Author: CensorBiz

U.S. President Donald Trump is shifting his priorities away from North Korea in his run up to the presidential election this year, experts said, after fruitless efforts at denuclearization talks that remain deadlocked.“I suspect the administration sees little opportunity for renewed nuclear diplomacy before the 2020 election,” said Robert Manning, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council.Trump has been reassigning U.S. officials involved in negotiations with North Korea to other posts, a move that experts think signals that his administration is putting less emphasis on denuclearization talks that failed to make a breakthrough last year.The White House announced Tuesday that Trump has nominated FILE – U.S. special representative to North Korea Steve Biegun speaks after being named by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at the State Department in Washington, Aug. 23, 2018.In December, FILE U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un sign documents that acknowledge the progress of the talks and pledge to keep momentum going, after their summit at the Capella Hotel on Sentosa island in Singapore, June 12, 2018.Trump met with Kim for the first time at the Singapore summit in June 2018. Their second summit was in February 2019 in Hanoi. It ended quickly because Washington’s call for full denuclearization and Pyongyang’s demand for sanctions relief did not mesh.An attempt to bridge that difference at working-level talks in Stockholm in October broke down, and the talks remain stalled since then.Manning said Trump is turning away from North Korea because the lack of progress made on denuclearization does little to benefit him during an election year.“Trump has made North Korea a signature issue of his foreign policy, so the failure to achieve any serious steps toward denuclearization, while North Korea continues to improve its missile and nuclear capabilities is a stain on his record on a key issue in which he is heavily invested,” Manning said.According to a confidential U.N. report to be released next month and seen by Reuters, North Korea has been FILE – National security adviser Robert O’Brien listens as President Donald Trump addresses the nation from the White House on the ballistic missile strike that Iran launched against Iraqi air bases housing U.S. troops in Washington, Jan. 8, 2020.Speaking at the Atlantic Council, a foreign policy think tank in Washington, on Tuesday, National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien said the president would meet with Kim if there is a prospect of making a deal.“If there is an opportunity to move the ball forward for the American people, he’s always willing to do that,” O’Brien said. “We will have to see as to whether another summit between the leaders is appropriate.”Douglas Paal, vice president at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said that attempting a summit with Kim could be risky for Trump, who is running for re-election. But O’Brien’s remarks suggest that the Trump administration is leaving a door open for diplomacy.“Doing deals with dictators in election years tends to benefit the opposition,” Paal said. “Trump sees no need for a summit now, but his national security adviser is covering for the possible downside.”Scott Snyder, director of the U.S.-Korea policy program at the Council on Foreign Relations, said neither Trump nor Kim has much to gain if there is no progress made through another summit.“It stands to reason that Trump would seek political benefit from another meeting [with] Kim, but would not be interested in another meeting if it will not benefit him politically or advance the U.S. national security interest,” Snyder said.“It is in the interest of both Trump and Kim Jong Un to ensure that any future meetings are accompanied by meaningful achievements,” he added.Experts think there is little chance that another summit will take place between Washington and Pyongyang this year in the current stalemate.“There is little reason to think that the two leaders will meet this year or that any new agreements will be reached,” Pollack said. “The sides simply aren’t talking to each other.”Manning thinks “for now, denuclearization diplomacy is dead.”FILE – A man watches a TV screen showing a file image of North Korea’s missile launch during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Jan. 1, 2020.However, North Korea could become a priority if it changes its position or tests more missiles, according to experts.“It’s pretty [clear] North Korea is not a priority in an election year, unless North Korea decides to make it a priority through its actions,” Paal said.Ken Gause, director of the Adversary Analytics Program at CNA, thinks North Korea could either escalate threats by testing its weapons again in an attempt to gain the U.S. attention or stay conservative, hoping that Trump will win the election.“That comes down to North Korean calculus,” Gause said. “What does Kim think? Does Kim think that it’s better to be conservative, not cause a lot of problems and hopes that Trump wins? Or does he think, ‘Hey I need to force this issue before the election?’ And, we’ll find out in the next few months.” Lee Joen and Ahn So-young contributed to this report, which originated on VOA Korean.
