Egyptian security forces completely sealed off Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the so-called Arab Spring uprising in 2011, to prevent possible protests on Friday against the country’s president.

The closures come amid a harsh security clampdown following rare demonstrations in several cities last weekend, all of which were broken up by police. Lawyers say over 2,000 people have been arrested since then. Egypt’s general prosecutor claims his office has questioned no more than 1,000 people over the latest protests

Street demonstrations have been almost completely silenced the past years by draconian measures imposed under President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, a former general.

The demonstrations erupted over corruption allegations earlier this month against the military and el-Sissi by an Egyptian businessman living in self-imposed exile. El-Sissi warned Friday against “deceitful” attempts to discredit his rule.

Riot police had barricaded streets and bridges leading into Tahrir Square, where hundreds of thousands had gathered in 2011 to demand the ouster of longtime ruler Hosni Mubarak. Several nearby subway stations were closed for alleged maintenance.

The government effectively banned all public protests in 2013, shortly after el-Sissi led the military’s overthrow of an elected but divisive Islamist president.

Earlier this month, Mohamed Ali, the self-exiled contractor who said he had worked with the military for 15 years, posted inflammatory videos accusing the president and some military commanders of misuse of public funds to build presidential palaces and a tomb for the president’s mother. Ali has renewed his call for Egyptians to take to the streets Friday, the first day of the weekend.

El-Sissi arrived Friday morning to Cairo from New York, where he had been attending the U.N. General Assembly at the time the protests broke out. “It is all based on lies, distortion and fabrication. You should be aware of that,” el-Sissi said upon his arrival at Cairo airport. Hundreds of his supporters rallied to greet him, raising his picture and waving Egyptian flags.

Human Rights Watch said Friday that Egypt’s authorities should respect the right of peaceful assembly by allowing protests, and should release all those arrested.

“The nationwide crackdown on protests suggests that President Abdel-Fattah El-Sissi is terrified of Egyptians’ criticisms,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, the group’s Middle East and North Africa director.

…

Dengue fever is spreading rapidly across Central America, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said Friday.   

“The size of this outbreak is unprecedented across Central America,” said Dr. Maria Frana Tallarico, head of health of IFRC’s regional office for the Americas.

Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Costa Rica are reporting “massive increases in dengue cases compared to previous years,” the IFRC said.

More than 71,200 people in Honduras have been affected by the mosquito-borne viral disease.

Seasonal rains and high temperatures have created stagnant pools that are “perfect breeding grounds for mosquitoes,” according to IFRC.
 
What is alarming about the disease in Honduras, however, is that 65 percent of the 128 deaths thus far are children under 15 years-old.

“This is due to a lack of immunity in young people to to the deadliest of the four strains of dengue currently circulating in the region,” says Tallarico.

IFRC says it is “scaling up” emergency assistance to help countries contain the disease, including teams of IFRC volunteers who are going door-to-door to raise awareness about the disease and how to prevent its spread.

…

Sri Lanka’s cricket team begins play in Lahore Friday, the first time since 2009 that a foreign team will undertake a two-week tour of Pakistan.

Security is extremely tight for the match, and the Sri Lanka team is basically confined to their hotel except for practices and matches.

Sri Lanka’s team bus was attacked in Lahore as it arrived for a match ten years ago.  The ambush killed eight people and injured several players.

Since then Pakistan’s team has toured other countries, but few international matches have been played in the country.

A number of Sri Lanka’s top players withdrew from the tour because of lingering security concerns.

…

The Pentagon says it will send one Patriot missile battery and four radar systems to Saudi Arabia, in what officials have said are the first steps to help the kingdom protect itself against Iranian attacks.

Two more Patriot batteries and a THAAD missile defense system will be prepared to go later if needed. The deployment will involve about 200 troops.

Military leaders have been working since last week to decide how to respond to what U.S. officials call an unprecedented Iranian attack on Saudi oil facilities on Sept. 14.

The four Sentinel radar systems and the Patriot battery are designed to provide better surveillance across northern Saudi Arabia. The kingdom’s defenses are focused on the south to protect the country from attacks by Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen. 
 

…

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani urged the United States on Thursday to “cease this policy of maximum pressure” in favor of “dialogue, and logic and reason.”

Rouhani’s comments came one day after he accused Washington of engaging in “international piracy” against Iran by re-imposing economic sanctions after the U.S. withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

Since then, Iran’s economy has been buckling under the weight of the sanctions. On Wednesday, the U.S. imposed more — this time targeting Iran’s ability to sell its oil by imposing penalties on six Chinese companies and their chief executives for continuing to transport Iranian crude.

Tensions in the Middle East have risen as the nuclear deal has unravels and Iran has turned back to expanding its nuclear enrichment program, despite previous compliance with it for up to a year after Trump’s withdrawal from the accord.

Rouhani also again denied that Iran has anything to do with drone and missile strikes against key oil facilities in Saudi Arabia earlier this month that rattled the global oil markets.

“Those who make the allegations must provide the needed proof to back up those allegations,” Rouhani said.

