Author: Ohart

The cardinal’s response was not what Yolanda Martinez  had expected — or could abide.

Her son had been sexually abused by a priest of the Legion of Christ, a disgraced religious order. And now she was calling Cardinal Valasio De Paolis — the Vatican official appointed by the pope to lead the Legion and to clean it up — to report the settlement the group was offering, and to express her outrage.

The terms: Martinez’s  family would receive 15,000 euros ($16,300) from the order. But in return, her son would have to recant the testimony he gave to Milan prosecutors that the priest had repeatedly assaulted him when he was a 12-year-old student at the order’s youth seminary in northern Italy. He would have to lie.

The cardinal did not seem shocked. He did not share her indignation.

Instead, he chuckled. He said she shouldn’t sign the deal, but should try to work out another agreement without attorneys: “Lawyers complicate things. Even Scripture says that among Christians we should find agreement.”

The conversation between the aggrieved mother and Pope Benedict XVI’s personal envoy was wiretapped. The tape — as well as the six-page settlement proposal — are key pieces of evidence in a criminal trial opening next month in Milan. Prosecutors allege that Legion lawyers and priests tried to obstruct justice, and extort Martinez’s  family by offering them money to recant testimony to prosecutors in hopes of quashing a criminal investigation into the abusive priest, Vladimir Resendiz Gutierrez.

Lawyers for the five suspects declined to comment. The Legion says they have professed innocence. A spokesman said that at the time, the Legion didn’t have in place the uniform child protection policies and guidelines that are now mandatory across the order.

De Paolis is beyond earthly justice — he died in 2017 and there is no evidence he knew of, or approved, the settlement offer before it was made. But the tape and documents seized when police raided the Legion’s headquarters in 2014 show that he had turned a blind eye to superiors who protected pedophiles.

In addition, the evidence shows that when De Paolis first learned about Resendiz’s  crimes in 2011, he approved an in-house canonical investigation but didn’t report the priest to police. And when he learned two years later that other Legion priests were apparently trying to impede the criminal investigation into his crimes, the pope’s delegate didn’t report that either.

And a few hours after he spoke with Martinez, De Paolis opened the Legion’s 2014 assembly where he formally ended the mandate given to him by Benedict to reform and purify the religious order. The Legion had been “cured and cleaned,” he said.

In fact, his mission hadn’t really been accomplished.
 ___

Benedict had entrusted De Paolis, one of the Vatican’s most respected canon lawyers, to turn the Legion around in 2010, after revelations that its founder, the late Rev. Marcial Maciel, had raped his seminarians, fathered three children and built a cult-like order to hide his crimes.

There had been calls for the Vatican to suppress the Legion. But Benedict decided against it, apparently determining in part that the order was too big and too rich to fail. Instead, he opted for a process of reform, giving De Paolis the broadest possible powers to rebuild the Legion from the ground up and saying it must undergo a profound process of “purification” and “renewal.”

But De Paolis refused from the start to remove any of Maciel’s old guard, who remain in power today. He refused to investigate the cover-up of Maciel’s crimes. He refused to reopen old allegations of abuse by other priests, even when serial rapists remained in the Legion’s ranks, unpunished.

More generally, he did not come to grips with the order’s deep-seated culture of sexual abuse, cover-up and secrecy — and its long record of avoiding law enforcement and dismissing, discrediting and silencing victims. As a result, even onetime Legion supporters now openly question his reform, which was dismissed as ineffective by the Legion’s longtime critics.

“They always try to control victims, minimize them, defame them, accuse them of exaggerating things,” said Alberto Athie, a former Mexican priest who has campaigned for more than 20 years on behalf of clergy sexual abuse victims, including victims of the Legion.

“Then, if they don’t achieve that level of control, they go to the next level, looking for their parents, trying to minimize them or buy them off, silence them. And if that doesn’t work, they go to trial and try to do what they can to win the case,” he said.

Now, victims of these other Legion priests are coming forward in droves with stories of sexual, psychological and spiritual abuse, and how the Legion’s culture of secrecy and cover-up has remained intact.

“They say they’re close to the victims and help their families,” Martinez  told The Associated Press at her home in Milan. “My testimony is this didn’t happen.”
___

Martinez, a 54-year-old mother of three, chokes up when she recalls the day she received the phone call from her son’s psychologist. It was March of 2013, and her eldest son had been receiving therapy on the advice of his high school girlfriend. Martinez  thought she was about to learn that she would be a grandmother; she thought her boy had gotten the girl pregnant.

Instead, Dr. Gian Piero Guidetti told Martinez  and her husband that during therapy, their son had revealed that he had been repeatedly sexually molested by Resendiz  starting in 2008, when he was a middle schooler at the Legion’s youth seminary in Gozzano, near Italy’s border with Switzerland. Guidetti, himself a priest, told them he was required by his medical profession to report the crime to prosecutors.

His complaint, and the testimony of Martinez’s  son, sparked a criminal investigation that resulted in Resendiz’s  2019 conviction, which was upheld on appeal in January. Resendiz, 43, who was convicted in absentia and is believed to be living in his native Mexico, has until the end of March to appeal the conviction and 6 1/2-year prison sentence to Italy’s highest court. (Efforts by The Associated Press to reach his lawyer were unsuccessful.)

The investigation, however, netted evidence that went far beyond Resendiz’s  own wrongdoing. Documents seized by police and seen by AP in the court file showed a pattern of cover-up by the Legion and the pope’s envoy that stretched from Milan to Mexico, the Vatican to Venezuela and points in between.

Personnel files, for example, made clear Resendiz was known to the Legion as a risk even when he was a teenage seminarian in the 1990s, yet he was ordained a priest anyway in 2006 and immediately sent to oversee young boys at the Gozzano youth seminary.

“He’s a boy with strong sexual impulses and low capacity to control them,” Resendiz’s  novice director, the Rev. Antonio Leon  Santacruz, wrote in an internal assessment on Jan. 9, 1994. “Given his psychological character, he’s inclined to not respect rules without great difficulty and the psychologist thinks it will be difficult for him to undertake consecrated life given he has little respect for rules. He follows them as long as he’s being watched, but as soon as he can, he breaks them and has no remorse.”

A year later, on Resendiz’s  19th birthday, the seminarian wrote a letter to Maciel — addressing it as all Legionaries addressed the man they regarded as a living saint: “Nuestro Padre,” “Our Father.”

“I’m having various problems in the field of purity and the truth is I’m having a hard time, because temptations are coming to me,” he wrote. “I’m praying to the Holy Virgin every day for grace and asking her for strength to not offend again; I say again because I have had the disgrace of falling, but with the help of God I will fight to form that pure, priestly heart.”

When Martinez  saw such letters in the court file, her heart fell.

“My son wasn’t even born yet, she said. “How can you put someone like that in charge of a seminary?”

A Legion spokesman, the Rev. Aaron Smith, said the Legion has overhauled its training process for seminarians since Resendiz’s  era, applying more scrutiny before ordination.

“Things are different today,” he said in emailed response to questions.
___
      
While Milan prosecutors first heard about Resendiz’s  pedophilia in March 2013 when the therapist reported it, the crimes were old news to both the Vatican and the Legion.

The Legion has admitted it received a first report of abuse by Resendiz on March 6, 2011, from another boy who had been a student at Gozzano. The Legion says that boy, an Austrian, had first told a Legion priest of Resendiz’s  abuse. That priest recommended he report it to a church ombudsman’s office in Austria that receives abuse complaints, which he did, Smith said.

Separately, the Legion got wind of another possible victim in Venezuela, where Resendiz  had been sent from Gozzano in 2008, after he abused Martinez’s  son.

Italian police were never informed by the Legion or the Vatican. Neither the Vatican nor Italy requires clergy to report suspected child sex abuse.

When police finally did get wind of the case in March 2013, they uncovered elaborate efforts to keep Resendiz’s  crimes quiet. According to one email seized by Italian police — written March 16, 2011, or 10 days after the Austrian claim was first received by the order — a Legion lawyer recommended to one of the Legion’s most powerful behind-the-scenes superiors, the Rev. Gabriel Sotres, that a Legion priest visit with the victim in Austria.

The aim of the visit, prosecutors wrote in summarizing the email exchanges, “was to speak to the [victim’s] older brother and convince him to not tell their parents and not go to police because this could cause serious problems not only for the Legion but also Father Vladimir, all the other priests involved and the victim and his family.”

Smith, the Legion spokesman, didn’t deny the prosecutors’ account but said that “encouraging a child to keep something from their parents or guardians is contrary to our code of conduct.”

Later in 2011, the Legion arranged for Resendiz  to be transferred from Venezuela to Colombia, and prepared a legal strategy to limit the possible damage if the Venezuelan case escalated. The emails were sent to several Legion leaders, including Sotres, who remain in top positions today. In fact, in the Legion’s current leadership assembly under way in Rome to choose new superiors and priorities, at least 13 of the 89 priests were involved in some way in dealing with the Resendiz  scandal, fallout and cover-up, including two priests who are defendants in the upcoming Milan trial.

According to the seized emails, the plan proposed by a Legion lawyer involved reporting only Resendiz’s  name to Venezuelan police to comply with local reporting laws, leaving out that he was a priest, that he was accused of a sex crime against a child, and the name of the Legion, prosecutors said in summarizing the emails. The report would also note that he no longer lived in Venezuela.

The Legion has said Resendiz  was removed from priestly ministry and from his work with young people in Venezuela within days of receiving the initial Austrian report.

But the emails seized indicate that the restrictions weren’t necessarily enforced: One from Dec. 20, 2012, suggests that Resendiz was hearing confessions in schools and celebrating Mass in Colombia, news that prompted the leadership to ultimately recommend he be sent for psychological counseling in Mexico and later assigned to an administrative position “where they don’t know his situation.”

Eventually, as part of the church’s in-house investigation, Resendiz  confessed — but only to the Legion and Vatican authorities, and only about other boys he abused, not Martinez’s  son.

“I sincerely recognize my terrible behavior as a priest,” he wrote the Vatican official in charge of the sex crimes office in 2012, Cardinal Gerhard Mueller.

