The impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump centers on the question of whether he suspended close to 400 million dollars in U.S. military aid to Ukraine to pressure President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate one of his own political opponents. Top U.S. diplomats and other foreign policy experts said any threat to that U.S. security assistance sends the wrong signal, both to Ukraine, and to the stronger power it is fighting on its own soil, Russia. VOA’s Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports from Washington.
 

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New rules from the Trump administration Friday would require insurers and hospitals to disclose upfront the actual prices for common tests and procedures to promote competition and push down costs.

But the sweeping changes face stiff pushback from the health care industry. A coalition of major hospital groups quickly announced that hospitals will sue to block key provisions, which in any case don’t take effect immediately.

Even in an ideal world where information flows freely, patients and their families would have to deal with a learning curve to get comfortable with the byzantine world of health care billing. What sounds like the same procedure can have different billing codes depending on factors that may not be apparent to an untrained person.

Speaking at a White House event, President Donald Trump skipped over potential difficulties, at times making it sound like openness in health care is a done deal.

“After many, many years, we finally have transparency,” Trump said. “And within about 12 months I think it will be fully implemented, and we can even say probably a shorter period of time than that.”

Months, years from taking effect

A final rule issued Friday would apply to hospitals and a proposed regulation would apply to insurance plans. Disclosure requirements for hospitals would not take effect until 2021; for insurers, the timing is unclear. The requirements do not directly affect doctors.

Officials say the rules would shine a spotlight on the confusing maze of health care prices, allowing informed patients to find quality services at the lowest cost. Prices for an MRI scan for example can vary by hundreds of dollars depending on where it’s done.

“American patients have been at the mercy of a shadowy system with little access to the information they need to make decisions about their own care,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, pointing out that many hospital procedures are scheduled in advance, and that gives patients a chance to shop around.

Under the administration rules, insurers would have to provide patients with online access to individualized estimates, in advance, for what they would owe out-of-pocket for covered services. Most people now see such information after the fact, when their “explanation of benefits” form arrives in the mail.

Going too far?

Hospitals and insurers say the push for disclosure goes too far. They say the government would force them to publicly disclose rates they negotiate as part of private contracts that normally are beyond the purview of authorities.

“This rule will introduce widespread confusion, accelerate anticompetitive behavior among health insurers, and stymie innovations,” the American Hospital Association and three other major hospital groups said in a statement. “Our four organizations will soon join with member hospitals to file a legal challenge to the rule on grounds including that it exceeds the administration’s authority.”

Insurers also contend the plan could backfire, prompting providers that are accepting a bargain price to try to bid up what they charge if others are getting more. 

“Transparency should be achieved in a way that encourages — not undermines — competitive negotiations,” Matt Eyles, head of the industry trade group America’s Health Insurance Plans, said in a statement.

Azar dismissed such criticism. 

“Point me to one sector of the American economy where having price information in a competitive marketplace actually leads to higher prices,” he said.

With the hospital industry going to court, it could be a long time before the complex litigation is resolved and consumers might see changes.

For hospitals, the rule would require:

• Publication in a consumer-friendly manner of negotiated rates for the 300 most common services that can be scheduled in advance, such as a knee replacement, a Cesarean-section delivery or an MRI scan. Hospitals would have to disclose what they’d be willing to accept if the patient pays cash. The information would be updated every year.
• Publication of all their charges in a format that can be read on the internet by other computer systems. This would allow web developers and consumer groups to come up with tools that patients and their families can use.

For insurers, the rule would require:

• Creating an online tool that policyholders can use to get a real-time personalized estimate of their out-of-pocket costs for all covered health care services and items, from hospitalization, to doctor visits, lab tests and medicines.
• Disclosure on a public website of negotiated rates for their in-network providers, as well as the maximum amounts they would pay to an out-of-network doctor or hospital.

The disclosure requirements would carry out an executive order Trump signed this summer.
 

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Texas’ top criminal appeals court on Friday halted the scheduled execution of inmate Rodney Reed, whose conviction is being questioned by new evidence that his supporters say raises serious doubt about his guilt. 

The stay of execution by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals came just hours after the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles had recommended delaying the lethal injection. 

Reed, 51, had been set for lethal injection Wednesday evening for the 1996 killing of Stacey Stites, 19. Prosecutors say Reed raped and strangled Stites as she made her way to work at a supermarket in Bastrop, a rural community about 30 miles (50 kilometers) southeast of Austin. 

Celebrity support

Reed’s efforts to stop his execution have received support from such celebrities as Beyonce, Kim Kardashian and Oprah Winfrey. Lawmakers from both parties, including Texas GOP Senator Ted Cruz, have also asked that officials take a closer look at the evidence in the case. 

In its four-page order, the appeals court said Reed’s case should be returned to the trial court in Bastrop County so it could examine his claims that he is innocent and that prosecutors suppressed evidence and presented false testimony. 

Bryce Benjet, an attorney with the Innocence Project, which is representing Reed, said defense attorneys were “extremely relieved and thankful” to the appeals court. 

“This opportunity will allow for proper consideration of the powerful and mounting new evidence of Mr. Reed’s innocence,” Benjet said in a statement. 

The Texas Attorney General’s Office declined to comment Friday on whether it would appeal the order staying Reed’s execution. 

Earlier Friday, the parole board had unanimously recommended a 120-day reprieve for Reed. The board rejected Reed’s request to commute his sentence to life in prison. 

Next step: Governor’s office

The parole board’s decision was to go next to Governor Greg Abbott, who hasn’t said whether he would accept or reject it or do nothing. 

The stay likely makes Abbott’s decision moot. Since taking office in 2015, Abbott has halted only one imminent execution, in 2018. 

Since Texas resumed executions in 1982, only three death row inmates have had their sentences commuted to life in prison by a governor within days of their scheduled executions. 

Reed has other appeals pending, including with the U.S. Supreme Court. His supporters have held rallies, including an overnight vigil on Thursday in front of the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. It was unclear if a rally planned for Sunday in front of the Texas governor’s mansion would still take place. 

Reed has long maintained he didn’t kill Stites and that her fiance, former police officer Jimmy Fennell, was the real killer. Reed says Fennell was angry because Stites, who was white, was having an affair with Reed, who is black. 

