Author: Worldnews

Florida is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the U.S. Its warm climate and miles-long beautiful beaches attract vacationers and those willing to relocate or retire. But with the threat of a coronavirus epidemic, things might not look so sunny for Florida tourism. Liliya Anisimova has the story, narrated by Anna Rice.

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Nigeria’s health authorities are intensifying efforts to contain the coronavirus after the West African nation announced its first case last Friday. Part of Nigeria’s readiness includes upgrading testing labs, screening at entry points like the airports and public awareness campaigns. Timothy Obiezu reports from Abuja.
 

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Super heroes have special powers. People who can get on the debate stage and raise enough money to run for president are considered super politicians and also have special powers. A comic book series called “Political Power” tells the stories of Democratic candidates running in the 2020 elections. While a few of them are no longer in the race, Democratic voters who did not or have not voted in a primary yet can read about the top contenders in the race to run against Trump.  VOA’s Elizabeth Lee has the details.

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U.S. lawmakers quickly passed more than $8 billion in emergency funding Thursday, addressing the growing coronavirus crisis. Officials in Nevada, Illinois, New York and Maryland. are announcing new cases that are among the 102 people testing positive for the coronavirus in 14 U.S. states. VOA’s congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson has more from Capitol Hill.

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Joe Biden’s presidential campaign spent the past month on the verge of collapse after disappointing finishes in the overwhelmingly white states that launched the Democratic primary. As he watched the turmoil unfold from Gadsden, Alabama, Robert Avery thought the race would change dramatically when it moved into the South.
    
“He knows us, he cares about us,” the 71-year-old community organizer said. “People have given us no credit as to knowing what’s going on or being involved, and that’s the furthest thing from the truth.”
    
It turns out Avery’s instinct was right.
    
After a brutal February for Biden, black voters throughout the South transformed Biden’s White House bid over the course of three days. A back-of-the-pack operation surged to front-runner status powered by support from black voters, starting with Biden’s commanding win Saturday in South Carolina and coming into full focus on Super Tuesday as he racked up wins in Virginia, North Carolina, Alabama and Tennessee.
    
Biden is now in a tight race with progressive rival Bernie Sanders, who emerged as the initial Democratic leader after strong performances in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada last month. Activists said Biden’s success is a reminder that the path to victory in the Democratic contest runs straight through their communities.
    
“You can’t win the Democratic presidential nomination without winning the South, and you can’t win the South without the black vote, and you can’t win the black vote without winning the black women’s vote,” said Melanie Campbell, president and CEO of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation. “We believe all roads to the White House must come through the South.”
    
Black voters strongly aligned behind Biden over other candidates, according to AP VoteCast surveys across eight Super Tuesday states. In Alabama, where African American voters made up a majority of the Democratic primary electorate, roughly 7 in 10 supported the former vice president. That support held across ages and gender.
    
In other states, like Texas, Virginia and North Carolina, black voters made up a smaller but sizable share of Democratic primary voters. While a majority of both black men and women supported Biden, Sanders did pull about even with Biden among black voters under 45.
    
Biden will be looking to carry that momentum into next week’s six primaries that will include states like Michigan and Mississippi, which are also home to significant populations of black voters. More than 78% of residents in Detroit, Michigan’s largest city, are African American.
    
The former vice president’s success also poses warning signs for Sanders. The Vermont senator’s 2016 presidential campaign was unsuccessful in part because he couldn’t line up enough support from black voters in the South to win the Democratic nomination.
    
Since 2016, Sanders has focused on building relationships with black leaders and voters. He frequently speaks of a multiracial coalition that will help him win the nomination and the White House. But Tuesday’s results, combined with his distant second-place finish in South Carolina, suggest he could face similar challenges in 2020.
    
Sanders has warned in recent days that the party’s elite establishment is aligning to thwart his campaign. But Biden allies pointed to their success with a diverse set of voters on Tuesday to rebut that.
    
“I just did not know that African Americans in the South were considered part of the establishment,” said Louisiana Democratic Rep. Cedric Richmond, Biden’s campaign co-chairman.
    
“African Americans voters have made a conscious decision that we fought and earned through civil rights,” Richmond said, because they understand the importance of “nominating a person that they know, nominating a person that can win.”
    
Niambi Carter, a political science professor at Howard University, said the race shifted in Biden’s favor after he nabbed an endorsement from South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn, the highest-ranking black member of Congress. Carter said Clyburn is a beloved and trusted figure in the black community, and she believes it potentially gave black voters in states like Alabama and Virginia the necessary push to support Biden.
    
“Older black voters are an important constituency for Democrats,” Carter said. “I think people underestimate the importance of having a steadfast core group of supporters, and Joe Biden had that. I think this sort of narrative that it’s just about black people voting their fears is perhaps not necessarily the case. Black people are not just pragmatic, they’re strategic.”
    
Trudy Lucas, the religious affairs and external relations manager at National Action Network South Carolina, agreed.
    
“We listen to Jim Clyburn, and we’ve been doing that for years now,” Lucas said.
    
That rings true for Sheryl Threadgill-Matthews, a member of the Alabama New South Coalition Inc. who voted for Biden. Threadgill-Matthews said it initially wasn’t an easy choice, but as candidates began to drop out of the race, her choice became clear.
    
“I really think across the nation that people will start to galvanize,” Threadgill-Matthews said. “I grappled with it initially, but when I thought about his record and the integrity that he’s always shown through his vice presidency, I decided to vote for him. I think Biden would be a candidate that a diverse electorate could support.”

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Federal authorities announced an investigation of the Seattle-area nursing home at the center of an outbreak of the new coronavirus as the U.S. death toll climbed to 11, including the first fatality outside Washington state.

Officials in California’s Placer County, near Sacramento, said Wednesday an elderly person who tested positive after returning from a San Francisco-to-Mexico cruise had died. The victim had underlying health problems, authorities said. California Gov. Gavin Newsom late Wednesday declared a statewide emergency due to coronavirus. Washington and Florida had already declared emergencies, and Hawaii also joined them Wednesday.

Washington also announced another death, bringing its total to 10. Most of those who died were residents of Life Care Center, a nursing home in Kirkland, a suburb east of Seattle. At least 39 cases have been reported in the Seattle area, where researchers say the virus may have been circulating undetected for weeks. Vice President Mike Pence was expected to meet with Washington Gov. Jay Inslee near Olympia on Thursday.

Seema Verma, head of the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said the agency is sending inspectors to Life Care along with experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to figure out what happened and determine whether the nursing home followed guidelines for preventing infections.

Last April, the state fined Life Care $67,000 over infection-control deficiencies following two flu outbreaks that affected 17 patients and staff. An unannounced follow-up inspection in June determined that Life Care had corrected the problems, Verma said.

Meanwhile, public officials in Washington came under pressure to take more aggressive steps against the outbreak, including closing schools and canceling large events. While the state and Seattle have declared emergencies, giving leaders broad powers to suspend activities, they have not issued any orders to do so.

“We have encouraged people who are responsible for large gatherings to give consideration whether it really makes sense to carry those on right now,” Gov. Jay Inslee said. “Right now, we are deferring to the judgment … of these organizations.”

