A man with a knife-like weapon killed one person and wounded at least nine others Tuesday at a shopping center in central Finland, police said. The attacker has also been wounded and is in custody.
Police said they were forced to use a gun to stop the violence at the Hermanni shopping center, which has been evacuated in the town of Kuopio. But police didn’t confirm that they shot the suspect, and they didn’t immediately provide further details.
The conditions of the wounded, including the attacker, weren’t immediately available and police haven’t provided a possible motive.
Prime Minister Antti Rinne tweeted that the violence was “shocking and totally condemnable.”
Finnish newspaper Ilta-Sanomat reported that the shopping center houses a vocational school which the attacker allegedly tried to enter. Finnish media also reported that the man used a type of sword.
Bernie Sanders said, “I hate asking people for money” — and then asked for money. Joe Biden’s campaign warned that President Donald Trump would “feel like he won” if a fundraising goal wasn’t reached. And Beto O’Rourke offered to “try to text you” in exchange for $5.
In the days and hours before Monday’s third-quarter fundraising deadline, Democratic White House hopefuls were pleading for campaign cash, making appeals on social media and collectively blasting out more than 80 emails asking supporters to “chip in” $5, $10 or $50.
With the Iowa caucuses approaching in February, there’s a growing sense of urgency as the primary becomes a fierce battle for a limited pool of cash that could make the difference between staying in the race and heading for the exits. Those who continue to muddle along in the lower tier will not only face challenges paying for advertising to amplify their message, but they are also likely to struggle reaching fundraising thresholds set by the Democratic National Committee to qualify for future debates.
FILE – Democratic U.S. presidential candidates before the start at the 2020 Democratic U.S. presidential debate in Houston, Sept. 12, 2019.
Top-tier candidates like Sanders, a Vermont senator, former Vice President Biden and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts are anticipated to be among the leaders in the field. But others are facing pressure to post competitive numbers or get out, something that might not happen soon enough for some angsty Democrats.
“If you are being outraised 3-to-1 by Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders or Joe Biden, you have no viable path to victory,” said Rufus Gifford, Barack Obama’s former finance director. “Even if you can compete in the early states … shortly thereafter you will run out of money.”
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Cory Booker waits to speak at the Polk County Democrats Steak Fry, Sept. 21, 2019, in Des Moines, Iowa.
Cory Booker recently warned that unless he juiced his fundraising numbers by an additional $1.7 million he’d likely have to drop out, stating that he didn’t “believe people should stay in this just to stay in it.” But the New Jersey senator announced he surpassed his goal on Monday, raising $2 million after enlisting help from Hillary Clinton and his girlfriend, the actress Rosario Dawson.
Regardless, he will still lag behind the top contenders even if he has an outstanding quarter.
Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, who has also struggled to raise money, announced Monday that he’s applying for public financing, turning to a fund that is replenished by those who volunteer to chip in $3 from their taxes. He hopes it will supplement his campaign with a $2 million fundraising boost.
The third quarter is coming to a close as Trump faces an impeachment inquiry in Congress related to his attempts to get the Ukrainian government to investigate Biden. The development has scrambled politics in Washington but has turned into a fundraising rallying cry for both major political parties.
Trump has turned his outrage over the inquiry into a flood of campaign cash. Trump and the Republican National Committee reported raising $13 million in the three days after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced the probe last week. And Trump’s son Eric tweeted later that the total grew to $15 million.
That’s on top of what’s already expected to be a major haul for the quarter. Trump and the RNC previously reported pulling in more than $210 million since the start of 2019, more than his Democratic rivals combined.
That’s a source of worry for some Democrats concerned it will be hard to catch Trump once a nominee is selected.
“Trump’s presidency is wounded but not mortally wounded, and their operation is as good as it gets,” Gifford said.
Like Trump, some Democrats have treated the impeachment inquiry as a fundraising opportunity. Biden ramped up Facebook ad spending that seized on unfounded allegations made against him and his son Hunter by Trump and his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York.
A recent series of Biden ads asking for donations said Trump was “trying to distract you from what’s really at stake for your family by spreading lies about my family,” and his campaign says they’ve seen a significant uptick in donations.
Sanders, Warren and California Sen. Kamala Harris have also made fundraising appeals based around impeachment.
But in a sign that the primary could be taking a bitter turn, Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who has also struggled to raise money, took aim at her rivals for capitalizing on impeachment.
“Candidates for POTUS who are fundraising off ‘impeachment’ are undermining credibility of inquiry in eyes of American people, further dividing our already fractured country,” she tweeted on Monday. “Please stop. We need responsible, patriotic leaders who put the interests of our country before their own.”
Thelda Williams was already in her 40s when she was first elected to the city council in Phoenix, Arizona, but that didn’t stop people from assuming she wasn’t up to the task. The Arizona Republican believes people underestimated her because she is a woman.
“Staff, in the very, very beginning, really treated me like, ‘Well, you probably don’t understand. This is probably too overwhelming. There are too many subjects,’” she recalls. “And, you know, you prove them wrong.”
Decades later, Williams remains on the city council, having served as interim mayor three times, most recently during a stint that ended in March. One of the arenas in which Williams still believes she isn’t treated equally is when it comes to how the media cover her.
“You know, I just don’t get the same respect. I mean, they talk about everything from what shoes I wear, to what color my hair is, to what my age is,” she says. “You don’t see that with the men. … What really irritates me is when it’s a woman who’s written the article.”
Then-Mayor Thelda Williams (second from left) attends a neighborhood smoke alarm awareness walk, October 2018. (City of Phoenix)
The undermining of women in politics is not new. Stereotypes and double standards continue to exist for female politicians, says Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University in New Jersey.
