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U.S. Vice President Mike Pence joins nearly 50 world leaders attending the World Holocaust Forum in Jerusalem Thursday to mark the 75th anniversary of the Allies’ liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp at the end of the Second World War. The gathering at Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial comes amid a rise in tensions with Iran and an increase in anti-Semitism in both Europe and the United States. Linda Gradstein reports from Jerusalem.
From: MeNeedIt
Security forces in Beirut’s capital fired water cannon and tear gas at angry protesters outside parliament Wednesday, where a new government was being formed.
The demonstrators rallied near the parliament building in the early hours to protest the new government. They hurled stones, firecrackers and sticks at police and tried to remove the newly erected barricades placed outside parliament, where Prime Minister Hassan Diab’s government had been installed just hours earlier.
Diab’s new government, which is scheduled to meet for the first time on Wednesday, ended an impasse triggered by the resignation of Prime Minister Saad Hariri last October.
Protesters have been calling for sweeping reforms and a government made up of independent technocrats that could deal with Lebanon’s crippling economic and financial crisis, the worst the country has faced in decades.
A liquidity crunch has led banks to restrict access to cash and the Lebanese pound to slump. Jobs have been lost and inflation has soared.
From: MeNeedIt
The United States urged China on Tuesday to join trilateral nuclear arms talks with Moscow, calling Beijing’s secrecy around growing stockpiles a “serious threat to strategic stability.”
U.S. President Donald Trump said last year he had discussed a new accord on limiting nuclear arms with Russian President Vladimir Putin and hoped to extend that to China in what would be a major deal between the globe’s top three atomic powers. But China has so far refused to take part.
“We think, given the fact that China’s nuclear stockpile is estimated to double over the next ten years, now is the time to have that trilateral discussion,” Robert Wood, U.S. disarmament ambassador, told reporters on the opening day of the U.N.-backed Conference on Disarmament in Geneva.
He said that Washington had discussed the potential trilateral talks in a security meeting with Russia last week and had reached an “understanding” about pursuing them. “We cannot afford to wait,” he added.
Asked how to go about pressuring Beijing to join, Wood said that he hoped Russia, and others, would help. “Hopefully over time and through the influence of others besides the United States, they (China) will come to the table. We think it’s imperative for global security that the Chinese do that.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said last week that Russia would take part in potential trilateral talks but that he “won’t force China to change” its current position.
China has previously said its weapons were the “lowest level” of its national security needs and not comparable to those of Russia and the United States.
The United Nations is seeking the total elimination of nuclear arms but talks have been deadlocked for more than 20 years.
Other talks between the five declared nuclear powers that have ratified the 1970 Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) – China, United States, Russia, France and the United Kingdom – are ongoing and a meeting is planned in London next month.
However, Wood said this was not the right framework for nuclear arms talks with Beijing.
In his speech, China’s disarmament Ambassador Li Song did not refer to its own nuclear stockpiles but called for cooperation among nuclear powers and made a thinly-veiled swipe at the Trump administration.
Li called for a commitment to multilateralism, “with no exceptions, least of all the big power which shoulders a special responsibility for international peace and security and who is not expected to play the role of a ‘spoiler’ to our collective efforts and to withdraw from treaties.”
From: MeNeedIt
On this edition of Healthy Living, we discuss alternative therapy – a set of products, practices, and theories not part of standard medical care but believed to have healing effects of medicine. First, to Zimbabwe for a look at how horses provide healing to children with disabilities and then to Nigeria where people are using creative arts to help with chronic illness. And, teenagers need more exercise according to the World Health Organization. Lastly, genetically sterilized mosquitoes could help fight Malaria. These topics and more on Healthy Living this week. S1, E24
From: MeNeedIt
Incendiary balloons Palestinians launched from the Gaza Strip recently were a signal to Israel to accelerate unofficial “understandings” meant to ease the crippling blockade on the Hamas-ruled territory, a senior official from the Islamic militant group said Tuesday.
The resumption of flammable balloons and other explosive devices flown across the border broke a month of calm that has largely prevailed since Hamas suspended its weekly protests along the Israeli-Gaza frontier.
