U.S. President Donald Trump ordered an airstrike earlier this month that killed the commander of Iran’s elite Quds Force, Qassem Soleimani. Trump said Soleimani was “plotting imminent and sinister attacks on American diplomats and military personnel.” It was a move that lawmakers criticized as putting the U.S. at the brink of war. But some U.S. veterans of the Iraq War and their families share a different view. VOA’s Elizabeth Lee has the details.
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Magnitude 6.8 Earthquake Hits Turkey
Turkey’s emergency management agency says an earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.8 has shaken the country’s east.
The earthquake struck Friday at 1755 GMT, 8:55 p.m. local time, near the town of Sivrice in eastern Elazig province, the Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency said.
Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said there were no reports deaths in Sivrice or other affected areas. However, 4-5 buildings collapsed in Sivrice, where two people were hurt, he said. Soylu was at a meeting on earthquake preparedness when the quake struck.
Defense Minister Hulusi Akar told reporters that there were no reports of any casualties in Sivrice but said the quake may have caused casualties in rural areas outside the town. He said troops were on standby to help is they are needed.
The Kandilli seismology center in Istanbul said the quake measured 6.5.
The U.S. Geological Survey gave the preliminary magnitude as 6.7, with the quake affecting not only Turkey but also Syria, Georgia and Armenia.
Turkish media said the earthquake sent people running outdoors for safety.
Dems Pick Whitmer, Escobar for Trump State of Union Response
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer will deliver the Democratic response to President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address on Feb. 4. Rep. Veronica Escobar of Texas will deliver the Spanish-language response.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer made the announcement Friday.
They praised Whitmer for her efforts to ensure clean drinking water is available in communities across Michigan, which was scarred by the 2014 water crisis in Flint. About 25,000 people have sued over the crisis, in which a change in the source of the city’s water resulted in lead contamination.
Whitmer, a former prosecutor who was sworn in as governor last year, defeated Republican state Attorney General Bill Schuette, a Trump ally. She had previously served as Democratic Leader in the Michigan state Senate and was the first woman to lead the Senate caucus.
Escobar, of El Paso, attended a protest rally in August ahead of Trump’s visit to the city after a mass shooting at a Walmart killed 22 people. Police said the gunman specifically targeted Mexicans. Escobar spent two decades in local government before coming to Washington. She’s the first Latina to represent her district.
Trump has said he intends to deliver the State of the Union as scheduled despite his ongoing Senate impeachment trial.
Celebration and Service
VOA Connect Episode 106 – Meet a creator of huge sculptures celebrating the natural world, visit a community medical clinic for people in need, and see how service dogs are helping people to whom much is already owed.
Trump Legal Team Mounts Aggressive Defense Against Impeachment
As House Democrats lay out their case against Donald Trump in the Senate, the White House is mounting an aggressive defense arguing that the president did not commit an impeachable offense and should not be removed from office. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has the story.
Money Worries May Have Outsized Mental Health Impact on Women, Latinos, Less-Educated Whites
Most U.S. adults report worrying about at least two financial issues, such as being able to afford medical bills, retirement or a child’s college education, new research finds.
Individuals with two or more financial worries were far more likely to suffer from serious psychological distress than those who reported fewer money concerns, Dr. Judith Weissman, a mental health researcher at the New York State Psychiatric Institute in New York City, and her colleagues found.
Financial distress had a relatively greater effect on mental health in women and Latinos, while less-educated whites reported the most psychological distress.
The findings show that “people are feeling very disturbed about financial matters,” Weissman told Reuters Health in a phone interview. “These financial matters are a proxy for our life stability.”
Death rates among middle-aged white men and women in the U.S. have been on the rise since about 1999, largely driven by increases in deaths from drug overdoses, alcohol poisoning, alcoholic liver disease and suicide, the study team notes in the Community Mental Health Journal. While unemployment and other objective economic measures have been linked to mental and physical health, the role of subjective measurements — how people feel about their financial situation — is not as clear, they write.
