Author: CensorBiz

Platinum-selling reggaeton act Gente de Zona were barred from a New Year’s Eve concert in a Miami park. The mayor of Miami declared another Cuban singer persona non grata and her concert in a private club was canceled. Fellow artists Jacob Forever y El Micha were shut out of a July 4 concert in the neighboring South Florida city of Hialeah last year.As President Donald Trump tightens the trade embargo on Cuba, some members of the United States’ largest Cuban-American community are once again taking a hard line on performers from the island who support its communist government or don’t speak out against it.The degree of support for a hard line on Cuba among South Florida’s roughly 1.2 million Cuban-Americans could influence the 2020 presidential election. Partly because of Republican anti-communism, Cuban-Americans have long been an historically GOP-supporting bloc in a swing state with 29 electoral college votes.While some polls in recent years have shown weakening Cuban-American support for the embargo, observers say Trump’s attempts to cut off the government’s income is emboldening activists who want to punish the Cuban government and its supporters in hopes of fueling regime change.One of those activists is Alex Otaola, a 40-year-old Cuban-born YouTube personality who has organized boycotts of figures like Gente de Zona and singer Haila Mompie that have led to de facto bans on their performing in South Florida.FILE – Randy Malcom Martinez and Alexander Delgado of the Cuban duo Gente de Zona perform in Vina del Mar, Chile, Feb. 22, 2018.Gente de Zona earned Otaola’s wrath by praising Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel. Mompie was blacklisted for praising and kissing revolutionary leader Fidel Castro during a concert in 2010.”These are artists with ties to the Cuban dictatorship, who are used as tools of the dictatorship,” said Otaloa, who emigrated from Cuba in 2003.He said he was offended by artists who support communism at home but make money by performing for Cuban-Americans in South Florida.”Enough of the hypocrisy,” he said.But many Cuban-Americans interviewed by The Associated Press said they disagreed with the cultural hard line.Carlos Nardo, a retiree who arrived in 1970 and has never gone back to the island, said he does not agree with the cancellation of concerts.”It is art, they are artists,” said Nardo. “If you are against them, don’t go to their performances.”Gente de Zona were barred from a concert organized by the Cuban-American singer Pitbull in a public park in Miami after Republican Miami Mayor Francis Suarez spoke out against them.”You have to understand that an artist who declares themselves in favor of communism or gives communism credibility is considered persona non grata,” said Suarez, a Republican. “It’s not about intolerance or censorship, it’s about respect and recognizing the mortifying history of communism, especially in Cuba.”Heavily Cuban Hialeah canceled a July 4 concert by reggaeton artists Jacob Forever, Senorita Dayana y El Micha because they perform in Cuba.’Politics has turned us Cubans small-minded’In 2019, the Miami city council passed a resolution asking Congress to cancel cultural exchanges with Cuba, which had flourished under former President Barack Obama.”We’ve gone back to the Cold War,”said Andy Gomez, a political analyst and former director at the University of Miami’s Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies.He said he believed that much of the offensive against Cuban artists was tied to 2020 electoral politics, both national and local.Local politicians “are thinking that those who shout and get passionate about Trump will win votes” in November, he said.Mompie hasn’t spoken out on her ban but her son Haned Mota Mompie said on Instagram that “politics has turned us Cubans small-minded, and turned us against each other.” Gente de Zona didn’t respond to requests for comment by The Associated Press.Cuba’s ambassador to the U.S., Jose Ramon Cabanas, responded to the Gente de Zona ban by tweeting, “Cultural terrorism? Miami politicians ask for Cuban artists to be excluded from a local concert.”Cuban-born South Florida businessman Hugo Cancio brought Cuban singers Silvio Rodriguez and Pablo Milanes to Florida venues during the Obama-era detente and was met by street protests, largely from older Cuban-Americans, that didn’t stop the performances.The current bans, which have support from a mix of older and younger Cuban-Americans, “are, to me, an act of total discrimination,” Cancio said.They’re censoring artists, he said, “for the simple fact that the only crime they commit is thinking differently and living in the country of their birth.”
