У Львові 25 листопада фахівці пошукової польсько-української групи виявили межі братської могили на території старого цвинтаря на Збоїщах. Як повідомив Радіо Свобода керівник громадської організації «Товариство пошуку жертв війни «Пам’ять»» Любомир Горбач, наразі виявлено останки близько десяти вояків.
«На те, що вони були солдатами польської армії і загинули у вересні 1939 року в обороні Львова від німецьких військ, вказують предмети, які ми знайшли під час розкопок. А це шолом, взуття, ґудзики. Останки виявили на глибині до двох метрів, розкопали могилу три на один метр. За словами очевидця, ця могила розміром 15 на три метри», – каже Любомир Горбач.
Пошукові роботи із дослідження території старого цвинтаря на Збоїщах у Львові розпочали 20 листопада. Дослідили кілька місць, на які вказували очевидці. Над похованням було сміття до метра глибини і захоронення, здійснені у радянський час.
До 60-х років минулого століття це було сільське кладовище у передмісті. Радянська влада його закрила, будуючи дорогу і будинки.
Інститут Національної пам’яті Польщі звернеться до Міністерства культури, молоді та спорту України з проханням надати дозвіл на проведення вже ексгумаційних робіт на старому цвинтарі. Вже тоді буде достеменно відомо про кількість військових, які поховані у братській могилі. За інформацією ІНП Польщі, це понад сто солдат.
Читайте також: Польський Інститут нацпам’яті почав у Львові пошук останків вояків, загиблих у вересні 1939 року
Польська армія захищала Львів від нацистської Німеччини у вересні 1939 року. 13 вересня німці здобули залізничний вокзал, Кортумову гору, горби Голоська та Збоїщ, оточили таким чином місто з півночі, заходу та півдня. Бої за Львів тривали протягом тижня. Німеччина перепоховала останки німецьких вояків у 1943 році.
Пошуково-ексгумаційні роботи Україна і Польща проводить згідно з домовленістю між президентами обох держав. Спершу роботи тривають на старому цвинтарі на Збоїщах у Львові, а вже наступного року планують на кладовищі в львівському Голоско. …
У прокуратурі Кіровоградської області повідомили, що за фактом зриву опалювального сезону у Світловодську відкрили кримінальне провадження за статтею про «зловживання повноваженнями службовою особою».
«У межах досудового розслідування перевіряється причетність службових осіб спільного підприємства ТОВ «Світловодськпобут» до можливого привласнення коштів, отриманих від споживачів теплової енергії за надання відповідних послуг, які відповідно мали бути сплачені газопостачальній компанії за використання природного газу (заборгованість підприємства становить понад 50 млн грн). Крім того, службові особи здійснили неналежну підготовку до опалювального сезону котельного обладнання та теплопостачальних мереж, що спричинило тяжкі наслідки», – йдеться в повідомленні пресслужби прокуратури.
Повідомляється, що слідчі проводять перевірку щодо посадовців органу місцевого самоврядування.
На сьогодні, за даними ДСНС, у 13 тисяч жителів Світловодська є проблеми з опаленням. Вони виникли напередодні через прорив трубопроводу у 13-ти місцях. У результаті без тепла – 111 житлових будинків та 2 дошкільні навчальні заклади. Рятувальники кажуть, що ситуація контрольована, аварійно-відновлювальні роботи тривають. …
Третина всіх жінок і дівчат впродовж свого життя зазнають фізичного чи сексуального насильства, а половина загиблих у світі жінок стають жертвами насильства з боку своїх партнерів чи сім’ї, повідомляє ООН у Міжнародний день боротьби за ліквідацію насильства щодо жінок.
За повідомленням, насильство, здійснене проти жінок, є такою ж поширеною звичною причиною смерті і втрати дієздатності для жінок репродуктивного віку, як рак, і частішою причиною, ніж дорожньо-транспортні пригоди і малярія разом.
«Ці злочини є одними з найжахливіших, найпостійніших і найпоширеніших порушень прав людини у світі, які торкаються кожної третьої жінки у світі. Це означає, що з цим зіштовхуються жінки навколо вас. Члени родини, колеги, подруги. Або навіть ти сама», – заявив генеральний секретар ООН Антоніу Ґутерріш.
Він наголосив, що сексуальне насильство над жінками і дівчатами «сягає корінням у століття чоловічого панування».
«Не будемо забувати, що гендерні нерівності, які підживлюють систему насилля, по суті є питанням дисбалансу влади. Стигматизація, неправильне розуміння, замовчування проблеми та недостатнє виконання законів лише продовжують безкарність. Крім того, зґвалтування досі використовується як жахлива зброя війни. Все це має змінитися… зараз», – наголосив Ґутерріш.
Генсекретар ООН закликав уряди, приватний сектор, громадянське суспільство і людей скрізь «зайняти тверду позицію проти сексуального насильства та мізогінії».
За наведеними раніше даними Фонду ООН у галузі народонаселення, від насильства (фізичного і сексуального) страждають 1,1 мільйона жінок в Україні на рік. …
Feature films on slavery have been part of Hollywood since the beginning of the film industry in United States. However, only recently, movies on slavery have been told from the perspective of the slaves, and now, with the film “Harriet” from the perspective of a female slave. “Harriet”, the latest of antebellum dramas, focuses on Harriet Tubman a female runaway slave. Tubman played a significant role in the so called “Underground Railroad”, a human network helping enslaved African – Americans to flee to free American states and Canada. VOA’s Penelope Poulou has more.
When politicians try to win votes by blaming foreigners for stealing jobs, economists say they ignore technology, which is what is really replacing many of these jobs. However the issue remains that many workers and small businesses do not benefit from foreign trade as much as corporations do, and that is something Vietnam hopes to fix.
Hanoi is trying to avoid the mistakes of the U.S., Britain, and other countries where lower income citizens felt left behind by global trade, and one part of its approach is to focus on small business loans. Vietnam hopes to make loans available to family businesses and other small businesses, which in many cases do not have the right connections or the expertise to get these loans.
Last week the State Bank of Vietnam cut interest rates in an effort to encourage banks to lend to the less advantaged. The central bank said short term loan rates for small and medium size businesses would decrease to 6% from 6.5%. This decreased rate also applies to other priority areas, such as agriculture, high tech businesses, and supporting industries.
That last category, which can include small businesses, is important because Vietnam hopes to get more domestic companies to supply to foreign ones. That would get them involved in foreign trade, thus spreading the benefits of trade more widely across the Southeast Asian nation.
“Local producers and suppliers urgently need efficient financing to support their trade cycles with global partners,” Julius Caesar Parrenas, who coordinates a financial forum under an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation business organization, said. He added that there is a need to establish a finance ecosystem for “emerging markets like Vietnam, where trade is growing.”
Much of Vietnam has prospered from foreign trade, but the government wants that prosperity to be spread out more evenly. (VOA/Ha Nguyen)
Organizations like his should provide “government agencies with good insight to improve an effective regulatory framework for supply chain finance in Vietnam,” Ha Thu Giang, who is deputy director of the credit policies for economic sectors department at the State Bank of Vietnam, said.
The government is also working with donor agencies to increase accessibility of loans. It worked with the U.S. Agency for International Development in Hanoi, for instance, to have a guide published this year that helps small businesses find sources of financing.