Saudi Arabia has invited U.N. investigators to assess where the strikes were launched from, and says Iranian weapons were used. The U.S., France, Germany and Britain also have said they believe Iran is behind the strikes.

…

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says California is falling short on preventing water pollution, largely because of its problem with homelessness in big cities such as Los Angeles and San Francisco.

EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler outlined the complaints Thursday in a letter to California Gov. Gavin Newsom. Wheeler is demanding a detailed plan for fixing the problems within 30 days.

The letter says “piles of human feces on sidewalks and streets” could cause water contamination. It criticizes San Francisco for routinely discharging inadequately treated sewage into the Pacific Ocean.

Wheeler says if the state doesn’t meet its responsibilities, EPA will have to take action.

The letter escalates a feud between the Trump administration and California, a predominantly Democratic state that has fought the administration’s efforts to weaken environmental regulations.

…

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says the United States has concluded that the Syrian government used chemical weapons in an attack in May.

Speaking in New York on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday, Pompeo said U.S. officials had determined that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government had used chlorine in the attack on opposition forces in Idlib province on May 19.
 
He said the U.S. would provide an additional $4.5 million to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to fund investigations into other instances of suspected Syrian chemical weapons use.

Pompeo also called on the Assad government to release thousands of unjustly detained prisoners, including American journalist Austin Tice. Tice has been missing and presumed held by the government for seven years.

…

Arab leaders have reasserted their rejection of any attempt by Israel to annex Palestinian land in the aftermath of Israel’s election.  Jordan’s King Abdullah II, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi and President Barham Saleh of Iraq meeting at the United Nations this week say they refuse possible Israel’s annexation designs on the Jordan Valley and the area north of the Dead Sea.  Saudi Arabia and the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council likewise have condemned any such potential move by Israel.
 
Resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the only way to ensure peace in the region, the leaders of Jordan, Egypt and Iraq say after a mini summit they held on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
In a statement they issued, they are also calling on the international community to put a stop to Israel’s building and expansion of illegal settlements, as well as all unilateral measures.  These include changing the historical and legal status quo in Jerusalem and its Islamic and Christian holy sites. 

Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Brexit Likely Topics for UN Speakers

The General Assembly heard Wednesday from Iran’s president who ruled out new talks with the United States unless sanctions are lifted

What has really stoked the anger of Arab leaders, though, is the pledge made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of the recent election to annex parts of the West Bank, specifically the Jordan Valley and an area north of the Dead Sea, effectively putting an end to hopes of a future Palestinian state set up there.
King Abdullah already warned Israel that annexing the Jordan Valley will “directly impact” the relationship between Israel and Jordan, and Israel and Egypt, and that “these types of statements are … a disaster to any attempt to move forward to the two-state solution” to achieve peace. This warning from Jordan and Egypt as the only two Arab countries to have signed peace treaties with the Jewish state is meant to be serious.
 
Lara Friedman, president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace explains to VOA the predicament Jordan could face should Israel try to annex this area bordering the kingdom.
 
When Israel is making moves that cut off the possibility of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, that is a security threat to Jordan and an existential threat to Jordan,” said Friedman. “And it’s not for nothing. A lot of people who support this Greater Israel vision of the future, if you push them, would probably say that Jordan is Palestine. They are already in the Palestinian state.

Friedman says that concerns by Israel and some of Arab Gulf states over Iran’s growing military presence in Middle East edged them closer to forming open ties with Israel in recent years, building something of a united front against Iran.  However, Netanyahu’s annexation pledge drew harsh condemnation from regional leader Saudi Arabia and the rest of its Gulf allies, who called it a “very dangerous escalation.”

Palestinians Fear Netanyahu’s Annexation Plan

Declaring annexation really takes away the pretense. It rips away the fig (leaf) that there could be, or that people want there to be, a political solution on the West Bank and Gaza that resolves the claims of the Palestinians. For Arab neighbors, this has different levels of threat involved,” said Friedman. “For Gulf countries, this is an issue of the symbolism of Jerusalem, the symbolism of the Palestinian struggle which is certainly less of a hot issue than it has been in past years, but for the ‘street,’ based on polling, it appears not to have gone away.

But for Jordan, this is an immediate existential threat on its border. For Lebanon, which has a population of Palestinian refugees that, simply for Lebanese demographic reasons, cannot be accommodated, it is an existential problem. And for Egypt as well. It’s the argument: What do you do with Gaza? Do we make it Egypt’s problem? Egypt doesn’t want Gaza. At the point where Israel starts announcing annexation and ripping away even the pretense of a political process for those three countries in particular, this becomes an immediate and domestic existential issue.

Human rights lawyer Zaha Hassan, a visiting fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, says she wonders if Benny Gantz of Israel’s Blue and White party will pull Netanyahu back from his campaign promise to annex the Jordan Valley or if there may be pressure to move ahead with it. If the only Israeli governing coalition that can be formed is a hard-right one that includes the ultra-nationalist and religious parties, she says, then annexation is almost guaranteed.