 
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The European Union expressed regret on Tuesday that the United States has decided to use anti-personnel landmines more widely and once again considers them to be an important weapon of war.Last week, U.S. President Donald Trump canceled a prohibition on the use of landmines outside of the Korean peninsula. With potential future conflict with China or Russia in mind, the new policy specified no geographic limits on use of the weapons, which can kill civilians long after wars end.The office of EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said in a statement that the U.S. move “undermines the global norm against anti-personnel mines. A norm that has saved tens of thousands of people in the past 20 years.”
“The majority of mine victims are children,” the statement said, adding that the use of the weapons “anywhere, anytime, and by any actor remains completely unacceptable to the European Union.”
It said that both the EU and U.S. are helping to clear minefields and destroy the explosive devices around the world, and that “the re-authorization of the use of anti-personnel mines is not only a direct contradiction to these actions but also negatively affects the international rules-based order.”
The White House said the new U.S. policy authorizes military commanders to use landmines that are “non-persistent,” meaning they have built-in mechanisms to destroy or deactivate the mine after a certain period.
Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama, had prohibited the U.S. armed forces from using them anywhere in the world except in defense of South Korea.  
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Chechen blogger Imran Aliyev, known for his criticism of the Kremlin-backed leader of the Russian North Caucasus region of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, has been found dead with multiple stab wounds in a hotel in France, according to reports.AFP quoted unnamed sources close to the investigation late on Feb. 3 as saying that the 44-year-old blogger, who resided in Belgium and was known online as Mansur Stary (Old Mansur), was found dead on Jan. 30 in his hotel room in the northern city of Lille.According to the source, Aliyev arrived from Belgium a day earlier with another man, “who presumably had the same nationality.”The prosecutor’s office in Lille said no one had been detained so far in the investigation but declined to provide further details, according to AFP.On Jan. 30, a local newspaper, La Voix du Nord, reported that a man’s body was found with multiple stab wounds in a hotel in Lille. The report did not identify the man.The Chechenskiye Novosti (Chechen News) account on Telegram on Feb. 1 identified the man as Aliyev, citing relatives and friends of the deceased.It is not the first time that a critic of Kadyrov has been killed in Europe.In August 2019, a former Chechen separatist fighter, Georgian native Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, was shot dead in Berlin.A 49-year-old man with a Russian passport has been detained in connection with the killing. The suspect, also implicated in the murder of a Russian businessman in 2013, has maintained his right to keep silent.Berlin expelled two Russian diplomats over the apparent assassination, but Moscow has rejected the allegations of state involvement.Rights groups say Kadyrov, who has ruled the volatile region since 2007, uses repressive measures and has created a climate of impunity for security forces in the region. They claim Kadyrov is ultimately responsible for the violence and intimidation of political opponents by Chechen authorities, including kidnappings, forced disappearances, torture, and extra-judicial killings.Kremlin critics say Putin has turned a blind eye to the alleged abuses and violations of the Russian Constitution by Kadyrov because he relies on the former rebel commander to control separatist sentiments and violence in Chechnya, the site of two devastating post-Soviet wars and an Islamist insurgency that spread to other mostly Muslim regions in the North Caucasus.With reporting by AFP, La Voix Du Nord, and RFE/RL’s North Caucasus Service. 
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Twitter said on Monday that it had discovered attempts by possible state actors to access the phone numbers associated with user accounts, after a security researcher unearthed a flaw in the company’s “contacts upload” feature.In a statement published on its privacy blog, Twitter said it had identified a “high volume of requests” to use the feature coming from IP addresses in Iran, Israel and Malaysia. It said, without elaborating, that “some of these IP addresses may have ties to state-sponsored actors.”A company spokeswoman declined to say how many user phone numbers had been exposed, saying Twitter was unable to identify all of the accounts that may have been impacted.She said Twitter suspected a possible connection to state-backed actors because the attackers in Iran appeared to have had unrestricted access to Twitter, even though the network is banned there.Tech publication TechCrunch reported on Dec. 24 that a security researcher, Ibrahim Balic, had managed to match 17 million phone numbers to specific Twitter user accounts by exploiting a flaw in the contacts feature of its Android app. TechCrunch said it was able to identify a senior Israeli politician by matching a phone number through the tool.The feature, which allows people with a user’s phone number to find and connect with that user on Twitter, is off by default for users in the European Union where stringent privacy rules are in place. It is switched on by default for all other users globally, the spokeswoman said.Twitter said in its statement that it has changed the feature so it no longer reveals specific account names in response to requests. It has also suspended any accounts believed to have been abusing the tool.However, the company is not sending individual notifications to users whose phone numbers were accessed in the data leak, which information security experts consider a best practice.
