In an earlier time, boxes on wheels raced on American streets. Now, an energy drink company sponsors motorless, homemade car races around the world. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi takes us on this bumpy ride through Jordan.
Month: September 2019
Ugandan Women Turn Plastic Bags Into Backpacks
Faith Aweko of Uganda describes herself as a “waste-preneur.” She has come up with an innovative way to transform discarded plastic bags into backpacks for everyday use. Halima Athumani reports from the town of Mpigi.
Israeli President Asks Netanyahu to Try to Form Unity Government
Israel’s president has asked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to try to form a new government after last week’s deadlocked elections that have paralyzed the country.
The office of President Reuven Rivlin made the announcement after meeting Wednesday with Netanyahu and his primary challenger, Benny Gantz.
Rivlin has the responsibility of selecting the candidate he believes has the best chance of forming a coalition government after neither Netanyahu nor Gantz captured the required support of the parliamentary majority.
Rivlin mediated two previous meetings this week between the politicians, hoping to reach a deal between Netanyahu’s conservative Likud party and Gantz’s centrist and liberal Blue and White alliance.
The talks ended, though, because of disagreements over who should lead a new unity government.
Gantz has said he would not participate in a Netanyahu-led government because of the prime minister’s legal problems.
Netanyahu is desperate to remain as prime minister amid an ongoing corruption investigation against him. The country’s attorney general recommends charging Netanyahu fraud, bribery and breach of trust stemming from a number of scandals.
Netanyahu, who denies any wrongdoing, is scheduled to appear before the attorney general next week, after which a decision on the charges is expected.
Final election results announced Wednesday show the Blue and White won 33 seats in the 120-seat parliament, one more than the Likud’s 32 seats. Even with the support of other allies, both parties remain short of the required 61-seat majority.
Israeli law gives the president’s first choice to form a government six weeks to achieve the task. If he fails, the president can task another candidate. A second failure could enable a majority of parliament to nominate a third person as prime minister. Yet another failure would force Israel to hold its third election in less than a year.
Impeachment Push Complicates Trump’s Re-Election Prospects
The decision by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to launch an impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump has complicated what already was Trump’s uncertain road to re-election next year. Public opinion polls suggest Trump is in a weaker position for re-election than most other incumbent presidents have been, and he is counting on a strong economy and loyal supporters to overcome what is expected to be an intense turnout of motivated Democratic voters next year.
House Approves Bill to Aimed at Holding Myanmar Leaders Accountable for Atrocities
VOA Burmese Service contributed to this report
The U.S. House of Representatives has passed legislation aimed at advancing efforts to hold senior Myanmar leaders accountable for crimes committed against Rohingya and other ethnic minorities.
The BURMA act was approved on Tuesday and now goes to the Senate for consideration.
“Journalists, activists and anyone who is willing to use their voice to call out wrong doing must be protected. That is why Congresswoman Ann Wagner and I introduced the Burma Political Prisoners Assistance Act, Rep. Andy Levin (D) said. “This bill calls for the release of political prisoners and prisoners of conscience in Burma and directs our State Department to bolster its works to achieve this act.”
Amnesty International urged the Senate to act on the legislation.
“Over two years have passed since the world witnessed atrocities committed against Rohingya women, men, and children. Yet the U.S. Congress has so far failed to speak with a united voice on the issue. Further inaction by the U.S. sets a terrible precedent for other countries and risks emboldening the Myanmar military to continue committing crimes across the country,” Amnesty International USA’s Asia Pacific Advocacy Manger Francisco Bencosme said.
Last month, A U.N. fact-finding mission concluded that the Myanmar military intended to perpetrate genocide on ethnic Rohingya Muslims when it drove hundreds of thousands of them from the country in 2017.
More than 700,000 Rohingya fled Myanmar’s northern Rakhine state in August and September 2017, after attacks by Rohingya militants against state security forces led to military reprisals. They continue to seek shelter in a refugee camp in neighboring Bangladesh.
India Arrests Woman Who Accused Politician of Sexual Assault
A 23-year-old law student who accused a leader of India’s governing party of sexual assault was arrested Wednesday on charges of extortion, police said.
Naveen Arora, a police officer handling the case, said the woman is accused of demanding nearly $700,000 from the lawmaker, Chinmayanand, who uses one name, and “was arrested from her residence and will be produced before a court.”
In August, the student accused Chinmayanand, a Bharatiya Janata Party leader and president of the college where she studies, of sexual assault, harassment and intimidation. She first mentioned his alleged harassment in a video clip posted on social media last month.
His lawyer has denied the allegations.
Chinmayanand, who was was arrested on Sept. 20, has been shifted from a jail to a hospital in Lucknow, the capital of the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, where he is being treated for cardiac problems.
The 72-year-old is a former minister from Uttar Pradesh and had previously faced charges in a rape case filed in 2011. Those charges were withdrawn in 2017.
The law student had said earlier that the case of extortion against her had been slapped to weaken her case against Chinmayanand.
The Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, has a checkered history of its leaders being accused of sexual assault. In August, lawmaker Kuldeep Singh Sengar was sacked from the party after being accused of raping a 17-year-old girl in 2017.
In January 2018, two BJP lawmakers attended protest rallies held by Hindu organizations defending the accused in the rape and murder of an 8-year-old inside a Hindu temple. It was only after a national uproar that the BJP made the two ministers resign.
Police Block Ailing Zimbabwe Doctor From Leaving Country
A Zimbabwean doctor desperate to leave the country for medical treatment after his recent abduction has been blocked after police approached the High Court asserting he is “unfit to travel.”
The head of the Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association, Dr. Peter Magombeyi, was freed last week after disappearing for several days. His alleged abduction after leading a pay strike led to days of protests by health workers and expressions of concern by diplomats and rights groups, who said more than 50 government critics and activists in Zimbabwe have been abducted this year alone.
Police stopped Magombeyi from leaving for treatment in neighboring South Africa on Tuesday even after a judge ruled he could travel outside Zimbabwe as he is not under arrest. He has been recuperating in a local hospital, and lawyers have said preliminary medical assessments show possible physical harm and psychological trauma.
Magombeyi’s lawyers now say police are violating the court order, and they worry his condition will deteriorate as the drama plays out. The doctor must stay in Zimbabwe until the police application to the court is resolved.
Police dismissed accusations that they are preventing the doctor from traveling, saying they are providing him with protection “for his own personal safety.”