…

Queen Maxima of the Netherlands urged financial regulators on Wednesday not to let fears over technology stall efforts to ensure everyone in the world has access to a bank account and credit to save money and build businesses.

Maxima said progress had been made since she was appointed the United Nations special advocate for financial inclusion 10 years ago, with about 70 percent of the world now having access to banking, insurance and credit compared with 51 percent in 2011.

But she said 1.7 billion adults globally still did not have an account at a financial institution or through a mobile money provider, with women in developing economies about 9 percentage points less likely than men to have a bank account.

“Financial inclusion is not the end but the means to increase family income, improve nutrition, increase access to health care … education, and empower — especially women,” Maxima told a side event at the United Nations General Assembly.

Ending poverty, inequality

The Dutch queen said it is critical if the world is to achieve the United Nations’ goals to end poverty and inequality by 2030 that people were included in financial systems.

She said mobile money and fintech had opened opportunities to connect people — particularly those sidelined like women in developing countries, farmers and the poor — and cautioned fears over cyberattacks and data privacy should not stop this.

“Technology today presents our best chance to reach these people,” Maxima told an event marking her 10 years as the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development (UNSGSA).

“The challenges are that this new technology brings risks … but get together the innovators with the regulators. If we are serious about this issue, we need to innovate and go beyond business as usual,” she said.

Argentine-born Maxima, 48, said she intended to continue in her role traveling around the world to encourage regulators and governments to treat financial inclusion as a priority.

Gates: Money is power

Melinda Gates, who co-founded the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation with her husband Bill Gates, backed Maxima, saying digital financial services had to reach women, marginalized people and the poor to create an equitable world.

“Money is power. If we want to empower people you have to make sure that they have the means for saving … and bring them into the digital financial services,” Gates said.

…

The gilded coffin of a high-ranking ancient Egyptian priest, which had been buried, looted and illegally sold before going on public display at a New York museum, was returned Wednesday to Egyptian authorities. 

The coffin of Nedjemankh, which dates to the first century B.C., came to New York two years ago by way of a global art underground network before being sold to an unwitting Metropolitan Museum of Art for $4 million, authorities said. 

“Thus far our investigation has determined that this coffin is just one of hundreds of antiquities stolen by the same multinational trafficking ring,” Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance said at a repatriation ceremony. 

“So, you may well see a few more significant seizures,” he added. 

Vance credited his office’s two-year-old Antiquities Trafficking Unit with untangling a web of forged documents to track down the coffin’s true origin. 

The unit focuses on the high-powered New York art world, with its museums, galleries and auction houses, much the same as the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Art Crime Team does on a national scale. 

The highly ornamented coffin had been buried in Egypt for 2,000 years before it was stolen from the country’s Minya region after the political upheaval of October 2011, authorities said. 

From there, it went on an underworld odyssey through the United Arab Emirates, Germany, France and New York, they said. 

After it had been on display for six months, agents for the district attorney’s office presented the Metropolitan Museum of Art with evidence early this year that its ownership history documents, including one that suggested the coffin had been exported from Egypt in 1971, were forgeries. 

The museum announced last February that it had been defrauded when it bought the coffin and was cooperating with the district attorney’s investigation. 

The coffin, which is inscribed with the name Nedjemankh, a priest of the ram-headed god Heryshef of Herakleopolis, will now go back to Egypt, where it will be put on display next year, Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sameh Hassan Shoukry said. 

“This is not only for Egyptians but this is for our common human heritage and our sense that we all share in the values and we all are one of the same international family,” Shoukry said at the repatriation ceremony. 

…

U.S. President Donald Trump reinforced his support for Venezuelan opposition politician Juan Guaido on Wednesday, praising Latin American leaders who back him, boosting aid funding and barring members of President Nicolas Maduro’s government from entering the United States.

In a meeting on the sidelines of the annual United Nations gathering of world leaders, Trump told Latin American presidents who recognize Guaido as Venezuela’s rightful president that they were part of a “historic coalition.”

For more than eight months they have been trying to oust Maduro, who has overseen a dramatic economic collapse and is accused of corruption, human rights violations and rigging the 2018 presidential election.

The New York meeting was part of the administration’s efforts to keep Venezuela “high on the international agenda,” a senior U.S. State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said on Monday, pushing back on perceptions that the U.S. commitment to Venezuela was waning.

But it was not clear what further options Washington had left. The opposition delegation came to the U.N. General Assembly in search of a breakthrough in its eight-month power struggle with Maduro, but is more focused on getting the European Union to sanction Maduro officials with assets stashed in European countries.

The State Department said it would provide $36 million in programs aiming at raising $223 million to serve 2.6 million people. Previous aid efforts within Venezuela have been marked by concerns Maduro would interfere with distribution.

“We’re giving millions and millions of dollars in aid, not that we want to, from the Maduro standpoint, but we have to,” Trump said during a news conference on Wednesday afternoon. “People are dying, they have no food, they (have) no water, they have no nothing.”

It is also providing Guaido with $52 million to fund his parallel government’s operations — much of which was diverted from money previously destined for Central American countries, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) director Mark Green said on Wednesday.