While some individual schools and businesses have shut down, the governor said large-scale school closings have not been ordered because “there are so many ramifications for families and businesses,” especially for health care workers who might not be able to go to work because of child care responsibilities.

Local and state health officials have not recommended school closings unless the schools have had a confirmed case of the disease.

“School closures have been part of the pandemic response kit for a long time,” said Dr. Jeff Duchin, health officer for Seattle and King County. “We don’t have strong evidence about how important school closures are.”

Jennifer Hayles, 41, of Kirkland, said she was appalled that Inslee and health officials haven’t canceled next week’s Emerald City Comic Con. The four-day cosplay and pop-culture event draws close to 100,000 people each year, and some participants, including D.C. Comics and Penguin Random House, have pulled out over the virus.

Hayles said she spent hundreds of dollars on tickets and other items related to the event but will have to skip it because she has a compromised immune system.

“There’s a lot of people who are talking about the economic cost of people forced to pull out of Comic Con, but if we have an explosion of cases of coronavirus, the economic cost is going to be much higher,” Hayles said.

Comic Con’s organizer, Reedpop, announced Wednesday that it would make an exception to its no-refunds policy for those who want their money back, but said it remained committed to holding the event unless local, state or federal officials change their guidance.

Lakshmi Unni said that she was keeping her son, an eighth-grader at Redmond Middle School in Seattle’s eastern suburbs, home on Wednesday and that she had urged the school board and principal to close.

“Yesterday at least three kids were coughing,” Unni said. “We don’t know if they were sick with the virus, but if they do become sick, the chances of spreading are very, very high.”

Some schools, businesses and other employers aren’t waiting.

Seattle and King County public health officials urged businesses to allow employees to work remotely if possible, and the county said it will allow telecommuting for some of its workers for the next three weeks.

The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle announced it is canceling events at the complex and requiring nonessential staff to work remotely at least through the end of the month to lessen the chance of infection among patients with weakened immune systems.

School officials in Renton, south of Seattle, announced that Hazen High School will close for the rest of the week after a student tested positive for the coronavirus. Online petitions urged officials to close other schools on Seattle’s east side.

The F5 technology company closed its 44-story tower in downtown Seattle after learning an employee had been in contact with someone who tested positive for the virus. Outdoor recreation giant REI shut down its Seattle-area operations for two days as a precaution.

Health officials in North Carolina reported that a person from Wake County tested positive for the illness after visiting the nursing home. The patient’s flight from the Seattle area to the Raleigh-Durham airport raised fears other passengers were exposed to the virus.

“My understanding is we have the manifest. Now the trick is to go find them,” said Robert Redfield of the CDC.

Life Care Center said on its website that it is screening employees for symptoms before they start work and as they leave. The nursing home is prohibiting visits from residents’ family members.

Shortly before the California death was announced, Princess Cruise Lines notified passengers of its Grand Princess that federal health officials are investigating a “small cluster” of coronavirus cases connected to the ship’s mid-February voyage. It asked current passengers to stay in their cabins until they were cleared by medical staff and said those who had been on the previous voyage should contact their doctor if they develop fever or other symptoms.

The Grand Princess is at sea off Mexico and will return early to San Francisco, where CDC and company officials will meet to determine the course of action, the cruise line said. California planned to fly COVID-19 testing kits out to the ship, which won’t be allowed to dock until the test results are completed, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Wednesday.

 In Los Angeles, a contract medical worker who was conducting screenings at the city’s main airport has tested positive for the virus. The person wore protective equipment while on the job so it was unclear how the worker contracted the virus, Homeland Security officials said.

In New York, health officials put hundreds of residents in self-quarantine  after members of two families in the New York City suburb of New Rochelle were diagnosed with the virus. Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the disease appeared to have spread from a lawyer to his wife, two children, a neighbor and two others.

The new results brought the number of confirmed cases in the state to 11.

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R&B singer R. Kelly is due in federal court on Thursday in Chicago to enter a plea to an updated federal indictment that includes sex abuse allegations involving a new accuser.
    
Kelly, 53, is expected to plead not guilty to a 13-count superseding indictment unsealed last month that includes multiple counts of child pornography.
    
The reworked charging document is largely the same as the original indictment, which also had 13 counts, but includes a reference to a new accuser, referred to only as “Minor 6.”
    
Thursday’s arraignment could be an opportunity for prosecutors to offer additional details about the new accuser and her allegations against the Grammy Award-winning artist.
    
The hearing could also be a chance for U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber to push back the trial date. Kelly’s attorneys have said previously they couldn’t be prepared for trial by April 27, which remained the official trial date.
    
Kelly, who has denied ever abusing anyone, faces several dozen counts of state and federal sexual misconduct charges in Illinois, Minnesota and New York, from sexual assault to heading a racketeering scheme aimed at supplying Kelly with girls.
    
Kelly was jailed in July and has been awaiting trial at a Chicago federal jail a block from the courthouse where he attends pretrial hearings. He has participated in hearings in his New York case by video.
    
The federal charges in Chicago accuse Kelly of filming himself having sex with underage girls and of paying off potential witnesses in his 2008 trial, at which he was acquitted, to get them to change their stories.

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U.S. first lady Melania Trump drew parallels Wednesday between her youth welfare initiative and a group of women from around the world whom the State Department has recognized for acts of courage in their countries.
    
Although the “Be Best” initiative was designed for children, the first lady said the program “ties nicely into the accomplishments of the women who share the stage with me.”
    
“Without positive support, guidance and well-being, which are just some of the attributes today’s children need, they will not enter adulthood with the empathy and strength needed to help others as selflessly as the women here today,” Mrs. Trump said at the annual State Department ceremony.
    
A dozen women from Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, an autonomous prefecture in China, Malaysia, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Syria, Yemen and Zimbabwe received the 2020 International Women of Courage Award on Wednesday from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
    
One recipient was imprisoned in Syria and now helps families of forcibly disappeared Syrians. Another is the mayor of Maidan Shar, a town in Afghanistan’s conservative Wardak province, who has faced death threats and angry male mobs. Other recipients are journalists and human rights advocates.
    
Mrs. Trump noted that Wednesday was her fourth year attending the ceremony. She said she is inspired by the personal stories of each of the women, noting that they often risk their safety to help others.
    
“These are the faces of true heroism,” she said.
    
International Women’s Day is Sunday.

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The race for the Democratic presidential nomination has consolidated from a once-crowded field with more than 20 candidates into essentially a two-man contest after big wins Tuesday by former Vice President Joe Biden and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. Biden took nine states, including the delegate-rich state of Texas.  Sanders won three states and early polls show he has a commanding lead in California, the top prize in the contest. Meanwhile, Michael Bloomberg quit the Democratic race Wednesday, after a poor showing.  VOA’s Mike O’Sullivan has more on the Super Tuesday results.

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The release of the James Bond film “No Time To Die” has been pushed back several months because of global concerns about coronavirus.

MGM, Universal and producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli announced on Twitter Wednesday that the film would be pushed back from its April release to November 2020.

