Author: Ohart

President Donald Trump retweeted a post that included the alleged name of the anonymous whistleblower whose complaint ultimately led to Trump’s impeachment by the House. 

Just before midnight Friday, Trump retweeted a message from Twitter user @Surfermom77, an account that claims to be a woman named Sophia who lives in California. The account shows some indications of automation, including an unusually high amount of activity and profile pictures featuring stock images from the internet. 

By Saturday morning, the post seemed to have disappeared on many users’ feeds, suggesting Trump had deleted it, though it could still be found in other ways, including on a website that logs every presidential tweet.

The retweet then reappeared Saturday night. Twitter told The Associated Press that an outage with one of its systems caused tweets on some accounts, including Trump’s, to be visible to some but not others.

Trump has repeatedly backed efforts to unmask the whistleblower. But his Friday night retweet marks the first time he has directly sent the alleged name into the Twitter feed of his 68 million followers.

Unmasking the whistleblower, who works in the intelligence field, could violate federal protection laws that have historically been supported by both parties. 

Phone conversation

 The whistleblower filed a complaint in August about one of Trump’s telephone conversations with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and other dealings with the Eastern European nation. The complaint prompted House Democrats to launch a probe that ended with Trump’s impeachment earlier this month. The matter now heads to the Senate, where the Republican majority is expected to acquit the president.

The central points from the whistleblower’s complaint were confirmed during the House impeachment hearings by a string of diplomats and other career officials, many of whom testified in public. The White House also released a transcript of Trump’s July 25 phone call with Zelenskiy, in which he asks for help investigating former Vice President Joe Biden and the Democratic National Committee. 

Speculation about the whistleblower’s identity has been circulating in conservative media and on social media for months. 

U.S. whistleblower laws exist to protect the identity and careers of people who bring forward accusations of wrongdoing by government officials. The Associated Press typically does not reveal the identity of whistleblowers. 

President’s position

Trump insists he did nothing wrong in his dealings with Ukraine and has asserted that the whistleblower made up the complaint, despite its corroboration by other officials. Trump also argues that he has a right to face his accuser and has called on the whistleblower to step forward.

For months, an array of right-wing personalities, amateur pro-Trump internet sleuths and some conservative news outlets have published what they claim to be details about the whistleblower, including name and career history. The president himself has also been inching closer to outing the individual; earlier this week, Trump shared a tweet linking to a Washington Examiner article that included the alleged name.

@Surfermom77, the Twitter handle on the post Trump retweeted, describes herself as a “100%Trump Supporter” and California resident. The account had nearly 79,000 followers as of Saturday afternoon. Some of its previous posts have denounced Islam and sharply criticized former President Barack Obama and other Democrats.

@Surfermom77 has displayed some hallmarks of a Twitter bot, an automated account. A recent profile picture on the account, for instance, is a stock photo of a woman in business attire that is available for use online. 
 
That photo was removed Saturday and replaced with an image of Trump. 
 
A deeper look at @Surfermom77’s account shows the user previously used two other stock photos as profile pictures, including one of a model wearing an orange hat used by a hat retailer. 
 
@Surfermom77 has also tweeted far more than typical users, more than 170,000 times since the account was activated in 2013. @Surfermom77 has posted, on average, 72 tweets a day, according to Nir Hauser, chief technology officer at VineSight, a technology firm that tracks online misinformation. 
 
“That’s not something most humans are doing,” Hauser said. 
 
While many bots only repost benign information like cat photos, others have been used to spread disinformation or polarizing claims, as Russian bots did in the leadup to the 2016 election. 
 
Many jobs

In past years, @Surfermom77 has described herself as a teacher, historian, documentary author and model. Attempts to reach the person behind the account by telephone on Saturday were unsuccessful. An email address could not be found. 
 
Facebook has a policy banning posts that name the alleged whistleblower. But Twitter, which doesn’t have such a rule, has not removed the tweet from @Supermom77 or tweets from others who have named the alleged whistleblower. 
 
“The tweet you referenced is not a violation of the Twitter rules,” the company wrote in a statement emailed to The Associated Press. 
 
Some details about the whistleblower that have been published online by Trump’s supporters have been inaccurate or misrepresented. 
 
For example, a photo shared widely on social media last month was circulated by Facebook, Reddit and Twitter users who wrongly claimed it showed the whistleblower with Obama’s staffers outside the White House as Trump moved in. 
 
The individual in the photo actually was R. David Edelman, a former special assistant to Obama on economic and tech policy. Edelman debunked the claim on his Twitter account and told the AP he received threats online as a result of the false claims. 

‘Completely inappropriate’
 
Michael German, an FBI whistleblower who left the agency after reporting allegations of mismanagement in counterterrorism cases, said outing government whistleblowers not only puts them at personal risk but also discourages other government officials from stepping forward to expose possible wrongdoing. 
 
German, now a fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School, said the ease with which the alleged whistleblower’s identity has been spread online shows the need for greater legal protections for whistleblowers. 
 
He added that it’s “completely inappropriate for the president of the United States to be engaged in any type of behavior that could harm a whistleblower.” 

…

North Korea began a closely watched ruling party meeting led by Kim Jong Un, state media reported Sunday, amid signs Pyongyang is set to announce a firmer stance toward the United States. 
 
Kim is widely expected in the next week to announce the details of his “new way” for North Korea, following the expiration of its self-imposed end-of-year deadline for the U.S. to offer a better proposal in stalled nuclear talks. 
 
State media coverage of the Workers’ Party of Korea meeting offered few hints about the country’s direction. 
 
The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) mentioned an “anti-imperialist” stance and the building up of national defense but gave no other details. 
 
“The plenary meeting goes on,” KCNA said, apparently indicating a multiday meeting. 
 
Talks boycotted

North Korea has boycotted nuclear talks for months and recently threatened to resume long-range missile and nuclear tests. An official said earlier this month that denuclearization was off the negotiating table. 
 
Those threats — mostly made by lower-level officials — were widely seen as an attempt to increase pressure on the U.S. ahead of North Korea’s deadline. 

Kim’s annual New Year’s speech is expected to offer much firmer evidence of the country’s direction in 2020. In his speech last year, he warned of a “new way” if the talks didn’t progress. 
 
