years to decide,” he said.

But that is adding to rising uncertainty and adding to the fears of various competing Kremlin clans, who want to position themselves to secure their futures.

Aside from Shoigu, a popular politician for his hands-on management style and high visibility during natural disasters when emergencies minister, others appear to be auditioning for a bigger role. Among them economic development minister Maxim Oreshkin.

A newer generation of princelings — the sons of plutocrats and Kremlin bosses — also appear to vying for larger roles. The Kremlin insider says the various divisions within the Kremlin are a lot more complex than appreciated by most Western observers, who tend to see a simple broad split between a security faction (the Siloviki) and modernizing technocrats.

The last time there was uncertainty in the years leading up to 2008 when Putin had to decide whether to re-write the constitution or trade temporarily places with his prime minister Medvedev, it triggered power struggles within the Kremlin as major players maneuvered to ensure their own safety or jockeyed for the chance to succeed Putin, if he decided to quit.

There were casualties then in the factional struggle for supremacy and survival — a struggle Putin seemed to encourage, inadvertently or otherwise, by delaying a decision on what to do, prompting those who reckoned they could succeed him, or who wanted to anoint a successor themselves, to start infighting and intriguing.

That in turn led to a clampdown by Putin. Is that what Putin is doing now, encouraging contenders to show themselves, only to cut them down to size? 

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Steve Herman contributed to this report.

Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives have issued subpoenas to the Pentagon and White House budget office as part of their impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump, requesting documents relating to Trump’s decision to withhold military aid to Ukraine.

Three Democratic committees Monday demanded Defense Secretary Mark Esper, and Office and Budget and Management Acting Director Russell Vought turn over the documents by Oct.15. Democrats are investigating Trump’s actions of pressing Ukraine to investigate his Democratic rival Joe Biden and his son, Hunter. Part of the investigation includes examining whether or not Trump’s decision to withhold military aid to Ukraine was tied to his request for a Ukrainian investigation into the Bidens.

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2nd Whistleblower Adds to Impeachment Peril at White House

Attorney Mark Zaid, who represents both whistleblowers, said the second person has spoken to the intelligence community’s internal watchdog and can corroborate information in the original whistleblower complaint

The development follows news on Sunday that a second U.S. intelligence whistleblower has come forward with a complaint about the actions of the Trump administration.

Attorney Mark Zaid, who represents both whistleblowers, confirmed the news to VOA.

The complaint filed by the first whistleblower is what sparked the impeachment investigation. The complaint alleges Trump used “the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 election,” and cited a phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to look into alleged corruption in Ukraine by the former vice president and his son.

Trump has strongly denied any wrongdoing. He has repeatedly termed the call with Zelenskiy as “perfect,” while attacking his critics as “traitors” and alleging a “coup” is in the works to remove him from office.

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Diplomat at Center of Trump Impeachment Inquiry Quits McCain Institute Directorship

Former US special envoy to Ukraine, Kurt Volker, testified before House committees last week

Also Sunday, Trump accused House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of being guilty of “High Crimes and Misdemeanors, and even Treason,” crimes that are the same level of offense as those the U.S. Constitution cites as the threshold for removing a president from office.

Trump’s tweet late Sunday also reiterated his criticism of Congressman Adam Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and the Democrat whom Pelosi has tasked with leading the impeachment inquiry.

Trump took offense to the way Schiff described a phone call between him and the leader of Ukraine. On Sunday, he said Pelosi knew of Schiff’s “lies and massive frauds.”

Schiff said at a committee hearing that the transcript of Trump’s call with the Ukrainian president reads like “a classic organized crime shakedown,” and that Schiff’s own version of the conversation was meant to be a parody.

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What’s the impeachment process?

A two-step process in the House and Senate required to remove the president from office

The impeachment inquiry is moving forward this week with the House Intelligence, Foreign Affairs and Oversight committees set to hear testimony from several important figures. On Tuesday, they are scheduled to hear from U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland. On Friday, Marie Yovanovitch, who was recalled from her post as the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, is scheduled to testify.

The House committees are also waiting for answers to their subpoenas for documents from the State Department, White House and Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani.

Trump reacted Sunday to news of a second whistleblower with a flurry of tweets, repeating unproven claims of corruption by the Bidens.

“The Biden family was PAID OFF, pure and simple. The fake news must stop making excuses for something that is totally inexcusable,” Trump said.

He has alleged that when Joe Biden was vice president, he threatened to hold up loan guarantees to Ukraine unless it fired a prosecutor investigating a gas company on which Hunter Biden had a seat.

Trump also accuses Hunter Biden of taking $1.5 billion from China “for no apparent reason” and has publicly called on China to investigate the Bidens.

“There is NO WAY these can be legitimate transactions? As lawyers & others have stated as President I have an OBLIGATION to look into possible or probable CORRUPTION,” he tweeted.