In the court application filed Tuesday night, police said Magombeyi should remain at the hospital until he is fit to travel, adding that they also want to sort out his security while in South Africa.
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, a non-governmental group helping the doctor, described the police assertions as “shocking.”
The government has bristled at the accusations of abductions, with President Emmerson Mnangagwa and other officials over the weekend warning against so-called “false” abductions they assert are meant to make the government look bad. Mnangagwa is attending the United Nations annual gathering of world leaders this week.
Zimbabwe’s health sector, like its economy, is in crisis. Many services are unavailable due to collapsed infrastructure, lack of medicines or unavailability of doctors and nurses who say they can no longer afford transport to return to work.
New Climate report: Oceans Rising Faster, Ice Melting More
Due to climate change, the world’s oceans are getting warmer, rising higher, losing oxygen and becoming more acidic at an ever-faster pace and melting even more ice and snow, a grim international science assessment concludes.
But that’s nothing compared to what Wednesday’s special United Nations-affiliated oceans and ice report says is coming if global warming doesn’t slow down: three feet of sea rise by the end of the century, many fewer fish, weakening ocean currents, even less snow and ice, stronger and wetter hurricanes and nastier El Nino weather systems.
“The oceans and the icy parts of the world are in big trouble and that means we’re all in big trouble too,” said one of the report’s lead authors, Michael Oppenheimer, professor of geosciences and international affairs at Princeton University. “The changes are accelerating.”
Protesters in Washington Disrupt Morning Commute to Press for Climate Action
These changes will not just hurt the 71% of the world covered by the oceans or the 10% covered in ice and snow, but it will harm people, plants, animals, food, societies, infrastructure and the global economy, according to the special report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
The oceans absorb more than 90% of the excess heat from carbon pollution in the air, as well as much of the carbon dioxide itself. The seas warm more slowly than the air but trap the heat longer with bigger side effects — and the report links these waters with Earth’s snow and ice, called the cryosphere, because their futures are interconnected.
“The world’s oceans and cryosphere have been taking the heat for climate change for decades. The consequences for nature and humanity are sweeping and severe,” said Ko Barrett, vice chair of the IPCC and a deputy assistant administrator for research at the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Climate Change Campaign Continues Despite Criticism
The report found:
—Seas are now rising at one-seventh of an inch (3.66 millimeters) a year, which is 2.5 times faster than the rate from 1900 to 1990.
—The world’s oceans have already lost 1% to 3% of the oxygen in their upper levels since 1970 and will lose more as warming continues.
—From 2006 to 2015, the ice melting from Greenland, Antarctica and the world’s mountain glaciers has accelerated and is now losing 720 billion tons (653 billion metric tons) of ice a year.
—Arctic June snow cover has shrunk more than half since 1967, down nearly 1 million square miles (2.5 million square kilometers).
—Arctic sea ice in September, the annual minimum, is down almost 13% per decade since 1979. This year’s low, reported Monday, tied for the second-lowest on record. If carbon pollution continues unabated, by the end of the century there will be a 10% to 35% chance each year that sea ice will disappear in the Arctic in September.
—Marine animals are likely to decrease 15%, and catches by fisheries in general are expected to decline 21% to 24% by the end of century because of climate change.
And for the first time, the international team of scientists is projecting that “some island nations are likely to become uninhabitable due to climate-related ocean and cryosphere change.”
“Climate change is already irreversible,” French climate scientist Valérie Masson-Delmotte, a report lead author, said in a Wednesday news conference in Monaco. “Due to the heat uptake in the ocean, we can’t go back. ”
UN Meets as Climate Change Action is Supported, Questioned
But many of the worst-case projections in the report can still be avoided depending on how the world handles the emissions of heat-trapping gases, the report’s authors said.
The IPCC increased its projected end-of-century sea level rise in the worst-case scenario by nearly four inches (10 centimeters) from its 2013 projections because of the increased recent melting of ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica.
The new report projects that, under the business-as-usual scenario for carbon emissions, seas by the end of the century will rise between two feet (61 centimeters) and 43 inches (110 centimeters) with a most likely amount of 33 inches (84 centimeters). This is slightly less than the traditional 1 meter (39 inches) that scientists often use.
“Sea level continues to rise at an increasing rate,” the report said. “Extreme sea level events that are historically rare (once per century in the recent past) are projected to occur frequently (at least once per year) at many locations by 2050.”
And sea level will rise two to three times as much over the centuries to come if warming continues, so the world is looking at a “future that certainly looks completely different than what we currently have,” said report co-author Hans-Otto Portner, a German climate scientist.
The Nobel Prize-winning IPCC requires nations meeting this week in Monaco to unanimously approve the report, and because of that the group’s reports tend to show less sea level rise and smaller harms than other scientific studies, outside experts said.
“Like many of the past reports, this one is conservative in the projections, especially in how much ice can be lost in Greenland and Antarctica,” said NASA oceanographer Josh Willis, who studies Greenland ice melt and wasn’t part of the report. “We’re not done revising our sea level rise projections and we won’t be for a while.”
Willis said people should be prepared for a rise in sea levels to be twice these IPCC projections.
The oceans have become slightly more acidic, but that will accelerate with warming. In the worst case scenario, the world is looking at a “95% increase in total acidity of the oceans,” said study co-author Nathan Bindoff of the University of Tasmania.
UN Plans Vast Urban Forests to Fight Climate Change
UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) says pace of urbanization in Africa and Asia contributing to climate change and planting trees could improve air quality, cut risk of floods and heatwaves and halt land degradation
Even if warming is limited to just another couple of tenths of a degree, the world’s warm water coral reefs will go extinct in some places and be dramatically different in others, the report said.
“We are already seeing the demise of the warm water coral reefs,” Portner said. “That is one of the strongest warning signals that we have available.”
The report gives projections based on different scenarios for emissions of heat-trapping carbon dioxide. One is a world that dramatically decreases carbon pollution — and the worst case is where little has been done. We are closer to the worst-case situation, scientists said.
Outside scientists praised the work but were disturbed by it.
“It is alarming to read such a thorough cataloging of all of the serious changes in the planet that we’re driving,” said Texas A&M University climate scientist Andrew Dessler, who wasn’t part of the report. “What’s particularly disturbing as a scientist is that virtually all of these changes were predicted years or decades ago.”
The report’s authors emphasized that it doesn’t doom Earth to this gloomy outlook.