North Korea also threatened to deliver a “Christmas gift” to the U.S., leading many analysts to predict a North Korean holiday missile test. But Christmas passed with no signs of what that “gift” might be. 
 
There are multiple possible explanations for why North Korea has refrained from a major provocation, including last-minute progress between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump or a warning from China, which typically frowns on North Korean missile and nuclear tests. 

No ‘cold feet’
 
“But Kim, nevertheless, probably did not get cold feet,” said Duyeon Kim, a senior adviser for Northeast Asia and nuclear policy at the International Crisis Group. 
 
“North Korea’s course of action after the year-end deadline will be far more significant than a gift timed to coincide with what it sees as an American holiday. After all, anything can happen in the remaining six days of 2019 after Christmas. And presents can be delivered any time the giver feels so compelled,” Kim said. 

Even without a North Korean launch or other provocation, tensions have been high, especially after Japan’s public broadcaster NHK erroneously reported Friday that North Korea had launched a missile that landed in the waters east of Japan. The broadcaster later apologized for the false report, saying it was a media training alert. 

A tense moment also occurred late Thursday when Camp Casey, a U.S. Army base in South Korea, accidentally blasted an emergency siren instead of taps, a bugle call typically played at military bases at the end of the day. 
 
The false alarms are even more notable considering the relative silence from North Korea during the last couple of weeks, after having ramped up threats in early December. 

‘Deafening’ silence
 
“It has been the uneasy calm before the storm,” said Robert Carlin, a former U.S. intelligence official with decades of experience researching North Korea. 
 
“The air was certainly heavy with Pyongyang’s warnings earlier. But then, beginning on December 15, these abruptly stopped and the North became extremely quiet, preternaturally quiet,” Carlin said in a post on 38 North, a website specializing in North Korea.

“The silence, in fact, has been deafening,” he said. 

…

The World Health Organization reports investigations into potential health threats and the quick response by WHO and partners to global emergencies has protected millions of the world’s most vulnerable people this year from disease and death.

In 2019, the World Health Organization and partners have responded to 51 emergencies in more than 40 countries and territories and have investigated 440 potential health threats in 138 countries and territories.  

After the headlines evoking these emergencies have faded away, the work of helping the victims of manmade and natural disasters recover carries on out of the media spotlight.  

Executive Director of WHO Emergencies Program, Michael Ryan, says the unseen work of sustaining fragile health systems in conflicts and other emergencies does not stop.

“In Bangladesh, we work with partners to address the health needs of nearly one million Rohingya refugees living in the crowded camps in Cox’s Bazar,” said Ryan. “The mortality rate in this highly vulnerable population has remained at low levels…These crude death rates remain well below what is considered acceptable in this situation…And, that is down to a lot of hard work by a lot of people.”  

Ryan says WHO and partners have provided health services to more than 10 million people in Yemen.   He says over one million children have been protected from vaccine-preventable diseases and more than 100,000 have been treated for severe acute malnutrition.

“In Uganda, Ebola transmission was prevented after cases crossed from DRC on two separate occasions,” said Ryan. “And, the preparedness work that has been going on in surrounding countries…Uganda, with the support of the international community spent $18 million on preparedness and stopped Ebola twice.” 

The World Health Organization estimates more than one billion dollars will be spent to root out the deadly Ebola virus, which has been circulating in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo since August 2018.  The latest number of reported cases stands at 3,366, including 2,227 deaths.

Other emergencies to which WHO has responded over the past year include the cyclone in Mozambique, conflict emergencies in Syria and South Sudan, floods in Iran, an earthquake in Albania, and a deadly measles outbreak on the small Pacific island of Samoa.

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A NASA robotic rover is nearing completion ahead of a journey next year to search for evidence of past life on Mars and lay the groundwork for the space agency’s mission to send humans into deep space.

The U.S. space agency on Friday showed off its Mars 2020 rover, whose official name will be chosen early next year. NASA will in February ship the rover to Florida’s Kennedy Space Center where its three sections will be fully assembled. A July launch will send the rover to a dry lake bed on Mars that is bigger than the island of Manhattan.

The four-wheeled, car-sized rover will scour the base of Mars’ Jezero Crater, an 820-foot-deep (250-meter-deep) crater thought to have been a lake the size of Lake Tahoe, once the craft lands in February 2021. The crater is believed to have an abundance of pristine sediments some 3.5 billion years old that scientists hope will hold fossils of Martian life.

“The trick, though, is that we’re looking for trace levels of chemicals from billions of years ago on Mars,” Mars 2020 deputy project manager Matt Wallace told Reuters. The rover will collect up to 30 soil samples to be picked up and returned to Earth by a future spacecraft planned by NASA.

“Once we have a sufficient set, we’ll put them down on the ground, and another mission, which we hope to launch in 2026, will come, land on the surface, collect those samples and put them into a rocket, basically,” Wallace said. Humans have never before returned sediment samples from Mars.

The findings of the Mars 2020 research will be crucial to future human missions to the red planet, including the ability to make oxygen on the surface of Mars, Wallace said. The Mars 2020 Rover is carrying equipment that can turn carbon dioxide, which is pervasive on Mars, into oxygen for breathing and as a propellant.

LESSONS FROM CURIOSITY

If successful, Mars 2020 will mark NASA’s fifth Martian rover to carry out a soft landing, having learned crucial lessons from the most recent Curiosity rover that landed on the planet’s surface in 2012 and continues to traverse a Martian plain southeast of the Jezero Crater.

The Soviet Union is the only other country to successfully land a rover on Mars. China and Japan have attempted unsuccessfully to send orbiters around Mars, while India and Europe’s space agency have successfully lofted an orbiter to the planet.

…

Police fought with protesters who marched through a Hong Kong shopping mall Saturday demanding mainland Chinese traders leave the territory in a fresh weekend of anti-government tension.

The protest in Sheung Shui, near Hong Kong’s boundary with the mainland, was part of efforts to pressure the government by disrupting economic activity.

About 100 protesters marched through the mall shouting, “Liberate Hong Kong!” and “Return to the mainland!”

