Chancellor Angela Merkel led a series of commemorations Saturday in the German capital to mark the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, which divided the city during the Cold War until it was breached and torn down on November 9, 1989. 
 
Merkel, who grew up in Communist East Germany, said, “The Berlin Wall is gone and that teaches us that no wall that excludes people and restricts freedom is so high or so wide that it cannot be broken through.” 
 
November 9 also is the anniversary of Kristallnacht, when Jews were attacked across Nazi Germany in 1938 — a foretaste of the horrors that would follow in the Holocaust.  

“The 9th of November, which reflects in a special way both the horrible and the happy moments of our history, makes us aware that we have to face hatred, racism and anti-Semitism resolutely,” Merkel said in a speech at the Chapel of Reconciliation, located where the Berlin Wall once stood. “It urges us to do everything in our power to defend freedom and democracy, human dignity and the rule of law.”  

International attendance 
 
Leaders from Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic also attended a ceremony at Bernauer Strasse, site of one of the last remaining sections of the Berlin Wall. They placed roses between gaps in the barrier that divided the city for 28 years. 
 
Germany President Frank-Walter Steinmeier paid tribute to the pro-democracy protesters in the former Soviet bloc countries. 
 
“In gratitude, we remember today with our friends the historical events of 30 years ago,” Steinmeier said. “Without the courage, without the will for freedom of the Poles, the Hungarians, the Czechs and the Slovaks, the peaceful revolutions in Eastern Europe, and German unity, would not have been possible.” 
 
A weeklong series of events in Berlin was capped off Saturday night with a concert at the famous Brandenburg Gate, involving several German and international performers.  

Then-U.S. President Ronald Reagan famously gave a speech in front of the landmark in 1987, demanding of his Soviet counterpart: “Mr. [Mikhail] Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” A statue of Reagan, who died in 2004, was unveiled Friday next to the Brandenburg Gate. 
 
The wall was constructed in 1961 to stop the flood of East Germans fleeing to capitalist West Berlin to escape communist rule. It was officially called the “anti-fascist protection rampart” by the East German government. Hundreds of people were shot dead trying to cross it. 
 
Following growing pressure across the Warsaw Pact countries in 1989, pro-democracy protests spread to East Germany. 
 
On November 4, 1989, a half-million demonstrators gathered in Alexanderplatz in East Berlin. Five days later, a government spokesperson mistakenly said the East Germans were now free to travel to the West, prompting tens of thousands to rush to crossing points along the 43-kilometer barrier. 
 
In the confusion, border guards opened the gates and thousands of people surged across the frontier, cheered by crowds on both sides of the wall. Within hours, Berlin residents were taking pickaxes to the concrete wall, as the city erupted in wild celebrations.  

The fall of the wall is seen as a key moment in the collapse of communism. Just two years later, the Soviet Union imploded and the Cold War was declared over. 
 
Tensions between East-West 
 
However, tensions between East and West have resurfaced. Relations between Russia and the West plummeted following Moscow’s forceful annexation of Crimea and support for rebel fighters in eastern Ukraine in 2014. Arms control treaties have been ditched, and many world leaders have warned of a new Cold War. 
 
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also attended the ceremonies to mark the fall of the Berlin Wall. In a speech on the eve of the anniversary, Pompeo warned that “the West lost our way in the afterglow of that proud moment,” adding that the U.S. and its allies should “defend what was so hard won.” 
 
“We thought we could divert our resources away from alliances, and our militaries. We were wrong,” Pompeo said. “Today, Russia — led by a former KGB officer once stationed in Dresden [President Vladimir Putin] — invades its neighbors and slays political opponents.”  

Pompeo also criticized Russia’s treatment of the political opposition. He said China was now using methods of oppression against its own people that would be “horrifyingly familiar to former East Germans.” 
 
Beijing labeled Pompeo’s comments as “extremely dangerous” and said they exposed his “sinister intentions.” 
 
Pompeo also warned that NATO needed to evolve as the alliance approaches its 70th anniversary. His comments followed sharp criticism from French President Emmanuel Macron, who warned this week in an interview with The Economist that NATO was becoming “brain-dead” in the absence of U.S. leadership. 
 
Washington has repeatedly called on European NATO members to meet the bloc’s military spending target of 2% of gross domestic product, warning it will no longer shoulder the burden of European defense. 

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Iraqi security forces killed at least five people Saturday as they pushed protesters back toward their main camp in central Baghdad using live ammunition, tear gas and sound bombs, police and medics said. 

The clashes wounded scores more people and put security forces back in control of all except one major bridge linking the Iraqi capital’s eastern residential and business districts to government headquarters across the Tigris river. 

The government promised reforms aimed at ending the crisis. Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi said Saturday that political parties had “made mistakes” in their running of the country, recognized the legitimacy of protest to bring about political change and pledged electoral reform. 

Mass protests began at Tahrir Square in Baghdad on Oct. 1 as demonstrators demanded jobs and services, and rallies have swelled in the capital and southern cities with calls for an overhaul of the sectarian political system. 

It is the biggest and most complex challenge in years to the political order set up after a U.S.-led invasion that toppled dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003. 

Political class vs. jobless youths

Iraq, exhausted by decades of conflict and sanctions, had enjoyed relative calm after Islamic State was defeated in 2017. 

But the government has been unable to find an answer to the current round of unrest, which pits the entire political class against mostly unemployed youths who have seen no improvement in their lives, even in peacetime. 