“Truly I lived in hell when these sad facts occurred. I recognize the gravity of the acts that I committed and I humbly ask the church for forgiveness for these sad and painful facts. I can’t understand how it could have happened, and I recognize that I lacked the courage to admit to the problem and advise my superiors of the danger.”

The Vatican defrocked him on April 5, 2013 — just a few weeks after Italian prosecutors first heard about Martinez’s  son.

By October of that year, the Legion was nearing the end of De Paolis’ mandate and clearly wanted to avoid the possibility that the Resendiz  case could explode publicly and jeopardize the plan to resume their independence from the Vatican.

Martinez  and her family, for their part, were coping with the trauma of her son’s abuse.

“He would have nightmares. He wouldn’t let me touch him …,” Martinez  said. “He couldn’t stand anyone being close to him.”

Once, he was even prevented from throwing himself in front of a subway train.

Martinez  had been in regular touch with the Legion priest closest to the family, the Rev. Luca Gallizia, her husband’s spiritual director. He was serving as the family’s contact with the Legion, after all other priests and members of Martinez’s  Regnum Christi social circle severed contact — apparently on orders from the leadership.

Gallizia traveled to Milan to meet with Martinez  on Oct. 18, 2013, bringing a proposed settlement to compensate the family. They met in a room off the parish playground of the Sant’Eustorgio basilica where Martinez  worked.

When Martinez  read it later that night with her husband, she was shocked.

“It was a second violation, because for all intents and purposes in that letter, they asked us to deny the facts. And for us it was a stab in the back because it was brought to us by our spiritual father. … He knew everything about us, because my husband confided in him. And that made it even more painful.”

The Legion declined to comment on the proposed settlement, citing the upcoming trial.

The document the Legion wanted Martinez’s family to sign states that her son ruled out having been sexually abused by Resendiz and regardless didn’t remember. It said he denied having any phone or text message contact with him, and that his ensuing problems were due to the fact that he left the seminary and was having trouble integrating socially into his new public high school.

The document set out payments for the son’s continuing education and therapy and required “absolute” secrecy. If the family were called to testify, they were to make the same declarations as contained in the settlement — denying the abuse.

A few months later, the Legion realized it had erred in leaving the proposal with Martinez  and proposed a revised settlement acknowledging the abuse occurred. Now, though, it required the family to pay back double the 15,000 euro ($16,300) settlement offer if they violated the confidentiality agreement.

It was then that Martinez  called De Paolis.

“Both my lawyer and I, our jaws dropped,” she told the Vatican cardinal. The pope’s envoy said he was surprised as well.

“Yes, but this, this is how it’s done in Italy,” he said.

The mother would have none of it. “It’s not a very nice agreement, signing a lie,” Martinez  told the cardinal. “Aside from the fact that I don’t want any money, I’m not signing the letter.”

…

Early voting has started in Nevada in the next U.S. Democratic Party presidential nominating contest, the third in a long string of state caucuses and party primary elections to pick a candidate to oppose Republican President Donald Trump in November’s national election.

The bulk of the voting occurs at caucuses next Saturday in the western state, the first where the Democratic contenders will face a racially diverse electorate. Hispanic and African-American voters comprise a large part of the Nevada population, unlike the predominantly white states of Iowa and New Hampshire where the first votes were cast in the last two weeks.

Pre-election polls show that Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, a self-declared democratic socialist who won the popular vote in both Iowa and New Hampshire, could also win in Nevada, home to the country’s gambling mecca in Las Vegas.

Muddled Democratic Presidential Race Heads to Nevada, South Carolina

Sanders and Buttigieg lead pack after two contests

Sanders was locked in tight vote counts with former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg in both of the first two states, but the political surveys show former Vice President Joe Biden could be his main challenger in Nevada. Biden, once the favorite in national polls to take on Trump, is seeking to regain his political footing after finishing fourth in Iowa and fifth in New Hampshire.

Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who finished third and fourth, respectively, in New Hampshire, are also looking to gain new strength in the Nevada voting ahead of a primary election in the southern state of South Carolina on Feb. 29.

The five candidates have had the field to themselves in the early contests. But come March 3, dubbed Super Tuesday with voting in 14 states, they will face a new challenger, former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Bloomberg, by his own choice, has skipped the voting in the first four states. But he has spent nearly $400 million of his own money on an array of television ads and hiring campaign workers throughout the Super Tuesday states and in states voting later in the Democratic chase for the presidential nomination.

Bloomberg’s ascent in national presidential polling has drawn the attention of Trump, who has disparaged his candidacy. Bloomberg’s rise has also drawn new scrutiny to his tenure as mayor of the country’s largest city from 2002 to 2013 and his ownership of his eponymous business information company that made him a billionaire.

Bloomberg has apologized for a “stop-and-frisk” policy he implemented on the streets of New York, an effort to curb crime, that he now acknowledges inordinately targeted minorities.

The Washington Post on Saturday published a withering account of the 78-year-old Bloomberg’s life as a corporate chieftain, detailing countless profane, sexist and misogynistic comments targeting women who worked at his company, many of them in the years before he entered New York City politics.

In response, a campaign spokesman said Bloomberg “simply does not tolerate any kind of discrimination or harassment, and he’s created cultures that are all about equality and inclusion.”

…

Syrian troops have made significant advances against the last rebel held enclaves in the country’s northwest, state media said on Sunday, consolidating the government’s hold over the key Aleppo province.   

The Syrian government advance also appeared to put the provincial capital of Aleppo out of the firing range of opposition groups for the first time in years, another sign of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s growing control of the area.
    
The armed opposition had been driven out of Aleppo city’s eastern quarters in late 2016, which they controlled for years while battling government forces who were in charge in the western part. Rebel groups had continued to harry government forces, however, from outside the city with mortar rounds.
    
State news agency SANA reported 30 villages and towns around the city in the western Aleppo countryside were captured on Sunday.
    
Rami Abdul-Rahman, the head of the Britain-based war monitor Syria Observatory for Human Rights, confirmed the report.
    
“This means the control of Aleppo [city], and the countryside and securing all of Aleppo,” Abdul-Rahman said.
    
The state-run Al-Ikhbariya TV said government troops were still besieging remnants of opposition fighters in a small part of rural Aleppo.
    
The fighting in the Aleppo region and nearby Idlib province has unleashed a humanitarian crisis. Over 800,000 civilians out of nearly 4 million living in the enclave have been displaced, living in open fields and temporary shelters for the most part in harsh winter conditions.
    
The armed opposition is now squeezed into a shrinking area of nearby Idlib province, where the government is also on the offensive.
    
“The Syrian people are determined to liberate all Syrian territories,” President Assad said according to the Syrian state news agency on Sunday.
    
Assad was speaking during a meeting with visiting Iranian parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani. Both Iran and Russia have heavily backed Assad in the civil war.
    
The Syrian leader also claimed “terrorists”  in northwestern Syria were using residents as “human shields,” in an attempt to stop Syrian troops from advancing into the territory.
    
Syria’s government considers all the opposition in the nine-year war as “terrorists” and has repeatedly leveled accusation that they take residents of areas they control as hostages. But many of the displaced in Syria’s Idlib province have fled the fighting in other parts of the country, choosing to live in areas outside of government control.
    
Turkey has sent thousands of troops and equipment into the opposition enclave, in an attempt to stall the government advance.
    
Turkey, which backs the opposition, has called for an end to the Syrian government offensive. It also fears that the displaced may overwhelm its borders. Turkey is already home to more than 3.5 million Syrian refugees. The United Nations has also called for a cease-fire.
    
Larijani, meanwhile, reiterated his country’s support for Syria in fighting terrorism. Iran has played a key role in supporting Assad’s war efforts, sending financial support as well as fighters to back up Syrian military operations.
    
Support from Russia and Iran has enabled Assad’s forces to regain control of much of the territories they had lost to armed groups who worked to topple him.
    
Over 400,000 people have been killed and half of Syria’s population displaced since peaceful protests in 2011 turned into a civil war stoked by foreign interventions.

…

A court in the Somali capital Mogadishu has sentenced an official with the city’s municipality to three years in prison for past membership of the al-Shabab militant group.

The court found that Nur Ali Ahmed (Mahad Alle) was a member of the terrorist organization and failed to follow the proper process to register himself as a defector when he left the group. He claimed he left al-Shabab in 2010.

During the hearing, Ahmed insisted that he reported his defection to the authorities but the court could not find a record of that. The court also established that prior to his appointment as Acting Director of Works for Mogadishu municipality; he also worked at Mogadishu’s port and at one of the city’s hospitals.

Ahmed was arrested following last July’s explosion at the Mogadishu mayor’s office, which killed the Mayor Abdirahman Omar Osman and seven other regional officials.

A blind female suicide bomber who was a senior aide to the late mayor as carried out the attack. The bomber went by the name Basira Abdi Mohamed although her real name was Maryam. The court released Maryam’s brother who was ordered to regularly report his movement to authorities.

The court did not find evidence-linking Ahmed to the explosion that killed Mayor Osman, but his past connection with the group was established after an investigation by the security agencies.

The conviction indicates a pattern of al-Shabab’s infiltration in administrations and social institutions, experts argue.

Just last month, the same court found a college teacher who is the son of a senior police officer guilty of being al-Shabab’s operational leader of assassinations in Mogadishu for several years.

Mohamed Haji Ahmed was sentenced to death after being convicted of assassinating three generals, a police corporal and a deputy attorney general.

In the worst case, a top official in Somalia’s National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA), Abdisalam Mohamed Hassan, was found guilty in 2014 of providing photos of intelligence agents and other identifying data to al-Shabab. Hassan is now serving a life sentence.

Meanwhile, a roadside explosion killed three soldiers and injured two others in the southwest of Mogadishu, Sunday. Al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the attack.

…

Afghanistan on Saturday marked the 31st anniversary of the last Soviet soldier leaving the country. This year’s anniversary came as the United States negotiates its own exit after 18 years of war, America’s longest. 

Some of the same Afghan insurgent leaders who drove out the former Soviet Union have been fighting the U.S. and have had prominent seats at the negotiating table during yearlong talks with Washington’s peace envoy. 