No evidence of corruption by the Bidens in Ukraine or China has been found.

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The U.N. high commissioner for refugees is calling for urgent action to resolve the global forced displacement crisis as increasing numbers of people flee conflict, natural disasters and grinding poverty. Filippo Grandi was speaking at the opening of UNHCR’s annual weeklong refugee conference.

Forced displacement has reached record highs. In recent years, nearly 71 million people have been uprooted from their homes. More than one-third are refugees; the rest are displaced within their own countries.

U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi says the issue of forced displacement is far more complex now than in 1951. That was when the United Nations adopted the Refugee Convention to protect and assist millions of refugees who survived the horrors of World War II.  

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India, Bangladesh Stress Safe Return of Rohingya Refugees

India also promises additional humanitarian aid for refugees living in Bangladesh camps

Grandi says refugee protection since has become more complex. He notes the world now is faced with what he calls mixed flows of refugees and migrants.

The commissioner also says putting economic migrants and asylum seekers into the same category is eroding protections for refugees, who are people fleeing from war, persecution and violence.  

In Mexico last week, he says he saw examples of refugee integration coupled with increasing migratory pressures from the region, but also from Africa.

“Saving lives and safeguarding the dignity and rights of all those on the move must remain central, together with access to international protection for those with valid claims,” Grandi said. “There and elsewhere, legal migration pathways would help prevent the abuse of asylum systems as substitutes of migration channels.”

Grandi says climate change is creating a new form of forcible displacement, an issue that did not exist when the Refugee Convention was conceived.

He says climate-related causes are a growing driver of new internal displacement.

“Climate is often also a pervasive factor in cross-border displacement…Forced displacement across borders can stem from the interaction between climate change and disasters with conflict and violence,” Grandi said. “Or, it can arise from natural or man-made disasters alone.  Either situation can trigger international protection needs.”

Grandi says he plans to convene the first Global Refugee Forum in just over two months. The aim of the forum, he says, is to address and seek to resolve forced displacement, one of the great global challenges of this century.

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The U.N. high commissioner for refugees is calling for urgent action to resolve the global forced displacement crisis as increasing numbers of people flee conflict, natural disasters and grinding poverty.

In recent years, nearly 71 million people have been uprooted from their homes. More than one-third are refugees; the rest are displaced within their own countries.

U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said the issue of forced displacement is far more complex now than in 1951, when the United Nations adopted the Refugee Convention to protect and assist millions of refugees who survived the horrors of World War II.  

Grandi, speaking at the UNHCR’s annual weeklong refugee conference, said the world now is faced with what he calls mixed flows of refugees and migrants.

The commissioner also said that putting economic migrants and asylum-seekers into the same category is eroding protections for refugees, who are people fleeing war, persecution and violence.  

In Mexico last week, he said he saw examples of refugee integration coupled with increasing migratory pressures from the region, but also from Africa.

“Saving lives and safeguarding the dignity and rights of all those on the move must remain central, together with access to international protection for those with valid claims,” Grandi said. “There and elsewhere, legal migration pathways would help prevent the abuse of asylum systems as substitutes of migration channels.”

Grandi says climate change is creating a new form of forcible displacement, an issue that did not exist when the Refugee Convention was conceived.

He said climate-related causes are a growing driver of new internal displacement.

“Climate is often also a pervasive factor in cross-border displacement…Forced displacement across borders can stem from the interaction between climate change and disasters with conflict and violence,” Grandi said. “Or, it can arise from natural or man-made disasters alone. Either situation can trigger international protection needs.”

Grandi plans to convene the first Global Refugee Forum in just over two months. The aim of the forum, he said, is to address and seek to resolve forced displacement, one of the great global challenges of this century.

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French and German attempts to end the conflict in east Ukraine risk increasing tensions that were already rising in the European Union over how to handle Russia and which could complicate peace efforts.

Progress at talks between Russian and Ukrainian envoys have raised hopes of convening the first international summit in three years on ending the fighting between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian government forces.

But some EU states, while welcoming a summit that would involve France, Germany, Ukraine and Russia, are worried by growing talk that the EU might partially lift sanctions imposed on Moscow since its seizure of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.

EU divisions over how to deal with Moscow have been growing over overtures to the Kremlin in recent months, led by Paris.

Comments by French President Emmanuel Macron have especially upset governments in EU countries that were once Soviet satellite states or constituent republics. Alarmed by what they see as an increasingly aggressive Russian foreign policy, they reject anything that might smack of appeasement.

“Are we to reward Russia because they have not done anything grotesque in the past few months?” one EU diplomat asked.

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Steinmeier Deal Sparks Protests in Ukraine, Praise in Moscow

Former US diplomats to the region are cautiously optimistic but concerned that Moscow and Kyiv may have different interpretations of the deal

In EU meetings, letters and speeches, divisions about Russia that were once under control are resurfacing, diplomats say.