Despite government pledges of reform, security forces have used lethal force since the start and killed more than 280 people across the country. 

On Saturday, forces drove protesters back from some of the bridges they had tried to occupy during the week and toward Tahrir Square, the main gathering point for demonstrators. 

The protesters still hold a portion of the adjacent Jumhuriya Bridge, where they have erected barricades in a standoff with police. 

But demonstrators fear the next police target will be Tahrir Square and Jumhuriya Bridge. Fresh clashes erupted after nightfall near Tahrir Square, with the sound of tear gas and stun grenades being fired echoing around central Baghdad, as it had nightly for the past week two weeks. 

“Police have retaken almost the entire area up ahead of us. They’re advancing and my guess is tonight they’ll try to take Tahrir,” said one protester, who gave his name only as Abdullah.  

Gas bombs

On Saturday, some demonstrators threw Molotov cocktails toward security forces at another bridge, and young men took unlit homemade petrol bombs up a tall building nearby, preparing for further clashes. 

At a nearby makeshift clinic, volunteer medic Manar Hamad said she had helped treat dozens of wounded on Saturday alone. 

“Many get hit by shrapnel from sound bombs, and others choke on tear gas or are hit directly by gas canisters. People have died that way,” she said as live gunfire rang out and ambulance sirens wailed. 

Police and medics said five people were shot to death and more than 140 wounded in Baghdad on Saturday. A Reuters cameraman saw one man carried away by medical volunteers after a tear gas canister struck him directly in the head. 

As the violence flared, Abdul Mahdi issued a statement that appeared to take a more conciliatory tone and urged a return to normal life after weeks of unrest that have cost the country tens of millions of dollars, although crucial oil exports have not been affected. 

“Political forces and parties are important institutions in any democratic system, and have made great sacrifices, but they’ve also made many mistakes,” he said. 

He said protests were a legitimate engine of political change but urged demonstrators not to interrupt “normal life.” 

Weapons ban

Abdul Mahdi promised electoral reform and said authorities would ban possession of weapons by nonstate armed groups who have been accused of killing protesters, and that there would be investigations into demonstrator deaths. 

His remarks came a day after Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq’s powerful senior Shiite Muslim cleric, urged politicians to seek a peaceful way out of the crisis and held security forces accountable for avoiding further violence. 

In southern Iraq, operations resumed at Umm Qasr commodities 
port, a port official said, after it was closed for nearly 10 days while protesters blocked its entrances. 

Umm Qasr receives imports of grain, vegetable oils and sugar shipments that feed a country largely dependent on imported 
food. 

Authorities in downtown Basra, Iraq’s oil-rich second city, erected a security perimeter, preventing protesters from gathering on Saturday, after two people were killed there on Friday in clashes between protesters and security forces. 

The Kuwaiti Consulate in Basra said it was withdrawing its staff from the city, amid the deteriorating security situation, a consular official said. 

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Artists from around the world have created fanciful, strange, beautiful and huge sculptures at a beach on Denmark’s west coast.  It is a blend of science fiction, technical skill and about 1,200 tons of sand.  VOA’s Jim Randle narrates our story. 

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When the Indian government decided in August to abrogate a constitutional provision giving special status to the then state of Jammu and Kashmir, tourist season was at its peak. Tourists in Kashmir were advised by the Indian government to leave the state. But now the government has rolled back its advisory,  just in time for the winter tourist season. VOA’s Ritul Joshi with cameraman Zubair Dar visited Srinagar to see if the decision will help the tourism industry recover its losses.
 

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The U.S. Supreme Court will take on a case Nov. 12 that could impact the future of hundreds of thousands of people brought to the United States as children illegally. In particular, one doctor who is on track to finish his residency training in the state of California could have his fate determined by the outcome. VOA’s Warangkana Chomchuen reports from San Francisco.
 

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Wildfires razing Australia’s drought-stricken east coast have left two people dead and several missing, more than 30 injured and more than 100 homes destroyed, officials said Saturday.

Around 1,500 firefighters were battling 70 fires across Australia’s most populous state, New South Wales, with the most intense in the northeast where flames were fanned by strong winds, Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said.

Firefighters found a body Saturday in a burned car near Glen Innes, he said.

A woman who was found Friday unconscious and with serious burns near Glen Innes had died in a hospital, he said.

Another seven people have been reported missing in the vicinity of the same fire.

Toll expected to climb

“We are expecting that number (of missing persons) to climb today,” Fitzsimmons told reporters. “There are really grave concerns that there could be more losses or indeed more fatalities.”

More than 30 people including firefighters received medical treatment for burns and one patient had a heart attack, he said.

At least 100 homes were estimated to have been destroyed since Friday, but that damage toll could rise significantly as firefighters were able to extinguish flames and access fire zones, Fitzsimmons said.

Hundreds flee in Queensland

Hundreds of people evacuated their homes along a 500-kilometer (310-mile) swath of the eastern seaboard from the Queensland state border south to Forster.

Forster is a town 300 kilometers (190 miles) north of Sydney, Australia’s largest city. Many spent the night in evacuation centers while some slept in cars.

In Queensland, more than 30 wildfires were raging Saturday. At least one house was lost, a firefighter suffered a broken leg and 2,000 residents were evacuated from two towns in the state’s southeast, authorities said.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison warned Australia to expect more bad news from the fire zones.

“The devastating and horrific fires that we have seen particularly in New South Wales but also in Queensland have been absolutely chilling,” Morrison told reporters in Sydney.

