Author: CensorBiz

President Donald Trump is out to rev up his appeal with a key voting demographic — NASCAR fans — as he takes in the Daytona 500 on Sunday. NASCAR drivers may veer to the left during their trip around the oval racetrack, but their fans lean right, which helps explain the regularity with which GOP presidents have made their way to the track. Trump will be the second sitting president to attend the Daytona 500, after George W. Bush in 2004. Like Trump, he also attended the race during a presidential election year. Republican Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush also visited the track at Daytona but during races other than the 500. This year, Trump will serve as grand marshal and give the command for drivers to start their engines. Two-part appealAri Fleischer, the White House spokesman under George W. Bush, said the visit should appeal to Trump on two fronts. There's a real sense of positive, overwhelming affirmation to hear the roar of the crowd. What politician doesn't want that?'' Fleischer said.Secondly, there’s what I call the reverberation effect. People watching at home, who hear the roar of the crowd for a president, that can drive them toward some sense of approval or fondness or liking for the president. Just in case anyone misses the point, Trump's reelection campaign will run a TV ad during the Fox broadcast of the race and fly an aerial banner near the speedway. FILE - Then-presidential candidate Donald Trump, accompanied by NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France, left, invites up former NASCAR driver Bill Elliott, right, to speak at a rally in Valdosta, Ga., Feb. 29, 2016.Trump scored a coup in 2016 when Brian France, then NASCAR's chairman and chief executive, endorsed him in the presidential race. While France's endorsement was a personal matter, some critics said it hurt NASCAR's efforts to boost its appeal among minorities. And Trump didn't help matters when he repeatedly claimed he had receivedNASCAR’s endorsement” rather than France’s. In 1984, Reagan became the first sitting president to attend a NASCAR race. That July, he started the Firecracker 400 at Daytona International Speedway, where he gave the command, “Gentlemen, start your engines!” from aboard Air Force One. Later, the plane landed at Daytona International Airport behind the speedway in full view of the fans. It was at that race that Richard Petty captured his historic 200th victory. Reagan stuck around until the end and even did a few laps of radio play-by-play during the race, congratulated Petty and then ate chicken with drivers, crew members, NASCAR employees and their families in the garage area. FILE – In this Feb. 15, 2004, photo, then-President George W. Bush greets driver Matt Kenseth in the pits at the Daytona 500 NASCAR race in Daytona Beach, Fla.The senior Bush’s trip to Daytona occurred in 1992. As Reagan’s vice president, he also served as the honorary starter for the 25th running of the Daytona 500. President Barack Obama’s initial presidential campaign was presented with the opportunity to sponsor a car in a NASCAR race, but eventually declined that chance. However, Obama routinely invited the winners of the NASCAR Cup Series championship to the White House, a tradition Trump has continued. Penske honoredLast year, Trump took that outreach a step further, awarding the Presidential Medal of Freedom, one of the nation’s highest civilian honors, to Roger Penske, a businessman and founder of one of the world’s most successful motorsports teams. Democrat Bill Clinton didn’t get as friendly a NASCAR reception as the GOP presidents. During his visit to a NASCAR race as a candidate in September 1992, the question of his lack of Vietnam-era military service was still dogging his campaign. Many fans at the Southern 500 in Darlington, South Carolina, booed and heckled him. By contrast, when George W. Bush attended the Daytona 500, he received rock-star treatment. About 100,000 people are expected to attend this year’s race and millions more will watch on television. About 9 million people took in last year’s race on television. 