The tension could make it harder for the EU to agree new sanctions if Russia intensifies what are often depicted by Western leaders as efforts by President Vladimir Putin to undermine Western institutions such as the 28-nation bloc.

The tension could also further divide the bloc – with a group of French-led, relatively Russia-friendly allies such as Italy on one side, and the Baltic states, Poland and Romania on the other. This in turn could weaken the resolve of Western-backed governments to stand up for Ukraine, diplomats said.

EU diplomats still expect leaders of the bloc to extend sanctions on Russia’s energy, financial and defense sectors for another six months at a regular summit in December.

But while Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel say there can be no sanctions relief until Russia implements a peace deal for Ukraine agreed in 2014-2015, both see sanctions as impeding better relations with Moscow.

MACRON’S “RESET”

The measures, imposed over the annexation of Crimea and Russian support for the separatists fighting in Ukraine, require all EU governments to agree. Any friction could allow just one country, possibly Moscow’s ally Hungary, to end them.

“The time has come for the German government to pressure the EU for a partial lifting of the sanctions,” German lawmaker Peter Ramsauer, whose centre-right Christian Social Union (CSU) is a member of Germany’s ruling coalition, told Reuters.

Baltic states, once part of the Soviet Union, fear a Russian trap to block Ukraine’s ambition to join NATO and the EU. The country of 42 million has borders both with Russia and countries in the EU and NATO.

With Germany open to France taking a more active role on Russia, Macron unexpectedly relaunched a bid for better Russian ties in July.

Sending his defense and foreign ministers to Moscow in September and ending a four-year freeze on such high-level diplomatic visits, Macron is seeking to bring Moscow back into the fold of leading industrialized nations.

Macron, who said in August that alienating Russia was “a profound strategic mistake”, wants Moscow’s help to solve the world’s most intractable crises, from Syria to North Korea.

“The geography, history and culture of Russia are fundamentally European,” Macron said on Tuesday in a speech to the Council of Europe, the continent’s main human rights forum, from which Russia was suspended after Crimea.

Russia’s readmission in July, for which France and Germany lobbied, was the first time that an international sanction imposed for Moscow’s seizure of Crimea has been reversed.

Charles Michel, Belgium’s prime minister, told EU diplomats last month that while Russia was a security threat, it “remains a neighbor too and we must deal with this reality.”

In a letter to EU diplomats last month, the EU’s ambassador to Moscow also called for a “pragmatic” approach to Russia.

REWARD OR REVENGE?

EU diplomats from eastern, Baltic and Nordic nations have said they are confused by Macron’s approach, questioning what has changed in Russia to merit a renaissance in relations.

The conflict in east Ukraine has killed over 13,000 people since April 2014 .

Russia and Ukraine swapped prisoners in September in what was seen as the first sign of an improvement in relations.

But Putin has ruled out returning Crimea, gifted to Ukraine in 1954 by then Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev.

NATO accuses Russia of trying to destabilise the West with new nuclear weapons, pulling out of arms control treaties, cyber attacks and covert action.

Last year, Western governments including France expelled an unprecedented number of Russian diplomats after a nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy in England that EU leaders blamed on Moscow.

The Kremlin rejected any involvement.

Michel Duclos, a former French envoy to Syria, said the risk for Macron was that, viewed from Moscow, France was “useful for disuniting the Western camp,” recalling what he said was a “classic feature” of East-West relations during the Cold War.

Macron’s offer to Putin is based on setting up a so-called structured dialogue focusing on five points: sharing expertise and intelligence; a mechanism to defuse EU-Russia tensions; arms control in Europe; European values; working together on international crises.

The European Union’s own five-point strategy to deal with Russia involves so-called selective engagement. Many EU diplomats say that is the best way forward, seeking Russian collaboration on issues such as climate change to rebuild trust.

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Britain’s Boris Johnson urged French President Emanuel Macron on Sunday to “push forward” to secure a Brexit deal and told him  the EU should not be lured into the mistaken belief that the U.K. would stay in the EU after Oct.31, the prime minister’s office said.

Johnson discussed his Brexit proposal, which has been widely rebuffed in Brussels, with Macron and Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa on Sunday.

“This is the chance to get a deal done: a deal that is backed by parliamentarians and a deal which involves compromise on all sides,” a senior Number 10 source said on Sunday.

“The U.K. has made a big, important offer but it’s time for the Commission to show a willingness to compromise too. If not the UK will leave with no deal.”

With the Oct. 31 deadline approaching, Johnson has consistently said he will not ask for another delay to Brexit, but also that he will not break a law that forces him to request one if no withdrawal deal has been agreed by Oct. 19. He has not explained the apparent contradiction in his comments.

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Rip Taylor, the madcap mustached comedian with a fondness for confetti-throwing who became a television game show mainstay in the 1970s, has died. He was 84.

