Corey Lewandowski, President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager and close confidant, on Tuesday stoutly defended his former boss and lashed out at Democrats during testimony to a U.S. congressional panel considering whether to impeach Trump.

“We as a nation would be better served if elected officials like you concentrated your efforts to combat the true crises facing our country as opposed to going down rabbit holes like this hearing,” Lewandowski said in his opening remarks to the Democratic-led House of Representatives Judiciary Committee.

The White House on Monday told Lewandowski not to discuss conversations he had with Trump after he became president including an exchange that Democrats view as evidence that Trump committed obstruction of justice by trying to interfere in a federal investigation and may need to be impeached.

Lewandowski was the first impeachment witness to appear before the committee since former Special Counsel Robert Mueller testified in July about his inquiry that detailed Russian 2016 election interference and Trump’s actions to impede the investigation.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, a Democrat, began the hearing by slamming the White House’s legal team for instructing Lewandowski to limit the scope of his testimony by invoking a doctrine called executive privilege.

“We should call this what it is: an absolute cover-up by the White House,” Nadler said.

“The White House is advancing a new and dangerous theory: the crony privilege,” Nadler added. “… Where are the limits?”

The hearing appeared likely to produce more political theater than factual revelations.

Lewandowski assailed the federal investigation into Russian interference in the 2020 election.

“It is now clear the investigation was populated by many Trump haters who had their own agenda – to try and take down a duly elected president of the United States. As for actual “collusion” or “conspiracy,” there was none. What there has been however, is harassment of the president from the day he won the election,” Lewandowski added.

Lewandowski is considering a run for the U.S. Senate as a Republican in New Hampshire. Mueller’s report described Lewandowski as a Trump “devotee” with a “close” relationship with the president.

Trump in August sought to boost Lewandowski’s potential Senate bid, calling his former aide “a fantastic guy” who would make a “great senator” and that “I like everything about him.”

“This isn’t a campaign rally. This is the first hearing where you can tell the American people how you participated in the president’s effort to obstruct justice,” Democratic Representative David Cicilline wrote on Twitter.

Democrats, who hope to decide whether to recommend Trump’s impeachment to the full House by year’s end, had intended to grill Lewandowski about the president’s effort to persuade then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions to redirect the Mueller probe away from the 2016 Trump election campaign.

The episode is among a number of incidents contained in Mueller’s 448-page investigative report made public in April that Democrats view as evidence that Trump obstructed justice.

Mueller made no determination about whether Trump obstructed justice but did not exonerate him of wrongdoing.

Under the U.S. Constitution, the House has the power to vote to impeach a president while the Senate then would hold a trial on whether to remove him from office. The House is controlled by Democrats and the Senate by Trump’s fellow Republicans.

White House assertion

White House Counsel Pat Cipollone told the committee in a letter on Monday that Lewandowski could not testify about conversations with Trump after he became president or with his senior advisers.

The White House also directed two other witnesses, former Trump White House aides Rob Porter and Rick Dearborn, not to testify. Cipollone’s letter said they were “absolutely immune from compelled congressional testimony with respect to matters related to their service as senior advisers to the President.”

In June 2017, Trump met Lewandowski, then a private citizen, at the White House and dictated a message he was to deliver to Sessions. The message said Sessions should shift the Russia probe’s focus to future elections despite his recusal from the investigation.

At a second meeting a month later, Trump asked about the status of the message and said Lewandowski should “tell Sessions he was fired” if he would not meet with Lewandowski, according to the Mueller report.

Trump fired Lewandowski as his campaign manager in June 2016 but the two remained close. During the campaign, Lewandowski had often generated controversy including when he was charged with misdemeanor battery after being accused of forcefully grabbing a female reporter in Florida. The charge was later dropped.

…

Older Americans aren’t moving as much as they used to. 

The migration rate of people over 55 has dropped steadily over the past two decades from a high of 6% in 1996, to 4.3% between 2017 and 2018, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. 

Moving rates for Baby Boomers — those born between 1946 and 1964 — have rebounded a bit since the Great Recession of 2007-2009, but they remain slightly below pre-recession rates.

“The idea is if the economy’s not so good, they may just want to stay working for a little bit more before they retire,” says demographer William Frey of the Brookings Institution.

“Their decision is when can they retire, when is it affordable to retire? And more importantly, from the migration standpoint, does it make sense to to pick up stakes and move somewhere else? If the housing crunch is there, they’re not going to have too many bidders for their homes, so the idea of selling your house to move somewhere else is not going to be as easy.”

When they do retire, Baby Boomers are still heading to traditional sunny retirement haunts like Phoenix, Tampa, Riverside [California], Las Vegas and Jacksonville [Florida].

The lure of the big city isn’t calling to these older folks. The cities that experienced the biggest net loss of seniors include New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington and San Francisco.

For all ages, short-distance moves far outnumber long-distance moves, especially for seniors. Those who move a short distance might be interested in being close to their adult children and grandchildren.

Typically, those who move far away are attracted by the weather, lower costs and services geared toward older people. However, there may be movement to back to their kids when they get beyond the early senior years.

“I’ve got to call them the yuppie elderly, in good health and still have some disposable income, they’ll move to places where they have some amenities for older people,” Frey says. “But when things are not going so well, they may then move back to areas where they have more friends and family that can help take care of them.”

…

A U.S. service member was killed in action in Afghanistan on Monday, NATO said, without providing further details.

Last week, President Donald Trump abruptly called off talks with the Taliban to end American’s longest war, citing the killing of a U.S. service member in a Taliban attack days earlier.

Monday’s death was the 17th U.S. combat death in Afghanistan this year, according to the Pentagon’s count. There also have been three non-combat deaths this year. More than 2,400 Americans have died in the nearly 18-year war.

Across Afghanistan, militant attacks and more violence killed at least seven people as the country prepares for presidential elections later this month, Afghan officials said.