The researchers looked at serious psychological distress, which isn’t a diagnosis but a measurement of a person’s overall mental health and social functioning, in a sample of 24,126 U.S. adults who represented more than 245 million people nationwide.
Study participants, who were surveyed in 2016, also reported whether they were worried about paying their bills, paying costs due to serious medical events, paying costs due to unexpected medical events, paying for retirement, paying for children’s college, or being able to maintain their standard of living.
Tuition tops concerns
College tuition was the top worry, reported by about 56% of participants, followed by paying for retirement, by about 49%.
Fifty-nine percent reported at least two financial worries, while about 28% reported having no worries and 13% had just one financial concern.
Women were more likely to report each of the financial worries than men, and the worries were also more common among Hispanic people compared to other groups. More-educated individuals reported fewer financial worries, while people with multiple chronic illnesses reported more.
Weissman and her colleagues are now planning to investigate whether the financial worries they studied are associated with suicide risk.
People suffering from distress should understand that care and treatment is available, Weissman said. “A lot of times feeling depressed or feeling distressed shapes the way we perceive our options,” she said. “Persevere, depression is treatable, even suicidal ideation is treatable.”
Coronavirus Deaths Rise as Health Agencies Try to Curb Its Spread
As a new virus spreads inside and outside of China, health officials are scrambling to contain it, but the virus is so new, not much is known about it. VOA’s Carol Pearson tells us what we do know about the coronavirus.
Discredited Conversion Therapy Banned in Conservative Utah
The discredited practice of conversion therapy for LGBTQ children is now banned in Utah, making it the 19th state and one of the most conservative to prohibit it.
Supporters navigated a winding path to passage and some dissent remains, but barring it in Utah could give a boost to similar efforts in other right-leaning states, said Shannon Minter, legal director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights.
“It’s really given people a lot of hope,” said Minter, whose group has pushed for bans around the U.S. Virginia is considering a ban, and the issue could also come up in this year in Texas and Kentucky, he said.
The change in Utah comes after the state hammered out a regulatory rule that had the support of the influential Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Leaders had opposed a previous version because it didn’t have certain exceptions for clergy.
“This is no longer a partisan cause, we all agree on how important it is to protect children from suicide,” said Cliff Rosky, a law professor who sits on the advisory council for the group Equality Utah. He said he’s also been contacted by advocates in Iowa and Nebraska.
Republican Gov. Gary Herbert took the unusual step of calling on regulators after a proposed law was derailed by changes made by conservative lawmakers. State officials confirmed the rule became final late Tuesday.
“Ultimately, I’m grateful to live in a state like Utah where we say you matter to everyone,” said Nathan Dalley, a 20-year-old student who underwent so-called conversion therapy as a teenager and has said it culminated in a suicide attempt.
The original sponsor of the proposal, GOP Utah Rep. Craig Hall, applauded the rule going into effect, saying it prohibits dangerous practices while protecting healthcare professionals.
“It will simply save lives,” he said.
Conversion therapy is a practice used to try to change sexual orientation or gender identity. Many people who have been through it say it deepened feelings of depression and increased thoughts of suicide. The new rule bans licensed Utah therapists from subjecting LGBTQ minors to the practice that the American Psychological Association has said is not based in science and is harmful to mental health. The Utah Psychological Association also spoke in favor of the rule at a news conference on Thursday.
Still, the ban has drawn pushback in Utah. Opponents argued it would prevent parents from getting help for children with “unwanted” gay feelings and keep therapists from even talking about sexuality with their kids. The rule could become an issue during the 2020 legislative session.
Utah’s predominant faith, known widely as the Mormon church, opposes same-sex marriage and teaches that intimate same-sex relationships are a sin. But it also urges members to be kind and compassionate to LGBTQ people. The religion holds tremendous influence in Utah, where the majority of state lawmakers and nearly two-thirds of the state’s 3.1 million residents are members.
The faith got behind the conversion therapy ban after supporters included assurances that church leaders and members who are therapists would be allowed to provide spiritual counseling for parishioners or families.