Fennell’s attorney has said his client didn’t kill Stites. Fennell was paroled last year after serving time in prison for sexual assault. 

In their most recent motion to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, Reed’s lawyers alleged prosecutors suppressed evidence or presented false evidence related to Fennell. 

Prosecutors say Reed’s semen was found in the victim, his claims of an affair with Stites were not proven at trial, Fennell was cleared as a suspect and Reed had a history of committing other sexual assaults. 

Reed’s lawyers say his conviction was based on flawed evidence. They have denied the other sexual assault accusations made by prosecutors. 

DNA testing sought

Reed’s attorneys filed a federal lawsuit in August to compel DNA testing of crime scene evidence, including the suspected murder weapon. His lawyers say the testing, which has been fought for years by prosecutors, could identify someone else as the murderer. The lawsuit is still pending. 

In recent weeks, Reed’s attorneys have presented affidavits in support of his claims of innocence, including one by a former inmate who claims Fennell bragged about killing Stites and referred to Reed by a racial slur. Reed’s lawyers say other recent affidavits corroborate the relationship between Stites and Reed and show Fennell was violent and aggressive toward her. 

…

Israel says its missile defenses have intercepted two rockets fired from the Gaza Strip.

The firings early Saturday raise more doubts about the fate of a fragile cease-fire that was announced Thursday.

The Egyptian-brokered lull ended two days of escalation between Israel and the Islamic Jihad.

A rare Israeli targeted killing of a senior commander from the Iranian-backed group triggered the worst bout of cross-border fighting in years.

Hamas, the larger Islamic group controlling Gaza, stayed on the sideline, fearing its participation could cause an all-out war.

The Islamic Jihad said it launched hundreds of rockets toward Israel in retaliation for the killing of the commander Bahaa Abu el-Atta.

Subsequent Israeli airstrikes killed 34 Palestinians, including eight children and three women. There were no Israeli deaths.

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A federal jury found Friday that an anti-abortion activist had illegally recorded workers secretly at Planned Parenthood clinics and was liable for violating federal and state laws. The jury ordered him and others to pay nearly $1 million in damages. 
 
After a six-week civil trial, the San Francisco jury found David Daleiden had  trespassed on private property and had committed other crimes in recording the 2015 videos. He and the Center for Medical Progress contended that Planned Parenthood illegally sells fetal tissue, which the group says it does not do. 
 
Daleiden and a co-defendant, Sandra Merritt, are set to go on trial starting Dec. 6 on 14 counts each of invasion of privacy. They have pleaded not guilty and argue they are undercover journalists shielded from prosecution. 
 
Planned Parenthood sued the activists as part of what the group called “a multiyear illegal effort to manufacture a malicious campaign.” 
 
“The jury recognized today that those behind the campaign broke the law in order to advance their goals of banning safe, legal abortion in this country, and to prevent Planned Parenthood from serving the patients who depend on us,” the organization’s acting president and CEO, Alexis McGill Johnson, said in a statement. 

‘Biased judge’
 
Daleiden said the jury had reached the verdict after a “biased judge with close Planned Parenthood ties spent six weeks trying to influence the jury with pre-determined rulings and suppressed the video evidence.” 
 
The judge barred the release of some of the videos. 
 
Daleiden and Merritt sneaked into numerous Planned Parenthood meetings and other abortion rights gatherings and shot undercover videos of their attempts to buy fetal material. They published the videos in 2015. 
 
Planned Parenthood says it doesn’t sell fetal material for profit and charged only modest expenses to cover costs of donating it for medical research. The organization stopped seeking reimbursement for its shipping costs, and it never faced charges. 
 
Planned Parenthood said punitive and compensatory damages from Friday’s ruling totaled $2.3 million. 

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U.S. regulators on Friday approved a new medicine that can prevent some extremely painful sickle cell disease flare-ups.

The Food and Drug Administration approved Novartis AG’s Adakveo for patients 16 and older. The monthly infusion, which halves occurrences of sickle cell pain episodes, will carry a list price of roughly $85,000 to $113,000 per year, depending on dosing. Insured patients generally will pay less.

Sickle cell disease is one of the most common inherited blood disorders, affecting about 100,000 Americans, most of them black, and about 300 million people worldwide.

Its hallmark is periodic episodes in which red blood cells stick together, blocking blood from reaching organs and small blood vessels. That causes intense pain and cumulative organ damage that shortens the lives of people with the disease.

“The duration and severity of these pain crises worsens with aging. Often patients die during one of these crises,” said Dr. Biree Andemariam, chief medical officer of the Sickle Cell Disease Association of America.

Andemariam, a former Novartis adviser, said the drug appears to work better the longer patients receive it.

The Swiss drugmaker is continuing patient testing to determine whether Adakveo, also known as crizanlizumab, lengthens patients’ lives, said Ameet Mallik, the company’s head of oncology and blood disorder research.

He said severe pain episodes send U.S. patients to emergency departments about 200,000 times per year. About 85% are hospitalized for days to a week, running up big bills.

The debilitating condition also causes anemia, delayed growth, vision damage and painful swelling in hands and feet, making it hard for some people to maintain jobs or attend school.

Current treatments include a 21-year-old cancer drug called hydroxyurea and Endari, approved in 2017.

In patient studies, Endari reduced frequency of pain episodes about 25% and hydroxyurea reduced them by half. Hydroxyurea can have serious side effects and requires weekly blood tests. 

Both drugs have complicated dosing and don’t work — or stop working — in some patients.

In a one-year study of 198 patients, those getting the higher of two Adakveo doses averaged 1.6 pain episodes over that year and 36% had none. A comparison group on placebo averaged three pain episodes that year and 17 percent had none. Adakveo’s side effects included influenza and high fever.

Danielle Jamison, of Islandton, South Carolina, has suffered with sickle cell pain episodes since shortly after birth. The 35-year-old previously had a half-dozen pain crises requiring hospital trips each year. Those lessened by about half when she began taking hydroxyurea nine years ago.

She hasn’t been in the hospital since she started taking crizanlizumab two years ago as part of a patient study. She still has mild daily pain, but she said she can now take care of her home and drive her 9-year-old daughter to activities.