“We indicate we have a choice. Whether we go into a grim future depends on the decisions that are being made,” Portner said. “We have a better future ahead of us once we make the right choice.”
“These far-reaching consequences can only be brought under control by acute emissions reductions,” Portner said.
‘Nightmare’ for Global Postal System if Trump Pulls Out, UN Body Says
A threat by Donald Trump to pull the United States out of the global postal system could lead to a “nightmare scenario” of mail going undelivered, packages piling up and American stamps no longer being recognized abroad, the U.N. postal agency said.
The Universal Postal Union (UPU) has been holding an emergency meeting in Geneva to persuade Washington not to follow through on a threat to quit the agency, which sets rules to ensure mail gets delivered around the globe.
The Trump administration says it wants to charge other countries more than UPU rules now permit to have letters and packages delivered in the United States. It has set a deadline of next month for rates to be raised or it will quit.
“It is really a nightmare scenario,” the UPU’s secretary-general, Bishar Hussein, told a news conference, noting that no country had ever left since the agency was founded nearly 150 years ago. It now has 192 members.
“If the United States leaves, you’ll get those piles, because somehow every country has to figure out how to send mail to the United States. … A major disruption is on the way if we don’t solve the problem today.”
Were the United States to quit the UPU, U.S. stamps would no longer be valid abroad, he said. He said he was “very optimistic” that a compromise could be reached.
‘Broken’ system
The UPU is one of the oldest international organizations, set up in 1874 to ensure that mail could be delivered anywhere on Earth. It establishes a system for calculating the fees, known as “terminal dues,” that countries collect from each other to deliver mail that arrives from abroad.
Washington says the fees are too low, which unfairly benefits exporters from countries such as China, who can send goods ordered online to U.S. customers while the U.S. Postal Service bears part of the cost of delivering them.
White House trade adviser Peter Navarro, who heads the U.S. delegation, called for fixing a system “that everyone in this room knows is broken.”
“The mission here today is to retool this system for the brave new world of e-commerce,” he told the three-day talks.
Navarro, speaking to journalists, said: “In an age of e-commerce, the United States is being forced to heavily subsidize small parcels coming into our country. Many are from China, but this is not strictly a China problem.”
He said the system meant the U.S. Postal Service was effectively spending $300 million to $500 million to subsidize the cost of delivering imports, including counterfeit goods and drugs mailed to the United States from China.
Other countries that receive more mail than they send, including Brazil, Canada, Norway and South Africa, were also being hit, he said. Countries should be allowed to set their own rates, which he said “might cause some very short-term disruptions” but was “the clearest, cleanest, fairest and quickest path to a reform that is long overdue.”
Massive disruptions?
Democrats Abroad, the arm of the Democratic Party for Americans overseas, has warned of chaos and urged members to lobby Congress against the proposal by the Republican administration to quit the body.
“If the withdrawal goes forward, postal mail service to the United States will be thrown into disarray and the USPS expects postal service to and from the States to be massively disrupted,” the group said in a statement.
Navarro said Washington could quit without problems.
“We have prepared for a seamless transition. There will be absolutely no disruption in military mail, election mail, or holiday mail,” he said.
UN Head Urges a ‘Decade of Action’ to Address World Crises
Sweeping goals to end poverty, inequality and other global ills are being derailed by climate change, conflicts and violence, the head of the United Nations told world leaders in New York on Tuesday, calling for a “decade of action.”
Sustainable development needs more financing, investment in health and education, and broader access to technology to succeed, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said at the first high-level review of the global goals adopted in 2015.
Launched with great fanfare and optimism, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) agreed by the 193 U.N. member states set out an ambitious “to-do” list tackling conflict, hunger, land degradation, gender inequality and climate change by 2030.
But assessments of their progress have been bleak.
“Let us be clear: we are far from where we need to be. We are off track,” Guterres said. “Deadly conflicts, the climate crisis, gender-based violence and persistent inequalities are undermining efforts to achieve the goals.
“Uneven growth, rising debt levels, heightened global trade tensions are creating new obstacles to implementation.
Another assessment came on Tuesday from global business leaders who complained of being hampered by political uncertainty and market constraints in their efforts to contribute to the goals’ progress.
Four in 10 chief executives said political uncertainty was slowing or stalling their efforts, and a third said closing global markets and limits on free trade were hindrances, according to a study by the U.N. Global Compact, a network of businesses, and consulting company Accenture Strategy.
“The way in which markets are working at the moment, political uncertainty is a real concern,” said Peter Lacy, an Accenture senior managing director. “Global trade looks ever more threatened. Populism is rearing its head again.
“Unequivocally we know that the global goals are not on course to deliver the ambitious targets set.”
Some progress is being made in areas such as access to energy, to decent work, and in fighting extreme poverty and child mortality, Guterres said in his remarks.
But he said youth unemployment has not improved and global hunger and gender inequality are on the rise.
“Indeed, half the wealth around the world is held by people who could fit around a conference table,” he said.
With just 10 years to go until the goals’ deadline, he made a call for a “decade of action”, with an annual meeting beginning on the goals beginning next September.
“We need to focus on solutions that will make greatest impact,” he said.
The cost of implementing the global goals has been estimated at $3 trillion a year.
House, Senate Leaders React Along Party Lines to Impeachment Inquiry
House and Senate leaders are reacting along party lines to Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s announcement of a Trump impeachment inquiry.
Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is accusing Democrats of having a “predetermined conclusion” about Trump’s guilt, calling Tuesday’s developments part of an “impeachment parade in search of a rationale.”
“It simply confirms that House Democrats’ priority is not making life better for the American people, but their nearly three-year-old fixation on impeachment.”
McConnell’s statement came just after he was part of the Senate’s unanimous consent agreement that the whistleblower’s complaint be immediately handed over to the House and Senate Intelligence Committees.
McConnell’s House counterpart, Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, says Democrats are still bitter about losing the 2016 presidential election and have wanted to impeach Trump from “day one.”
But the Democratic chairman of the House Oversight Committee, Elijah Cummings, reminded Republicans that history will show they ignored their duty to the Constitution if they “close their eyes and put party over country.”
He called Trump’s alleged appeal to another government to interfere in a U.S. election “an affront to the Constitution and a grave breach of his oath of office.”
Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren has been calling for Trump’s impeachment for months because of his alleged obstruction of justice in the Russian election probe.
She tweeted that the “impeachment inquiry must move forward with the efficiency and seriousness the crisis demands.”