Riot Police Storm Shopping Malls as Protests Continue in Hong Kong

Police also conducted indiscriminate stop-and-search procedures on shoppers, passersby and journalists during the past three nights

Police in civilian clothes with clubs tackled and handcuffed some protesters. One officer fired pepper spray at protesters and reporters. Government broadcaster RTHK reported 14 people were detained.

Some shoppers argued with police in olive fatigues and helmets who blocked walkways in the mall.

Protests that began in June over a proposed extradition law have spread to include demands for more democracy and other grievances.

The proposed law was withdrawn but protesters want the resignation of the territory’s leader, Carrie Lam, and other changes.

Protesters complain Beijing and Lam’s government are eroding the autonomy and Western-style civil liberties promised to Hong Kong when the former British colony returned to China in 1997.

On Saturday, some merchants in the Sheung Shui mall wrapped orange tape around kiosks or partially closed security doors in shops but most business went ahead normally.

Hong Kong, which has no sales tax and a reputation for genuine products, is popular with Chinese traders who buy merchandise to resell on the mainland.

Sheung Shui was the site of clashes between police and demonstrators in June.

Earlier this week, protesters smashed windows in shopping areas over the Christmas holiday. Some fought with police.

A total of 336 people, some as young as 12, were arrested from Monday to Thursday, according to police. That brought the total number of people arrested over six months of protests to nearly 7,000.

Protesters have damaged subway stations, banks and other public facilities.

Earlier this month, opposition candidates won a majority of posts in elections for district representatives, the lowest level of government.

…

Environment and wildlife advocates in Afghanistan’s central province of Bamyan are concerned about an increase in the hunting of exotic birds, in particular hawks. Bird traffickers sell them for little profit to traffickers in neighboring countries. VOA’s Zafar Bamyani talked to hunters and local officials and filed this report narrated by Bezhan Hamdard. 

…

Debate on the future of the CFA franc in the six-member Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) has intensified after it was announced last week that eight West African countries agreed to change the name of their common currency to Eco. They also severed the CFA franc’s links to former colonial ruler France.

The CFA franc used by west and central African states is considered by many as a sign of French interference in its former African colonies, and the main reason for the underdevelopment of CEMAC, which remains the poorest economic bloc in Africa. 

Louis Nsonkeng, a researcher and economic lecturer at the University of Bamenda-Cameroon, says when the Eco becomes legal tender, the eight West African states will have their financial freedom from the strong grip of former colonial master France. He says the six central African states that also use the CFA franc should immediately emulate the example of the west Africans.

“In 2017, the International Monetary Fund published the [list of] 10 richest countries in Africa,” Nsonkeng said. “None of the countries was from the CFA zone and most of these countries have their own currencies. If we discover that we don’t have the resources to manage a common currency, then we should dissolve the currency area. We should dissolve it and each country should decide on their own currency.”

Cameroon, Chad, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Central African Republic and Congo use the CFA franc. The CEMAC member states have more than 50 percent of their financial reserves kept in the French treasury, following agreements signed in 1948.

Thomas Babissakana, a Cameroon economist and financial expert, says such agreements drain the economies of central African states because France now uses the euro, yet France still controls its currency.

It is unthinkable, he says, that a country will claim it has its independence when its currency, which is an essential instrument for its economic policies, is controlled by a former colonial master. 

The CFA franc, created in 1945, is considered by many as a sign of French interference in its former African colonies, even after the countries became independent.

The CFA franc was pegged to the French franc until 1999, when its value was fixed at about 660 CFA francs to one euro.

Daniel Ona Ondo, president of the CEMAC commission, says the six member states’ economic growth rate is estimated at 3 percent in 2019 — up from barely 1 percent in 2018 — and inflation remains under control at less than 3 percent. He says the most demanding issue is to consolidate regional integration before thinking of currency reforms.

Fourteen west and central African countries divided into two monetary unions, ECOWAS and CEMAC, use the CFA franc. 
 

…

An airliner with 98 people on board crashed in Kazakhstan shortly after takeoff early Friday, killing at least 12 and injuring 54 others, authorities said.                                

Kazakhstan’s Civil Aviation Committee said in a statement the Bek Air plane hit a concrete fence and a two-story building after takeoff from Almaty International Airport.

Local authorities had earlier put the death toll at 15, but the Interior Ministry of the Central Asian nation later revised the figure downward, without giving an explanation.

Plane with Nearly 100 Aboard Crashes in Kazakhstan; at Least 12 Dead, Dozens Hurt

The Bek Air plane lost altitude on takeoff and crashed into a building

Flight 2100, a Fokker-100 aircraft, was heading to the capital, Nur-Sultan, formerly known as Astana, when it lost attitude at 7:22 a.m. local time.

Authorities say all Bek Air flights in Kazakhstan were immediately suspended pending the investigation of the crash.

The manufacturer of the Fokker-100, a medium-sized, twin-turbofan jet airliner, went bankrupt in 1996 and production of the plane stopped the following year.

The cause of the crash was unclear, but the central Asian country’s deputy prime minister, Roman Sklyar, said authorities were looking into pilot error or technical failure.  

Upwards of 1,000 first responders were working at the crash site, which was covered in snow. Dozens of people showed up at a local blood bank to donate.
           
The government said it would pay families of the victims about $10,000 apiece.
                      
Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev ordered an inspection of all airlines in the country, along with the aviation infrastructure. Eighteen passenger airlines and four cargo carriers are registered in Kazakhstan.
           

…

Peru´s labor watchdog has found McDonald’s Corp.’s Latin America franchisee Arcos Dorados guilty of six “very serious” violations of local safety and health laws following the deaths of two employees in a 
restaurant kitchen. 

The Labor Ministry’s regulating body proposed that the company be fined $254,000 over the deaths. 

Arcos Dorados, which operates all 29 McDonald’s restaurants in Peru, did not respond immediately to a request for comment. 

Alexandra Porras, 18, and Carlos Campo, 19, were electrocuted earlier this month in Lima while cleaning a kitchen. Protesters have taken to the streets carrying posters bearing the victims’ photos and slogans reading: “Justice for Alexa and Gabriel.” 

They were a couple who had been working for the fast-food chain for several months, according to their families. 