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Afghanistan on Saturday marked the 31st anniversary of the last Soviet soldier leaving the country. This year’s anniversary came as the United States negotiates its own exit after 18 years of war, America’s longest. Some of the same Afghan insurgent leaders who drove out the former Soviet Union have been fighting the U.S. and have had prominent seats at the negotiating table during yearlong talks with Washington’s peace envoy. Moscow pulled out of Afghanistan in 1989, a decade after invading the country to support an allied communist government. Afghan mujaheddin, or holy warriors, received weapons and training from the U.S. throughout the 1980s to fight the Red Army. Some of those mujaheddin went on to form the Taliban. The U.S. and the Taliban agreed Friday to a temporary truce. If successful, it could open the way for another historic withdrawal that would see all American troops leave the country. The chief negotiator for the Taliban, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, was once an American ally against the Soviets. So was another Taliban negotiator, Khairullah Khairkhwa. He spent 12 years detained at Guantanamo Bay until his release in 2014 in exchange for U.S. Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl. The Taliban are now at their strongest since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan ousted them from power. No public festivitiesKabul’s streets were quiet Saturday, normally the busy start of the Afghan workweek. There were no official public celebrations marking the anniversary, and most people took the holiday off. Shakeb Rohin was only 7 years old when the Soviets pulled out. Now a graduate of Kabul University’s economics department, he said he couldn’t remember the Soviet occupation. Since then, he said, he’s witnessed only war. We are so tried of war, we want a peaceful solution for Afghanistan's problems,'' he said. Abdul Shakor Ahmadi, 56, recalled how people were very happy on the day of the pullout. But he said the civil war that followed was worse. With the Cold War over, the U.S. lost interest in Afghanistan. The mujaheddin government — which included many of the warlords in Kabul today — eventually turned their guns on each other in the early 1990s. The fighting killed tens of thousands of civilians. It also led some former mujaheddin to regroup into the Taliban, who rose to power in 1996 and implemented a harsh interpretation of Islamic rule. Fear for the futureI hope peace comes this time ,” Ahmadi said. At least once in our lifetime we would be able to see peace in our country. We're so worried about the future of our children.'' It's unclear when newly brokered truce will take effect. The peace deal would call for negotiations between Afghans on both sides of the conflict to start next month. It would also set a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops and include a commitment from the Taliban not to harbor terrorist groups like al-Qaida. Amin Mohammadi, a shopkeeper in Kabul, remained pessimistic.Most people are jobless. No one has enough money to come and buy things. I don’t want to celebrate anything. The Soviets withdrew, but what was the benefit?“ 
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U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said Saturday that consultations were still underway on setting a start date for a seven-day trial of reduced violence negotiated with the Taliban in Afghanistan.   “That is a moving date because we are still doing consultations, if you will, … so I can’t give you a hard date right now,” Esper told reporters in Munich, Germany, after attending a security conference there. U.S. officials have said a successful implementation of the temporary reduction in violence would pave the way for a comprehensive peace deal with the insurgent group that could end America’s longest war and bring home about 13,000 U.S. troops from Afghanistan. “Where we are right now is on the doorstep of a reduction-of-violence period. If we decide to move forward, if all sides hold up — meet their obligations under that reduction in violence — then we’ll start talking about the next part, whether to move forward [with the comprehensive peace agreement],” Esper said. As part of the short-term agreement, he added, the United States will suspend “a significant part of our operations,” though the Pentagon chief declined to discuss details. U.S. officials say the deal binds the Taliban to halt major attacks, including roadside and suicide bombings, against Afghan and U.S.-led international forces anywhere in the country. FILE – A captured Taliban insurgent is presented to the media after he was detained with car explosive devices in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, Dec. 10, 2019.Some risk, but ‘promising’Earlier, Esper told an audience at the Munich Security Conference the reduction in violence was not without risk but looked “very promising” and “we have to give peace a chance.” He went on to reiterate that “the best if not the only way forward in Afghanistan is through a political agreement, and that means taking some risk.” Taliban sources have said the seven-day period will begin February 22 and the comprehensive peace agreement is expected to be signed on February 29. U.S. and Taliban representatives have negotiated the draft peace agreement during months of meetings in the Gulf state of Qatar. If signed, it immediately could lead to a gradual withdrawal of American forces, bringing the force down to 8,600 personnel in the initial few months. Taliban sources say the agreement will require all foreign troops to leave Afghanistan within two years. Insurgent sources say international guarantors such as the United Nations, Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Germany, Norway and Qatar will witness the signing ceremony. The agreement will require the Taliban to open negotiations within 10 days with an inclusive Afghan delegation that represents all political and ethnic groups in the country, including the government in Kabul. That intra-Afghan dialogue will discuss a permanent nationwide cease-fire and power-sharing in postwar Afghanistan. Germany and Norway have both offered to host Taliban-Afghan negotiations, but no final decision has been made. U.S. officials have stressed the troop drawdown plans, however, will be linked to progress in intra-Afghan negotiations and effective implementation of Taliban undertakings, including a further reduction in insurgent violence. FILE – U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo shakes hands with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani with U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper alongside at the Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, Feb. 14, 2020.Ghani skepticalAfghan President Ashraf Ghani also spoke Saturday at the Munich conference and reiterated his skepticism about the U.S.-led peace process. “The concern that the Taliban could be using a peace process as a ‘Trojan horse strategy’ is there, but you can’t end this war without engaging in a process and testing them,” Afghan media quoted Ghani as saying. Between the signing of the U.S.-Taliban deal and the start of intra-Afghan negotiations, the insurgent group and Afghan authorities would be expected to release prisoners. Taliban officials say they already have given their list of thousands of insurgents being held in Afghan prisons. The troop drawdown agreement was expected to be signed last September, but continued deadly Taliban attacks on Afghan and U.S. troops prompted President Donald Trump to halt the peace process. The negotiations resumed in December, and marked progress has been achieved since then. 