U.S. markets closed down Tuesday over the impeachment uncertainty before Pelosi spoke.
But experts say many investors do not expect the Republican-led Senate to ultimately convict Trump in any impeachment trial. The experts also do not think the House inquiry will have a big impact on stocks.
Volkswagen Bosses Charged in Germany Over Emissions Scandal
German prosecutors dealt a blow to Volkswagen’s efforts to put the 2015 emissions-cheating case behind it, charging the automaker’s chief executive, chairman and former CEO with stock manipulation for not telling investors at the time that the scandal was about to break.
The charges announced Tuesday could pose a major distraction for CEO Herbert Diess as he pushes ahead with the company’s shift toward zero-emissions vehicles and a new, more environmentally friendly image.
Diess, Chairman Hans Dieter Poetsch and former CEO Martin Winterkorn were accused of deliberately informing markets too late about the huge costs to VW that would result from the scandal, which erupted when regulators discovered that millions of diesel cars had been fitted with software designed to thwart pollution tests.
Winterkorn was previously charged in the scandal itself. Poetsch and Diess had not faced charges until now.
Volkswagen called the new allegations “groundless” and threw its support behind Poetsch and Diess. But the case could require Diess to spend time on his defense at a crucial time for the company.
Just days ago, Diess stood on stage at the Frankfurt Motor Show with the company’s new battery-powered vehicle, the ID.3, and showed off a new version of the VW logo to underscore the automaker’s transformation.
The new car is aimed at bringing zero-emissions driving to the masses. The vehicle is supposed to be carbon-dioxide neutral throughout its production chain.
Tido Park, a lawyer for Diess, told German news agency dpa that the indictment won’t prevent Diess from performing his duties as CEO.
It is not unprecedented for a German CEO to continue while fending off charges. Deutsche Bank’s Josef Ackermann had to spend two days a week in 2004 defending himself against breach-of-trust charges in connection with his duties as a board member at mobile phone company Mannesmann. He was acquitted.
Prosecutors said Winterkorn knew of the impending scandal and the potential financial damage since at least May 2015, Poetsch since late June of that year, and Diess since late July, less than a month after he became head of the company’s VW brand.
The scandal broke when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency went public with it in mid-September 2015. That led to a drop in the automaker’s stock.
The charges could bring up to five years in prison, authorities said.
Winterkorn resigned shortly after the scandal erupted. Poetsch was chief financial officer at the time and became chairman in late 2015. Winterkorn was succeeded as CEO by Matthias Mueller, who was then replaced by Diess in April 2018.
Volkswagen’s board said that based on expert legal advice, it had anticipated a negotiated settlement with the EPA and did not expect the agency to announce a violation. VW said that before the EPA announcement, “management had no concrete evidence that would have made immediate notification of the capital markets necessary.”
As a result, the board said, “the successful work with the chairman and the CEO should be continued.”
Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer, director of the Center for Automotive Research at the University of Duisburg-Essen, said the charges could be more of a concern for Poetsch, since he was finance chief, while Diess was “only indirectly involved.”
Volkswagen stock fell 1.9 percent after the news.
Illegal software
Volkswagen admitted installing software that turned on pollution controls when vehicles were being tested and switched them off during everyday driving. That made it look as if the cars met tough U.S. limits on pollutants known as nitrogen oxides.
In all, some 11 million cars worldwide were equipped with the illegal software.
The scandal has cost Volkswagen more than 30 billion euros ($33 billion) in fines, recall costs and civil settlements. The automaker apologized and pleaded guilty in the U.S., where two executives were sentenced to prison and six others, including Winterkorn, were charged, though they could not be extradited.
Separately, German prosecutors in April charged Winterkorn and four others with fraud in the emissions scandal. Prosecutors alleged that Winterkorn knew about the software since at least May 2015. Legal proceedings are still going on.
Trump Authorizes Release of Transcript of Call with Ukraine’s Leader
VOA Ukrainian service reporter Myroslava Gongadze contributed to this report
Democratic lawmakers are considering formally launching an impeachment investigation into President Donald Trump Tuesday, following news reports that he froze Congressionally-approved funding for Ukraine while pushing the country to investigate one of his political rivals.
Facing mounting pressure, the president pledged Wednesday to release the “complete, fully declassified and unredacted” transcript of his phone call with Ukraine’s leader that is at the center of a debate between Congress and the White House over a whistleblower complaint.
News reports had said Trump pressured Ukraine’s president to investigate leading Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, who served for years on the board of a Ukrainian gas company.
“You will see it was a very friendly and totally appropriate call. No pressure and, unlike (former Vice President) Joe Biden and his son, NO quid pro quo! This is nothing more than a continuation of the Greatest and most Destructive Witch Hunt of all time!,” Trump said on Twitter Tuesday.
VOA’s Ukrainian Service spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky before his meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday at the United Nations General Assembly where he said, “We want the U.S. to always support Ukraine.”#UNGAhttps://t.co/aYiYjxY1H0pic.twitter.com/pLs6S3QBXX
— The Voice of America (@VOANews) September 24, 2019
Earlier he confirmed he had told his staff to withhold about $400 million in aid to Ukraine days before a phone call with the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
“As far as withholding funds, those funds were paid,” Trump said. “But my complaint has always been, and I’d withhold again and I’ll continue to withhold until such time as Europe and other nations contribute to Ukraine.”
Trump has insisted he did nothing wrong during the phone call but also acknowledged, “there was pressure put on with respect to Joe Biden. What Joe Biden did for his son, that’s something they should be looking at.”
Biden to call on Congress to impeach Trump
Shortly after Trump spoke Tuesday, Biden’s campaign said the former vice president planned to call on Congress to begin impeachment proceedings against Trump if his administration does not begin fully cooperating with ongoing congressional investigations and subpoenas.
Democratic Congressman and civil rights icon John Lewis also endorsed impeachment proceedings against Trump, telling colleagues on the House floor Tuesday he has been “patient while we have tried every other path” and warning “the future of our democracy is at stake.”
The leaders of three House of Representatives committees have demanded Secretary of State Mike Pompeo turn over all documents related to the call Trump made to Zelenskiy.
The Democratic chairmen of the House Foreign Affairs, Intelligence, and Oversight committees — Elliot Engel, Adam Schiff, and Elijah Cummings — set a Thursday deadline, the same day the intelligence committee is set to hear testimony from acting director national intelligence Joseph Maguire about the whistleblower complaint linked to the call.