At least five civilians, including women and children, were killed when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb in western Farah province on Sunday, according to Mohibullah Mohib, spokesman for the provincial police.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing, which occurred near the city of Farah, the provincial capital, but the Taliban are active in the province.

Earlier this month, the Taliban launched an attempt to take the city of Farah, briefly seizing an army recruitment center and setting it on fire. Airstrikes were called in and the Taliban were eventually forced out of the city.

Separately, a magnetic explosive device attached to a mini bus belonging to a university in Ghazni province exploded and killed the bus driver. Arif Noori, spokesman for the provincial governor, said five Ghazni University students were also wounded in the blast.

In eastern Logar province, a schoolgirl died in the crossfire during a battle in the Mohammad Agha district between the Taliban and the security forces, the police said. A second student was wounded.

Afghan president Ashraf Ghani cancelled his first electoral debate with his main electoral rival, Abdullah Abdullah, the country’s chief executive. Both men are partners in the national unity government.

Ghani’s electoral team, in a statement released just before the start of the debate, claimed Abdullah has no political program and that Ghani did not want to debate him.

Abdullah, who was present at the TV studio where the debate was to be held, said Ghani “should have come and shared his plans.”

Around 100,000 members of the country’s security forces will provide security on election day, Sept. 28. Around 72,000 security personnel will be on duty around the 4,942 polling centers across Afghanistan while nearly 30,000 additional troops will serve as reserve units.

Approximately 20,000 American and allied troops remain in Afghanistan. Between 14,000 and 13,000 U.S. troops are currently in the country.

…

A Chinese American couple has been arrested and charged with stealing scientific trade secrets from a children’s hospital in Ohio in the latest federal prosecution aimed at clamping down on China’s alleged theft of American intellectual property.  

The couple — Yu Zhou, 49, and Li Chen, 46 — worked in separate labs at the Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, for 10 years, stealing proprietary research for use in personal business ventures, law enforcement officials announced Monday.

The purloined exosome-related trade secrets play a key role in the diagnosis and treatment of a range of pediatric medical conditions, including liver cancer and a condition found in premature babies, according to a 27-page federal indictment.

The indictment alleges that the couple founded a company in China in 2015 without the hospital’s knowledge or authorization, marketing products related to exosome isolation. Two years later, Zhou helped found an American biotechnology company, advertising products including a kit developed with a trade secret created at one of the hospital’s research labs. Shortly before resigning from the hospital in 2017, Zhu allegedly announced in a press release his new company’s plans to distribute “proprietary exosome isolation systems” from its Central Ohio headquarters.

“Nationwide Children’s Hospital devoted years of work and its own money to researching exosomes in order to promote honorable medical advances,” U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio Benjamin Glassman said in a statement.  

In a statement to VOA, the hospital said, “When we discovered this incident, we alerted the FBI and have been actively collaborating with them.”

Zhou and Chen were arrested in July. The 27-count indictment was unsealed Thursday at their arraignment in federal court in Columbus. The charges carry 10 to 20 years in prison.  

Lawyers for the couple did not immediately respond to an email from VOA seeking comment. 

U.S. crackdown 

The indictment is part of the Trump administration’s crackdown on China’s alleged theft of American property and other predatory practices that are at the heart of trade tensions between Washington and Beijing.

In the last 10 months, the Justice Department has brought charges against Chinese nationals and entities in at least seven separate economic espionage cases, up from three during the prior 10 months. In addition, the department has obtained guilty pleas and convictions in six older espionage cases, while charging four Chinese nationals for evading sanctions against North Korea.

“The theft of trade secrets is a growing threat that severely impacts our economy and our national security,” stated FBI Cincinnati Special Agent in Charge Todd Wickerham.

Separately, the Justice Department announced the arrest of a Chinese government employee on conspiracy charges of fraudulently obtaining U.S. visas for fellow government workers.

Zhongsan Liu was arrested Thursday in Fort Lee, New Jersey, and later presented before a U.S. magistrate in federal court in New York.

“We welcome foreign students and researchers, including from China, but we do not welcome visa fraud  especially on behalf of a government,” said Assistant Attorney General John C. Demers of National Security. “We will continue to confront Chinese government attempts to subvert American law to advance its own interests in diverting U.S. research and know-how to China.”

…

An innovative boat that saves energy by rising out of the water on hydrofoil wings underwent testing on the Seine river in Paris on Monday as its backers seek to obtain a license to operate a taxi service on the river.

The SeaBubbles craft is powered by electric motors and its hydrofoil wings reduce the drag on the hull in the water, making it more energy efficient than conventional boats.

SeaBubbles co-founder Alain Thebault said the boat, which carries four passengers and one pilot, has green credentials as it is noise free and produces no pollution.

“It’s the future,” he told Reuters in an interview after the boat had completed its latest tests, running up and down the Seine.

The testing will continue until Sept. 20, after which the project’s backers hope to obtain a commercial license to run taxi services from the east of Paris to the west.

Hydrofoils were invented decades ago but their commercial use is limited because they tend to be unstable. SeaBubbles uses computer processors to adjust the hydrofoil wings constantly in the water, which its designers say gives passengers a smooth ride.

…

More than 450,000 people have signed up for a chance to receive $1,000 per month from U.S. presidential candidate Andrew Yang.

During last week’s debate, the Democrat announced that he will pick 10 families to receive the money for a year from his campaign funds.   

Since he made the announcement last Thursday, Yang’s campaign has raised more than $1 million and collected more than 450,000 email addresses from people who entered the online raffle.

Yang’s surprise announcement was aimed at drawing attention to the main platform of his campaign — to provide a universal basic income of $1,000 a month to every American adult.

The candidate says the stipend, which he calls Freedom Dividend, would allow Americans to use the money for basic needs while they try to better their lives.