The announcement cited consideration of the global theatrical marketplace in the decision to delay the release of the film. “No Time To Die” will now hit theaters in the U.K. on Nov. 12 and worldwide on Nov. 25.

Publicity plans for the film in China, Japan and South Korea had previously been canceled because of the outbreak.

The coronavirus outbreak emerged in China and has spread globally. In all, more than 94,000 people have contracted the virus worldwide, with more than 3,200 deaths.

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Iran’s Islamist rulers faced a litany of complaints about their handling of the nation’s deadly coronavirus outbreak from disgruntled citizens who called in to a VOA Persian TV program.

In Monday’s edition of Straight Talk, Iranians who said they were calling from the capital Tehran and other parts of the country variously accused the government of being too slow to fight the virus, misleading the public about its spread, and using it to settle scores with perceived enemies. VOA could not independently verify the identity of the callers.

Iranian officials reported that the death toll from the virus that causes the disease COVID-19 rose to 66 from 54 on Sunday, while the number of cases jumped to 1,501 from 978. International health experts have said Iran’s relatively high ratio of deaths to cases versus other nations where the virus has spread indicates an underreporting of cases by Iranian authorities.

آغاز طرح ملی مبارزه با ویروس #کرونا با حضور ۳۰۰ هزار گروه از فردا سه شنبه pic.twitter.com/wVkmDUk1KC

— خبرگزاری ایسنا (@isna_farsi) March 2, 2020

In a televised address Monday, Iranian Health Minister Saeed Namaki announced a mobilization of hundreds of thousands of personnel backed by Basiji militiamen to inspect homes across the country for signs of people infected by the virus. Basijis have a reputation for helping Iranian authorities to violently suppress anti-government protests in recent years.

“We will equip these 300,000 teams with diagnostic equipment,” Namaki said. “We will knock on everyone’s door, we will spot all the scattered (virus) cases in the country as soon as possible and refer them to medical centers.” He added that the home visits will begin this week.

Several callers to Straight Talk expressed confusion about what the inspections will involve. There was no word from the Iranian government. 

“They want to take revenge on the Iranian people for all of the (recent) street demonstrations,” said a man who identified himself as Naser from Tehran. Iran has seen waves of nationwide anti-government protests in the past few years, including one in which authorities killed hundreds of people protesting increases in subsidized gasoline prices last November. 

“Iranian authorities should have acted as soon as they found out about the coronavirus outbreak in China by controlling the comings and goings through Iran’s borders,” said a caller who gave his name as Abdulhamid in Tehran. “But they prefer us to die, so that they don’t have to worry about giving us subsidies,” he added.  

The novel coronavirus that has spread to dozens of countries around the world first emerged in China in December.

Namaki, the Iranian health minister, had said the government approved his request to stop air travel to and from China in late January. But Iran’s Mahan Air has continued flying between Tehran and multiple Chinese cities since then.

Iran Bans Travelers from China, Crippling Plan to Boost Chinese Tourism

Iran’s health minister announced a ban on air travelers from China on Friday to prevent the China coronavirus outbreak from spreading to the country

Another caller faulted Iran’s government for rejecting offers of assistance in fighting the virus from the U.S., its longtime enemy. 

“America is ready to provide us with medicine and medical care that people need,” said the caller named Siamak. “So why are you rejecting that aid and playing with people’s lives?” he asked.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said Monday that Tehran is “suspicious” of U.S. intentions and does not count on receiving any U.S. aid.

The Trump administration has been tightening sanctions against Iran since 2018 as part of a U.S. campaign of “maximum pressure” on Tehran to end perceived malign behaviors. But U.S. officials said they have notified Iran through Swiss intermediaries that they are willing to help it respond to the virus as part of humanitarian exemptions to U.S. sanctions.  

This article originated in VOA’s Persian Service.

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The number of new virus cases in China dropped to its lowest level in six weeks Monday and hundreds of patients at the outbreak’s epicenter were being released, while a grimmer reality set in elsewhere, with swelling infection numbers and growing dread that no area could fend off the illness.

Clusters of infections in South Korea, Italy and Iran continued to expand and COVID-19 was raising distress and reshaping routines around Europe and across the Atlantic in the United States. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development warned that the world economy risked contracting this quarter for the first time since the international financial crisis more than a decade ago.

Major cities including Jakarta, New York and Berlin grappled with their first recorded cases. Schools emptied across Japan, mobile hospitals were planned in Iran, and the Mona Lisa, accustomed to droves of staring tourists, hung in a vacant room of the shuttered Louvre in Paris.

“Just about everywhere, the cases are rising quite quickly in a number of countries,” said Ian Mackey, who studies viruses at the University of Queensland in Australia.

Malaysia and Portugal were the newest places to detect the virus. More than 60 countries around the world — including nine of the 10 most populous— have found infections, with a global count of nearly 89,000 people affected by the illness. Even as alarms grew louder in much of the world, Monday brought positive signs from China, where the outbreak started.

China’s economy delivered hopeful cues, with mainland Chinese stock benchmarks charging back 3% and data showing progress in restoring factory output after weeks of disruptions related to the outbreak.

The country reported 202 new cases of the virus, its lowest daily count since Jan. 21, and the stricken heart of the health crisis, Wuhan, said 2,570 patients were released. At the largest of 16 temporary hospitals that were hastily built in Wuhan in response to the outbreak, worries over the availability of supplies and protective gear abated and pressure on medical staff eased.

Dr. Zhang Junjian, who leads a temporary hospital at an exhibition center in Wuhan which has a staff of 1,260, said optimism was high that the facility would no longer be needed in the coming weeks.

“If nothing special happens, I expect the operation of our makeshift hospital … could complete its historical mission by the end of March,” Zhang said.

China’s sunnier news came two months into its outbreak. In the places the virus has spread more recently, the problems continued to magnify.

South Korea, with the worst outbreak outside of China, said it recorded 599 new cases of the virus Monday, bringing the total to 4,335. The death toll there rose to 26.

To cope, the country said hospitals would be reserved for patients with serious symptoms or preexisting conditions, with mild cases now routed to other designated facilities.

“If we continue to hospitalize mild patients amid the continued surge in infections, we would be risking overworking medical professionals and putting them at greater risk of infections,” said the country’s vice health minister, Kim Gang-lip.

South Korea said it would keep its schools closed longer than previously announced, with a planned reopening of March 9 delayed another two weeks to March 23. And the leader of a church that’s blamed for being the source of the country’s largest cluster of infections bowed in apology.

“We also did our best but weren’t able to contain it fully,” said Lee Man-hee, the 88-year-old leader of the Shincheonji church, which some mainstream Christian groups reject as a cult.

In the Middle East, a worsening situation in Iran was accompanied by concern for its top leaders after a member of the council that advises Iran’s supreme leader died of COVID-19.

Iran has confirmed 1,501 cases of the virus and 66 deaths, but many believe the true number is larger. Its caseload surged more than 250% in just 24 hours.

Major Shiite shrines remain open despite civilian authorities’ calls to close them. The holy cities of Mashad and Qom, where Shiites often touch and kiss shrines in a show of faith, have had high numbers of infections. The Revolutionary Guard said it would install some mobile hospitals in response and authorities have been cleaning the shrines and even spraying down city streets with disinfectant.

