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From: MeNeedIt

In Leesburg, Virginia, near Washington DC, it’s well above freezing but that has not stopped scores of artists and carvers who come each year during the winter to turn ice into magic.  Maxim Moskalkov visited the city’s annual ice festival and talked to the sculptors about their evanescent masterpieces

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From: MeNeedIt

A travel ban on non-U.S. citizens who have been to China within the past 14 days is the latest reaction to the coronavirus outbreak as fear of the disease continues to spread. Another symptom of that fear is face masks worn in airports and in crowded places by some people in the U.S. VOA’s Elizabeth Lee reports from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, where more than 13% of the student population are foreign students from China. 

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From: MeNeedIt

Britain’s government announced Wednesday that it is considering a change in the way the BBC is funded that would hit the coffers of the nation’s public broadcaster.
    
Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative administration, which is increasingly at odds with the country’s news media, said it would hold a “public consultation” on whether to decriminalize non-payment of the annual levy that funds the BBC.
    
The BBC gets most of its money from the “license fee” paid by every television-owning household, which currently stands at 154.50 pounds ($202) a year. Failing to pay can result in a fine or, in rare cases, a prison sentence.
    
The government argues that “the broadcasting landscape has changed dramatically,” with the rise of Netflix and other streaming services, triggering a decline in traditional television viewing.
    
“As we move into an increasingly digital age, with more and more channels to watch and platforms to choose from, the time has come to think carefully about how we make sure the TV licence fee remains relevant in this changing media landscape,” Culture Secretary Nicky Morgan said. “Many people consider it wrong that you can be imprisoned for not paying for your TV licence and that its enforcement punishes the vulnerable.”
    
The government noted that “decriminalization of TV license fee evasion would have an impact on BBC funding.” It is not proposing any way to make up the gap.
    
The BBC said a government-commissioned review of its funding a few years ago had “found the current system to be the fairest and most effective.”
    
The BBC is Britain’s largest media organization, producing news, sports and entertainment across multiple TV, radio and digital outlets.
    
Its size and public funding annoy private-sector rivals, who argue the broadcaster has an unfair advantage.
    
The relationship between Britain’s government and the media has become increasingly frosty since Johnson became prime minister in July. His office has restricted access for journalists to government ministers and advisers.
    
Ministers have been barred from appearing on the BBC’s flagship morning radio program, “Today,” because of its alleged anti-Conservative bias.
    
Last week some media outlets, including The Associated Press, declined to broadcast a pre-recorded address to the nation by Johnson marking Britain’s departure from the European Union because the government refused to allow independent media outlets to film or photograph the statement.
    
On Monday, the government invited selected journalists to a briefing about trade negotiations with the EU, breaking with the tradition that briefings are open to all reporters covering Parliament. The invited journalists walked out after officials refused to admit their colleagues, and the briefing was canceled.

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From: MeNeedIt

A regional human rights organization said Tuesday that Venezuela has denied entry to a delegation that sought to review the human rights situation in the crisis-torn country.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights said the delegation would instead meet on the Colombian border with representatives of civic groups.

The delegation’s leader, Esperanza Arosemena, posted a picture and message on social media saying the group had been prevented from boarding a Copa Airlines flight to Venezuela in Panama.

She said they were informed by the airline that it “received instructions from the Venezuelan regime that we were not authorized to enter the country.”

The government of President Nicolas Maduro had previously indicated it would not authorize a visit by the commission, an autonomous body of the Organization of American States.

The OAS recognizes Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido as the country’s legitimate president.

Maduro withdrew his government’s diplomats from the organization last year, and its seat was taken over by a representative designated by Guaido.

In a statement, the rights commission said the delegation’s visit was organized at the invitation of Gustavo Tarre, Guaido’s representative.

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From: MeNeedIt

New Hampshire rarely takes its cues from Iowa. And this time, there aren’t clear cues anyway.

The Democratic presidential hopefuls descended on the small New England state on Tuesday, fresh off overnight flights, full of caffeine and without official results from Iowa. That didn’t stop many of them from offering some form of a victorious message — and raising the stakes on the importance of New Hampshire.

“Everything we know is extremely encouraging,” Pete Buttigieg said Tuesday after being endorsed by Jim Donchess, the mayor of Nashua. Bernie Sanders, whose campaign released its own caucus results with a claim of winning, wasn’t expected to greet voters in the state until the evening. Andrew Yang held a middle-of-the-night rally at the airport upon landing in the state, while Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar and Joe Biden planned mid-day events.