Yang is a newcomer to the American political arena. He is a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, who has never run for elected office before.

The 44-year-old is the first Asian-American candidate to have gained significant national attention.

…

A panel of U.N. experts warns the failure of South Sudan’s warring factions to implement last year’s peace accord risks plunging the country into full-scale war once again.

The report by the three-member Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan shows no improvements since South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir and opposition leader Riek Machar signed a peace accord aimed at ending the country’s six-year civil war.

The chair of the commission, Yasmin Sooka, said more than six million people are going hungry, 1.3 million children under five are acutely malnourished, and millions more are stunted, affecting their health and mental development.

“The starvation in South Sudan is neither random, nor accidental,” she said. “It has been part of a deliberate strategy on the part of the warring parties to target civilians in acts that may amount to war crimes. … There is no doubt that the responsibility for the enduring humanitarian catastrophe in South Sudan rests firmly with the country’s warring politicians.”

Sooka warned that important provisions of the accord are not being implemented, including the disengagement of rival forces in preparation for the creation of a unified military force for South Sudan. She urged the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the African Union and the international community to deal effectively with armed groups to prevent a return to full-scale war.

In addition, she said gross human rights violations are rampant and widespread, levels of sexual and gender-based violence are exceedingly high, and justice for the victims has proven to be impossible.

“In the military courts that are actually trying to prosecute perpetrators, the judges do not even have ink and paper to print their judgments and have been going to the market to print court documents, paying for it out of their own pockets,” Sooka said. “This is a government that cannot supply stationery or even food, but has no problem buying bullets.”

Security 

Not all assessments of South Sudan’s near-future are so bleak. In late August, IGAD representatives in Addis Ababa said last year’s cease-fire has continued to hold, and said the general security situation in South Sudan has improved. The U.N. has noted that more than a half-million South Sudanese have returned home from neighboring countries.

South Sudan’s Ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, Kuol Alor, said his government has been exerting efforts to restore stability and tranquility to the country. He said a fuller response to the commission’s report will be made to the council by the Minister of Justice when he arrives in Geneva later in the week.

…

Purdue Pharma, the maker of prescription painkiller OxyContin, has filed for bankruptcy protection in a U.S. court.

The company is facing numerous lawsuits from local and state governments and other plaintiffs alleging it aggressively marketed dangerous, addictive painkillers that helped fuel the opioid crisis in the United States.

The bankruptcy filing comes days after Purdue Pharma reached a tentative settlement with about 2,000 entities that have filed lawsuits.  The value of the settlement could reach $12 billion.

But some of the states involved in the suits oppose the settlement, saying the company and the Sackler family that controls it are not offering enough and that the current terms would not produce the $12 billion in estimated relief.

Purdue Pharma Chairman Steve Miller rejected criticism of the settlement and said if instead the lawsuits go forward the only result would be to waste money on the legal fight that could otherwise be part of the agreement.

The Sacklers have offered to pay $3 billion under the settlement, and said they want the company to be utilized for public benefit.  That could include providing communities with free doses of drugs the company has created to combat overdoses and addiction to opioids.

The New York Attorney General’s office alleged in a Friday court filing that members of the Sackler family used hidden accounts to transfer $1 billion to themselves.  The family said the transfers were done decades ago and were legal.

U.S. government data shows the number of drug overdose deaths involving opioids rose from 8,000 in 1999 to 47,600 in 2017.

…

A new large supply transport ship will help the Beijing government ferry supplies to its holdings in the disputed South China Sea, a resource-rich waterway contested by other countries.

China has alarmed the other countries since 2010 by landfilling small islets for military use. Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan, Vietnam and the Philippines contest all or parts of the 3.5 million-square-kilometer sea with China. China claims about 90% of it.

The Sansha No. 2 transport ship that passed trial in August can “cover the whole South China Sea,” Chinese state-run Xinhua News Agency reports. The vessel with a displacement of  over 8,000 metric tons will help civilian and military work, Xinhua says.

The ship will help take equipment to the sea’s Paracel Islands – controlled by China but hotly disputed by Vietnam – and possibly further to the more widely contested Spratly Islands, analysts predict.

“They’re expanding their capabilities in all areas,” said Jay Batongbacal, international maritime affairs professor at University of the Philippines. “Deploying in the disputed areas is even more symbolic. It’s also more important for them, because they’re able to keep ahead of the rest of the region.”

Extra-large ship

China’s second transport ship in its class, and one with an especially large displacement, will probably take ammunition, food, water, and power generation gear to the islets it now controls, said Andrew Yang, secretary-general of the Chinese Council of Advanced Policy Studies in Taiwan.

The newest ship will “increase logistics support” for troops stationed on the islets, Yang said. “They have troops and operations stationed there, so they certainly need some kind of more capable logistical support systems,” he said.

The tropical sea stretches from Hong Kong south to Borneo. The six claimants prize it for fisheries, energy reserves and marine shipping lanes.

Sansha No. 2’s late August trial run took it to Woody Island in the Paracel chain. The ship can go 6,000 kilometers without refueling and carry up to 400 people, Xinhua says. 

China operates a military runway on Woody Island and keeps troops there. A transport that went into use on the island 11 years ago could carry just 2,540 metric tons. 

On three major islets in the Spratly chain, China has built runways and military aircraft hangars, according to an initiative under U.S. think tank Center for Strategic & International Studies.

Unique advance for China

Other countries with South China Sea claims lack China’s military power or technology. The People’s Liberation Army, the world’s third largest, flew bombers to the Spratly Islands last year. China plans to deploy floating nuclear power stations to the sea in 2020, according to the U.S. Department of Defense.

The transport ship marks the “latest technology” for China, Batongbacal said. China will probably produce more vessels of the same type to set up a rotation, Yang forecast.