“It’s made a huge difference in how much I’m able to do,” Jamison said.

All three drugs work through different mechanisms, so doctors may switch patients to Adakveo or to add it to their current treatment, said Andemariam, head of University of Connecticut’s sickle cell treatment and research program.

Meanwhile, numerous drugs to treat sickle cell disease and gene therapies to possibly cure it are being tested.

…

The founder of a Malawian maternity clinic for poor women says it has set a record – delivering more than 8,800 babies with not a single death of mother or child. For her efforts improving access to safe childbirth, Charity Salima has become known as “Malawi’s Florence Nightingale,” the English founder of modern nursing. Lameck Masina reports from Lilongwe.
 

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The Hong Kong government condemned Friday an attack by a “violent mob” on the city’s justice secretary in London, the first direct altercation between demonstrators and a government minister during months of often violent protests.

Secretary for Justice Teresa Cheng, who was in London to promote Hong Kong as a dispute resolution and deal-making hub, was targeted by a group of protesters who shouted “murderer” and “shameful.”

A statement by the Hong Kong government said Cheng suffered “serious bodily harm” but gave no details. Video footage of the incident showed Cheng falling to the ground.

Hong Kong’s leader Carrie Lam said in a statement she strongly condemned what she described as an attack on Cheng.

The Hong Kong government said in a separate statement: “The secretary denounces all forms of violence and radicalism depriving others’ legitimate rights in the pretext of pursuing their political ideals, which would never be in the interest of Hong Kong and any civilized society.”

Street cleaned dies, city paralyzed

The incident came amid escalating violence in Chinese-ruled Hong Kong, where a student protester died earlier this month after falling from a parking garage during demonstrations.

A 70-year-old street cleaner, who videos on social media showed had been hit in the head by a brick thrown by “masked rioters,” died Thursday, authorities said.

The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department expressed profound sadness Friday at the death of its cleaning worker and said it was providing assistance to his family.

Anti-government protesters paralyzed parts of Hong Kong for a fifth day Friday, forcing schools to close and blocking some highways as students built barricades in university campuses and authorities struggled to tame the violence.

Protesters used barriers and other debris to block the Cross-Harbour Tunnel that links Hong Kong island to Kowloon district, leading to severe traffic congestion. The government once again urged employers to adopt flexible working arrangements amid the chaos.

Protesters call for elections

Thousands of students remain hunkered down at several universities, surrounded by piles of food, bricks, petrol bombs, catapults and other homemade weapons.

Police said the prestigious Chinese University had “become a manufacturing base for petrol bombs” and the students’ actions were “another step closer to terrorism.”

Those protesters demanded that the government commit to holding local elections Nov. 24. The protesters and warned of unspecified consequences if the government didn’t meet their demand within 24 hours.

The district council elections are seen as a barometer of public sentiment in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory. Pro-democracy activists say the government may use the escalating violence as a reason to cancel the elections.

Around 4,000 people, between the ages of 12 and 83, have been arrested since the unrest escalated in June.

No end in sight to violence

The demonstrations have paralyzed parts of the city and battered the retail and tourism sectors, with widespread disruptions across the financial center and no end in sight to the violence and vandalism.

The protests escalated in June over a now-scrapped extradition bill that would have allowed people to be sent to mainland China for trial. They have since evolved into calls for greater democracy, among other demands.

Cheng, the embattled Lam’s chief legal adviser, played a key role in pushing forward the proposed extradition bill that ignited the protests.

The months-long protests have plunged the former British colony into its biggest political crisis in decades and pose the gravest popular challenge to Chinese President Xi Jinping since he came to power in 2012. Xi, speaking in Brazil on Thursday, said stopping violence was the most urgent task for Hong Kong.

The territory is also expected to confirm Friday it has fallen into recession for the first time in a decade amid concerns the economy could be in even worse shape than feared as the anti-government protests take a heavy toll.

Alibaba Group Chairman Daniel Zhang, however, said Hong Kong’s future is “bright” as the e-commerce giant kicked off a retail campaign for its secondary listing in the city.

Many in Hong Kong are angry at what they see as China stifling freedoms guaranteed under the “one country, two systems” formula put in place when Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule in 1997.

China denies interfering in Hong Kong and has blamed Western countries, including Britain and the United States, for stirring up trouble. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Roughly one in 10 migrants pushed back to Mexico to await U.S. court hearings under a Trump administration program have been caught crossing the border again, a top border official said Thursday.

Acting U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Mark Morgan said during a White House briefing that migrants returned to Mexico under a program known as the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) have a 9% recidivism rate. Many of those migrants intend to seek asylum in the United States.

“Unfortunately, some of the individuals in the MPP program are actually going outside the shelter environment,” Morgan said. “They’re re-engaging with the cartels because they’re tired of waiting. And that’s when we’re hearing that some of that further abuse and exploitation is happening.”

Nearly 59,000 migrants have been returned to Mexico under the program, according to a CBP spokesman.

Program to deter Central Americans

The administration of President Donald Trump launched the MPP program in January as part of a strategy to deter mostly Central American families from trekking to the U.S. border to seek asylum. Trump officials have argued the bulk of such claims for protection lack merit and that migrants are motivated by economic concerns.

Immigration advocates say asylum seekers sent to wait in Mexican border towns, for the weeks or months it takes for their cases to wind through backlogged immigration courts, face dangerous and possibly deadly conditions.

Migrants who claim fear of returning to Mexico can ask to stay in the United States for the duration of their court case.

But just 1% of cases have been transferred out of the program, according to a Reuters analysis of federal immigration court data as of early October.

Report criticizes program

A report released by the office of U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley on Thursday criticized the MPP program and the Trump administration’s handling of a migrant surge earlier this year.

The report, citing interviews with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services employees, said political supervisors at the agency intervened to override asylum officer decisions to remove migrants from the MPP program.

An agency spokeswoman called the allegation “completely false” and said political appointees do not conduct reviews of such decisions.

Border Patrol arrested 35,444 people in October, the fifth consecutive monthly decline this year, according to a CBP official. The administration has said the MPP program and other measures have helped lead to a decline in border arrests.”