Taylor died Sunday in Beverly Hills, California, publicist Harlan Boll said.

The man who would become known worldwide as Rip did not have a direct line into show business. He was born Charles Elmer Taylor Jr. in Washington, D.C., to a waitress and a musician and first worked as a congressional page before serving in the Army during the Korean War, where he started performing standup.

His ascent began with spots on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” where he was known as the “crying comedian.” The moniker pre-dated his television stints, however, and went back to his time in the Catskills.

“I sat on a stool telling jokes, and nobody was laughing,” he told UPI in 1992. “In desperation, I pretended to cry as I begged them to laugh. That killed ’em.”

It’s where he said the character “Rip” came from.

Although he readily admitted stealing jokes from USO shows, the crying comedian bit got him to Ed Sullivan, where the host — forgetting Taylor’s name — would say “get me the crying comedian.”

Success begat more success, and Taylor ended up on tour with Judy Garland and Eleanor Powell in Las Vegas in 1966.

In his over five decades in entertainment, Taylor would make over 2,000 guest star appearances on shows like “The Monkees,” “The Merv Griffin Show,” “The Tonight Show,” “Late Night with David Letterman,” “Hollywood Squares” and “The Gong Show.” He also hosted the beauty pageant spoof “The $1.98 Beauty Show.”

With his bushy blonde toupee, exaggerated eyebrows and walrus-like mustache, Taylor was a striking presence. He was apparently so proud of his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame that he’d regularly schedule trips to buff and clean the square at 6625 Hollywood Boulevard.

Taylor also did a fair share of voice work for animated films and television like “The Jetsons” and “The Addams Family,” as Uncle Fester, which earned him an Emmy nomination.

He played himself in movies like “Wayne’s World 2” and the “Jackass: movies, appeared on stage in “Anything Goes,” “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,” “Sugar Babies,” where he took over for Mickey Rooney, as Fagin in “Oliver!” and Captain Hook in “Peter Pan.” Taylor also wrote and performed an autobiographical one-man play called “It Ain’t All Confetti.”

Taylor reflected in that same 1992 interview that he always considered himself an actor.

“Rip is funny because he’s crazy. Every night on stage, he’s cornered and put-upon,” Taylor said. “That’s what I am bringing into play as a straight actor.”

He is survived by his longtime partner Robert Fortney. In lieu of flowers, they ask that donations be made to the Thalians, a charitable organization that Taylor supported that is dedicated to mental health issues.

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A witness in the murder trial of a white Dallas police officer who fatally shot her black neighbor has been killed in a shooting, the Dallas Morning News reported, citing authorities.

The newspaper reported that authorities said Joshua Brown, who lived in the same apartment complex as Amber Guyger and Botham Jean, was shot and killed Friday in Dallas. Guyger was still in her police uniform after a long shift when, according to her trial testimony, she mistook Jean’s apartment for her own one floor below and shot him after pushing open his unlocked door and thinking he was a burglar.

Brown, 28, testified in Guyger’s trial about the September 2018 night that Jean was killed, saying he was in a hallway on the fourth floor, where he and Jean lived. He said he heard what sounded like “two people meeting by surprise” and then two gunshots.

Brown, who became emotional at times and used his T-shirt and tissue to wipe his tears, said he had met Jean, a 26-year-old accountant from the Caribbean island nation of St. Lucia, for the first time earlier that day.

Guyger, 31, was fired from the department soon after the shooting. She was convicted Tuesday and sentenced the next day to 10 years in prison.

Friday night shooting

The newspaper did not cite authorities by name for confirmation of Brown’s death. A Dallas police spokesman Saturday would not confirm to The Associated Press that it was Brown who was shot Friday. He said the Dallas County Medical Examiner’s Office would determine the identification Sunday.

Police said in a news release that they responded to the shooting shortly after 10:30 p.m. Friday at an apartment complex that is not the one where Jean was killed. They said several witnesses flagged officers down when they arrived and directed them to an apartment parking lot where the man was lying on the ground with multiple gunshot wounds.

The man was taken to a hospital, where he died.

Witnesses told police they heard several gunshots and saw a silver four-door sedan speeding out of the parking lot, according to the police news release.

Attorney: We need answers

Lee Merritt, a lawyer for the Jean family, said in a tweet Saturday that he spoke with Brown’s mother and that she is “devastated.”

“We all are,” Merritt said. “Joshua Brown was a key witness in the murder of Botham Jean that helped put Amber Guyger away. We need answers.”

In a statement he included with the tweet, he said authorities have not identified a suspect or determined a motive.

“Brown deserves the same justice he sought to ensure the Jean family,” Merritt said in the statement.

Dallas County prosecutor Jason Hermus said Brown “bravely came forward to testify when others wouldn’t,” according to the newspaper.

“If we had more people like him, we would have a better world,” said Hermus, who was lead prosecutor in the case.