“And it starts with things as basic and as simple as being scrutinized for their physical appearance, what they wear, how their hair looks, the way in which they speak,” Walsh says.
“During the 2016 presidential election, we heard comments that Hillary Clinton didn’t smile enough. We never heard that about Bernie Sanders, and heaven knows he is not somebody who grins. He’s pretty grumpy, and so is, for that matter, Donald Trump.”
Women are also criticized for being shrill when they speak forcefully. Media focus on details not related to the issues can hurt women electorally.
“If the media is not focusing on the content of what women are talking about, but much more on their presentation, their style, their appearance, it diminishes them as serious candidates,” Walsh says.
“And this becomes even more of a challenge for women who are running for office, because women are not assumed — in the same way that men are assumed to be — qualified and capable and able to hold these offices. So, they have to prove themselves in ways that male candidates do not.”
A record number of women are running for president in 2020, and how the press covers them could impact their political fortunes.
In Massachusetts in March, Northeastern University’s School of Journalism examined almost 1,400 articles about the 2020 presidential election and found that the female candidates were consistently described more negatively than their male counterparts.
The female candidate with the fewest positive words written about her, Kirsten Gillibrand, has already quit the race.
Click on graphic to enlarge (Source: Northeastern University School of Journalism)
Walsh says female candidates have to navigate the presidential debates differently than men because a man who interrupts or asserts himself is not written up in quite the same way as a woman who does the same thing.
She’s also concerned about the recurring question of electability.
“There is this assumption that somehow after 2016, the Democrats need to ‘play it safe’ right now and not take a risk on a woman candidate, that they have to win,” she says. “I assume ‘traditional’ is white and male and probably over 60 years old.”
Williams isn’t holding out hope that media coverage will one day focus solely on the issues and not her appearance, delivery style or age.
“I mean, it doesn’t seem like they’re ever going to change,” she says. “I think they expect me to behave nicer, be a little gentler. The men can get away with saying just about anything — it can be swear words — whereas a woman, you can’t. We’re expected, I think, ‘You have to behave.’”
In her experience, there are very specific losses for society when women are not at the decision-making table.
“I think right off the bat, compassion. And not only for people — kids, seniors, families, animals. I think that’s all missing if it’s just left up to men,” Williams says. “Morals would be so much different if there were no women politicians. I think they bring much more detail and depth to almost every subject.”
In this photo taken Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2017, Erin Schrode poses at her home in Mill Valley, California.
Activist Erin Schrode, who ultimately lost her 2016 congressional bid in her California district, faced an onslaught of misogynistic attacks and physical threats from nontraditional media. The online campaign against her was orchestrated by a popular neo-Nazi website.
“Insinuating that I had, or would, perform sexual acts to advance my standing in the political world,” she says, recalling the online attacks against her. “That I wouldn’t have my job if I weren’t pretty. And on the flip side, that I was too hideous to even merit a vote.”
Despite the harassment she endured, Schrode agrees with Williams that more women are needed in public office and hasn’t ruled out a future run for herself.
“We need that perspective, that judgment, that level headedness, that experience the same way that we need all voices represented in Congress,” she says.
“Women are communicators. Women are fighters. Women are mothers. Women are forces to be reckoned with. And our place is wherever we want it to be, and that most certainly includes the halls of Congress.”
U.S. President Donald Trump is continuing to unleash attacks on Democrats who have initiated an impeachment inquiry of him over a whistleblower complaint.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., talks to reporters about a transcript of a call between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Voldymyr Zelenskiy, at the Capitol in Washington, Sept. 25, 2019.
In a series of Twitter posts Monday, Trump lashed out at his accusers and focused much of his ire at House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff who last week parodied the president’s remarks of a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
“Rep. Adam Schiff illegally made up a FAKE & terrible statement, pretended it to be mine as the most important part of my call to the Ukrainian President, and read it aloud to Congress and the American people. It bore NO relationship to what I said on the call. Arrest for Treason?” Trump wrote in a post on Twitter.
Rep. Adam Schiff illegally made up a FAKE & terrible statement, pretended it to be mine as the most important part of my call to the Ukrainian President, and read it aloud to Congress and the American people. It bore NO relationship to what I said on the call. Arrest for Treason?
Trump also tweeted comments made by a conservative pastor that warned of the dangers of “civil war” if the president was impeached.
….If the Democrats are successful in removing the President from office (which they will never be), it will cause a Civil War like fracture in this Nation from which our Country will never heal.” Pastor Robert Jeffress, @FoxNews
The whistleblower alleges that Trump sought Zelenskiy’s help in digging up incriminating information about former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter that would hurt Biden’s prospects of winning the Democratic presidential nomination and challenging Trump in the 2020 U.S. election. The White House last week released a rough transcript of the call.
While not present during Trump’s call to Zelenskiy, the whistleblower says that several officials “with direct knowledge of the call” provided a consistent account of what transpired, substantiating its authenticity.
Lawyers representing the whistleblower are stressing the need to protect the person’s identity, while the president has said he deserves to “meet my accuser.”
The legal team led by Andrew Bakaj issued a statement Sunday saying lawyers are continuing to work with Democrats and Republicans in Congress to finalize the logistics of having the whistleblower meet with lawmakers, but that no date has been set.
Another lawyer, Mark Zaid, denied a report that the whistleblower was under federal protection due to safety concerns.
The legal group published a copy of a letter it sent to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence saying their concerns for the whistleblower’s personal safety have increased during the past week, and that they “expect this situation to worsen.” They cited as evidence a statement from the president. The lawyers also said they were aware that people were offering substantial sums of money for information about the whistleblower’s identity.
