As a new Ebola outbreak rages in Congo, two of the first Ebola virus patients to be successfully treated in the United States during the deadliest recorded outbreak five years ago are reuniting with their doctors.
Dr. Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol were among the four Americans who were treated and recovered at Atlanta’s Emory University Hospital in 2014.
They plan to join Emory medical staff for a media briefing on Friday, the fifth anniversary of Brantly’s arrival. He was the first to come to Emory after being infected while working in Liberia.
A third former patient, Dr. Ian Crozier, had planned to join them but is back in Congo, helping to fight the current outbreak.
The outbreak in Congo is the second deadliest recorded and has already killed more than 1,800 people, nearly a third of them children.
The 2014-16 outbreak in West Africa killed more than 11,300 people.
A U.S.-trained Kenyan bomb disposal technician stood in a field showing colleagues from more than 20 countries how to collect evidence after the detonation of a roadside explosive.
Security experts who met in the Kenyan capital Nairobi this week say African nations must do more of such intelligence-sharing to counter weapons widely considered the greatest threat to their security forces: improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
Popularized by insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan, homemade bombs were deployed by militants in nine African countries last year and killed about 3,600 people, according to U.S. Defense Department figures.
Some groups now use the weapons in complex attacks targeting civilians, including in January when a suicide bomber and gunmen from Somalia-based al Shabaab stormed an office and hotel complex in Nairobi, killing 21 people.
African officials at this week’s meeting, organized by the U.S. military, acknowledged IEDs pose a major challenge to their forces, in part because the devices are constantly evolving as are the militant groups who use them.
“The enemy adapts faster than we react,” said a Western official at the conference who asked not to be identified.
‘Common enemy’
Training for Africa’s police and military forces has typically focused on ways to avoid and defuse IEDs.
Now governments are looking to the next step: attacking networks that deploy them. This requires new skills, including analyzing remnants of a bomb to glean information about who made it and how it works.
But acquiring that intelligence is only half the battle, U.S. military and FBI experts told the conference. Ensuring it is disseminated throughout national security agencies and shared with counterparts in other countries is the other half.
Groups such as al Shabaab and Nigeria-based Boko Haram launch attacks in multiple countries, they reminded the conference.
“Unless intelligence is being shared at the appropriate levels and in a timely way, we’ll never get ahead of the curve in dismantling these networks,” said Matt Bryden, director of Sahan Research, a Nairobi-based think tank.
The amount of cooperation between security agencies varies in Africa, said Michael Solis, who helps lead counter-IED programs at the U.S. Africa Command.
“It is still a very nascent concept to share information,” he added. “We had the same evolution in the U.S. … We went through it decades ago, and now we have an effective multi-agency security sector.”
Kenya, which is improving its bomb squad with training and support from the United States and other Western nations, is further ahead than most, U.S. experts said.
“It’s essential for the military and the police to work together, so that we can win the battle against the common enemy,” said Patrick Ogina, senior superintendent of the Kenyan police and deputy head of its bomb disposal unit.
Stephanie Frappart has been appointed as the referee for the European Super Cup between Liverpool and Chelsea, making her the first woman to officiate a major UEFA men’s showpiece event.
UEFA announced Frappart’s appointment on Friday, adding that the Frenchwoman will lead a team of predominantly female officials, with Manuela Nicolosi of France and Michelle O’Neal from the Republic of Ireland serving as assistant referees. The 35-year-old Frappart was also in charge at the Women’s World Cup Final between the United States and the Netherlands.
UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin says: “I have said on many occasions that the potential for women’s football has no limits.”
It is not the first time a female has refereed a men’s UEFA competition match. Switzerland’s Nicole Petignat officiated three UEFA Cup qualifying-round matches between 2004 and 2009.
The Super Cup is the traditional curtain raiser to the season, between the winners of the Champions League and Europa League. This year it will take place at the Besiktas Park in Istanbul on Aug. 14.
Frappart also became the first female referee to officiate a French league match in April. She has been promoted to the pool of French top-flight referees on a permanent basis for the upcoming season.
Ceferin adds: “I hope the skill and devotion that Stephanie has shown throughout her career to reach this level will provide inspiration to millions of girls and women around Europe and show them there should be no barriers in order to reach one’s dream.”