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Parkland, Florida, is commemorating the second anniversary of the mass shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that left 17 people dead and became etched in the national consciousness as a searing example of how a gunman can destroy so many young lives.Fourteen students and three staff members were killed on Valentine’s Day 2018 and another 17 people were wounded. The alleged shooter, a former student of the high school, is awaiting trial and is possibly facing the death penalty.In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, many hoped it would mark the beginning of the end of such massacres, especially at schools. However, since that attack, there have been many more high profile mass shootings in the United States, including an attack three months later at Santa Fe High School in the Houston, Texas, metropolitan area that left 10 people dead, including eight students.Thirteen mass shootings have taken place in the two years since Parkland, including massacres at the Capitol Gazette newspaper office in Annapolis, Maryland, the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a nightclub in Thousand Oaks, California, and a Walmart in El Paso, Texas.FILE – Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student Emma Gonzalez, center, listens with other students during the March for Our Lives Rally in Washington, March 24, 2018.ActivismSince the shooting in Parkland, survivors of that attack have ushered in a wave of student activism, organizing a series of rallies, school walkouts and voter registration drives, calling for stricter gun laws in the United States.The Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence reported in its 2019 year-end review of local gun laws that 137 gun safety bills have been signed into law in 32 states and the District of Columbia since the Parkland shootings.At the national level, however, there remains wide disagreement among politicians over how best to stop gun violence. Many on the political left argue for stricter gun laws, while politicians on the right call for increased security measures as well as mental health treatment to stop potential shooters before they carry out their crimes. The majority-Democratic House of Representatives passed bills in February 2019 requiring universal background checks on all firearm sales and giving the FBI more time to do background checks on gun purchases. But the legislation has stalled in the Republican-controlled Senate.FILE – Catalina Saenz wipes tears from her face as she visits a makeshift memorial near the scene of a mass shooting at a shopping complex, Aug. 6, 2019, in El Paso, Texas.Since 1966, there have been 167 mass shootings in the country, defined by the Congressional Research Service as “a multiple homicide incident in which four or more victims are murdered with firearms — not including the offender(s) — within one event, and at least some of the murders occurred in a public location.” Murders that involve any other underlying criminal activity, including gang violence or armed robbery, or are solely categorized as domestic violence, are not included.According to The Violence Project, nearly all mass shooters have four things in common: early childhood trauma and exposure to violence at a young age; an identifiable grievance or crisis point; validation for their beliefs, in part by studying past shootings to find inspiration; and the means to carry out an attack.In compiling the data, the Violence Project found that while there is no single profile of a mass shooter, it is easier to see patterns in shooters when looked at them from the point of view of where they carry out their crime.For example, in workplace shootings, the gunman tends to be a male in his 40s, can be of any race, and is an employee of a blue-color business where he is having trouble at work. He tends to use handguns and assault rifles that he legally owns. By contrast, mass shooters who kill in a K-12 school tend to be a suicidal white male student of the school with a history of trauma. He leaks his premeditated plan before the shooting, and uses multiple guns stolen from a family member.FILE – Otero County Commissioner Couy Griffin speaks, Jan. 31, 2020, in Santa Fe, N.M., as hundreds of advocates for gun rights rallied at the New Mexico Statehouse against a proposed red-flag gun law.PreventionDensley said understanding the different shooter profiles can help policymakers prevent such violence by targeting their approaches for different locations. For example, he said to prevent shootings at schools, it does not make sense to simply focus on increasing building security because most school shooters are students or former students who know the building’s layout and lockdown drills.“In some cases, the things we are doing might be doing more harm than good,” he said.Because most school shooters are suicidal, Densley said policies that could help stop mass shootings in schools could include suicide prevention strategies as well as stopping mentally ill individuals from obtaining guns through the passage of Extreme Risk Protection Orders, also known as red flag laws. Such laws allow for police and family members to petition courts to temporarily remove weapons from people who may present a danger to themselves and others.Densley said the highly charged emotion surrounding mass shootings is understandable, but “sometimes the emotion isn’t getting us anywhere when it comes to solutions and preventing future crimes.”FILE – Participants gather during the March For Our Lives-Parkland event, March 24, 2018, in Parkland, Fla.The Violence Project is calling for more evidenced-based decisions about how to address mass shootings based on the data of previous shooters.“Just by understanding them and understanding their lives a little bit more you get a little bit closer to thinking about what were those warning signs and could there have been some prevention in place,” Densley said.He said society must change the story going forward and for the next generation, “because unfortunately these attacks don’t seem to be going anywhere and there is going to be more people that perpetrate them.”