“I want to know who’s the person who gave the Whistleblower, who’s the person that gave the Whistleblower the information, because that’s close to a spy. You know what what we used to do in the old days when we were smart? Right? With spies and treason, right? We used to handle them a little differently than we do now,” Trump said Thursday.
In a separate letter to the top Democrats and Republicans on the Senate and House intelligence committees, the whistleblower’s lawyers called for lawmakers to “speak out in favor of whistleblower protection and reiterate that this is a protected system where retaliation is not permitted, whether direct or implied.”
Trump has been repeatedly posting on Twitter, reiterating his defense of the July phone call with Ukraine’s president that is at the center of the whistleblower complaint.
“Like every American, I deserve to meet my accuser, especially when this accuser, the so-called “Whistleblower,” represented a perfect conversation with a foreign leader in a totally inaccurate and fraudulent way,” Trump said on Sunday. “In addition, I want to meet not only my accuser, who presented SECOND & THIRD HAND INFORMATION, but also the person who illegally gave this information, which was largely incorrect, to the “Whistleblower.” What this person SPYING on the U.S. President? Big Consequences!”
According to a copy of the whistleblower complaint released last week, the person said they “received information from multiple U.S. Government officials that the President of the United States is using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 U.S. election.”
The strikes were carried out in coordination with the Libyan Government of National Accord to degrade IS’s “ability to effectively conduct operations against the Libyan people,” said Army Maj. Gen. William Gayler, AFRICOM director of operations.
U.S. officials say the deteriorating security situation in Libya has allowed militants affiliated with IS to expand their presence in ungoverned spaces of the desert in the country’s south.
Troops affiliated with the Government of National Accord have been fighting forces led by strongman Khalifa Haftar, commander of the self-styled Libyan National Army. The fighting has left hundreds of people dead in Tripoli and in nearby cities and towns.
In recent months, IS has claimed responsibility for several deadly attacks against Libyan civilians and military personnel.
But as IS has become more emboldened by the current political chaos in Libya, U.S. officials tell VOA they have also made themselves an easier target.
Some reports say that between 500 and 750 IS fighters are currently active in Libya, but experts think the number is higher than what has been reported as foreign fighters continue to flee there from Syria.
A regional Chinese diplomat has rebuked the United States for being “ignorant” about his country’s ongoing key economic contributions and cooperation with Afghanistan.
Arrangements are being worked out to enhance the cooperation with Kabul even under Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Yao Jing, the Chinese ambassador to neighboring Pakistan told VOA.
He hailed Saturday’s successful Afghan presidential election, saying China hopes they will boost peace-building efforts in a country wrecked by years of conflicts.
“We hope that with the election in Afghanistan, with the peace development moving forward in Afghanistan, Afghans will finally achieve a peaceful period, achieve the stability,” said the Chinese diplomat, who served in Kabul prior to his posting in Islamabad.
Earlier this month, U.S. officials and lawmakers during a congressional hearing in Washington sharply criticized China for its lack of economic assistance to Afghan rebuilding efforts.
“I think it’s fair to say that China has not contributed to the economic development of Afghanistan. We have not seen any substantial assistance from China,” Alice Wells, U.S. Acting Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asia, told lawmakers.
Wells, however, acknowledged that Beijing has worked with Washington on a way forward on peace as have other countries, including Russia and immediate neighbors of Afghanistan.
“She is a little ignorant about what China’s cooperation with Afghanistan is,” ambassador Yao said when asked to comment on the remarks made by Wells.
He recounted that Beijing late last year established a trade corridor with Kabul, which Afghan officials say have enabled local traders to directly export thousands of tons of pine nuts to the Chinese market annually, bringing much-needed dollars. Yao said a cargo train was also started in 2016 from eastern China to Afghanistan’s landlocked northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif.
China is also working on infrastructure projects, including the road linking Kabul to the eastern city of Jalalabad and the road between the central Afghan city of Bamiyan and Mazar-e-Sharif. Chinese companies, Yao, said are also helping in establishing transmission lines and other infrastructure being developed under the CASA-1000 electricity transmission project linking Central Asia to energy-starved South Asia nations through Afghanistan.
Ambassador Yao noted that China and Afghanistan signed a memorandum of understanding on BRI cooperation, identifying several major projects of connectivity.
“But the only problem is that the security situation pose a little challenge. So, that is why China and Pakistan and all the regional countries, we are working so hard trying to support or facilitate peace in Afghanistan,” he said.
For her part, Ambassador Wells told U.S. lawmakers that China’s BRI is a “slogan” and “not any reality” in Afghanistan. “They have just tried to lockdown lucrative mining contracts but not following through with investment or real resources,” she noted.
Wells said that Washington continues to warn its partners, including the Afghan government about “falling prey to predatory loans or loans that are designed to benefit only the Chinese State.”
U.S. officials are generally critical of BRI for “known problems with corruption, debt distress, environmental damage, and a lack of transparency.” The projects aims to link China by sea and land through an infrastructure network with southeast and central Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Africa.
But Yao rejected those concerns and cited the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a pilot project of BRI, which has brought around $20 billion in Chinese investment to Pakistan within the past six years. It has helped Islamabad build roads and power plants, helping the country overcome its crippling electricity shortages, improve its transportation network and operationalize the strategic deep-sea Gwadar port on the Arabian Sea.
Clashes between two Turkish-backed rebel groups in the northwestern Syrian town of Afrin have left at least two fighters dead and about a dozen wounded, according to reports Sunday.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor group that has researchers across Syria, reported that fierce fighting between the al-Majd Legion and al-Sham Legion in Afrin erupted Saturday night following a disagreement over property.
“Our sources have confirmed that the infighting erupted after a dispute over the ownership of a house just outside of Afrin,” Rami Abdulrahman, director of the Syrian Observatory, told VOA.