Advocates say financing is needed because small business sometimes do not have the capital needed to expand, or to tide them over so they can cover the cost of meeting large orders and wait for payment. However critics caution that too much focus on financing is risky, and that small businesses are right to worry about taking on more debt than they can handle.
The private sector is interested in lending to Vietnam’s mom and pop businesses too. Validus Capital is a peer-to-business lending platform based in Singapore that expanded to Indonesia and Vietnam this year.
“We want to provide growing SMEs [small and medium enterprises] faster access to zero-collateral financing,” Vikas Nahata, who is co-founder and executive chairman of Validus Capital, said.
A lot of nations say they want “inclusive trade” so that less advantaged people do not feel left out of the benefits of globalization. For Vietnam, small business loans are one way to get there.
Hong Kong pro-democracy forces won a landslide victory in local elections Sunday. Though primarily symbolic, the vote represents a stunning rebuke to Beijing, as VOA’s Bill Gallo reports from Hong Kong.
A summit this week between leaders of Pacific Rim allies South Korea and the Philippines is expected to show that both lean toward the West rather than China despite their efforts to get along with Asia’s superpower, analysts say.
A swing toward the West by either country would put Beijing further on the back foot in Asia, where its military expansion alarms multiple governments, and give the United States a new opening to get involved in the region, scholars believe.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said on his office’s website November 20 he will meet his Korean counterpart at an Association of Southeast Asian Nations-South Korea summit in Busan Monday through Wednesday. Asian security issues will lead discussion, it said.
“The Philippines and Korea both have been fairly accommodating of China, because Korea given its proximity and Duterte because he wanted to make the best deals,” said Jeffrey Kingston, history instructor at Temple University’s Japan campus.
Now, he said, “both of them are countries that feel concerned about the rise of China. Both feel threatened.”
Ties with China
Duterte broke ice with China in 2016 by setting aside a maritime sovereignty dispute and accepting pledges of $24 billion in Chinese aid, key to his country’s infrastructure renewal effort. But Chinese activity in the disputed South China Sea including a boat collision earlier this year is worrying Filipinos again.
South Korea spars with China over ties with North Korea. The north, a Chinese ally, periodically tests missiles near the south, and in 2017 Beijing condemned the south for installing an advanced antimissile system. Chinese officials feared the U.S.-backed system could monitor activity in China.
FILE – Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, left, and Chinese President Xi Jinping, right, meet at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, China, Aug. 29, 2019.
China and South Korea separately dispute sovereignty over a tiny island, and South Korea’s coast guard has fired on Chinese fishing boats. However, the two sides, separated by just a few hundred kilometers, agreed last month to improve relations and pursue denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
“Although Korea has its own problems with China, especially with fishing and some islands, they’re handling it very, very differently from us,” Jay Batongbacal, international maritime affairs professor at University of the Philippines.
US alliances
The two leaders are expected to talk about China this week.
“The equilibrium of geopolitics will be high on the agenda including issues such as the tension in the Korean Peninsula and the Spratly Islands,” Manila’s presidential website quotes Duterte saying. Beijing and Manila dispute sovereignty over the Spratlys, an archipelago in the South China Sea.
South Korea and the Philippines, though both historic U.S. military allies in Asia, lack the clout on their own to take any action, said Fabrizio Bozzato, Taiwan Strategy Research Association fellow who specializes in Asia and the Pacific. They might instead jointly support a broader alliance, he said.
“I believe that they can be part of a regional U.S.-centric and Japan-centric regional architecture to resist China, but they cannot be the initiator of that,” Bozzato said. “What they have in common really is that they are both allies to the United States and that they are facing China’s pressure.”
A top U.S. defense official pledged in June more military cooperation in Asia — and criticized China’s military expansion. Washington regularly sends naval ships to the region as warnings to China.
Last month the Philippines joined U.S. and Japanese forces for annual military exercises that news reports from Manila said were designed to keep Asia “free and open,” wording that Washington uses to ask that China quit expanding. Duterte had resisted U.S. help in 2016 and 2017.
South Korea answered U.S. lobbying this month by saying it would stay in an intelligence-sharing pact with Japan despite a trade spat with the Japanese government.
South Korea still looks to China and the United States for help on North Korea issues, said Steven Kim, visiting research fellow at the Jeju Peace Institute.
U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper, right and South Korea defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo, left attend a press conference in Bangkok, Thailand, Sunday, Nov. 17, 2019.
“It will have to carefully calibrate its relations between the two great powers while occasionally hewing closer to one over the other depending on which of its interests are on the line or at stake,” he said.
Korean aid to the Philippines
Since 2017, South Korea has already emerged as a benefactor to the Philippines and their leaders are due to sign four economy-related deals at the summit.
Two years ago it offered $1.7 billion in credit and other financial aid to help the Philippines improve transportation and energy. Analysts told VOA Seoul hoped to offset Chinese influence in the developing Southeast Asian country.
South Korean companies also build ships for the Philippines as Manila seeks to upgrade its navy. Korean shipbuilder Hyundai Heavy Industries started work this month on a Philippine frigate, news website Navaltoday.com reported. Another frigate is due for delivery in May.
“The Philippines is getting a lot of its modernization requirements like ships from Korea,” Batongbacal said.
Jessye Norman was remembered as a force of nature as thousands filled the Metropolitan Opera House on Sunday for a celebration of the soprano, who died Sept. 30 at age 74.
Sopranos Renee Fleming, Latonia Moore, Lise Davidsen and Leah Hawkins sang tributes along with mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges and bass-baritone Eric Owens that were mixed among remembrances of family and friends, dance performances of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and video of Norman’s career.
“Yankee Stadium is the house that Babe Ruth built and welcome to this house that Jessye Norman built,” Met general manager Peter Gelb said. “Of course Jessye wasn’t alone in filling this hallowed hall with her glorious voice. She was joined by rather important voices, from Leontyne Price to Luciano Pavarotti, but in her operatic prime in the ’80s and the 90s, her majestic vocal chords reigned supreme in the dramatic soprano and the mezzo range. Like Babe Ruth, who swung for the fences, Jessye swung for standing room in the family circle, and she always connected.”
Norman’s celebration took place shortly after a memorial to actress Diahann Carroll at the Helen Hayes Theater, about a mile south. On Thursday, author Toni Morrison was memorialized at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, a trio of black Americans who were leaders in their fields.
“Three monumental women who carried through and offered a bounty of gifts to the world,” actress and playwright Anna Deavere Smith said.
Smith recalled signing letters “Little Sis” to Norman’s “Big Sis.” She remembered traveling to Norman’s performances around the world, focusing on one at the Festival de Musique de Menton on the French Riviera, near the Italian border. Organizers had arranged to stop traffic to clear the air for Norman but fretted over a train, asking whether Norman preferred they slow it down to lower the noise level in exchange for a lengthier time the noise would be audible.
“When the train came through Menton and Jessye was hitting the high note, I heard Jessye. She sang through it,” Smith said. “Until this morning, this very morning, I thought Jessye’s voice simply overrode that train. I don’t think so anymore. Now I understand that Jessye Norman had the ear, the timing, the love of song, the risk to share and the will to sing through – and with – the roaring train. In the same way, she integrated several musical histories to grace the world with the power of her voice.”
FILE – Soprano Jessye Norman performs during The Dream Concert at Radio City Music Hall in New York, Sept. 18, 2007.
Speakers included Ford Foundation president Darren Walker and Gloria Steinem.