Moscow pulled out of Afghanistan in 1989, a decade after invading the country to support an allied communist government. Afghan mujaheddin, or holy warriors, received weapons and training from the U.S. throughout the 1980s to fight the Red Army. Some of those mujaheddin went on to form the Taliban. 

The U.S. and the Taliban agreed Friday to a temporary truce. If successful, it could open the way for another historic withdrawal that would see all American troops leave the country. 

The chief negotiator for the Taliban, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, was once an American ally against the Soviets. So was another Taliban negotiator, Khairullah Khairkhwa. He spent 12 years detained at Guantanamo Bay until his release in 2014 in exchange for U.S. Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl. 

The Taliban are now at their strongest since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan ousted them from power. 

No public festivities

Kabul’s streets were quiet Saturday, normally the busy start of the Afghan workweek. There were no official public celebrations marking the anniversary, and most people took the holiday off. 

Shakeb Rohin was only 7 years old when the Soviets pulled out. Now a graduate of Kabul University’s economics department, he said he couldn’t remember the Soviet occupation. Since then, he said, he’s witnessed only war. 

“We are so tried of war, we want a peaceful solution for Afghanistan’s problems,” he said. 

Abdul Shakor Ahmadi, 56, recalled how people were very happy on the day of the pullout. But he said the civil war that followed was worse. 

With the Cold War over, the U.S. lost interest in Afghanistan. The mujaheddin government — which included many of the warlords in Kabul today — eventually turned their guns on each other in the early 1990s. The fighting killed tens of thousands of civilians. It also led some former mujaheddin to regroup into the Taliban, who rose to power in 1996 and implemented a harsh interpretation of Islamic rule. 

Fear for the future

“I hope peace comes this time ,” Ahmadi said. “At least once in our lifetime we would be able to see peace in our country. We’re so worried about the future of our children.” 

It’s unclear when newly brokered truce will take effect. The peace deal would call for negotiations between Afghans on both sides of the conflict to start next month. It would also set a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops and include a commitment from the Taliban not to harbor terrorist groups like al-Qaida. 

Amin Mohammadi, a shopkeeper in Kabul, remained pessimistic. “Most people are jobless. No one has enough money to come and buy things. I don’t want to celebrate anything.“ 

“The Soviets withdrew, but what was the benefit?“ 

…

President Donald Trump is out to rev up his appeal with a key voting demographic — NASCAR fans — as he takes in the Daytona 500 on Sunday. 

NASCAR drivers may veer to the left during their trip around the oval racetrack, but their fans lean right, which helps explain the regularity with which GOP presidents have made their way to the track. 

Trump will be the second sitting president to attend the Daytona 500, after George W. Bush in 2004. Like Trump, he also attended the race during a presidential election year. 

Republican Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush also visited the track at Daytona but during races other than the 500. 

This year, Trump will serve as grand marshal and give the command for drivers to start their engines. 

Two-part appeal

Ari Fleischer, the White House spokesman under George W. Bush, said the visit should appeal to Trump on two fronts. 

“There’s a real sense of positive, overwhelming affirmation to hear the roar of the crowd. What politician doesn’t want that?” Fleischer said. “Secondly, there’s what I call the reverberation effect. People watching at home, who hear the roar of the crowd for a president, that can drive them toward some sense of approval or fondness or liking for the president.“ 

Just in case anyone misses the point, Trump’s reelection campaign will run a TV ad during the Fox broadcast of the race and fly an aerial banner near the speedway. 

Trump scored a coup in 2016 when Brian France, then NASCAR’s chairman and chief executive, endorsed him in the presidential race. While France’s endorsement was a personal matter, some critics said it hurt NASCAR’s efforts to boost its appeal among minorities. And Trump didn’t help matters when he repeatedly claimed he had received “NASCAR’s endorsement” rather than France’s. 

In 1984, Reagan became the first sitting president to attend a NASCAR race. That July, he started the Firecracker 400 at Daytona International Speedway, where he gave the command, “Gentlemen, start your engines!” from aboard Air Force One. Later, the plane landed at Daytona International Airport behind the speedway in full view of the fans. It was at that race that Richard Petty captured his historic 200th victory. 

Reagan stuck around until the end and even did a few laps of radio play-by-play during the race, congratulated Petty and then ate chicken with drivers, crew members, NASCAR employees and their families in the garage area. 

The senior Bush’s trip to Daytona occurred in 1992. As Reagan’s vice president, he also served as the honorary starter for the 25th running of the Daytona 500. 

President Barack Obama’s initial presidential campaign was presented with the opportunity to sponsor a car in a NASCAR race, but eventually declined that chance. However, Obama routinely invited the winners of the NASCAR Cup Series championship to the White House, a tradition Trump has continued. 

Penske honored

Last year, Trump took that outreach a step further, awarding the Presidential Medal of Freedom, one of the nation’s highest civilian honors, to Roger Penske, a businessman and founder of one of the world’s most successful motorsports teams. 

Democrat Bill Clinton didn’t get as friendly a NASCAR reception as the GOP presidents. 

During his visit to a NASCAR race as a candidate in September 1992, the question of his lack of Vietnam-era military service was still dogging his campaign. Many fans at the Southern 500 in Darlington, South Carolina, booed and heckled him. By contrast, when George W. Bush attended the Daytona 500, he received rock-star treatment. 

About 100,000 people are expected to attend this year’s race and millions more will watch on television. About 9 million people took in last year’s race on television. 

…

Algeria is marking the one-year anniversary this week of its massive popular uprising pretty much the way it started — with more street protests and a sense that demands for fundamental political change remain unmet.  

The political landscape has shifted dramatically. Ailing octogenarian leader Abdelaziz Bouteflika — whose quest for yet another term in office triggered the so-called Hirak protest movement — is out. In prison today are former prime ministers and other once-powerful establishment figures, including Bouteflika’s brother, Said. 

The current president, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, 74, wants to reform Algeria’s constitution, among other areas. Even powerful army General Ahmed Gaid Salah, who orchestrated the ouster of Bouteflika and other members of his regime, is out of the picture, having died suddenly in December. 

Yet protesters and analysts believe the fundamental pouvoir, or traditional power system of influential military and business leaders, remains in place. And while some suggest there are options for moving forward, the street and the government, for now, are at an impasse.   

Not enough impact

“The people in the streets now aren’t enough to pressure the government to meet their demands,” said analyst Brahim Oumansour of the French Institute for International and Strategic Relations, referring to the dwindling numbers in recent months. 

At the same time, he added, “I don’t think the Algerian government can continue failing to answer to their demands. The country cannot support such a political blockage.” 

In the streets and on social media, protesters claim their movement is as strong as ever, and vow another mass demonstration next Friday.   

“Fifty-second Friday of protest, the Hirak continues to be mobilized,” one Twitter post said, echoing many others. 

Establishment figures remain 

In other signs of recent changes, an appeals court confirmed this past week a 15-year prison sentence against Said Bouteflika, who was an unofficial “regent” during his brother’s later years in office, along with two intelligence chiefs, on charges of plotting against the army’s authority. Meanwhile, a controversial media boss once close to the ex-president was arrested on corruption charges.   

But other establishment figures remain. Topping the list is Tebboune, a former prime minister and favorite of Algeria’s powerful army. He was among a short list of old-regime candidates for Algeria’s December election to replace Bouteflika. Protesters called for a boycott of the vote, and even the official turnout was low at just 40 percent. 

Since his election, Tebboune has reached out to protesters, calling for dialogue, freeing some detainees and vowing to amend the constitution to give Parliament and the judiciary more power. After a period of focusing inwardly, Algeria is getting more involved in regional issues, including finding solutions to unrest in neighboring Libya and the Sahel region. 

But authorities continue to crack down on largely peaceful demonstrations, along with some independent unions, analysts say. 

Meanwhile, the protest movement remains unstructured, and some opposition parties refuse to engage in dialogue with the president.   

“The Algerian government is functioning but its legitimacy suffers and the country remains at an impasse,” wrote expert Robert Ford, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, a Washington-based research organization.  

Another combustible mix?   

To be sure, the current uprising is radically different from the bloody “Black Decade” of the 1990s, unleashed after the government canceled 1992 parliamentary elections that Islamists were poised to win. The conflict that followed — pitting Islamist militants against the military-backed government — that claimed roughly 150,000 lives was one key reason, analysts say, why Algerians failed to join the wider Arab Spring protests of the past decade. 

Today, however, Algeria’s struggling, oil-reliant economy, high unemployment and unmet political grievances could prove another combustible mix. For now, the government has kept sensitive subsidies on basic foods and fuel and other key items to avoid more protests. But it might be squeezed to change that policy, analyst Oumansour said.   

“If the economic situation leads to thousands of layoffs and inflation, it could perhaps drive the movement into violence,” he added, although not on the scale of two decades ago. 

Lack of leadership

Complicating the way forward, the protest movement has yet to produce any clear leadership. Some believe that is unlikely to change.   

“The Hirak is not a political party, and cannot be structured as such,” wrote Algeria’s leading independent newspaper, El Watan, in a recent editorial, since the movement “reflects all the currents of opinion of Algerian society.” 

Nor, the newspaper wrote, do Algerian authorities want the protest to become structured, since it would present a potent threat in the next elections.  

But Oumansour believes creating a credible opposition through the ballot box may be one key to ending the impasse. That would mean pushing up the next legislative and municipal votes, currently scheduled for 2022.    

“That would allow the Hirak to have its own legally recognized political leaders,” he said. “And it gives the government representatives they can negotiate with on the country’s future.” 

…

U.S. health officials are preparing for a second wave of the winter flu season, complicated this year by similarities between flu symptoms and those of the coronavirus that has killed more than 1,500 in China and spread fear around the world. 

A first round of seasonal flu, caused by a strain of influenza B, named B-Victoria for the city in which it was discovered, peaked in the United States in late December and then dropped off, according to the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention.  

However, the CDC says a second round of flu began in late January, caused by a strain of influenza A that is related to the swine flu that first appeared in 2009, and cases continue to increase. 