The government has improved business health and safety regulations in response to the case, Labor Minister Sylvia Caceres said at a news conference Thursday. The current system of one inspection of companies per year is being replaced by as many spot inspections as are necessary, she said. 

“We have to discourage companies that violate labor standards,” Caceres said, adding that further measures were under consideration. 

Arcos Dorados, which operates McDonald’s restaurants throughout South America and the Caribbean, said last week that McDonald’s stores in Peru would remain closed until it finished its own investigation into what happened. 

…

Japan will send a warship and patrol planes to protect Japanese ships in the Middle East as the situation in the region, from which it sources nearly 90% of its crude oil imports, remains volatile, a document approved by the cabinet showed Friday.

Under the plan, a helicopter-equipped destroyer and two P-3C patrol planes will be dispatched for information-gathering aimed at ensuring safe passage for Japanese vessels through the region.

If there are any emergencies, a special order would be issued by the Japanese defense minister to allow the forces to use weapons to protect ships in danger.

Friction between Iran and the United States has increased since last year, when U.S. President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of a 2015 international nuclear deal with Iran and re-imposed sanctions on it, crippling its economy.

In May and June, there were several attacks on international merchant vessels, including the Japanese-owned tanker Kokuka Courageous, in the region, which the United States blamed on Iran. Tehran denies the accusations.

Japan, a U.S. ally that has maintained friendly ties with Iran, has opted to launch its own operation rather than join a U.S.-led mission to protect shipping in the region.

Last week, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe briefed visiting Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Tokyo’s plan to send naval forces to the Gulf.

The planned operation is set to cover high seas in the Gulf of Oman, the northern Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Aden, but not the Strait of Hormuz, the cabinet-approved document showed.

The Japanese government aims to start the operation of the patrol planes next month, while the destroyer will likely begin activities in the region in February, a defense ministry official said.

A European operation to ensure safe shipping in the Gulf will also get under way next month, when a French warship starts patrolling there.
 

…

Tesla Inc entered into agreements with lenders in China for a secured term loan facility of up to 9 billion yuan ($1.29 billion), according to a regulatory filing on Thursday.

The electric car maker said it has also signed agreements for an unsecured revolving loan facility of up to 2.25 billion yuan, adding that both the loans will be used for its Shanghai car plant. 

China Construction Bank Corp, Agricultural Bank of China , Shanghai Pudong Development Bank and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China are the lenders, according to the filing.

Besides construction and production at the Shanghai factory, the loan may also be used to repay the 3.5 billion yuan debt due to be repaid on March 4 next year.

The factory, which is Tesla’s first car manufacturing site outside the United States, is the centerpiece of its ambitions to boost sales in the world’s biggest auto market and avoid higher import tariffs imposed on U.S.-made cars.

Reuters reported earlier this week that Tesla and a group of China banks had agreed to a new 10 billion yuan, five-year loan facility for the automaker’s Shanghai car plant, citing sources familiar with the matter.

…

Inside a hotel ballroom near the nation’s capital, a U.S. Army officer with battlefield experience told 120 state and local election officials that they may have more in common with the military strategists than they might think.

These government officials are on the front lines of a different kind of high-stakes battlefield — one in which they are helping to defend American democracy by ensuring free and fair elections.

“Everyone in this room is part of a bigger effort, and it’s only together are we going to get through this,” the officer said.

That officer and other past and present national security leaders had a critical message to convey to officials from 24 states gathered for a recent training held by a Harvard-affiliated democracy project: They are the linchpins in efforts to defend U.S. elections from an attack by Russia, China or other foreign threats, and developing a military mindset will help them protect the integrity of the vote.

Election security worries

The need for such training reflects how elections security worries have heightened in the aftermath of the 2016 election, when Russian military agents targeted voting systems across the country as part of a multipronged effort to influence the presidential election. Until then, the job of local election officials could had been described as something akin to a wedding planner who keeps track of who will be showing up on Election Day and ensures all the equipment and supplies are in place and ready to go.

Now, these officials are on the front lines. The federal government will be on high alert, gathering intelligence and scanning systems for suspicious cyber activity as they look to defend the nation’s elections. Meanwhile, it will be the state and county officials who will be on the ground charged with identifying and dealing with any hostile acts.

“It’s another level of war,” said Jesse Salinas, the chief elections official in Yolo County, California, who attended the training. “You only attack things that you feel are a threat to you, and our democracy is a threat to a lot of these nation-states that are getting involved trying to undermine it. We have to fight back, and we have to prepare.”

Defending Digital Democracy

Salinas brought four of his employees with him to the training, which was part of the Defending Digital Democracy project based at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School. The group has been working actively with former and current military, national security, political and communications experts — many of whom dedicate their time after work and on weekends — to develop training and manuals for state and local election officials. Those involved with leading the training asked for anonymity because of their sensitive positions.

The project’s latest playbook focuses on bringing military best practices to running Election Day operations, encouraging state and local election officials to adopt a “battle staff” command structure with clear roles and responsibilities and standard operating procedures for dealing with minor issues. The project is also providing officials with a free state-of-the-art incident tracking system.

Eric Rosenbach, co-director of the Belfer Center and a former U.S. Army intelligence officer who served as chief of staff to Defense Secretary Ash Carter in the Obama administration, told the group gathered for the training that it “shouldn’t be lost on you that this is a very military-like model.”

“Let’s be honest about it,” Rosenbach said. “If democracy is under attack and you guys are the ones at the pointy end of the spear, why shouldn’t we train that way? Why shouldn’t we try to give you the help that comes with that model and try to build you up and do all we can?”

Beyond just putting out fires

Instructors stressed the need for election officials to be on the lookout for efforts to disrupt the vote and ensure that communications are flowing up from counties to the state, down from states to the counties, as well as up and down to the federal government and across states.

Piecing together seemingly disparate actions happening in real-time across geographical locations will allow the nation to defend itself, said Robby Mook, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager in 2016. Mook co-founded the Defending Digital Democracy project with Matt Rhoades, Republican nominee Mitt Romney’s 2012 campaign manager.

“Find a way to input data in a consistent, efficient and reliable way to ensure you know what is going on and prevents things from falling through the cracks,” Mook told the election officials. “You got to rise above just putting out fires.”