The builder of Sansha No. 2 and its predecessor Sansha No. 1 plans to work on a third transport vessel “to provide better service to personnel stationed on islands”, Xinhua says.

Taiwan sometimes sends a transport to the Spratly chain, Yang said. Taiwan, however, has just one major holding in that archipelago.

Vietnam’s navy operates transport vessels but uses smaller fishing boats for South China Sea transport jobs, said Collin Koh, maritime security research fellow at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. China could disrupt resupply missions handled by smaller vessels, he said.

“The issue here is more about whether the other claimants can resupply their garrisons uninterrupted the way the Chinese will enjoy in the South China Sea,” Koh said.

The United States, China’s former Cold War foe and a modern-day economic rival, began increasing the number of ship passages through the South China Sea in 2017 under U.S. President Donald Trump. Washington does not claim the waterway but believes it should be open for international use.

…

Members of the United Auto Workers union began a strike Monday against General Motors as the two sides remain apart on the terms of a new contract.

Talks are set to resume Monday, but plants that makes cars and parts in nine states will be closed with nearly 50,000 workers off the job.

Union Vice President Terry Dittes said the decision to go on strike was a last resort, but necessary. The union wants better wages and health care, as well as job security and profit sharing.

General Motors says it has offered pay raises, profit sharing and good health benefits, along with billions of dollars in investments in manufacturing facilities that would bring more jobs.

The last UAW strike at General Motors came in 2007.

Union contracts with Ford and Fiat Chrysler were also due to expire, but have been extended indefinitely.  Any contract reached with General Motors will serve as a template in negotiations with the other companies.

…

Thirty-six people are missing after a boat sank in the Congo river on the outskirts of Kinshasa, DR Congo police said on Sunday.

The vessel, which was traveling to the capital, went down overnight in Maluku commune, about 100 kilometers from the center of the city.

Seventy-six people survived, police wrote on Twitter.

“The cause of the accident is not yet known,” police spokesperson Colonel Pierrot-Rombaut Mwanamputu told AFP.

Lake and river transport is widely used in Democratic Republic of Congo as the highway system is poor, but accidents are common, often caused by overloading and the unsafe state of vessels.

The boat involved was called a “baleiniere” or “whaler” — a commonly-used flat-bottomed vessel between 15 to 30 meters (50 to 100 feet) long by two to six meters wide.

In the vast majority of accidents, passengers are not equipped with life jackets and many cannot swim.

…

Several Democratic presidential candidates on Sunday lined up to call for the impeachment of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh in the face of a new, uninvestigated, allegation of sexual impropriety when he was in college.

Kavanaugh was confirmed last October after emotional hearings in the Senate over a sexual assault allegation from his high school years. The New York Times now reports that Kavanaugh faced a separate allegation from his time at Yale University and that the FBI did not investigate the claim. The latest claim mirrors one offered during his confirmation process by Deborah Ramirez, a Yale classmate who claimed Kavanaugh exposed himself to her during a drunken party.

When he testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee last year, Kavanaugh denied all allegations of impropriety .

Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., said after the new report that “Brett Kavanaugh lied to the U.S. Senate and most importantly to the American people.” She tweeted: “He must be impeached.”

A 2020 rival, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, tweeted that “Confirmation is not exoneration, and these newest revelations are disturbing. Like the man who appointed him, Kavanaugh should be impeached.”

Former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke asserted in a tweeted, “We know he lied under oath. He should be impeached.” He accused the GOP-run Senate of forcing the FBI “to rush its investigation to save his nomination.”

Their comments followed similar ones from Julian Castro, a former U.S. housing secretary, on Saturday night. “It’s more clear than ever that Brett Kavanaugh lied under oath,” he tweeted. “He should be impeached and Congress should review the failure of the Department of Justice to properly investigate the matter.”

Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont didn’t refer to impeachment by name in a tweet Sunday, but said he would “support any appropriate constitutional mechanism” to hold Kavanaugh “accountable.”

Later Sunday, Sen. Cory Booker tweeted: “This new allegation and additional corroborating evidence adds to a long list of reasons why Brett Kavanaugh should not be a Supreme Court justice. I stand with survivors and countless other Americans in calling for impeachment proceedings to begin.”

Democrats control the House, which holds the power of impeachment. If the House took that route, a trial would take place in the Senate, where Republicans now have a majority, making it unlikely that Kavanaugh would be removed from office.

Trump, who fiercely defended Kavanaugh during his contentious confirmation process, dismissed the latest allegation as “lies.”

In a tweet Sunday, Trump said Kavanaugh “should start suing people for libel, or the Justice Department should come to his rescue.” It wasn’t immediately clear how the Justice Department could come to the justice’s defense.

Trump added that they were “False Accusations without recrimination,” and claimed his accusers were seeking to influence Kavanaugh’s opinions on the bench.

…

Hong Kong protesters clashed with  police Sunday.

Protesters threw Molotov cocktails and bricks at police near the Legislative Council building.

Police responded by firing water cannons filled with blue jets of water, a practice usually initiated to identify protesters later.

Thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators were on Hong Kong’s streets Sunday.

The weekend demonstrations have continued for three months despite the Hong Kong government’s promise to withdraw extradition legislation that sparked the protests. Dissenters have since broadened their demands for the direct election of their leaders and police accountability.

The protesters saw the bill that would have allowed some Hong Kong criminal suspects to be extradited to mainland China for trial as an example of the erosion of Hong Kong’s autonomy since the former British colony was returned to China in 1997.

More than 1,300 people have been arrested since the demonstrations began in early June.

The increasingly violent demonstrations have further damaged Hong Kong’s economy, which had already been weakened by the U.S.-China trade war.

Earlier Sunday, demonstrators gathered outside the British consulate where they sang “God Save the Queen.”