“We will have two difficult weeks ahead,” said Ali Raibiei, a spokesman for the Iranian government.

Meantime, Israel, an enemy of Iran, was deciding whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stays in power. Among the voting sites were 15 stations especially for quarantined people who may have been exposed to the virus.

In Europe, leaders braced for worsening caseloads after the count surged in France, Italy and to a lesser degree Spain over the weekend. Italy’s number of infection ballooned by 50% in 24 hours to 1,694. Health officials in northern Italy sought to bring doctors out of retirement and to accelerate nursing students’ graduations to help an overwhelmed public health system.

The Louvre, the world’s most popular museum, remained closed as its 2,300 workers expressed fears the site’s international appeal could make it a prime target. At Fashion Week in Paris, attendees passed up kisses, instead greeting each other with elbow touches. In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s outstretched hand was rebuffed by her interior minister at a meeting with migrant groups.

In the United States, authorities have counted at least 80 cases of the virus, two fatal, and concern was driving some to wipe store shelves clean of bottled water, hand sanitizer and other necessities. Both deaths were men with existing health problems who were hospitalized in Washington state.

Investors awaited Wall Street’s opening after rallies in Asian markets. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, though, lowered its forecasts for global growth this year and said the world economy could shrink this quarter for the first time in more than a decade.

“Global economic prospects remain subdued and very uncertain,” the agency said.

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He opened February by sharing victory with one of the Democratic Party’s best-known figures and ended it with a humbling defeat at the hands of another. Yet Pete Buttigieg’s unlikely path over the last 30 days exceeded virtually everyone’s expectations of his presidential ambitions, except perhaps his own.

The former mayor of Indiana’s fourth largest city, an openly gay 38-year-old whose name most voters still can’t pronounce, formally suspended his White House bid Sunday night. He did so acknowledging that he no longer had a viable path to the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, even after finishing in the top four in each of the first four contests of the 2020 primary season.

“By every historical measure, we were never supposed to get anywhere at all,” Buttigieg reminded his hometown crowd, which was disappointed and hopeful at the same time. The crowd interrupted his speech with chants of “2024.”

Buttigieg began the month effectively in a first-place tie with progressive powerhouse Bernie Sanders in Iowa’s presidential caucuses. The mayor made history as the first openly gay candidate to earn a presidential delegate, never mind becoming the first to finish on top in any presidential primary contest.
 

He won over Iowa as a fresh-faced Democrat with a pragmatic Midwestern message backed by an aggressive strategy to reach voters in overlooked rural communities. And if not for the state’s chaotic struggle to report its results, the Feb. 3 contest could have vaulted him to further heights.

Buttigieg and his competitors pivoted quickly to New Hampshire, where he was a decided underdog in a field that featured two neighboring senators and a former vice president. Yet the mayor from nearly 1000 miles (1,600 kilometers) away showed surprising strength again.

He nearly tripled Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s vote total and finished just one percentage point behind Sanders, the winner.

“You know, he very nearly pulled it off,” said David Axelrod, who served as the senior adviser to former President Barack Obama and was at times an unofficial Buttigieg booster.

Axelrod cited Iowa’s reporting fiasco and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s New Hampshire surge as key factors that limited Buttigieg’s rise.

“If those two things would have been different, we would be having a different conversation now,” he said.

Questions about Buttigieg’s appeal with voters of color loomed over strong finishes in overwhelmingly white Iowa and New Hampshire, however. And as soon as the race shifted into more diverse terrain, Buttigieg’s star began to fade.

In Nevada, he finished in third place behind Sanders and former Vice President Joe Biden, even as he bested two senators and a billionaire. And by the time the race moved to South Carolina a week later, Buttigieg’s weakness with African American voters was painfully exposed.

He failed to hit double digits in the first-in-the-South contest on Saturday, scoring a distant fourth place in a state in which more than half of Democratic primary voters were not white. Less than two hours after holding what would be his final rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, Buttigieg was hunkered on the phone in a hotel near Americus, Georgia, working out the details of ending his campaign, people familiar with the conversation said.

On the phone with him were communications strategist Lis Smith, senior strategist Michael Halle, pollster Katie Connolly, media adviser Larry Grisalano, deputy campaign manager Hari Sevugan and longtime campaign manager Mike Schmul, according to aides familiar with the conversation who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to share internal discussions.

Having laid out a narrow but viable path to the nomination through an uncertain state-by-state fight, advisers painted a picture of a difficult road ahead.

After someone interjected that Buttigieg should speak, the candidate, known for an understated deliberative style, noted effectively that if the conversation had reached that point the decision was pretty clear.

Though there were details to work out about how to handle his appearances on Sunday news programs, the conversation quickly turned to the logistics of pulling down his Texas campaign events scheduled for Sunday and how to arrange for the speech in South Bend.

When discussion during the call turned to a possible endorsement, the team decided it might detract from what was a speech heavy with references to Buttigieg’s ground-breaking campaign and his eye on the future.

It marked a humbling end to a history-making month for the young Democrat, who could wait another 10 presidential elections to run again and still be the same age as the man who knocked him out of the race.

Buttigieg’s decision reflected the urgency of the moment as establishment Democrats feared Sanders’ rise might be unstoppable unless the party’s moderate wing united behind Biden’s candidacy. It also reflected the no-time-to-waste analytical nature of Buttigieg himself, a former Rhodes scholar who worked for the McKinsey & Company management consulting firm soon after finishing his Ivy League education.

“The truth is the path has narrowed to a close for our candidacy if not for our cause,” Buttigieg told supporters in South Bend. “We must recognize that at this point in the race, the best way to keep faith with those goals and ideals is to step aside and help bring our party and country together.”

He didn’t endorse any of the six candidates still in the race, though he and Biden traded voicemails on Sunday. Buttigieg has spent the past several weeks warning that nominating Sanders would be risky.

And as the first openly gay candidate to seriously contend for the presidency, he nodded to the historic nature of his campaign. He kissed his husband, Chasten, as he walked onto the stage and offered a message for children who might be watching.

“We send a message to every kid out there wondering if whatever marks them out as different means they are somehow destined to be less than,” Buttigieg said. “To see that someone who once felt that exact same way can become a leading American presidential candidate with his husband by his side.”

Meanwhile, Axelrod said “the Pete Buttigieg story isn’t over.”

“He’s 38 years old,” the former Obama strategist said. “He’s vaulted himself into the national conversation. He obviously has work to do on some things that — some weaknesses we’ve seen in this election — but whenever there is a conversation again about Democratic candidates, he’ll be in that conversation. And that’s a remarkable achievement, given where he started a year ago.” 

…

A federal judge has ruled that Ken Cuccinelli was unlawfully appointed to lead the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency and, as a result, lacked authority to give asylum seekers less time to prepare for initial screening interviews.

Cuccinelli, a former Virginia attorney general and an immigration hardliner, was named to a new position of “principal deputy director” in June, which immediately made him acting director because Lee Francis Cissna had just resigned. The agency grants green cards and other visas and also oversees asylum officers.