Greek Islands Stage Protest Against Migrant Pressure
Residents of three Greek islands protested Wednesday against the overcrowding of refugee camps and demanded government action to ease migrant pressure. Most stores were closed and public services were halted on the islands of Lesbos, Chios, and Samos, where some refugee camps have more than 10 times the number of people they were built for. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports Greek protesters want a closure of the ports of entry as well as more equal distribution of migrants throughout the country.
US Journalist Arrested in Indonesia Over Alleged Visa Violation
An American journalist working for an environmental website has been arrested over an alleged visa violation in Indonesia that could send him to jail for years, his employer said Wednesday.
Philip Jacobson, 30, was initially detained last month after attending a hearing in Borneo involving the local parliament and the Indigenous Peoples Alliance of the Archipelago, Indonesia’s largest indigenous rights advocacy group, the website Mongabay said.
This week, Jacobson was formally arrested and told he faced up to five years in prison for visiting Indonesia with the wrong visa, it added.
He had traveled to the country on a business visa, according to Mongabay.
“We are supporting Philip in this ongoing case and making every effort to comply with Indonesia’s immigration authorities,” said Mongabay chief Rhett A. Butler.
“I am surprised that immigration officials have taken such punitive action against Philip for what is an administrative matter.”
Borneo officials disputed claims the arrest may have been linked to Jacobson’s involvement in sensitive stories about Indonesia’s myriad environmental and corruption woes.
“This is purely an immigration law enforcement matter,” immigration spokesman Muhammad Syukran told AFP.
“There’s no other issue — we don’t have a problem with his work.”
Jacobson had repeatedly entered and left Indonesia on a non-journalist visa, he added.
“While we of course urge all foreign journalists visiting Indonesia to ensure they follow immigration rules, if a journalist is simply attending meetings or happens to be present during a news event this should not be cause for punitive action or detention,” the Jakarta Foreign Correspondents Clubs said in a statement.
The U.S. embassy in Jakarta did not immediately comment.
Afghan Government Demands Full Cease-Fire, Taliban Commit to Reduction in Violence
After the Afghan Taliban announced they will observe a seven- to 10-day cease-fire with U.S troops and commit to reduction in violence against Afghan security forces, Afghan officials call the Taliban offer “ambiguous,” and push for a complete cease-fire as a way forward for peace talks.
Sediq Sediqqi, a spokesperson for Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, told reporters in Kabul that the Taliban’s commitment to anything short of a full cease-fire would not produce the desired outcome.
“If the Taliban do not agree to a cease-fire, which is the demand of the Afghan people, we cannot put an end to war in Afghanistan, and we would not achieve the desired results,” Sediqqi said.
He specifically took issue with the “reduction of violence” term used by the Taliban, charging the Afghan government has not changed its demand of a complete cease-fire, which is “the most important and fundamental demand of the people of Afghanistan.”
“Does it mean that not 10 but five people will lose their lives? Or it means that there won’t be 10 attacks but five daily?” Sediqqi said.
He said Presidents Donald Trump and Ghani are on the same page regarding a cease-fire, and the issue was broadly discussed during Trump’s visit to Afghanistan in November.
Abdul Subhan Misbah, deputy head of Afghanistan Lawyers Union, told VOA the term “reduction in violence” has no place in Afghanistan’s constitution, and it is rather a political term.
“According to the constitution of Afghanistan, violence or any other criminal activity is a crime, and whoever commits a crime must be prosecuted. And the reduction in violence is not a legal but a political term,” he said.
Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation, is in Qatar’s capital, Doha, holding direct talks with Taliban representatives aimed at reaching an agreement with the insurgent group to end the U.S. war in Afghanistan, which has claimed the lives of more than 2,400 U.S. service members and cost Washington nearly $1 trillion.
By the fall 2019, the U.S. and Taliban had held nine rounds of direct talks in Doha, with both sides appearing closer than at any time in the past 18 years to striking a deal that would have brought an end to the conflict in Afghanistan. President Trump, however, called off the talks in September after the Taliban claimed responsibility for an attack that killed a U.S. soldier in the country.