‘It’s going to be horrific’

In the New South Wales town of Taree, more than 300 people evacuated overnight to a social club, including Club Taree’s chief executive Morgan Stewart.

“It was pretty scary,” Stewart said. “We’re hearing lots of stories of lost houses, lost property, goods and effects, animals, land. It’s going to be horrific, I think.”

Peter Lean spent the night on the roof of his house in the town of Wallabi Point, extinguishing burning embers carried on strong winds.

“I’ve never seen the sky so red since 2000,” Lean said. “We’ve got winds blowing, they’re circling, it’s like a cyclone.”

The fire danger reached unprecedented levels in New South Wales on Friday, when 17 fires were burning at the most extreme danger rating known as the Emergency Warning Level.

“I can only recall a figure of less than 10 that we (previously) got to, which was an extraordinary event in years past,” Fitzsimmons said.

“The fact that we have 17 at once yesterday and another nine burning at Watch and Act (Level) is a magnitude that we simply haven’t seen before, commanding so much attention, so much priority, so much competition for resources and need to get to different communities,” he added.

Only two fires were burning at the highest danger rating by Saturday.

The annual Australian fire season, which peaks during the Southern Hemisphere summer, has started early after an unusually warm and dry winter.
 

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India’s Supreme Court has ruled in favor of a Hindu temple on a disputed religious ground and ordered that alternative land be given to Muslims. 

The dispute over land ownership has been one of the country’s most contentious issues. 

The 16th-century Babri Masjid mosque was destroyed by Hindu hard-liners in December 1992.

The Supreme Court said in a judgment Saturday that 5 acres (2.02 hectares) of land will be allotted to the Muslim community in the northern Indian town of Ayodhya. 

The disputed land will be given to a board of trustees for the construction of a temple for Hindu god Ram.

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This Friday, November 8th, marks the third anniversary of Donald Trump’s 2016 election as the 45th president of the United States.  Trump remains a force of nature in American politics, but the third anniversary of his rise to power comes at a time when he is facing the gravest threat yet to his presidency: an impeachment inquiry led by congressional Democrats over his efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate political rival Joe Biden.  VOA National correspondent Jim Malone has more from Washington.

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In the 30 years that have passed since the Berlin Wall came down and ended a decades-long division between the eastern and western parts of the city, it is artists who have injected new life into the abandoned buildings in what was communist East Berlin. And as Charles Maynes reports, this cultural scene became a driving force behind the reconciliation of East and West – a process that continues to this day.

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A new, unreleased book called “A Warning” paints the most damning public profile of Trump since he took office nearly three years ago.

Trump is “like a 12-year-old in an air traffic control tower” and a senile old man running around with no pants, according to the book by an unnamed author.

The anonymous writer describes him or herself as a “senior official in the Trump administration” who decided to withhold their name to keep the spotlight on Trump.

Opinion piece to book

The author is the same person who wrote a New York Times opinion piece last year describing how some top officials are trying to protect the country from what was called an impulsive president.

According to an advance copy of “A Warning” obtained by The Washington Post, President Trump is cruel, inept, and a danger.

“He stumbles, slurs, gets confused, is easily irritated, and has trouble synthesizing information, not occasionally but regularly,” according to the book.

The president is likened to a “12-year-old in an air traffic control tower pushing the buttons indiscriminately” as planes try to avoid a collision.

The writer speaks of what is described as Trump’s sexist comments about women, commenting on their make-up, dress and weight.

In one meeting, the president allegedly used a mock Hispanic accent to complain about female migrants crossing from Mexico, calling them useless and saying if they came with husbands, the men could be used to pick corn.

25th Amendment

Trump is also described as someone incapable of leading the country in a crisis, saying he tunes out intelligence and national security briefings and described as someone easily flattered who other world leaders regard as “a simplistic pushover.”

According to “A Warning,” senior administration officials had considered a mass resignation and say Vice President Mike Pence was ready to back a majority of Cabinet members if they tried to remove Trump through the 25th amendment.

Pence denies this, saying the book is “appalling” and said he never heard anyone in the White House talking about such a move.

White House spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham brushed off the book as “a work of fiction” and a “farce,” calling the writer a “coward” for wishing to remain anonymous.

But the author says many current and former administration officials share the unflattering views on Trump.

The writer also says he or she deliberately avoided talking about specific events in detail to protect his or her identity.

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The dramatic demise in Vietnam of two maps that show China’s claim to a disputed tract of sea herald a longer-term effort at expunging material that officials find politically offensive — and not just in Vietnam.

Both maps, one in a luxury Volkswagen car and the other in a DreamWorks film, show the nine-dash line that Beijing uses to demarcate its claims in the South China Sea. Vietnamese officials contest the line and say some of the waters within it are theirs. The two countries have sparred since the 1970s over maritime sovereignty.

Vietnam will probably keep censoring material that implies Chinese sovereignty over the 3.5 million-square-kilometer sea, Asia scholars say. They would effectively follow China’s continued use of authoritarian rule to ban websites and publications that violate its stances on international issues.

“I think this is but the latest series of essentially what I would call posturing,” said Oh Ei Sun, senior fellow with the Singapore Institute of International Affairs. “You have to keep on emphasizing your sovereignty over a certain part, because if you don’t, then the international community will think that you are giving up.”

First a film, then a car

Vietnamese cinemas stopped showing the movie Abominable in mid-October because the animated scenes depict a map that delineates Beijing’s claim to the South China Sea, domestic media outlet VnExpress International reported. Vietnam disputes the Chinese claim.

Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Taiwan also overlap Chinese claims in the sea that’s rich in fisheries and energy reserves. Chinese maritime activity angers especially Vietnam because China controls the 130-islet Paracel archipelago that both sides claim.

On Monday this week, Vietnamese customs decided to confiscate a $173,000 Volkswagen five-seater after its GPS map displayed China’s “illegal” nine-dash line, state-run Viet Nam News reported. The importer will be fined up to $2,600 and Volkswagen Viet Nam as much as $1,724.

“The General Department of Customs said that all competent government agencies in a meeting on the incident had unilaterally agreed that such a violation must be handled strictly,” Viet Nam News reported.

A private university in Vietnam decided on its own to jettison 500 to 700 books used by first-year Chinese language students because the texts carried the same kind of map, VnExpress International reported Sunday.

Chinese playbook

Beijing has asked dozens of foreign companies over the past two years to tweak wording on their websites so it reflects Chinese political views. Foreign firms have complied particularly by labeling self-ruled Taiwan as part of China, per Beijing’s stance.

China and Vietnam as communist countries are “very consistent” in their posturing, Oh said. Citizens in both often kick off a case by alerting authorities. Filmgoers spotted the map in Vietnam. In China, netizens had noticed foreign websites implying Taiwan was a country.

Vietnam, going forward, will probably play up and shoot down any pro-Beijing South China Sea references they see, analysts say.

“Now there is something like a general trend, every material, movie, media and book that has Chinese maps of the nine-dash line,” said Nguyen Thanh Trung, Center for International Studies (SCIS) director at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Ho Chi Minh City.

Maps are suddenly subject to review because of “heightened tension,” said Rajiv Biswas, Asia-Pacific chief economist at market research firm IHS Markit. A Chinese survey vessel had fanned anger earlier in the year when it was frequenting waters near a Vietnamese offshore oil exploration site.

China has consecrated its claims throughout the sea over the past decade by using landfill to build islands.

Malaysia, Taiwan and the Philippines, as democracies, would find it harder to ban material.

However, the producer of Abominable decided against screening the film in Malaysia last month after censors there objected to the map. In the Philippines, Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin said the film’s map should be cut.

Vietnam’s limitation

Exporters of map-bearing material must mind their politics now, Biswas said.

“Somehow one has to avoid these sensitivities, but it’s very hard because everyone has their own claim, so if you portray anything there’s a danger that someone will object,” he said.

Vietnam, however, will avoid openly criticizing international companies too often because it depends on foreign factory investment for economic growth, said Stephen Nagy, senior associate politics and international studies professor at International Christian University in Tokyo.

China can tap into its much larger domestic market for economic stability.

“The last thing that I think Vietnam would like to be portrayed as is a bully or engaging in economic coercion, in the way that Beijing’s practices have created that image, so I think Vietnam will probably take a softer tone in order to preserve a relatively good image,” Nagy said.

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Human rights groups, lawyers and former defectors are criticizing South Korea’s decision to return two North Korean fishermen who are suspected of killing 16 of their colleagues and then fleeing to the South.

The two men were captured late last week after their squid fishing boat crossed the eastern sea border separating North and South Korea, according to Seoul’s Unification Ministry. The two confessed that they and another man killed the captain and then 15 other crew members.

South Korea rejected the men’s request for defector status on the grounds they are “heinous criminals” and returned them to North Korea through the Panmunjom border village Thursday.

The bizarre incident tests South Korea’s domestic and international legal commitments. The country’s constitution in theory recognizes North Koreans as South Korean nationals, and Seoul usually accepts fleeing North Koreans, pending an investigation into their background. But South Korean law also allows authorities wide latitude to reject incoming North Korean individuals, for instance, on national security grounds.

Despite the criminal allegations against the North Korean fishermen, some defector and human rights groups in Seoul say the men deserved the legal protections offered by South Korea, noting it is highly likely they will now be executed without a fair trial.

“The two defectors should be handled under the South Korean legal system. We can expect what punishment they will receive in North Korea,” said a statement from Saejowi, a Seoul-based defector support group.

No due process

The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK) also said it was “deeply concerned” about “the first deportation of North Koreans by South Korea since the 1953 Korean War Armistice.”

“This is the first time (South Korea) has sent North Koreans back against their will,” said HRNK. “In doing so, South Korea has undermined its national constitution, which recognizes all North Koreans as citizens of South Korea, granting them the right to live in the South and be protected by its legal system.”

“As we know from decades of research into how North Korea treats its citizens, there is no doubt that the two deportees have been returned to a place where they face no due process, harsh punishment, torture, and almost-certain execution,” said Greg Scarlatoiu, executive director of HRNK.

The two Koreas do not have an extradition agreement. While South Korea’s government technically claims judicial authority over the North, South Korean officials say that does not apply to this case.

Officials point to Article 9 of South Korea’s North Korean Refugees Protection and Settlement Support Act, which says authorities are not required to extend protection to those who commit “serious crimes such as murder.”

Grisly killings

Following a three-day investigation, South Korean investigators expressed confidence they have pieced together the details of the grisly slayings.

The fishing boat left the North Korean port of Kimchaek on Aug. 15 with a crew of 19, officials say. But late last month, three crew members killed the captain, allegedly because he had treated them harshly.

“The young men told investigators they decided to kill the other 15 crewmembers as well because they feared they would be punished for the murder if any witnesses were left alive,” reported South Korea’s Chosun Ilbo.