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On Aug. 13, 2018, Bobi Wine was in campaign mode.

The popular musician-turned-parliamentarian was attending a rally for Kassiano Wadri, a politician from Uganda’s Arua region, in the north of the country.

There, Wine says, government forces ambushed, arrested and tortured him.

On his Facebook page, Wine later shared his ordeal.

“The marks on my back, ankles, elbows, legs and head are still visible. I continued to groan in pain and the last I heard was someone hit me at the back of the head with an object — I think a gun butt or something,” Wine wrote. “That was the last time I knew what was going on.”

Wine’s driver, Yasin Kawuma, was fatally shot during the violence that day. 

Wine, a vocal critic of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, is certain security forces knew where he’d be and meticulously planned their attack.

Reporting by The Wall Street Journal this summer confirms his claims and shows that Ugandan intelligence officials, with the help of employees of Chinese tech giant Huawei, hacked into Wine’s WhatsApp and Skype accounts to monitor the dissident and his supporters.

In an interview Wednesday, Wine told VOA he’s now adopted a sophisticated routine to throw government spies off his trail using burner phones and old-fashioned code words.

“What I’ve been doing to protect myself and the people that I communicate with is, one, to use coded language when I’m talking on the phone that is known,” he told VOA.

“I’ve been forced to devise means of changing telephone numbers and telephone headsets constantly to keep them on the wrong track,” Wine added. “And sometimes, when I have to move to a place and I don’t want to be followed by the regime, I’m forced to leave my phone behind or put my phone in a car that is going in a different region of the country while I’m going into another one. That alone is how I’m trying to maneuver to go around it.”

Denials

Huawei, who helped build a large portion of Africa’s cellular backbone, has also been implicated in allegations of spying on African diplomacy on behalf of the Chinese government.

But Ren Zhengfei, the founder of Huawei, firmly denies spying claims and says his company refuses to give up confidential information of clients and “would definitely say ‘no’ to such a request,” in a rare press conference at the company’s headquarters in January.

In a recent interview with VOA, Zambian President Edgar Lungu also addressed the question of spying on dissidents and opposition parties in the country. 

“There was this story that Huawei, the Chinese company, that I am spying on opposition party leaders, their phones and so on,” he said, describing what he thinks is a spread of misinformation.

He further explained that these claims are detrimental to the country’s image and foreign policy. 

“I think that we need to do more … so that the truth is given to the people, so that we are not demonized over fake news stories,” he said.

‘They were tracking me’

Wine, who was born Robert Kyagulanyi, says his first-hand experiences reveal the scope and sophistication of government-backed spying.

“Among the things I got to learn was that they were listening to my calls and having a copy of all that was WhatsApp chats and many other things, following my location every time,” he said. “I even learned that day when I was arrested and brutalized in Arua, it was because of that technology that they got that they could listen to my phones, and they were tracking me. And they know that they follow me on my phone and they know where I am and listening to my calls.”

The government’s paranoia won’t stop, Wine suggested, as long as they perceive him as a threat.

And he has no plans to back down.

Wadri, the candidate Wine campaigned for in 2018, won his seat in parliament.

Now Wine is gearing up for a new kind of campaigning, after announcing this summer his intention to run for president in Uganda’s 2021 polls.

VOA’s Peter Clottey contributed to this report.

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The parents of an American journalist who has been missing in Syria for the past seven years told VOA in an interview that they are convinced he is still alive and that the U.S. government should do what it can to reveal his whereabouts and ensure his safe return home.

The 38-year-old journalist, Austin Tice, went to Syria in May 2012 to cover the war as it was entering its second year. He was arrested three months later in August at a checkpoint in Darayya suburb, south of the capital Damascus, and has been missing since.

“In the event that Austin sees this interview, [we want him to know] that his mother and father love him very much and his siblings can’t wait to see him again,” Tice’s father, Marc Tice, told VOA. “We know he is strong and we know he will hang in there, and we can’t wait to hold him in our arms.”

Marc Tice said he and his wife, Debra Tice, believe their son is apprehended in Syria, most likely in areas currently under the Syrian government control. The couple have been trying relentlessly for years to secure the release of their son, albeit with no success.

“It doesn’t really matter who is holding him, the thing that really matters is who has the authority to secure his safe relief,” said his mother, Debra. “We know he is still alive; he is somewhere in Syria, most likely in Damascus or its whereabouts. He is staying alive because he wants to walk free.”

The parents have visited Lebanon several times hoping to get into Syria to appeal directly to the Syrian government. They were never granted a visa to enter the war-torn country.

A Marine

Tice is a veteran Marine officer who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. A graduate of the Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, he worked as a freelance journalist, reporting for several outlets such as The Washington Post, CBS and the French news agency.

His reporting on Syria focused on the escalating conflict and its consequences on vulnerable people, particularly children.

In a photo he posted on Flickr, June 19, 2012, he wrote, “I have more pictures of beautiful Syrian kids than I could ever possibly use. It breaks my heart to see what is happening to them. No kid should even have to know that things like this happen in the world, much less be forced to live and sometimes die this way.”

He was detained less than two months later, on Aug. 14, 2012.

Nearly five weeks after his disappearance, a video surfaced on social media showing Tice blindfolded and in distress among a group of men leading him away in what observers believe to be a staged video, according to the Tice family. Concurrently, multiple pro-Syrian regime news outlets also reported him being “still alive” and accused him of being a spy for Israel. 

The U.S. State Department has said it also believes Tice is still alive and it is actively working to bring him back. The FBI has allocated a $1 million reward for any information leading to his return.

His parents, however, say they believe more should be done to press the Syrian government for more information. The couple on Tice’s 38th birthday, Aug. 11, launched the “Ask About Austin” campaign to garner more popular support.

Organizations such as the National Press Club and Reporters Without Borders have also joined their efforts.

Congressional outreach

Last September, the National Press Club led teams of volunteers in a congressional outreach effort to inform congressional teams of Tice’s case. It lobbied U.S. lawmakers to sign a bipartisan letter to President Donald Trump urging “continued efforts to free Austin and return him to his family.”