New Hampshire had largely taken a backseat to Iowa through January, but the state is poised to take on a more important role following Iowa’s delayed, chaotic results.

“New Hampshire becomes, I think, more important because we don’t know what Iowa’s going to come out with,” said Bill Shaheen, a Democratic National Committeeman from the state who is backing Biden.

The state’s Feb. 11 contest is a primary, which is far simpler than a caucus; the election is also run by state and local governments, not the political parties, like Iowa. A primary works like a general election, with people going into the voting booth and selecting one candidate. New Hampshire uses paper ballots, with some places counting them electronically.

“Even if those systems failed, New Hampshire would still have an election and would report results at the end of the night,” Deputy Secretary of State Dave Scanlan said Tuesday morning.

The state’s political class has long liked the characterize New Hampshire as more influential than Iowa, even as Iowa has had a better track record of picking the eventual nominee in recent Democratic contests. Not since 2004 have its independent-minded voters followed Iowa’s lead in an open Democratic presidential primary.

While voters have been courted by candidates for the past year, at house parties, town halls and rallies, about half said they still hadn’t decided who to support, according to a January CNN poll, making the final week before the primary a critical opportunity for candidates to close the deal.

“You all are extremely famous in this state for folks waiting until the last five days to finally make up their minds,” former Vice President Joe Biden told supporters in January at a campaign office in Manchester, the state’s largest city, at 110,000 people.

None of the top-tier candidates had characterized winning the state as a must, though the results of Iowa may change that. While there is a perception that because Sanders hails from neighboring Vermont, and Warren from Massachusetts, they need to do well in New Hampshire, key surrogates have softened the idea that victory is necessary.

“New Hampshire’s never been a state that determines who the nominee’s going to be. The question is doing well in New Hampshire,” Kathy Sullivan, a Democratic National Committee member from New Hampshire who has endorsed Warren, said last week.

Indeed, New Hampshire is known more for humbling the front-runner than for picking the winner, at least in recent Democratic elections. In 2008, the state backed Hillary Clinton over Barack Obama, setting up a lengthy nomination battle. Eight years later, New Hampshire voters bucked Clinton for Sanders.

“We want to make up our own minds, we’re somewhat contrary,” said John Lynch, a former Democratic governor with a centrist bent who is a Biden supporter.

Still, polling shows Sanders in the lead, with competitors like Biden and Warren trailing behind.

“It is Bernie’s to lose,” said Lou D’Allesandro, a longtime state senator who is backing Biden.

That’s despite Sanders having a late start in the state. Warren showered the state with more attention through the summer, though Sanders has dialed up his efforts since. The Sanders campaign says it has over 150 staffers in New Hampshire, which gives the senator the largest publicly announced staff in the state. Former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg has about 80 staffers, while the Biden campaign has more than 50, and the Warren campaign has more than 55, according to aides.

“We are confident, but we’re not taking anything for granted and we’re not slowing down,” Shannon Jackson, a longtime aide to Sanders who now works as his New Hampshire state director, said last week.

Most of the major candidates, except for Biden, ran television ads in January. New Hampshire has just one statewide television network, and many people in the southern part of the state rely on Boston stations for news. That, combined with Massachusetts voters moving into the state to take advantage of the low taxes and cheaper housing, means Warren is known to many voters in New Hampshire.

Rep. Annie Kuster, who is backing Buttigieg, cited voters independent nature — more people are registered without a party than Republicans or Democrats — and history of divided government at the state level as reasons why Buttigieg’s message and personal background can resonate.

“It’s a very fluid electorate,” she said. “They are very tuned in to the person.”

New Hampshire is richer, whiter and older than the rest of the country. But while unemployment is less than 3%, wages have stagnated over the past decade, rising far slower than nationally, according to a report from the University of New Hampshire’s Carsey School of Public Policy. The state is dealing with an aging population, particularly in the rural North Country, that will call for a ramp up in health care and personal care jobs in the coming years. Meanwhile, New Hampshire residents have some of the highest student debt in the country. All that combines to show why a candidate like Sanders could appeal to voters in the state in 2016.

But this time around, both Hawaii congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard and Yang are appealing to those same voters, and they spent far more time in New Hampshire than Sanders in January.

Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet, meanwhile, skipped Iowa entirely to focus on New Hampshire. He was holding his 47th town hall meeting on Monday night as Iowans went to the polls, and he said he’s hoping for a third place finish. That’s still a long shot, based on polls. Former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick has similarly emphasized New Hampshire, but doesn’t seem to be benefiting from leading a neighboring state.