Zelenskiy and Trump are scheduled to meet Wednesday on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. Zelenskiy told VOA’s Ukrainian service Tuesday “we expect support from the U.S.” and “We just want the U.S. to always support Ukraine and Ukraine’s course in its fight against aggression and war.” Zelensky added “I think the meeting will be very warm.”
Sen. Chris Murphy told reporters Monday that he met several weeks ago with Zelenskiy, and that the Ukranian administration worried the aid cutoff “was a consequence for their unwillingness, at the time, to investigate the Bidens.”
“They were unwilling to conduct this investigation because there was no merit to it,” Murphy said.
‘Impeachable offense’
Also Monday, a group of first-term Democratic members of the House of Representatives with backgrounds in national security wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post saying if the allegations of Trump’s actions are true, the lawmakers believe they “represent an impeachable offense.”
The group includes Reps. Gil Cisneros, Jason Crow, Chrissy Houlahan, Elaine Luria, Mikie Sherrill, Elissa Slotkin and Abigail Spanberger.
Trump on Monday dismissed the Democratic drumbeat for impeachment, saying he does not take such threats “at all seriously.” He insisted his call with Zelenskiy was a “very nice call,” congratulating him on becoming Ukrainian president.
Trump said he could very easily release a transcript of the call, and the press would be disappointed. But he refused to commit to doing so, saying it would be a bad precedent.
Whistleblower
The controversy began last week when reports emerged that an unidentified whistleblower in the national intelligence community became alarmed about a series of actions inside the Trump administration. They include what is now known to be Trump’s telephone call with Zelenskiy.
This person contacted the intelligence inspector general, who called the complaint “serious” and “urgent.”
Maguire has refused to turn over the inspector’s report to Congress, which the law requires him to do.
As vice president under Barack Obama, Joe Biden went to Ukraine in 2016 and threatened to withhold billions of dollars in U.S. loan guarantees unless the government cracked down on corruption. Biden also demanded that Ukraine’s chief prosecutor Viktor Shokin be fired.
Shokin had previously investigated the gas company on which Hunter Biden served on the board. But the probe had been inactive for a year before Joe Biden’s visit. Hunter Biden has said he was not the target of any investigation and no evidence of any wrongdoing by the Bidens has surfaced.
Businesses, Schools Closed as Haiti’s Capital Reels from Political Chaos
WASHINGTON / PORT-AU-PRINCE – Businesses and schools were closed Tuesday in Port-au-Prince as Haiti’s private sector protests the insecurity and chaos that has overwhelmed the nation.
Meanwhile, AP photojournalist Dieu Nalio Chery is recovering from a bullet wound in his jaw that he sustained when a Haitian ruling party senator fired his gun in the parliament yard. A parliament security guard also sustained a bullet wound in the stomach. He is recovering after being treated at a nearby hospital.
Senator Ralph Fethiere pulled out his gun and fired when opposition supporters began yelling at him and approached him aggressively as he was getting into his vehicle.
The senator, one of two ruling party lawmakers who were photographed with guns in hand Monday as members of the Senate gathered for a confirmation vote on Prime Minister designate Fritz William Michel, was not arrested. He issued a statement condemning the incident and defended his actions, claiming he was the victim.
“(I) vehemently blame certain ill-intentioned armed individuals who did not hesitate to open the door of (my) vehicle to physically aggress (me). The impact of the bullets on (my) car were duly noted by an officer of justice,” the statement said.
In an interview with local radio station Scoop FM, Senate Leader Carl Murat Cantave said he too was hit by supporters of opposition lawmakers at the parliament.
“Violence has no place in Haiti’s political process,” a spokesperson with the State Department Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs told VOA, “even as we recognize the importance of forming a government to address Haiti’s urgent priorities.”
Looting, attacks
The condemnation follows a day of looting and attacks after angry protesters took to the streets, reacting to news of the Senate shooting. The Banque de L’Union Haitienne (BUH) in the upscale suburb of Juvena was looted of rice, corn meal and other items stored on its upper level floors, then later set on fire.
Haiti’s sports minister-designate told reporters she was carjacked as she left the Karibe hotel, also in Juvena, where Michel and members of his cabinet gathered to await news about the Senate vote. She was unharmed after leaving her car to the assailants and returning to the hotel.
Haiti has struggled to end chaos since March of this year, when Prime Minister Jean Henry Ceant was forced to resign in a no-confidence vote.
President Jovenel Moise’s current choice for the prime minister position is accused of corruption, prompting attempts by the opposition to block his confirmation vote by vandalizing parliament. While the lower chamber of deputies approved Michel’s nomination on Sept. 3, the Senate has tried and failed five times to approve him.
UNGA
Some observers question if the country’s current leaders are fit to lead.
Moise, who at first delayed a trip to New York to speak at the United Nations General Assembly, canceled his visit late Monday. He said Foreign Minister Bocchit Edmond would represent Haiti at the UNGA and deliver the speech in his stead.
The president has remained silent about protester demands and criticism, as well as the chaos and violence at the parliament.
Проєкт Радіо Свобода «Шахта-360» потрапив до шорт-листа міжнародного конкурсу
Спеціальний проєкт української служби Радіо Свобода та студії New Cave Media «Шахта-360. Очима гірника» потрапив у шорт-ліст престижної міжнародної премії The Lovie Awards у категорії «Інтернет-відео/Віртуальна реальність та відео 360/ Найкращий досвід-оповідь».
Проєкт розповідає про тяжку роботу шахтарів під землею та про те, як узагалі влаштований видобуток вугілля на сучасній українській шахті. Для цього оператори разом із гірниками пройшли по всьому ланцюгу видобутку та переробки вугілля із камерою-360, яка дозволяє глядачеві «рухати» зображення і роздивитися все навколо – від диспетчерської до вугільної лави.
Зйомки проекту відбулися торік на шахті «Південнодонбаська №1», що розташована біля міста Вугледар Донецької області, на підконтрольній урядові України території. Автори проєкту намагалися не тільки показати, як видобувається вугілля на Донбасі, але і поспілкуватися з гірниками.
Цього року премія The Lovie Awards вже увосьме вручатиметься найкращим проєктам у сегменті європейської інтернет-спільноти. Як зазначають її організатори, «це найбільш престижна та єдина загальноєвропейська премія, що відзначає майстерність в інтернеті».