The Vatican’s diplomatic envoy to Nicaragua said Thursday he has received a letter from President Daniel Ortega’s government apparently saying talks with the opposition on resolving the country’s more than year-old political standoff are over.
Apostolic Nuncio Waldemar Somertag told The Associated Press that this week’s letter said the government’s position is that the dialogue “concluded with the definitive absence of the other side.”
Somertag declined to share the letter’s full contents, but said it was dated July 30 and addressed to the Vatican. He added that his understanding was a similar letter was sent to the Organization of American States. The nuncio and OAS representative Luis Rosadilla had served as witnesses and observers to the February-May negotiations.
Asked if he interpreted the letter from Foreign Minister Denis Moncada as a definitive end to dialogue, Somertag said: “Regrettably, I have that impression. … I would very much like to be wrong.”
There was no immediate comment from Ortega officials on the letter, which was also reported in Nicaraguan media.
The Central American nation’s crisis erupted in April 2018 with protests that grew to demand Ortega’s exit from office and early elections, with demonstrators accusing him of consolidating power and ruling in an authoritarian manner.
FILE – Protesters yell from behind the roadblock they erected as they face off with security forces near the University Politecnica de Nicaragua in Managua, Nicaragua, April 21, 2018.
Officials have said the protests were tantamount to an attempted coup and have repeatedly accused government opponents of “terrorism.”
Political prisoners
A crackdown on the demonstrations resulted in at least 325 dead, over 2,000 wounded, hundreds imprisoned and tens of thousands fleeing to exile, according to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
The opposition walked away from talks in May to pressure authorities to free about 700 people it considered political prisoners, the last of whom were released June 11.
Jose Pallais, a negotiator for the Civic Alliance opposition group, said the government is trying to project a position of strength when it has not lived up to commitments made at the earlier negotiations.
“The government has still not told the people why it rejects returning to dialogue,” Pallais said.
Opposition leaders say 120 people detained for political reasons remain behind bars; the government says those people were not covered under the original agreement and rejects the notion that it holds any political prisoners.
Calls for dialogue
The Civic Alliance has called for a restart of negotiations, and on Wednesday its delegates went to a business center where talks were held previously — but no government representatives showed up.
The private letter appears to have been a response to the Civic Alliance’s calls for new talks. Opposition leaders also want the government to restore civil liberties restricted in the wake of the protests, allow election reform and move up elections scheduled for 2021.
Ortega has ruled out leaving office before the end of this term. In a recent political appearance, he said his Sandinista movement was “ready to win” in 2021.
Somertag declined to say whether Pope Francis could intervene, but stressed that dialogue is the “only way” to resolve the stalemate.
“The Holy See backs a peaceful and negotiated resolution to whatever conflict,” Somertag said. “The messages of the Holy Father together with the daily actions of his representative in Nicaragua are clear that this kind of resolution is the only viable and necessary one to overcome the sociopolitical crisis in Nicaragua.”
Pallais said that now “the possibility for dialogue to be restored depends on efforts by the OAS and its strength against the government. There is no other possibility.”
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights said in a tweeted statement that it regretted the government’s position on not continuing talks “in a context of persistent violations” of human rights in Nicaragua.
It said that “persecution of opponents through detentions, threats and harassment” continue and civil liberties continue to be suspended. It also said impartial investigations are needed into the killings.
Facebook has removed hundreds of accounts linked to Saudi Arabia’s government as part of an effort to end what it described as “inauthentic behavior,” a Facebook security official said.
A press release says individuals affiliated with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia used Facebook and related social media platforms to publicize government objectives and spread propaganda under the guise of fake accounts.
The social media company says it removed 217 accounts, 144 pages, five groups and five Instagram accounts that were linked to the government of Saudi Arabia.
“Although the people behind this activity attempted to conceal their identities, our review found links to individuals associated with the government of Saudi Arabia,” Facebook Head of Cybersecurity Policy Nathaniel Gleicher said Thursday.
This is the first time Facebook has identified Saudi Arabia as being behind deceptive social media messages.
The U.S. company said online posts both promoted domestic policies and took aim at regional rivals and were often portrayed as local news outlets.