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The Trump administration is transferring $3.8 billion in recently passed military funding to finance construction of the president’s long-sought U.S.-Mexico border wall, angering not just Democrats but also GOP defense hawks.Thursday’s move by the Pentagon would transfer money from National Guard units, aircraft procurement and shipbuilding to anti-drug accounts that can finance construction of new wall.The maneuver, announced in “reprogramming” documents provided to lawmakers, came in for harsh criticism by Rep. Mack Thornberry of Texas, the top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee. Democrats slammed the transfers as well, but Trump faced no consequences when making similar transfers last year.”Congress has the constitutional authority to determine how defense dollars are spent,” Thornberry said in a statement. “The re-programming today is contrary to Congress’s constitutional authority.”Trump’s action comes less than two months after he signed a huge appropriations package into law. He alienated lawmakers on both sides last year when diverting funding intended for popular projects on military bases.This time, the Pentagon is targeting $1.3 billion for National Guard equipment and excess procurement of aircraft like the F-35 and V-22 Ospreys, favored by many lawmakers for the jobs they bring to their districts and states. He’s also eliminating funding for an amphibious assault ship built in Mississippi and an Expeditionary Fast Transport ship that’s built in Alabama, represented by Sen. Richard Shelby, the Republican chairman of the Appropriations Committee.Trump’s fiscal 2021 budget, released only Monday, contains a $2 billion request for the wall, less than Trump asked for last year, which reflected the fact that Trump has more money for the wall than can be spent immediately.”Today (Trump) stole from our National Guard to pay for his wasteful wall,” said Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.
 
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Six weeks after announcing the appearance of a new, highly contagious and sometimes lethal virus, experts say China is still not sharing important data that could help contain the epidemic.”As countries are trying to develop their own control strategies, they are looking for evidence of whether the situation in China is getting worse or better,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.But that evidence is not forthcoming.”We still don’t have very basic information,” said former U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention chief Tom Friedman, who currently heads public health nonprofit Resolve to Save Lives.As a team from the World Health Organization arrives in China to help respond to the COVID-19 outbreak spreading out of the central city of Wuhan, “we hope that information will be coming out,” Frieden said.”The next few days will be key,” he added.FILE – Medical workers in protective suits work inside an isolated section at a community health service center, in Qingshan district of Wuhan, Hubei province, China, Feb. 8, 2020.Beijing has not accepted the CDC’s offer to send top experts.Mike Ryan, head of WHO’s health emergencies program, did not specify nationalities of the team members at a press conference Thursday. “But I can assure you the team is top-class scientists from all over the world and all of the relevant countries who can contribute to an endeavor such as this,” he said.”We are a little disappointed that we haven’t been invited in and we’re a little disappointed in the lack of transparency coming from the Chinese,” Larry Kudlow, the director of President Donald Trump’s Economic Council, told reporters Thursday.Behind the curveChina is releasing a daily count of newly identified cases, but not the date when those patients became ill. That’s important because without the date of symptom onset, epidemiologists can’t tell if an epidemic is growing or waning. The daily case count indicates when testing labs are processing samples without revealing much about the course of the outbreak, experts note.When Chinese officials changed how they diagnose the disease on Thursday, it was impossible to tell if the 13,000 new cases Beijing reported actually represent a jump in infections because Beijing hasn’t reported dates of onset. WHO’s Ryan said some of those cases go back to the beginning of the epidemic. But WHO doesn’t know which ones.A woman wearing a face mask and gloves buys canned foods beside empty shelves, at a supermarket in Hong Kong, Feb. 13, 2020.China is not routinely releasing data on patients’ ages and who gets the most severe disease. It’s not clear how many people who were tested came back positive. It’s not known how many people who are infected don’t get tested.”We know some are missed, there’s no question about that,” said Frieden from Resolve to Save Lives.”But is it 10 times as many? Five times as many?” he asked. “We just don’t know.”Glaring omissionHealth care workers are at extremely high risk of infection in any outbreak. WHO usually lists infections among this important group in its situation reports. But Beijing has reported very little about how health care workers are faring.Researchers in Wuhan have published A health official wearing a protection suit and a face mask waits for passengers at a cruise ship terminal in Port Klang, Malaysia, Feb. 13, 2020.This time, officials have praised Beijing for reporting the COVID-19 outbreak much more quickly and for rapidly releasing the virus’s genetic code.Chinese scientists have published a series of “elegant” studies in top medical journals outlining some important details of the disease, Nuzzo noted.”I don’t want to paint a picture of a country that’s absolutely refusing to turn over data because they’re clearly cranking out papers,” she said.But critical information is still lacking, and in a serious outbreak of a new disease, she added, data should be shared as widely as possible as soon as possible.”The basic concept is tell people what you know when you know it,” Frieden added. “And if you don’t know something, indicate how are you going to find that information out.”