The deal at the time revolved around four key issues negotiated by both sides for almost a year, including a guarantee by the Taliban insurgents that foreign militants would not be allowed to use Afghanistan as a safe haven to launch terror attacks outside the country, the complete withdrawal of U.S. and NATO forces from Afghanistan, the beginning of an intra-Afghan dialogue, and a permanent cease-fire in the country.
Trump’s visit
Direct talks between the U.S. and the Taliban resumed following Trump’s surprise visit to Afghanistan in November, where, alongside Afghan President Ghani, Trump said the Taliban were ready for a “cease-fire.”
“The Taliban wants to make a deal and we’re meeting with them and we’re saying it has to be a cease-fire, and they didn’t want to do a cease-fire, and now they do want to do a cease-fire,” Trump said during a meeting with Ghani at Bagram Airfield, the largest U.S. military base in Afghanistan.
“I believe it probably will work out that way, and we’ll see what happens,” Trump added.
After the deal
Taliban sources with ties to the Taliban leadership told Reuters last week that the insurgent group would implement a 10-day cease-fire with the U.S., and reduce violence against the Afghan government once a deal is signed by both sides in Doha. This marked the first time the insurgent group said it would commit to a cease-fire.
“The U.S. wanted us to announce a cease-fire during the peace talks, which we had rejected. Our shura (council) has agreed to a cease-fire the day the peace accord is signed,” a senior Taliban commander told Reuters.
The commander added that following the agreement with the U.S., the militant group could meet with the Afghan government in Germany. The group has so far refused to talk to the Afghan government, calling it a U.S. puppet regime.
Concerns
Afghan officials fear a U.S.-Taliban peace deal may not bring peace to the country if the Afghan government is not driving the talks with the insurgent group.
“As long as there is no consensus on how to begin and proceed intra-Afghan talks, we cannot get into the second phase and reach peace,” Abdul Qayyum Sajjadi, a member of the Afghan Parliament, told VOA.
Abdulzaher Salangi, another member of the Afghan parliament, said more pressure is needed on the insurgent group.
“It is important that countries involved in the military and politics of Afghanistan, particularly the U.S., to cut the resources of Taliban,” Salangi told VOA.
The Afghan government, however, insists that it would enter the so-called intra-Afghan dialogue with the insurgents as the legitimate government elected by the Afghan people.
Political fighting
The news of a potential cease-fire with the Taliban and subsequent intra-Afghan dialogue comes amid an ongoing political struggle between Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, who both shared power in the contested presidential elections of 2014 and established the National Unity Government (NUG) following months of political crisis that took the country almost to the brink of a civil war.
The two rivals are again fighting over who won the country’s presidential elections held in September 2019 after being postponed several times amid security threats and lack of preparedness by the country’s election commission.
A preliminary result announced in December, after months of delay, declared Ghani the winner. His rival, Abdullah, claims fraud in the counting process. The final results have yet to be announced by the country’s election commission.
Why no cease-fire?
Some former Taliban officials charge the group cannot take the risk of announcing a complete cease-fire, as it would lead to divisions in its ranks. They said reorganizing fighters afterwards, in the event the talks do not achieve the desired objective, would become difficult as well.
“The desired goals gravitated within the resistance core against Americans would be eradicated by cease-fire, and the existing leverage would be eliminated,”Jalaluddin Shinwari, former deputy minister of justice during Taliban regime, told VOA.
Malawi Jalaluddin Haqqani, the regime’s former attorney general, echoed Shinwari’s concerns and charged that a cease-fire would disperse the Taliban fighters and undermine the political goals of the group.
“The desired goals that are there to stand and fight against American military would be lost,” Haqqani said.
VOA’s Haseeb Maudoodi from Kabul and Mehdi Jedinia from Washington contributed to this story. Some materials used in this story came from Reuters.
Lebanon Security Forces Fire Tear Gas, Water Canon at Protesters
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.