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U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper has said China tops the list of the Pentagon’s potential adversaries, followed by Russia and what he called “rogue states” like North Korea and Iran. Esper made the comments at the Munich Security Conference in Germany, where hundreds of world leaders and military personnel are gathered to discuss global conflicts. Henry Ridgwell reports from the meeting.
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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in Senegal, where he will hold talks with President Macky Sall focused on strengthening security ties and promoting deeper economic cooperation.The U.S. officially recognized Senegal as an independent state in 1960, and the two countries have forged a close relationship over the past six decades of diplomatic ties. Senior State Department officials have praised Senegal as a role model for democratic institutions, stability and tolerance in West Africa.“We see Senegal as an anchor of democracy and linchpin of security for West Africa,” said Pompeo. The U.S. regards Senegal as a critical ally in U.S. efforts to advance peace and security in West Africa and worldwide.Washington has obligated more than $106 million in security assistance to support Senegal’s security institutions since 2014. The U.S., via the Departments of State and Defense, helps train and equip the Senegalese military and police to counter the evolving threats of regional terrorism and cross-border violence that spills over from the Sahel region.
The Defense Department is conducting a global force review and has indicated there likely will be a reduction, but not a complete withdrawal, of U.S. forces from Africa. Ahead of Pompeo’s visit, Sall said a drawdown of American troops from Africa would be a mistake, and it would be “misunderstood” by African leaders.
The United States is the largest bilateral health donor in Senegal, with approximately $60 million in bilateral health funding in 2019 to support maternal and child health, nutrition, and efforts to combat malaria and HIV/AIDS.After leaving Senegal late Monday, Pompeo will travel to Luanda, Angola, and then Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He also will visit Saudi Arabia and Oman before returning to Washington after his nine-day trip.In Luanda, he will meet with President Joao Lourenco and Foreign Minister Manuel Augusto to reaffirm U.S. support for Angola’s anti-corruption and democratization efforts.In Addis Ababa, Pompeo will meet with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and President Sahle-Work Zewde to discuss joint efforts to promote regional security and to support Ethiopia’s political and economic reform agenda. Additionally, he will meet with African Union Commission Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat and give a speech.The chief U.S. diplomat began his trip at the Munich Security Conference in Germany, where he met with a number of foreign leaders, including Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani. A senior State Department official told reporters a reduction in violence deal has been reached with the Taliban, although the terror group needs to show it can deliver on throttling back the suicide bombings and rocket attacks.
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Syrian government forces now control all of the strategic Damascus to Aleppo highway, which they had been trying to wrest from Turkish-backed rebels for weeks. As Syrian troops continue to push ahead inside the rebel-held enclave of Idlib, Turkey sent reinforcements to observations posts it occupies, while dispatching its foreign minister to Moscow.    Syrian state TV showed bulldozers and engineering crews clearing rubble from the final stretch of the Damascus to Aleppo highway, which government forces captured from Turkish-backed rebels in Idlib province during the past several days.Chief Highway Engineer Mohammed Wazzan said that the highway is the main lifeline between Damascus and Aleppo and that government crews were working to reopen the last stretch – which it just captured – despite the bad condition of the roadway.He says that maintenance crews are working hard to reopen the highway, which has been out of service for five years, clearing earth and rubble from the surface, making sure land mines have been removed, and spreading asphalt in some places.Rami Abdel Rahman of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told Arab media that the Turkish army had brought in more armored vehicles and troops to the 12 checkpoints in Idlib province that it controls, following a Turkish-Russian accord agreed to last year in the resort of Sochi.Turkish media reported that Ankara was sending its foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, to Moscow to discuss the latest developments in Idlib. Cavusoglu, who was at the Munich Security Conference, told journalists that Ankara “wants to resolve its dispute with Russia (which supports Syrian government forces) diplomatically,” but added that Turkey “will take decisive steps” if that is not possible.Arab media showed video of Syrian government troops entering the towns of Orm al-Kubra, Orm al-Sughra and Kufr Naha, which it captured from Turkish-backed rebels within the past 24 hours. Syrian state TV showed the bodies of rebels strewn outside the walls of Orm al-Kubra.
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Airbus said Saturday it “deeply regrets” the U.S. decision “to increase tariffs on aircraft imported from the EU.”The European aerospace corporation said in a statement the new tariffs would heighten “trade tensions between the US and the EU, thereby creating more instability for US airlines that are already suffering from a shortage of aircraft.”The U.S. Trade Representative’s Office said Friday tariffs on aircraft imported from the European Union would rise from 10% to 15%.The tariff hike is expected to go into effect on March 18.The Airbus statement said the tariffs create “more instability for US airlines that are already suffering from a shortage of aircraft.”The jet shortage U.S. airlines are experiencing follows the decision by U.S. plane builder Boeing to take its popular 737 MAX planes out of service after crashes that claimed the lives of 346 people.Talks between the U.S. and the European Union are expected to continue.