 
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A medical airbridge from Yemen to Jordan set up in the past two weeks has delivered 29 Yemenis, who are now being treated in Jordanian hospitals.The United Nations flights are viewed as a humanitarian breakthrough in the five-year conflict afflicting the Arab world’s poorest country, where hospitals have been bombed and medicine is scarce. The Yemeni patients are being aided by the World Health Organization and the non-governmental International SOS group. Dubbed, “mercy flights,” Yemeni medical patients — ages five to well into their 50s — from Houthi rebel-held areas suffering from congenital heart disease, kidney failure, brain tumors and various cancers, are in Amman for treatment.U.N. Envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths said, so far, two flights have transported patients to “receive life-saving medical care currently unavailable in Yemen.”   A Yemeni boy waves from inside a bus before boarding a United Nations plane at Sanaa International airport, Yemen, Feb. 3, 2020.Shuhd al-Harethi is a 13-year-old from Yemen’s capital, Sana’a, dressed in a pastel hospital gown. At times, she must also wear an oxygen mask over her chestnut brown hair because of her congenital heart problem first diagnosed at 9-months-old. Shuhd’s father, Khalid, said there was no medical treatment available all these years for his daughter in Yemen. Desperate, some five years ago, he took her to Saudi Arabia in search of a heart operation. But the hospital there couldn’t perform it. Meanwhile, the war broke out pitting the Saudi-led coalition supporting Yemen’s government against the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels. The Saudi doctors told him to leave and take Shuhd back to Yemen.Shuhd is expected to undergo heart surgery Saturday at Amman’s Specialty Hospital, where Dr. Mohamed Azzoqa, who heads the intensive care and cardiac care unit, will oversee her recovery.  “All of her veins are supposed to drain on the right side, but they are draining on the left side instead of the right side,” Azzoqa said. “We call it a corrective surgery. It needs a multi-disciplinary team.” A Yemeni girl and boy wait in the departure lounge at Sanaa International airport, in Yemen, Feb. 3, 2020. A U.N. medical relief flight carrying patients from Yemen’s rebel-held capital took off Feb. 2, the first such aid flight in over three years.Other Yemenis, like nine-year-old Aiman Senan, are scheduled for orthopedic surgery next week to correct a curvature of the spine. Again, such surgery is unavailable in Yemen.The Houthi rebel-run health ministry said 32,000 Yemenis are in need of urgent medical and surgical intervention, such as kidney transplants and heart surgeries.Those fortunate enough to travel for life-saving treatment said they signed up with the World Health Organization for consideration. All who have traveled so far are dealing with chronic conditions and are not those requiring medical help due to injuries resulting from the conflict.Yemen has been called the world’s greatest humanitarian emergency. For two years, the United Nations has been negotiating for permission to evacuate Yemenis who need urgent medical care.Major donors and some of the world’s largest aid agencies are meeting in Brussels Thursday to try to put together a collective response to what is being widely described as unprecedented and unacceptable obstruction by Houthi authorities, who control large portions of northern Yemen. 
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ISLAMABAD/BRUSSELS — The United States confirmed Thursday it has negotiated a “seven-day reduction in violence” proposal with the Taliban to move toward a political settlement to the war in Afghanistan.Secretary of Defense Mark Esper made the revelation to reporters at NATO headquarters in Brussels, insisting “seven days, for now, is sufficient” time to determine whether the insurgent group is serious in seeking a negotiated end to the war, America’s longest.  Esper declined to discuss further details, noting he was in the process of consulting with U.S. allies about the proposal and the way forward. He said the proposed reduction offered a basis for a political agreement.”We are taking a hard look at it. We are consulting with our allies. We are consulting with Congress and others, and I think peace deserves a chance. But it will demand that all parties comply with their obligations if we move forward,” he stressed.  U.S. Secretary of Defence Mark Esper speaks at a news conference following a NATO defense ministers meeting at the alliance’s headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, Feb. 13, 2020.U.S. and Taliban representatives have negotiated a draft agreement after nearly 18 months of turbulent talks, hosted by the Gulf nation of Qatar.  Washington had been pressing the insurgent group, however, to commit to a significant and sustained reduction in violence before the deal is signed.”We have said all along that the best, if not only, solution in Afghanistan is a political agreement. Progress has been made on this front and we will have more to report on that soon I hope,” Esper added.The mutual cessation of hostilities is viewed as a key to testing the ability of all warring sides in Afghanistan, particularly the Taliban, to practically demonstrate they can rein in their fighters for a sustained period.  An official declaration of the “reduction in violence” and its successful implementation would lead to the signing of a long-awaited peace agreement between the United States and the Taliban, according to insurgent negotiators.   That would open the way for peace negotiations between the Afghan parties involved in the conflict and would start a gradual withdrawal of about 13,000 American forces from Afghanistan over a reported period of 18 months.Secretary of State Mike Pompeo takes questions from reporters during a flight from Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland, to Germany, Feb. 13, 2020.Separately, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters on the way to a security conference in Munich the U.S.-Taliban talks have made “real progress” in recent days, and he hoped a serious reduction in violence would stem from it.”If we can get there, if we can hold that posture for a while, then we’ll be able to begin the real, serious discussion which is all the Afghans sitting at a table, finding a true, reconciliation path forward,” Pompeo said. “It would also give us the opportunity to reduce the footprint not only for America’s forces there but for all forces, the resolute supporters more broadly,” Pompeo said in reference to several thousand coalition forces deployed to Afghanistan under NATO’s Resolute Support mission.The intra-Afghan negotiations will discuss a nationwide cease-fire and a power-sharing in post-war Afghanistan, according to U.S. and Taliban officials.  Washington, however, has said the troop drawdown process would be “conditions-based,” meaning it would be linked to progress in Taliban-Afghan negotiations.Between the signing of the U.S.-Taliban deal and starting of intra-Afghan negotiations, the insurgent group and Afghan authorities would be expected to release each other’s prisoners.  Taliban officials say they have already given their list of thousands of insurgents being held in Afghan prisons.   VOA State Department Correspondent Cindy Saine contributed to this report from Munich. 