Younger sister Elaine Norman Sturkey and brother James Howard Norman told stories of their youth in Augusta, Georgia, and later travels together.
“Travel with Jessye was no small feat,” Norman Sturkey said with humor in her voice. “These Louis Vuittons that she bought were so heavy before you could even put anything in them. Then she would pack them to capacity, so that when we got to the airport, they were all going to be too heavy. We’re not going to have two maybe big suitcases or even three, we were going to have 10. And she’s not lifting anything. That’s somebody else’s problem. And she’s carrying everything from a humidifier to a teapot. And we’re going to be back in less than two weeks, sometimes a week.”
Carnegie Hall executive director Clive Gillinson spoke of summoning the courage to ask Norman to curate a festival, which she readily agreed to and became “Honor! A Celebration of the African American Cultural Legacy” in March 2009.
“Clive, this is the project I’ve been waiting my entire life to do,” he quoted her as responding.
Former French Culture Minister spoke of the controversy over his decision to hire Norman rather than a French singer to perform “La Marseillaise” at the Place de la Concorde in 1989 to mark the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution. His remembrance was followed by a video of Norman’s iconic, blazing rendition.
Fleming received a huge ovation after “Beim Schlafengehen (When Falling Asleep)” from Strauss’ “Four Last Songs,” accompanied by pianist Gerald Martin Moore and Met concertmaster David Chan. Hawkins and Moore began and ended the program with traditionals, “Great Day” and “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hand.” Bridges sang Duke Ellington’s “Heaven” and Owen performed Wotan’s farewell from “Die Walkuere.” Davidson, who is to make her Met debut Friday, sang Strauss’ “Morgen!”
The voting process Sunday of Guinea-Bissau’s presidential election was “peaceful, calm and orderly,” said Oldemiro Baloi, who heads international observers of the Community of Portuguese speaking countries. Results of the balloting are expected Thursday.
The West African country has seen hardly any political stability since independence from Portugal 45 years ago.
President Jose Mario Vaz, who is seeking a second five-year term, is the only president since independence to survive a full term without a coup or assassination.
“The people of Guinea-Bissau are sovereign and I will respect the verdict of the ballot box,” Vaz said after voting in the capital, Bissau. “I have accomplished my mission of restoring peace and tranquillity.”
The president’s chief competitor was former Prime Minister Domingos Simoes Pereira, one of six prime ministers Vaz fired during his presidency.
Pereira also vowed to “respect” the results of the election. “These elections are crucial for future of the country,” he said.
Twelve candidates – all men – were running for president.
Vaz fired Prime Minister Aristides Gomes in late October and named a new head of government. But Gomes refused to step down. The regional bloc ECOWAS intervened to prevent the country from exploding into violence.
Whoever becomes the country’s next president will face numerous challenges in one of the world’s poorest countries, including poverty, corruption, drug trafficking, and badly needed improvements in health care and education.
If no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote, the top two finishers will meet in a runoff December 29.
Представниця Польщі Вікі Ґабор з піснею «Superhero» перемогла на «Дитячому Євробаченні». Вона отримала 278 балів від журі та глядачів.
Українка Софія Іванько із треком «The Spirit of Music» завершила конкурс на 15 місці.
Фінал конкурсу відбувався в польському місті Глівіце. У ньому виступили представники 19 країн.
У 2018 році українка Дарина Красновецька посіла четверте місце на «Дитячому Євробаченні». Переможницею тоді стала також представниця Польщі Роксана Веґель. …
Devin Nunes, the top Republican on the Congressional committee investigating President Donald Trump, refused to answer questions Sunday as to whether he met with an former Ukrainian official to gather information on the son of former vice president Joe Biden.
A lawyer representing Lev Parnas, an indicted associate of Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudolph Giuliani, has told multiple news outlets since Friday that Nunes met Ukraine’s former top prosecutor Victor Shokin in Vienna in 2018.
The claim is controversial because Nunes did not disclose any such meeting while leading the Republican defense of President Donald Trump during related impeachment hearings.
Speaking on Fox News Sunday morning, Nunes was asked point blank by the Fox news anchor whether he had met with Shokin. The congressman replied that he wanted to answer questions but could not do so “right now.”
Nunes has repeatedly denounced the impeachment proceedings, which are focused on whether Trump inappropriately pressured Ukraine to open investigations, including one that could prove embarrassing to Biden, a top contender for the Democratic Party nomination to run against Trump next year.
Democrats have said that if Parnas’ claim proves credible, Nunes could face an ethics investigation. Parnas, under indictment regarding suspect political contributions, is seeking immunity to testify to the House Intelligence Committee which is conducting the inquiry.
FILE – Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee Adam Schiff, D-Calif., questions former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch before the House Intelligence Committee, Nov. 15, 2019.
Congress will not convene again until Dec. 3. But speaking on CNN Sunday morning, committee Chairman Adam Schiff said that more depositions and hearings related to the impeachment probe are possible.
The timeline for an impeachment vote in the U.S. House is still unclear. Schiff’s committee still must write a report based on its investigation so far, which will be delivered to the Judiciary Committee. The latter committee would then prepare articles of impeachment for a vote by the full House.
Democrats, who control a majority of seats in the House, can impeach the president with a simple majority vote. At that point, a trial must be held in the Senate, where it would take a two-thirds majority to remove Trump from office. No Republicans in either chamber have indicated they will support the impeachment effort.
Trump denounced the hearings on Twitter Sunday, claiming that polls “have now turned very strongly against Impeachment, especially in swing states.”
Polls have now turned very strongly against Impeachment, especially in swing states. 75% to 25%. Thank you!
He did not indicate what polls he was referring to, but the latest averaging of polls shows public opinion is fairly evenly split on whether Trump should be impeached.
Twelve witnesses testified in Congress over the last two weeks, providing new details on allegations that Trump pushed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate domestic political rival Joe Biden and his son.
Witnesses told lawmakers that Giuliani played a key role in pressing for Ukrainian officials to announce an investigation.
“We all understood that if we refused to work with Mr. Giuliani, we would lose an important opportunity to cement relations between the United States and Ukraine. So, we followed the president’s orders,” Gordon Sondland, U.S. Ambassador to the European Union, testified Wednesday.
Machine gun fire answers rock-throwing protesters. Motorcycle-riding Revolutionary Guard volunteers chase after demonstrators. Plainclothes security forces grab, beat and drag a man off the street to an uncertain fate.
As Iran restores the internet after a weeklong government-imposed shutdown, new videos purport to show the demonstrations over gasoline prices rising and the security-force crackdown that followed.
The videos offer only fragments of encounters, but to some extent they fill in the larger void left by Iran’s state-controlled television and radio channels. On their airwaves, hard-line officials allege that foreign conspiracies and exile groups instigated the unrest. In print, newspapers offered only PR for the government or had merely stenographic reporting at best, the moderate daily Hamshahri said in an analysis Sunday.
They don’t acknowledge that the gasoline price hike Nov. 15, supported by its civilian government, came as Iran’s 80 million people already have seen their savings dwindle and jobs scarce under crushing U.S. sanctions. President Donald Trump imposed them in the aftermath of unilaterally withdrawing America from Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers.
People walk near a burnt bank, after protests against increased fuel prices, in Tehran, Nov. 20, 2019.
Authorities also have yet to give any overall figures for how many people were injured, arrested or killed during the several days of protests that swept across some 100 cities and towns.