Venezuela plunged into a deep political crisis in January when Guaido, the leader of the opposition-controlled National Assembly, assumed a rival presidency, arguing Maduro was illegitimate. He has been recognized as president by dozens of countries, including the United States and neighboring Colombia.

Guaido and his Latin American allies are increasingly seeking to portray Maduro as a threat to regional stability to galvanize countries into stepping up pressure. During his speech to the General Assembly on Wednesday, Colombian President Ivan Duque said he would provide the United Nations with a dossier proving Maduro was harboring armed Colombian rebels.

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza, who is expected to address the assembly on Thursday, called Duque’s speech “shameful.” Maduro calls Guaido a coup-mongering puppet of the United States and retains the support of allies such as Cuba, Russia and China.

Pressure on  Europe

Washington’s travel ban applied to government officials with the rank of vice minister or above, military members with a rank of colonel or above, and members of a pro-government legislature called the Constituent Assembly.

It also banned anyone who acts “on behalf of or in support of” Maduro and those deriving “financial benefit” from the government, and their immediate family members. U.S. officials have previously said such measures were effective because “these people’s wives can’t shop in the U.S.”

That move was likely to raise even more pressure on Europe.

While the EU has sanctioned several individual members of Maduro’s government, the opposition, the United States and other Latin American countries have called on it to do more.

A group of European and Latin American countries met to discuss Venezuela on the sidelines of the United Nations on Wednesday afternoon, but participants declined to take questions on the way out and did not immediately issue a joint statement.

Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Borrell, the incoming top diplomat for the EU, said during the meeting that the “end of Venezuela’s crisis should result from a peaceful and negotiated path” leading to free elections, according to an EU statement.

The statement did not mention any new European sanctions.

…

British car production increased by an annual 3.3% in August, the first rise in 15 months, helped by several factories having moved their summertime shutdowns to April in preparation for the original Brexit date, an industry body said Thursday.

MW, Peugeot, Honda and Jaguar Land Rover all closed factories ranging from a few days to four weeks in April over concerns that Britain’s scheduled departure from the European Union in March could lead to disruption, including delays to the arrival of parts.

The move led to a 44.5% decline in output in April, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) and ended up being in vain as Brexit was eventually pushed back to the end of October.

August saw a small bounce back with output rising 3.3% to 92,158 cars, helped by a 15.2% increase in domestic demand, data showed.

“Today’s figures mask the underlying downward trend and strengthening global headwinds facing the sector, including international trade tensions, massive technological upheaval and, in the UK, political and economic uncertainty,” said SMMT Chief Executive Mike Hawes.

“We now need parliament and government to redouble efforts to get a deal that maintains free and frictionless trade.”
 

…

Commercial fisheries in seven U.S. states have suffered from catastrophic failures and disasters over the past two years, making them eligible for federal aid, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. 
 
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross blamed the problems in part on extreme flooding in Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi from the Gulf of Mexico. 
 
Other fishing operations in Alaska, California, Georgia and South Carolina have also been affected by natural disasters and other conditions. 
 
“Fishing is the cornerstone of countless coastal economies and has been a way of life for generations of Americans,” Ross said. 
 
Ross said fisheries that have suffered since 2017 were eligible receive up to $165 million in federal relief. 

…

The number of invasions of indigenous lands in Brazil has jumped in the first nine months of President Jair Bolsonaro’s administration, a Brazilian Catholic Church agency said Tuesday.

The Missionary Indigenous Council said illegal miners, loggers and tappers of natural resources are involved in most of the invasions.

The council reported at least 160 cases of “possessive invasions, illegal exploitation of natural resources of damage to heritage” on indigenous lands in the first nine months of 2019. There were 111 recorded cases for all of last year under conservative President Michel Temer.

The far-right Bolsonaro, who has the support of Brazil’s powerful agro-business sector, has often complained that indigenous lands cover too much of Brazil and that development there should be easier. Critics say that encourages invaders seeking to exploit them.

Catholic priest Roque Paloschi, who heads the council, said in a press conference that Bolsonaro’s “aggressive rhetoric fuels violence against indigenous land and peoples.”

The council’s report said 13 of Brazil’s 26 states reported indigenous lands invasions in 2018. This year that figure rose to 19 states.

Roberto Liebgott, a coordinator of the report, said the current situation is “more worrying for indigenous peoples than in any previous administration.”

In his first speech at the United Nations’ General Assembly, a pugnacious Bolsonaro denied his administration works against indigenous peoples, insisting they are being used as a tool by non-profit organizations and foreign powers to violate Brazil’s sovereignty in the Amazon.

“Those who attack us are not worried about the indigenous peoples, but about the mineral richness” of the Amazon rainforest, Bolsonaro said at the U.N.

His pledge to avoid demarcating indigenous land drew criticism from Amnesty International.

“We will continue calling on the authorities to fulfill their constitutional and international human rights law obligations to demarcate and protect indigenous lands,” the human rights group said in a statement.

…

An Army veteran who was deported to Mexico in 2018 arrived back in Chicago Tuesday for a final chance at becoming a U.S. citizen and living in the city he has called home since boyhood.