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A growing list of consulting and accounting firms are distancing themselves from Isabel dos Santos, the daughter of Angola’s former president, and her husband, because of their alleged involvement in a corruption case.  Accounting firms such as Price Waterhouse Coopers and Boston Consulting Group are among the few that have openly expressed their disappointment and have started internal investigations. Salem Solomon has the story.
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China has reported its lowest number of new coronavirus cases since late January, lending credence to claims from some of its medical officials that the virus may have reached its peak. But not everyone agrees with that assessment. Experts say it might be the case in China but not elsewhere including Singapore. Also the number of infected aboard the quarantined the ship in Japan’s Yokohama harbor has climbed to near 220. VOA Correspondent Mariama Diallo reports.
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Sudan’s transitional government said Thursday it has signed an agreement with the families of the victims of the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole as part of its efforts to be removed from a U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism.Sudanese officials said the settlement was signed last week in Washington, but did not release the terms of the deal.There was no immediate comment from the U.S. government.The October 12, 2000, attack occurred while the USS Cole was refueling in the southern Yemeni port of Aden, killing 17 sailors and wounding more than three dozen others.  Al-Qaida claimed responsibility for the attack.Sudan was accused of supporting al-Qaida, but denied any link to the bombing.The United States added Sudan to its list of state sponsors of terrorism in 1993, but since the ouster of longtime leader Omar al-Bashir last year there have been talks about incremental steps Sudan could take to earn removal.Sudan’s interim leaders say that step is crucial for it to carry out economic reforms and development in the country.
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A cruise ship turned away by other Asian and Pacific governments because of virus fears anchored Thursday off Cambodia, which is checking the health of its 2,200 passengers and crew.The Westerdam was unwelcome elsewhere even though operator Holland America Line said no cases of the COVID-19 viral illness have been confirmed among the 1,455 passengers and 802 crew members on board.The ship is anchored a kilometer (0.6 miles) from the main Sihanoukville port in the Gulf of Thailand and a team of health officials will conduct checks and determine the disembarkation process, Preah Sihanouk province Gov. Kouch Chamrouen told The Associated Press. About 20 passengers have reported stomachaches or fever, Cambodian health officials said. The ship’s health staff considered them to be normal illnesses, but the ill passengers were being isolated from others, Health Ministry spokeswoman Or Vandine said.A military helicopter is on standby to carry samples from passengers to the Pasteur Institute in Phnom Penh for analysis. She said if tests show any passengers have the disease, they’ll be allowed to get treatment in the country. A speed boat, foreground, transports samples from some passengers who have reported stomachaches or fever, in the Westerdam, seen in the background, off Sihanoukville, Cambodia, Feb. 13, 2020.Health checks firstKuoch Chamrouen said that once the health officials on board are done checking the passengers, the Westerdam will be allowed to dock at the main port. About 500 passengers are scheduled to then disembark Thursday. From the port the passengers will board buses that will transport them to the nearby airport to take a flight to Phnom Penh from where they can proceed to their onward destinations.About 30 buses were waiting at the port to transport the passengers.U.S. Ambassador W. Patrick Murphy said he sent an embassy team to work with the ship’s representatives and Cambodian officials to help Americans disembark and transfer to their onward destinations.“We have also coordinated with foreign embassies of other nationalities,” he wrote on Twitter.Thailand refused to allow the Westerdam to dock this week after it had been turned away by the Philippines, Taiwan, Japan and Guam. Cambodia agreed Wednesday to allow the ship in.“All approvals have been received and we are extremely grateful to the Cambodian authorities for their support,” cruise operator Holland America Line said on its website. The ship’s request to remain in Cambodia was approved through next Monday.Virus fearsThe Westerdam began its cruise in Singapore last month and its last stop before it was refused further landings was in Hong Kong, where 50 cases of the viral disease have been confirmed. COVID-19 has sickened tens of thousands of people in China since December, and nearly 220 cases have been confirmed on another cruise ship, the Diamond Princess, which made stops in Hong Kong and other ports before arriving in Japan last week. World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said earlier he was pleased Cambodia had agreed to accept the Westerdam and described it as an example of the international solidarity advocated by the U.N. health agency. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen is a strong ally of China and has played down any threat from the new disease in his country. He had declined to ban direct flights to China, a step taken by other governments and airlines. Cambodia has confirmed just one case of the virus, in a Chinese visitor.