U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss in Washington found Cuccinelli’s appointment violated the Federal Vacancies Reform Act, a 1998 law governing who is eligible to lead federal agencies in an acting capacity. The impact of the ruling wasn’t immediately clear.

The ruling issued Sunday was at odds with President Donald Trump’s penchant for temporary appointments. At Homeland Security, Chad Wolf is acting secretary, and the heads of Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Citizenship and Immigration Services are also in acting roles.

The judge wrote that Cuccinelli didn’t qualify for exceptions for officials who won Senate approval for other positions or spent 90 days in the previous year at the agency.

The administration’s reading of the law “would decimate this carefully crafted framework,” Moss wrote in his 55_page ruling. “The President would be relieved of responsibility and accountability for selecting acting officials, and the universe of those eligible to serve in an acting capacity would be vastly expanded.”

Moss, an appointee of President Barack Obama, set aside a Cuccinelli directive to give asylum seekers less time to consult attorneys before an initial screening interview, but his decision applies only to the five Hondurans who sued. He did not address other Cuccinelli actions.

The asylum directive gives asylum seekers at least one calendar day to prepare for the screening interview, instead of 72 hours for families and generally 48 hours for single adults. Extensions are granted only “in the most extraordinary circumstances,” such as a serious illness or mental or physical disability.

The directive is a foundation for new policies aimed at quickly completing the screening, known as a “credible fear interview,” without leaving Customs and Border Protection custody.

Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Heather Swift said, “We obviously disagree with the court’s opinion and are looking more closely at it.”

Cuccinelli is now acting deputy Homeland Security secretary, the department’s No. 2 position. Joseph Edlow, a longtime congressional aide who joined Citizenship and Immigration Services in July, was named last month to run the agency’s day-to-day operations.

…

A U.N. investigator is condemning an Eritrean crackdown on fundamental freedoms and religious practice in a new report, as well as the country’s harsh, indefinite military service and widespread abuse.

Hopes that Eritrea, which has been accused of human-rights abuses, would institute reforms after it signed a historic peace agreement with Ethiopia in 2018 have not materialized.  If anything, a U.N. report on its human rights situation has found widespread human rights violations, including arbitrary arrest, enforced disappearances, sexual violence and torture.

Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Eritrea Daniela Kravetz deplores the government’s repression of religious freedom.  She says Christians practicing without government approval are arrested, as are those who belong to nonrecognized Christian congregations.  She says Muslims also are targeted, arrested and jailed.

She finds no justification for Eritrea’s failure to reform its compulsory national service.  She says that failure cannot be justified on the grounds that economic conditions in the country do not permit job creation or salary hikes for conscripts.

“There are, however, immediate measures that the authorities could take that do not depend on economic reforms, such as stopping the ongoing roundups of youth for forced conscription, separating secondary education from military conscription and putting in place mechanisms to monitor and prevent abuses against conscripts, in particular against female conscripts,” she said. 

Kravetz is calling for the release of all political prisoners and prisoners of conscience.  She says people are arbitrarily arrested because of their opposition to the government or their beliefs as conscientious objectors.  She says they often are jailed for decades, without any recourse to justice or relief.

Eritrean Ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, Tesfamicael Gerahtu, calls the report politically motivated and ill-intentioned.  He says it portrays his country in a negative light and does not reflect any of its positive achievements.

He notes Eritrea is at peace after two decades of conflict.  He says Eritrea is in the process of resolving the many social and economic problems that have arisen during that time but adds there is no quick fix.

…

Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, the easy winner of the South Carolina Democratic presidential primary, faces an immediate new challenge from Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders when 14 states vote Tuesday in party contests across the country.

Biden, in three runs for the presidency, had never won a state primary nominating election until Saturday. But pre-election surveys show that Sanders, a self-declared democratic socialist, is handily leading in California, where the most delegates to the party’s mid-summer national presidential nominating convention are at stake in the next round of voting. The polling shows Biden ahead in seven of the states with Tuesday contests, Sanders in six and Sen. Amy Klobuchar in the lead in her home state of Minnesota.

“It’s going to be very hard to make up ground in California,” Biden acknowledged Sunday on ABC News’s “This Week.” But he said, “I feel very good where it’s going” in other states, adding that he’s “not even certain” that he will be trailing Sanders in the overall convention delegate count after the Tuesday voting.

Biden declared that he can beat Republican President Donald Trump in November’s national election and “bring along [Democratic] candidates and win the Senate” that is now controlled by Republicans.

A third of the pledged delegates to the July convention in the Midwestern city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, are at stake in the Tuesday voting, when former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s name will appear on the ballots for the first time.

Sanders said on ABC that Biden “did well” in South Carolina. “We’ll see what happens Tuesday, but we have an excellent chance to win some of the largest states,” he said.

Some national Democratic figures have voiced concern that Sanders, who has called for a government-run national health care system and an end to the private insurance plans now used by most Americans to help pay their medical bills, would turn off voters with his left-wing political views and lead to Trump’s re-election to a second White House term.

Sanders called Biden “a decent guy” and said that both of them of would support the eventual Democratic nominee against Trump. But Sanders said that he, and not Biden, would bring new voters to the Democratic party to defeat Trump, whom he called “a fraud, a liar who has undermined the democratic process” in Washington.

The mounting count of delegates to the national party convention is all important. The state-by-state Democratic primary contests award national convention representation based on the vote counts in the primary elections and caucuses, but candidates only win any delegates if they reach a 15% threshold in a given state.

Current projections show Sanders possibly reaching the national convention with a plurality of the delegate votes, but not a majority on the first ballot.

Sanders has argued that if he is close to a majority, the other Democratic  candidates should unite behind his candidacy, while Biden and other presidential aspirants have contended that the convention should then move to a second ballot where superdelegates (mostly party officials and elected Democratic officials) would be allowed to vote, allowing them to possibly deny Sanders the nomination.

Bloomberg, whose business information company has made him the 12th richest person in the world, has spent upwards of $400 million of his own money on his campaign. But by choice he skipped the voting in the first four primary contests.

Polling shows Bloomberg has some support for the Democratic presidential nomination race heading into the Tuesday voting, but often trailing both Sanders and Biden.

Other contenders are also looking for a breakthrough in the new contests, including Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Klobuchar, all of whom have had key moments in the spotlight during a lengthy run of debates among the Democratic challengers. But current polling shows none of the three would reach the Milwaukee convention among the leaders in the count of pledged delegates.

In the South Carolina vote, Biden won nearly 50% of the vote. Sanders was in a distant second place, with 19%. Tom Steyer, a billionaire and philanthropist who has invested substantial time and money campaigning in South Carolina, was in third place, with 11% of the vote, but after the result became known, ended his campaign.

Biden Wins Overwhelmingly in South Carolina, Gains Momentum for Super Tuesday

Biden gets strong support from black voters as well as moderates

Trump congratulated Biden after the South Carolina vote, but disparaged Steyer and Bloomberg’s candidacies.