At the training were officials from California, Colorado, Georgia, North Carolina, Oregon, Tennessee, West Virginia and other states. In one exercise, election officials were paired up as either a state or county under an Election Day scenario, charged with logging incidents and trying to piece together what turned out to be four different coordinated campaigns to disrupt voting.

“One of the big takeaways was just how the lack of one piece of information moving up from the counties to the state or moving from the states to counties, if either of those things don’t happen, it can have a significant impact,” said Stephen Trout, elections director for Oregon.

Trout said he would move quickly to acquire, customize and implement the incident tracking system, which would be an upgrade from the paper process currently in use. Dave Tackett, chief information officer for the West Virginia Secretary of State’s Office, said he will recommend some structuring changes at his state operations center, including bringing key personnel into the room and incorporating elements of the incident tracking system like mapping and the ability to assign individuals to specific incidents.

“Events like today are helping us zero in on how to structure ourselves better, how to really think in a different mindset so that we can carry out all the different tasks that have to be done with elections,” said Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the North Carolina Board of Elections. “(It’s) the importance of communications, the importance of having standard operating procedures in place so all the i’s are dotted and the t’s crossed ahead of time and you are prepared for the unknown.”

…

Botswana’s former President Ian Khama is strongly denying allegations of corruption and voicing his concerns about the direction of the country.

In an interview with VOA’s Nightline Africa radio program, Khama said claims made by the administration of current President Mokgweetsi Masisi that he misappropriated billions in the local currency are “laughable.” He said he plans to take the matter to court.

Khama said the false accusation is payback by members of the ruling party for his decision to campaign against them in the recent presidential election. The party, the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP), was founded by Khama’s father.

“The only reason that this was done was because a few months ago I resigned from the ruling party. Because they had abandoned our democratic credentials that we have had such a good reputation with up to this point in time,” he told VOA.

Botswana had an election in October where Khama campaigned against the ruling party.

“They swore that they would ‘get at me and fix me’ in their own words for having done that,” he said.

Earlier this month, Jako Hubona, of Botswana’s Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime, accused Khama and two other former high-ranking officials of transferring state funds to personal bank accounts in South Africa and Hong Kong. Only one official, senior intelligence officer Weleminah Maswabi, has been formally charged so far.

Trophy hunting licenses

Khama claims the current president, who previously served as his vice president, has become “drunk on power.” One policy difference between the two men is a decision by Masisi earlier this year to reverse a ban on trophy hunting of elephants. Conservation had been a major part of Khama’s administration.

But Khama said that although he disagrees with the decision, he did not seek to interfere.

“A new administration is at liberty to introduce its own policies. So when he did it I just said, ‘Well that’s fine,’” he said. “He’s the president today. If he wants to bring about those policy changes, he’s quite entitled to do so. I did the same thing. So who am I to try and challenge them?”

Decline in democracy

But Khama is gravely concerned about the state of democracy in his country and the ethics of the party he led for 10 years. He pointed to the fact that the BDP postponed primary elections three times this year and has incurred accusations of cheating. In recent history, Botswana has won accolades from organizations such as Transparency International for being among the least corrupt on the continent. Khama says that reputation is now in jeopardy.

“I would say it’s definitely in decline. If you’ve been following how our elections went, you would see that a number of petitions before the courts about allegations of rigging of the elections. Something certainly went wrong there that we’ve never, ever seen before,” he said.

…

Hundreds of anti-government protesters and their supporters gathered outside a tiny restaurant in Hong Kong for an unconventional Christmas dinner, sharing paper plates piled high with food under neon street signs.

“Hong Kongers are more united this Christmas (than) in previous years,” said Glory, the 31-year-old owner of Kwong Wing Catering, as he dished out noodles, fried chicken, and pasta from silver trays.

“Actually there is no Christmas atmosphere (this year), but there is a strong sense of unity,” he said. All of the food on offer Wednesday was free and prepared by the restaurant or donated by several sponsors.

Outside the eatery, hundreds of customers, many of them off-duty protesters, waited in line as tourists and other shoppers crowded the popular Tsim Sha Tsui area.

Jeanette, a 22-year-old university student, slurped bubble tea and pudding with her friend Yoyo as they discussed their holiday plans.

They would normally spend Christmas with their families, but felt this year had to be different. Both women said they had been involved in peaceful protests since the summer.

“We’re all family now,” said Jeanette, looking around at all of the other supporters eating around her. “We’re here because we want to support this shop, which has supported so many teenagers and protesters on the front line,” said Yoyo between mouthfuls of pudding.

Kwong Wing Catering is one of many businesses that are part of the so-called “yellow economy” across Hong Kong that are known for their support of the pro-democracy campaign. Colorful post-it notes with words of support from customers decorated the restaurant’s windows.

One of the chefs scheduled to cook at the eatery became a sort of folk hero after cooking for besieged student protesters at Polytechnic University in November.

He was supposed to cook for his supporters Wednesday, but was arrested by police earlier in the week, according to the restaurant’s Facebook page. It was not immediately clear why the chef had been arrested.

Hong Kong has been embroiled in anti-government protests since June which show no signs of abating.

Black-clad protesters marched through Christmas-decorated shopping malls across Hong Kong Wednesday as police fired tear gas and pepper spray to disperse crowds.

The protesters are angry about what they see as an encroachment by China on the wide-ranging autonomy Hong Kong was guaranteed under a “one country, two systems” framework that governs the former British colony.

China rejects such complaints.

Ivan, a 20-year-old university student, said he waited for an hour and a half to receive his hot meal.

“I feel very comforted that someone is willing to cook a meal for us,” he said, adding that Hong Kong still had a “festive” atmosphere despite the protests and clashes with police.

“I just got tear-gassed yesterday so I think it’s very special.”

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Areas of Australia that have been ravaged by deadly wildfires experienced temporary relief on Wednesday, but oppressive conditions are expected to return this weekend.

About 5 million hectares (12.35 million acres) of land have burned nationwide over the past few months, with nine people killed and more than 950 homes destroyed. New South Wales, the country’s most populous state, has received the brunt of the damage, with around 850 homes razed in the state.

Parts of New South Wales, including Sydney, experienced cool and damp conditions on Christmas Day, but more than 70 fires continued to burn across the state. New South Wales has been in a seven-day state of emergency, which was to expire on Wednesday night.