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China has replaced the head of its office overseeing matters in Hong Kong, making him the most senior Beijing-appointed official to lose his job in the wake of sometimes-violent anti-government protests in the Chinese-controlled territory.China’s Human Resources Ministry announced Thursday that Zhang Xiaoming would be removed as director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office (HKMAO), to be replaced by Xia Baolong, a 67-year-old vice chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).Hong Kong has been roiled by more than seven months of protests over an extradition bill that would have allowed suspects to be sent to mainland China for trial.Zhang’s removal follows Beijing’s move in January to replace the head of its Hong Kong liaison office.He will remain with the HKMAO as deputy director in charge of daily operations, the ministry said. Xia served as Chinese President Xi Jinping’s deputy when Xi was Communist Party secretary of Zhejiang province from 2003 to 2007.“Xi now has his proteges in place over Hong Kong for the first time,” said Jean-Pierre Cabestan, a professor of political science at the Hong Kong Baptist University.“While that may give Hong Kong ‘face’, it is certainly going to put Hong Kong under more political pressure,” Cabestan said. A campaign in 2015 to tear down underground churches in Zhejiang gave Xia a reputation as a hard-liner.“Xia is not a moderate and he has shown himself to be a zealous servant of Xi Jinping. We can expect that to continue,” Cabestan said.Zhang had backed the controversial extradition bill, telling a visiting Hong Kong delegation how urgent it was that Hong Kong pass the measure, Reuters reported in December.The bill was scrapped after mass demonstrations, and the protests evolved into calls for greater democracy, posing the gravest popular challenge to Xi since he came to power.Beijing also said on Thursday that it had appointed as deputy directors of the HKMAO Luo Huining, who became the new liaison office head in January, and Fu Ziying, the director of the Macau liaison office.
 
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The number of new coronavirus cases dropped for the second straight day Wednesday, but health experts weren’t saying it was time to relax. “This outbreak could still go in any direction,” World Health Organization chief Tedros Ghebreyesus said, adding that what appeared to be a slowdown in new cases should be met with “extreme caution.” He said he welcomed the global community of researchers for their “positive response … to come up with concrete plans and commitment to work together” to battle the virus. The head of the WHO’s emergency program, Mike Ryan, also gave credit to what he said was the “huge public health operation in China … that gives us an opportunity for containment.” Workers wearing masks walk outside their dormitory, in an electronics manufacturing factory in Shanghai, China, as the country copes with an outbreak of a new coronavirus, Feb. 12, 2020.Only 1% of the more than 45,000 confirmed cases were outside China, along with just one of the 1,300 deaths. But Ryan refused to predict “the beginning, the middle or the end” of the crisis. Chinese President Xi Jinping called on Communist Party leaders to keep up the fight against the coronavirus while he unveiled measures to stimulate the country’s economy, which has been weakened by the deadly virus.  “The results are hard-won progress made by all sides,” the official Xinhua News Agency reported Xi as saying. He also noted the campaign to prevent and control the virus had reached “a critical stage that requires stringent efforts.” Xi urged party leaders to work toward achieving this year’s social development and economic goals, and he ordered tax cuts, rent reductions and other measures to bolster the country’s weakened economy. The death toll from the coronavirus was higher than that of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2002-03, which is believed to have killed 774 people and sickened nearly 8,100 in China and Hong Kong. 