“They called out the others by twos every 40 minutes on the pretext of changing shifts and methodically slaughtered them with a blunt weapon and threw the bodies into the water,” the paper reported.

The three men initially tried to return to the same North Korean port, but after one of the men was arrested, the two others fled using the same boat and were subsequently detained by the South Korean navy, according to South Korean officials.

Joo Seong-ha, a prominent North Korean defector-turned journalist who lives in Seoul, supports the decision to deport the fishermen.

“Crimes against humanity must be punished everywhere,” Joo said in a public Facebook post. “I believe that the agents from NIS and Defense Ministry made a rational decision.”

International obligations

But while it may be difficult to sympathize with those accused of multiple homicides, the decision sets a bad precedent, said Seoul-based human rights lawyer Kim Se-jin, who said South Korea did not live up to its international obligations.

Specifically, Kim points out that South Korea is a signatory to the United Nations Convention against Torture, which prohibits the return or extradition of a person to another state “where there are substantial grounds for believing that he would be in danger of being subjected to torture.”

“We respect the South Korean investigation, but the Convention Against Torture says if the criminal or suspect is expected to be tortured or threatened, then the government should not repatriate,” Kim said. “Even though the facts that constitute the crime are obvious, South Korea should have subjected them to judicial proceedings in South Korea.”

“It is de facto truth that the two criminals have a high chance of extrajudicial executions,” she said.

Defections slow

Since the end of the 1950s Korean War, which ended in a truce and not a peace treaty, around 32,000 North Koreans have fled to the South, most via China.

North Korean refugees are first interrogated by South Korean authorities to ensure they are not spies. They are sent to a government-run center to receive training meant to better equip them to live in South Korea.

In recent years, the number of North Koreans coming to the South has slowed. In 2018, 1,137 North Koreans entered South Korea. That is down from a peak of 2,914 in 2009.

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A top aide to Democratic presidential candidate Tom Steyer in Iowa has privately offered campaign contributions to local politicians in exchange for endorsing his White House bid, according to multiple people with direct knowledge of the conversations.
 
The overtures from Pat Murphy, a former state House speaker who is serving as a top adviser on Steyer’s Iowa campaign, aren’t illegal – though payments for endorsements would violate campaign finance laws if not disclosed. There’s no evidence that any Iowans accepted the offer or received contributions from Steyer’s campaign as compensation for their backing.
 
But the proposals could revive criticism that the billionaire Steyer is trying to buy his way into the White House. Several state lawmakers and political candidates said they were surprised Steyer’s campaign would think he could buy their support.
 
Tom Courtney, a former Democratic state senator from southeastern Iowa who’s running for reelection to his old seat, told The Associated Press the financial offer “left a bad taste in my mouth.”
 
Murphy didn’t respond to a request for comment. Alberto Lammers, Steyer’s campaign press secretary, said Murphy was not authorized to make the offers and that the campaign leadership outside of Iowa was unaware that he was doing so until the issue was raised by The Associated Press.
 
Courtney declined to name Murphy as the Steyer aide who made the offer, but several other local politicians said they received similar propositions, and all confirmed the proposal came from Murphy himself. Most requested anonymity to speak freely about the issue. Another, Iowa state Rep. Karin Derry, said Murphy didn’t explicitly offer a specific dollar amount, but made it clear Derry would receive financial support if she backed Steyer.
 
“It was presented more as, he has provided financial support to other downballot candidates who’ve endorsed him, and could do the same for you,” she said.
 
Courtney described a similar interaction with Steyer’s campaign.
 
“Tom, I know you’re running for Senate. I’m working for Tom Steyer,” Courtney recalled hearing from the aide. “Now you know how this works. …He said, ‘you help them, and they’ll help you.”’
 
“I said, ‘it wouldn’t matter if you’re talking monetary, there’s no amount,’ ” Courtney continued. “I don’t do that kind of thing.”
 
Lammers, Steyer’s campaign press secretary, said the candidate hasn’t made any individual contributions to local officials in Iowa and won’t be making any this year. In an email, Lammers said Steyer’s endorsements “are earned because of Tom’s campaign message,” and distanced the candidate from Murphy.
 
“Our campaign policy is clear that we will not engage in this kind of activity, and anyone who does is not speaking for the campaign or does not know our policy,” Lammers said.
 
The overtures do not appear to have made much of a difference for Steyer. Aside from Murphy’s support, Steyer has received the endorsement of just one Iowan since entering the race in July – former state Rep. Roger Thomas.
 
Thomas did not respond to phone calls, but in a statement provided by the campaign, he said that he endorsed Steyer “because he’s the outsider who can deliver for Iowans on the issues that matter most: getting corporate corruption out of our politics and putting forth a rural agenda that revitalizes communities across Iowa.”
 
Thomas’ endorsement was issued in October after the close of the most recent campaign finance reporting period, which ended Sept. 30. The disclosure Steyer filed offers no indication that he directly gave Thomas any money.
 
Experts say a campaign could violate campaign finance laws if they don’t disclose payments for endorsements.
 
“It’s legal if you disclose a payment for an endorsement on your campaign finance report,” said Adav Noti, a former Federal Election Commission attorney who now works for the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center in Washington. But, he added, “It would be unlawful if you don’t disclose it, or you disclose it but try to hide who the recipient is, or try to hide what that purpose was.”