Federal immigration authorities granted Miguel Perez Jr. a two-week parole into the U.S. for an immigration hearing, according to his attorney. The 41-year-old Perez has a green card as a permanent U.S. resident, but after serving time for a 2008 non-violent drug conviction was deported last year. Then last month, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker issued a pardon , erasing the conviction and reviving Perez’s chances to become a citizen.

“I’m speechless. I wish I could say a lot more but it’s just, I’m choked up,” a teary-eyed Perez said outside a church, hours after landing in Chicago. “I’m so blessed to be here.”

His immigration hearing was set for Wednesday, but it’s unknown when immigration officials will decide the case.

Perez’s attorney, Chris Bergin, hoped for a speedy decision so Perez wouldn’t have to return to Mexico after the 14 days are up.

Officials with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and U.S. Customs and Border Protection declined to comment, citing privacy laws.

Perez is among several deported military members who have been recently pardoned by Democratic governors. His case has received wide support, including from including from Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, a veteran who said Tuesday that Perez should never been deported in the first place.

Perez was born in Mexico, but his family immigrated when he was a young child. His parents are naturalized U.S. citizens and his two children were born in the U.S.

He joined the Army in 2002 and served in Afghanistan where he suffered a brain injury and was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

It was the disorder, which caused crippling anxiety, that led him to the drug charge, according to Bergin. Perez wasn’t able to immediately get medical care through a federal Veterans Administration hospital, so he turned to drugs.

In 2008, he was accused of giving cocaine to an undercover police officer. He pleaded guilty and spent seven years in prison and was then turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, who detained him for two years. Perez was deported last year after failing to persuade a federal appeals court to block his removal.

Perez said he faced “dangerous” conditions while living in Tijuana, Mexico, after his deportation, but he didn’t want to talk about it.

He also declined to discuss about how he was managing PTSD, saying it was too personal.

His doctor was among those who came to welcome him home at the church.

“Miguel was failed on multiple occasions by our immigration service, for sure, and our treatment service for veterans,” said Dr. David Ansell of Rush University Medical Center, who started treating Perez while he was in ICE custody. “People need treatment, not deportation.”

Family members and friends from the church stood by Perez’s side Tuesday, many of them offering warm hugs and prayers.

His father, Miguel Angel Perez, said the military was an important part of their family, with a grandfather and uncle who served during wars. He said having his son back with him Chicago was priceless.
“Now, I have a big heart,” he said in Spanish.

Perez said the decision for him to come to the U.S. happened so quickly that he was still dazed. He said he was most looking forward to seeing his children and eating some Chicago-style pizza and popcorn.
‘”We’ll see what happens,” he said. “But I have faith in God that I am going to be able to stay home.”
 

…

U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts, speaking at a New York synagogue on Tuesday night, lamented the perception that the Supreme Court is becoming politicized and that the justices’ decisions are guided primarily by their partisan affiliation.

Roberts’ concerns about the impression of the court comes during a highly-charged political moment when the judiciary is getting hit from all sides. President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized federal courts and judges who have blocked his policies, while some Democratic politicians have implied that the court’s conservative majority is motivated mainly by politics instead of interpreting the law.

“When you live in a polarized political environment, people tend to see everything in those terms. That’s not how we at the court function and the results in our cases do not suggest otherwise,” said Roberts before hundreds in attendance at the Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center in Manhattan.

Roberts in November rebuked Trump after the Republican president called a judge who ruled against his policy barring asylum for certain immigrants an “Obama judge.”

In August, a handful of Democratic senators filed a brief in a firearms case the justices had agreed to hear, suggesting the high court was too influenced by politics. “The Supreme Court is not well. And the people know it,” the brief said.

The nine-member court, which begins its next term on Oct. 7, has a 5-4 conservative majority.

Roberts, 64, a conservative appointed by Republican President George W. Bush in 2005, said the justices do not work in a political manner. “A lot of criticism is based on a misperception of the court,” he said.

Roberts pointed out that of the court’s 19 decisions last term that split 5-4, only seven rulings divided along ideological lines.

Roberts has emerged as the court’s ideological center since the retirement last year of conservative Justice Anthony Kennedy, who sometimes joined the liberal justices in major rulings, including over gay rights and abortion.

Last term, some liberal justices also publicly raised the alarm over the pace at which the conservative majority was overruling precedents, a fear shared by abortion rights advocates and Democratic politicians over whether the court may overrule Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion nationwide.

On Tuesday, Roberts said the court must respect precedent.

There is “no reason to suppose that I and my eight colleagues are any better at discerning the meaning of the constitution than members of the courts that went before us,” he said.

Roberts also drew laughs and cheers from the crowd when, in a nod to liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s growing celebrity, he called her a “rock star.”

…

The United States led more than 30 countries on Tuesday in condemning what it called China’s “horrific campaign of repression” against Muslims in the western region of Xinjiang at an event on the sidelines of the annual U.N. General Assembly that was denounced by China.