Amnesty International said it believes the unrest and the crackdown killed at least 106 people. Iran disputes that figure without offering its own. A U.N. office earlier said it feared the unrest may have killed “a significant number of people.”
Starting Nov. 16, Iran shut down the internet across the country, limiting communications with the outside world. That made determining the scale and longevity of the protests incredibly difficult. Some recycled days-old videos and photographs as new, making it even more difficult.
Since Saturday, internet connectivity spiked in the country, allowing people to access foreign websites for the first time. On Sunday, connectivity stood nearly at 100% for landline services, while mobile phone internet service remained scarce, the advocacy group NetBlocks said.
The restoration brought messaging apps back to life for Iranians cut off from loved ones abroad. It also meant that videos again began being shared widely.
Recently released videos span the country. One video from Shiraz, some 680 kilometers (420 miles) south of Tehran, purports to show a crowd of over 100 people scatter as gunfire erupts from a police station in the city. One man bends down to pick up debris as a person off-camera describes demonstrators throwing stones. Another gunshot rings out, followed by a burst of machine gun fire.
In Kerman, some 800 kilometers (500 miles) southeast of Tehran, the sound of breaking glass echoes over a street where debris burns in the center of a street. Motorcycle-riding members of the Basij, the all-volunteer force of Iran’s paramilitary Guard, then chase the protesters away.
Another video in Kermanshah, some 420 kilometers (260 miles) southwest of Tehran, purports shows the dangers that lurked on the streets of Iran in recent days. Plainclothes security forces, some wielding nightsticks, drag one man off by the hair of his head. The detained man falls at one point.
“Look, [the agents] wear styles like the youth,” one man off-camera says, swearing at them.
On Sunday, it remained unclear if and how widespread any remaining demonstrations were. The acting commander of the Revolutionary Guard, Gen. Ali Fadavi, repeated the allegation that America was behind the protests, without offering any evidence to support his claim.
“Why did [the Americans] get angry after we cut off the internet? Because the internet is the channel through which Americans wanted to perform their evil and vicious acts,” Fadavi said. “We will deal with this, Islamic Republic supporters, and our proud men and women will sign up to make a domestic system similar to the internet with operating systems that [the Americans] can’t [control] even if they want.”
That likely refers to what has been known as the “halal net,” Iran’s own locally controlled version of the internet aimed at restricting what the public can see. The system known as the National Information Network has some 500 government-approved national websites that stream content far faster than those based abroad, which are intentionally slowed, activists say. Iranian officials say it allows the Islamic Republic to be independent if the world cuts it off instead.
But while Fadavi earlier said the protests were put down in 48 hours, he also acknowledged the scope of the unrest by comparing it to Operation Karbala-4, one of the worst military disasters suffered by Iran during its bloody 1980s war with Iraq.
That scope could be seen in one video. In the capital, Tehran, footage earlier aired by the BBC’s Persian service shot from a car purports to show a tableau of violence on Sattarkhan Street, as anti-riot police officers clashed with protesters.
In the video, a woman’s scream rises over the shouts of the crowd as plainclothes security forces wearing white surgical masks accost one man, who puts his hands up to his face and hunches over to shield his body. Men walk backward to watch the chaos amid police with batons and riot shields, then run.
A woman in a green headscarf argues with one anti-riot police officer in front of a car.
“What do you say?”‘ the police officer asks.
“He kicked my car,” she responds.
“Move,'”the police officer orders. “Whom do you want to blame in this situation?”
Someone chases a man in front of a bank as people curse. The car makes a right-hand turn onto another street. A police officer off-camera shouts: “Come here!”
“Go, go, go!” a woman in the car cries out.
The car speeds away, passing burning debris. The clip ends. It lasts only 35 seconds.
More than three dozen people are reported dead in a series of security-related incidents in Afghanistan, including a fatal attack on a U.N. vehicle in the capital, Kabul. Several of the dead were civilians.
Afghan officials said Sunday that Taliban rebels assaulted a security outpost in central Daykundi province overnight, killing eight soldiers and wounding four others.
Senior provincial authorities claimed the ensuing firefight also killed at least 20 assailants, though the Taliban disputed those claims.
Meanwhile, doctors and residents in western Farah province said an Afghan government air strike has killed at least nine civilians and injured several others.
The mainstream local TOLO news channel reported Sunday relatives took to the streets with bodies of the victims to protest and demand an immediate investigation into the deadly incident.
In Kabul, interior ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi said one foreign national was killed and five people were injured by a hand grenade hurled at a U.N. vehicle in the Makrorayan area of the city. The spokesman did not provide details but local news reports suggest the death toll may climb.
The United Nations condemned the attack and confirmed the death of an international employee in the Sunday night attack. It said two other staffers, including a foreigner and an Afghan, were injured.
“No further information about the identity of our international colleague who was killed, nor of those injured, an Afghan and another international colleague, will be released in the immediate future,” said a U.N.statement.
The world body demanded Afghan authorities swiftly investigate the attack and bring the perpetrators to justice.
There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the attack. Both the Taliban and militants linked to the Afghan branch of the Islamic State terrorist group have taken credit for previous attacks in Kabul.
TOLO quoted protesters in Farah province saying the worshipers were leaving a mosque in the Pusht Rod district after offering Saturday evening prayers when the air strike hit them.
Provincial authorities told the media outlet anti-insurgency operations were carried out in Posht Rod and a nearby district, but they would not confirm whether the action caused any civilian casualties.
Civilians continue to bear the brunt of the Afghan war. The United Nations has documented around 2,600 Afghan civilian deaths in the first nine months of 2019 while more than 5,600 were injured.
Засудженого у севастопольській «справі Хізб ут-Тахрір» Нурі Прімова регулярно вміщують у штрафний ізолятор. Про це повідомляє громадське об’єднання «Кримська солідарність» з посиланням на його матір Раїме Прімову.
«Моєму синові, Нурі Прімову, залишилося 2 місяці відсидіти, але його весь час чомусь садять в ШІЗО: в позаминулому місяці він відсидів 10 діб, за два дні до цього йому прийшла посилка з дому, йому її не дали туди. У результаті багато продуктів зіпсувалося, які йому довелося викинути; Зараз знову посилка прийшла (від нас), він її повинен отримати 25-го, але на зв’язок чомусь не виходить », – розповіла Раїме Прімова.
У вересні 2017 року Північнокавказький окружний військовий суд у російському Ростові-на-Дону оголосив вирок, згідно з яким севастопольці Ферат Сайфуллаєв, Рустем Ваїтов і Нурі Прімов, що проходили у справі «Хізб ут-Тахрір», отримали по п’ять років виправної колонії загального режиму.
Захисники заарештованих і засуджених у «справі Хізб ут-Тахрір» кримчан вважають їхнє переслідування мотивованим за релігійною ознакою. Адвокат Еміль Курбедінов зазначає, що переслідувані в цій справі російськими правоохоронними органами – переважно кримські татари, а також українці, росіяни, таджики, азербайджанці та кримчани іншого етнічного походження, які сповідують іслам. …
A French naval base in Abu Dhabi will serve as the headquarters for a European-led mission to protect Gulf waters that will be operational soon, France’s defense minister said on Sunday.
France is the main proponent of a plan to build a European-led maritime force to ensure safe shipping in the Strait of Hormuz after tanker attacks earlier this year that Washington blamed on Iran.