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A surprise meeting between Sudan’s leader and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stirred controversy in Sudan on Tuesday, with the government saying it wasn’t notified ahead of time and critics lambasting the talks on social media.Others said the meeting would improve Sudan’s standing with the United States and help Khartoum shed its pariah image. For Israel, it was a major diplomatic breakthrough with an Arab African state, two days after the Arab League rejected President Donald Trump’s Mideast plan.The Uganda meeting between Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, the head of Sudan’s transitional government, and Netanyahu was kept secret but grabbed headlines late Monday when the Israeli leader announced the two had began talks on normalizing relations between their countries.Sudan is desperate to lift sanctions linked to its listing by the U.S. as a state sponsor of terror – a key step toward ending its isolation and rebuilding the economy after the popular uprising last year that toppled the country’s autocrat Omar al-Bashir and installed the joint civilian-military sovereign council, headed by Burhan.But Khartoum is also a longtime member of the Arab League and joined other members in rejecting Trump’s plan at a meeting in Cairo on Saturday. The U.S. plan, heavily in favor of Israel, would grant the Palestinians limited self-rule in parts of the occupied West Bank, while allowing Israel to annex all its settlements there and keep nearly all of east Jerusalem.From Uganda, Netanyahu tweeted: “History!” while his office said the meeting with Burhan came at the invitation of Uganda. The statement said Netanyahu believes that Sudan is moving in a new and positive direction" - an apparent reference to a possible removal from the terror list."We agreed to begin cooperation that will lead to normalization of relations between the two countries,'' Netanyahu said.Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni (R) and Uganda's First Lady Janet Museveni (2nd R) pose for photo with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) and his wife Sara Netanyahu (2nd L), at the State House in Entebbe, Uganda on February 3, 2020.U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo welcomed the Burhan-Netanyahu talks in Uganda, and "thanked the Sudanese leader for his leadership in normalizing ties with Israel,'' according to a statement from State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus.In a phone call a day earlier, Pompeo had invited Burhan to visit the U.S. Ortagus said Burhan's visit to Washington would take place later in the year, without providing details.The State Department said Pompeo and Burhan "underscored their shared desire to improve Sudan's active participation in the region and international communities and their commitment to work towards a stronger, healthier U.S.-Sudan bilateral relationship.''On social media, critics in Sudan denounced the meeting, accusing Burhan of trying to get on the Trump administration's good side through Israel. Others applauded the meeting, arguing it was good for Sudan's future."Our interest is above everything and Sudan first," tweeted Mubarak Ardol, former spokesman of a rebel faction of Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North that was part of the pro-democracy movement that led to al-Bashir's ouster.Prominent activist Amjed Farid said Burhan had no mandate from the people of Sudan to offer Netanyahu apromise of that“ which is not his to give.Information Minister Faisal Mohamed Saleh, who also serves as the government spokesman, said the Cabinet learned of the meeting through the media and was not consulted beforehand. “We will wait for clarifications after” Burhan returns home from Uganda, Saleh said.A senior Sudanese military official said the meeting was orchestrated by the United Arab Emirates and aimed at helping remove Sudan’s terror listing, which dates back to the 1990s, when Sudan briefly hosted Osama bin Laden and other wanted militants.The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media, said Burhan agreed to meet Netanyahu because officials thought it would help “accelerate” the process of being removed from the terror list. He said only a “small circle” of top officials in Sudan, as well as Saudi Arabia and Egypt, knew about the meeting.Sudan hosted the Arab League summit after the 1967 war that became famous for establishing the “three no’s”: No to peace with Israel, no to recognition of Israel and no to negotiations with Israel.That consensus broke down when Egypt signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1979, and has further eroded in recent years as Israel has improved ties with Gulf Arab nations that share its concerns about Iran. Only two Arab states, Egypt and Jordan, have made peace with Israel.