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Caviar, a food associated with luxury, is being produced for the first time in Madagascar. The product makes consumers in faraway France happy, and provides hundreds of jobs in this African country.  VOA’s Jim Randle has our story.
 

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Nearly 50,000 workers at General Motors are on strike, the largest labor action against the automaker in 50 years. It comes at a critical time in the industry as the economy slows and a major industry transition looms. VOA’s Steve Baragona has more.
 

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U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Saturday defended the Trump administration’s approach to Ukraine that is at the center of an impeachment inquiry. He rejected allegations it was at best inappropriate or at worst an illegal abuse of power for which Congress should remove President Donald Trump from office.

Pompeo maintained that the investigation the United States sought from Ukraine’s government involved possible interference from Ukraine in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. He did not speak to Trump’s stated desire for Ukraine to specifically investigate former Vice President Joe Biden’s and his son Hunter, which impeachment investigators are focused on since a whistleblower complaint surfaced last month.

Pompeo criticized the impeachment inquiry as “clearly political” and said the actions of the State Department were aimed solely at improving relations with the new government of Ukraine that took office this spring. He also said the work of a former special envoy to Ukraine, Kurt Volker, was based on the direction of the president to do just that.

Volker was interviewed by congressional investigators on Thursday and turned over text messages between himself and other officials. Those messages detailed their push to get Ukraine to agree to investigations into an energy company on whose board Hunter Biden sat, and 2016 election interference. In exchange, American officials dangled the offer of a meeting with Trump in Washington for Ukraine’s new president.

“The State Department was very focused, at the direction of the president, on creating space where we could ultimately deliver a good relationship with this government,” Pompeo said. “Ambassador Volker worked diligently to create that opportunity.”

Robert Mueller, the special counsel who investigated Russian interference in the 2016 election, has warned about the dangers of Moscow’s intrusions in the American political system.

Pompeo said the administration had an obligation to investigate alleged election interference and ask foreign governments for assistance if needed.

“The administration was incredibly focused on making sure that we worked with Ukraine in a way that was appropriate. It is not only appropriate, it is our duty if we think there was interference in the election of 2016,” he said. “I think everyone recognizes that governments have an obligation, indeed a duty, to ensure that elections happen with integrity, without interference.”

In Trump’s July telephone call with Ukraine’s president, Trump referred to a discredited conspiracy theory that tries to cast doubt on Russia’s role in the 2016 hacking of the Democratic National Committee and alleges that Ukraine had spread disinformation during the U.S. election.

Separately, on impeachment, Pompeo said the State Department had responded to a congressional subpoena for him to produce Ukraine-related documents. He did not say what that response was.

He had faced a Friday deadline to hand over the documents, but he suggested that he had not and would instead move to comply with the subpoena at his own pace.

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U.S. President Donald Trump has asked for a substantial cut in the National Security Council staff, Bloomberg reported late on Friday, citing five people familiar with the plans.

The step was described by some sources cited in the report as part of an effort from the White House to make its foreign policy arm leaner.

The request to do so was conveyed to officials in the agency by current White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney and National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien earlier this week, according to Bloomberg.

The reductions at the agency, in which currently 310 people work, will be carried out through attrition, Bloomberg reported.

The report did not mention the exact number by which Trump is looking to cut the agency’s staff.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside regular business hours.

The development comes as Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives are examining whether there are grounds to impeach Republican Trump based on a whistleblower’s account that said he asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in a July 25 phone call to help investigate Democratic political rival Joe Biden.

Lawmakers are investigating concerns that Trump’s actions have jeopardized national security and the integrity of U.S. elections.

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A global education fund is providing tens of thousands of Sahelian children in crisis with a quality education, bringing hope to boys and girls who have known nothing but violence and sorrow in their young lives. Education Cannot Wait, a funding mechanism set up at the World Humanitarian Summit in 2016, globally is helping more than 1.4 million children in emergencies go back to school.

More than 75 million children caught in conflict, natural disasters and other emergencies are being deprived of an education.  Children in the Sahel, a region just south of the Sahara Desert, are among the most vulnerable.  In Central Mali, armed conflict has forced the closure of more than 900 schools, depriving an estimated 280,000 children of an education.

The director of Education Cannot Wait, Yasmine Sherif, recently returned from a mission to Mali.  She describes the heart-wrenching condition of children she met in a camp for displaced people in the city of Mopti.  She told VOA of the psychological distress suffered by children forced to flee for their lives with nothing but the clothes on their backs.

“They have fled some horrifying violence in the North.  I spoke to several of them – young girls who saw their homes, their huts being burnt down, fleeing from villages where summary executions took place. They are very traumatized, very traumatized,” she said.

Despite their frightful experiences, Sherif said the children arrive with their dreams of a better life intact.  She said the young people have dreams of becoming doctors and lawyers and schoolteachers.  She said education can turn these dreams into reality.