Klobuchar won the endorsements of three New Hampshire newspapers, offering her a second look and added credibility in the race’s closing days.

Voters have frequently pressed on the candidates over the feasibility of Medicare for All and how the contenders intend to get their ambitious plans passed if their tenure begins with a Republican-controlled Senate. But they are quick to say that their main priority is defeating Trump.

“I have somebody I’d like to vote for, but I don’t think they can beat Trump,” 78-year-old Rita Kirk said after attending a Bennet event in January.

Joleen Little, an administrative assistant at Franklin Pierce University, said she’s an independent who is deciding between Biden, Buttigieg and Yang. As someone in “retirement age,” she cares about health care, as well as America’s place in the world. But her interest in Buttigieg and Yang reflected New Hampshire voters’ desire to see candidates up close and learn what makes them tick.

“The ambition they have,” she cited as reason for her interest. “And the comfort that’s in their voices.”

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From: MeNeedIt

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says Iran is ready to “return to its commitments” under the 2015 nuclear deal when other parties uphold their commitments.

Rouhani’s office issued a statement Monday after his talks in Tehran with the new European Union foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell.

Iran’s official news agency quotes Rouhani as saying that Iran will continue cooperating with international nuclear inspectors “unless we face a new situation.”

IRNA did not elaborate on what kind of situation Rouhani was talking about.

Iran has been backing away from the nuclear deal since U.S. President Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out in 2018 and imposed sanctions.

Britain, France, and Germany are working to keep the agreement alive.

Borrell’s trip to Tehran is part of what is called the dispute settlement mechanism under which Iran would enter negotiations to keep the deal alive and avoid taking matter to the U.N. Security Council, where the  agreement could end.

Under the 2015 deal also signed by China and Russia, Iran would curb its uranium enrichment in exchange for relief from sanctions that have wrecked its economy.

After the U.S. killed top Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani in January, Iran announced it is no longer bound by the limits on enrichment spelled out in the agreement.

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From: MeNeedIt

U.N. agencies say humanitarian conditions for millions of people in Mali are deteriorating, as armed groups and extremists wreak havoc and destroy the livelihoods of civilians.

The United Nations reports around 4.3 million Malians need humanitarian aid this year, including more than one million who are suffering serious food shortages.

Uta Kollies, the head of the U.N. office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Mali, calls their situation very disconcerting. She said people are unprotected. They live in a state of chronic insecurity and abuse, which paralyzes their ability to provide the most basic necessities for themselves and their families.

“People are unable to go to their fields because of the insecurity,” Kollies said. “Malnutrition is obviously coupled with the food insecurity and remains of high concern. We have a national prevalence of global acute malnutrition at about 9.4%, which is a serious situation according to WHO.”  

Mali has experienced chronic instability since jihadist groups briefly seized control of the north in 2012. The groups and criminal networks remain active in Mali and neighboring countries despite the presence of French and African counter-terrorism forces.

Kollies said the international community spends far more money on beefing up military intervention in Mali than on helping people suffering from hunger, lack of food, water, health, education and other basic relief.  

She said last year the U.N. received only half of its $324 million appeal. At the same time, she says the U.N. blue helmets, different national forces and the Malian army received a total of $3 billion.  

Although these forces are in Mali to protect the population, she tells VOA they have done little to bolster security in the country.

“I personally think that asymmetric terrorist attacks in the past historically have very seldom been won with a military intervention only,” Kollies said. “You have to have political solutions and you have to follow up at that level.”  

Kollies said she cannot recall any country where hundreds of thousands of soldiers being deployed has met with success in engaging in a war on terror.

What is needed, she said is a political solution and more financing for humanitarians who can help lift people up out of their despair.

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From: MeNeedIt

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued rules on Sunday to implement new restrictions on Americans who have recently visited China to address the threat of the coronavirus.

Airline officials said Sunday the new rules will mean they must now ask all U.S.-bound passengers if they have visited mainland China. Airlines are expected to scrutinize passports of travelers, and warned the new rules could require passengers to arrive even earlier for U.S.-bound flights.

American Airlines Inc said Sunday it encouraged U.S.-bound passengers “to arrive at the airport three hours early as we expect this additional screening will lengthen the normal check-in process.”

The United States said Friday that for flights departing after 5 p.m. EST Sunday, it will bar entry to nearly all foreign visitors who have been in China within the last two weeks.