Under an agreement with the former colonial power Britain, China has promised Hong Kong can maintain its free market system and democratic freedoms until 2047. But hundreds of thousands of people have turned out for marches to protest what residents of Hong Kong see as steady encroachment on those freedoms by Beijing.

…

Consultations have begun in Cameroon ahead of a national dialogue ordered by president Paul Biya. Civil society groups and opposition political parties are calling for the unconditional release of Anglophone separatist leaders and other political prisoners before discussions begin.

Cameroon Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute began consultations with political party leaders, civil society activists, opinion leaders, traditional rulers, lawmakers and clergy on September 11, one day after President Paul Biya called for a national dialogue to solve the separatist crisis rocking his country.

Prince Ekosso, president of the United Socialist Democratic Party, says among the recommendations they are strongly making for the announced dialogue to be successful are the unconditional release of all people he says are illegally held in prisons and detention centers and an end to the separatist war in the English-speaking regions of Cameroon.

“Mr. Biya should call for a cease-fire. He was the one who declared war against the separatists. Release all those who are political prisoners in Cameroon including Maurice Kamto and Tabe Ayuk Sisseku [Julius Ayuk Tabe], and he should create a situation where all Cameroonians can express their will,” said Ekosso.

Biya declared war on the Anglophone separatists in November 2017 and said he would crush them if they did not surrender.

In August, the Yaounde military tribunal gave life sentences to Julius Ayuk Tabe, the leader of the separatist movement, and nine others it said had been found guilty of secession, terrorism and hostility against the state.

Opposition leader Maurice Kamto, who came in second in the October presidential election, but claims to have won, is on trial with dozens of others in a military tribunal on insurrection charges.

Biya has insisted that he will maintain Cameroon as one nation and indivisible. Justin Roger Ndah, assistant secretary-general of the opposition MRC party says they are urging the government to accept discussions on the form of the state.

He says Paul Biya should not think that speaking about the form of the state during the expected national dialogue is a taboo subject and an indication of his weakness. He says it is fundamental for all issues disturbing Cameroon to be brought to the discussion table and required constitutional amendments be made when the time comes.

Siddi Haman, a senior official of Biya’s CPDM party says people should see in the expected dialogue the president’s true will to bring peace to the country.

He says all Cameroonians should have confidence in Biya, who, as the father of the nation, has called for the dialogue. He says after the dialogue the president can use his constitutional power to grant the desires of the people, as the most important thing he is asking for before he leaves power is to maintain Cameroon as a peaceful, one and indivisible state with every one living in harmony.

The conflict in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions has killed more than 2,000 people, internally displaced more than 500,000 and caused more than 50,000 Cameroonians to seek refuge in Nigeria, according to the United Nations.

…

Less than two months into its term, Thailand’s post-junta government is fending off a series of challenges to its very existence, including a brewing political storm over the Cabinet’s failure to recite the full oath of office.

A general election in March returned the 2014 coup leader, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-ocha, to power to widespread criticism that his military junta had manipulated the contest in its favor. Two months later the country crowned a new king, Maha Vajiralongkorn, who has been consolidating power around the Royal Palace since the death of his father, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, in 2016. The country’s GDP growth rate has meanwhile dipped to its lowest level since just after the putsch.

Analysts expect the country’s courts to save Prayut’s new administration from collapse. They say, though, that a pending fight in the lower house of Parliament next week over the botched oath could further batter its already bruised image, especially if the economy continues to flag.

Legitimacy of administration challenged

By challenging the administration’s very legitimacy, the opposition parties are “trying to wake Thai people up to the fact that this is not a democracy; this is simply the continuation of the junta by a different form,” said Paul Chambers, a political analyst and lecturer at Thailand’s Naresuan University.

At a swearing-in ceremony July 16, Prayut and his 35 ministers lined up before the king and pledged their allegiance. They also swore to work for the people and country but left out the last few words of the official oath, which included a vow to “uphold and observe the Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand in every respect.”

The opposition says the omission raises fresh doubts about Prayut’s commitment to the rule of law. In theory it could also undo everything he and his Cabinet have done since taking the oath, including the approval of a draft 2020 budget and economic stimulus plan, if their tenure is ultimately deemed illegitimate.

Prayut has yet to explain why he and the ministers failed to recite the oath in full. Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam fueled speculation that it was deliberate while deflecting questions from local reporters in the days that followed.

“One day you’ll know why we shouldn’t talk about it,” he was quoted as saying by local media, adding that it was “something no one should stick his nose into.”

On Wednesday, the Constitutional Court bowed out of the brawl by claiming the matter was between Prayut and his Cabinet and the king. The Office of the Ombudsman had forwarded the original complaint to the court after deciding that the incomplete oath had breached the national charter.

Pitch Pongsawat, an assistant professor of political science at Thailand’s Chulalongkorn University, said he was not surprised by the decision from a court that has developed a reputation for siding with Thailand’s royalist, pro-military establishment.

“It’s unconstitutional,” he said of the swearing-in, “but [it] doesn’t matter with this regime … Everybody knows that they will find a way out.”

Parliament to grill Prayut

The opposition is scheduled to question the prime minister over the oath in Parliament Wednesday.

Pitch said the best it can hope for is to do more damage to the government’s democratic credentials by drawing an often truculent Prayut into a political faux pas or blunder under the pressure of a public grilling.

“If they do it very well … it will put the regime in trouble,” he said. “I think that’s what they’re aiming for.”

The day of the debate, the Constitutional Court is also set to rule on whether Prayut was even eligible to run for prime minister while still at the helm of the military government that followed the coup.

Eligibility questioned

The Constitution bars “state officials” from running for political office. A ruling against Prayut would trigger a new vote for prime minister in Parliament.

Pitch and Chambers expect the court to clear him one way or another, or draw the case out indefinitely.

Even if the government does survive, it may find it ever harder to actually govern.