Local news said the disputed house belonged to a Kurdish civilian that armed groups reportedly had seized months ago.
Frequent clashes
Armed confrontations among Syrian rebel factions have reportedly increased since Turkish military and allied Syrian rebels took control of Afrin after a two-month-long military campaign that ousted the Kurdish People Protection Units (YPG) from the region in March 2018, rights groups said.
“This is not the first time that such clashes take place over property and revenue-sharing among rebel groups,” the Syrian Observatory added.
Infighting among rebel groups has become a common issue in the region.
“There is almost one occurrence like this one on a daily basis,” said Mohammed Billo, a journalist from Afrin.
“Usually when fighting gets out of control, Turkish military interferes to stop it,” he told VOA.
Some rights groups have also voiced concerns about growing violations against civilians in recent months in Afrin.
FILE – Kurdish fighters from the People’s Protection Units (YPG) run across a street in Raqqa, Syria, July 3, 2017.
“Local sources in Afrin reported at least 110 abuses that appear to amount to instances of arbitrary detention, torture and abductions of civilians by pro-Turkey armed groups,” Amnesty International said in a report released in May.
YPG attacks
Since their ouster from Afrin in March 2018, Kurdish fighters affiliated with the YPG have occasionally carried out attacks against Turkish military and Syrian rebel forces in the Kurdish-majority region.
Last week, YPG fighters claimed responsibility for an attack on a Turkish military outpost in Afrin that killed two Turkish soldiers and wounded another.
Ankara views the YPG as part of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been engaged in a three-decade war with Turkish armed forces for greater Kurdish rights in Turkey. The PKK is considered a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.
Turkey has repeatedly threatened to invade other YPG-held areas in northern Syria, despite a recent agreement with the United States to establish a safe zone along Syria’s border with Turkey.
The two countries have begun joint patrols along parts of the border, but Turkish officials continue their objection over Washington’s support for the YPG, which has been a key U.S. ally in the fight against the Islamic State terror group in Syria.
About 350,000 treasure hunters from all over the world, have been scouting out a large area in the Rocky Mountains stretching from Northern New Mexico to Montana, looking for a hidden treasure. As the story goes, all one needs to do to find the loot, is to decipher the nine clues in a poem written by wealthy art collector and entrepreneur Forrest Fenn, who says he collected and hid the treasure years ago. Its lore became wildly popular after he had written a book called “The Thrill of the Chase,” talking about his life and the treasure. While many believe the treasure is real, others think it’s a hoax. VOA’s Penelope Poulou visited the area and spoke with Fenn about the meaning of it all
Riot police have thrown tear gas and cordoned off part of a street at Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay shopping belt after a large crowd started to amass for an anti-China rally ahead of Tuesday’s National Day celebrations.
Protesters chanted slogans and heckled police as they were pushed back behind a police line. The atmosphere is tense as police warned the crowd they were taking part in an illegal assembly. Officers fired tear gas canisters after some protesters threw bottles and other objects in their direction.
Police earlier searched some protesters and several people were detained. The crowd has swelled to more than 1,000 people, with many spilling into adjacent streets.
Riot police officers detain anti-government protesters in Wan Chai district, Hong Kong, Sept. 29, 2019.
Supporters of Beijing rally
Earlier, hundreds of pro-Beijing supporters in Hong Kong on Sunday sang the Chinese national anthem and waved red flags ahead of China’s National Day to counter pro-democracy protests that have challenged Beijing’s rule.
The show of support for Beijing came after another day of violence in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory that sparked fears of more ugly scenes that could embarrass Chinese President Xi Jinping as his ruling Communist Party marks its 70th year in power Tuesday. Pro-democracy advocates have called for a major rally to coincide with the celebrations in Beijing.
Police on Saturday fired tear gas and water cannons after protesters threw bricks and firebombs at government buildings following a massive rally in downtown Hong Kong. The clashes were part of a familiar cycle since protests began in June over a now-shelved extradition bill and have since snowballed into an anti-China movement with demands for democratic reforms.
A China supporter waves Chinese national flag at the Peak in Hong Kong, Sept. 29, 2019. Hundreds of pro-Beijing supporters sang Chinese national anthem and waved red flags ahead of China’s National Day, in a counter to monthslong protests.
Protesters are planning to march Tuesday despite a police ban. Many said they will wear mourning black in a direct challenge to the authority of the Communist Party, with posters calling for Oct. 1 to be marked as “A Day of Grief.”
Later Sunday, protesters also plan to gather for an “anti-totalitarianism” rally against what they denounced as “Chinese tyranny.” Similar events are being organized in more than 60 cities worldwide including in the U.S., U.K., Australia and Taiwan.
Hong Kong’s government has scaled down National Day celebrations in the city, canceling an annual firework display and moving a reception indoors.
Despite security concerns, the government said Sunday that Chief Executive Carrie Lam will lead a delegation of more than 240 people to Beijing Monday to participate in the festivities. She will be represented by Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung in her absence and return to the city Tuesday evening.
Lam held her first community dialogue with the public Thursday in a bid to diffuse tensions but failed to persuade protesters, who vowed to press on until their demands including direct elections for the city’s leader and police accountability are met.
A police officer tries to keep the pro-China crowd in order at the Peak in Hong Kong, Sept. 29, 2019.
Several hundred people, many wearing red and carrying Chinese flags and posters, gathered at a waterfront cultural center in the city Sunday and chanted “I am a citizen of China.” They sang the national anthem and happy birthday to China. They were later bused to the Victoria Peak hilltop for the same repertoire.
Organizer Innes Tang said the crowd, all Hong Kong citizens, responded to his invitation on social media to “promote positivity and patriotism.” He said they wanted to rally behind Chinese sovereignty and urged protesters to replace violence with dialogue.