“Tom Steyer who, other than Mini Mike Bloomberg, spent more dollars for NOTHING than any candidate in history, quit the race today proclaiming how thrilled he was to be a part of the the Democrat Clown Show. Go away Tom and save whatever little money you have left,” Trump said on Twitter.

Tom Steyer who, other than Mini Mike Bloomberg, spent more dollars for NOTHING than any candidate in history, quit the race today proclaiming how thrilled he was to be a part of the the Democrat Clown Show. Go away Tom and save whatever little money you have left!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 1, 2020

Trump added, “I would find it hard to believe that failed presidential candidates Tom Steyer, or Mini Mike Bloombeg, would contribute to the Democrat Party, even against me, after the way they have been treated – laughed at & mocked. The real politicians ate them up and spit them out!”

I would find it hard to believe that failed presidential candidates Tom Steyer, or Mini Mike Bloombeg, would contribute to the Democrat Party, even against me, after the way they have been treated – laughed at & mocked. The real politicians ate them up and spit them out!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 1, 2020

…

Syrian state media (SANA) said on Sunday that Turkish forces targeted two Syrian planes over the Idlib region.  

SANA reported pilots landed safely and got out of the warplanes in parachutes.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, said the two jets went down over regime-held territory, likely after being targeted by Turkish F-16 planes.

Turkey’s Defense Ministry said the planes were targeted after one if its aerial drones was downed.  

The Syrian government announced it was closing its airspace for any flights or drones across the country’s northwest.

Syria’s military said aircraft that try to enter Syrian airspace are expected to be treated with hostility and “shot down.”

“Any jet that violates our airspace will be treated as a hostile target that must be shot down and prevented from achieving its goals,” the Syrian military statement said

Syria’s Idlib province is part of the last remaining Syrian territory held by Turkey-backed rebels. In February, 55 Turkish soldiers died in the area.

The latest confrontations in Syria come amid increased tensions between Turkey and Russia– the countries that support opposite sides of the Syrian civil war.

On Sunday, Turkey’s defense ministry said though the country is “successfully” continuing its military operation in northwestern Syria against the Russian-backed regime in Damascus, the Turkish government  does not “desire or intention to clash with Russia.”

Via Operation Spring Shield  

Turkish military forces disclosed an intensification of their Operation Spring Shield military operation after 34 Turkish soldiers were killed in a Syrian air strike in the Idlib region.

“Following the heinous attack on February 27 in Idlib, Operation Spring Shield successfully continues. … We don’t have the desire or intention to clash with Russia,” Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said, according to state news agency Anadolu.  

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on February 29 that he spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin in a phone conversation saying that Moscow should let Turkey deal with the Syrian government forces.

The continuous fighting in northwest Syria triggered a humanitarian debacle and reports say the single largest wave of displacement in the nine-year Syrian civil war.

The United Nations said Sunday about 13,000 people traveled to Turkey’s border with Greece, after Turkey officially announced its borders were open to migrants and refugees hoping to make their way into the European Union.

…

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday called on Russia to get out of Turkey’s way in Syria and allow Turkish forces to deal with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. 

In a speech to supporters, Erdogan said Turkey had “entered Syria at the demand of the Syrian people and not at the demand of Assad.” 

Erdogan said Turkey had retaliated against Syrian forces for killing 34 of its soldiers this week in the northwestern province of Idlib. 

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the Syrian war, reported Saturday that Turkey had killed 26 pro-Damascus troops around Idlib and the Aleppo countryside. 

It also reported that Russian planes continued to support Syrian government forces in the battle for Idlib, despite Turkey’s call for Russia to stand aside. 

Arab media reported Saturday that eight Hezbollah militiamen were killed in a Turkish drone strike on their headquarters near the town of Saraqeb. 

Talks fail

Talks between Turkish and Russian military advisers during the past several days apparently failed to produce a cease-fire. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told journalists Saturday that Erdogan would meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin on March 5. 

Also Saturday, thousands of refugees gathered along the Turkish border with Greece after Turkey announced it was opening its borders with Europe. Greek forces fired tear gas at refugees to stop them from entering Greek soil. 

Erdogan said earlier Saturday that 18,000 refugees had entered Greece and that the number could rise to 25,000 to 30,000. He said Germany must send money to Turkey to deal with its refugee crisis in order to stop the flow. 

His decision to open Turkey’s borders with Europe was a departure from previous policy and was seen as a means to pressure Europe.  

“We can’t handle a new wave of migration,” Erdogan said Saturday, referencing the crisis in Syria’s Idlib region, where nearly a million people have been displaced. Turkey currently hosts more than 3.5 million Syrian refugees and has sealed its border to new refugees. 

Edward Yeranian in Cairo contributed to this report. 

…

The United States signed a historic agreement Saturday with the Taliban in Doha.  If all sides follow through, this could pave the way to end a 19-year-old war in Afghanistan. VOA’s Ayesha Tanzeem was at the signing ceremony and filed this report.

…

To reclaim the Alabama Senate seat he held for 20 years, Jeff Sessions must first get through a competitive GOP primary with challengers eager to capitalize on his very public falling out with President Donald Trump. 

The former attorney general is banking on his long history in state politics as he tries to persuade Republican voters that he is the best candidate to advance Trump’s agenda. 

“I am the same Jeff Sessions that faithfully and honorably and vigorously defended Alabama values in the U.S. Senate before. I am determined to be even more effective when I return to the Senate if the people allow me to,” Sessions said in an interview. 

Sessions gave up the Senate seat when he was appointed Trump’s first attorney general, a position he was forced to resign from after his recusal from the Russia inquiry sparked blistering criticism from the president.  

Sessions had been the first senator to endorse Trump — donning a red Make America Great Again hat and infusing the 2016 campaign with Washington credibility. But in a twist of political irony, the president’s public scolding now threatens Sessions’ political comeback for a seat he held securely for two decades. 

No chance

At a candidate forum in Florence, Alabama, that Sessions did not attend, retired restaurant owner Yara Ruther, 67, was shopping for someone else to support in the seven-person field. 

“He did not support Trump. That’s a deal breaker,” Ruther said, slicing her hand horizontally through the air to emphasize that she wouldn’t vote for Sessions this time. 

Sessions said Trump wasn’t happy about the recusal, but he did so because Department of Justice regulations required it. Still, Sessions has maintained his allegiance to the president. 

“Where were my opponents when Donald Trump was in a titanic, billion-dollar campaign for the presidency of the United States, where our court system was a stake, our taxes and regulations were all at stake?” Sessions said. 

“The people of Alabama rallied to Trump and I was leading the charge. And I haven’t changed,” he said. 

He’ll face former Auburn University football coach Tommy Tuberville, U.S. Representative Bradley Byrne, former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, state Representative Arnold Mooney, businessman Stanley Adair and community activist Ruth Page Nelson in the Republican primary Tuesday. The winner will face Democratic Senator Doug Jones in November. 

Sessions greeted diners over plates of chicken, dressing and fried okra during a Thursday campaign stop at the Blue Plate Cafe, a restaurant in Madison County. 

“I really believe in the experience he has and what he brings he to the table,” said Scott Woodard, a test manager at Redstone Arsenal, a mammoth facility that houses the Army’s missile programs. 