Автор української служби Радіо Свобода вже перемагав у премії The Lovie Awards 2014 року. Відзнаку у категорії «Інтернет-відео» за відео з верхівки новорічної ялинки на Майдані під час протестів 8 грудня 2013 року отримав фотограф Андрій Дубчак.
Наразі проєкт «Шахта-360» бореться за дві нагороди, що вважаються одними із найпрестижніших в європейській інтернет-спільноті: The Lovie Award та The People’s Lovie Award. Якщо в першій переможців визначають члени Міжнародної академії цифрових мистецтв та наук (IADAS), то в другій – голосують самі інтернет-користувачі. Проголосувати за проєкт «Шахта-360» можна на сайті премії до 3 жовтня цього року включно.
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У КМДА заявили про низку невирішених до початку опалювального сезону питань
Заступник голови Київміськадміністрації Петро Пантелеєв заявив, що через відсутність кворуму для проведення засідання Київради невирішеними залишаються питання, необхідні для проведення опалювального сезону.
«Оцінюю ситуацію з точки зору належного господарювання і переконаний, жодні політичні чинники не повинні бути важливішими за безпечне і стабільне функціонування Києва. Особливо напередодні опалювального сезону, коли маємо низку завдань для сталого запуску та подачі тепла.
Невирішеним є питання придбання необхідних обсягів газу та мазуту на весь зимовий період для підприємства «Київтеплоенерго». Від цього залежить чи буде тепло в наших оселях взимку. На фінальній стадії, але потребує дофінансування, довгоочікуваний проект переключення 20-ти будинків і школи від відомчих котелень до міських мереж на Татарці», – повідомив Пантелеєв на сторінці у Facebook.
Водночас посадовець додав, що у КМДА «змушені вирішувати ці проблеми в позаштатному режимі».
Востаннє сесія Київради відбулася у середині травня. Наступні засідання були призначені на 12 та 19 вересня, але на них не було кворуму.
Опалювальний сезон розпочинається орієнтовно 15 жовтня. Опалення в будинках із централізованим теплопостачанням вмикається тоді, коли впродовж трьох днів середньодобова температура опускається нижче за 8 градусів за Цельсієм.
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World Leaders Set to Address UN General Assembly
World leaders involved in some of the most high profile geopolitical issues are among those set to speak on the first day of the U.N. General Assembly in New York.
After opening remarks from U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, those gathered for the annual meeting will hear from a group that includes U.S. President Donald Trump, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Korean President Moon Jae-in and French President Emmanuel Macron.
The addresses come a day after Swedish teen activist Greta Thunberg scolded world leaders at a U.N. summit calling for climate action, saying people are suffering and dying from the effects of global warming and that all the leaders have are empty words.
“We are in [the] beginning of a mass extinction and all you can talk about is money,” said Thunberg, who ignited a youth movement with her Friday school strikes for climate action.
She said the science has been clear for 30 years, and still they are not doing enough.
“You are failing us! But the young people are starting to understand your betrayal,” Thunberg said in a voice filled with emotion. “The eyes of all future generations are upon you. And if you choose to fail us, I say we will never forgive you.”
The 16-year-old warned the more than 60 presidents and prime ministers gathered in the General Assembly hall for the summit that the youth would not let them “get away with this.” She said they draw the line here and now and “change is coming,” whether they like it or not.
“My generation has failed in its responsibility to protect our planet,” Guterres said. “That must change.”
Guterres has called for the phasing out of fossil fuels and an end to construction of new coal power plants.
“Is it common sense to build ever more coal plants that are choking our future?” the secretary-general asked. “Is it common sense to reward pollution that kills millions with dirty air and makes it dangerous for people in cities around the world to sometimes even venture out of their homes?”
He said it is time to end subsidies to the fossil fuel industry and shift taxes from salaries to carbon – taxing pollution, not people.
The U.N. chief has sought to highlight the importance of the summit and challenged leaders to “come with concrete plans” and not just “beautiful speeches,” which some outlined Monday.
India, which has one of the world’s highest levels of air pollution, said it would increase its renewable energy capacity to 175 gigawatts by 2022. Prime Minister Narendra Modi highlighted his country’s expansion into solar energy.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, in a rare U.N. appearance, pledged that her country would reduce its carbon emissions by 2030 by 55% compared to its 1990 emissions. She said Germany would be carbon neutral by 2050.
“In 2030 we want to get two-thirds of our energy from renewables,” Merkel said. “In 2022, we will phase out the last of our nuclear power plants, and at latest, in 2038, we will phase out coal.”
Trump, who announced his administration’s intention to withdraw from the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement soon after taking office, was not scheduled to attend or speak at Monday’s summit. Trump, however, made a brief appearance and was seen sitting at the U.S. delegation’s table before attending an event on religious persecution.
The U.N. released a report ahead of the summit compiled by the World Meteorological Organization showing there has been an acceleration in carbon pollution, sea-level rise, warming global temperatures, and shrinking ice sheets.
It warns that the average global temperature for the period of 2015 through the end of 2019 is on pace to be the “warmest of any equivalent period on record” at 1.1 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
The 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, which has been ratified by 186 nations, calls for actions to prevent global temperatures from surpassing 2 degrees, and ideally remain within 1.5 degrees by cutting greenhouse gas emissions. One of the world’s biggest emitters – the United States – announced under President Trump that it would leave the pact. The U.S. decision has not stopped climate action at the state, local and private sector levels.
The report warns that in order to achieve the 2-degree target, “the level of ambition needs to be tripled.”
Honda to Cease Diesel Vehicle Sales in Europe by 2021
Honda said on Monday it would phase out all diesel cars by 2021 in favor of models with electric propulsion systems, as the Japanese automaker moves to electrify all of its European cars by 2025.
Honda is the latest automaker cutting production of diesel cars to meet stringent global emissions regulations. The plan is part of its long-term goal to make electric cars, including all battery-electric vehicles, to account for two-thirds of its line ups by 2030 from less than 10% now.
By next year, according to European Union emission targets, CO2 must be cut to 95 gram per km for 95% of cars from the current 120.5 gram average, a figure that has increased of late as consumers spurn fuel-efficient diesels and embrace SUVs. All new cars in the EU must be compliant in 2021.
For Honda, declining demand for diesel vehicles and tougher emissions regulations have clouded its manufacturing prospects in Europe.
Honda said in February it would close its only British car plant in 2021 with the loss of up to 3,500 jobs.