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The cruise ship that was allowed to dock in Cambodia after being turned away at five other ports by authorities fearful of the spread of the deadly new virus from China disembarked passengers for a second day on Saturday so they can fly home.After being stranded at sea for two weeks, the MS Westerdam was allowed by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen to dock for what he said were humanitarian reasons.The Cambodian leader’s decision won praise from President Donald Trump, who tweeted: “Thank you to the beautiful country of Cambodia for accepting the @CarnivalCruise ship Westerdam into your port. The United States will remember your courtesy!”The first batch of hundreds of passengers who disembarked Friday saw Hun Sen arrive by helicopter and then personally hand them flowers as they made their way to land.Many were taken to the airport in the port of Sihanoukville from which they were flown to the capital, Phnom Penh, to make onward connections to home.The ship’s earlier appeals to land in Thailand, Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines and Guam had been rejected.“The one thing I can say is we’re very, very grateful that Cambodia has opened literally its ports and its doors to people in need,” U.S. Ambassador W. Patrick Murphy said Saturday at a dockside news conference.“We think this sends a strong message,” said the envoy. “We all have to help each other. And the passengers here are just average citizens from many different countries trying to make their way home. And this model is good and we hope that other countries can be equally as helpful to people in need.”According to Murphy, of the 1,455 passengers, more than 600 are American citizens.British passenger John Stanley said that in addition to the Americans, there had been about 150 people aboard from the U.K., along with other travelers from Australia, Canada, France the Netherlands and Germany. The European Union Delegation to Cambodia said there were 260 EU citizens from 20 different EU members states aboard.“They’re from all over the world. It’s a logistical nightmare to get us out of out of your country,” Stanley told said, referring to arrangements to get all of them home.All the passengers were expected to have been sent on their way by Sunday.Those passengers who had not already left Sihanoukville were looking for ways to occupy themselves. Hun Sen had said the passengers were free to go to the beach, go sightseeing in the coastal city, or even visit the famous centuries-old Angkor Wat temple complex in the country’s northwest.“We’re stuck on this ship for now,” Lydia Miller from Washington State said in a text message. “Hoping to go to town for coconut water and a massage before we leave.”Some other cruise ships in the Asia Pacific region remain in limbo, barred from some ports and allowed into others. Two cruise ships that were set to disembark passengers in Vietnam on Friday were not allowed to do so.
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It is arguably one of the most coveted prizes in Syria’s civil war, and after eight years of fighting, Syrian President Bashar Assad has got it back.The Damascus-Aleppo highway, or the M5, is known to Syrians simply as the “International Road.” Cutting through all of Syria’s major cities, the motorway is key to who controls the country. Assad gradually lost control over the motorway from 2012, when various rebel groups fighting to topple him began seizing parts of the country.Protests against his family’s rule had erupted the year before amid a wave of uprisings in the Arab world. This soon turned into a civil war, following a brutal government crackdown on dissent and the intervention of foreign powers in the growing conflict.Historically a bustling trade route, one Syrian analyst, Taleb Ibrahim, called the M5 “the most basic and strategic highway in the Middle East.”For the Turkey-backed rebels fighting Assad, the motorway was a cornerstone in holding together their territory and keeping government forces at bay. Its loss marks a mortal blow for opposition fighters whose hold on their last patches of ground in northwestern Syria is looking more and more precarious. Here’s a look at the M5, and its place in Syria’s nearly nine-year-long civil war: FILE – A Turkey Armed Forces convoy is seen at a highway between Maaret al-Numan and Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib province, Syria, Aug. 19, 2019.What is it? The M5 is a strategic highway that starts in southern Syria, near the border with Jordan, and runs all the way north to the city of Aleppo near the Turkish border.The 450-kilometer (280-mile) highway links the country’s four largest cities and population centers: Damascus, Homs, Hama and Aleppo, cutting through Idlib province. Before the war, the M5 motorway served as an economic artery for Syria, mainly feeding the country’s industrial hub of Aleppo. Experts estimate the road carried business worth $25 million a day at the height of Syria’s trade boom before the war.The highway was a passageway for the crossing of wheat and cotton from the Syrian east and north to the rest of the country. It was also a road used for the exchange of commodities with regional