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A former South Sudanese soldier turned farmer in Jonglei state says he is earns millions of South Sudanese Pounds each year from his fruit farm, far more than he ever earned serving in the military.Paul Alim Amol, who is 50 years old, retired from the military two years after the signing of the 2005 comprehensive peace agreement, which ended the civil war in Sudan.Amol says that’s when he decided to invest in growing fruit trees despite some widely-held superstitions the people of Jonglei have about fruit farming. “The belief of the people of Bor and the Dinka is that if you plant a fruit tree, when it produces its first fruit, you will die and then the other people will enjoy it when you are dead. That belief scares many people to do fruit farming,” Amol told South Sudan in Focus.Amol says he earns about 2 million South Sudanese pounds, or $15,000 a year from growing sugar cane, mangoes, guava, oranges, and other fruit, which is more than enough to take care of his family’s needs. “I saw work as very important because we just came from the bush, we had nothing to eat, and the salary was not enough. I chose to be a farmer so that I feed my family and supply this town. Up to now the number of mango trees that produce in a year increase yearly. Guava, pawpaw, lemons, oranges increases yearly [too],” Amol told VOA.The former soldier sells his fruits in Bor town’s Marol market as well as in Anyidi, Jalle and Minkaman of Eastern Lakes state. He says if he had continued on as a soldier, he would not have enough money to send his children to school.Most young people in Jonglei choose to work for the government or non-governmental organizations. Amol is trying to encourage young graduates to think about working the land instead.“I am one of the people who came from the war and now 13 years in this work, I am well off. I don’t care about the money from the government. And I am not in hurry like what people say, ‘the salaries are late, the salaries are not [coming] all. That’s because I have what [we need] to eat,” said Amol.Amol is urging the government to improve security in Jonglei state’s remote areas and provide loans to local entrepreneurs which will create jobs.Akuol Chol Mayol says Amol inspired she and her husband Chol Mayol to jump into farming. The 32-year old, who grows fruits and vegetables, says she is able to send her children to the most expensive school in Jonglei.“Farming is very important. For example for myself now, I don’t bother to go and look for UN voucher card, I have my fruits and vegetables in the farm, and also some livestock. All this gives me money to buy what I want for my family and pay school fees for my children. I encourage my sisters to stop being idle. They should get to work in order to liberate themselves from poverty,” Mayol tells South Sudan in Focus.Sudanese national Awed Said, who owns a fruit juice kiosk in Bor, buys his guava, pawpaw, mangos and bananas from Paul Alim. “I produce juices like avocado, pineapple, lemon, orange, and guava; all of them are here. The fruits from nearby farms are always fresher, so I encourage farmers to produce more fruit.  It is a profitable business,” Said tells South Sudan in Focus.With its rich, fertile soil, South Sudan has the potential to grow fruits and vegetables on a massive scale, but only a small percentage of the country’s land is cultivated. Out of an estimated 11 million people in South Sudan, only over 1 million households are involved in agriculture according to the World Food Program.South Sudan imports most of its basic foodstuffs from other countries. Tomatoes, onions, maize flour, cooking oil, dairy products and beans are typically imported from neighboring countries like Uganda and Kenya.Farmers like Amol and Mayol says they hope that changes over the coming years.
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The United States is restricting passenger flights that include people who have recently traveled from China. Beginning late Sunday, the Department of Homeland Security said it will direct the arrival of U.S. citizens who have been in China within 14 days of their return to one of 11 designated airports to undergo enhanced screening. Meanwhile, the number of U.S. cases to has risen to at least 11.  VOA correspondent Mariama Diallo reports.