In highlighting abuses against ethnic Uighurs and other Muslims in China, Assistant Secretary of State John Sullivan said the United Nations and its member states had “a singular responsibility to speak up when survivor after survivor recounts the horrors of state repression.”

Sullivan said it was incumbent on U.N. member states to ensure the world body was able to closely monitor human rights abuses by China and added that it must seek “immediate, unhindered, and unmonitored” access to Xinjiang for the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCR).

Sullivan said Tuesday’s event was co-sponsored by Canada, Germany, the Netherlands and Britain, and was joined by more than 30 U.N. states, representatives of the European Union and more than 20 nongovernmental organizations, as well as Uighur victims.

“We invite others to join the international effort to demand and compel an immediate end to China’s horrific campaign of repression,” he said. “History will judge the international community for how we respond to this attack on human rights and fundamental freedoms.”

Paola Pampaloni, deputy managing director for Asia of the European External Action Service, said the EU was “alarmed” by the situation and also urged “meaningful” access to Xinjiang.

“We are concerned about … information about mistreatment and torture,” she said. “China is always inviting us to the camps under their conditions, we are in negotiations right now for terms and conditions for free access.”

Tuesday’s event focusing on Xinjiang came a day after U.S. President Donald Trump called for an end to religious persecution at another gathering on the sidelines of the gathering of world leaders, comments he reiterated in his speech to the assembly on Tuesday.

Trump, who has been cautious about upsetting China on human rights issues while making a major trade deal with Beijing an overarching priority, did not mention the Uighur situation specifically, but said religious freedom was under growing threat around the world.

“Americans will never .. tire in our effort to promote freedom of worship and religion. We want and support religious liberty for all.” he told the assembly on Tuesday.

A spokesperson for the Chinese delegation to the high-level meeting of the U.N. General Assembly accused Washington of violating the U.N. Charter by criticizing China at Monday’s religious freedom meeting and Tuesday’s event.

The United Nations says at least 1 million ethnic Uighurs and other Muslims have been detained in what China describes as “vocational training centers” to stamp out extremism and give people new skills.

Sullivan said the United States had received “credible reports of deaths, forced labor, torture, and other cruel, inhumane, or degrading treatment” in the camps.

He said there were also many reports that the Chinese government forces detainees to renounce their ethnic identities as well as their culture and religion.

Though U.S. officials have ramped up criticism of China’s measures in Xinjiang, it has refrained from responding with sanctions over the issue, amid on-again, off-again talks to resolve a bitter, costly trade war.

At the same time, it has criticized other countries, including some Muslim states, for not doing enough or for backing China’s approach in Xinjiang.

Rishat Abbas, the brother of Uighur physician Gulshan Abbas, who was abducted from her home in Urumchi in September 2018, told Tuesday’s event that “millions of Uighurs are becoming collateral damage to international trade policies, enabling China to continue to threaten our freedoms around the world, enable it to continue its police state.” 

U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet has repeatedly pushed China to grant the United Nations access to investigate reports of disappearances and arbitrary detentions, particularly of Muslims in Xinjiang.

China’s envoy in Geneva said in June that he hoped Bachelet would visit China, including Xinjiang. Bachelet’s office said in June that it was discussing “full access” with China.

…

Long lines of drivers at gas stations in Cuba and hours of wait for public transport are signs of the impact of sanctions imposed by the United States this year on the Caribbean island and its main ally, oil producer Venezuela.

President Miguel Diaz-Canel this month warned Cubans of difficult times ahead due to limited fuel imports. He exhorted citizens to show solidarity and do their utmost to improve energy efficiency.

After sanctioning Cuba’s state-run Cubametales in July and a group of shipping firms and vessels, the U.S. Treasury on Tuesday targeted four additional maritime companies and tankers they own or operate for transporting Venezuelan oil to Cuba in violation of sanctions.

When Did the Fuel Shortage Start?

Cuba has relied for decades on crude purchases from allies to feed its refineries. It also imports fuel to help satisfy consumption of about 145,000 barrels per day by power plants,
industrial complexes, gas stations, airports and homes.

Fuel shortages have gradually grown worse since Cuba’s main ally, Venezuela, started reducing oil shipments as far back as 2016 after its own production declined and its economy slipped into a deep recession.

A bilateral pact signed in 2000 allows Cuba to pay for Venezuelan oil imports by offering services to the South American country ranging from doctors to advisers.

Venezuela had until 2015 supplied Cuba with about 90,000 bpd of crude and fuel. But a first round of U.S. sanctions on Venezuela in 2017 limited PDVSA’s access to financing, aggravating its output decline and curtailing investment in the industry.

As of 2017, Cuba produced just 51,000 bpd of crude, according to the most recent available data from the country’s National Office of Statistic and Information.

Analysts say it is hard for Cuba to cover the shortfall with its fuel consumption by importing at market prices, given it is strapped for cash.

Faced with fuel shortages, the country has implemented a series of austerity measures in recent years like cutting public street lighting and air conditioning usage in state institutions.

Why Did the Situation Suddenly Get So Much Worse?