The Trump administration is limiting flights from China and for Americans who have visited China within the last 14 days to eight major U.S. airports for enhanced screening: New York’s JFK, Chicago’s O’Hare, San Francisco, Seattle-Tacoma, Honolulu, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Dulles in Washington, DC.

Three more airports – Newark, Dallas/Fort Worth and Detroit – would be added on Monday, DHS announced on Sunday.

The new rules do not impact cargo-only flights, DHS said. American Airlines temporarily halted all flights to mainland China on Friday, while Delta Air Lines said Sunday its

last flight had departed China before it planned resumption of flights in May. United Airlines is scheduled to continue China flights through Wednesday before halting flights through March 27.

Many other nations are imposing similar restrictions.

Airlines must ensure foreign visitors arriving in the United States have not visited China within the last two weeks and Americans who traveled within the last 14 days to China are flying to one of the seven designated airports.

Airlines said they are working to ease the burden on gate agents by also including questions about China travel online and at check-in lobbies, and adding new signs.

A spokeswoman for a group representing U.S. airlines said Sunday “carriers will continue to comply with all government rules and regulations.”

DHS warned that “travelers without a nexus to China” may also be routed through one of the screening airports if it is discovered mid-flight that someone else on their flight has been in China in the last 14 days.

Americans who have been in Hubei, China province within 14 days of their return will be subject to up to 14 days of mandatory quarantine. U.S. citizens who have been in other areas of mainland China within the last 14 days “will undergo proactive entry health screening and up to 14 days of self-quarantine,” DHS said.

For Americans who recently traveled to China – but outside Hubei – if they show no symptoms after a screening “they will be re-booked to their destination and asked to ‘self-quarantine’ at their homes.”

DHS said Sunday none of restrictions impact flights or visitors from Hong Kong or Macau.

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From: MeNeedIt

Algeria’s president is proposing that Libya’s tribal groups hold meetings in a neighboring country to find new solutions to the conflict tearing oil-rich Libya apart.

Fighting among militias, arms and migrant trafficking and extremism in Libya are a big concern to neighboring Algeria and Tunisia, whose presidents met Sunday in Algiers. Both leaders were elected in recent months, and are eager to keep Libya’s lawlessness from further spilling over their borders.

Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune called for meetings in either the capital of Algeria or Tunisia “with all of Libya’s tribes, to begin a new era for building new institutions, allowing for the organization of general elections and establishment of new foundations of a democratic Libyan state.’’

Any such meetings should have U.N. backing, Tebboune said at a news conference after his talks with Tunisia’s Kais Saied.

Tebboune insisted that any solution to Libya’s conflict should come from Libyans themselves and “protected from foreign interference and weapons flows.’’

Libya is torn between a weak U.N.-recognized administration in the capital of Tripoli overseeing the country’s west, run by Prime Minister Fayez Sarraj, and the self-styled Libyan Arab Armed Forces led by Gen. Khalifa Hifter, based in eastern Libya.

Sarraj’s administration is backed by Turkey and to a lesser degree Qatar and Italy. Hifter’s forces have received support from the United Arab Emirates and Egypt as well as France and Russia.

International powers approved plans to restore peace to Libya two weeks ago, but the U.N. envoy for Libya accuses some signatories of stepping up weapons deliveries despite the truce efforts.

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From: MeNeedIt

As the Syrian government forces continue to advance on the Syrian province of Idlib, the last main rebel stronghold in the country, experts say the northwestern region may no longer serve as a shelter for the Islamic State (IS) fighters who have sought refuge there following their defeat elsewhere in the war-torn country.

Syrian troops, backed by Russia, for months have been trying to take control of parts of Idlib.  

Last week, Syrian regime forces recaptured the strategic town of Maaret al-Numan in Idlib, which had been under rebel control since 2012.

Idlib is home to nearly 3 million people, including many who have been displaced from other parts of Syria over the last eight years of war in the country.

Relocated IS fighters

A recent report published by the U.N. Security Council said the Syrian province remains dominated by extremist groups affiliated with al-Qaida and the Islamic State terror groups.

Idlib “also plays host to relocated ISIL fighters and dependents,” the U.N. report added, using another acronym for IS.

Following the military defeat of the terror group in eastern Syria in March 2019, many IS militants and their families moved to Idlib, fleeing from U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

Experts say that IS, also known as ISIS, would inevitably face the same fate as many rebel and Islamist factions based in Idlib.