Prayut’s Cabinet entered office with a razor-thin majority in the 500-seat lower house of Parliament to begin with. Having been passed over for ministry and legislative committee posts since then, a few of the coalition’s smallest parties recently announced that their votes were no longer guaranteed, leaving the parties remaining in the alliance with just under half the seats.

Pitch said, though, that the government was counting on lawmakers among the opposition parties to switch sides and make up for any losses when the time comes.

Chambers also noted that the lawmakers threatening to split from the ruling coalitions have said they were going “independent,” not necessarily joining the other side, possibly to win concessions for their continued loyalty.

“As independent MPs, they can demand more from the coalition for their vote. Actually they become more powerful,” he said.

Slowing economy

The one thing that just might bring the government down, Chambers said, had nothing to do with the courts, Constitution or Parliament.

“Probably the only thing that could really hurt this government is the economy,” he said. “If the economy sours increasingly … then those people who still like Prayut are going to wash their hands [of] the government. At that point there could be another election.”

Thailand’s year-on-year GDP growth hit 2.3% in the second quarter of 2019, its slowest pace in nearly five years.

The government spokesperson’s office would not comment for this story. A spokesman for Prayut’s party, Palang Pracharath, did not reply to a request for an interview.
 

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Promised talks this month between the United States and North Korea will give President Donald Trump yet another chance to conclude a deal with the reclusive nation, something that has eluded several of his predecessors.

But after three summits and more than two years of on-and-off talks, some analysts are asking just how well Trump’s self-proclaimed prowess as a dealmaker translates to the world of diplomacy.

This week, Pyongyang said it is willing to meet with Washington later in September through a message conveyed in its state media Korea Central News Agency (KCNA). 

“I think the record is beginning to become clear that he is not as great a dealmaker as he believes and as he has advertised,” said Alexander Vershbow, who served as an ambassador to South Korea during the George W. Bush administration.

Trump has presented himself as a master dealmaker who can transfer his business dealmaking skills into the world of politics and diplomacy since announcing his candidacy in 2015.

“I make a good deal,” Trump said as he prepared for his presidential bid for the White House in 2015.

“I make good deals. That’s what I do. I would make great deals for our country.” – my @SRQRepublicans speech

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 21, 2015

“Deals are my art forms,” said the author of “The Art of the Deal” in 2014. “I like making deals, preferably big deals. That’s how I get my kicks.”

Deals are my art form. Other people paint beautifully or write poetry. I like making deals, preferably big deals. That’s how I get my kicks.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 29, 2014

Christopher Hill, a chief U.S. negotiator in nuclear talks with North Korea during the George W. Bush administration, said, “I’m skeptical that that type of business dealmaking can really translate into diplomatic so-called dealmaking.”

Opportunity

Wendy Sherman, who served as North Korea policy coordinator during the administration of President Bill Clinton, said if Trump didn’t get a deal in the real estate development market, he could seek another opportunity.

“But when it comes to war and peace, when it comes to the economic prosperity of the United States, things are little bit more complicated,” Sherman said.

Baruch Fischhoff, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University’s Institute for Politics and Strategy, said Trump’s dealmaking with world leaders is influenced by his dealmaking in the business world.

“Mr. Trump’s business experience is primarily as a real estate developer,” Fischhoff said. “In that business arena, it was possible for him to have major properties go bankrupt and still get funding for new ones.”

In the world of business, deals are often viewed through the lens of cost and benefit analysis, and strategies involved are aimed at maximizing profit while minimizing cost, said Vershbow, the former Bush administration ambassador.

However, in the world of diplomacy, Vershbow continued, costs and benefits cannot always be assessed in monetary terms and strategies involved cannot solely be based on gaining financial advantage.

“In the business world, you’re talking about economic benefits and costs,” he said. “It’s kind of fairly dry but straightforward. In [diplomatic] negotiations, there’re many different factors in terms of building trust between different countries, different cultures, and calculating the interest of third parties who may not directly be involved but could be affected. So it’s more complex undertaking.”

It is in the international system of alliances where Trump’s business calculations tend to overshadow the building of relationships and fostering intrinsic values, said Bruce Klingner, former CIA deputy division chief of Korea and current senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation.

“Trump’s transactional views on the U.S. alliance and the stationing of American troops overseas are at odds with 70 years of post-World War II American strategy,” Klingner said. “Seeking alliances as business transactions, rather than based on [sharing] common values and strategic objectives, is a disservice to the men and women in the U.S. military.”

On the Korean Peninsula, Trump has been demanding that South Korea pay more to keep the U.S. troop presence there to guard against a North Korean threat. And while Seoul has agreed to pay more, it rejects Trump’s view that it is not paying enough. 

Top-down approach

In pursuing a denuclearization deal with Pyongyang, Trump began dealing with the North Korean leader himself in a so-called top-down approach toward diplomacy. This had the two leaders beginning the talks rather than adhering to the diplomatic convention of using working-level negotiators to put together a deal before any top-level meeting.

Sherman said, “The president sort of left things at the top and keeps saying what a great relationship he and Kim have.” She continued, “Personal relationships certainly matter. [But] in very complex negotiations, it is not nearly sufficient.”

Trump boasted of a beautiful letter he received from Kim even as North Korea was firing missiles in August amid stalled talks,  and Trump frequently said North Korea has “tremendous economic potential,” in an apparent move to lure Pyongyang to the negotiating table.

“Trump started talking about beachfront condos as he did in Singapore,” Hill said, mentioning the location of the first Trump-Kim summit in 2018. “Maybe he believes. I don’t think the North Koreans do. I don’t think anyone else does.”

At the Hanoi summit, Trump walked away from making a deal after North Korea rejected the U.S. proposal to give up its entire nuclear weapons program and instead offered a partial denuclearization in exchange for sanctions relief.