Australia Faces Catastrophic Fire Conditions

Catastrophic conditions as Australia’s brutal bushfire season continues

About 2,000 firefighters and 400 firetrucks battled the blazes in more favorable conditions, but high temperatures are set to return. Sydney is forecast to hit 31 degrees Celsius (88 Fahrenheit) on Sunday, while the city’s western suburbs could reach 41 C (106 F).

Fire danger ratings remained very high in northwestern New South Wales, and were between high and moderate for the rest of the state.

Australia’s NSW Faces Catastrophic Fire Conditions

Authorities asked people to delay travel, at the start of what is normally a busy Christmas holiday period, warning of the unpredictability of the fires

In his annual Christmas message, Prime Minister Scott Morrison paid tribute to the families of the two firefighters — Geoffrey Keaton, 32, and Andrew O’Dwyer, 36 — who died last week battling blazes southwest of Sydney.

The wildfire crisis forced Morrison to cut short his much-criticized family vacation in Hawaii. He returned to Australia on Saturday night.

“To Andrew and Geoffrey’s parents, we know this is going to be a tough Christmas for you, first one without both those two amazing men,” he said.

“I want to thank all those who serve our nation, serving as volunteers fighting those fires as we speak,” Morrison added.

Australian Leader Curtails Holiday as Firefighters Killed in Huge Blazes  

Australia has been fighting wildfires in the east for weeks, with blazes destroying more than 700 homes and nearly 3 million acres of bushland

Meanwhile, about 200 firefighters continued to battle a wildfire Wednesday in the Adelaide Hills, which is currently at the “watch and act” level issued by the South Australian Country Fire Service.

South Australia state, which last week had 86 homes destroyed after wildfires flared in catastrophic conditions, is bracing for a return of extreme temperatures, with Adelaide, the state capital, expected to reach 41 C (106 F) on Saturday.

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Mongolia was once solely a land of nomadic communities moving from location to location, depending on the season. One tribe that has lived in the isolated mountains in the north of the country for generations is the Tsaatan. As the country urbanizes and cities continue to grow, the government has rezoned land on which they were previously free to roam. As Libby Hogan reports from northern Mongolia, young Tsaatan people now face the choice of moving to the city or staying and continuing a traditional nomadic life.

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Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki flew to Addis Ababa Wednesday for his first meeting with the Ethiopian prime minister since Abiy Ahmed won the Nobel Peace Prize for initiating a thaw between the sparring neighbors.

Eritrea and Ethiopia fought a border war in 1998-2000 that left an estimated 80,000 dead before a prolonged stalemate took hold.

Shortly after he came to power last year, Abiy, 43, stunned observers at home and abroad by reaching out to Isaias and creating momentum for a peace deal.

Abiy welcomed Isaias at Addis Ababa’s Bole International Airport, Ethiopia’s state-affiliated Fana Broadcasting Corporate said.

“During his stay in Ethiopia, the Eritrean president is expected to meet with Ethiopian officials to discuss bilateral issues,” Fana said.

Isaias was accompanied by Foreign Minister Osman Saleh and Yemane Gebreab, a presidential advisor, according to a post on Twitter by Eritrean Information Minister Yemane G. Meskel.

“The two leaders will discuss enhancement of important bilateral & regional matters,” Yemane wrote.

Abiy’s office and a spokesman for Ethiopia’s foreign affairs ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

After the two leaders first met and embraced on the tarmac in Asmara, the Eritrean capital, last year, they reopened embassies, resumed flights and held a series of meetings across the region.

But the initial optimism fueled by these gestures has faded, and citizens of both countries complain that they are still waiting for meaningful change.

During the Nobel award ceremony in Oslo earlier this month, Norwegian Nobel Committee chairwoman Berit Reiss-Anderson noted that the peace process “seems to be at a standstill,” with border crossings closed and little apparent progress on border demarcation efforts.

She said the committee hoped the Nobel would “spur the parties to further implementation of the peace treaties.”

Isaias and Abiy last met in Asmara in July.

Upon returning from Oslo to Ethiopia this month, Abiy expressed hope that the two leaders would be able to meet “soon”.

Abiy wrote on Twitter Wednesday that he was “happy to welcome again to his second home my comrade-in-peace, President Isaias Afeworki and his delegation.”

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Hopes for a peaceful Christmas were dashed in Hong Kong Tuesday after riot police fired tear gas and protesters set fire at various locations across the city that has been roiled by civil unrest for more than six months.

Large crowds had gathered in several shopping malls and a busy tourist area in response to online calls to voice their discontent with the government and to demand greater democracy.

The anti-government movement in Hong Kong, sparked by a controversial extradition law, has entered the seventh month and shows no signs of abating. Protesters say they will not give up unless the government meets their political demands, which include universal suffrage and an independent investigation into police brutality.    

After 9 p.m. local time, police fired several rounds of tear gas in a popular tourist area, Tsim Sha Tsui, to disperse protesters — including outside the luxury Peninsula Hotel.  Hundreds had gathered to disrupt traffic earlier and riot police warned they were taking part in an illegal assembly.

The gas covered a large area, engulfing buses and other traffic in the tourist spot adorned with Christmas illuminations. Families with young children were seen covering their faces as they hurried away. Police ordered people gathered on the scenic harbor front to leave, although many appeared to be just celebrating Christmas. As riot police pushed along the seafront, a young child dressed in a Santa Claus costume looked frightened while clinging to his mother’s shoulders.

Scores of black-clad protesters got into a stand-off with police officers near the Peninsula by hiding behind opened umbrellas. Later in the evening, protesters placed large objects including wooden crates and bus signs across a thoroughfare and set them on fire.

Hong Kong police said in a late night statement that protesters threw fuel bombs at the Tsim Sha Tsui Police Station at 11 p.m. local time and warned members of the public to stay away from the area. They said protesters occupied a thoroughfare and set barricades on another street and police used crowd management vehicles to disperse “rioters” — eyewitnesses said water cannon were used on the crowds. The statement also said police warned the rioters “to stop their illegal acts.”