trade partners like Jordan, Saudi Arabia and other Arab states, as well as Turkey.FILE – Civilians ride in a truck as they flee Maaret al-Numan, Syria, ahead of a government offensive, Dec. 23, 2019. The M5 strategic highway is vital for Syria’s economy as well as for moving troops.Recovering controlRegaining control over the highway has been a top priority of the Assad government since the early days of the war.Its slow and tortuous recovery, in many ways, traces the arc of the Syrian war, which has killed nearly half a million people and uprooted half the country’s prewar population. The Syrian government began winning back segments of the highway, starting in 2014. That’s when Russia joined the war on the side of Assad, and essentially tipped it in his favor. Towns and cities along parts of the highway, including in the Ghouta region and in the suburbs of Damascus, now lie in ruins after long sieges and incessant bombardment forced them into submission. The Russian-backed recapture of Aleppo in December 2016 was another major game-changer.FILE -Firefighters hose down a truck after a government airstrike in the city of Idlib, Syria, Feb. 11, 2020. The latest violence in Idlib came as government forces came closer to capturing the last rebel-held part of a strategic highway, the M5.End of the rebels’ roadUnder a September 2018 agreement between Russia and Turkey, the M5 and M4 highways were supposed to be open for traffic, linking the government’s stronghold on the coast with Aleppo before the end of that year. That never happened, as insurgents refused to move away and allow joint Russian-Turkish patrols to protect the traffic there.That eventually led to the latest government offensive in Idlib, the last rebel-held bastion in the country.Government troops backed by Russia carried out several major advances in Idlib, retaking towns and villages on both sides of the motorway. The capture of Khan Sheikhoun was the first major breakthrough, followed by Maaret al-Numan and Saraqeb, located at the intersection between the M4 and M5. This week, Syrian troops recaptured the last rebel-controlled section of the highway around Khan al-Assal. That brought the road under the full control of Assad’s forces for the first time since 2012. The victory statement came not from the Syrian government, but from Russia’s defense ministry. It said in a statement Wednesday that “Syria’s most important transport artery” had been “freed” from rebel control.Why it mattersThe highway’s capture is possibly the most significant victory for Assad, whose forces have been making solid gains since the end of 2015 with the help of Russian airstrikes and Iran-backed fighters. Ibrahim, the political analyst, said the highway is so vital because it links the country’s two powerhouses: the capital of Damascus with the trading hub of Aleppo. “In other words it links Syria’s political capital with its economic capital,” he said. It also links up with the M4 highway at the Saraqeb knot, opening up traffic to the government’s coastal stronghold of Latakia and the port.Fighting continues in areas near the highway, and much of Idlib province remains in rebel hands.But the M5’s seizure goes a long way to re-connect government-controlled areas, after they had been severed from each other for years.
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As the number of individuals identified as having had close contact with those diagnosed with coronavirus (COVID-19) rose to more than half a million people, those who have recovered from the disease are being urged to consider donating their blood to help cure others.“Those who are recovering, kindly extend your arms, donate your precious blood, let’s work together to save those still struggling against the devil of disease,” the head of Wuhan’s Jinyintan Hospital was quoted as saying by China’s official Xinhua news agency Thursday.“Those who have recovered possess a considerable amount of neutralizing antibodies in their bodies, which can fight against the new coronavirus,” Zhang Dingyu, the hospital director, announced at a news conference, according to Xinhua.  A neutralizing antibody is part of the body’s response to an infection. Their creation can be triggered by the arrival of a foreign body such as a virus in the body, or by vaccinations.“After an infection, it can take some time for the host to produce highly effective neutralizing antibodies but these persist to protect against future encounters with the agent,” researchers say.  Given that no vaccine or specially designated drugs are currently available, processed plasma from recovered patients’ blood could help those in critical condition, Xinhua reported.
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US House Democrats’ attempt to remove President Donald Trump from office for alleged abuse of power and obstruction of Congress failed in the U.S. Senate this month, and some polls show the president is now more popular than ever before. But that hasn’t stopped House Speaker Nancy Pelosi from criticizing Trump for what she says is a “manifesto of untruths.” VOA’s congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson reports on what happens next in the relationship between the White House and Capitol Hill.