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U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday evening is to make his annual State of the Union speech, accepting an invitation from the House of Representatives that recently impeached him. Senators are scheduled to vote Wednesday on whether to convict Trump and remove him from office. It is virtually certain they will acquit him on the charges of abuse of power and obstruction of justice, because his Republican Party holds a majority in the Senate, where a two-thirds vote would be needed for conviction and removal.    “It’s unprecedented in our nation’s history to have a State of the Union address from an impeached president running for re-election,” noted University of Akron political science professor David Cohen. “These events read like political thriller fiction, except they’re actually happening.” ComebackThe theme of Trump’s third State of the Union speech will be “The Great American Comeback.”  “I think he’s going to give a positive, forward-looking vision,” said a senior administration official, adding that Trump “will encourage Congress to work with him to continue to build an inclusive economy where the least well-off are making some of the fastest gains and where people of every background are finding new opportunities.” Sorry, but your player cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
House impeachment manager Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., speaks during closing arguments in the impeachment trial against President Donald Trump in the Senate at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Feb. 3, 2020, in this image from video.It is not known whether Trump will directly address his impeachment. “It’s never safe to assume anything, so I’m not previewing what the president is going to say about that today,” responded a senior administration official when asked about that.  “Clearly there’s a lot going on, but I’m not going to preview — I’m not going to get ahead of what the president will say.” Trump’s address, however, is to focus on domestic issues and he is not expected to make any remarks that will be “Earth-shattering or new with respect to foreign policy,” according to a senior administration official.   As is usual for such a high-profile address, “basically the whole government works on this speech because you engage in a process that touches upon every department,” said a senior administration official, noting that several officials had been tasked with crafting the address but “it begins and ends with the president.” President’s guestsOne of Trump’s two official guests for his address, according to the White House, will be a former U.S. Army veteran of the war in Afghanistan, Tony Rankins of Cincinnati, who suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and became addicted to drugs, which led to several prison sentences and living out of his car. “A company called Our Investments helped train Tony in carpentry, painting, brick work and other construction trades,” noted a senior U.S. official. ”And his new job has helped him overcome drug addiction and reunite with his family.” Trump’s second guest will be U.S. Border Patrol Deputy Chief Raul Ortiz, “who has helped protect America’s homeland security for nearly three decades,” according to the White House. 
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Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says Iran is ready to “return to its commitments” under the 2015 nuclear deal when other parties uphold their commitments.Rouhani’s office issued a statement Monday after his talks in Tehran with the new European Union foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell.Iran’s official news agency quotes Rouhani as saying that Iran will continue cooperating with international nuclear inspectors “unless we face a new situation.”IRNA did not elaborate on what kind of situation Rouhani was talking about.Iran has been backing away from the nuclear deal since U.S. President Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out in 2018 and imposed sanctions.Britain, France, and Germany are working to keep the agreement alive.Borrell’s trip to Tehran is part of what is called the dispute settlement mechanism under which Iran would enter negotiations to keep the deal alive and avoid taking matter to the U.N. Security Council, where the  agreement could end.Under the 2015 deal also signed by China and Russia, Iran would curb its uranium enrichment in exchange for relief from sanctions that have wrecked its economy.After the U.S. killed top Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani in January, Iran announced it is no longer bound by the limits on enrichment spelled out in the agreement.
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An inventor in Kenya is changing lives.  He builds battery-powered wheelchairs designed to roll through rough terrain, and he does it with recycled parts.  VOA’s Arash Arabasadi takes us for a ride.
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Police in Kenya say 13 children died at a stampede at a primary school in the town of Kakamega.They say more than 20 others were injured in the stampede after students at the Kakamega Primary School were let out Monday to go home.It is not clear why the stampede began. The town’s Police Chief David Kabena said, “We have launched an investigation to establish what exactly happened.”Kabena said the injured students have been taken to a local hospital.Kenya’s Daily Nation newspaper reported that the stampede took place on the staircase of the three-story building as the children were leaving the school.Red Cross staff in Kenya said they were responding to the incident.
 
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One of China’s top Africa diplomats — the ambassador to South Africa — says there is no need for Africans to panic over the coronavirus.No confirmed cases of the pneumonia-like virus have yet surfaced on the continent. Ambassador Lin Songtian says China is monitoring all visitors to South Africa, and that in China, officials are treating the thousands of African nationals who may be at risk.  The best thing Africans can do about the spread of coronavirus, says the ambassador, is to remain calm and stay put.The respiratory virus has now affected more than 14,500 people across 23 countries, according to the World Health Organization. Most cases — and most of the more than 300 deaths — occurred in China, where the virus originated last year.As fears spread globally, the ambassador sought to soothe frayed nerves in South Africa’s capital.”We have no choice but to work together to win the battle against this virus and bring them under our control,” Lin said Monday. “And that is our suggestion, we hope. American friends, European union, all the developed countries — you can feel ensured and relaxed. China is safe. We have shown, the capacity and the resources are strong enough to bring this disease, the coronavirus, under control as soon as possible.”More than 3,000 South African nationals reside in China, and he advised them — and others — to remain in place. Several countries, including Australia, Britain, Japan and the United States, have repatriated their citizens, which Chinese officials say may only spread the infection.Health officials say the virus can be spread from close contact with infected people.”All the foreigners, including the American people who are in China, they are the friend of China, they are the guest of China, they are our people, our friend,” he said. “So I would like to advise them: Trust China. Give the hand to us. Give us confidence and strength and solidarity. Stay well, in the community, in the village, at home, at the university, you are safe. In case something happens, the system is working.”Lin also noted that all newly arrived visitors from China are being monitored and screened by Chinese authorities, though he did not say how many people that involved. He noted that the embassy is advising all travelers from China to remain home for their first week, and to monitor their health and keep in contact with the embassy.Additionally, South Africa’s government has implemented temperature testing and health screening at the continent’s busiest airport. The nation’s health minister has assured the population that the government has contingency plans in place, including designated treatment facilities and a 24-hour hotline. 