The letter was sent to Trump after receiving 52 signatures from the Senate and 121 from the House of Representatives.

“We strongly urge you that you continue to use the full weight of your national security team — including dispatching the Special Envoy for Hostage Affairs — to secure his release. Seven years is simply too long for Austin to be separated from his loved ones,” read the letter led by Representative Eliot Engel, the chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

The campaign came after the release two foreigners recently from their detention in Syria, American Sam Goodwin and Canadian Kristian Lee Baxter. Both were released through Lebanon’s mediation.

Unbearable environment

Dozens of Syrian and foreign journalists who went to Syria to document the war have been killed or injured over the years.

According to the World Press Freedom Index, Syria continues to be an “unbearable environment” for journalists, where the risk of arrest, abduction or death makes journalism “extremely dangerous” in the country.

The Syrian Center for Journalistic Freedoms said in its September report that since the Syrian uprising started in 2011, about 1,251 violations were committed against journalists. It claimed that half of these violations were committed by the Syrian government, while the Islamic State group seconded the regime in targeting journalists.

…

Pope Francis has appointed a fellow Jesuit to be the Vatican’s finance minister, filling a crucial position left vacant for more than two years after Cardinal George Pell left Rome to stand trial on sex abuse charges in his native Australia.

The appointment Thursday of the Rev. Juan Antonio Guerrero Alves, a 60-year-old Spanish economist, came one day after Australia’s Supreme Court agreed to hear Pell’s appeal of his conviction that he molested two youths in the 1990s. Pell denies the charges.

Francis created the Secretariat for the Economy, and named Pell its prefect, as a key part of his financial reform plans after being elected pope in 2013. Pell tried to wrestle the Holy See’s opaque finances into order, but his efforts were rebuffed repeatedly by the Vatican’s old guard.

…

Former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick is making a late entry into the Democratic presidential race.

Patrick announced his bid Thursday in an online video, saying, “I am today announcing my candidacy for president of the United States.”

Patrick made history as the first black governor of Massachusetts and has close ties to former President Barack Obama and his network of political advisers. But he faces significant fundraising and organizational hurdles less than three months before voting begins.

Patrick’s announcement comes as some Democrats worry about the strength of the party’s current field of contenders. Another Democrat — former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg — is also weighing a last-minute bid for the party’s nomination.

 Bloomberg has taken steps toward launching a last-minute presidential campaign, filing candidate papers in Alabama and Arkansas. Even 2016 nominee Hillary Clinton this week said in a BBC interview that she is “under enormous pressure from many, many, many people to think about it,” adding that she has no such plans but still would “never, never, never say never.”

The moves reflect uncertainty about the direction of the Democratic contest with no commanding front-runner. Joe Biden entered the race as the presumptive favorite and maintains significant support from white moderates and black voters, whose backing is critical in a Democratic primary. But he’s facing spirited challenges from Patrick’s home-state senator, Elizabeth Warren, and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, progressives whose calls for fundamental economic change have alarmed moderates and wealthy donors.

Patrick could present himself as a potential bridge across the moderate, liberal and progressive factions — as candidates like Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Sen. Kamala Harris and Sen. Cory Booker are trying to do.

…

Waves of violent protests have engulfed Baghdad and Iraq’s southern provinces, with demonstrators chanting for the downfall of a political establishment that they say doesn’t prioritize them.

Fueling the unrest is anger over an economy flush with oil money that has failed to bring jobs or improvements to the lives of young people, who are the majority of those taking to the streets. They say they have had enough of blatant government corruption and subpar basic services.

At least 320 people have died, and thousands have been wounded since the unrest began on Oct. 1.

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UN: Deadly Iraq Protests Risk Spiraling Out of Control

The UN Human Rights Office blames most of the 269 deaths and more than 8,000 injuries on the use of live ammunition by Iraqi security forces and armed groups

“We are jobless and poor, but every day we see the flares of the oil fields,” said Huda, an activist in Basra, the province that accounts for the lion’s share of Iraq’s crude exports. She spoke on condition she be identified only by her first name for security reasons.

“Where do the millions go?” she asked.

It’s a good question. Oil accounts for roughly 85-90% of state revenue. This year’s federal budget anticipated $79 billion in oil money based on projected exports of 3.88 million barrels per day at a price of $56 a barrel. Iraq’s economy improved in 2019 due to an increase in oil production, and GDP growth is expected to grow by 4.6% by the end of the year, according to the World Bank.

The fruits of these riches are rarely seen by the average Iraqi because of financial mismanagement, bureaucratic inefficiency and corruption, experts and officials told The Associated Press. Overall unemployment is around 11% while 22% of the population lives in poverty, according to World Bank estimates. A striking one-third of Iraqi youth are without jobs.

“One of the main problems is that the oil wealth is spent on the public sector, and especially on salaries,” said Ali al-Mawlawi, head of research at al-Bayan Center, a Baghdad-based think-tank.

Iraq’s brand of sectarian power-sharing — called the “muhasasa” system in Arabic — effectively empowers political elites to govern based on consensus and informal agreements, marginalizing the role of parliament and alienating much of the Iraqi population in the process.

On the ground, this dynamic has played out through a quota system whereby resources are shared among political leaders, with each vying to increase networks of patronage and build support. To do this, leaders have relied on doling out government jobs as a foolproof method to preserve loyalty.

This tactic has bloated the public sector and drained Iraq’s oil-financed budget, leaving little for investment in badly needed social and infrastructure projects.

“That has been the approach,” said al-Mawlawi, “Patronage is based primarily on the provision of jobs rather than anything else. It’s the primary way to distribute resources — through the public sector.” In the 2019 budget, public sector compensation accounted for nearly 40% of state spending.

Iraq’s public sector grew in parallel with the development of the country’s oil industry following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that toppled dictator Saddam Hussein. With major international oil companies flocking to develop the country’s oil fields, the number of government employees grew three-fold in the last 16 years, according to al-Mawlawi’s research.

Offering jobs is also a recourse used by Iraqi politicians to quell protests in the past. Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi included thousands of hires in a reform package introduced last month. Experts said this approach only perpetuates the problem.