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For decades, the U.S Justice Department has aspired to serve as a model law enforcement agency that largely operates independent of political influence. Federal prosecution decisions and sentencing recommendations have been made by career lawyers operating under strict rules of conduct, a rarity in countries with a weak rule of law. Now that image is being severely tested in the wake of the Justice Department’s controversial decision Tuesday to reverse its own prosecutors’ recommendation that Roger Stone, a longtime confidant of U.S. President Donald Trump, receive seven to nine years in prison for crimes unearthed during the Mueller investigation into Russian election meddling. A jury convicted Stone in November of lying to Congress, obstruction of justice and witness tampering. The extraordinary move led all four federal prosecutors assigned to the Stone case to withdraw from it, including one who resigned in protest, raising questions over whether Trump exerted undue influence over his attorney general, William Barr, to intervene in the case. Barr to testifyAmid calls for an investigation into Barr’s decision, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler announced Wednesday that the attorney general would testify before his panel on March 31 “to address numerous concerns regarding his leadership of the Department of Justice and the president’s improper influence over the department and our criminal justice system.” FILE – House impeachment manager Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., speaks during the trial of President Donald Trump in the Senate at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Jan. 23, 2020.A letter signed by Nadler and 22 other Judiciary Committee Democrats asserts that Barr “engaged in a pattern of conduct in legal matters relating to the president that raises significant concerns for this committee.” Trump has denied speaking to Barr about the case, although he says he is glad the Justice Department interceded. Still, many administration critics suspect that undue political influence played a role. That perception will hurt U.S efforts to present itself “as a model country with a model rule of law,” said former Justice Department prosecutor David Axelrod, now with the Philadelphia law firm of Ballard Spahr.  “It sends a message to countries that we’re not that much better than the countries that we’ve criticized for so many years,” Axelrod said. It is not clear exactly what prompted Barr’s decision to intervene in the case. Sentencing recommendations are normally made by career prosecutors, and it is almost unheard of for an attorney general to intervene in a sentencing recommendation, according to former Justice Department officials. ‘Excessive’ recommendationA Justice Department official said Tuesday that the recommended sentence was “extreme and excessive and disproportionate to Stone’s offenses” and that the decision to reverse it was made before Trump vented about it in a tweet late Monday. That may have been the case, but the circumstances surrounding the decision suggested that prosecutors felt they were overruled for political reasons. Just hours after the controversy heated up, Trump tweeted early Tuesday to congratulate Barr “for taking charge of a case that was totally out of control and perhaps should not have even been brought.” FILE – Attorney General William Barr speaks at the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ China Initiative Conference, Feb. 6, 2020, in Washington.The tweet, said Fordham Law School professor Bruce Green, reinforced a perception that Barr had acted improperly.   “The appearance is that it was done either because the president asked to or because [Barr] thought it would be consistent with what the president wanted, not with traditional criminal justice values and traditions,” Green said.  “If that’s the case, then the sentencing is a real black eye for the Department of Justice from the point of view of its independence.” The Justice Department is a uniquely American institution. Headed by the attorney general who reports to the president, it is part of the executive branch. Although some presidents have tried to use it to advance their political agendas, recent administrations of both political parties have largely kept the department at arm’s length, allowing it to conduct investigations and prosecutions independent of political pressure. That long-standing tradition has been put to the test under the Trump administration as the president, embracing a sweeping view of executive power, has sought to influence the outcome of investigations affecting him and his associates. Comey, SessionsJust four months into his administration, he fired FBI Director James Comey over the Russian election meddling investigation, which he called a “witch hunt” meant to oust him. He repeatedly attacked his first attorney general, Jeff Sessions, for recusing himself from the investigation before firing him in late 2018. Last year, Trump caused a stir among law enforcement officials when he suggested that charges against a top Chinese telecom executive under indictment by the Justice Department could be dismissed as part of a trade deal with China. Barr, a conservative Republican lawyer now serving his second tenure at the helm of the Justice Department, has emerged as one of Trump’s biggest defenders in the administration. His views of executive power mirror those of Trump. Last year, Barr cleared Trump of obstruction of justice in connection with the Russia investigation after Mueller left the question undecided. That led to criticism that he was serving as the president’s personal attorney. FILE – A view of the Department of Justice building in Washington, Feb 1, 2018.Current and former Justice Department employees say that the Stone incident has had a debilitating impact on many at the department. “It’s safe to say my former colleagues are appalled by what’s going on in the Department of Justice,” said William Yeomans, a former longtime Justice Department official.  “Every colleague I’ve talked to is deeply affected by it.” The four prosecutors’ withdrawal is likely to encourage other Justice Department employees to push back in the face of outside pressure and to report instances of undue political influence to the Justice Department’s inspector general.  ‘Not what you signed up for’“Memo to all career DOJ employees,” former Justice Department Inspector General Michael Bromwich tweeted on Tuesday.  “This is not what you signed up for. The four prosecutors who bailed on the Stone case have shown the way. Report all instances of improper political influence and other misdeeds to the DOJ IG, who is required to protect your identity.” But reporting abuse to the watchdog goes only so far, Axelrod said. “If you have a Department of Justice who’s now decided that it is going to be political and he is going to act at the behest of the president,” he said, “there is not much legally that can be done.” 
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Every year, some 20,000 young adults come to the U.S. on special visas to work as an au pair, caring for pre-school children in the home. Most of the time things work out fine. But when problems do arise, someone has to enforce the rules. Au pairs and critics say the State Department and au pair recruiting agencies are failing to oversee the system. Vero Balderas Iglesias reports in Part 3 of “The Perils of Au Pairs.”