While there have only been 15 confirmed coronavirus cases in the United States as of Friday, health officials have expressed concern that if the virus were to spread in the country, it could initially look like the spread of seasonal flu. 

Coronavirus testing

In part to address these concerns, U.S. health officials announced they would begin testing some patients who have flulike symptoms for coronavirus in several U.S. cities. 

The testing will initially be carried out by public health labs in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago and New York, which are already testing for seasonal flu. 

Nancy Messonnier, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, told reporters in a telephone briefing Friday that labs will conduct the coronavirus test on patients who show flulike respiratory symptoms, but who test negative for the seasonal flu. 

Both the seasonal flu and coronavirus cause respiratory illness, fever and cough. Other typical flu symptoms include sore throat, muscle aches, runny nose and fatigue, according to the CDC. 

While scientists have studied the flu for decades, little is known about this coronavirus, dubbed COVID-19, because it is so new. Health officials are still trying to understand all the symptoms related to the new virus, as well has how it spreads and how often cases are severe. There have been few studies on the symptoms of coronavirus, however, research suggests patients most commonly suffer from fever, cough and shortness of breath and are less likely than flu patients to suffer from a sore throat and runny nose. 

To prevent the spread of the coronavirus to the United States, CDC officials have put in place travel restrictions and quarantine policies for people who recently visited China. However, officials say that strategy would change if the virus were to spread quickly in the United States. 

Messonnier said if there were an outbreak of coronavirus in the United States, the CDC would call for “social distancing” strategies that would include online schooling, teleworking, and canceling mass gatherings, in an effort to prevent people from spreading the virus. 

Flu kills 14,000 in US

While health officials put plans in place for any possible outbreak of coronavirus, doctors around the United States continue to help patients battle the seasonal flu. The CDC estimates that 26 million Americans have gotten sick with flu this season and around people 14,000 have died. 

Health officials say the first wave of the flu, a B strain, has hit children particularly hard this season, causing 92 deaths in children. B strains are more likely to cause a more severe illness and death in children. Cases of the flu among the elderly have been down this season. 

The CDC says concern about coronavirus might have prompted more people with flu symptoms to go their doctor for testing this season, although they say there is nothing in their data to confirm this. Messonnier said if more people are going to the doctor that is a good thing. “

People being a little worried and seeking care doesn’t especially worry me, because that’s the point,” she said.

…

It is arguably one of the most coveted prizes in Syria’s civil war, and after eight years of fighting, Syrian President Bashar Assad has got it back.

The Damascus-Aleppo highway, or the M5, is known to Syrians simply as the “International Road.” Cutting through all of Syria’s major cities, the motorway is key to who controls the country. 

Assad gradually lost control over the motorway from 2012, when various rebel groups fighting to topple him began seizing parts of the country.

Protests against his family’s rule had erupted the year before amid a wave of uprisings in the Arab world. This soon turned into a civil war, following a brutal government crackdown on dissent and the intervention of foreign powers in the growing conflict.

Historically a bustling trade route, one Syrian analyst, Taleb Ibrahim, called the M5 “the most basic and strategic highway in the Middle East.”

For the Turkey-backed rebels fighting Assad, the motorway was a cornerstone in holding together their territory and keeping government forces at bay. Its loss marks a mortal blow for opposition fighters whose hold on their last patches of ground in northwestern Syria is looking more and more precarious. 

Here’s a look at the M5, and its place in Syria’s nearly nine-year-long civil war: 

What is it? 

The M5 is a strategic highway that starts in southern Syria, near the border with Jordan, and runs all the way north to the city of Aleppo near the Turkish border.

The 450-kilometer (280-mile) highway links the country’s four largest cities and population centers: Damascus, Homs, Hama and Aleppo, cutting through Idlib province. 

Before the war, the M5 motorway served as an economic artery for Syria, mainly feeding the country’s industrial hub of Aleppo. Experts estimate the road carried business worth $25 million a day at the height of Syria’s trade boom before the war.

The highway was a passageway for the crossing of wheat and cotton from the Syrian east and north to the rest of the country. It was also a road used for the exchange of commodities with regional trade partners like Jordan, Saudi Arabia and other Arab states, as well as Turkey.

Recovering control

Regaining control over the highway has been a top priority of the Assad government since the early days of the war.

Its slow and tortuous recovery, in many ways, traces the arc of the Syrian war, which has killed nearly half a million people and uprooted half the country’s prewar population. 

The Syrian government began winning back segments of the highway, starting in 2014. That’s when Russia joined the war on the side of Assad, and essentially tipped it in his favor. 

Towns and cities along parts of the highway, including in the Ghouta region and in the suburbs of Damascus, now lie in ruins after long sieges and incessant bombardment forced them into submission. The Russian-backed recapture of Aleppo in December 2016 was another major game-changer.

End of the rebels’ road

Under a September 2018 agreement between Russia and Turkey, the M5 and M4 highways were supposed to be open for traffic, linking the government’s stronghold on the coast with Aleppo before the end of that year. That never happened, as insurgents refused to move away and allow joint Russian-Turkish patrols to protect the traffic there.

That eventually led to the latest government offensive in Idlib, the last rebel-held bastion in the country.

Government troops backed by Russia carried out several major advances in Idlib, retaking towns and villages on both sides of the motorway. The capture of Khan Sheikhoun was the first major breakthrough, followed by Maaret al-Numan and Saraqeb, located at the intersection between the M4 and M5. 

This week, Syrian troops recaptured the last rebel-controlled section of the highway around Khan al-Assal. That brought the road under the full control of Assad’s forces for the first time since 2012. 

The victory statement came not from the Syrian government, but from Russia’s defense ministry. It said in a statement Wednesday that “Syria’s most important transport artery” had been “freed” from rebel control.

Why it matters

The highway’s capture is possibly the most significant victory for Assad, whose forces have been making solid gains since the end of 2015 with the help of Russian airstrikes and Iran-backed fighters. 

Ibrahim, the political analyst, said the highway is so vital because it links the country’s two powerhouses: the capital of Damascus with the trading hub of Aleppo. 

“In other words it links Syria’s political capital with its economic capital,” he said. It also links up with the M4 highway at the Saraqeb knot, opening up traffic to the government’s coastal stronghold of Latakia and the port.

Fighting continues in areas near the highway, and much of Idlib province remains in rebel hands.

But the M5’s seizure goes a long way to re-connect government-controlled areas, after they had been severed from each other for years.

…

As the number of individuals identified as having had close contact with those diagnosed with coronavirus (COVID-19) rose to more than half a million people, those who have recovered from the disease are being urged to consider donating their blood to help cure others.

“Those who are recovering, kindly extend your arms, donate your precious blood, let’s work together to save those still struggling against the devil of disease,” the head of Wuhan’s Jinyintan Hospital was quoted as saying by China’s official Xinhua news agency Thursday.

“Those who have recovered possess a considerable amount of neutralizing antibodies in their bodies, which can fight against the new coronavirus,” Zhang Dingyu, the hospital director, announced at a news conference, according to Xinhua.  

China Reports Nearly Half a Million People Have Had Close Contact With Coronavirus Patients

Report shows the number of those who have had close contact has more than doubled in 10 days

A neutralizing antibody is part of the body’s response to an infection. Their creation can be triggered by the arrival of a foreign body such as a virus in the body, or by vaccinations.

“After an infection, it can take some time for the host to produce highly effective neutralizing antibodies but these persist to protect against future encounters with the agent,” researchers say.  

Given that no vaccine or specially designated drugs are currently available, processed plasma from recovered patients’ blood could help those in critical condition, Xinhua reported.

…

Once considered a lover’s holiday, St. Valentines has extended into a day when people express love for family members, friends, colleagues and community members as well as for spouses, lovers and partners. Sales of flowers and chocolate peak around the mid-February holiday and restaurant business thrives. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke has this report.

…

Delegations from Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan continue to negotiate water usage issues relating to the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam being built on the Nile River. 

Following two days of meetings in Washington, the U.S. Treasury Department issued a statement saying the technical and legal teams from all countries are making progress toward a final agreement that will be reviewed by leaders in the respective countries.

“The United States, with technical support from the World Bank, has agreed to facilitate the preparation of the final agreement for consideration by the ministers and heads of state for conclusion by the end of the month,” said Steven Mnuchin, U.S. secretary of the treasury.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, now on a trip that will include stops in Angola, Ethiopia and Senegal, said he is closely monitoring the negotiations.

“I went over and saw the Sudanese and the Egyptians and the Ethiopians yesterday to encourage them to make progress on that, to make sure that everyone’s got the water that they need,” he told VOA aboard his aircraft.

Electricity and water flow among concerns

The $4 billion dam is one of the largest infrastructure projects in African history. Ethiopia hopes to complete it by 2022 and believes it could produce 6,000 megawatts of electricity, some of which could be exported.

But Egypt and Sudan have worried about the dam’s impact on water flow. Egypt relies on the Nile for 90% of its water needs.

Sudanese Irrigation and Water Resources Minister Yasser Abbas said his country is leaving the meetings feeling optimistic.

“I must say we have made huge progress since then and it dealt mainly with how to fill the dam at the beginning and how to operate the dam,” he told VOA. “And in Sudan, we see the dam as a potential opportunity for regional cooperation.”

Abbas said there are both positive and negative impacts of the dam for Sudan. The positive is that it will regulate the flow of water making for a fairly consistent water level on the Blue Nile. The negative, he said, is that it could impact farmers who practice “floodplain agriculture” in the areas where water spills over the banks of the Nile. 

Filling the dam

A key point of contention is how quickly Ethiopia will fill the dam. 

“Our main concern is that we want to see the three countries agree on the initial filling,” Abbas said. “How many years it takes to fill and how the operation would be afterward.”

The dam will have a capacity of 10.2 million cubic meters of water. Earlier proposals by Ethiopia had called for it to be filled over four to seven years, but Egypt requested a slower timetable in the event of prolonged droughts or water shortages. 