A trio of former Ron Paul aides faced legal trouble in 2016 over similar issues during the 2012 Iowa Republican caucus campaign. Campaign chairman Jesse Benton, campaign manager John Tate and deputy campaign manager Dimitri Kesari were convicted in 2016 of charges related to arranging and concealing payments for then-Iowa state Sen. Kent Sorenson, who switched his support from then-Rep. Michele Bachmann to Paul just six days before the Iowa caucuses. Sorenson served 15 months in jail for his role in the scheme.
 
It’s unclear whether Murphy could face a similar legal complaint, but the issue could revive scrutiny of how Steyer is deploying his financial resources. The billionaire businessman built his fortune in banking and investment management before turning to politics, and though he’s never held public office he invested tens of millions of dollars in political activism and electoral politics before launching his presidential bid this year. Prior to his presidential run, Steyer’s most recent focus was a multi-million-dollar, pro-impeachment campaign, and as the U.S. House takes up the issue, he’s argued he’s put it on the national agenda.
 
Steyer has largely self-funded his presidential campaign, spending $47.6 million of his own money in the first three months since launching his bid, much of that on online fundraising and advertising. Steyer qualified for the November debate, but he remains at the back of the pack in early-state and national polls.
 

 

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A new book on Ruth Bader Ginsburg explores the Supreme Court justice’s thoughts on the (hash)MeToo movement and her hope that non-disclosure agreements, which have come under fire in sexual misconduct cases, “will not be enforced by the courts.”

Several women have spoken out about their encounters with disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein and other high-profile men despite the financial and legal risk of violating the agreements. Others, including former Fox news anchor Gretchen Carlson, want to be released from the confidentiality clauses, concluding they only serve to cover up abuse and keep victims silent.

In “Conversations with RBG: Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Life, Love, Liberty, and Law,” the 86-year-old feminist icon questions whether the (hash)MeToo movement will render the secrecy clause obsolete in such cases.

“One interesting thing is whether it will be an end to the confidentiality pledge. Women who complained and brought suit were offered settlements in which they would agree that they would never disclose what they had complained about,” Ginsburg said at a February 2018 event at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia that’s included in the book.

“I suspect we will not see those agreements anymore,” she said at the time.

Ginsburg revised her thoughts in edits made this year, according to the book, which was written by National Constitution Center President Jeffrey Rosen and released Tuesday.

“I hope those agreements will not be enforced by courts,” Ginsburg added.

Ginsburg had championed equal protection for women in the 1970s as co-founder of the Women’s Rights Projects at the American Civil Liberties Union.

Some lawyers who represent women today in sexual misconduct cases, including Debra Katz and Gloria Allred, pushed back on Ginsburg’s view of the non-disclosure agreements, known as “NDAs.” They called them essential to securing settlements and protecting their clients’ privacy.

“Employers would not be willing to pay the kind of settlement that they pay now if they believe that all other employees would know about (it),” said Katz, who represented Christine Blasey Ford in her Senate testimony against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

Katz also fears the disclosures would make it hard for her clients to find work again.

For Carlson, the secrecy has left her unable to take part in media coverage of her lawsuit against Fox News. She received a reported $20 million settlement in 2016 after claiming late Fox News chief Roger Ailes fired her after she rejected his sexual advances.

“It’s really through NDAs (non-disclosure agreements) and through other means of settling these kinds of cases of sexual harassment that we keep women silent,” Carlson told The Associated Press on Saturday.

Until that changes, she said, “we’re not going to eradicate this problem.”

Katz, though, insists it’s not up to victims to change the culture.

“The onus should be not on the person who’s brought a claim to . protect women in the future from sexual harassment. That’s the job of the employer,” Katz said.

Fox did not respond to requests for comment on the issue this week.

NBC Universal, in the wake of Ronan Farrow’s reports that the company had buried a string of sexual misconduct claims with confidential settlements, announced Oct. 25 that it would release current or former employees “from that perceived obligation” if they contacted the company.

Time’s Up and other (hash)MeToo activists lauded the move, but questioned why the accusers had to meet with the company at all.

At least two states, New York and California, have placed limits on the use of NDAs in sexual misconduct cases since the (hash)MeToo movement took off in 2017. The New York law allows them only if the victim prefers it.

But Allred, for one, sees no signs that courts will stop enforcing them. Often times, they’re sent straight to arbitration, she said.

Weinstein, who’s awaiting trial in January on rape and sexual assault charges, is not known to have sought damages from anyone speaking out.

At least one celebrity has, though not successfully.

Comedian Bill Cosby, as he awaited trial in 2016, filed suit against victim Andrea Constand, her mother and her lawyer after they cooperated with authorities who had reopened the case, a decade after he paid Constand a confidential $3.4 million settlement.

“We were adamant that you couldn’t do that,” said Constand’s lawyer Dolores Troiani, who said the agreement preserved their right to talk to police. “That is against public policy.”

Cosby, who later withdrew the complaint, was convicted last year and is now in prison.

Ginsburg, in a 2018 conversation recounted in the book, said she expects the (hash)MeToo movement to have staying power, and any backlash to be limited.

“There are still advances, a way forward, and I do think the more women there are in positions of authority, the less likely that setbacks will occur,” Ginsburg said.

 

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The U.N. General Assembly has voted overwhelmingly to condemn the American economic embargo of Cuba for the 28th year, rejecting U.S. concerns about human rights on the Caribbean island.
 
The vote in the 193-member assembly on Thursday was 187-3 with the U.S., Israel and Brazil voting “no” and Ukraine and Colombia abstaining. Last year, the assembly voted 189-2 with no abstentions.
 