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When Bill Walsh Jr.’s father began selling vehicles in the 1960s, customers visiting his Ottawa, Illinois, dealership preferred four-door sedans by the “big three” U.S. automakers — Ford, General Motors and Chrysler.“Those vehicles were really what everyone talked about,” Walsh said. “They were the main pivot point for the big three, because that’s who made cars.”But today, customers aren’t just walking into showrooms. First, they search the internet to select and compare vehicles. And Walsh says that when they’re ready to come in to purchase something, most of his customers aren’t driving off the lot in new sedans.“Right now, we’re looking at about 25 to 26 percent of our inventory, new and used, as being sedans. And that has dropped,” he told VOA. “The highest percentage of our sales therefore are over 50 percent being SUVs and crossovers.”Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
FILE PHOTO: A Kia Seltos is displayed at the LA Auto Show in Los Angeles, California, U.S., Nov. 20, 2019.“They want the ultimate utility,” Majoros said. “They want safety, they want performance, they want room, they want step-in height. They want any number of things.  You can get those things in a package that is smooth driving, offers great fuel efficiency and at price points you probably couldn’t get before.”  Perhaps more than any other preference, customers say they also want technology upgrades in their vehicles and connectivity to mobile devices and cellular networks.“If we look back at 2019 for Ford, every 2020 model vehicle that we sold was 100 percent connected,” said Bill Gubing, an Enterprise Product Line manager for Ford, which manufactures the Explorer, a large SUV.“We just sold our 8 millionth unit, and it is now the best-selling full-size SUV in America. That is something we’re really proud of, and I think that really highlights the continued shift to SUVs,” Gubing told VOA.  “I think we are permanently in a versatile vehicle era.”  Even so, Ford still offers several sedan options. So does General Motors.   Majoros said GM’s Chevrolet brand is also experiencing a surge of interest in its compact Bolt electric vehicle.“Actually had our best month ever in January of this year,” Majoros told VOA, while standing in front of the Bolt EV display and demonstration area at the Chicago Auto Show. “So it says that there is demand for electrification.”Hyundai Motor Genesis GV80 SUV is seen during its unveiling ceremony in Goyang, South Korea, Jan. 15, 2020.While brand names like Tesla are also popular options for customers seeking electric vehicles, Walsh says the demand is hard to see on his lot, and in his region.  He sold fewer than a dozen of the Bolt EVs in the last year.“You still have that range anxiety with electric vehicles,” he said. “I have it. People who commute have it.” While Walsh watched the big three U.S. automakers shift away from gasoline-powered sedans in recent years, today he oversees an expanded group of 27 franchises that include foreign brands like Toyota and Kia, which fill a recently created void in the U.S. market.“Everyone has a world-class car, so now it’s what vehicle is connected, and what vehicle fits my lifestyle,” he says. “There’s still a market for those cars. I don’t see them adding anything to the lineup, but I think those committed to the sedan part of their business model will continue to have sedan offerings.” But Walsh believes those offerings will continue to be overshadowed by sales of trucks and SUVs on his lots in the years to come, even as economists predict a continuing slowdown in 2020 of the overall number of vehicles sold in the United States.
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Facebook decided Friday to allow a type of paid political message that had sidestepped many of the social network’s rules governing political ads. Its policy change came days after presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg exploited a loophole to run such humorous messages promoting his campaign on the accounts of popular Instagram personalities followed by millions of younger people. The change involves what Facebook calls branded content'' — sponsored items posted by ordinary users who are typically paid by companies or organizations. Advertisers pay the influential users directly to post about their brand. No money for FacebookFacebook makes no money from such posts and does not consider them advertising. As a result, branded content isn't governed by Facebook's advertising policies, which require candidates and campaigns to verify their identity with a U.S. ID or mailing address and disclose how much they spent running each ad. Until Friday, Facebook tried to deter the use of paid posts through influential users as political messages. Specifically, it barred political campaigns from using a tool designed to help advertisers run branded posts on Facebook and Instagram, which is owned by Facebook. Friday's rule change will now allow campaigns in the U.S. to use this tool, provided they've been authorized by Facebook to run political ads and disclose who paid for the sponsored posts. Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a Democratic presidential candidate, speaks during his campaign launch of "Mike for Black America," at the Buffalo Soldiers National Museum, Feb. 13, 2020, in Houston.The Bloomberg campaign took the unconventional step of paying social media influencers — individuals with huge followings — to post Bloomberg memes using their Instagram accounts. Different versions of the sponsored posts from the Bloomberg campaign ran on more than a dozen influential Instagram accounts, each of which has millions of followers. That effort skirted many of the rules that tech companies have imposed on political ads to safeguard U.S. elections from malicious foreign and domestic interference and misinformation. Online political ads have been controversial, especially after it was revealed Russia used them to try to influence the 2016 presidential election. In response, Facebook has rolled out rules to prevent a repeat of that, though it has declined to fact-check political ads and refuses to ban even blatantly false messages. The Bloomberg campaign's memes showed the 78-year-old candidate, in a tongue-in-cheek awkward fashion, chatting with popular social media influencers with names likeTank Sinatra,asking them to help him raise his profile among younger folk. Can you post a meme that lets everyone know I’m the cool candidate?” Bloomberg wrote in one of the exchanges posted by an account called F Jerry, which has nearly 15 million followers on Instagram. The candidate then sent a photo of him wearing baggy chino shorts, an orange polo and a zip-up vest. F Jerry’s account then replied, Ooof that will cost like a billion dollars.'' Bloomberg responded by asking where to send the money. Looking to broaden audienceWith the sponsored posts, Bloomberg's campaign said it was reaching those who might not be normally interested in the day-to-day developments of politics. You want to engage people at every platform and you want them to feel like they’re not just getting a canned generic statement,” campaign spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said of the campaign’s strategy. The campaign declined to say how much it paid for the sponsored posts, or if it had more of them in the works. The posts did not appear in Facebook’s ad transparency library, which catalogs the political ads that campaigns buy directly from Facebook or Instagram and tells users how much was spent on them. Bloomberg’s campaign told The Associated Press on Thursday that Instagram does not require the campaign to disclose that information on the sponsored posts it ran earlier this week. 