The quiet is meant to bolster an informal truce between Israel and Hamas being negotiated by international mediators.
Speaking to journalists, Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya accused the Israelis of moving too slowly.
He said the balloons had been launched by disgruntled individuals, not Hamas. But he said his group was “satisfied” with the launches and is ready to send more “if the occupation doesn’t pick up the message.”
Israel and Egypt imposed a blockade on Gaza after Hamas, a militant group that seeks Israel’s destruction, seized control of the territory in 2007. The blockade, combined with Hamas mismanagement, has devastated the local economy.
After three wars and dozens of smaller skirmishes, the bitter enemies have been working through Qatari, Egyptian and U.N. mediators to reach a series of “understandings” that would ease the blockade in exchange for guarantees of quiet. Al-Hayya said Hamas expects Israel to allow in more medical supplies, unlimited trade between Gaza and the world, help create more jobs and extend Qatari payments for electricity and poor families.
The incendiary balloons have not caused any damage or injuries on the Israeli side. But last week, an Israeli military helicopter struck an alleged Hamas target in Gaza in response to the resumption of the launches.
The U.N.’s Mideast envoy, Nickolay Mladenov, called the renewed balloon launches “concerning and regrettable” in a briefing to the Security Council on Tuesday. “These actions are a risk to the civilian population,” he said.
For the past 20 months, Hamas organized weekly demonstrations along the fence, demanding an end to the blockade.
The protests often turned violent, including burning of tires, throwing of explosives and launching of hundreds of incendiary balloons that torched large swaths of Israeli farmland. Over 200 Palestinians, mostly unarmed, were killed by Israeli fire during the marches and hundreds of others were badly wounded. Israel, which drew international accusations of using excessive force, has said it is defending itself from attacks and attempts to breach the border.
Hovering around 50%, Gaza’s unemployment rate is one of the world’s highest and most of of its 2 million people rely on humanitarian assistance.
From: MeNeedIt
A Mexican human rights organization on Monday urged authorities to investigate the disappearance of an environmental activist dedicated to protecting the famed monarch butterfly, suggesting the case may be linked to illegal logging in the area.
Homero Gomez, who manages a butterfly sanctuary in the western Mexican state of Michoacan, disappeared Jan. 13, according to the Human Rights State Commission of Michoacan.
The organization has asked the attorney general’s office to determine if Gomez’s disappearance is linked to his role in defending Mexico’s forests, commission official Mayte Cardona told Reuters.
“He was probably hurting the (business) interests of people illegally logging in the area,” Cardona said.
Illegal logging and trafficking is rife in Michoacan, a state plagued by organized crime.
“The investigation is ongoing,” a source with the state prosecutor said.
Environmentalists say illegal logging hurts the habitat of the monarch butterfly, which migrates thousands of kilometers from Canada across the United States to reproduce in Mexico.
From: MeNeedIt
Asthma can usually be controlled with an inhaler, or, sometimes, with medication. When neither works, it might be that the patient doesn’t have asthma at all. VOA’s Carol Pearson reports that researchers have found another disease with the same symptoms as asthma actually starts in the stomach.
From: MeNeedIt
Las Vegas, Nevada is often called ‘Sin City.’ It’s known as a place where people behave in more self-indulgent or decadent ways, famously summed up in the saying, “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.” But some Afghan immigrants who lead quiet religious lives have a different view of this gambling mecca. VOA’s Samir Rassoly visited a few local Afghan businesses and filed this report from Las Vegas.
From: MeNeedIt
For the first time, most of the United States’ 2.1 million federal workers will be eligible to get twelve weeks of paid family leave following the birth or adoption of a child. The new benefit – under the annual National Defense Authorization Act – goes into effect on Oct. 1. Dozens of other countries around the world already offer paid family leave to civil workers. Now advocates are pressing for the law to extend to workers across the U.S. VOA Correspondent Mariama Diallo has more.
From: MeNeedIt
The influential speaker of Iran’s parliament said on Sunday that, if European powers “for any reason” take an “unfair” approach to the dispute mechanism in the 4-year-old nuclear deal that has been in the balance since a U.S. pullout in 2018, Tehran will “seriously reconsider” its cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
“What the three European countries did regarding Iran’s nuclear issue…is unfortunate,” the speaker, Ali Larijani, who is also a former chief nuclear negotiator for Tehran, was quoted as saying by state TV.