In the busy Mong Kok shopping district, protesters ignited objects at an entrance to the metro station. Other protesters targeted an HSBC bank by smashing its glass panels and setting fire to the front of the building. HSBC had suspended the account of non-profit platform Spark Alliance that raised funds for protesters. Some sprayed-painted the message, “Don’t forget Spark Alliance,” onto the outer walls.

Hong Kong police last week froze the equivalent of about $9 million held by Spark Alliance and arrested its four members — moves decried by critics as an attempt to clamp down on the city’s protest movement and smear its reputation.

HSBC Bank said the activities of Spark Alliance’s corporate account did not match the client’s stated business purposes. The bank maintained last week that the closure of the group’s account was “completely unrelated to the Hong Kong police’s arrest of the four individuals” and “unrelated to the current Hong Kong situation.”  

After clashes broke out Tuesday night, the metro company closed down stations at Mong Kok and Tsim Sha Tsui early, saying the move was necessary to protect the safety of passengers and staff.  The metro system had planned to extend its service hours on Christmas Eve.

On Christmas Eve, police officers also clashed with protesters inside several upscale shopping malls, using pepper spray and beating people with batons as both sides shouted verbal abuse at one another. Local media reported that one man fell inside a shopping center in out-of-town Yuen Long while escaping police officers.    

In Harbor City shopping mall in Tsim Sha Tsui, black-clad protesters got into a fight with people they suspected were undercover officers earlier in the evening. They threw objects at riot police officers who entered the mall while police pointed their crowd control weapons at the demonstrators. Plainclothes officers used batons to beat protesters while yelling at them. Several people were subdued. Many shops pulled down their shutters.

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The Pentagon is looking into reducing or even withdrawing US troops from West Africa, part of a worldwide redeployment of military forces, the New York Times reported Tuesday. There are between 6,000 and 7,000 US troops in Africa, mainly in West Africa but also in places like Somalia.

The U.S. presence includes military trainers as well as a recently built $110 million drone base in Niger, the Times said. A withdrawal would also end U.S. support for French military efforts in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso in their war along with local troops against Al-Qaeda and Islamic State group jihadists.

The Pentagon supports them by providing intelligence, logistical support and aerial refueling at an annual cost to the Pentagon of some $45 million a year, the Times said.

France has had a major military presence in Mali since 2013, when it launched an intervention against Al-Qaeda-linked jihadists who had overrun the country’s north.

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U.S. President Donald Trump berated Democratic lawmakers over his impeachment Tuesday as a legislative standoff continues over a Senate impeachment trial.

“They treated us very unfairly and now they want to be treated fairly in the Senate,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.

Trump also took aim specifically at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for indefinitely postponing the sending of the articles of impeachment to Republican-controlled Senate so a trial can begin.

“She hates all of the people that voted for me and the Republican Party,” he declared. “She’s doing a disservice to the country.”

On a near straight party line vote, the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives approved two articles of impeachment against Trump last Wednesday, making him only the third U.S. president to be impeached in the country’s 243-year history. He is accused of abusing the power of the presidency to benefit himself politically and then obstructing congressional efforts to investigate his actions.

Last week, U.S. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell dismissed calls by Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer to hear testimony from four officials during a Senate impeachment trial, including former National Security Adviser John Bolton and Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney.  The officials had refused to testify during the House impeachment inquiry of the president.

On Monday, however, McConnell softened his position, saying Republicans have not ruled out calling witnesses in Trump’s impeachment trial.

“We haven’t ruled out witnesses,” McConnell told “Fox & Friends.” on Monday. “We’ve said, ‘Let’s handle this case just like we did with President Clinton.’ Fair is fair.”

In addition to testimony from key witnesses, Schumer said Monday he also wants relevant emails and other documents that “will shed additional light on the administration’s decision-making regarding the delay in security funding to Ukraine.”

“It’s hard to imagine a trial not having documents and witnesses,” Schumer said, “If it does’nt have documents and witnesses, it’s going to seem to most of the American people that it is a sham trial. Not to get at the facts.”

Trump’s impeachment stems from a July call with Ukraine’s president in which Trump asked for an investigation into Joe Biden, a former vice president and a leading Democratic rival to Trump in the 2020 presidential election.

Pelosi has said she will not send the articles of impeachment to the Senate or choose impeachment prosecutors until the Senate agrees on rules governing the process.

The Senate is not authorized to begin a trial until it receives the articles from the House.

Despite Trump’s assertion that McConnell has complete leeway over a trial and McConnell’s December 17 assertion that “I’m not impartial about this [trial] at all,” the U.S. Constitution maintains that each senator should take seriously his or her oath to “do impartial justice.”

Trump has insisted he did nothing wrong in his push to get Ukraine to investigate Biden and his son Hunter Biden’s lucrative work for a Ukrainian natural gas company.  Trump had also called for a probe into a debunked theory that Ukraine meddled in the 2016 election.

Trump made the appeal for the Biden investigations at a time when he was temporarily withholding $391 million in military aid  Kyiv wanted to help fight pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.

The U.S. president eventually released the money in September without  Zelenskiy launching the Biden investigations, proof, Republicans have said, that Trump had not engaged in a reciprocal quid pro  quo deal, the military aid in exchange for the Biden probe.

Trump has on countless occasions described his late July call with Zelenskiy as “perfect,” when he asked him to “do us a favor,” to investigate the Bidens and Ukraine’s purported role in the 2016 election. As the impeachment controversy mounted, Trump has subsequently claimed the “us” in his request to Zelenskiy referred not to him personally but to the United States.

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Gov. Ralph Northam’s office said Monday that he will push for legislation replacing Virginia’s statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee housed in the United States Capitol.

The governor filed a drafting request for a bill that would outline the process for removing the statue — one of Virginia’s two in the National Statuary Hall Collection — and selecting a replacement, Northam spokeswoman Alena Yarmosky said. The disclosure from Northam’s office came in response to questions about a letter from two Democratic members of Congress that called on Northam to make replacing the statue part of his agenda for the legislative session that begins next month.

“As Virginians, we have a responsibility to not only learn from but also confront our history,” U.S. Reps. Jennifer Wexton and A. Donald McEachin wrote in a letter released Monday. “As part of this responsibility, we must strive for a more complete telling of history by raising up the voices, stories, and memories of minorities and people of color.”