The Trump administration imposed sanctions in January banning U.S. firms or U.S. subsidiaries of foreign firms from selling fuel to Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA both for domestic consumption and for re-exports. The measures also ban any trade in dollars with PDVSA or its units.

Washington in July also sanctioned specific vessel operators covering the Venezuela-Cuba route and the entity receiving the barrels, Cubametales. The nations have since struggled to find tankers to transport the oil.

Cuba imports not only crude from Venezuela but also gasoline, diesel, fuel oil, lubricants and cooking gas, according to internal PDVSA data.

Is Venezuela Supplying Cuba Amid Sanctions?

Yes. But volumes have decreased. Venezuela has sent this year some 55,300 bpd of crude and fuel to Cuba, below the average of the last decade, according to internal PDVSA data and Refinitiv Eikon data.

In 2018, PDVSA supplied Cubametales with some 89,000 bpd of crude and products, according to PDVSA’s internal data.

PDVSA in turn has increasingly had to import refined fuel for its own domestic market, according to company data.

How is Venezuela Transporting Oil to Cuba?

PDVSA is now using a large portion of its own fleet to transport Venezuelan crude and fuel to Cuba, including tankers Manuela Saenz, Icaro, Terepaima and Yare.

Vessels owned by a joint Venezuela-Cuba company, Transalba, also are covering the route, but the number of vessels operators and maritime crew willing to touch Venezuelan or Cuban ports has decreased in recent months due to the sanctions, according to shippers.

Is Cuba Importing From Other Countries?

Yes, but the island still overwhelmingly relies on oil supplies from Venezuela.

From July through mid-September, Cuba imported 50,000-100,000 bpd, mostly from PDVSA. Vessels loaded with imports coming from Russian ports, Caribbean terminals and oil hubs such as Rotterdam also arrived at Cuban ports in recent weeks, according to the Refinitiv data.

Reuters was unable to identify all the companies chartering vessels to the island.

Will There Be a Prompt Recovery?

Cuba’s president has said the situation should normalize in October as shipments have already been guaranteed for that month.

Analysts are not so confident. Cuba does not have a large number of oil suppliers since the U.S. government imposed an embargo on the island nearly 60 years ago and growing problems to find vessels are creating new obstacles to imports.

The country is also strapped for cash.

Other than Venezuela, Algeria historically has supplied up to 5,000 bpd as barter, mostly for ophthalmology services received from Cuba, said Jorge Pinon from the University of Austin in Texas.

What is Cuba Doing to Palliate the Crisis?

Cuba this month reduced the frequency of public transport and cut industrial production in order to save energy so it can ensure basic services like hospitals and food distribution.

Government officials have been encouraging citizens to make the most of natural daylight to save electricity and have urged the use of more animal power to save on diesel.

So far, there have been no major blackouts. The president has warned there could be but, if so, said they will be planned and announced beforehand.

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Matiado Vilme and Renan Toussaint in Port-au-Prince contributed to this report

WASHINGTON / NEW YORK / PORT-AU-PRINCE – Haiti’s President, Jovenel Moise, will not travel to the United States as planned Tuesday, to speak before the United Nations General Assembly.  The president issued a statement late Monday announcing that Foreign Minister Bocchit Edmond would lead Haiti’s delegation to the U.N. and speak before the general assembly on behalf of the nation.

The cancellation comes after news of a postponement of his departure for New York, and on the heels of a chaotic, violent day at the Haitian Senate that saw two people wounded when a Senator fired his gun ahead of a vote to confirm the prime minister designate. An AP photojournalist and a parliament security guard were wounded during the incident.

Corruption allegations

President Moise and some members of his government are mired in controversy and corruption allegations.

On Sunday, opposition Senator Youri Latortue accused him of “misappropriating” Haitian passport revenue collected by the Embassy in Washington to finance his trip to the U.N.

“Minister Bocchit withdrew $298,000 US dollars from a government bank account for President Jovenel’s trip. He took an additional $60,000 from the New York Consulate account. That’s a total of $348,000 U.S. dollars. Plus the Haitian money they withdrew,” the senator alleged.

Senator Latortue said that money should have been used instead to help the victims of a mass flood in the southern town of Petit Goave on Saturday, which killed several people including children and damaged homes.

He also alleged that the large sum of money was not needed because the U.N. finances the trips of the leaders of member countries and their hotel stays for U.N. General Assembly.

But Foreign Minister Bocchit Edmond refuted the allegation in an exclusive interview with VOA Creole at the United Nations.

“If Senator Latortue felt there were irregularities, he knows there are institutions in place which can deal with such matters. In addition, Senator Latortue was an advisor to a president of the republic, he is well aware of the rules and regulations the chief of state must abide by. So he therefor knows that the Haitian Embassy in Washington is in charge of planning the President’s visit to speak at the UNGA. And since he was also adviser to the former prime minister of Haiti – he knows these rules well,” Edmond said.

Responding to the assertion that the U.N. finances leaders’ trips to speak at the UNGA, the foreign minister said ” This is false. There are 193 member nations, each delegation is responsible for the expenses of its members.”