Japan’s No. 3 automaker has said it would cut the number of car model variations to a third of current offerings by 2025, reducing global production costs by 10% and redirecting those savings toward advanced research and development.
Tech Companies Back Independent Watchdog to Tackle Online Extremism
A global working group set up by Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Microsoft to remove extremist content will become an independent watchdog working “to respond quicker and work more collaboratively to prevent” attacks like Christchurch, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Monday.
Ardern has pushed for stronger action since New Zealand’s worst peacetime mass shooting in March, when a gunman attacked Muslims attending Friday prayers in Christchurch. He killed 51 people and broadcast the attack live on Facebook.
“In the same way that we respond to natural emergencies like fires and floods, we need to be prepared and ready to respond to a crisis like the one we experienced,” Ardern told reporters on the sidelines of the annual United Nations gathering of world leaders.
The Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism was created in 2017 under pressure from U.S. and European governments after a spate of deadly attacks. It will now become an independent organization led by an executive director, funded by Facebook, Google’s YouTube, Twitter and Microsoft.
Speaking at a joint news conference with Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, Ardern said the organization would be governed by an operating board made up of company representatives and would have an independent advisory committee composed of government and civil society members.
Ardern said some of the group’s work would be to fund and coordinate academic research on terrorism and violent extremist operations and on best practices for data sharing.
Sandberg said the forum had already shared some 200,000 digital fingerprints “because when terrorists try to use one platform, they try to use all the platforms; so when one of us find them, we can take them down across multiple platforms.”
She added that while the fastest-growing messaging platforms were encrypted, Facebook was still able to combat extremism while aiming to protect users’ privacy. She noted that even though WhatsApp is encrypted, Facebook and Facebook-owned Instagram are not.
“We are often able to find people on one and then take then down off the encrypted platforms,” Sandberg said.
Trump Administration to End ‘Catch and Release’ for Illegal Immigrants
The Trump administration is doing away with so-called “catch and release” for Central American immigrants who illegally cross into the United States.
Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan announced the move Monday. He says it is part of the administration’s plans to ease what he calls the “pull factor” that attracts migrants to try to cross the border.
Except for some humanitarian and medical exceptions, McAleenan says immigrants who cannot successfully claim their lives would be in danger would be sent back to their home countries. Those who can prove a genuine fear would be returned to Mexico while their asylum requests are processed.
Under catch and release, border patrol agents who catch illegal migrants temporarily detain them until they are assigned a court date for an immigration hearing and then release them.
U.S. President Donald Trump has said only a small fraction of migrants show up for their hearings.
But the Justice Department says as many as 75% have kept their assigned court date.
Can New Space Race Connect World to Internet?
It’s a 21st century space race: Amazon, SpaceX and others are competing to get into orbit and provide internet to the Earth’s most remote places.
And like the last century’s battle for space supremacy that was triggered by the Soviet Union’s launch of Sputnik 1, this one involves satellites. Thousands of them.
More than a dozen companies have asked U.S. regulators for permission to operate constellations of satellites that provide internet service. Not all are aimed at connecting consumers, but some have grand and global ambitions.
“The goal here is broadband everywhere,” Amazon founder Jeff Bezos said at a conference in June.
With half the world’s population — more than 3 billion people — not using the internet, it’s a huge potential market. And there’s the obvious benefit on the ground: Not having internet access makes it difficult or impossible to apply for many jobs, for kids to do homework, for people in remote areas to get medical care, and to participate in the global economy.
But this new wave of spaced-based internet faces hurdles. It is expensive to launch, technologically complex and could prove too costly for the very people it hopes to reach.
And then there’s space junk. More on that in a moment.
Satellite systems
Satellite internet already exists, dominated by a handful of companies like HughesNet and Viasat that have huge, expensive satellites sitting 22,000 miles (35,000 kilometers) from Earth and covering big territories on the ground. But the service is expensive and limited, comes with data caps and lags, and doesn’t have many users.
The new satellites are smaller, cheaper, and closer to Earth, so theoretically signals travel faster and applications like online gaming that need instant responses would work better. And they have some heavyweight backers. In addition to Amazon and SpaceX — the company of eccentric billionaire and Tesla founder Elon Musk — the race has also been joined by OneWeb, which is backed by investors including Virgin founder Richard Branson, U.S. chipmaker Qualcomm and Japanese tech conglomerate SoftBank.
But the industry is still in its infancy, and at least three years away from widespread commercial service, said Kerri Cahoy, professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT, and even further from making any money.
“I would be surprised if something were profitable in 10 years,” she said. There are also competing efforts at extending connectivity, including Google with its Loon balloons, which are solar-powered cell towers made of plastic sheets that float on the winds, and others working on solar-powered drones.
The satellite companies need to build dishes and antennas that are more complicated and costlier than those for traditional satellites that don’t move. SpaceX, for example, has filed for permission with U.S. regulators to build 1 million “earth stations” that would help connect customers to the internet.
There’s no way to have a viable mass service unless the cost of this type of equipment drops, said Caleb Williams, economic analyst at aerospace engineering company SpaceWorks Enterprises.
Launches have already been pushed back: OneWeb had once said it would be operating in Alaska this year. But service is now expected to start in late 2020.
The logistics of becoming an internet service provider also aren’t easy. The new crop of space-internet companies are more likely to set up arrangements with existing telecom companies than try to sell internet service directly, Williams said, because it’s easier than setting up a sales and marketing operation of their own.
Those same telecom companies don’t want to build in remote areas because it’s too expensive. A Federal Communications Commission official in 2017 estimated that extending fiber to the roughly 20 million U.S. homes and businesses that lacked broadband would cost $80 billion. And in developing countries, where the underlying infrastructure is worse, internet is primarily available through a cellphone.
The new satellite companies may have an infrastructure alternative that’s cheaper for companies to build than wires on the ground. A telecom company needs to pay to build out to a handful of customers in a large area, with huge per-customer costs. With satellite, costs can be shared out over a bigger pool of potential customers all over the world. A SpaceX executive in 2018 predicted that it would cost $10 billion to deploy a constellation of mini-satellites. Bezos predicted that Amazon’s satellite-internet arm will cost “multiple billions of dollars” to build.
Affordability
Making sure that people have access to internet is just one step to getting them online, however. People also need to be able to afford internet, and those in rural areas are more likely to be poor.
It’s not clear what the pricing will be but high costs swamped satellite phone service two decades ago. It could do so again with internet.