“We want to take this time for the people to express our love for our country China. We want to show the international community that there is another voice to Hong Kong” apart from the protests, he said.
Mobs of pro-Beijing supporters have appeared in malls and on the streets in recent weeks to counter pro-democracy protesters, leading to brawls between the rival camps.
Losing freedoms
Many people view the extradition bill, that would have sent criminal suspects to mainland China for trial, as a glaring example of the erosion of Hong Kong’s autonomy under the “one country, two systems” policy when the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
China has denied chipping away at Hong Kong’s freedom and accused the U.S. and other foreign powers of fomenting the unrest to weaken its dominance.
Austrians began voting Sunday in snap elections, in which the conservatives look set to triumph but face difficulties finding a partner to govern after a corruption scandal brought down their last coalition with the far-right.
The People’s Party (OeVP) led by 33-year-old Sebastian Kurz is predicted to win around 33 percent, up slightly from the last elections two years ago but not enough to form a majority government.
Kurz has “nothing to win, but a lot to lose,” Die Presse daily warned in an editorial Saturday. “Even with a nice plus on Sunday, it is more difficult for him than in 2017,” it said, adding there was no partner that quite suited any more.
With 6.4 million people eligible to vote, polling stations across the country opened at 7 a.m. local time (0500 GMT). They will close by 5 p.m. (1500 GMT) when first projections are expected.
Far-right troubles
The parliamentary elections were brought about by the “Ibiza-gate” corruption scandal that engulfed Kurz’s far-right coalition partner in May, after 18 months in government together.
Experts have predicted “whizz-kid” Kurz could once again partner up with the Freedom Party (FPOe) in a re-run of the coalition that has been touted by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and other nationalists as a model for all of Europe.
But fresh allegations of wrongdoing have shaken the far-right over the past week.
Prosecutors confirmed Thursday they were investigating Heinz-Christian Strache, who resigned as FPOe leader and vice-chancellor in May because of “Ibiza-gate,” over fraudulent party expense claims.
The FPOe’s current leader, Norbert Hofer, has said he won’t tread gently if any wrongdoing is confirmed, leading to worries that supporters of Strache, who led the party for 14 years and remains influential, could stay away from the polls in protest.
Kurz himself has also warned that left-leaning parties could gain more than predicted and then band together to form a coalition without him.
“If there is just a little shift… then there will be a majority against us,” Kurz told supporters at a final rally in Vienna on Saturday.
Climate matters
Unlike in 2017, the top voter concern is not immigration but the climate.
Tens of thousands of people marched Friday in Vienna and other Austrian cities to demand the government fight climate change.
The protests were part of global demonstrations led by Swedish activist Greta Thunberg and the biggest yet in the Alpine country of 8.8 million.
Against this backdrop, Austria’s Greens, who failed to get into parliament in 2017 in shock results, look set to make the biggest inroads Sunday.
They are tipped to garner 13%, up 10 percentage points from two years ago.
It remains to be seen if Kurz, a former law student who has enjoyed a rapid ascent through the ranks in Austrian politics, tries to woo them and another small party, the liberal NEOs, to form a partnership.
Prominent concerns
Unsurprisingly given the reason the election was called, corruption in public life and party financing have also been prominent themes in the campaign, as well as more bread-and-butter issues like social care.
Another option for Kurz could be to form a coalition with the Social Democrats (SPOe).
With a predicted historic low of around 22%, the SPOe was neck and neck with the FPOe before the troubles this week as the country’s second strongest party.
Since World War II, either OeVP or SPOe have always governed, and for 44 years in total the two ruled together, but it was Kurz who ended their last partnership, leading to the 2017 polls.
He has also floated the idea of ruling in a minority government. But this would potentially continue political uncertainty and could even trigger another election.
Either way, negotiations between parties are expected to take months again. Ultimately, President Alexander Van der Bellen, a former Greens leader, will need to approve any government.
The United Nations reports human rights violations in both government and separatist-controlled areas of eastern Ukraine continue with impunity. The report, which was examined by the U.N. human rights council this week also documents violations perpetrated by the Russian occupiers of Crimea.
While critical of the overall situation in eastern Ukraine, the report injects a note of optimism that the new government, headed by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy shows promising signs of the country turning a corner.
It notes the Ukrainian government and Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine largely continue to respect a cease-fire and have disengaged forces. In addition, it says the High Anti-Corruption Court of Ukraine has begun operating.
The report urges the newly-appointed prosecutor general and chief military prosecutor to promptly investigate conflict-related and other grave human rights violations on both sides of the contact line, the patch of land that divides the government and separatist-controlled areas in eastern Ukraine.
U.N. Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Kate Gilmore says accountability for past and present human rights violations on both sides of the line have to be addressed. She accused the authorities in the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics of denying U.N. monitors access to their territories and detention facilities despite repeated requests.
“We nevertheless continue to document human rights concerns in those areas; breaches of human rights through such as arbitrary and incommunicado arrests and the absence of space for people to exercise fundamental freedoms, symptoms of the persistent climate of fear that prevails in those parts of Ukraine’s territory,” she said.
Gilmore also condemned violations perpetrated by the Russian Federation as the occupying power in the Crimean Peninsula, which it annexed in March 2014. Abuses documented in the report include deportations of protected persons, forced conscriptions, restrictions on freedom of expression and an increasing number of house searches and raids, mainly against Crimean Tatars.
Ukraine’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergiy Kyslytsya blasted Russia’s occupation of Crimea and blamed Moscow for the suffering of Ukraine’s citizens who are in the sixth year of war that was instigated by Russia.