In an interview with VOA’s Amharic service, Ethiopian Ambassador to the United States Fitsum Arega said the negotiations have examined different possible scenarios including a drop in water level because of climate change, consecutive dry years or a prolonged, once every 100-year drought. The technical teams are trying to reach agreements on what would be done in each of these cases. Fitsum said recent efforts at negotiating these issues have been derailed by countries bringing up unspecified issues that the Ethiopians consider separate from the dam and water usage.

“When we see what is presented from all three countries, the three countries’ expectations are different,” Fitsum told VOA Feb. 1, speaking in Amharic. 

“From the Ethiopian side, we just wanted to focus on the project, the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam project. That is the only thing that we want to be discussing.”

Power generation

Another source of debate is how much of the power generated by the dam will benefit Sudan and Egypt. Ambassador Mohamed Higazy, a former assistant to the Egyptian foreign minister, said he would like to see the dam be a vehicle for regional integration including integrating the power grids of the three countries.

“Egypt and Sudan are very close to completing the power grids,” he told VOA. “Why not with the Renaissance Dam, which electricity can be used in the markets of Sudan and Egypt and then exported to the regional Gulf market or further to Europe through the Egyptian power grid?” 

Higazy added that he is cautiously optimistic about the talks, but hopes all parties will look at the bigger picture of regional prosperity and environmental stewardship instead of their own, narrow interests.

“If we want to help the river ecosystem, if we want to help the people and economies in the three countries, we have to embark on a regional framework where water security will not be decided by national aspiration, only by the region aspiration,” he said. 

This story originated in the Africa division with reporting contributions from VOA’s diplomatic correspondent Cindy Saine, English to Africa’s Jason Patinkin, Nadia Taha, Mohamed Elshinnawi and Horn of Africa’s Amharic service Habtamu Seyoum.
 

…

Nigeria’s military burned down villages and forcibly displaced hundreds of people in its fight against Islamist insurgents in the country’s northeast, rights group Amnesty International alleged Friday.

Nigeria’s military, which has frequently been accused of human rights abuses in its decade-long fight against Boko Haram and more recently Islamic State’s West African branch, did not respond to requests for comment.

Three residents interviewed by Reuters confirmed Amnesty’s findings.

Previous allegations have sparked investigations by the International Criminal Court in the Hague and hampered Nigeria’s ability to purchase arms, a source of frustration for its military’s leaders. However, convictions of soldiers have been rare and the military has repeatedly denied wrongdoing.

Hundreds forced to flee

In the latest allegations, Amnesty said Nigerian soldiers razed three villages after forcing hundreds of men and women to leave their homes in the northeastern state of Borno in January. The human rights group said it interviewed 12 victims and reviewed satellite images that showed several large fires in the area and almost every structure razed.

Residents described soldiers going house to house and rounding people up, then making them walk to a main road and board trucks, it said.

“We saw our houses go into flames,” a woman who was about 70 years old told Amnesty. “We all started crying.”

The trucks took more than 400 people to a camp for people displaced by the conflict in Maiduguri, the main city in the region.

“These brazen acts of razing entire villages, deliberately destroying civilian homes and forcibly displacing their inhabitants with no imperative military grounds, should be investigated as possible war crimes,” said Osai Ojigho, director for Amnesty International Nigeria, in Friday’s statement detailing the group’s investigation.

Soldiers also detained six men, beating some of them, and held them for almost a month before releasing them without charge Jan. 30, Amnesty said.

It cited Nigerian Army statements from the time that said six Boko Haram suspects had been captured and hundreds of captives freed from the militants.

Witness accounts

“They say they saved us from Boko Haram, but it’s a lie,” said one man roughly age 65, according to Amnesty. “Boko Haram isn’t coming to our village.”

Three residents from two of the affected villages, now living in Maiduguri, described to Reuters the same events as in the rights group’s report.

“The soldiers called us Boko Haram and set our houses ablaze, before evacuating all of us,” one of the residents said.

Amnesty’s report was published as the military struggles to contain the insurgencies, particularly Islamic State. Last July, troops began to withdraw to larger garrisons, dubbed “super camps,” from smaller bases that were frequently overrun with heavy loss of lives.

That has left the military on the defensive and the insurgents able to roam across large swathes of territory and carry out attacks, often on civilians, with few repercussions.

…

Protesters in Malawi have shut down offices of the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) in 10 districts in an attempt to force all commissioners to resign.

The move comes 10 days after the Constitutional Court nullified last May’s presidential elections because of “widespread” irregularities and ordered new elections. But commissioners have appealed the ruling and are refusing to step down.

In Blantyre, protesters used steel-iron chains and huge locks to seal the gate of the main entrance to MEC headquarters.  

“What we are trying to mean here is that no one should get here as long as they are not resigning. All we need is [for MEC chairperson] Jane Ansah to resign and now we have included all the commissioners of the MEC because they have proven to be incompetent. We need people to have the competence,” said Masauko Thawe, the southern region coordinator for the Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC), which organized the protests.

The Constitutional Court said the irregularities showed the MEC’s incompetence in handling the presidential elections and ordered new elections in 150 days.

This week, members of parliament questioned the election commissioners at a public hearing to determine if they are capable of running a new poll.

The commissioners, including chairperson Ansah, dismissed accusations of incompetency.

Some said they will resign only if the Supreme Court of Appeal faults them, while others said they will not resign at all.

But HRDC’s Thawe says mechanisms are in place to safeguard the shutdown.

“We are going to monitor each and every day. You come, you check, you will see people here monitoring. And we are not stopping here.  It’s a continuous demonstration until we see these commissioners including the CEO [Chief Elections Officer] resign,” Thawe said.

Mustapha Hussein, who teaches political science at the Chancellor College of the University of Malawi, told VOA shutting down the MEC offices is ill-timed.

“Because the case of MEC is in the courts and we heard about the judgment which shows that there are solutions being put forward to what is happening. So, in that sense I would say that the act of shutting down the offices might be going too far and might not auger well with the laws of Malawi,” he said.

Hussein also said the shutdown would affect MEC preparations for the new elections expected to be held in June.

Ansah told parliament Wednesday that the electoral commission is currently working on the budget for the new elections.

…

Organizers of the world’s biggest mobile technology fair insisted Thursday that they canceled the annual Mobile World Congress due to health and safety concerns over the virus outbreak in China. But the Spanish government disagreed, hinting that there was another motive for the cancellation.

“This is indeed a very difficult situation and a very difficult decision that we have taken,” Mats Granryd, director general of the GSMA, told reporters in Barcelona on Thursday, a day after they canceled the event.

“Our priorities have been very clear and very simple: The first is health and safety of everyone involved in the show and the second priority is the reputation of the MWC and this event here in Barcelona,” he said.

The decision to scrap the Feb. 24-27 event in Barcelona was taken after dozens of tech companies and wireless carriers dropped out over the COVID-19 virus, including major companies like Ericsson, Nokia, Sony, Amazon, Intel and LG. The companies cited concerns for the safety of staff and visitors.

But the Spanish government said in a statement Thursday it “believes it is not public health reasons in Spain that have motivated the cancellation.”

“There is no public health reason to not hold events of this type in our country,” the government added. It did not say what reasons it thought were behind the decision.

Spain has only two people infected with the virus, neither of whom is in Barcelona.

Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau, sitting alongside Granryd, also said, “neither in Barcelona, Catalonia or Spain does any health concern exist today. There is no local reason” to cancel.

Granryd said the decision had nothing to do with the trade differences between China and the U.S., as suggested by one reporter who noted that some of those that had canceled were at events in Amsterdam.

“Absolutely not. Everyone I have spoken to, this is a health and safety issue concern, concern of travel, concern of having to put business-critical resources in quarantine for 14 days so it has nothing to do with anything else than the force majeure situation of having coronavirus disease spreading on the planet,” Granryd said.

John Hoffman, chief executive of GSMA, emphasized they were dealing with “business-critical people,” including 8,000 CEOs. He said “there was grave concern on disrupting their business not only now but into the future.”

Granryd said GSMA could not discuss the costs of the cancellation, as it was “early days.”

“It’s not about money,” he added.

Hoffman said they had considered a scaled-down event but “all of our buyers have indicated they would not attend.”

He said they looked at the data Wednesday and concluded that the “vast majority of those who planned to attend were not going to be there.”

He said it was not possible to postpone the event because it was impossible to know when the situation would change.

Describing it as “a very dark day,” Hoffman said that the group nevertheless looked forward to hosting the event again in Barcelona in 2021. Barcelona city hall and the national government welcomed this.

The show was originally expected to draw more than 100,000 visitors from about 200 countries, including 5,000-6,000 from China.

The decision stands to be a major economic blow to the city, which has been hosting the event for 14 years.

Colau said “the local impact will be very substantial” and that authorities will consult with those sectors affected to see how they can reduce the financial pain.

The show normally represents a huge source of revenue for hotels, restaurants and taxi companies. Authorities have estimated the show would generate 473 million euros ($516 million) and more than 14,000 part-time jobs for the local economy.

…

When a grand jury revived the criminal case against Jussie Smollett, the indictment for many people called to mind two nights on two different streets in the same big city.

On one Chicago street was a wealthy, famous black man who claimed he was a victim of a racist, anti-gay attack. On the other street was an anonymous black teenager shot 16 times by a white police officer.

A day after Smollett was charged for a second time  with staging the attack, the two cases reopened divisive arguments about the role of race and class in the justice system and what fairness looks like.
 
“The integrity of the legal system is at stake,” said David Erickson, a former state appellate judge who teaches at Chicago Kent College of Law. If Smollett “would have walked away, everybody would have thought there is no justice in Cook County.”

A special prosecutor  decided to prosecute Smollett again, 11 months after county prosecutors dropped charges that the “Empire” actor hired two men to fake the attack to further his career. He has maintained his innocence.

Delmarie Cobb, a local media and political consultant, said she thinks less about Smollett’s account of what happened, which she never believed, than about the 2014 fatal police shooting of  Laquan McDonald and how it took the city a year to release the dashcam video — only after a judge ordered it — and to charge the officer with murder.