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Full-time day care for two pre-school children in the U.S. can cost $35,000 a year or more. A live-in nanny can cost even more. High prices like those are why thousands of parents turn to the State Department’s au pair program, where young foreigners provide low-cost live-in care in what is called a “cultural exchange.” But not everyone thinks it’s a fair trade, as Veronica Balderas Iglesias reports in Part 2 of her series, “The Perils of Au Pairs.”
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European lawmakers are set to approve free trade and investment deals between the EU and Vietnam that will eliminate almost all tariffs over the next ten years, despite concerns about the human rights situation in the country.After an influential Parliament trade committee recommended last month that the agreements should be adopted, lawmakers will cast their votes Wednesday in Strasbourg, France, during a plenary session.
The EU hopes the deal will result in 15 billion euros ($16.5 billion) a year in additional exports from Vietnam to the continent by 2035, with EU exports to Vietnam expanding by more than eight billion per year.
Vietnam mainly exports telecommunications equipment, food and clothing to Europe, while the EU’s list of exports to the Southeast Asian nation includes machinery, transport equipment, chemicals and agricultural goods.
Geert Bourgeois, the lawmaker in charge of steering the agreements through Parliament, said the deals are also strengthening economic ties with Vietnam amid fierce competition from China and the U.S.
“We’ve been negotiating for eight years and it’s important that we come to an agreement now. If not, I’m sure Sino-Vietnamese relations will become more important,” he said.
A group of 28 NGOs has asked EU lawmakers to postpone their consent to the deals until Vietnam shows it is committed to protecting labor and human rights, but the agreements largely enjoy the support of the Parliament’s three main political groups.
“We are very concerned about political prisoners and have stressed to the Vietnamese authorities the importance of human rights,” Bourgeois said. “Vietnam is responding in a positive manner and from this month a European Parliament delegation will monitor the situation. We have also agreed the establishment of an inter-parliamentary delegation between Parliament and Vietnam’s national assembly.”
Once adopted by lawmakers, the deals need to be approved by the EU council and ratified by all 27 member states.  
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Nissan filed a civil suit Wednesday seeking 10 billion yen ($91 million) in damages from the Japanese automaker’s former Chairman Carlos Ghosn.Nissan Motor Co. filed the case in Yokohama District Court to recoup some of the monetary damages suffered, it said, “as a result of years of misconduct and fraudulent activity” by Ghosn.
The claim was calculated by adding the costs from what Nissan called Ghosn’s “corrupt practices,” such as rent for overseas property, use of corporate jets and payments to Ghosn’s sister, as well as costs for the internal investigation into Ghosn’s alleged wrongdoings.
Ghosn, who led Nissan for two decades and saved it from near-bankruptcy, was arrested in Japan in November 2018, and charged with underreporting his future compensation and breach of trust in diverting Nissan money for personal gain.
He was awaiting trial but skipped bail and showed up in Lebanon late last year. Japan has no extradition treaty with Lebanon, and he’s unlikely to be arrested.
A date had not been set for his trial, and Ghosn has said he was worried his ordeal would never end and he would not get a fair hearing.
The bail conditions also barred him from seeing his wife. He has repeatedly lashed out at Japan’s judicial system, where the conviction rate is higher than 99%.
Japanese authorities recently issued an arrest warrant for Ghosn and three Americans, accused of helping his escape. Separately, they issued an arrest warrant for Ghosn’s wife on suspicion of perjury.
Ghosn has repeatedly said he is innocent, saying that the promised compensation had never been decided, and all the payments were for legitimate services.
Wednesday’s lawsuit by Nissan comes on top of the civil case Nissan filed against Ghosn in the British Virgin Islands in August last year. It alleged unauthorized payments, sought to regain a luxury yacht and pursued other damages, according to Nissan.
Yokohama-based Nissan, which makes the Z sportscar, Leaf electric car and Infiniti luxury models, is also facing trial in Japan as a company in relation to Ghosn’s scandal. It has indicated it will agree to any penalties.
Nissan’s reputation has been sorely tarnished over the Ghosn fiasco, and its sales have dropped. Nissan reports financial results Thursday.
The company is struggling to redefine its image and managerial leadership after the departure of Ghosn.
His successor Hiroto Saikawa tendered his resignation in September after acknowledging he had received dubious income. Saikawa said he did not know about the money. He has not been charged.
Also in question is Nissan’s relationship with alliance partner Renault SA of France, the top shareholder in Nissan. Ghosn, sent in by Renault to lead Nissan, has said his arrest was set off by a conspiracy against him at Nissan.   
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