The Alabama race has turned into a bitter slugfest to claim a slot in the anticipated March 31 runoff between the top two GOP finishers. A runoff is required unless one candidate claims more than 50% of the primary vote Tuesday. It has also become a race to embrace Trump, with candidates jockeying to portray themselves as the most loyal to the president. 

Tuberville, harnessing the name recognition from years as a college football coach in the state, and Byrne, the first Republican to announce for the seat, have emerged as two of Sessions’ strongest challengers. 

“I’m a conservative. I’m a fighter. I vote with President Trump 97% of the time,” Byrne says on the campaign trail. 

Sessions ‘let the president down’

A Byrne campaign television spot dismisses Sessions — portrayed in the ad by a diminutive actor clad in a baseball hat — as someone who “let the president down and got fired.” 

Tuberville — who has said Trump was sent by God to save the United States — issued this statement at the start of Trump’s impeachment trial: “As attorney general, Jeff Sessions handed the ball to the other team and walked off the field the moment play started getting rough.” 

Sessions’ campaign fired back at both in an ad. He noted that Byrne once called Trump unfit to lead the ticket after the 2016 release of Trump’s vulgar outtakes on “Access Hollywood” about grabbing women. He called Tuberville a “tourist” who moved from Florida to run for Senate. 

…

The Trump administration has concluded two days of what was supposed to be the final round of talks on the Grand Ethiopian Dam without reaching a deal and without the presence of Ethiopia after that country said Wednesday that it is walking away from negotiations on the project.

Addis Ababa and Cairo have been at odds in a water war on the issue of the filling and operation of the giant Ethiopian dam that Egypt worries could threaten its supply of water from the Nile.

Instead of meeting with the three countries involved in the conflict, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, host of the negotiations, participated in bilateral meetings with ministers of foreign affairs and ministers of water resources of Egypt and Sudan.

Treasury statement

According to a Treasury statement late Friday, the United States “facilitated the preparation of an agreement on the filling and operation of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) based on provisions proposed by the legal and technical teams of Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan and with the technical input of the World Bank.”

“The United States believes that the work completed over the last four months has resulted in an agreement that addresses all issues in a balanced and equitable manner, taking into account the interests of the three countries,” the statement said, adding that the final testing and filling of the dam “should not take place without an agreement.”

The statement noted “the readiness of the government of Egypt to sign the agreement” and recognized that “Ethiopia continues its national consultations.”

Ethiopia leaves

On Wednesday Ethiopia said it would not participate in the latest rounds of negotiations. The country’s ambassador to the United States, Fitsum Arega, said on Twitter that, “Ethiopia will not sign any agreement that gives up its rights on how to use its own Nile water.”

በታላቁ የኢትዮጵያ ህዳሴ ግድብ ዙሪያ ከባለድርሻ አካላት ጋር በመደረግ ላይ ያለው ውይይት ባለማጠናቀቁ የአሜሪካ ትሬዥሪ ዲፓርትመንት እ.ኤ.አ ፌብሩዋሪ 27-28/2020 በዋሽንግተን ዲ.ሲ. በቀጠረው መድረክ ላይ ኢትዮጵያ መገኘት እንደማትችል አስታወቀች::

— Fitsum Arega (@fitsumaregaa) February 26, 2020

A second statement by Ethiopia’s Water, Irrigation and Energy Ministry, published by Ethiopia’s state-owned media, said it would not take part in this week’s meetings because it has not completed internal consultations.

“They aren’t really talks without Ethiopia,” said Bronwyn Bruton, deputy director of the Atlantic Council’s Africa Center.

Sources tell VOA that Ethiopia has been urging Mnuchin since Feb. 13 to postpone the talks, as well as remind the U.S. of its “neutral observer status.” Mnuchin responded that the U.S. will continue talks as planned.

Mnuchin also disputed Ethiopia’s characterization of his role, saying that the observer status the U.S. agreed to is limited to regional technical negotiations and does not include Washington talks.

Despite the setback, the process may not be entirely lost.

Ethiopia is calling this a postponement, said William Davison, senior Ethiopia analyst at the International Crisis Group.

“They’re not suggesting that the meeting has been canceled forever, but only that they need more time to prepare for it,” he said.

THREAD #Ethiopia decision to skip #GERD meeting is latest twist in windy decade-long process

It indicates U.S. attempts to push parties into filling and operation deal failed – but it’s unlikely to be end of attempts to strike agreementhttps://t.co/0jJdFyQ64O

1/12

— William Davison (@wdavison10) February 27, 2020

Final negotiations among Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan on the guidelines and rules of filling and operation of the $4.5 billion mega dam were scheduled for Thursday and Friday. Mnuchin, whom U.S. President Donald Trump had appointed to lead on the matter has hosted several rounds of talks since November, with ministers from the countries and the World Bank.

The Treasury Department has not responded to VOA’s requests for additional comments.

U.S. pressure

There has been widespread concern in Ethiopia that its delegation is being pressured by the U.S. to accept a deal it cannot live with.

On Thursday, a few dozen Ethiopians in Washington protested in front of the U.S. Department of State building, urging the U.S. to stop its pressure campaign against Addis Ababa.

Ethiopian-American Protesters: ‘President Trump, Stop Pressuring Ethiopia’

Ethiopians in Washington express anger over US mediators allegedly favoring Egypt in negotiations over Grand Renaissance Dam

The dam is the centerpiece of Addis Ababa’s bid to increase domestic energy production for its growing population. Ethiopia and Egypt have been negotiating for years, but one sticking point remains the rate at which Ethiopia will draw water out of the Nile to fill the dam’s reservoir. Cairo fears Ethiopia’s plans to rapidly fill the reservoir could threaten Egypt’s source of fresh water.

“It is a hugely important and sensitive issue,” said Mirette Mabrouk, director of the Middle East Institute’s Egypt Studies program. “It’s a matter of life and death for a lot of people, certainly for more than a million Egyptians.”

In the last round of Washington talks last month, Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan agreed on a schedule for staged filling of the dam and mitigation mechanisms to adjust its filling and operation during dry periods and drought.

The parties said at the time that they would sign a final agreement by the end of February. It is unclear whether there will be any follow-up talks after this week’s negotiations broke down.

Trump’s interest

Trump has been interested in the project since he agreed to intervene based on Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s request in September. He has since invited officials from the countries in the dispute to at least two Oval Office meetings, and called Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali to discuss the matter.

Just had a meeting with top representatives from Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan to help solve their long running dispute on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, one of the largest in the world, currently being built. The meeting went well and discussions will continue during the day! pic.twitter.com/MsWuEBgZxK

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 6, 2019

An administration official told VOA that Trump prides himself in his deal-making abilities and wants to see this agreement achieved. No one from the administration, though, has elaborated on what the U.S. interest is in this deal.

In November, the Ethiopian Embassy in Washington held a press conference during which officials gave a detailed account of their U.S.-brokered meeting and said Trump was planning to “cut the ribbon” after the completion of the dam.

America’s significant leverage over Ethiopia could provide Trump with a chance to push for a treaty to prove his deal-making prowess, said Addisu Lashitew, the Rubinstein Fellow in the Global Economy and Development program at the Brookings Institution. 