“Postings focused on, among other things, “Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, his economic and social reform plan, “Vision 2030,” and successes of the Saudi Armed Forces, particularly during the conflict in Yemen,” Gleicher wrote.
“They also frequently shared criticism of neighboring countries, including Iran, Qatar and Turkey, and called into question the credibility of the Al-Jazeera television channel and rights group Amnesty International,” he continued.
According to Facebook, approximately 1.4 million people followed at least one of the accounts linked to Saudi Arabia.
Facebook also took down 259 accounts, 102 Pages, five groups, four events and 17 Instagram accounts linked to two marketing firms: New Waves in Egypt & Newave in the UAE. The accounts were not related to Saudi Arabia-backed accounts, however they targeted the same countries.
American regulators and lawmakers have applied increased scrutiny on Facebook as intelligence officials say Russia used social media sites to meddle in U.S. elections.
“We’re constantly working to detect and stop this type of activity because we don’t want our services to be used to manipulate people,” said Gleicher. “We’re taking down these pages, groups and accounts based on their behavior, not the content they posted.”
Human Rights Watch has accused Kenya’s police force of carrying out extrajudicial killings of at least 21 young men and boys in the informal settlements of Nairobi over the past year. In a report published last week, the human rights group said it has documented the 21 murders but says there are many more. As Sarah Kimani reports from Nairobi, police have not responded to VOA requests for comment.
The U.S.-China trade war intensified Thursday after President Donald Trump said he would impose an additional 10 percent tariff on some Chinese products, one day after the two superpowers agreed to continue trade talks next month.
“Trade talks are continuing, and during the talks the U.S. will start, on September 1st, putting a small additional Tariff of 10% on the remaining 300 Billion Dollars of goods and products coming from China into our Country, Trump tweeted. “This does not include the 250 Billion Dollars already Tariffed at 25%.”
Trump also accused China of failing to purchase more U.S. agricultural products and halting the sale of opioid fentanyl to the U.S. “China agreed to … buy agricultural product from the U.S. in large quantities, but did not do so,” he said. “Additionally, my friend President Xi said that he would stop the sale of Fentanyl to the United States — this never happened, and many Americans continue to die.”
While the previous rounds of tariffs have primarily targeted industrial products, the new round of tariffs will target consumer products such as cell phones and apparel.
Trump’s latest salvo came one day after the latest round of trade talks between U.S. and Chinese negotiators ended in Shanghai with an agreement to meet again in September in the U.S.
The chairman of Pakistan’s Senate has survived a no-confidence vote that has opponents alleging political interference.
At the start of the proceedings Thursday in Islamabad, opposition lawmakers seeking Sadiq Sanjrani’s removal from office had 64 votes in their favor. In a secret ballot a short time later, however, only 50 senators voted to oust him — just short of the 53 needed. Five votes were rejected.
100 senators vote
Pakistan’s Senate comprises 103 members. Of that number, 100 voted. The opposition sought the vote to put pressure on the government. All legislation, except the budget, has to be passed by both houses of parliament. The chairman can play a major role in which legislation is put forward.
Leading English-language newspaper DAWN called the outcome a “shock victory.” Opposition leaders accused the government of “horse-trading,” using a term that means buying votes, or influence-peddling, in Pakistan.
Rejecting the allegations, Senator Faisal Javed of the Pakistan Justice Movement (the ruling PTI), described the outcome as an end to the dynastic politics of the two leading opposition parties — the Pakistan People’s Party, or PPP, and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, or PMLN. Both parties are led by relatives of their founding members.
“Senators … voted according to their conscience … sending a message that senators won’t behave like slaves any longer,” Javed said.
Senators defy own parties
Information Minister Firdous Ashiq Awan said the senators who voted against their own parties “rejected their leadership’s corruption.”
Shehbaz Sharif, leader of the opposition in the National Assembly, Pakistan’s lower house of parliament, blamed the outcome on money changing hands.
“Those who sold their souls and weakened democracy today, we have decided we will identify them and expose them,” he said in a joint press conference with multiple opposition parties.
Chairman of Pakistan Peoples Party, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari , center, joins hands with other opposition parties leaders during a protest in Karachi on July 25, 2019.