She noted the crisis afflicting Mali permeates the Sahel region as a whole and is keeping 2.4 million children out of school.  She said the fund has made recent emergency investments of $6 million in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger to support education for 187,000 children.  She added there are plans to scale up this aid and extend it to other Sahelian countries.

While the education fund provides the money for projects, they are implemented by partners, such as the U.N. Children’s Fund and Save the Children. Sherif said impoverished, conflict-ridden governments welcome their support.

“What they are receiving through our investments right now, through our partners on the ground is rehabilitation of classrooms, learning spaces, latrines, distribution of learning materials, hygiene promotion, psycho-social support, teacher training and mobilization of community members to help create the protective environments,” Sherif said.  

Education Cannot Wait is supporting programs in 32 countries, including Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Syria and Ukraine. The agency is seeking to raise $1.8 billion by 2021 to reach 9 million children and youths living in crisis.  

Sherif says 60% of the money raised will be targeted toward girls’ education because girls always are the ones left farthest behind.

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The office of the U.N. high commissioner for human rights has harshly criticized Iraq’s deadly crackdown on people protesting against corruption, lack of jobs and basic services, including electricity and clean water.

At least 42 people reportedly have been killed in a series of demonstrations in Iraq this week. Hundreds have been injured and dozens detained. 

The U.N. human rights agency says it considers Iraq’s response to the peaceful demonstrations excessive and unjustified. It urges Iraqi authorities to talk with protestors, who it says have legitimate grievances that need to be heard.

Spontaneous demonstrations have been taking place across the country this past week. U.N. human rights spokeswoman, Marta Hurtado, said most of the protestors are young and unemployed. She said they are demanding the government provide them with jobs and basic services and respect their economic and social rights.

Hurtado said Iraqis have a right to express their grievances in a peaceful way and without interference.

“We are worried by reports that security forces have used live ammunition and rubber bullets in some areas and have also fired tear gas canisters directly at protesters,” Hurtado said. “We call on the Iraqi government to allow people to freely exercise their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. The use of force should be exceptional, and assemblies should ordinarily be managed without resort to force.”

She said international law prohibits the use of firearms, except as a last resort to protect against an imminent threat of death or serious injury. She said the peaceful demonstrations do not appear to meet that high bar.

The U.N. human rights office is calling for a prompt, independent and transparent investigation into the deadly actions of Iraqi security forces.

After several days of protests, Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Badul-Mahdi said he was willing to meet with demonstrators’ representatives to consider their demands. 

In a conciliatory speech Friday, he agreed the government needed to do more to combat corruption, and called protesters’ demands for jobs and comprehensive reforms “righteous.”

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VOA Connect Episode 90 –  Explore some old-time pastimes, from riding a steam locomotive, to watching a wingwalker take to the sky, and digging into the original Buffalo wings. Plus, see how one small town reinvented itself to become an artist’s paradise

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Want to know what esthetician Jana-Leigh Scheaffer does for fun?  Here’s a hint, it’s a predominantly male sport and it involves major stunts.  We promise you will enjoy watching her walk in the air, literally.  

Reporter: Philip Alexiou; Camera: Philip Alexiou, Martin Secrest; Adapted by: Jacquelyn De Phillips

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European cheese makers complained Thursday of being held “hostage” in a transatlantic trade battle that had nothing to do with them after the United States slapped 25% tariffs on the sector in retaliation for state aid to aerospace group Airbus.

The dismayed reaction came a day after the World Trade Organization gave Washington the green light to slap punitive tariffs on a range of European products, including spirits and cheese, in punishment for illegal EU aircraft subsidies.

“What is happening is absurd; we have to see if the American customers are willing to accept the price increase,” said Giuseppe Ambrosi, president of Italian dairy association Assolatte. Earlier, the consortium that oversees production of Parmesan said U.S. consumers could expect to pay $5 per kilo (2.2 lbs) more for the hard Italian cheese.

In the jargon of trade negotiations, cheese is what is sometimes referred to as an “offensive” product for the European Union — one it has a particular interest in selling and thus one that is particularly vulnerable to punitive tariffs.

While sales of dairy products account for less than 5% of EU agri-food exports to the U.S. market, the symbolic importance of European cheeses has made them a target for trade officials seeking to make a point while limiting the hurt to American consumers.

High-profile products like Parmesan or various kinds of blue-veined cheeses have been targeted periodically over the years in trade disputes between the United States and Europe.

‘Problem of accessibility’

The EU exports 133,000 tons of cheese to the United States every year, according to figures from the European Dairy Association (EDA). Most are what it called “‘typical’ European cheeses with unique characteristics” with particular importance for the regions where they are traditionally produced.

“It’s an enormous market for us. It’s our No.1 cheese market outside the EU,” said Benoit Rouyer, economist at French dairy industry body CNIEL. “Even for premium products, it creates a problem of accessibility. Our ambition is to reach the broadest possible population in the U.S., our cheeses are not intended for an elite.”