“As a black person, I am insulted by the whole thing and … all I can think about is 16 counts versus 16 shots,” she said, referring to the number of counts of disorderly conduct that prosecutors originally charged Smollett with.

She wondered about all the anger expressed by former Mayor Rahm Emanuel, former Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson and others who blasted Smollett for lying to police and smearing the city after evidence pointed to a conspiracy to mislead authorities and drum up publicity.

“Where was the outrage when Laquan McDonald was killed in the year before we discovered the video?” she asked.

What is more outrageous, Cobb said, was watching the police department throw dozens of officers working hundreds of hours onto Smollett’s case, which involved no injuries, while giving far less attention to the hundreds of shooting deaths elsewhere in the city.

The department, she added, went so far as to track down Smollett’s alleged accomplices in Africa while its rate of resolving homicide cases lags far behind other major police forces.

Erickson and others suggested that Smollett’s case also raises serious questions about political influence.

They say special prosecutor Dan Webb’s investigation was important because of what happened in the days after Smollett was first charged:  Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx  communicated with a member of Smollett’s family at the request of Tina Tchen, Michelle Obama’s former chief of staff.

Her actions, critics say, sent a powerful message to anyone who was paying attention.

“This told everyone if you have the right friends, you can get away with it,” Erickson said.

“The last thing a prosecutor should do is take the political temperature of anything and make decisions based on that kind of influence,” said Ron Allen, a professor at Northwestern University’s law school. “That’s utterly despicable.”

Smollett was accused of stoking racial tensions with his claim that his attackers looped a rope fashioned as a noose around his neck. Erickson and Allen believe Foxx turned the case into a lesson about influence.

“Race has nothing to do with juice in Chicago,” Erickson said, referring to political clout or influence. “People of all colors have juice in Chicago.”

Foxx said she recused herself from the matter before her office secured an indictment against Smollett, but she continued to weigh in throughout the case. She has suggested the criticism does have a lot to do with race — her race.

“I have been asking myself for the last two weeks what is this really about?” she said last year after her office dropped the charges. “As someone who has lived in this city, who came up in the projects of this city to serve as the first African American woman in this role, it is disheartening to me … that when we get in these positions somehow the goal posts change.”

On Wednesday, it was not lost on her that the six-count indictment came just weeks before an election in which Foxx’s opponents are using her handling of the Smollett case against her.

“I certainly would hope that the decision in this case was based on the facts, the evidence and the law,” she said.

Marshall Hatch, a prominent minister on the city’s West Side, said he thinks the charges are part of a larger effort to siphon enough black votes away from Foxx to cost her a second term. As an example, he pointed to a television ad by one of her opponents that includes a young black woman who says she did not get the same kind of treatment in her criminal case as Smollett did.

Foxx has “done a good job for our community, and now this will be used to kind of muddy her up,” he said.     

…

For decades, the U.S Justice Department has aspired to serve as a model law enforcement agency that largely operates independent of political influence. Federal prosecution decisions and sentencing recommendations have been made by career lawyers operating under strict rules of conduct, a rarity in countries with a weak rule of law. 

Now that image is being severely tested in the wake of the Justice Department’s controversial decision Tuesday to reverse its own prosecutors’ recommendation that Roger Stone, a longtime confidant of U.S. President Donald Trump, receive seven to nine years in prison for crimes unearthed during the Mueller investigation into Russian election meddling. A jury convicted Stone in November of lying to Congress, obstruction of justice and witness tampering. 

The extraordinary move led all four federal prosecutors assigned to the Stone case to withdraw from it, including one who resigned in protest, raising questions over whether Trump exerted undue influence over his attorney general, William Barr, to intervene in the case. 

Barr to testify

Amid calls for an investigation into Barr’s decision, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler announced Wednesday that the attorney general would testify before his panel on March 31 “to address numerous concerns regarding his leadership of the Department of Justice and the president’s improper influence over the department and our criminal justice system.” 

A letter signed by Nadler and 22 other Judiciary Committee Democrats asserts that Barr “engaged in a pattern of conduct in legal matters relating to the president that raises significant concerns for this committee.” 

Trump has denied speaking to Barr about the case, although he says he is glad the Justice Department interceded. Still, many administration critics suspect that undue political influence played a role. That perception will hurt U.S efforts to present itself “as a model country with a model rule of law,” said former Justice Department prosecutor David Axelrod, now with the Philadelphia law firm of Ballard Spahr.  

“It sends a message to countries that we’re not that much better than the countries that we’ve criticized for so many years,” Axelrod said. 

It is not clear exactly what prompted Barr’s decision to intervene in the case. Sentencing recommendations are normally made by career prosecutors, and it is almost unheard of for an attorney general to intervene in a sentencing recommendation, according to former Justice Department officials. 

‘Excessive’ recommendation

A Justice Department official said Tuesday that the recommended sentence was “extreme and excessive and disproportionate to Stone’s offenses” and that the decision to reverse it was made before Trump vented about it in a tweet late Monday. 

That may have been the case, but the circumstances surrounding the decision suggested that prosecutors felt they were overruled for political reasons. Just hours after the controversy heated up, Trump tweeted early Tuesday to congratulate Barr “for taking charge of a case that was totally out of control and perhaps should not have even been brought.” 

The tweet, said Fordham Law School professor Bruce Green, reinforced a perception that Barr had acted improperly.   

“The appearance is that it was done either because the president asked to or because [Barr] thought it would be consistent with what the president wanted, not with traditional criminal justice values and traditions,” Green said.  “If that’s the case, then the sentencing is a real black eye for the Department of Justice from the point of view of its independence.” 

The Justice Department is a uniquely American institution. Headed by the attorney general who reports to the president, it is part of the executive branch. Although some presidents have tried to use it to advance their political agendas, recent administrations of both political parties have largely kept the department at arm’s length, allowing it to conduct investigations and prosecutions independent of political pressure. 

That long-standing tradition has been put to the test under the Trump administration as the president, embracing a sweeping view of executive power, has sought to influence the outcome of investigations affecting him and his associates. 

Comey, Sessions

Just four months into his administration, he fired FBI Director James Comey over the Russian election meddling investigation, which he called a “witch hunt” meant to oust him. He repeatedly attacked his first attorney general, Jeff Sessions, for recusing himself from the investigation before firing him in late 2018. 

Last year, Trump caused a stir among law enforcement officials when he suggested that charges against a top Chinese telecom executive under indictment by the Justice Department could be dismissed as part of a trade deal with China. 

Barr, a conservative Republican lawyer now serving his second tenure at the helm of the Justice Department, has emerged as one of Trump’s biggest defenders in the administration. His views of executive power mirror those of Trump. 

Last year, Barr cleared Trump of obstruction of justice in connection with the Russia investigation after Mueller left the question undecided. That led to criticism that he was serving as the president’s personal attorney. 

Current and former Justice Department employees say that the Stone incident has had a debilitating impact on many at the department. 

“It’s safe to say my former colleagues are appalled by what’s going on in the Department of Justice,” said William Yeomans, a former longtime Justice Department official.  “Every colleague I’ve talked to is deeply affected by it.” 

The four prosecutors’ withdrawal is likely to encourage other Justice Department employees to push back in the face of outside pressure and to report instances of undue political influence to the Justice Department’s inspector general.  

‘Not what you signed up for’

“Memo to all career DOJ employees,” former Justice Department Inspector General Michael Bromwich tweeted on Tuesday.  “This is not what you signed up for. The four prosecutors who bailed on the Stone case have shown the way. Report all instances of improper political influence and other misdeeds to the DOJ IG, who is required to protect your identity.” 

But reporting abuse to the watchdog goes only so far, Axelrod said. 

“If you have a Department of Justice who’s now decided that it is going to be political and he is going to act at the behest of the president,” he said, “there is not much legally that can be done.” 

…

Political and military leaders from across the world head to Germany for the three-day Munich Security Conference that opens Friday. As Henry Ridgwell reports from Munich, from Iran to Hong Kong, Ukraine to Libya, there is no shortage of security flashpoints — and the conflicts are taking place against the backdrop of the coronavirus outbreak and a global climate emergency.

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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is heading to the Munich Security Conference, Senegal, Angola, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia and Oman, with security, economic ties and shared values likely to be a common thread at all of the stops.

At the Munich Security Conference,  Pompeo and leaders from around the world are likely to discuss the coronavirus, efforts towards ending the violence in Afghanistan, the security situation in Iraq, and the threat posed by Iran.

The visit will be Pompeo’s first as the chief U.S. diplomat to sub-Saharan Africa, and his first stop there will be Senegal.  A senior State Department officials told reporters the U.S. has 60 years of relations with Senegal and shares strong democratic values with Dakar.

 “Senegal is an extremely strong security partner for the United States. Especially with the very serious stability, terrorism, conflict problems going on in that region, Senegal is an absolute bulwark.”

The senior State Department official said Senegal exports stability instead of instability, and is a very tolerant society — in many ways a role model for the entire continent. Pompeo is planning to meet with Senegal’s President Macky Sall.

U.S. Africa Command says there are currently some 6,000 U.S. military personnel deployed in Africa, but that number could be reduced following a global review the Pentagon is conducting.  Senegal’s President Sall has said a drawdown of U.S. forces would be a mistake, and would be misunderstood by Africans.

The Pentagon’s review also comes as U.S. defense and intelligence officials are voicing renewed concerns about the spread of increasingly capable terrorist groups in Africa, warning some have become so powerful it is no longer possible to “degrade” them.

A senior State Department official said he would defer to the Defense Department about the review of troop levels, but added:

“But I can tell you that from the U.S. State Department’s point of view, an awful lot of the security programs that we conduct in the Sahel are actually paid for by U.S. State Department funds. We absolutely plan to continue those programs.”

Angola is the second stop, with senior State Department officials praising President Joao Lourenco for his economic and political reforms, his strong anti-corruption efforts, and his strong regional leadership.

Pompeo is expected to offer U.S. support for democratization and anti-corruption efforts that Lourenco has put in place since the departure of former Angolan leader Jose Eduardo dos Santos.

From Luanda, Pompeo will travel to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and will meet with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and President Sahle-Work Zewde to discuss joint efforts to promote regional security and to support Ethiopia’s historic political and economic reform agenda.