“In the wake of his controversial peace plan for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, President Trump might be keen to strengthen his friendship with Egypt by resolving his thorny issue,” Lashitew said.  

Egypt has been a key player in the Middle East peace talks. Last month the Trump administration released its plan to resolve the conflict between Palestine and Israel, without buy-in from the Palestinians.

VOA’s Salem Solomon, Habtamu Seyoum contributed to this report.

…

Malaysia’s Mahathir Mohamad will stand for the premiership on behalf of the former ruling coalition, the interim prime minister said Saturday, less than a week after he quit and plunged the country into turmoil.

“I am now confident that I have the numbers needed to garner majority support,” Mahathir said in a statement.

That meant that Mahathir, who is the world’s oldest government leader at 94, would reunite with on-off ally and long-term rival Anwar Ibrahim, 72, resuming a pact that swept the coalition to a surprise election victory in 2018.

Pact appears to be back

“Pakatan Harapan states its full support towards Dr. Mahathir as candidate for prime minister,” said a statement from the coalition formed by the two men whose struggle has shaped Malaysian politics for two decades.

Mahathir has thus secured the likely support he needs to return as prime minister full-time, less than a week after he resigned and was appointed as interim leader.

The political futures of both Mahathir and Anwar had appeared in doubt Friday, with Anwar competing as a candidate in his own right and Mahathir finding little support for a unity government that would have strengthened his power.

A new alliance had formed behind former interior minister Muhyiddin Yassin, 72, who had the backing of the old ruling party, the United Malays National Organization (UMNO).

Promise not mentioned

It was that party, tarnished by corruption, that Mahathir and Anwar united to drive from power in 2018 under then prime minister Najib Razak, who now faces graft charges.

Tension had persisted between Mahathir and Anwar over the prime minister’s promise to one day hand power to the younger man. No date for that was ever set, however.

Neither Mahathir nor Pakatan Harapan (Alliance of Hope) made any mention of that promise in Saturday’s statements.
 

…

The U.S. State Department has expressed concern after Chinese-ruled Hong Kong arrested publishing tycoon Jimmy Lai, an outspoken critic of Beijing, and two pro-democracy activists.

The arrests come after a period of relative calm following months of anti-government protests over perceptions that China is tightening its grip on the city, something Beijing denies and blames the West for fomenting unrest.

Lai and veteran democracy activists Lee Cheuk-yan and Yeung Sum, were arrested Friday in the Asian financial hub on charges of illegal assembly, drawing condemnation from international rights groups, media said.

“We are concerned by the arrest of prominent Hong Kong businessman and publisher Jimmy Lai and two other longtime advocates for civil liberties and democracy,” Morgan Ortagus, a spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department, said Friday.

“We expect Hong Kong authorities not to use law enforcement selectively for political purposes, and to handle cases fairly and transparently,” she added in a statement.

The spokeswoman also called for the rule of law and Hong Kong people’s rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of expression to be preserved.

More than 7,000 arrests

The police said three local men, aged 63 to 72, were arrested for suspected participation in a nonapproved gathering but did not confirm their names.

Authorities in the former British colony have arrested more than 7,000 people for involvement in Hong Kong’s protests, many on charges of rioting that can carry jail terms of up to 10 years. It is unclear how many are still in custody.

The arrest of the three men was outrageous, said Chris Patten, the last British governor of Hong Kong, adding that there was no doubt its government was acting at Beijing’s instructions.

“This decision will send yet another signal to the world that the Chinese Communist Party is intent on throttling decency and freedom in Hong Kong,” Patten said.

Pro-democracy icon

Lai, a self-made millionaire who has made financial contributions to Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement and been a target of criticism by mainland Chinese media, was arrested in 2014 for refusing to leave a key pro-democracy protest site.

After the arrest he resigned as editor in chief of Apple Daily. He has also come under scrutiny from Hong Kong’s anti-graft agency, which raided his home in 2014.

In an editorial Friday, China’s state-owned Global Times tabloid called Lai “a force of evil,” rather than the “hero” of democracy painted by the West. “… He is a traitor, a criminal and a force of evil who has sowed violence and chaos in arguably one of the freest and most prosperous cities in the world,” it added.

…

A prominent U.S. newspaper reports that a whistleblower claims personnel from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, lacking proper training and protective gear, interacted with American evacuees from Wuhan, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in China.  

The account in The Washington Post says the unidentified whistleblower is a senior HHS official who was “unfairly and improperly reassigned after raising concerns” about the possibility of the workers being exposed to the virus.  

She was told, according to the report that she had to accept a new position by March 5th or she would be fired.

The whistleblower’s complaint said the HHS workers found themselves working beside Centers for Disease Control staff who were in “full gown, gloves and hazmat attire.”

The newspaper reported that the whistleblower said in her complaint that the HHS workers were not monitored or tested for the virus during or after their deployment.

The evacuated Americans were quarantined on military bases in California and Texas.

HHS spokeswoman Caitlin Oakley told The Post, “We take all whistleblower complaints very seriously and are providing the complainant all appropriate protections under the Whistleblower Protection Act.”

…

Global markets continued their downward trajectory Friday amid fear that are spreading faster than the coronavirus.

COVID-19 has disrupted supply chains, caused the initiation of travel bans and essentially wrecked business and trade around the world.  

Analysts are predicting this week will be the worst week since the 2008 global financial crisis.

“These are highly uncertain times, no one really knows the answer and the markets are really panicking,” John Lau, SEI Investments Head of Asian Equities told Reuters.

Tokyo and Shanghai slumped Friday by a margin of 3.7%, while Seoul and Sydney also fell by more than 3%.  European markets were down 2-3% in early trading.

Fears over the virus and the effects on global trade and manufacturing sent the Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeting Thursday 1,191 points — the largest single-day drop in history. It marks a 4% single-day decline on the value of the stocks on the list, and a 10% decline in the Dow from its record high set just two weeks ago.  Another index, the S&P 500 was off 12% from its all time high, just a week ago.
 
Technology stocks were down Thursday, with such giants as Apple and Microsoft warning that the virus has affected its supply lines from Asia.

Energy stocks also took a beating in part over a recent drop in oil prices and anticipation that fewer people will travel because of the virus.

No one right now knows exactly where the coronavirus outbreak is heading because health experts are still learning about it.  

Merrill Lynch financial adviser Andrew Weltlinger says the coronavirus has “spooked” investors and unnerved a market that was due for a correction.

Weltinger’s advice to investors is not to panic, not to sell low, and have a diversified portfolio that includes bonds, which are up this week because people view them as a safer investment when stocks hit a rocky patch.
 

…

In Afghanistan, the reduction of violence agreement between the US and Taliban is holding and Afghans are getting a first glimpse of what a peace deal between the United States and the Taliban could look like. After nearly 19 years of war, Saturday’s expected peace deal announcement is being greeted with optimism as well as some reservations. VOA’s Bezhan Hamdard previews the historic deal with contributions from Rahim Gul Sarwan, Jalal Mirzad and Haseeb Mawdoodi in Kabul.

…