Most high-quality cheese can take several months to mature, meaning the immediate impact on producers may not be felt immediately and some may find new markets.

The U.S. Trade Representative’s office told the industry it will not offer a grace period for goods still in transit when the tariffs take effect Oct. 18, the Cheese Importers Association of America said.

For cheese ready for sale, exporters face a choice of imposing higher prices or accepting a cut themselves.

“But as 25% is not an insignificant amount, that will be hard to do,” said David Swales — head of Strategic Insight at the UK Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board.

No final product list

With a final list of what products will be hit not due until Oct. 18, the industry was still seeking details. But Parmesan and pecorino sheep’s cheese from Italy, English Cheddar and Stilton, as well as Emmentaler, Gruyere varieties are all likely to be affected.

Other well-known varieties, including French blue-veined Roquefort and two Dutch artisanal cheeses — Gouda Holland and Edam Holland — were not on the list issued by U.S. authorities.

However, the EDA said it was concerned by discrepancies in treatment offered to different member states and said the whole EU area should be treated as a single bloc in WTO terms.

In broader terms, it said the sector was being made to pay for a battle in which it was not involved.

“Agri-food products and hence the farming community is now regularly taken as hostage in trade disputes, this is a development that is unacceptable,” EDA General Secretary Alexander Anton said in a statement.
 

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Google pledged Thursday to help train a quarter of a million people for technology jobs, adding its name to a White House initiative designed to get private companies to expand training opportunities for Americans.

CEO Sundar Pichai announced the commitment during an appearance with White House senior adviser Ivanka Trump at El Centro community college in Dallas.

Ivanka Trump, President Donald Trump’s daughter, oversees the administration’s worker training efforts.

Google is also expanding a program it developed to prepare people for entry-level jobs in information technology support in less than six months — no college degree or prior experience required, Pichai said.

More than 85,000 students have enrolled in the course since its launch in January 2018.

Expanding the course and creating another pathway to the fast-growing, high-paying field of IT support is part of the tech giant’s decision to join more than 350 U.S. companies and add its name to the Trump administration’s Pledge to America’s Workers.

“Through this pledge, as Ivanka mentioned, we are committed to creating 250,000 new training opportunities for American workers over the next five years,” Pichai said at a roundtable discussion with school administrators and students who have completed the IT support program.
                   
“I cannot tell you how excited we are about this,” added Ivanka Trump. “IT is such a critical industry to this nation.”
                   
Last July, President Trump created the National Council for the American Worker and the American Workforce Policy Advisory Board — the latter made up of business, education and other leaders who have been asked to make recommendations to the council on a national workforce strategy.
                   
The president also called on U.S. businesses to commit to expanding education and skills-training programs by signing the pledge.
                   
To date, more than 350 companies have committed to train and retrain more than 14 million students and workers since Trump introduced the pledge in July 2018.

7 million job openings 
                   
The overall goal is to increase the number of skilled workers at a time when many businesses are struggling to find qualified help.
                   
More than 7 million job openings exist in the U.S., according to a September report from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.
                   
Google initially signed the pledge through the Internet Association, which lobbies on behalf of the industry. But the tech giant said it decided to strengthen its commitment after developing more programs, including its IT Support Professional Certificate.
                   
Google is expanding the online course to 100 community colleges — more than triple the current number — in 16 states by the end of 2020 through a $3.5 million grant to JFF, a nonprofit organization focused on jobs and education.
                   
The course was released in January 2018 to 30 community colleges in California, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Texas, Colorado and Wisconsin. Expansion will place the program in schools in Arizona, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, New Mexico, Virginia and West Virginia.
 

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Tanzania denied Thursday it was withholding information from the World Health Organization (WHO) on suspected cases of Ebola, saying it was not hiding any outbreak of the deadly disease in the country.

“Ebola is known as a fast-spreading disease, whose impact can be felt globally. This is not a disease that the Tanzanian government can hide,” Tanzania health minister Ummy Mwalimu told journalists in commercial capital Dar es Salaam.

“Reports suggesting that Tanzania has not been transparent about suspected cases of Ebola and is not sharing information with the WHO are false and should be ignored.”

Last month WHO said Tanzania had refused to provide detailed information on suspected Ebola cases.

Travel advisories

The organization said it was made aware Sept. 10 of the death of a patient in Dar es Salaam, and was unofficially told the next day the person had tested positive for Ebola.

This week the United States and Britain issued travel advisories to their citizens against Tanzania amid persisting Ebola concerns.

Days before WHO’s rebuke of Tanzanian authorities, the head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention traveled to the country at the direction of U.S. Health Secretary Alex Azar, who had also criticized the country for not sharing information.

Mwalimu said Tanzania has investigated 28 suspected cases of Ebola over the past year, including two cases in September, but they all tested negative.