Tehran has denied being behind the attacks on tankers and other vessels in major global shipping lanes off the coast of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in May and which increased tensions between the United States, Iran and Gulf Arab states.
“This morning we formalized that the command post will be based on Emirati territory,” Defense Minister Florence Parly told reporters at a French naval base in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the UAE.
The command center will host around a dozen officials representing the countries involved, she said. In a speech to French military personnel, she said the next time she visited the base she hoped the mission would be operational and thanked the UAE for supporting it.
The UAE has tempered its reaction to the attacks and has called for de-escalation and dialogue with Iran.
On Saturday, Parly said the initiative could start early next year and around 10 European and non-European governments would join, pending parliamentary approval.
First announced in July, the plan is independent of a U.S-led maritime initiative which some European countries feared would make U.S.-Iranian tensions worse.
Parly said the two missions would coordinate in order to ensure safety of navigation in an already tense area.
“We hope … to contribute to a navigation that is as safe as possible in a zone which we know is disputed and where there has already been a certain number of serious incidents,” she said. She also condemned Iran’s latest violations of a 2015 nuclear deal.
On Saturday, Parly said Paris was sending Saudi Arabia defense equipment to confront low-altitude attacks after Riyadh requested help following a September assault on the kingdom’s oil facilities which Washington and Riyadh have also blamed on Iran. Tehran has denied involvement.
“We have not had an equivalent request from the UAE,” she said on Sunday.
Security forces opened fire on protesters in southern Iraq, killing at least five people and wounding dozens others, police and medical sources said, as weeks of unrest in Baghdad and some southern cities continue.
Protesters had gathered overnight on three bridges in the city, and security forces used live ammunition and tear gas canisters to disperse them, killing three, police and hospital sources said.
More than 50 others were wounded, mainly by live bullets and tear gas canisters, in clashes in the city, they added.
Two more people were killed and over 70 wounded on Sunday after security forces used live fire to disperse protesters near the country’s main Gulf port of Umm Qasr near Basra, police and medical sources said.
Hospital sources said the cause of death was live fire, adding that some of the wounded are in critical condition.
The protesters had gathered to demand security forces open roads around the port town blocked by government forces in an attempt to prevent protesters from reaching the port’s entrance.
On Friday, Iraqi security forces dispersed by force protesters who had been blocking the entrance to the port and reopened it, port officials said.
Umm Qasr is Iraq’s largest commodities port and it receives imports of grain, vegetable oils and sugar shipments that feed a country largely dependent on imported food.
At least 330 people have been killed since the start of mass unrest in Baghdad and southern Iraq in early October, the largest demonstrations since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.
Protesters are demanding the overthrow of a political class seen as corrupt and serving foreign powers while many Iraqis languish in poverty without jobs, healthcare or education.
The unrest has shattered the relative calm that followed the defeat of Islamic State in 2017.
Medical authorities evacuated infants and children from a hospital in central Nassiriya overnight after tear gas spread inside hospital courtyards, two hospital sources said.
Protests continued in Nassiriya on Sunday, with some government offices set on fire, sources said.
Elsewhere in southern Iraq, hundreds of protesters burned tyres and blocked some roads on Sunday in Basra, preventing government employees from reaching offices, police said.
Iraqi security forces also wounded at least 24 people in the Shi’ite holy city of Kerbala overnight after opening fire on demonstrators to prevent them from reaching the local government headquarters, medical and security sources said.
Twenty-two people have died from measles in Samoa.
All the deaths, except one, were of children younger than five years old, according to Reuters.
The South Pacific island has declared a state of emergency, with nearly 2,000 cases of measles reported.
The government has initiated a mass mandatory vaccination program.
Samoa said Saturday that 153 cases had been reported in the last 24 hours.
One mother who lost her two-year-old son to the disease told an Australian Broadcasting Company crew that her three oldest sons had been inoculated against the disease, but she was too poor to afford to have her two year old inoculated.
Iraqi security forces fired rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse crowds of protesters Saturday, killing two people in a third day of fierce clashes in central Baghdad, security and hospital officials said.
Two protesters were struck with rubber bullets and died instantly and over 20 others were wounded in the fighting on Rasheed Street, a famous avenue known for its old crumbling architecture and now littered with rubble from days of violence. Sixteen people have died and over 100 have been wounded in the renewed clashes. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.
At least 342 protesters have died in Iraq’s massive protests, which started October 1 when thousands of Iraqis took to the streets to decry corruption and lack of services despite Iraq’s oil wealth.
Separately, Iraq’s parliament failed to hold a session Saturday because of a lack of a quorum. Lawmakers were supposed to read reform bills introduced to placate protesters. The next session was postponed until Monday.
Iraqi demonstrators throw fireworks toward security forces during anti-government protests in Baghdad, Iraq, Nov. 23, 2019.
The fighting has centered on Rasheed Street and started Thursday when protesters tried to dismantle a security forces barricade on the street, which leads to Ahrar Bridge, a span over the Tigris River that has been a repeated flashpoint. Security forces responded with tear gas and live ammunition.
The violence took off again Friday afternoon. Live rounds and tear gas canisters were fired by security forces from behind a concrete barrier on Rasheed Street.
On Saturday, fighting picked up in the late afternoon and again in the evening, with security forces firing rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse crowds.
Protesters have occupied part of three bridges — Ahrar, Jumhuriya and Sinak — in a standoff with security forces. The bridges lead to the fortified Green Zone, the seat of Iraq’s government.
Hong Kongers are voting Sunday in a local election widely seen as a de facto referendum on pro-democracy protests that have recently taken a more aggressive turn.
The territory is on edge following days of intense clashes between police and groups of mostly student protesters, though the violence has subsided in the past few days.
Though the district council members being chosen Sunday have little power, pro-democracy forces still hope for a big win that will confirm public support for the protests.
Police have promised a heavy security presence at voting locations. Public broadcaster RTHK reports officers will be stationed inside and outside polling stations in riot gear.
“If there’s any violence, we will deal with it immediately, without hesitation,” Chris Tang, Hong Kong’s police commissioner, said.
A riot policeman stands as voters line up outside a polling place in Hong Kong, Nov. 24, 2019. Voting was underway Sunday in Hong Kong elections that have become a barometer of public support for anti-government protests.
District councils
Hong Kongers are choosing more than 400 members of 18 district councils scattered across the tiny territory. The district councils essentially serve as advisory bodies for local matters such as building roads or schools.
“I think the political message is more important than anything else,” Ma Ngok, a political scientist and professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said. “If the democrats really score a landslide victory, it will show very clearly that the public is in support of the movement.”
Hong Kong has seen five months of pro-democracy protests. The protests initially took the form of massive demonstrations against a reviled extradition bill, which could have resulted in Hong Kongers being tried in China’s politicized court system.
The protests have escalated in recent weeks, with smaller groups of hard-core protesters destroying public infrastructure, defacing symbols of state power and clashing with police. Protesters defend the moves as an appropriate reaction to police violence and the government’s refusal to meet their demands.
Despite the protester violence, polls suggest the movement still enjoys widespread public support. Meanwhile, the approval of Hong Kong’s Beijing-friendly chief executive, Carrie Lam, has fallen to a record low of about 20%.
Quasi-democratic system
Under Hong Kong’s quasi-democratic system, district councils have no power to pass legislation. But the vote could affect how the territory’s more influential Legislative Council and chief executive are selected in the future.