Vershbow said a big-deal approach that demands a full denuclearization up front is ineffective because of the complications involved, including getting North Korea to inventory its nuclear arsenal, and verifying and inspecting its nuclear program.

“[Trump] thinks he can have a big bang and all the issues will fall into place,” Vershbow said. “That’s sometimes possible. But in the case of North Korea, clearly, there are … tremendous complications …. so this is simply impossible to solve with a big bang. You need to accept certain incrementalism.”

Vershbow continued that a big deal approach could be risky, putting the U.S. and its allies, South Korea and Japan, in “a corner.”

“Once you say it’s all or nothing, either you succeed or if you fail, you’re sort of forced to escalate and possibly even bring in military threats rather than having more modest expectations and proceeding step-by-step and maybe creating some momentum,” he said.

Vipin Narang, a professor of political science and a North Korea expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said Trump might “blame [the outgoing National Security Adviser John] Bolton for the Hanoi hold-up, and reset America’s negotiating position toward a step-by-step deal, comprehensive in scope but implemented in phases.”

Trump announced he fired Bolton on Tuesday over disagreements on foreign policy issues, including North Korea. Bolton was known for taking a tough stance on North Korea, and against Trump’s overtures to Kim and their meeting at the inter-Korean border in June.

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A group of Native American women from several tribes in Oklahoma have launched a nonprofit organization they’re calling the “Auntie Project: Native Women of Service.”

Their goal is to help indigenous kids in need, beginning with child migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.

The idea came to them in June, after hearing that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) would move 1,400 unaccompanied migrant children to Fort Still, a U.S. Army post near Lawton, Oklahoma.

“And it struck a nerve in all of us,” said Amanda Cobb-Greetham, chair of the University of Oklahoma Native American Studies program and a member of the Chickasaw Nation.

Built in 1869 on the ancestral lands of the Kiowa, Comanche and Apache tribes, Fort Sill was the site where several Chiricahua Apache prisoners, including about 50 children, were “dumped unprotected” in the autumn of 1894, among them Chief Geronimo, who died there in 1909. 

“In fact, there were Native peoples born in captivity in Fort Sill even after Oklahoma statehood,” Cobb-Greetham said. “And there was an Indian boarding school there, for many, many years — that really tapped into our own and our families’ history as boarding school survivors.”

Childhood trauma

The Aunties, like Native Americans across the country, understand the trauma children suffer as a result of being separated from family and home.

“And we told ourselves, ‘If indigenous children are going to be at Fort Sill again, wouldn’t it be something if this time around they had some aunties looking out for them?” Cobb-Greetham said.

Her invoking of the term “indigenous” reflects the view of many Native Americans that migrants from Latin American countries are “family.”

“There has been more talk lately about how all Latin American peoples have indigenous roots, especially from Chicanesque peoples who have indigenous roots in Mexico,” said Christina Leza, a Yoeme-Chicana linguistic and cultural anthropologist at Colorado College.

“But I’m hearing it more and more from Native American activists who say that before the Europeans came, we were all indigenous people, so there’s that shared history of kinship,” Leza said.

It is not known what percentage of migrant detainees are indigenous, but a 2015 report by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said a number of detainees speak only indigenous languages, and other reports suggest ICE authorities have difficulty providing the translation services required by law.

Reaching families in need

HHS in late July announced it was holding off on plans to send children to Fort Sill, so the Aunties shifted their focus to families coming in from Mexico.

“What we have done is partner with the Oklahoma food bank,” Cobb-Greetham said. “They are part of an extensive network of food banks and can ensure that donations can be translated into food and delivered to the El Paso Food Bank.”

Cathy Nestlen, a spokesperson for the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma (RFBO), part of greater Feeding America network, explained how the Aunties’ donations will be spent.

“The Auntie Project is helping us to offset the cost that we have incurred towards food that we take to Texas,” Nestlen said. “The El Paso Food Bank been working with other nonprofits in the community because some migrant families are being released into the community as they await whatever the court system has in place for them. There’s nowhere for them to go, so the nonprofits and churches in El Paso provide them housing and food.”

The Aunties’ donations won’t reach thousands of unaccompanied minors picked up by U.S. immigration officials and transferred to any of more than 170 HHS child shelters in 23 states — 30 in Texas alone — as none of them accept donations.

That’s because legislation passed in 1870, the so-called Antideficiency Act, bans government workers and agencies from accepting or spending any money above what Congress gives them or accepting volunteer workers. The law came in response to 19th century abuses — agencies allowed themselves to run out of money early, assuming Congress would allocate more funds to keep them running. 

Texas Representatives Chip Roy, a Republican, and Vincente Gonzalez, a Democrat, have introduced twin bills that would allow ORR shelters to accept donations, but analysts say neither stands much chance of passing.

On Sunday, the Aunties will hold a fundraiser, where they will present the RFBO with a check for $10,000, the first, they hope, of many.

“Our goal right now is sustainability,” Cobb-Greetham said. “We would like to think that 20 years from now, something comes up and people might say, ‘Oh, you should call the Aunties!'”

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The Organization of Islamic Cooperation will hold an emergency meeting Sunday to discuss Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s intent to annex parts of the West Bank. 
 
The 57-member organization tweeted earlier this week that the meeting would be held “at the request of Saudi Arabia” in Jeddah.
 
On Saturday, Turkey’s Foreign Ministry said the OIC would meet to discuss “Netanyahu’s statements on the intention to annex Jordan Valley and the illegal settlements in the West Bank by Israel.” 

Jordan Valley, northern Dead Sea
 
Netanyahu said Tuesday that he planned to annex part of the occupied West Bank if he won re-election next week, a move that could significantly alter the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict. 
 
Netanyahu said in a live televised address that he intended to “apply Israeli sovereignty to the Jordan Valley and the northern Dead Sea,” a strategically important area, if he won on Sept. 17. 
 