She said they had shared that information with WHO.

“We are committed to implement international health regulations in a transparent manner,” Mwalimu said.

High alert for Ebola

Authorities in east and central Africa have been on high alert for possible spillovers of Ebola from the Democratic Republic of Congo, where a yearlong outbreak has killed more than 2,100 people.

Tanzania and DRC share a border that is separated by a lake.
 

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Scores of senior doctors in Zimbabwe’s public hospitals have threatened to strike starting Thursday, if the government fails to meet their demand for better salaries and working conditions.

They would join hundreds of their junior counterparts, who’ve been on strike since September 3 for the same reasons. Patients are being turned away from public health facilities amid the southern African country’s protracted economic crisis, given shortages of staffing, medical equipment and supplies.

“Appalling and disgraceful” conditions have left “no option but to openly declare our incapacitation,” the Senior Hospital Doctors Association said in a statement, setting a deadline of Thursday for President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s administration to respond.

According to the Zimbabwe Health Service Board, the government employs roughly 1,550 doctors and specialists in public hospitals serving the southern African country of 14 million.

Doctors have complained that their salaries — less than $200 a month for juniors — barely cover their living expenses.

Almost all of the 524 junior doctors are believed to be striking. About 200 more senior doctors, including specialists, would walk off the job.

Dr. Paulinus Sikosana, who chairs the Zimbabwe Health Service Board, urged the senior doctors to keep working for the sake of patients.

“While we try to negotiate, perhaps, we appeal to the doctors’ consciences … to look after the lives of patients, especially those who have no recourse in the private medical sector,” Sikosana told VOA when reached by phone Tuesday in Harare, the capital.

He added that the government allows its senior doctors to have private practices, through which they can earn extra money.

“We have given them permission to do private practice even during working hours,” Sikosana said. He noted that the senior doctors also can admit their private patients into public hospitals for operations.

Sikosana said the government recently began re-equipping some hospitals with the help of foreign donations from the United Arab Emirates and India.

The country’s poor economy has strained the government’s ability to provide much-needed foreign capital, Sikosana said.

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The sloth – a super slow tree dweller that spends most of its life hanging upside down – isn’t on an endangered species list.  But human activity hasn’t  been kind to the popular creature who lives in the tropical rain forests of Central and South America. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi tell us about a rehabilitation program that aims to get sloths back on their feet … and into treetops.

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Hawaii’s vibrant reefs are home to amazing populations of corals and fish, which are under growing stress and danger from a spike in  ocean temperatures.  A similar underwater heatwave damaged the reef four years ago. Now, researchers are using divers and satellites to study these corals and find ways to protect them. VOA’s Jim Randle has our story. 

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U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has acknowledged he was on the telephone call that triggered the impeachment investigation into President Donald Trump.

“I was on the phone call,” Pompeo confirmed Tuesday at a news conference in Rome, without offering details about what was said during the conversation between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

But during an interview last week on ABC News’ ‘This Week,’ Pompeo was vague about what he knew about the call, which eventually precipitated a whistleblower complaint expressing concern Trump was seeking foreign interference in the 2020 election by asking Ukraine to investigate Democratic candidate Joe Biden.

“So, you just gave me a report about a I.C. (intelligence community) whistleblower complaint, none of which I’ve seen,” Pompeo had said.

U.S. President Donald Trump insists he did nothing wrong in the phone call.  He has been criticizing the impeachment inquiry launched by House Democrats against him as a “coup,” while the heads of several House of Representatives committees accuse Pompeo of blocking their efforts to gather documents and interview witnesses.

The State Department’s inspector general is expected to meet Wednesday with staff from the House and Senate appropriations, oversight, foreign affairs and intelligence committees to discuss documents that lawmakers have requested as they probe the July phone call between Trump and Zelenskiy.

The House intelligence, oversight and foreign affairs committees had asked to hear testimony Wednesday from former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, but that session was postponed until next week.  Former U.S. envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker is expected to speak to the committees on Thursday.

Secretary Pompeo sent a letter Tuesday to House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel saying requests for State Department documents and depositions with current and former officials “can be understood only as an attempt to intimidate, bully, and treat improperly” the department’s staff.

He said the requests raise “significant legal and procedural concerns,” and dismissed warnings that not cooperating would amount to obstruction.

‘A fact witness’

Engel, along with Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings and Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, responded by pointing to reports that Pompeo was on Trump’s call with Zelenskiy, saying that means he has an “obvious conflict of interest” and “should not be making any decisions regarding witness testimony or document production in order to protect himself or the President.”

They wrote that if it is true Pompeo participated in the call, then he is “now a fact witness in the impeachment inquiry.”

Majority Democrats in the House are pursuing the impeachment inquiry to see whether they want to officially bring charges against Trump under their constitutional authority to seek to remove officials who engage in “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.”

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