The trend is not unique to Iraq; oil-rich Gulf countries have experienced the same. But the oil sector’s inextricable link to Iraq’s muhasasa system has created a “Frankenstein version” of a typical phenomenon, said Ahmed Tabaqchali, a senior fellow at the Sulaymaniyah-based Institute of Regional and International Studies and Chief Investment Officer at Asia Frontier Capital Iraq Fund.

Because of muhasasa’s multiple, decentralized networks, “instead of one single authoritarian doing the hiring, we have many hiring as if on steroids,” Tabaqchali said.

Following the money trail of how ministries spend their budgets is difficult even for well-meaning reformers because there is little transparency and accountability.

The national budget has allocated increasing amounts every year for “goods and services,” which can vary from public service projects to mundane expenses like maintaining a ministry building. But many complain little progress can be seen on the ground.

In some cases, the money is simply not spent because of poor planning and management, said al-Mawlawi.

Last year’s budget ended with a surplus of around $21 billion “not because we had too much money, but because we didn’t know how to spend it the right way,” he said.

Often, money earmarked for service projects by the government or international organizations gets spent by ministry officials for expenditures, said an Iraqi official, who requested anonymity because of regulations. Officials lump all the budgets together for spending and then “they always prioritize petty things and claim the money isn’t enough for the project,” the official said.

Or the funds are used to pay debts accumulated from previous years, the official said. “So when it’s time to sign the contract, they say ‘no money’ because what they have isn’t enough.”

“There are thousands of ways bureaucrats can siphon it off,” the official added.

Crucial projects, meanwhile, remain incomplete.

School buildings in Basra, the province that accounts for the lion’s share of oil exports, are crumbling and overcrowded with multiple-shift programs.

On a recent visit to the Al-Akrameen school in the Abu Khaseeb neighborhood, headmaster Abdulhussain AbdulKhudher said he had asked the Education Directorate for funding to refurbish the school building erected in 1972 but was told there was no money.

“I rely on parents and volunteers to give furniture, keep the place clean for students so they can get an education,” he said.

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‘Silencing’ of Iraq Protests Coverage Feared After Attacks

Raids over the weekend carried out by unidentified gunmen have added to concerns for freedom of expression that were first flagged when authorities implemented a near-total internet blackout after anti-government protests erupted last week

Nearby, another school stood desolate. A young girl walked by and explained that it was empty and the students had been moved to another pre-existing school. “It will collapse any minute,” she said.

Iraqi leaders have been unwilling so far to reform the system, which experts said is unsustainable because of limited resources and overreliance on volatile oil markets.

Serious attempts were made following the 2015 financial crisis, when unpopular austerity measures were introduced by former Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi’s administration. But when oil prices recovered, political pressure trumped strict spending measures.

Abdul-Mahdi’s government saw a 25% increase in spending compared to previous years.

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Singer-songwriter Jesse Colin Young made history with the “Youngbloods” on their classic ‘60s peace anthem “Get Together.” Earlier this year, Jesse released his 19th solo album “Dreamers” and this is his first album of new material since 2006’s “Celtic Mambo.”

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The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services naturalized 833,000 people – an 11-year high in new oaths of citizenship – in fiscal year 2019, which ended September 30. This fiscal year, USCIS administered the Oath of Allegiance to 60 of America’s newest citizens, from 51 different countries, during a special naturalizing ceremony Tuesday at Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian.

Holding American flags in their left hands, the group raised their right hands, and placed them over their hearts, and took the Oath of Allegiance to the United States of America.

“It means a lot, joining one of the world’s greatest country of all times and able to serve this country,” said Sandra Amoah, a new U.S. citizen originally from Ghana.

For these 60 people from 51 different countries, young and old, this was the final step to become a naturalized citizen of the United States of America. But it also marked a new beginning in their lives.

“It’s going to open more doors for me for a young guy growing up, it’s a great opportunity right here,” Ghana native Yaw Opoku Amoah told VOA.

“I found it very emotional and I feel that it is a privilege that not very many people can obtain,” Virginia Growich, a new U.S. citizen who was born in England said.

Naturalizations Hit 11-Year High as Election Year Approaches video player.

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Becoming a U.S. citizen bestows many privileges, including being able to bring family members to the U.S., as well as being eligible for federal jobs and to run for public office. But in this crowd, many were excited to able to vote in upcoming presidential elections.

“I got my citizenship, and the most exciting part … next year it’s going to be vote and I will vote, yes,” said Sumreen Amer, a new citizen originally from Pakistan.

 “I am very interested in being able to vote,” Growich agreed.

While the Trump administration has proposed major cuts to legal and family immigration, and capped the number of refugees to the U.S. in 2020 at 18,000, USCIS, the government agency that oversees lawful immigration to the United States, naturalized 833,000 people in fiscal year 2019, an 11-year high in new oaths of citizenship.

Sarah Taylor, acting director of the Washington District, says one reason for the increase in naturalizations might be the upcoming election.

“So we did have a big uptick always before a presidential election. It stayed high in the last couple of years and we anticipated it will remain high,” Taylor said.

Coming from such countries as Afghanistan and Yemen, these new citizens are hopeful for a bright future for themselves and their families, as they said: naturalization will open new doors for them in this land of opportunities.

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Israeli aircraft struck Islamic Jihad targets throughout the Gaza Strip on Wednesday while the militant group rained scores of rockets into Israel for a second straight day as the heaviest round of fighting in months showed no signs of ending. The death toll rose to 24 Palestinians, including a 7-year-old boy and two other minors.

The U.N.’s Mideast envoy, Nickolay Mladenov, rushed to Cairo to work with Egyptian mediators on arranging a truce. An Islamic Jihad delegation was also expected in Egypt “very soon,” and Egyptian intelligence official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

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Rockets Fired into Israel after Israel Assassinated Islamic Jihad Leader

Israel closed all schools and work places from Tel Aviv south and is preparing for several days of clashes

“I am very concerned about the ongoing and serious escalation between Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Israel,” Mladenov said. “The U.N. is working to urgently de-escalate the situation.”

The fighting erupted early Tuesday after Israel killed a senior commander in the Islamic Jihad militant group, along with his wife, as they slept in their Gaza home. Israeli officials say Bahaa Abu el-Atta was responsible for numerous rocket attacks and was plotting a large-scale border infiltration.