The chairman of the opposition PPP, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, echoed similar sentiments, criticizing the vote as an “open attack on a symbol of federation—the Senate. Zardari, the son of slain Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, pledged to identify the 14 senators who, in his words, “put a dagger in their party’s back.”
The opposition contends the five votes that were rejected were deliberately cast in a faulty manner.
Meanwhile, Hasil Bizenjo, the opposition candidate for Senate chairman, blamed his loss on Pakistan’s spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI.
“This is a game played by ISI. If today we have lost, we have lost because of ISI,” he said.
No comment from military
Pakistan’s military is often accused of interfering in politics, mostly through the ISI. VOA reached out to the military’s media wing but received no response.
Several members of the ruling PTI rejected the idea that anyone interfered in Thursday’s process.
A war of words continues between U.S. President Donald Trump and a powerful Democratic lawmaker investigating the Trump White House, Congressman Elijah Cummings of Maryland. The president has criticized the legislator’s Baltimore district in comments that many have denounced as racist. Today, like many urban centers, Baltimore struggles to deal with racial unrest, crime, economic inequality and high unemployment. VOA’s Carolyn Presutti visited Baltimore and has this report.
U.S. immigration officials have added a senior Venezuelan government official to their list of the 10 most wanted fugitives.
Tareck El Aissami is Venezuela’s former vice president and is currently its industry minister.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement posted a picture of El Aissami on its Twitter account Wednesday, captioned, “Have you seen this most wanted fugitive? He’s wanted for international narcotics trafficking.”
The photo comes with a warning to civilians against trying to arrest him or anyone else on the most wanted list.
The U.S. accuses El Aissami of overseeing or partially owning “narcotics shipments of more than 1,000 kilograms from Venezuela on multiple occasions, including those with the final destinations of Mexico and the United States.”
He is also accused of avoiding various U.S. sanctions imposed on Venezuela because of the country’s dire political situation.
The United States and about 50 other countries back opposition leader Juan Guaido’s efforts to drive President Nicolas Maduro from power.
Guaido accuses Maduro of stealing last year’s election for another term and helping drive Venezuela to economic ruin through corruption and failed socialist policies.
A U.S. delegation led by White House senior adviser Jared Kushner held talks Wednesday with Jordan’s King Abdullah II about ways to revive the Mideast peace process.
The Americans are seeking to finalize details of a proposed $50 billion economic development plan for the Palestinians, Jordan, Egypt and Lebanon. Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt and Brian Hook, the U.S. special representative for Iran and senior adviser to the U.S. secretary of state, are part of the delegation, which will also visit Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
In Amman, Abdullah reaffirmed his position that the establishment of a Palestinian state, with East Jerusalem as its capital, alongside Israel is the only way to resolve the long-simmering crisis, a statement from Jordan’s royal court said.
The king also said that any peace plan needed to be implemented in accordance with the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative, which called on Israel to pull back from all land it occupied in 1967 in exchange for normalized Israeli-Arab relations.
Presidential advisers Jared Kushner, center left, and Jason Greenblatt, third left, meet with Jordan’s King Abdullah II, center right, and his advisers, in Amman, Jordan, May 29, 2019.
Jordanian political analyst Osama al-Sharif said that while Jordan’s position is clear, it isn’t yet known what Kushner is offering on the political front.
“We only know the Jordanian position. We don’t know what Kushner has proposed with the king,” al-Sharif said. “Jordan’s position as reiterated by the king is very clear. It is the same position as the rest of the world — Russia, China, EU and Arab countries — in their latest Arab summit resolution. They reaffirmed their Arab Peace Initiative as the benchmark, as well as the U.N. resolutions. We know what the Jordanian position is all about.
“We don’t know the political component of what Kushner has to offer. We know bits and pieces from the unilateral decisions that [U.S. President Donald] Trump had taken from two years with regard to Jerusalem, attempts to defund UNRWA [the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East], the right of Palestinians return to Palestine. These unilateral positions have preempted the political component because they are final-status issues that need to be negotiated between the Palestinians and the Israelis. If these issues are no longer on the table … then what is there to be discussed?”