Edmond quipped that the senator should verify his information before making such accusations.

Mass protests

During mass protests on September 20, where thousands took to the streets of Port-au-Prince to demand the president’s resignation, several protesters told VOA Creole that President Jovenel Moise shouldn’t be making any speeches at the U.N.

“Jovenel will not represent us at the United Nations!” a protester from the Cite Soleil slum of the capital who was in the streets after the shooting incident at the parliament said. “International community, United States, please take him off our hands.”

That sentiment has been echoed by members of the opostion as well.

A group of protesters blocked a road near the national palace Monday with a white box truck, then painted red graffiti saying “Jovenel we’re waiting for the keys”.

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A recent wave of abductions in Nigeria is raising fear across the country.  Unlike kidnappings involving oil militants in the south or Boko Haram in the north, which often take on political dimensions, this crime wave spans through every region, and is driven largely by economic hardship, experts say.  The government is trying to address the problem by setting up an kidnapping response team. Timothy Obiezu has this report from Abuja

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A strong earthquake rattled eastern Pakistan Tuesday afternoon forcing residents into the streets in several cities, with witnesses claiming a building collapsed in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

The shallow 5.8-magnitude hit 22.3 kilometers (13.8 miles) north of the city of Jhelum along the boundary separating the agricultural heartland of Punjab province and Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

“The quake was 10 kilometers deep and was felt in most of Punjab province, some parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The worst hit was Mirpur, Azad Kashmir,” Pakistan’s chief meteorologist Muhammad Riaz told AFP.

Witnesses, Sajjad Jarral and Qazi Tahir, told AFP at least 50 people were injured by the quake that caused a building to collapse in Pakistani Kashmir’s Mirpur and inflicted heavy damage at least one road.

Tremors were felt as far as New Delhi, while the Press Trust of India reported that people rushed out of their homes and offices in panic in several places, including in Rajasthan, Punjab and Haryana.

Pakistan straddles part of the boundary where the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates meet, making the country susceptible to earthquakes.

In October 2015, a 7.5-magnitude quake in Pakistan and Afghanistan killed almost 400 people, flattening buildings in rugged terrain that impeded relief efforts.

The country was also hit by a 7.6-magnitude quake on October 8, 2005, that killed more than 73,000 people and left about 3.5 million homeless, mainly in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir.

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Google won a major case in the European Union on Tuesday, when the bloc’s top court ruled that the U.S. internet giant doesn’t have to extend the EU’s “right to be forgotten” rules to its search engines outside the region.

The case stems from a 2014 ruling that said people have the right to control what appears when their name is searched online. They can ask Google, for example, to remove a link. The French privacy regulator then wanted that rule applied to all of Google’s domains, even outside the EU, and asked the EU’s top court for advice.

The European Court of Justice said Tuesday that there “is no obligation under EU law for a search engine operator” to extend the rule beyond the EU states.

It said, however, that a search engine operator must put measures in place to discourage internet users from going outside the EU to find that information.

The decision, which matches a preliminary opinion in January from the court’s adviser, highlights the need to balance data privacy and protection concerns against the public’s right to information. It also raises questions about how to enforce differing jurisdictions when it comes to the borderless internet.

In a reaction to the ruling, Google’s Senior Privacy Counsel Peter Fleischer said “it’s good to see that the Court agreed with our arguments” and added that Google had worked hard “to strike a sensible balance between people’s rights of access to information and privacy.”

The European Commission noted that the court again confirmed that the “right to be forgotten” exists in the EU.

The 2014 ruling that people in the EU have the right to control what appears when their name is searched online forced Google to delete links to outdated or embarrassing personal information that popped up in searches within the 28-nation bloc.

Google Plans to Invest 3 Billion Euros in Europe

Tech giant’s CEO says it will bring company’s total investments in continent’s internet infrastructure to 15 billion Euros since 2007

One year later, the French privacy watchdog wanted Google to remove results on all its search engines on request, and not just European country sites like www.google.fr . Google refused and in the resulting court case, French legal authorities asked the EU’s highest court for advice.

On Tuesday, the EU court said it was illegal to apply an EU rule to business operations in countries outside the EU.

The ruling is final and becomes the benchmark on which courts in the 28-nation bloc must base their decisions relating to such cases.

Those who wanted to see such an extension argue that on the internet it is easy to switch from the national versions of the web site to ones outside the EU – by switching from google.fr to google.com for example – to find the information that must be removed within the EU.

Since Google started handling “right to be forgotten” requests in May 2014, the U.S. tech giant has removed about 1.3 million web links from its search results, or 45% of total requests processed, according to the company’s transparency report .

Online takedown requests filed by European residents are reviewed by Google staff based mainly in Ireland, who assess them on criteria including whether the webpage’s information is “inadequate, irrelevant, no longer relevant, or excessive.”

Google says it may reject a delisting request if the page contains information that’s “strongly in the public interest” with material that relates to the requester’s professional life, past crime, political office, position in public life, or whether the content consists of government documents or “journalistic in nature.”

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