Yarmosky said Northam’s office had previously discussed the issue with McEachin and Wexton’s offices “and we look forward to continuing to work with them and all others who are committed to making Virginia open, inclusive, and equitable.”

She said additional details about the legislation would be announced later.

The National Statuary Hall Collection consists of 100 statues, two each from all 50 states, that honor notable people in their history. Virginia’s other statue is of George Washington.

“Virginia’s decision to donate the statue of Lee was a part of a national effort to rewrite the history of the South’s secession and rehabilitate the image of Confederate leaders,” said a press release from Wexton’s office.

Wexton and McEachin’s letter mentioned a number of Virginians who “would better represent our Commonwealth in the U.S. Capitol,” including civil rights lawyer Oliver Hill and educator and orator Booker T. Washington.

The two noted that other states have recently reconsidered their representation in the collection. Florida, for instance, recently replaced its statue of Confederate Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith with one of civil rights activist Mary McLeod Bethune.
 

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The Trump administration awarded billions of dollars in contracts for private companies to operate immigration detention centers in California — less than two weeks before a new state law takes effect to prohibit them.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill in October to ban contracts for for-profit prisons starting Jan. 1. Supporters hoped the law would force U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to look elsewhere after current contracts expire.

A federal website posted long-term awards on Friday worth a combined $6.8 billion for detention facilities in San Diego, Calexico, Adelanto and Bakersfield. The sites will house about 4,000 detainees, with capacity to expand in the future.

ICE said the contracts were not subject to the new state law, deflecting criticism that the timing was meant to circumvent it.

Paige Hughes, an agency spokeswoman, said ICE believed the new contracts will limit transfers of detainees outside California, where they would be farther from family, friends and legal representatives.

“State laws aimed at obstructing federal law enforcement are inappropriate and harmful,” Hughes said.

Vicky Waters, a spokeswoman for Newsom, said Monday that ICE was trying to get around the law, which she called a historic step to address excessive incarceration, including detention of immigrants and asylum-seekers.

“For-profit prisons, including ICE-contracted facilities, run contrary to our values and have no place in California,” Waters wrote in an email. “This effort to circumvent California’s authority and federal procurement rules that safeguard the American taxpayers must be addressed by congressional oversight.”

A state Senate analysis of Assembly Bill 32 said the Trump administration would likely sue to block the law, partly by arguing that it is preempted by federal immigration law. The analysis predicted the state would prevail in court.

Extension details

The GEO Group Inc. won two five-year extensions — one to operate the detention center in Adelanto, with capacity for 2,690 beds, and another to run the facility in Bakersfield, with capacity for 1,800 beds. The two contracts are worth more than $3.7 billion. GEO said Monday the contracts would provide more than $200 million in annual revenue and 1,200 jobs.

CoreCivic Inc. won an extension worth $2.1 billion to operate an immigration detention center in San Diego, with capacity for 1,994 beds. Management & Training Corp. won a contract for $679 million to operate a facility in Calexico with capacity for 704 beds.

California, with its large immigrant populations and border with Mexico, is a major priority for ICE, which has found itself increasingly unwelcome under state laws. As the number of ICE detainees nationwide topped 56,000 earlier this year, the agency held more people in central Louisiana.
 

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The State Department has withdrawn the U.S. ambassador to Zambia after he strongly criticized the south African country for jailing a gay couple for having sex.

A State Department spokesperson said Ambassador Daniel Foote’s job in Zambia is “no longer tenable” because Zambian President Edgar Lungu said he no longer wants to work with Foote.

“Despite this action, the United States remains committed to our partnership with the Zambian people,” the spokesperson said, adding that the U.S. “firmly opposes abuses against LGBTI persons. Governments have an obligation to ensure that all people can freely enjoy the universal human rights and fundamental freedoms to which they are entitled.”

Ambassador Foote said last month that he was horrified by the 15-year prison sentence a Zambian court handed out to two men for having sex in what the court said was “against the order of nature.”

When Zambian officials criticized Foote’s reaction, he said all they want are diplomats “with open pocketbooks and closed mouths.”

Zambia has not yet commented on Foote’s withdrawal. The country gets hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. aid every year.
 

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Opposition politicians in Africa face tough challenges — including arrest, intimidation and violence — as they struggle to upend decades of rule by the parties that originally brought liberation from colonialism. But their struggle, they say, is not only an African movement — it’s a global generational shift towards accountability and a departure from authoritarian leadership. VOA’s Anita Powell met with two of the continent’s most vocal opposition leaders, and reports from Johannesburg.

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Egypt’s former military chief-of-staff Sami Anan was released from detention on Sunday almost two years after his arrest following his plans to compete in the 2018 presidential election, his office manager said on Twitter.

Anan, now at home according to the manager, was held in a military prison until he suffered a stroke in July 2018 and was then moved to a military hospital in Cairo’s Maadi suburb, where he remained until his release.

His health has improved, a source familiar with the matter said. The reason for his release is still unclear.

Anan, seen as Sisi’s main challenger in that election, was arrested and halted his presidential bid after the military accused him of running for office without permission, which it said was a breach of military law. Anan’s spokesman denied that he had broken any laws.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi was re-elected for a second term in 2018, winning 97% of the vote with a turnout of 41%. The election featured only one other candidate, an ardent Sisi supporter, after opposition contenders halted their campaigns in January.

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For the first time in more than 200 years, France’s historic Notre Dame Cathedral will be dark and silent for Christmas.

The iconic Gothic structure was ravaged in April by a fire that destroyed parts of the roof, the spire and vault.

“This is the first time since the French Revolution that there will be no midnight Mass” at Notre Dame, said cathedral rector Patrick Chauvet.

Christmas services have been moved a mile away to Saint-Germain l’Auxerrois, a church dating back to the 7th century.

There has been a Christmas service every year at the UNESCO World Heritage site through France’s sometimes tumultuous history. The only time it was forced to close was during the anti-Catholic revolutionary period in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

President Emmanuel Macron has set a timetable of five years to complete repairs on the eight-centuries-old structure.

French prosecutors have opened an investigation into the cause of the fire, suggesting that it might have been the fault of a stray cigarette or an electrical malfunction. 

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