Arab observers have viewed the U.S. economic plan proposed by Kushner with suspicion, possibly signaling trouble for Jordan because it fails to address key issues, such as an independent Palestinian state, Israeli occupation and the Palestinians’ right to return to homes from which they fled or were expelled after Israel’s creation in 1948.
Jordan hosts millions of Palestinians who poured into the country in two waves, after Israel’s creation and following the 1967 Six-Day War, when Israel occupied the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza.
The largely desert country which has few resources and relies heavily on international donors, including $1 billion a year from Washington, is home to 9.5 million people, more than half of them of Palestinian origin.
Abdullah also has repeatedly ruled out a confederation with the Palestinians, or giving up custodianship of Jerusalem holy sites, calling them “red lines.”
FILE – Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi listens to Jordan’s King Abdullah II, left, during a group picture ahead of the Islamic Summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, June 1, 2019.
Al-Sharif said Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi will present Kushner with similar concerns when they meet in Cairo. Abdullah visited el-Sissi recently to make sure both Arab leaders are in agreement.
“The joint statement after the king met with Sissi in Cairo two days ago: Jordan and Egypt are on the same page with regard to the Palestinian issue,” al-Sarif said. “At least for the time being, Egypt has sent a couple of messages that it does not want to be involved in the Trump peace plan at this stage and reiterates the common Arab position that there has to be a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza with East Jerusalem as its capital. Kushner will meet with Sissi and we don’t know what kind of message will come out from the Egyptian side.”
Jordan and Egypt are the only two Arab countries that have signed a peace treaty with Israel. In Amman, recent protests have been staged against what has been dubbed Kushner’s “deal of the century.”
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson could see his working majority in parliament reduced to one when voters in a rural Welsh parliamentary seat go to the polls Thursday in his first electoral test as leader.
The pro-European Union Liberal Democrats are the bookmakers’ favorites to win the vote in Brecon and Radnorshire, triggered when Conservative lawmaker Chris Davies was ousted by a petition of constituents after being convicted of falsifying expenses.
Brecon is a region where sheep outnumber people many times over and where the prospect of steep EU tariffs being slapped on its Welsh lamb exports in a no-deal Brexit have prompted widespread concern among farmers.
Wafer-thin majority
Johnson’s government already relies on the support of a small Northern Irish party for its wafer-thin majority, with just a handful of rebels in his own Conservatives needed to lose key votes, as his predecessor Theresa May repeatedly found.
May stepped down after her Brexit deal with the EU was rejected three times by parliament.
Johnson has said he plans to renegotiate that deal but that Britain will leave the bloc Oct. 31 with or without an agreement, potentially setting himself up for a fight with parliament, which has pledged to try to block a no-deal exit.
The Liberal Democrats held the seat of Brecon from 1997 until 2015 when it was won by Davies. In the 2017 snap election he held the seat with a majority of just more than 8,000 votes and is running again for the Conservatives Thursday.
Splitting the pro-Brexit vote
Wales, and the Brecon area, voted to leave the EU at the 2016 Brexit referendum but the pro-Brexit vote is likely to be split between the Conservatives and the Brexit Party, which won the United Kingdom’s European Parliament election in May by riding a wave of anger over the failure to deliver Brexit.
In contrast, in a bid to boost the Liberal Democrats’ chances by concentrating the support of ‘Remain’ voters, other pro-EU parties including the Greens and Plaid Cymru are not standing in the election.
Liberal Democrat candidate Jane Dodds has also sought to focus her campaign on local issues.
“I believe we deserve better from our politicians and the Westminster government. I’ll be a strong voice for everyone who feels let down by those in power,” Dodds, who is also the Liberal Democrats’ leader in Wales, said on her website.
The Conservatives, who have seen their national poll ratings jump since Johnson took over in what has been dubbed a Boris bounce, will be hoping for a last-minute boost from their new leader, who visited the area Tuesday.
But the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) in Wales has warned Johnson of the potential consequences for lamb producers of leaving the EU without a deal.
“The prime minister must prioritize the protection of this core market through securing continued, unfettered access,” its president John Davies said. “The EU is our nearest and largest export market and any interruption to this trade will have catastrophic impacts for Welsh farming.”
The result is expected in the early hours of Friday morning.