General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding and are unenforceable, but they reflect world opinion and the vote has given Cuba an annual stage to demonstrate the isolation of the U.S. on the embargo.
 
The United States imposed the embargo in 1960 following the revolution led by Fidel Castro and the nationalization of properties belonging to U.S. citizens and corporations. Two years later it was strengthened.

 

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The Trump administration is sanctioning three Nicaraguan officials accused of human rights abuses, election fraud and corruption.

The U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control on Thursday announced the sanctions, which block the officials from doing business with U.S. entities.

The officials are Ramon Antonio Avellan Medal, deputy director of the Nicaraguan National Police; Lumberto Ignacio Campbell Hooker, acting president of the Nicaraguan Supreme Electoral Council; and Roberto Jose Lopez Gomez, director of the Nicaraguan Social Security Institute.

Hundreds of Nicaraguans have been killed, jailed or forced into exile since protests against President Daniel Ortega erupted in April 2018.

Ortega officials have called opposition protesters “terrorists” and consider the demonstrations tantamount to an attempted coup.

 

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U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his German counterpart stressed the importance of the NATO alliance Thursday, saying that trans-Atlantic cooperation was critical in bringing about the fall of the Berlin Wall 30 years ago and is still relevant today.

Their strong defense of the alliance came after French President Emmanuel Macron claimed in an interview that a lack of U.S. leadership is causing the “brain death” of NATO.

Speaking after visiting the German village of Moedlareuth with Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, which was divided into two during the Cold War, Pompeo told reporters it was the “remarkable work” of democratic nations that “created freedom and brought millions of people out of very, very difficult situations.”

“I think NATO remains an important, critical, perhaps historically one of the most critical, strategic partnerships in all of recorded history,” Pompeo told reporters in Leipzig.

Maas also weighed in, saying he did “not believe NATO is brain dead,” adding “I firmly believe in international cooperation.”

Pompeo started his day visiting American troops in southern Germany in an area where he served as an Army officer during the Cold War.

Pompeo, who served as a tank platoon leader on the border with Czechoslovakia and East Germany in the 1980s, chatted with troops at the Grafenwoehr training area and nearby Vilseck and attended a live-fire exercise before heading north to Moedlareuth.

During the Cold War, Moedlareuth was split down the middle by the border between East and West Germany, with the southern part in Bavaria and the northern part in Thuringia, a partition that gave rise to its nickname, “Little Berlin.”

Hundreds of thousands of Americans were stationed in West Germany during the Cold War, and the country was one of the U.S.’s closest allies. That relationship continued after the Nov. 9, 1989, fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of communism, but ties have become strained recently under the presidency of Donald Trump over a series of issues.

Pompeo is visiting five German cities on the two-day trip. In Berlin, he will deliver a speech highlighting the U.S. role in helping eastern and central Europe “throw off the yoke of communism,” according to the U.S. State Department.

He will also unveil a statue of Ronald Reagan on an upper-level terrace of the U.S. Embassy, overlooking the site in front of the landmark Brandenburg Gate where the Berlin Wall once stood. That is also where the former U.S. president gave his famous 1987 speech beseeching then-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to “open this gate” and “tear down this wall.”
 

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Gunmen attacked a convoy near a Canadian mining site in Burkina Faso, killing at least 37 people and wounding 60 others, the regional governor said late Wednesday. 

Montreal-based Semafo said the bloodshed happened about 25 miles (40 kilometers) from its Boungou mine in Burkina Faso’s Eastern region and involved five buses of employees who were being accompanied by a military escort. 

Col. Saidou Sanou, the region’s governor, gave the provisional casualty toll in a statement. The mining company said only that it was aware of “several fatalities and injuries.” 

“Boungou mine site remains secured and our operations are not affected,” Semafo said in its statement. “We are actively working with all levels of authorities to ensure the ongoing safety and security of our employees, contractors and suppliers.” 

The area has become increasingly precarious for Semafo, which operates two gold mines in Burkina Faso. Last year, an employee and subcontractor were killed when a bus was targeted by bandits, according to Canadian Press. Later last year, five members of Burkina Faso’s security forces were killed in an attack near the Boungou mine. 

Sylvain Leclerc, spokeswoman for the Canadian foreign ministry, said there were no reports of any Canadian citizen among the casualties. She added that Canada’s government condemns the attack and supports efforts to bring peace to Burkina Faso. 

The violence underscores the rapidly deteriorating security situation in once-peaceful Burkina Faso, which has been infiltrated by jihadists who have been active for years in neighboring Mali. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Islamic extremists have staged dozens of attacks on churches and public officials across the north of Burkina Faso the last few years. 

Concerted military actions by five regional countries, along with a French operation, have failed to stem the growing violence. 

The country, which experienced its first major extremist attack in 2015, is a gateway south into coastal West Africa, and regional leaders worry the extremists could be moving into Togo and Benin. 

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The foreign ministers of Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan met Wednesday in Washington with President Donald Trump and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to discuss the Grand Ethiopia Renaissance Dam (GERD) on Ethiopia’s Blue Nile.

In a joint statement issued after the meeting, the ministers — Sameh Hassan Shoukry of Egypt, Gedu Andargachew of Ethiopia and Asma Mohamed Abdalla of Sudan — noted the significance of the Nile to the development of the people of their countries, and “reaffirmed their joint commitment to reach a comprehensive, cooperative, adaptive, sustainable, and mutually beneficial agreement on the filling and operation” of the GERD.