“If the Syrian regime retakes Idlib province, the ISIS members who have taken refuge in the Islamist dominated enclave will be killed or flee into Turkey,” said Joshua Landis, director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma.

“The Alawite leadership of Syria regards ISIS as a lethal enemy because ISIS regards Alawites in the same category as Yazidis — unbelievers whose women can be taken as slaves and whose men should be killed or converted,” Landis told VOA.

Alawites are a sect of Islam that are largely based in Syria. They make up about 10% of the country’s population. Alawites are the backbone of the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who is an Alawite himself.

Mistrust

In addition to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the largest Islamist group in Idlib, which previously was al-Qaida’s branch in Syria, there are other extremist factions that are active in the northwestern province.

Huras al-Din is one of several al-Qaida-linked groups that have maintained a significant presence in parts of Idlib. Other Turkey-backed rebel groups also have a foothold in the province.

Western intelligence agencies believe that thousands of foreign fighters affiliated with different radical groups are active in Idlib.

Some experts believe that the ever-changing military dynamics in Idlib could determine the presence of IS militants in the Syrian province.   

IS “fighters that relocated to Idlib are in a precarious position because few local Syrian rebel groups trust them,” said Nicholas Heras, a Middle East expert at the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) in Washington. “The ISIS presence in Idlib is facilitated by the group’s access to large sums of money, which for all intents and purposes allows it to bribe local Syrian rebel groups to abide its presence,” he told VOA.

Heras added that many IS fighters who relocated to Idlib are also Syrian nationals from the western parts of the country who have family networks there that facilitate their presence.

Baghdadi’s death

In October 2019, U.S. Special Forces carried out an operation in Idlib that killed the leader of the group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

The former IS leader reportedly had been hiding in Idlib for months after moving between towns across eastern Syria as his so-called caliphate was crumbling.

The fact that “Baghdadi got to Idlib shows there was an active smuggling route from their former areas to Idlib,” said Seth Frantzman, director of the Middle East Center for Reporting and Analysis.

He said IS members who have fled to Idlib in the last two years have largely remained inactive there.

They were “part of the collapse of the ‘caliphate,’ sometimes seeking to find a way to get to Turkey or Idlib from Raqqa and then Baghuz as ISIS strongholds fell,” Frantzman told VOA. 

‘Not center of gravity’

Analyst Heras of ISW says at this point Idlib doesn’t hold any strategic importance for IS as the terror group seeks to reorganize itself following the death of Baghdadi and the appointment of its new leader, Abu Ibrahim al-Qurashi.

“Idlib is not ISIS’s center of gravity in Syria; that remains the Badiya [region] of the central desert region and in Deir al-Zour,” he said. “The future of ISIS will not be Idlib, which is slowly and surely falling to Assad, it is the eastern parts of Syria that border Iraq and where ISIS has the most robust local networks of support,” Heras noted, adding that IS “can sustain an insurgency for years in eastern Syria.”

Analyst Frantzman believes that any takeover of Idlib by Syrian government forces could breathe new life into IS in other parts of the country.

“If it weakens the HTS and other Syrian extremist groups, then it might make ISIS appear to be the sole extremist group still active in marginal areas,” he added.

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From: MeNeedIt

The World Food Program warns millions of people in Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso do not have enough to eat and are in desperate and immediate need of food aid.

A recent U.N. food assessment in the Central Sahel finds 3.3 million people are going hungry, a rise of nearly 1 million since last year.  World Food Program spokeswoman Elizabeth Byrs warns this alarming situation is expected to worsen without sustained humanitarian support.

“The number of food-insecure people is expected to double as the June lean season gets underway, pushing 4.8 million people into hunger, up from 2.4 million in 2019,” she said. 

Hunger is wreaking havoc on the nutritional status of people in these countries.  The U.N. Children’s fund reports more than 700,000 children under 5 suffer from life-threatening severe acute malnutrition.  

The United Nations reports nearly a million people in the region have been displaced by conflict, which is devastating agriculture and rural economies.  Many people are fleeing in search of food and grazing land for their cattle.  

Byrs tells VOA people are resorting to extreme measures to survive.

“They skip meals. They sell their asset,” she said. “In some conflict-affected areas, some people have a lot of difficulty to find something to eat.”  

WFP is working to scale up its humanitarian operation to assist 2 million people across the three Sahelian countries.  It is urgently appealing for $227 million to provide life-saving food aid over the next six months.  Money also will be used for education, nutrition, and health, and to shore up livelihoods.

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From: MeNeedIt