“If you would have to pay 20% or more of your income to go on the internet, in a situation where you make a few dollars per day, you don’t, because it’s too expensive,” said Martin Schaaper, an analyst at the United Nations’ information and communications technology agency.
Space junk
Then there are concerns about the growth of space junk, or “orbital debris,” which could crash into each other and even potentially set off a chain reaction of collisions that make orbit “no longer usable,” according to NASA.
SpaceX, for one, says it’s trying to avoid adding to the junk layer by moving satellites to avoid crashes and designing them to burn up in atmosphere when they’re used up. The space companies have laid out their plans to avoid debris with U.S. regulators, but critics say more needs to be done, like setting up an air traffic control system for space.
Rocket Attack Hits Near US Embassy in Baghdad’s Green Zone
Iraqi security officials say at least two rockets have been fired into the capital’s fortified Green Zone, landing around one kilometer (a half-mile) from the U.S. Embassy.
Residents heard the explosions followed by alert sirens that sounded briefly Monday night.
The attack comes amid heightened tensions in the region following an attack on Saudi oil installations that the U.S. and Britain have blamed on Iran. There also has been a series of airstrikes on bases belonging to Iran-backed militias in Iraq that the militias have blamed on Israel.
The attack Monday night was the second since May, when a rocket was fired into the Green Zone, landing near the sprawling U.S. Embassy compound.
Officials said there was no word of casualties from Monday’s nights attack. They spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.
Найближчої ночі в кількох регіонах України у повітрі і на ґрунті будуть заморозки – синоптики
Вночі 24 вересня у кількох регіонах України очікуються заморозки у повітрі і на ґрунті, повідомляє Укргідрометцентр.
«Вночі 24 вересня у північних, східних та Рівненській областях заморозки у повітрі 0-3 (сильні заморозки, ІІ рівень небезпечності, помаранчевий), на Полтавщині й Черкащині заморозки на ґрунті 0-4 (І рівень небезпечності, жовтий)», – йдеться в повідомленні.
Синоптик Наталка Діденко на сторінці у Facebook повідомила, що денна температура повітря у вівторок показуватиме +10+16 градусів.
«У південній частині, на Заході, на Дніпропетровщині, Вінниччині, Кропивницькому та районах +16+22 градуси. Вітер східного напрямку, 5-10 м/с. Практично в усіх областях України буде сухо та сонячно», – повідомила Діденко.
За даними синоптиків, ніч на 25 вересня також буде морозною – у Чернігівській, Сумській, Полтавській, Харківській та Луганській областях будуть заморозки у повітрі, а у Житомирській, Київській, Донецькій – на ґрунті.
Раніше у Центральній геофізичній обсерваторії імені Бориса Срезневського повідомляли, що після різкого похолодання до України прийде потепління, яке називають «бабиним літом».
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До Умані прибули поліцейські з 12 областей для гарантування правопорядку під час Рош-га-Шана
До Умані Черкаської області для забезпечення публічного порядку під час святкування Рош-га-Шана прибув зведений загін поліцейських. За даними Нацполіції, йдеться про правоохоронців з 12 областей України.
«У складі зведеного загону 550 поліцейських, серед яких співробітники патрульної поліції, кінологи зі службовими собаками, вибухотехніки, оперативні працівники, співробітник поліції превентивної комунікації та поліцейські групи аеропідтримки», – йдеться в повідомленні.
За даними поліції, цьогоріч очікується прибуття до Умані близько 40 тисяч паломників з різних країн світу.
Брацлавські хасиди почнуть святкуватити Рош-га-Шана – новий 5780 рік за іудейським календарем ввечері 29 вересня.
В Умані Черкаської області похований цадик (праведник) Нахман, його могила – одна з найшанованіших святинь і місце паломництва для представників так званої брацлавської течії хасидизму. Усі євреї, які представляють течію хасидизму, вважають своїм обов’язком побувати хоча б раз у своєму житті на могилі цадика Нахмана. Юдеї, що провели Рош-га-Шана в Умані, вірять, що новий рік обов’язково буде для них щасливим.
At least 7 killed as school collapses in Kenya’s capital
A school collapsed in Kenya’s capital on Monday and killed at least seven children, officials said, while some outraged residents alleged shoddy construction. Two other children were in critical condition.
“We were in class reading and we heard pupils and teachers screaming, and the class started collapsing and then a stone hit me on the mouth,” one survivor, 10-year-old Tracy Oduor, told The Associated Press. “When we got out of the gate we heard that pupils were dead. I feel so sad!”
Parents wailed over the remains of The Precious Talent Top School in Nairobi, and hundreds of people gathered as emergency workers picked through debris. It was not clear whether anyone was trapped underneath.
Government spokesman Cyrus Oguna confirmed the deaths, and Kenyatta National Hospital later said 64 children had been admitted, most with minor injuries.
“The children here were all running away and crying,” resident Michael Otieno said. More than 800 students are enrolled at the school, officials said.
It was not immediately clear why the building of corrugated metal and wood collapsed around 7:30 a.m. Construction can be poorly regulated in some fast-growing Kenyan communities.
“You can easily break it with your own hands, as easy as that,” Peter Ouko, a resident, said of the building materials. “This is chicken wire, not a construction material, and someone had the guts to use this to build a construction for our kids. I think this is basically premeditated murder.”
Nathaniel Matalanga, a structural engineer with La Femme Engineering Services Ltd., told reporters that he didn’t think “any professionals” were involved in the school’s construction and he blamed “greed.”
There was no immediate comment from school officials.
Egypt: Lawyers Say Police Rounded Hundreds Over Protests
Egyptian rights lawyers say security forces have rounded up hundreds of people following small but rare anti-government protests.
The protests broke out in several Egyptian cities including the capital, Cairo, over the weekend, calling for President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi to step down.
All protests were quickly broken up by police. But they marked a startling eruption of street unrest, which has been almost completely silenced the past years by draconian measures imposed under el-Sissi.
Egypt Warns Media to Take Care in Coverage Amid Protests
The government effectively banned all public protests in 2013 shortly after el-Sissi led the military’s overthrow of the country’s first freely elected civilian president in modern history
Lawyers Malek Adly and Khaled el-Masry said Monday security forces had arrested at least 400 people in Cairo and elsewhere across the country.
El-Masry says prosecutors have questioned at least 220 people, over claims that they took part in activities of an outlawed group, a reference to the Muslim Brotherhood group, and disseminating false news.