“That’s a big deal,” said Emily Lau, a former Legislative Council member and prominent member of the pro-democracy camp. “Because of this constitutional linkage, it makes the significance of the district council much bigger than its powers show you.”
The pro-democracy camp has tried to use the protests as a mobilizing force ahead of the vote and is fielding an unprecedented number of candidates.
A volunteer medic searches for protesters inside a building on the campus of Hong Kong Polytechnic University, where dozens of pro-democracy protesters remain holed up, in the Hung Hom district of Hong Kong, Nov. 23, 2019.
But they have a lot of ground to make up. Pro-government forces make up the majority in all 18 district councils, with the so-called “pan-democrats” taking up only about 25% of the overall seats, Ma said.
Hong Kong has seen a major surge in voter registration, particularly among young people. Nearly 386,000 people have registered to vote in the past year, the most since at least 2003, according to the South China Morning Post.
Voter sentiment mixed
At a recent pro-democracy rally in central Hong Kong, many protesters said they plan to vote, but they were divided on whether the election will lead to real change.
“I’m not excited,” said Ip, giving only her first name. “I think voting is one of our ways to express our voice, but I doubt the results will be very good.”
Another demonstrator, who gave the name Ms. Chan, said she also intends to send a message by voting.
“The government needs to listen to the people,” she said. “They do many wrong things, so I think many people will go out and vote.”
President Donald Trump’s new national security adviser is criticizing what he says is silence from the rest of the world about China’s confinement of more than 1 million Muslims in re-education camps, linking the lack of a global outcry to China’s economic clout.
National security adviser Robert O’Brien also questioned whether international leaders will stand up if Beijing carries out a Tiananmen Square-style crackdown on the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.
O’Brien met with journalists and was interviewed by a moderator at the Halifax International Security Forum on Saturday.
Speak up
“Where is the world? We have over a million people in concentration camps,” O’Brien said. “I’ve been to the genocide museum in Rwanda. You hear `never again, never again is this going to happen,’ and yet there are re-education camps with over a million people in them.”
O’Brien said the lack of criticism is especially surprising from Islamic states.
China is estimated to have detained up to 1 million minority Muslim Uighurs in prisonlike detention centers. The detentions come on top of harsh travel restrictions and a massive state surveillance network equipped with facial recognition technology.
FILE – An imam calls Uighur Muslims for afternoon prayer in China’s Xinjiang region, in 2012.
China has denied committing abuses in the centers and has described them as schools aimed at providing employable skills and combating extremism.
China and the U.S. are locked in a trade war, and the Trump administration has alternated between blasting the country’s leadership and reaching out to it. Trump imposed tariffs last year on billions of dollars’ worth of Chinese exports to the U.S., seeking to ramp up pressure for changes in Chinese trade and investment policies. China has retaliated with tariff hikes of its own.
O’Brien said that an initial trade agreement with China is still possible by year’s end, but that the U.S. won’t take a bad deal and won’t ignore what happens in Hong Kong.
O’Brien also said U.S. allies should think hard before allowing Chinese technology giant Huawei into their next generation of telecommunication networks, citing surveillance concerns.
“What the Chinese are doing makes Facebook and Google look like child’s play as far as collecting information on folks. Once they know the full profile of every man, woman and child in your country, how are they going to use that?” he asked.
Huawei spokespeople did not immediately return an email seeking comment Saturday.
Dolkun Isa, president of the World Uyghur Congress, said at Saturday’s conference that Trump himself has not addressed the camps publicly. Isa said his mother recently died in one of the camps.
Pompeo statements
O’Brien responded that the administration has spoken out about it. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is among the Trump officials who have raised China’s mistreatment of the Muslim Uighur minority, including citing it as a violation of religious freedom in a speech last month.
O’Brien declined to say what the U.S. would do if there was a crackdown in Hong Kong that rivaled the Tiananmen Square incident in 1989. More than 100,000 Americans and over 300,000 Canadians live in Hong Kong.
“I don’t want to get into tools or what the U.S. might or might not do,” he said. “But much of the world and many or our allies, and many of the countries represented at this conference, have been willing to forget Tiananmen Square and are heavily engaged in business with China.”
O’Brien is the fourth person in two years to hold the job of national security adviser. He previously served as Trump’s chief hostage negotiator. O’Brien made headlines in July when he was dispatched to Sweden to monitor the assault trial of American rapper A$AP Rocky.
As the special presidential envoy for hostage affairs at the State Department, O’Brien worked closely with the families of American hostages and advised administration officials on hostage issues.
An advocacy group says internet connectivity is rapidly being restored in Iran after a weeklong government-imposed shutdown in response to widespread protests.
The group NetBlocks said Saturday that connectivity had suddenly reached 60% Saturday afternoon.
It said on Twitter: “Internet access is being restored in (hash)Iran after a weeklong internet shutdown amid widespread protests.”
Confirmed: Internet access is being restored in #Iran after a weeklong internet shutdown amid widespread protests; real-time network data show national connectivity now up to 64% of normal levels as of shutdown hour 163 ??#IranProtests#Internet4Iran
There were reports that internet service remained spotty in the capital, Tehran, though others around the country began reporting they could again access it.
The order comes a week after the Nov. 15 gasoline price hike, which sparked demonstrations that rapidly turned violent, seeing gas stations, banks and stores burned to the ground.
Amnesty International said it believes the unrest and the crackdown killed at least 106 people. Iran disputes that figure without offering its own. A U.N. office earlier said it feared the unrest may have killed “a significant number of people.”
When he left the house last week, Joseph, a 19-year-old Hong Kong college student, told his parents he was going to hang out with friends. That was only partly true.
In reality, Joseph was headed for the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, where he and a group of hundreds of other young people barricaded themselves on campus, blocked a major highway, and stockpiled homemade weapons in preparation to battle police.
Night after night last week, the urban campus become a battlefield, as police rained tear gas and rubber bullets on students, who responded with Molotov cocktails, bricks, and whatever else they could find.
Though Hong Kong has seen five months of protests, this kind of violence is new. The pro-democracy movement that had been marked by massive street rallies now risks being overtaken by a smaller group of hardcore students who have shown they are willing to go beyond peaceful demonstrations and engage in prolonged battles with police in their push for democratic reforms.
“I would definitely admit that we’re using a certain level of violence,” says Joseph, who spoke via an encrypted messaging app. “But in order to protect the innocent protesters and create pressure on the government, a certain level of violence and power to fight back is necessary.”
In the minds of frontline protesters like Joseph, the violence is a last-ditch effort to preserve what is left of Hong Kong’s freedoms before the semi-autonomous territory is fully taken over by China in 2047. Hong Kong authorities accuse the protesters of engaging in violence that is incompatible with democracy.
Protesters walk inside Hong Kong Polytechnic University, in Hong Kong, Nov. 23, 2019.
VOA spoke with about 10 young protesters, all of whom were at Polytechnic University over the past week. Though the standoff is largely over, a couple dozen holdouts remain on campus. Most have either surrendered to police or escaped. Some of the protesters face possible riot-related charges that could land them in jail for 10 years. VOA has used pseudonyms to protect their identity.
‘We tried peaceful demonstrations’
“We tried peaceful demonstrations, but the government didn’t listen,” says Crystal, a Polytechnic student protester who has been on the run since leaving campus. She says she hasn’t been able to sleep a full night in more than a week.