“Russia, which blatantly disrespects human rights of its own citizens, perpetrates human rights abuses at home and abroad, in essence, commits a moral turpitude amid its desire to infiltrate the body, which has been created to prevent human rights violations and go after perpetrators,” Kyslytsya said.
Russia is running for a seat on the 47-member Human Rights Council. The Ukrainian minister said it would be a travesty of justice to elect Russia to the U.N. body, which is the foremost protector and promoter of human rights.
At least 44 people were killed and thousands moved to relief camps because of flooding caused by torrential rains in northern India’s Uttar Pradesh state, officials told AFP Saturday.
Densely populated regions on the banks of two main rivers in the state, which are overflowing because of incessant rainfall in the last 24-48 hours, are among the worst hit.
“We had confirmed 44 deaths till late yesterday night. The authorities are focusing on rescue and relief work in the affected regions,” Ravindra Pratap Sahi, vice chairman of the state disaster management authority, told AFP.
“We have moved thousands to relief shelters as there is forecast of heavy rains in the next 48 hours in most of the affected districts of the state,” Sahi said.
Officials and local media reports said most people lost their lives for a variety of reasons including wall collapses, drowning, lightning and snake bites.
Flash floods after heavy rains killed at least 17 people in western India’s Maharashtra state earlier this week.
Monsoon rains are crucial to replenishing water supplies in drought-stricken India, but they kill hundreds of people across the country every year.
A surge in brutal attacks by armed groups in northwest Nigeria is sending thousands of refugees fleeing to Niger, the United Nations refugee agency says.
More than 40,000 Nigerians have fled to Niger over the last 10 months, creating a new humanitarian emergency along the two countries’ border, the UNHCR reports. It added that on Sept. 11 alone, more than 2,500 civilians targeted by armed groups in Nigeria fled for their lives.
The agency says it has received frequent reports of kidnappings, torture, extortion, murder, sexual violence, and destruction of houses and property.
UNHCR spokesman Babar Baloch tells VOA the armed groups responsible for the violence are not linked to the Islamic mlitant group Boko Haram.
“[Refugees] tell us, these groups are really well organized and well armed, and they kind of operate at will,” Baloch said. “They go from house to house, villages to villages, killing people, destroying property and then getting away with these horrible acts.”
While the identity of the armed groups is unknown, Baloch says they include bandits and other criminal elements. He says some attackers have taken people hostage, holding them for ransom.
Media reports suggest ethnic conflict between Fulani traditional herders and Hausa farmers plays a role in the violence.
The conflict has caused the deaths of more than 4,000 people since 2011, and Nigerian security experts report the Fulani-Hausa conflict is expected to claim more lives this year than Boko Haram aggression.
Aid is being rushed to the Niger border and emergency staff is responding to the humanitarian needs, Baloch says, adding that the UNHCR is working with local authorities to relocate refugees from the border to safer places inland.
U.S. President Donald Trump took to Twitter again Friday to lash out at the media and the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee as a formal impeachment inquiry moved forward in Congress over allegations Trump solicited Ukraine’s president to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, a potential rival of Trump’s in the 2020 presidential election.
Trump’s main target was Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff of California, who presided over Thursday’s questioning of the acting director of national intelligence about the handling of a whistleblower complaint.
At the center of the complaint is a July 25, 2019, phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in which the whistleblower alleges:
— Trump pressured Zelenskiy to investigate Biden and his son Hunter, who was at one time on the board of a Ukrainian energy company.
— Trump suggested multiple times that Zelenskiy meet with his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, and U.S. Attorney General William Barr about the investigation.
— White House officials secured all records of the phone call in a separate electronic system used to store classified and sensitive information, a move denounced by Democrats as a cover-up.
Normally, such an “urgent” complaint would have been forwarded to congressional intelligence committees within two weeks. But the acting director of national intelligence, Joseph Maguire, missed a Sept. 2 deadline, defying congressional demands for the document and a subpoena for his testimony.
Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire takes his seat before testifying before the House Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Sept. 26, 2019.
Congress finally received the whistleblower complaint on Sept. 25. The next day, Maguire appeared before the House Intelligence Committee in a public hearing. He testified that he took the complaint to White House lawyers, then Justice Department lawyers, who advised it was not urgent enough to send to Congress. Maguire refused to acknowledge whether he spoke to Trump about the whistleblower’s complaint.
Protected by law
Federal law protects government workers from retribution if they report wrongdoing by government officials. Such whistleblowers are granted anonymity for their protection.
Video has surfaced of Trump attacking the whistleblower’s sources. Speaking at a closed-door event at the U.S. Mission to the U.N on Thursday, Trump described the sources as “close to a spy,” suggesting it was an act of treason, punishable by death.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., leads other House Democrats to discuss H.R. 1, the For the People Act, which passed in the House but is being held up in the Senate, at the Capitol in Washington, Sept. 27, 2019.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, said she was concerned about Trump’s remarks, promising that the impeachment committees would ensure there was no retaliation for people who came forward with information. She did not set out a timeline for the impeachment process, although she told MSNBC “it doesn’t have to drag on.”
Trump maintained he had a “perfect conversation” with his Ukrainian counterpart and was just trying to get his government to investigate corruption. The White House released a summary of Trump’s phone call with Zelenskiy, which shows Trump raising the issue of investigating the Bidens. The call took place while U.S. military aid to Ukraine was suspended by Trump.
Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives began the formal process of impeaching U.S. President Donald Trump this week.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced the first step in the impeachment process Tuesday, following reports that a whistleblower filed a complaint alleging Trump sought foreign interference into the 2020 election.
What triggered House Democrats to begin a formal impeachment inquiry?