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A United Nations medical relief flight evacuated patients from Yemen’s rebel-held capital Sana’a for the first time in over three years.
A Saudi-led military coalition controls Yemen’s airspace and has prevented any flights from leaving Sana’a since August 2016.
Eight patients and their families were flown to Egypt and Jordan to receive “life-saving specialized care not available in Yemen,” according to the World Health Organization. Most were women and children with cancer and kidney failure.“This is the first of what we hope will be a number of flights in the medical air bridge,” U.N. Resident Coordinator for Yemen Lise Grande said.Yemenis board a United Nation plane at Sana’a International airport, Yemen, Feb. 3, 2020. The United Nations medical relief flight carrying patients from Yemen’s rebel-held capital was the first in over three years.The WHO said the medical air-bridge operation is expected to continue with another three flights this week carrying a total of 30 patients. The evacuation program took months to negotiate.
Yemen’s capital has been controlled by the Iran-backed Houthi rebel group since 2014. A coalition of Gulf Arab countries, led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, began a military campaign the following year in support of Yemen’s internationally-recognized government.
The coalition controls Yemen’s airspace and in November 2019 said patients needing medical would be allowed to fly out of Sana’a. The move was among the confidence-building measures aimed at ending the five-year war that has killed thousands of people and displaced millions in what the U.N. has termed the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
The Houthis criticized the U.N. for the small number of patients airlifted out of Sana’a saying as many as 32,000 patients with serious conditions were waiting for medical evacuations. Patients awaiting evacuation have advanced cancer and brain tumors, or need organ transplants and reconstructive surgeries, the WHO said.  
The Norwegian Refugee Council representative in Yemen, Mohammed Abdi, said in a statement Monday that the resumption of the humanitarian airlift “comes too late for thousands of Yemenis who died waiting to leave the country for urgent life-saving care… Many more are still waiting to get the healthcare they need.”
An estimated 94,000 people have been killed in Yemen’s conflict, according to data from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Project published last year.
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is holding talks with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in Kyiv to stimulate commerce between their countries.Erdogan and Zelenskiy will discuss how to “enhance strategic partnership and cooperation in all areas of interaction,” and attend a Ukraine-Turkey business forum, Zelenskiy’s office said.Zelenskiy, a former comedian, was swept to a landslide victory in an April presidential election on promises to root out entrenched corruption and improve Ukraine’s struggling economy.He has also set out to end a years-long conflict with Moscow-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine that has claimed more than 13,000 lives since April 2014.Erdogan, who has been strengthening ties with Russia in recent years, has adamantly opposed Russia’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region, particularly speaking up for the rights of the Crimean Tatars, an ethnic Turkic minority.Ukraine’s Orthodox Church split from Russia last year, with Istanbul-based Patriarch Bartholomew I signing the decree. 
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Saudi Arabia’s top diplomat says his country does not want U.S. troops to leave Iraq, even as Washington bolsters its military presence in the Saudi kingdom. Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan al-Saud warned that any pullout of American forces from neighboring Iraq could make the region less safe.
The United States has roughly 5,000 troops stationed in Iraq which support and advise Iraqi forces in the ongoing fight against Islamic State militants, also known as IS, mainly in the country’s north.FILE – U.S. Soldiers stand near the site of Iranian bombing at Ain al-Asad air base in Anbar, Iraq, Jan. 13, 2020.Iraq resumed joint military operations last week with the U.S.-led coalition to fight Islamic State after a nearly three-week pause that followed heightened tensions with Baghdad over Washington’s targeted killing of a top Iranian general, Qassem Soleimani, on Iraqi soil in January. The Iraqi military, however, also hinted that Baghdad’s relationship with Washington would change after Iraq’s parliament voted recently to expel the U.S. military.