Secretary Pompeo will also meet with African Union Commission Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat and deliver remarks.

U.S. competition with China is likely to be an issue, with State Department officials saying they will highlight the advantages of doing business with American companies, which they say are better at creating jobs for Africa’s rapidly growing population of young people.  A senior State Department official said:

“Africa’s population will be doubling between now and 2050, and we want to absolutely empower that youth and make sure that they are a force for dynamic growth and economic empowerment and better governance in the world.”

Women’s empowerment and removing barriers to equality are also likely to be a focus in all of the stops.

From Addis Ababa, Pompeo will travel to Saudi Arabia, where he will meet with senior leaders of the kingdom to discuss bilateral and regional issues, including Iran’s influence in the region, the escalation of violence in Yemen and human rights issues in Saudi Arabia.

His last stop will be Muscat, Oman. The secretary will express his condolences on the death of Sultan Qaboos bin Said in person, and will meet with the new sultan, Haitham bin Tarik. A senior State Department official said:

 “This is an opportunity for the secretary to underscore the United States steadfast partnership with Oman, and our desire to continue our strong bilateral cooperation.”

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Samsung on Tuesday unveiled a new foldable phone, the Galaxy Z Flip, its second attempt to sell consumers on phones with bendable screens and clamshell designs.

The company announced the phone at the start of a product event in San Francisco. The new phone can unfold from a small square upward into a traditional smartphone form, and will go on sale Feb. 14 starting at $1,380.

Samsung’s first foldable phone, the Galaxy Fold, finally went on sale last September after delays and reports of screens breaking. The Fold, which carries a price tag of nearly $2,000, folds at a vertical crease rather than horizontally as a flip-phone design would. Motorola has also taken the flip-phone approach with its new $1,500 Razr phone.

The foldable phones represent manufacturers’ attempt to energize a market where sales have slowed. Many consumers are holding onto old phones longer, in part because new phone features offer increasingly marginal benefits. But these foldable models come with higher price tags and are likely to appeal for now mostly to tech enthusiasts and others at the forefront of technology.

For everyone else, Samsung offers its S series. As the 2020s kick off, the South Korean company showed off the Galaxy S20, S20 Plus and S20 Ultra at an event in San Francisco, skipping directly to the 20s from its S10 series.

The S20 phones are designed to take high-quality pictures in dark settings, Samsung product manager Mark Holloway said. The phones can take both video and photos at the same time, using artificial intelligence to zero in on the best moments to capture the still images.

Samsung’s renewed focus on the camera follows Apple, whose iPhone 11 phones last fall offered an additional lens for wider-angle shots and combined multiple shots with software to improve low-light images. Google’s Pixel phones also offer a similar low-light feature.

Samsung’s S phones already offer the wider angle and some features for low-lighting – but Samsung says the new phones will focus on high-resolution photos and the ability to zoom in 30 to 100 times, depending on the model.

The S20 phones are expected to come out in March. Samsung didn’t immediately announce prices. Last year’s main S10 model went for $900 in the U.S. at launch. For all models, Samsung plans to make versions compatible with next-generation cellular networks, known as 5G, though it’s still an early technology that consumers typically won’t need yet.

As people packed into San Francisco’s Palace of Fine Arts for Samsung’s launch event, they passed a team taking remote temperatures in the security line, likely a precaution to check for the coronavirus. Samsung also offered hand sanitizer stations and face masks inside the event lobby.

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Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders won the New Hampshire Democratic primary Tuesday, as the race to be the party’s candidate to take on President Donald Trump in November starts to come into focus after months of battling among a wide group of challengers.

Sanders captured 26% of the vote, edging out former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg who finished with 24%.

Sanders called his performance a “great victory” before a cheering crowd in Manchester, and predicted Democrats would eventually come together in a vital effort to unseat Trump.

“Let me say tonight this victory here is the beginning of the end of Donald Trump,” he said.  “No matter who wins [the nomination] – and we hope it is us – we are going to unite together and defeat the most dangerous president in the history of the country.”

Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar turned in a surprising third-place performance with 20% of the vote, bouncing back from a poor showing in last week’s Iowa caucus.  A University of New Hampshire poll on Monday had her with just 7% support, though only half of respondents said they had made up their mind at that point.

Klobuchar celebrated with her supporters Tuesday night, saying her campaign has “beaten the odds every step of the way.”

“I can not wait to win the nomination. I can not wait to build a movement, and win with a movement of fired up Democrats, independents and moderate Republicans that see this election as we do,” she said.

Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren placed fourth with 9% of the vote, followed by former Vice President Joe Biden at 8%.

“Bernie Sanders winning a neighboring state, continuing to be really strong and having die hard, strong support, I think he’s a real victor,” Gibbs Knotts, a political science professor at the College of Charleston, told VOA.  “I think obviously with both Buttigieg and Klobuchar doing better than expectations, all three of those come out of New Hampshire with a lot of momentum.”

The win for Sanders, following a strong performance in Iowa, could solidify him as the front-runner in the race, but he has two popular centrists close behind.  Many political analysts question whether a self-avowed democratic socialist like Sanders could unseat Trump, who has repeatedly lashed out at Sanders’ socialist policies, which include a Medicare-for-All universal health care program.

Sanders and Buttigieg entered New Hampshire tied as the front-runners in the wake of last week’s muddled Iowa caucuses, in which Buttigieg narrowly won the most delegates while Sanders narrowly won the popular vote.

Candidates will next focus on the western state of Nevada where they will hold a debate next week ahead of the February 22 caucuses there, and then on South Carolina and its February 29 primary.

Biden, who finished a poor fourth in Iowa after being touted as the front-runner long before he declared his candidacy, left New Hampshire for South Carolina before the election results were in.

Knotts said the South Carolina vote “cannot get here soon enough for Biden.”

“There’s some good news for Biden. Every poll he has been up in South Carolina,” Knotts told VOA. “He’s going to very friendly territory, he’s got the most endorsements, he’s got really strong support from the black community in South Carolina — that’s going to be over 60% of primary voters, likely. It’s such a contrast to these states that are much less diverse like Iowa and New Hampshire.”

Biden expressed a sense of forward-looking confidence as he addressed his supporters at a rally Tuesday in Columbia, South Carolina, telling them, “We’re just getting started.”

“Tonight though, we just heard from the first two of 50 states, two of them,” he said. “Not all the nation. Not half the nation. Not a quarter of the nation, not 10 percent — two. Now where I come from, that’s the opening bell, not the closing bell. And the fight to end Donald Trump’s presidency is just beginning.”

Warren also remained upbeat Tuesday despite another disappointing finish to start the nomination process.

“This fight we’re in — the fight to save our democracy — is an uphill battle,” she said. “But our campaign is built for the long haul.”

And highlighting an issue that many Democrats have said is among their biggest priorities when choosing a candidate, Warren said, “Our campaign is best positioned to beat Donald Trump in November, because we can unite our party.”

The New Hampshire primary was much more competitive for the Democrats than in 2016 when Sanders won 60% of the vote.  But that race was essentially between him and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, while this time the field remains crowded.

It is getting a bit thinner after entrepreneur Andrew Yang, who was at the bottom of the pack Tuesday with 3%, announced he would be dropping out.  Colorado Senator Michael Bennet also ended his bid for the presidency Tuesday.

More could leave after Super Tuesday on March 3 when 14 states vote.

Knotts said Democrats may take a lesson from the Republican race in 2016, when a number of candidates opposed Trump, but in doing so split the vote among themselves and allowed Trump to claim the Republican nomination.

“If there is an anti-Sanders vote, right now it’s Buttigieg and Klobuchar, at least in New Hampshire, getting a bulk of that,” he said.  “But if they continue to split it up with Warren and Biden, then Sanders is able to win between 20 and 30 percent in all these states, but in a five- or six-person race that can be enough to march toward the nomination.  I feel like Super Tuesday, given that it’s just three days after South Carolina, I think that’s going to be a day when it might turn down to a two- or three-person race.”

A potential wild card in the Democratic race is former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.  He was not on the ballot in New Hampshire, preferring instead to concentrate his campaign on other states in the coming month where he is using his vast wealth to fund a huge media effort.  Bloomberg has become a recent target of Trump’s criticism — a sign that he is starting to draw attention in the crowded field.

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The family of a 12-year-old girl who was raped and murdered has welcomed the execution of two men convicted for the crime in Somalia’s northeastern Puntland region.

The two men, Abdifatah Abdirahman Warsame, 24, and Abdishakur Mohamed Dige, 46, were executed Tuesday by firing squad in the town of Bosaso.  The execution of a third man, Abdisalam Abdirahman Warsame, 32, who is the brother of Abdifatah, was delayed for ten days.

The father of Aisha Ilyas Aden said he was relieved the culprits have paid the price.“

I’m feeling good,” says Ilyas Aden.

Aden said the punishment will deter rape against Somali women.

“There will be a strong lesson from this case,” he said. “Somali girls will be safer.”

The girl was abducted near her home, gang raped and then brutally killed in the town of Galkayo in February 2019.

The rape and murder of Aden sparked widespread public outcry and calls for justice. The hashtag #JusticeforAisha trended, while many chose to use her photo as their social media profiles.

Authorities in Puntland arrested ten men in connection with the case.  Their trial became the first televised rape trial in Somalia and the first in which DNA was used to obtain a conviction.  Authorities said samples taken linked the three men to the murder and rape. The other seven were acquitted.

What happened?

Aden went missing on February 24, 2019 between 7 and 8 a.m., when her mother sent her to a market to do some shopping. She was kidnapped and ended up in the house of a neighbor. The neighbor, Abdishakur Mohamed Dige, lived in that house with his mother.

The two other defendants were neighbors.

One of the men executed Tuesday, Abdifatah Abdirahman Warsame, confessed to participating in the rape but denied involvement of her killing.

He told the court that on the day of the kidnapping, Dige who took him inside his house and showed him Aisha, tied up in a room. He said he was convinced by Dige to participate in the rape.