Islamic Jihad, an Iranian-backed militant group sworn to Israel’s destruction, responded by launching dozens of rockets toward Israel, some reaching as far as Tel Aviv, prompting Israel to carry out scores of airstrikes.

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Video Raises Questions about Israeli Shooting of Palestinian

Israeli troops shot and killed a young Palestinian man during clashes in a West Bank refugee camp, but an amateur video indicated the man was unarmed and not participating in the unrest when he was shot

The rocket fire brought much of Israel to a standstill. Schools closed throughout southern Israel, people stayed home from work and large public gatherings were banned. Air raid sirens wailed during the day and into the evening. By Wednesday night, the army said 360 rockets had been fired at Israel.

In Gaza, schools and public institutions also were closed for a second day and there were few cars on the streets, with people mostly staying indoors. After nightfall, Gaza City resembled a ghost town, with streets empty and the whooshing sounds of outgoing rockets and explosions of Israeli airstrikes heard. Virtually the only vehicles on the roads were wailing ambulances.

Convening Israel’s top security officials, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he hoped the fighting would end quickly.

“We are not bent on escalation but we will do whatever is necessary to restore the quiet and security to the residents of Israel, including the residents of the south,” he said.

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Rights Group: Israel Demolished Record Number of Palestinian Homes in Jerusalem

The demolitions come amid a major increase in Jewish settlement activity both in east Jerusalem and in the occupied West Bank since President Donald Trump took office

Hamas, the larger and more powerful militant group that controls Gaza, has so far avoided entering the fray — a possible sign the violence could be brief.

Hamas, which has fought three wars with Israel, has a much more lethal arsenal than Islamic Jihad. But as the governing authority in the territory, it also is more pragmatic and appears to have little desire for more fighting at a time when Gaza’s economy is in tatters.

That could change if the fighting drags on and the death toll continues to climb. Palestinian health officials reported 24 dead from Israeli airstrikes, including at least 16 militants. Five civilians, including a woman and boys ages 17, 16 and 7, were among the dead. The identities of the others killed were not immediately known.

In the southern town of Khan Younis, the military fired a nonexplosive warning shot at the two-story home of the Zourob family late Tuesday to make them evacuate. Israel says the tactic, known as a “knock on the roof,” is meant to minimize casualties before a target is hit.

On Wednesday, Najab Zourob sat on the debris of her former home, next to a bomb crater, as her children tried to salvage belongings. She said she had no idea why their house had been targeted. “We don’t have any relations with any factions,” she said.

Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, an Israeli military spokesman, said the army was limiting its strikes to Islamic Jihad targets and avoiding conflict with Hamas to prevent an escalation.

“However, it’s very clear that if there will be Israeli casualties, the situation would change drastically and we would be forced to respond in a different manner,” he said.

Israeli tanks, armored vehicles and artillery batteries took up positions along the Gaza border.

No Israeli deaths were reported, in part because of Israel’s Iron Dome defense system, which the military said has a 90% success rate when deployed.

A few homes suffered direct hits, though, and there was a near miss on a major highway, where a rocket crashed just after a vehicle passed. In all, three people suffered slight wounds from shrapnel or shattered glass caused by rocket fire, medical officials said.

Israel’s strikes against Islamic Jihad marked the latest manifestation of a spreading battle between Israel and Iranian proxies in the region.

Iran has forces based in Syria, Israel’s northern neighbor, and supports Hezbollah militants in Lebanon. In Gaza, it supplies Islamic Jihad with cash, weapons and expertise.

Netanyahu also has claimed Iran is using Iraq and far-off Yemen, where Tehran supports Shiite Houthi rebels at war with a Saudi-led coalition backing the government, to plan attacks against Israel. Hamas also receives some support from Iran.

Israel frequently hits Iranian interests in Syria. But on Tuesday, Syrian officials said an Israeli airstrike targeted a senior Islamic Jihad militant in Damascus, a rare assassination attempt of a Palestinian militant in the Syrian capital. Israel did not comment on the airstrike, which missed the militant but killed two of his relatives.

Despite the disruption to daily life, there appeared to be widespread support in Israel for the targeting of Abu el-Atta.

Still, some opposition figures suggested the timing could not be divorced from the political reality in Israel, where Netanyahu leads a caretaker government while his main challenger, former military chief Benny Gantz, is trying to build his own coalition government.

With their parties unable to secure parliamentary majorities following a September election, the two rivals have both come out for a unity government. But each demands to be its leader, leaving political paralysis.

The Gaza fighting could force them into a partnership. Gantz has praised the airstrike, saying he was briefed ahead of time and has continued to receive updates.

A successful military operation could bolster Netanyahu as he seeks to retain power — especially if he is indicted on corruption charges.

Israel’s attorney general is to decide in the weeks ahead whether to indict Netanyahu, which would increase pressure on him to step down. He has sought to portray himself as being the most capable of steering the country through its many security challenges.

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Closing arguments began Wednesday in Roger Stone’s federal trial on charges he lied to Congress. 

A veteran Republican political operative and longtime confidant of President Donald Trump, Stone was indicted in January as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian electoral tampering. 

He is accused of lying to lawmakers about his attempts to communicate with the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks, tampering with witnesses and obstructing a House Intelligence Committee investigation into whether the Trump presidential campaign coordinated with Russia to tip the 2016 election. 

Several witnesses have highlighted how Trump campaign associates were eager to gather information about emails the U.S. says were hacked by Russia and then provided to WikiLeaks. 

Steve Bannon, who served as the campaign’s chief executive, testified that Stone had boasted about his ties to WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange, alerting them to pending new batches of damaging emails. Campaign officials saw Stone as the “access point” to WikiLeaks, he said. 

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Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell indicated Wednesday that the Fed is likely to keep its benchmark short-term interest rate unchanged in the coming months, unless the economy shows signs of worsening.

But for now, in testimony before a congressional panel, Powell expressed optimism about the U.S. economy and said he expects it will grow at a solid pace, though it still faces risks from slower growth overseas and trade tensions.