“I’m scared, really scared,” she says.
Crystal wants to someday be an elementary school teacher, but for now she considers herself a revolutionary.
“Radical, I think, is a positive word for me, for us,” she says. “And most revolutions have violence.”
At this point, she’s unsure of whether to stay in Hong Kong and fight, or seek political asylum in another country.
“This is my place. This is my home. I need to protect it,” she says. “And I know that in 2047, I will become an old woman. But what about the next generation? And the next generation? What they will become? Brainwashed? Everything fake, like China?”
Debris and graffiti are seen inside the Hong Kong Polytechnic University campus, in Hong Kong, Nov. 22, 2019.
Outmatched
Most of the frontline students that fought at Polytechnic are in their teens or twenties. Some are new protesters. Others are veterans of the 2014 Umbrella Movement, a student-led protest that unsuccessfully pushed for universal suffrage.
When it comes to brute strength, the students are outmatched, not only by the weapons of the Hong Kong police, but even more so by those of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, the world’s largest military. The PLA has thousands of troops in Hong Kong and many more just across the border, though they have not yet left their barracks to confront the protesters.
“We deeply understand we are not able to win in hand to hand fighting,” says Joseph. “But still, we shouldn’t be silent in the face of injustices.”
That is a common sentiment among frontline protesters, many of whom resent local and mainland Chinese media that accuse them of being naive children who are being pushed to the frontline by irresponsible adults. In reality, many of the more extreme protesters seem frequently self-aware, expressing a potentially dangerous mix of fatalism and determination.
In other words: they know they’ll likely lose, but they’re willing to fight anyway.
“We both know that it’s impossible to win, but only persistence can bring hope. If we never try, we know how this ends. We can’t just say no no, impossible. Why not just try?” says Crystal.
Another student on campus, who carried a bow and arrow, and donned a military-style camouflage helmet, acknowledged that his weapons are no match for the forces he is up against.
A Lennon wall is seen on the campus of Hong Kong Polytechnic University, in Hong Kong, Nov. 23, 2019.
“All the protesters are scared—because maybe we will die,” he said, speaking in front of a pile of mangled classroom desks that had been stacked up to form a barricade against police. “But we think if we don’t stand up this day, [then] all the freedom in Hong Kong will lose. There is no way for us to go back now.”
“All of us here know what we are doing,” said another frontline protester at Polytechnic, who spoke through a black gas mask that distorted his voice. “Because our demands are not being addressed, that’s why we are having to escalate and upgrade our actions so as to get the results from the government,” he said.
Five demands
The latest round of protests erupted in June in opposition to an extradition bill. The proposal could have seen Hong Kongers tried in mainland China, where courts are controlled by the Communist Party and reports of torture and forced confessions are common.
Though authorities eventually abandoned the extradition bill, by then the protests had morphed into wider calls for democracy and opposition to the expanding influence of Beijing.
The protesters have adopted a list of five demands, including an investigation into police brutality, amnesty for arrested protesters, and direct elections for both the legislature and top executive.
But besides scrapping the extradition bill, Hong Kong authorities have refused to make concessions. Instead, as they have from the beginning, authorities dismiss the protests as riots.
“The rioters’ actions have far exceeded the call for democracy. They are now the enemy of the people,” Hong Kong’s Beijing-friendly Chief Executive Carrie Lam said earlier this month.
A place where Molotov cocktails were made is seen on the campus of Hong Kong Polytechnic University, in Hong Kong, Nov. 23, 2019.
‘Off the rails’
Though the protesters appear to still have the support of a large segment of the Hong Kong public, some are worried about the direction of the protests.
“This movement has come off the rails and is really out of control,” says Steve Vickers, the former head of the Royal Hong Kong Police Criminal Intelligence Bureau. “The violent element, the sharp end of it, is really destroying the message that the rest of them had established through large demonstrations, which were peaceful.”
Vickers points to instances where protesters have vandalized public infrastructure, such as subway stations and highway toll booths. In other cases, pro-Beijing individuals or businesses have been attacked or set on fire.
“Demanding five things or we will burn down your railway stations on a regular basis is not going to end happily anywhere in the world,” says Vickers, who heads the SVA Risk Consultancy.
In recent weeks, there have also been several attacks on pro-democracy figures, including one politician who had his ear partially bitten off by a knife-wielding man outside a shopping mall.
Election a referendum?
Sunday’s local elections could serve as a de facto referendum on the protest movement. Authorities had considered postponing the vote because of the violence, but they decided to move ahead, with a large police presence expected at polling stations.
“If the democrats really score a landslide victory, that will show very clearly that the public is in support of the movement, despite recent violence,” says Ma Ngok, a political scientist with the Chinese University of Hong Kong. “This will, I think … [create] much more pressure for the Hong Kong government to respond to the demands of the protesters.”
Polls suggest a generational divide between younger Hong Kongers, who are resentful of increasing Chinese influence, and older Hong Kongers, who prefer stability even if it means a lesser degree of freedom.
For frontline protester Joseph, whose father is pro-Beijing, that means sneaking out of the house to attend violent protests.
“We’ve had a few strong arguments, but I’m pretty sure there are many families struggling with that,” he says.
Although Joseph says he has no plans to stop protesting, he doesn’t expect the violence to get much worse, for now.
“Keeping pressure on the government,” he says. “That is our first priority at the moment.”
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, dubbed by critics “Putin on the Nile,” is set to boost his burgeoning relationship with Russia by dispatching his son, Mahmoud, to Moscow as a military attache, independent regional media outlets are reporting.
Russian officials say they welcome the prospect of Mahmoud el-Sissi being based in Moscow.
The reassignment would coincide with an open rupture between Cairo and Washington over Egyptian plans to buy advanced Russian warplanes.
In Washington, a senior U.S. State Department official Thursday threatened the Cairo government with sanctions if Egypt goes ahead with a $2 billion agreement to purchase more than 20 Su-35 fighter jets, a deal the relocated Mahmoud el-Sissi would likely oversee as military attache.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said the Trump administration was still discussing how to address its defense needs with Egypt adding that U.S. officials “have also been very transparent with them in that if they are to acquire a significant Russian platform like the Sukhoi-35 or the Su-35, that puts them at risk towards sanctions.”
The United States has provided billions of dollars in economic and military aid to Egypt, a longtime ally, whose military has been operating the U.S.-supplied F-16 fighter. Moving his son to Moscow is seen by Western diplomats here as a signal to Washington by el-Sissi of his intent to go ahead with buying the Su-35s.
“He’s playing hardball with Washington,” said a Western diplomat based here, who asked not to identified for this article.
According to independent media, Mahmoud el-Sissi’s reassignment, planned for next year, has the added benefit for Egypt’s president of moving his son out of the spotlight in Cairo. His role as a top official in the country’s domestic and foreign intelligence agency, the General Intelligence Service, has prompted turmoil within that agency, as well as growing public criticism of his father for not curbing his son, who has also been drawing allegations of corruption.
General Intelligence Service sources told Mada Masr, an Egyptian online newspaper, the reassignment to Moscow is “based on the perception within the president’s inner circle that Mahmoud el-Sissi has failed to properly handle a number of his responsibilities and that his increasingly visible influence in the upper decision-making levels of government is having a negative impact on his father’s image.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin has been intensifying his engagement with Middle Eastern and North African leaders, and seeking to rebuild Russian influence in the region, clout that was lost after the collapse of the Soviet Union, according to analysts. Some analysts see the re-engagement as an effort to safeguard established strategic interests. They cite as an example Russian intervention in Syria, where Moscow has its only Mediterranean naval base and needed to prop up the government of President Bashar al-Assad if it wanted to ensure its continuance.