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The United States has reached a reduction of violence agreement with the Taliban that could lead to a U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, a senior administration official said on Friday.The official told reporters at a security conference in Munich that the seven-day period of a reduction of violence has yet to begin.U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Mark Esper met with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani during the conference on Friday.The announcement came a day after U.S. President Donald Trump said there was a “good chance” of reaching an agreement with the Taliban on a reduction of U.S. troops in Afghanistan.An agreement on a major troop withdrawal would be a boost for Trump, who has repeatedly promised to stop “endless wars,” as he seeks re-election to a second term in November. 
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U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is scheduled to visit three African countries, beginning in Senegal this weekend. The West African nation has remained secure during a time of major unrest in the region and Pompeo is expected to celebrate the country’s legacy of stability and democracy.The United States and West Africa have enjoyed a long relationship based on trade, migration and democracy. But increasingly, security has become a major factor in the partnership.The number of violent attacks perpetrated by Islamist extremist groups in the Sahel has doubled each year since 2016, according to U.S. Department of Defense research group the Africa Center for Strategic Studies.Deaths linked to these attacks have also doubled each year and intercommunal violence has risen dramatically.Senegal, meanwhile, has managed to maintain peace within its borders. In his visit, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is expected to praise the country as an example for the continent, according to a senior State Department official.But reports about U.S. plans to withdraw troops from the region have invited criticism.Hannah Akuiyibo, a program associate with the Wilson Center, a Washington policy group, says she hopes the visit will bring more clarity to the United States’ position.”I think there’s been some mixed messaging given statements about the reduction in military presence in Africa while at the same time, an announcement from Secretary Pompeo about the focus of an anti-ISIS coalition shifting to West Africa and the Sahel,” she said. ” So those two messages don’t quite align.”Tulinabo Mushingi, the U.S. ambassador to Senegal and Guinea-Bissau, poses for a portrait at the U.S. Embassy in Dakar, Senegal Feb. 14, 2020. (Photo: Annika Hammerschlag/VOA)Tulinabo Mushingi is the U.S. ambassador to Senegal and Guinea-Bissau. He says the U.S. remains committed to West Africa’s well-being.Mushingi notes the U.S. has invested tens of millions of dollars in Senegalese security initiatives alone. Donations have included patrol boats, mobile hospitals and a training center for regional peacekeepers.”What we’re trying to do is make the Senegalese forces capable, so that they can defend their country first, but also contribute to the peace and security, the stability in the region…But I can guarantee you that the engagement of the USA in the Sahel – we are here to stay,” he said.In addition to security talks, Secretary Pompeo is expected to meet with business leaders to discuss the expansion of U.S. trade and investment with Senegal.
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Delegations from Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan continue to negotiate water usage issues relating to the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam being built on the Nile River. Following two days of meetings in Washington, the U.S. Treasury Department issued a statement saying the technical and legal teams from all countries are making progress toward a final agreement that will be reviewed by leaders in the respective countries.“The United States, with technical support from the World Bank, has agreed to facilitate the preparation of the final agreement for consideration by the ministers and heads of state for conclusion by the end of the month,” said Steven Mnuchin, U.S. secretary of the treasury.U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, now on a trip that will include stops in Angola, Ethiopia and Senegal, said he is closely monitoring the negotiations.“I went over and saw the Sudanese and the Egyptians and the Ethiopians yesterday to encourage them to make progress on that, to make sure that everyone’s got the water that they need,” he told VOA aboard his aircraft.Electricity and water flow among concernsThe $4 billion dam is one of the largest infrastructure projects in African history. Ethiopia hopes to complete it by 2022 and believes it could produce 6,000 megawatts of electricity, some of which could be exported.But Egypt and Sudan have worried about the dam’s impact on water flow. Egypt relies on the Nile for 90% of its water needs.Sudanese Irrigation and Water Resources Minister Yasser Abbas said his country is leaving the meetings feeling optimistic.