Investigations into Trump’s administration and his campaign’s actions during the 2016 presidential election were already underway in six House committees at the beginning of this week. Many House Democrats already backed impeachment, but until this week opposition leaders had resisted calls for launching the impeachment inquiry. They believed such an inquiry had no chance of passing the Republican-led Senate and could end up hurting Democrats in the 2020 election.
The new whistleblower report appears to have dramatically shifted the politics of the issue.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi reads a statement announcing a formal impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Sept. 24, 2019.
Several additional House Democrats came forward in support of an impeachment inquiry. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Tuesday the House would embark on the first step of the impeachment process to determine if Trump had committed the “high crimes and misdemeanors” the U.S. Constitution lays out as the standard for removing a president from office.
What do we know about the whistleblower?
The whistleblower remains anonymous under laws protecting government workers who expose wrongdoing. But he or she is a U.S. government employee who had knowledge of Trump’s call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and spoke to other U.S. officials who shared similar concerns over the legality of the president’s actions. Although the whistleblower did not have direct knowledge of the Zelenskiy phone call, an independent investigator for the U.S. government found the allegations were credible.
The New York Times has reported the whistleblower is a CIA employee who has spent some time working in the White House during the Trump administration.
The complaint alleges a number of offenses on the part of Trump and U.S. officials. The most serious of the allegations is that Trump implied congressionally-approved U.S. aid to Ukraine was contingent upon Zelenskiy’s government providing information on the son of 2020 presidential election rival, Joe Biden. The complaint also alleges White House officials were aware of the gravity of Trump’s actions and covered up records of the phone call.
FILE – U.S. President Donald Trump is seen during a phone call at the Oval Office of the White House, in Washington, June 27, 2017.
How was the whistleblower complaint handled by the government?
Democrats are pledging to investigate both the allegations in the complaint as well as how the Trump administration handled it.
Under the whistleblower process, the complaint was summarized in a letter that was addressed to senior lawmakers in the House and Senate committees, which oversee the intelligence community. That August 12 letter was sent to the inspector general at the CIA, which worked to try to substantiate some of the allegations. But instead of sending the letter on to the lawmakers in Congress after two weeks, as required by law, Joseph Maguire, the acting director of national intelligence, instead held it from lawmakers while he consulted with the White House and the Department of Justice about the allegations.
Democratic lawmakers argue Trump administration officials tried to keep the allegations from reaching Congress, violating the procedure for dealing with such issues.
Maguire told members of Congress Thursday he had acted lawfully in initially blocking the release of the complaint due to concerns about executive privilege, a legal right of the U.S. presidency to keep some conversations and documents private.
What do we know about the Trump-Zelenskiy phone call?
The White House released a summary of Trump’s phone call with Zelenskiy Wednesday. In a memo reconstructed from the work of White House note takers, Trump asks Zelenskiy to investigate business dealings of former Vice President Biden and his son, Hunter.
A White House-provided rough transcript of President Donald Trump’s July 25, 2019, telephone conversation with Ukraine’s newly-elected president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, released Sept. 25, 2019.
Trump also reminds the Ukrainian president that “the United States has been very very good to Ukraine.” Trump ordered a freeze on $400 million of congressionally-approved aid to Ukraine just a few days before that phone call. Trump said this week the order was part of an effort to combat corruption.
Congressional Democrats say the memo is clear evidence of the president proposing a so-called “quid pro quo,” an exchange of one favor for another. But the president’s allies on Capitol Hill said the memo completely exonerated him.
What will happen next in the U.S. Congress?
The House committees investigating the president’s actions will begin building a case that could lead to the drafting of articles of impeachment.
Articles are formal charges against the president that are voted on by the entire U.S. House of Representatives.
Impeachment is a two-step process. If the House votes on and passes the articles, the president is considered impeached and the case moves to the U.S. Senate for a process that is similar to a court trial. If a two-thirds super majority of the U.S. Senate votes to convict, the president is removed from office.
Only two U.S. presidents have been impeached by the U.S. House – Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998. The U.S. Senate has never voted to remove a president from office.
How soon can we expect a vote on impeachment?
Pelosi has cautioned that there should be a careful gathering of facts so that lawmakers do not rush to judgement. But many House Democrats want to see the vote on articles of impeachment before the end of the year. The 2020 presidential election gets fully underway with the Iowa caucuses in February. Many Democrats believe it would be politically risky to have an impeachment vote occurring at the same time.
As of Friday, 225 House Democrats and one independent member of the U.S. House of Representatives support impeachment or an impeachment inquiry. Until articles of impeachment are drafted, it is unknown how many members would vote in support of impeaching Trump.
An Iranian woman sentenced in the United States for violating sanctions against Tehran was released and has returned home, her lawyer told AFP Thursday, following her country’s unsuccessful attempt at a prisoner swap.
A judge in Minneapolis sentenced Negar Ghodskani to 27 months in prison Tuesday, but determined the time she had spent in custody in Australia and the United States was enough to fulfill her punishment.
Ghodskani “is now free in Iran with her family,” her lawyer Robert Richman said in an email.
Arrested in Australia
A legal resident of Australia, Ghodskani was arrested in Adelaide in 2017 after U.S. prosecutors said she sought U.S. digital communications technology by presenting herself as an employee of a Malaysian company.
U.S. prosecutors said she in fact was sending the technology to Iranian company Fanamoj, which works in public broadcasting.
After extradition to the United States, she confessed to participation in a conspiracy to illegally export technology to Iran in breach of sanctions, according to the U.S. Justice Department.
Pregnant at the time of her arrest, she gave birth while in Australian custody. Her son was sent to Iran to live with his father.
FILE – Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif talks to journalists during a press conference in Jakarta, Indonesia, Sept. 6, 2019
Prisoner swap offered
Her case was raised by Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in April, who floated a potential prisoner swap for a British-Iranian mother being held in Tehran.