Warsame said that when he left the house, Aisha was still alive.  He said Dige later told him he had to kill the girl in order to avoid being identified.

Early the next morning, Aden’s body was found near Dige’s home. The prosecution showed photos of the victim’s body badly tortured, bruised and mutilated.

In May last year, the court convicted the three men for the crime, and sentenced them to death. In August last year, a higher court upheld the death sentence. The Puntland region’s leader Said Abdullahi Deni then signed off the execution.

Warsame testified that his brother, Abdisalam, was not involved in the rape and killing of Aden. He identified another man he says participated in the gang rape.

Aisha’s father who witnessed the execution of the men said he personally checked their pulse to make sure they were dead. He said the two men asked for his forgiveness before their execution.

Human rights groups said the killing of Aisha was a “serious and horrific crime” but says Puntland needed to “credibly investigate and prosecute the crime” in honor of Aisha.“

We called for justice at the time, but also raised concerns about provisions in Puntland’s sexual offenses act which include the death penalty,” Laetitia Bader, a senior researcher for Human Rights Watch. She said the death penalty is worrying in a context in which abuses of due process are frequent.

“Even in the most established judicial systems, due process abuses occur, particularly in high-profile and contentious cases like this one,” she said. “So Puntland should be seeking to end its use of the death penalty, even if that is an unpopular move, not the contrary.”

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Peter Phillips, the eldest grandson of Queen Elizabeth II, and his wife Autumn are divorcing after 12 years of marriage.

The couple said in a statement Tuesday that the separation was sad but amicable. They plan to share custody of daughters Savannah, 9 and Isla, 7.

The 42-year-old Phillipa is the son of Princess Anne and will be the first of the queen’s eight grandchildren to divorce. Three of the monarch’s four children are divorced, including Anne, who split from Mark Phillips in 1992.

Peter Phillips married Canadian management consultant Autumn Kelly at Windsor Castle in 2008.

Announcement of their separation comes after a tumultuous few months for Britain’s royal family. Last month the queen’s grandson Prince Harry and his wife Meghan quit royal duties, saying they wanted to seek financial independence and spend more time in North America.

The queen’s second son, Prince Andrew, also stepped down from royal duties in November amid controversy over his friendship with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

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China’s health care system is struggling to cope with the surging number of patients infected by the deadly coronavirus despite that Chinese President Xi Jingping has re-emerged in public to call for greater confidence in his government.   

The death toll Tuesday totaled 1,018 worldwide among the more than 43,000 confirmed infections; 974 deaths, or 96% of the total, occurred in Wuhan city, in China’s Hubei province — signs that hospitals in the epic center of the outbreak have been overwhelmed.

The latest report on the American Medical Association’s website found that out of the city’s 138 virus-infected patients 30% were medical professionals — an alarming rate that suggests the city’s medical system treating over 30,000 patients may be collapsing, said Vincent Su, a thoracic surgeon in Taipei.

Medical system collapsing

“It’s a vicious cycle that the more medical professionals infected, the less patients well-treated. With patients flooding in, the frontline [in Wuhan] appears to be broken. This is what we call a collapsing medical system,” Su said.

With an overwhelming workload in hospitals, the number of patients in Wuhan is likely under-reported, the surgeon estimated.

Mr. Sun’s father is probably one such case.

Sun, currently working in Henan province, told VOA that his father in Wuhan remains a suspected case although he has suffered from severe symptoms — infected lungs, lasting fever and chest pains.  

Insufficient medical care

Yet, the elder Sun is given little medical attention.

“He goes to the hospital every day to receive shots. But not a hospital bed is available for him although the doctor said his condition has worsened,” Sun said.

China has added thousands of beds in some 15 shelter-like hospitals in Wuhan.  

But many who checked in complained of a lack of medical care and isolation wards there to avoid cross infection. 

“Fangchang shelters are for those who haven’t been severely infected. But my father is a highly suspected case who needs to be hospitalized for immediate treatment. Frankly speaking, home quarantine is probably better than going to those shelters,” he added.  

The father of Ms. Lo, another Wuhan resident, is a confirmed patient and has no choice but to check into a Fangchang shelter soon.

“It’s arranged that he will first check into a Fangchang shelter. We were told earlier that he will be transferred to another hospital if his symptoms deteriorate. I’m not sure of the shelter’s condition since he hasn’t checked into,” Lo said.   

Decisive measures to come

Appearing in a public inspection tour in Beijing, President Xi pledged on Monday that “more decisive measures” will be taken to combat the epidemic amid criticism and suspicion that China has taken action too late and too little to stop its spread and under-reported its death toll.  

Spiked levels of sulfur dioxide emissions in Wuhan were recently used to suggest that tens of thousands of bodies might have been cremated.

“If a super spreader emerges to speed up contagion by ten-fold, China may be overtaken by the virus and further pushed into the hell of fire,” said Chen Bingzhong, a former health official.

Taiwan, on Sunday, confirmed its first asymptomatic patient with a high viral load, fueling worries that a super spreader may be on the horizon to worsen the outbreak.  

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Australia’s highest court ruled Tuesday that the government can’t deport Aboriginal people as part of its policy of ridding the country of foreign criminals.

The High Court ruled in a 4-3 decision that indigenous Australians cannot be deported even if they do not hold Australian citizenship.

Lawyers welcomed the legal recognition of the original Australians’ unique place in a country that was claimed by Britain in the 18th century without a treaty. The Australian government was assessing the surprise ruling’s implications on immigration policy.

The court had heard the case of two men who were born overseas but identified as being from indigenous tribes: Brendan Thoms and Daniel Love.

Thoms, 31, was released after 501 days in immigration detention within hours of the court ruling that his indigenous status entitled him to live in Australia.

“Brendan has had 500 sleepless nights worrying he could be deported at any time, and that is now thankfully at an end,” his lawyer Claire Gibbs said.

“He is very happy to have been released and to now be reunited with his family at long last,” she added.
      
Acting Immigration Minister Alan Tudge said the Home Affairs Department would review other cases that might be affected by the precedent.

“The High Court delivered a significant judgment today which has implications for our migration programs,” Tudge said.

The court had “created a new category of persons” that was neither an Australian citizen nor a non-citizen, he added.

The government attempted to deport the men on character grounds in 2018 after they served prison sentences for violent crimes. The government has been criticized for deporting some criminals who have lived in Australia since where were children but had never become citizens.

The court found that Thoms, 31, who was born in New Zealand to an indigenous Australian mother, was an Aboriginal Australian.

Thoms had lived in Australia since he was 6, is accepted as a member of the Gunggari tribe and is recognized as a native title holder of their traditional land.

But a majority of judges was not convinced that Love, 40, was indigenous and was accepted as a member of the Kamilaroi tribe.

He was born in Papua New Guinea to an indigenous Australian father and has lived in Australia since he was 5.

His lawyers say he will provide more evidence of his Aboriginality and another trial could be held to decide the issue.

Both Love and Thoms were placed in immigration detention and threatened with deportation on their release from prison after serving sentences for unrelated crimes.

Love has had his visa restored since his lawyers initiated court action in 2018 and lives on the Gold Coast.

Thoms had been in immigration detention in Brisbane for 16 months since he completed a six-month prison sentence.

The court found Aboriginal Australians have a special cultural, historic and spiritual connection to Australia which is inconsistent with them being considered “aliens” in the meaning of the Australian constitution.

Gibbs said the government had used its constitutional powers to deal with aliens “inconsistently, unfairly and, now we’ve proven, unlawfully.”

“This case isn’t about citizenship. It’s about who belongs here, who’s an Australian national and who’s a part of the Australian community,” Gibbs told reporters outside court.

“The High Court has found that Aboriginal Australians are protected from deportation. They can no longer be removed from the country that they know and that they have a very close connection with,” she added.

Gibbs said both Love and Thoms would sue the government for wrongful detention.

“Both of my clients have suffered severe embarrassment about being Aboriginal men in immigration detention and they’ve been subject to a lot of ridicule,” Gibbs said. “So it’s been a very, very tough time for them both.”

Mary Crock, professor of public law at Sydney University, described the decision as “radical.”

She noted the case arose from Australia’s increasingly tough policies of deporting non-citizens who break the law, some to countries where they don’t speak the language or have any real connections.

“I see it as a very positive development,” Crock said.

“The case only went to the High Court because Australia uniquely has been trying so hard to deport so many different people. I can’t think of another country that has gone as far as we have towards locking up and then trying to deport people who literally have no other country that they deeply belong to,” she added.

The Law Council of Australia, the nation’s top lawyers’ group, welcomed the court’s confirmation that the “question of membership of Aboriginal societies is outside of the legislative power of the Australian Parliament.”

Indigenous Australians make up 3% of the population and are the most disadvantaged minority group in a range of measures.

 Indigenous Australians die younger than other Australians and are overrepresented in prisons.

…

Ukraine’s foreign minister said on Monday he saw no preparations taking place for a promised summit over the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine, adding that he had little hope it would make any progress even if it goes ahead.

The leaders of Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany met in Paris in December to discuss the long-running Ukraine crisis and agreed to get together again within four months to keep the dialogue open.

“I am confident that when leaders say they will meet in April then they will … what I don’t see though is the preparation,” Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko told reporters during a visit to Italy.

“Before the December meeting … (preparations) started half a year beforehand. Now we have two months to go and I have not seen anything prepared. Maybe it will be a much faster process than last time and maybe we will make much more progress. I am sorry, but I doubt it.”

The conflict in eastern Ukraine that broke out in 2014 has killed more than 13,000 people, left a large swathe of Ukraine de facto controlled by Moscow-backed separatists, and aggravated the deepest east-west rift since the Cold War.

The December summit did not produce the sort of breakthrough some had hoped for, such as an agreement on expanding a cease-fire zone, but it did lead to a prisoner exchange deal.

Prystaiko welcomed the subsequent large-scale prisoner swap that took place at the end of last year, but noted that more people had died in continued fighting in January 2020 than in the same month a year earlier.

“We haven’t managed to achieve a cease-fire. … But even if we have just an exchange of prisoners, that is a good step for Ukrainians,” he said.
 

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