“Looking ahead, my colleagues and I see a sustained expansion of economic activity, a strong labor market, and inflation near our symmetric 2% objective as most likely,” Powell said in testimony before Congress’ Joint Economic Committee.

Fed policymakers are unlikely to cut rates, Powell said, unless the economy slows enough to cause Fed policymakers to make a “material reassessment” of their outlook.

The Fed cut short-term rates last month for the third time this year, to a range of 1.5% to 1.75%.

“It now looks increasingly likely that the Fed will move to the sidelines for an extended period,” Andrew Hunter, an economist at Capital Economics, a forecasting firm, said.

Powell’s testimony comes a day after President Donald Trump took credit for an “economic boom” and attacked the Fed for not cutting interest rates further. Powell and other Fed officials, however, argue that their rate cuts, by lowering borrowing costs on mortgages and other loans, have spurred home sales and boosted the economy.

Powell was asked about negative interest rates, which Trump also called for Tuesday, and responded that they “would certainly not be appropriate in the current environment.”

Negative rates occur “at times when growth is quite low and inflation is quite low, and you really don’t see that here,” Powell said.

Other Fed officials have also questioned whether cutting rates below zero has actually succeeded in boosting growth in places like Europe and Japan, where central banks have pushed rates into negative territory.

Despite Trump’s attacks, both Republican and Democratic lawmakers took a largely supportive and respectful approach to Powell. Several complimented him for the “Fed Listens” events the central bank has held around the country, which have sought input from a range of groups, including unions and nonprofits, on ways the Fed could update its monetary policy framework.

Powell repeatedly demurred when Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, pressed him on how higher tax rates would affect the economy, including wealth taxes that have been proposed by Democratic presidential candidates Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders.

But Powell did concede, under questioning from Cruz, that a ban on fracking would “not be a good thing for the economy.” Some Democrats have called for a fracking ban over environmental concerns about the controversial method for drilling for oil and gas.

Recent data suggests that growth remains solid if not spectacular. The economy expanded at a 1.9% annual rate in the July-September quarter, down from 3.1% in the first three months of the year. The unemployment rate is near a 50-year low of 3.6% and hiring is strong enough to potentially push the rate even lower.

Inflation, according to the Fed’s preferred gauge, is just 1.3%, though it has been held down in recent months by lower energy costs and most Fed officials expect it to move higher in the coming months.

Yet Powell reiterated that higher tariffs from the Trump administration’s trade war with China and uncertainty over potential future duties have caused many businesses to delay or cut back on their investment spending in large equipment and buildings. That has slowed economic growth.

“Uncertainty around future trade policy has been weighing on business sentiment,” Powell said. “It’s been a real distraction for management.”

Powell on Wednesday also urged Congress to lower the federal budget deficit so that lawmakers would have more flexibility to cut taxes or boost spending to counter a future recession.

“The federal budget is on an unsustainable path, with high and rising debt,” Powell said. “Over time, this outlook could restrain fiscal policymakers’ willingness or ability to support economic activity during a downturn.”

Other Fed officials have voiced similar concerns. Patrick Harker, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, said Tuesday that the large deficit, and the constraints it imposes on Congress in the event of a recession, “is one of the things I do lose sleep over.”

Powell also noted that with the Fed’s benchmark rate at historically low levels, the central bank will have less room to maneuver whenever the next downturn arrives.

“Central banks around the world are going to have less room to cut in this new normal of low rates and low inflation,” he said.

The Fed is exploring an alternative policy framework, Powell said, that it hopes will provide more flexibility. In typical recessions, the Fed cuts short-term rates by roughly 5 percentage points.

Powell reiterated that the Fed believes the unemployment rate could fall further without necessarily pushing inflation higher, a view that suggests the central bank is a long way off from hiking rates.

“The data is not sending any signal that the labor market is so hot or that inflation is moving up,” he said in response to a question from New York Rep. Carolyn Maloney, a Democrat and vice chair of the Joint Economic Committee. “What we have learned … is that the U.S. economy can operate at a much lower level of unemployment than many thought.”

Historically, super-low unemployment has been seen as likely to push up inflation, as workers push for higher pay and companies offer greater salaries to find and keep workers.

Powell’s testimony comes after many Fed officials in the past two weeks have voiced support for the Fed’s recent moves and expressed confidence in the economy. That contrasts with the Fed’s previous meetings when as many as three officials dissented.

Most analysts forecast that the Fed will hold rates steady when it meets next month. But some economists expect growth will slow in the coming months and the Fed will likely have to cut again next year.
 

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Drug-resistant “superbug” infections have been called a developing nightmare that make conquered germs once again untreatable.

So there’s some surprising news in a federal report released Wednesday: U.S. superbug deaths appear to be going down.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated about 36,000 Americans died from drug-resistant infections in 2017. That’s down 18% from 2013.

Officials credit an intense effort in hospitals to control the spread of particularly dangerous infections.

But while deaths are going down, the report says infections overall increased nationally. And while superbugs mainly have been considered a hospital problem, they are appearing much more often elsewhere.
 

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The most distant world ever explored 4 billion miles away finally has an official name: Arrokoth.

That means “sky” in the language of the Native American Powhatan people, NASA said Tuesday.

NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft flew past the snowman-shaped Arrokoth on New Year’s Day, 3 years after exploring Pluto. At the time, this small icy world 1 billion miles (1.6 billion kilometers) beyond Pluto was nicknamed Ultima Thule given its vast distance from us.

“The name ‘Arrokoth’ reflects the inspiration of looking to the skies,” lead scientist Alan Stern of Southwest Research Institute said in a statement, “and wondering about the stars and worlds beyond our own.”

The name was picked because of the Powhatan’s ties to the Chesapeake Bay region.

New Horizons is operated from Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Lab in Laurel, Maryland. The Hubble Space Telescope — which discovered Arrokoth in 2014 — has its science operations in Baltimore.

The New Horizons team got consent for the name from Powhatan Tribal elders and representatives, according to NASA. The International Astronomical Union and its Minor Planet Center approved the choice.

Arrokoth is among countless objects in the so-called Kuiper Belt, or vast Twilight Zone beyond the orbit of Neptune. New Horizons will observe some of these objects from afar as it makes its way deeper into space.

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