FILE – Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi pose for a photo prior to talks in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, Russia, Oct. 23, 2019.
Others say Russia’s renewed assertiveness is being overblown.
“Putin’s apparent victories in spreading Russian influence are mirages, some of which have come at a great cost,” according to Rajan Menon, a senior research scholar at Columbia University’s Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies. “Putin’s gambit in Syria had more to do with safeguarding a long-standing strategic investment that appeared imperiled than with outmaneuvering the United States,” he said in a Foreign Policy magazine commentary.
Nonetheless the dispatch of Mahmoud el-Sissi to Moscow is coming at a time of heightened disagreement between Washington and Cairo. Washington has told Cairo that buying the Russian warplanes would place U.S. and NATO military cooperation at risk. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Mark Esper wrote jointly to the Egyptian leader urging him to reverse the decision to buy Russian jets.
Ties between el-Sissi and Putin began warming in 2014, when the Obama administration curtailed military aid to Egypt after the Egyptian army ousted the country’s first democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi. Cairo’s generals, smarting at Washington’s criticism of the coup that brought el-Sissi to power, talked openly of forging a “strategic realignment” with the Kremlin, evoking Egypt’s Nasser-era alliance with the Soviets.
Putin was quick to endorse el-Sissi as Egypt’s president, telling him during a 2014 visit to Moscow, “I wish you luck both from myself personally and from the Russian people.”
Putin also gave el-Sissi a black jacket with a red star on it, which el-Sissi wore during the Russian trip. Both men have much in common, coming from modest backgrounds and having gravitated toward the most powerful institutions in their closed societies, the KGB and the Egyptian army. They each rose cautiously up the bureaucratic ladder.
Last month, el-Sissi and Putin co-hosted the first Russia-Africa Summit, held at the Black Sea resort of Sochi. It was the third meeting between the two presidents this year. In October the Egyptian air force’s tactical training center near Cairo hosted joint Russian-Egyptian military exercises dubbed Arrow of Friendship-1. The two countries have held several joint naval and airborne counterterrorism exercises since 2015.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said during a visit to Cairo this month, “When we are in Egypt we always feel like at home.” The Russian military, he said, “is ready to assist in strengthening Egyptian military forces and defense capabilities.”
Shoigu’s delegation included top officials from Russia’s trade ministry, Rosoboronexport, Russia’s arms exporter, and the deputy director of the Federal Service on Military-Technical Cooperation, prompting speculation among military analysts that Moscow and Cairo may be discussing arms deals other than the Su-35s and weapons systems co-production arrangements.
Активісти зібралися біля посольства Росії в Києві з нагоди Дня пам’яті жертв Голодомору 23 листопада. Учасники обклеїли паркан біля дипломатичної установи банерами з написом «Голодомор 1932-1933. Пам’яєтаємо. Помстимось».
Як повідомляє кореспондент Радіо Свобода, акцію організували представники «Об’єднання добровольців» та «Всесвітнього руху патріотів України».
Як пояснили самі учасники журналістам, мета акції – нагадати про відповідальність у Голодоморі Радянського Союзу, правонаступницею якого вважає себе сучасна Росія.
«Ми уже п’ятий рік поспіль проводимо таку акцію поблизу російського консульства. Так нагадуємо суспільству і самим собі хто винен у цих смертях, адже велика кількість і дорослих, і малих в часи Голодомору загинули дуже жорстокою смертю. Росія вбивала українців тоді і продовжує робити це і нині тільки в інший спосіб», – йшлося в анонсі акції, оприлюдненому 20 листопада.
Аналогічні акції анонсувалися і біля дипломатичних представництв Росії в інших містах: Харкові, Львові, Одесі.
Росія не визнала штучний характер Голодомору 1932-1933 років. Російська дипломатія і частина ангажованої Кремлем наукової спільноти активно поширюють у світі, і насамперед у країнах Заходу, тезу про те, що Голодомор не може бути визнаний геноцидом, бо, за їхніми твердженнями, то був «голод, викликаний природними факторами, що охопив багато республік СРСР».
23 листопада в Україні та світі вшановують пам’ять загиблих під час Голодомору-геноциду 1932–1933 років. У цей день о 16:00 пройде акція «Запали свічку пам’яті» – щоб долучитися, достатньо запалити свічку на своєму вікні.
У листопаді 2006 року Верховна Рада України визнала Голодомор 1932–1933 років геноцидом українського народу.
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Україна з посиланням на дані науково-демографічної експертизи стверджує, що загальна кількість людських втрат від Голодомору 1932–33 років становить майже 4 мільйони осіб, а втрати українців у частині ненароджених становлять понад 6 мільйонів. …
Президент України Володимир Зеленський із дружиною Оленою Зеленською запалили свічки пам’яті в Національному музеї Голодомору-геноциду з нагоди Дня пам’яті жертв Голодомору.
Перед цим Зеленський виступив із промовою з нагоди роковин. Він відніс Голодомор до «злочинів, які доводять, що жорстокість та цинічність не мають меж».
«Існує маса досліджень, відкрито багато архівних документів про це написано дійсно десятки книжок і знято не один фільм. Проти величезна кількість фактів та доказів все одно не дає ані розуму, ані серцю відповідь на просте питання: «за що?». Як взагалі може з’явитися думка знищити цілий народ? Як можна забрати в людей останню крихту хліба, а з нею – останню крихту надії? Надії, що ти або хоча б твої діти доживуть до наступного ранку?» – сказав він.
У виступі Зеленський співставив кількість загиблих від штучного голоду з втратами України у Другій світовій війні.
«Ми українці і нам все до снаги, але є дві речі, яких ми ніколи не зможемо: не зможемо це забути, не зможемо це пробачити. Сьогодні Україна і весь цивілізований світ моляться за невинних жертв цього жахливого злочину проти нашого народу», – заявив президент.
Після цього Зеленський оголосив загальнонаціональну хвилину мовчання. По її завершенню він із дружиною запалив свічку пам’яті біля меморіалу.
Окрім Зеленського, свічки до меморіалу принесли прем’єр-міністр Олексій Гончарук, голова Верховної Ради Дмитро Разумков, третій президент України Віктор Ющенко, представники областей України та анексованого Криму, Українського інституту пам’яті, Світового конгресу українців, а також представники дипломатичних місій та міжнародних організацій.
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Офіс президента повідомляв раніше 23 листопада, що подружжя Зеленських вранці відвідало пам’ятник жертвам Голодомору, що на Михайлівській площі у Києві.
23 листопада в Україні та світі вшановують пам’ять загиблих під час Голодомору-геноциду 1932–1933 років. У цей день о 16:00 відбулася акція «Запали свічку пам’яті» – щоб долучитися, достатньо запалити свічку на своєму вікні.
У листопаді 2006 року Верховна Рада України визнала Голодомор 1932–1933 років геноцидом українського народу.
Україна з посиланням на дані науково-демографічної експертизи стверджує, що загальна кількість людських втрат від Голодомору 1932–33 років становить майже 4 мільйони осіб, а втрати українців у частині ненароджених становлять понад 6 мільйонів. …