Washington says it does not intend to pull troops out of Iraq.
 Faisal bin Farhan al-Saud says the United States acted in its “own legitimate self-defense,” when it targeted Soleimani. “The U.S. has proven time and again to be a reliable ally of the [Saudi] Kingdom, and this is also the case with the Trump administration,” he said recently in an interview with CNN.Gulf analyst Cinzia Bianco of the European Council on Foreign Relations says Saudi Arabia’s position is consistent with its views following the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
“From the Saudi point of view, the U.S. is at the center of managing these waves of instability that in part originated from their own invasion of Iraq,” she said. “When the region suffers strong waves of instability, the U.S. should be there to deal with them.”FILE – Defense Secretary Mark Esper talks with U.S. troops in front of an F-22 fighter jet deployed to Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia, Oct. 22, 2019.Bianco and other analysts say U.S. troops are also viewed as a deterrent to Iran’s growing footprint in the region and the instability it has caused. Washington has strengthened America’s military presence in the Gulf, especially with more troops added to Saudi Arabia’s Prince Sultan Air Base amid rising tensions with Iran.”Especially at a time of heightened tensions between the U.S. and Iran, if the U.S. would have to withdraw its troops from Iraq, then on the target list of Iran are U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia or other targets in the kingdom itself,” said Bianco.Analysts say Saudi Arabia wants to avoid a direct confrontation with Iran, its powerful regional rival; however, the Trump administration did not step in militarily to defend Saudi interests after what is believed to have been Iran’s drone and missile attack on Saudi oil sites last September. Since then, the U.S. has placed four Patriot batteries in Saudi Arabia, and recently set up Patriot batteries to protect against missiles fired by Iran and Iranian-backed militias in Syria and Iraq. 
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The director-general of the World Health Organization is urging countries not to close their borders to foreigners traveling from China, in response to the coronavirus epidemic in that country. More than 17,000 cases, including 361 deaths have been confirmed in China.The WHO chief made his appeal at the opening of the agency’s Executive Board, which meets annually to set WHO health policy.The United States, Australia, Singapore and a growing number of other countries are denying entry to foreigners traveling from China in an effort to limit the spread of the deadly coronavirus.WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says 151 cases of the disease and one death have been confirmed in 23 countries outside China. He says this small number of cases can be managed without countries resorting to extreme measures.”There is no reason for measures that unnecessarily interfere with international travel and trade. We call on all countries to implement decisions that are evidence-based and consistent. WHO stands ready to provide advice to any country that is considering which measures to take,” Tedros said.Last week, WHO declared the coronavirus a Public Health Emergency of International Concern and issued several recommendations to prevent and limit the further spread of the virus.Tedros said the disease was mainly declared a global health threat out of concern that countries with weaker health systems would have difficulty in containing the virus, which can spread from person to person.As such, he said one of the recommendations is for international support to countries with fragile health systems. He said other recommendations include efforts to accelerate the development of vaccines and medicines, as well as measures to combat the spread of rumors and misinformation.”Review preparedness plans, identify gaps and evaluate the resources needed to identify, isolate and care for cases, and prevent transmission…Both the coronavirus…preparedness, not panic.”Tedros said only solidarity and cooperation among all countries will defeat the coronavirus outbreak. He said everyone is in this together and the only way to stop the virus from spreading is by working together. 
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Торги на китайських біржах після завершення новорічних канікул розпочалися з рекордного падіння, показавши найгірший результат майже за 13 років, повідомляє видання Financial Times. Уранці 3 лютого індекс CSI, який враховує активи, що торгуються на біржах Шанхая і Шеньчженя, знижувався більш як на 9%.

Індекс Shanghai Composite втратив понад 8%, це стало найгіршим падінням за день від 2015 року. Інвестори стурбовані епідемією коронавірусу нового типу, на який захворіли вже понад 17 тисяч людей по всьому світу.

За даними на ранок 3 лютого, в Китаї від нового спалаху вірусної інфекції померла 361 людина, ще один смертельний випадок зафіксований на Філіппінах. Число жертв хвороби перевищило число загиблих від спалаху атипової пневмонії в 2002–2003 роках. Вона також викликалася коронавірусом, схожим на той, що спричинив захворювання в цьому році.
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