Germany, Britain, and France announced last week that they had triggered the dispute mechanism in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which exchanged curbs on Iran’s nuclear program for relief from international sanctions.
“We clearly announce that if Europe, for any reason, uses Article 37 of the nuclear agreement unfairly, then Iran will make a serious decision regarding cooperation with the agency,” Larijani said, according to the AFP news agency.
The European states — signatories of the JCPOA along with China, Russia, the European Union, and, formerly, the United States — said that, while the mechanism could lead to U.N. sanctions against Iran, they were not joining Washington’s yearlong “maximum pressure” campaign designed to change Tehran’s behavior.
Since the U.S. withdrawal from the deal, Iran has breached its main limitations, exceeding the stockpiles of heavy water and uranium allowed, the number and types of centrifuges it can operate to enrich uranium, and the purity of uranium.
From: MeNeedIt
Germany is bringing together the key players in Libya’s long-running civil war in a bid to curb foreign military meddling, solidify a cease-fire and help relaunch a political process to determine the North African nation’s future.
Chancellor Angela Merkel invited leaders from 12 countries as well as the United Nations, the European Union, the African Union and the Arab League to Sunday’s summit at the chancellery in Berlin. Germany’s months-long diplomatic drive seeks to bolster efforts to stop the fighting in Libya by U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and his envoy for Libya, Ghassan Salame.
Among those expected are Russian President Vladimir Putin, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Other countries invited are the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Algeria, China and the Republic of Congo.
Also invited are Libya’s two main rival leaders: Prime Minister Fayez Sarraj and Gen. Khalifa Hifter. Both will attend, according to German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas.
The chances of the summit producing any real progress are unclear, however. While getting the players to the table is an achievement, recent stepped-up outside support may have emboldened both sides not to compromise.
Since the 2011 ouster and killing of Libya’s longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi, the country has sunk further into chaos and turmoil. Libya is divided into rival administrations, each with the backing of different nations: the U.N.-recognized government based in Tripoli, headed by Sarraj, and one based in the country’s east, supported by Hifter’s forces.
Hifter’s forces have been on the offensive since April, laying siege to Tripoli in an effort to capture the capital and battling militias aligned with the government. Hifter’s forces are backed by Egypt, Russia and the United Arab Emirates, while the Tripoli government has turned to Turkey for troops and weapons.
A truce brokered earlier this month by Russia and Turkey marked the first break in fighting in months.
Germany’s priority is to try to get the outside players that have interests in the conflict on the same page, stem the flow of weapons to Libya and ensure that the cease-fire sticks — creating space for U.N.-led efforts to re-establish a political process in Libya.
“At the Libya conference, we must see above all that the arms embargo is once again complied with — it has been agreed in principle at U.N. level but unfortunately not kept to,” Merkel said.
Germany is also keen to prevent Libyan fighting from further destabilizing the region, potentially setting off new waves of migrants seeking safety in Europe across the Mediterranean Sea.
Maas traveled to Libya to meet Hifter on Thursday. He said the general pledged to respect the cease-fire, even though he had left Moscow days before without signing a draft document setting out details of the truce. Sarraj did sign the document.
On Friday, however, powerful tribal groups loyal to Hifter seized several large oil export terminals along Libya’s eastern coast as well as southern oil fields in another challenge to the Tripoli government, which collects revenue from oil production. The National Oil Corporation said the move threatens to throttle much of the country’s oil production.
U.N. envoy Salame earlier this month demanded an end to all foreign interference in Libya, saying that a military solution is impossible and governments and mercenaries helping rival forces are hindering a political solution.
Despite the arms embargo against Libya, he said, weapons are being sold and given to Libyans, and “probably thousands” of mercenaries have been sent into the country, creating a “bleak” situation for millions of civilians.
German officials have been careful to keep expectations of Sunday’s summit in check.
“The conference is important, but it is a beginning, the start of a process,” spokeswoman Ulrike Demmer said.
From: MeNeedIt