He suggested exchanging Ghodskani for Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, in jail in Tehran for alleged sedition.
Both women have been separated from their young children while being detained.
The United States is pressing other countries to join its proposed International Religious Freedom Alliance, in what diplomat Sam Brownback calls “the most significant” new human rights initiative in a generation.
“We’re going to call like-minded nations together and ask them to join this alliance and push on the issue of religious freedom and against religious persecution around the world,” Brownback, ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, said at a news briefing earlier this week. “We want to see the iron curtain on religious persecution come down.”
Brownback’s remarks came at a Monday press conference following the “Global Call to Protect Religious Freedom,” a U.S.-sponsored event on the opening day of the annual U.N. General Assembly. At the event, President Donald Trump pledged an additional $25 million to counter a trend of increasing religious intolerance around the globe.
The president’s chief envoy for that mission is Brownback. Since early 2018, the former Republican governor from the Midwestern state of Kansas has headed the office that he helped establish as a U.S. senator. He was a key sponsor of the 1998 Religious Freedom Act, as Religion News Service has pointed out.
Brownback spoke with VOA after the news conference about what his brief entails — “fighting for religious freedom all around the world for all faiths all the time,” as well as for “people of no faith.”
“We’ll stand up and we’ll do something,” Brownback said of the Trump administration, saying it employs tools ranging from private diplomacy to public designations and “sanctions against countries that persecute people for their faith.”
FILE – Rohingya refugees gather to mark the second anniversary of the exodus at the Kutupalong camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, Aug. 25, 2019.
Government restrictions on religion have “increased markedly around the world,” according to the Pew Research Center, which began tracking the issue in 2007. The Washington-based center reported this summer that “52 countries, including some in very populous countries such as China, Indonesia and Russia, impose either ‘high’ or ‘very high’ levels of restrictions on religion, up from 40 in 2007.” It found increases in the number of states enacting restrictive laws and policies, as well as in religion-related hostilities and violence against individuals.
“Approximately 80% of the world’s population live in countries where religious liberty is threatened, restricted or even banned,” Trump said Monday, using a State Department figure extrapolated from Pew’s research.
Pew does not attempt to calculate the share of people around the world who are affected by such restrictions, a spokeswoman for the center told VOA.
Brownback told VOA that he sees religious freedom, enshrined in both the U.N. Charter and U.S. Constitution, as a harbinger of whether other rights are respected or not.
“When you’re willing to protect a person’s religious freedom, you generally are willing to protect the rest of their rights,” the diplomat said. “If you’re willing to persecute a person for their religious beliefs, you’re generally willing to persecute on a number of other rights.”
Brownback said the United Arab Emirates, while “certainly not perfect,” was a model of religious freedom. “They allow faiths to practice. They allow people to build” houses of worship. “And you have this robust, dynamic, growing economy and a lot of other things moving forward.”
He added that he’s “very hopeful” about Algeria and Sudan, African countries where “there are new governments coming in” to replace oppressive regimes.
The U.S. is supporting “better security at religious institutions, where we see a lot of them destroyed around the world, people killed at these houses of worship,” Brownback said at the press conference. He noted that he’s co-hosting a conference in Morocco next week on preserving religious heritage sites.
The Trump administration, which has strong support among evangelical Christians, has been criticized for favoring certain faith groups over others.
“President Trump was elected on the promise of a ‘complete and utter shutdown’ of Muslim immigration to the U.S.,” Rabbi Jack Moline, who leads the Interfaith Alliance, told USA Today. “Since then, his administration has worked tirelessly to redefine ‘religious freedom’ as a license to discriminate.”
The alliance promotes the separation of church and state.
The role of faith-based initiatives in U.S. foreign policy has risen during the last two decades under both Republican and Democratic administrations, according to scholar Lee Marsden, noting a strong interest in curbing radical Islam after the al-Qaida terrorist attacks in September 2001.
The Trump administration is proposing to accept a maximum of 18,000 refugees in the coming year, in what would be the lowest refugee ceiling in the country’s history, the U.S. State Department said Thursday.
If the government follows through, 2020 will be the third year of significant cuts to refugee resettlement under President Donald Trump.
For now, however, the latest figure remains a proposal.
The final decision, in the form of a “presidential determination,” will be made in the coming weeks after the required consultations with Congress, a senior administration official told reporters in a phone briefing organized by the White House on Thursday.
In fiscal 2018, the first full year of the Trump administration, the ceiling was set at 45,000, and 22,491 refugees were admitted.
In fiscal 2019, the ceiling was 30,000. With only three full days remaining in the fiscal year, the U.S. is close to the limit, with 29,972 refugees admitted, according to State Department data.
Prior to Trump’s election, the refugee ceiling average was 60,000 to 70,000 every year.
The proposed ceiling is one of three fundamental changes to the resettlement program announced Thursday.
President Donald Trump tweeted, June 17, 2019, that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will begin removing millions of people who are in the country illegally.
Trump also issued an executive order that will require state and local governments to “consent” to accept refugees for resettlement.
While not a widespread issue, the order would allow states like Tennessee, which unsuccessfully sued the federal government to stop resettlement, to potentially prevent willing nonprofit organizations in the state from accepting refugees.
Additionally, the U.S. State Department is creating new categories — a procedure used rarely to meet specific needs, usually for a specific region.
For fiscal 2020, however, the total will include up to 5,000 refugees persecuted on account of their religious beliefs; 4,000 spots for Iraqis who assisted the U.S. during its operations in the country; and up to 1,500 of what the White House called “legitimate refugees” from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.
Those specific allocations would allow for a maximum of 7,500 refugees who fall outside those categories.