“I must say we have made huge progress since then and it dealt mainly with how to fill the dam at the beginning and how to operate the dam,” he told VOA. “And in Sudan, we see the dam as a potential opportunity for regional cooperation.”Abbas said there are both positive and negative impacts of the dam for Sudan. The positive is that it will regulate the flow of water making for a fairly consistent water level on the Blue Nile. The negative, he said, is that it could impact farmers who practice “floodplain agriculture” in the areas where water spills over the banks of the Nile. Filling the damA key point of contention is how quickly Ethiopia will fill the dam. “Our main concern is that we want to see the three countries agree on the initial filling,” Abbas said. “How many years it takes to fill and how the operation would be afterward.”The dam will have a capacity of 10.2 million cubic meters of water. Earlier proposals by Ethiopia had called for it to be filled over four to seven years, but Egypt requested a slower timetable in the event of prolonged droughts or water shortages. In an interview with VOA’s Amharic service, Ethiopian Ambassador to the United States Fitsum Arega said the negotiations have examined different possible scenarios including a drop in water level because of climate change, consecutive dry years or a prolonged, once every 100-year drought. The technical teams are trying to reach agreements on what would be done in each of these cases. Fitsum said recent efforts at negotiating these issues have been derailed by countries bringing up unspecified issues that the Ethiopians consider separate from the dam and water usage.“When we see what is presented from all three countries, the three countries’ expectations are different,” Fitsum told VOA Feb. 1, speaking in Amharic. “From the Ethiopian side, we just wanted to focus on the project, the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam project. That is the only thing that we want to be discussing.”Power generationAnother source of debate is how much of the power generated by the dam will benefit Sudan and Egypt. Ambassador Mohamed Higazy, a former assistant to the Egyptian foreign minister, said he would like to see the dam be a vehicle for regional integration including integrating the power grids of the three countries.“Egypt and Sudan are very close to completing the power grids,” he told VOA. “Why not with the Renaissance Dam, which electricity can be used in the markets of Sudan and Egypt and then exported to the regional Gulf market or further to Europe through the Egyptian power grid?” Higazy added that he is cautiously optimistic about the talks, but hopes all parties will look at the bigger picture of regional prosperity and environmental stewardship instead of their own, narrow interests.“If we want to help the river ecosystem, if we want to help the people and economies in the three countries, we have to embark on a regional framework where water security will not be decided by national aspiration, only by the region aspiration,” he said. This story originated in the Africa division with reporting contributions from VOA’s diplomatic correspondent Cindy Saine, English to Africa’s Jason Patinkin, Nadia Taha, Mohamed Elshinnawi and Horn of Africa’s Amharic service Habtamu Seyoum.
 
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Nigeria’s military burned down villages and forcibly displaced hundreds of people in its fight against Islamist insurgents in the country’s northeast, rights group Amnesty International alleged Friday.Nigeria’s military, which has frequently been accused of human rights abuses in its decade-long fight against Boko Haram and more recently Islamic State’s West African branch, did not respond to requests for comment.Three residents interviewed by Reuters confirmed Amnesty’s findings.Previous allegations have sparked investigations by the International Criminal Court in the Hague and hampered Nigeria’s ability to purchase arms, a source of frustration for its military’s leaders. However, convictions of soldiers have been rare and the military has repeatedly denied wrongdoing.Hundreds forced to fleeIn the latest allegations, Amnesty said Nigerian soldiers razed three villages after forcing hundreds of men and women to leave their homes in the northeastern state of Borno in January. The human rights group said it interviewed 12 victims and reviewed satellite images that showed several large fires in the area and almost every structure razed.Residents described soldiers going house to house and rounding people up, then making them walk to a main road and board trucks, it said.“We saw our houses go into flames,” a woman who was about 70 years old told Amnesty. “We all started crying.”The trucks took more than 400 people to a camp for people displaced by the conflict in Maiduguri, the main city in the region.“These brazen acts of razing entire villages, deliberately destroying civilian homes and forcibly displacing their inhabitants with no imperative military grounds, should be investigated as possible war crimes,” said Osai Ojigho, director for Amnesty International Nigeria, in Friday’s statement detailing the group’s investigation.Soldiers also detained six men, beating some of them, and held them for almost a month before releasing them without charge Jan. 30, Amnesty said.It cited Nigerian Army statements from the time that said six Boko Haram suspects had been captured and hundreds of captives freed from the militants.Witness accounts“They say they saved us from Boko Haram, but it’s a lie,” said one man roughly age 65, according to Amnesty. “Boko Haram isn’t coming to our village.”Three residents from two of the affected villages, now living in Maiduguri, described to Reuters the same events as in the rights group’s report.“The soldiers called us Boko Haram and set our houses ablaze, before evacuating all of us,” one of the residents said.Amnesty’s report was published as the military struggles to contain the insurgencies, particularly Islamic State. Last July, troops began to withdraw to larger garrisons, dubbed “super camps,” from smaller bases that were frequently overrun with heavy loss of lives.That has left the military on the defensive and the insurgents able to roam across large swathes of territory and carry out attacks, often on civilians, with few repercussions.
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