Palestinian Liberation Organization executive committee member Hanan Ashrawi tweeted that annexation would destroy any chance of reaching an Israeli-Palestinian peace accord: 
 
“Netanyahu’s cheap pandering to his extremist racist base exposes his real political agenda of superimposing ‘greater Israel’ on all of historical Palestine & carrying out an ethnic cleansing agenda. All bets are off! Dangerous aggression. Perpetual conflict.”  

Anticipating Netanyahu’s announcement shortly before it was made, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said the Israeli leader was “a prime destroyer of the peace process.” 
 
Netanyahu’s announcement reaffirmed his pledge to annex all Jewish settlements in the West Bank, but he has said he will not act before publication of a long-awaited U.S. peace proposal and consultations with President Donald Trump. 
 
There has been no comment from the White House, but the Trump administration has been receptive to Israel’s annexation of at least portions of the West Bank. 
 
The Jordan Valley is a 2,400-square-kilometer (927-square-mile) area that accounts for nearly 30 percent of the territory in the West Bank, which Israel captured in a 1967 war. The Palestinians covet the valley for the eastern perimeter of a state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. 

Close race
 
Netanyahu is in the midst of a closely contested re-election bid. Voters will go to the polls Tuesday, five months after the country’s parliament was dissolved in a vote in which Netanyahu failed to assemble a government. Polls show he is even or slightly behind Benny Gantz, a moderate former army chief of staff. 
 
The prime minister is also facing a series of corruption charges. 
 
More than 400,000 Israelis live in West Bank settlements considered illegal by international law. About 2.7 million Palestinians live in the territory. 

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The flag-draped coffin had arrived, followed by black-clad family members, their heads bowed. Several dozen suited dignitaries marched in, chests puffed out. Military members stood rigid and proud. All of the pomp and circumstance one would expect at the memorial for a man hailed as an African icon was in place Saturday for the final public sendoff for Robert Mugabe.

But there was just one thing missing: A crowd.

Final Public Sendoff for Zimbabwe’s Mugabe Draws Light Turnout video player.

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Because, for the man known as the father of his nation, very few of Mugabe’s 16 million “children” showed up for his final public sendoff Saturday at Harare’s National Sports Stadium. The 60,000-capacity stadium was maybe one-third full. It was a poor showing compared to previous events, like the packed-to-the-rafters inauguration of the man who used the military to force Mugabe to resign two years ago.

Mugabe, the first president of independent Zimbabwe, died last week at the age of 95, after ruling for 37 years.

In attendance were a smattering of African heads of state and former heads of state – but no major leaders from outside the continent. Those who came included leaders like Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo – who has ruled Equatorial Guinea with an iron fist since 1979 – and Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, the son of independent Kenya’s first president. They praised Mugabe for fighting to liberate his country from the yoke of centuries of colonial rule.

But his own family described Mugabe, who was forced to resign in 2017, as a bitter man. His widow, Grace, draped head-to-toe in black lace, stood on the dais, her head down. The family’s spokesman, Walter Chidakwa, hailed the leader, but also offered some sharp words.

“Towards the end of his life,” he said, “he was a sad man. A sad, sad, sad man.”

So where was everyone on this sunny Saturday?

Many were in one of Harare’s hours-long petrol queues – a consequence of the shattered economy that many blame Mugabe for.

 Teacher Betty Mukombani told VOA she had no interest in driving to the stadium to bid farewell. At the time, she was staring down a four-hour wait in a petrol queue just a five-minute drive from the stadium.

“He’s the one who ruined the economy of Zimbabwe, so I have no interest in burying such a criminal,” she said.
 
And others in the queue, like archeologist Happy Marufu, say they have real relatives they’d rather be with.

“I should be doing something else or sometimes even relaxing with my family,” he said.

Even those who turned out to see off the father of the nation couldn’t resist making a point about this country’s ruined economy.

They sang, hundreds of them: Before, bread cost $1. Now, it costs $10.

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Congo’s National Ebola Response Committee says confirmed Ebola deaths in the east of the sprawling African nation are nearing 2,000 and confirmed cases of the virus have exceeded 3,000.

The committee released the latest numbers Friday after a discussion in Goma by the Catholic Church and the Anglican Church about efforts to help stem the spread of Ebola in communities. A mistrust of health workers and widespread security issues still threaten the fight against the second deadliest outbreak of Ebola in history in a region where armed groups have fought for decades over the mineral-rich land.

The committee reported 3,002 confirmed Ebola cases with 1,974 deaths.
 
The World Health Organization said Friday they recorded the lowest weekly incidence of Ebola since March 2019 with 40 new cases, but said it was unclear if this positive trend would continue.

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While the political and economic crisis worsens in Venezuela, countries in the Western Hemisphere continue to be economically impacted by migrants seeking refuge and asylum. To help alleviate some of the burden, the United States Navy has deployed the Comfort hospital ship to assist countries like Colombia, Ecuador and Costa Rica. VOA’s Cristina Caicedo Smit visited the ship on one of its last stops, Trinidad and Tobago.

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The White House said Saturday that the son of al-Qaida founder Osama bin Laden has been killed in a U.S. counterterrorism operation in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region.

The White House said in a statement, “The loss of Hamza bin Ladin (Laden) not only deprives al-Qaida of important leadership skills and the symbolic connection to his father, but undermines important operational activities of the group.”

The younger bin Laden was described by the White House as “the high-ranking al-Qaida member” who was “responsible for planning and dealing with various terrorist groups.”

Some media organizations previously reported earlier this summer Hamza bin Laden had been killed about two years ago, but it was not confirmed by the administration of President Donald Trump until Saturday.

Hamza bin Laden was believed to have been in his 30s.
 
His father declared war against the U.S. in 1996 and was the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on the United States. U.S. Navy SEALs killed him in a raid on a house in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in 2011.

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