The massive hydropower dam project has been the focus of an escalating feud between Addis Ababa and Cairo over water resources.

The unannounced meeting was not on Trump’s public schedule. The White House did not respond to VOA’s earlier request for clarification.

“The meeting went well and discussions will continue during the day!” the president tweeted on Wednesday.

Just had a meeting with top representatives from Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan to help solve their long running dispute on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, one of the largest in the world, currently being built. The meeting went well and discussions will continue during the day! pic.twitter.com/MsWuEBgZxK

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 6, 2019

The meeting, spearheaded by Mnuchin and also attended by World Bank Group President David Malpass, came about after Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi requested that Trump mediate the conflict over the dam.

Countries at odds

All three countries are vitally important to U.S. interests, and the Trump administration’s efforts to facilitate the negotiations over the dam are not at all surprising, said Bronwyn Bruton, director of programs and studies at the Africa Center of the Atlantic Council.

“Any armed or proxy conflict between these nations over the GERD would have a profoundly destabilizing effect on a region that is already facing ethnic unrest, political transition and a rising threat from jihadi extremist groups,” Bruton said.

Observers of international transboundary water conflicts say an ideal outcome would be a commitment by the countries to work together to get to an agreed-upon solution.

“If countries come out of this meeting with an agreement on a process to get to a cooperative outcome, I think that would be a positive development from everybody’s perspective,” said Aaron Salzberg, director of the Water Institute at the University of North Carolina. Salzberg is the State Department’s former special coordinator for water in the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, which deals with international transboundary water issues.

The ministers committed Wednesday to work toward completion of an agreement by Jan. 15, 2020.

In an Oct. 5 statement, the Ethiopian government condemned Egypt’s proposal for Nile water allocation, calling Egypt’s conditions for filling the massive reservoir of the GERD “unjustified” and disruptive to “the positive spirit of cooperation.”

Egypt and Ethiopia have disagreed for years about how to divert water from the Nile. Addis Ababa is proposing the reservoir behind the dam be filled over four to seven years. But Egypt wants to require Ethiopia to receive approval at various points of the filling process, a step Cairo said is necessary to avoid droughts.

“It’s possible that nothing changes,” said Salzberg. “It is also possible that those governments start to realize that this is a region that matters to the rest of the international community, and their approach to solving this problem could affect how partners work with them in the future.”

Sudan has a 1959 Nile Waters Agreement with Egypt, reached shortly before Egypt began constructing its own Aswan High Dam, but Ethiopia was not part of that agreement.

Egypt has long sought external mediation on the GERD, while Ethiopia wants to keep the negotiations on a tripartite level.

Prior to the meeting in Washington, the Ethiopian government said the talks “are not negotiations.”

Salem Solomon contributed to this report.

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Days of severe rains in central Somalia have killed at least 21 people and displaced more than a quarter million more as rivers burst their banks, flooding villages and towns.  Mohamed Sheikh Nor reports from Beledweyne, Somalia.

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James Dean hasn’t been alive in 64 years, but the “Rebel Without a Cause” actor has been cast in a new film about the Vietnam War.

The filmmakers behind the independent film “Finding Jack” said Wednesday that a computer-generated Dean will play a co-starring role in the upcoming production. The digital Dean is to be assembled through old footage and photos and voiced by another actor.

Digitally manipulated posthumous performances have made some inroads into films. But those have been largely roles the actors already played, including Carrie Fisher and Peter Cushing, who first appeared together in “Star Wars” and were prominently featured in the 2016 spinoff “Rogue One.”

But the prospect of one of the movies’ most beloved former stars being digitally resurrected was met with widespread criticism after the news was first reported by The Hollywood Reporter. Chris Evans, the “Captain America”actor, was among those who called the plans disrespectful and wrongheaded.

“Maybe we can get a computer to paint us a new Picasso. Or write a couple new John Lennon tunes,” said Evans on Twitter. “The complete lack of understanding here is shameful.”

Rights to Dean’s likeness were acquired by the filmmakers and the production company Magic City Films through CMG Worldwide. The company represents Dean’s family along with the intellectual property rights associated with many other deceased personalities including Neil Armstrong, Bette Davis and Burt Reynolds.

Mark Roesler, chairman and chief executive of CMG, defended the usage of Dean and said the company has represented his family for decades. Noting that Dean has more than 183,000 followers on Instagram, Roesler said he still resonates today.

“James Dean was known as Hollywood’s ‘rebel’ and he famously said ‘if a man can bridge the gap between life and death, if he can live after he’s died, then maybe he was a great man. Immortality is the only true success,’” said Roesler. “What was considered rebellious in the `50s is very different than what is rebellious today, and we feel confident that he would support this modern day act of rebellion.”

Adapted from Gareth Crocker’s novel, “Finding Jack” is a live-action movie about the U.S. military’s abandonment of canine units following the Vietnam War. Directors Anton Ernst and Tati Golykh are to begin shooting Nov. 17. In an email, Ernst said they “tremendously” respect Dean’s legacy.

“The movie subject matter is one of hope and love, and he is still relevant like the theme of the film we are portraying,” said Ernst. “There is still a lot of James Dean fans worldwide who would love to see their favorite icon back on screen. There would always be critics, and all we can do is tell a great story with humanity and grace.”

Dean had just three leading roles before he died in a car crash in 1955 at the age of 24: “Rebel Without a Cause,” “East of Eden” and “Giant.”

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Twitter said Wednesday that it was rolling out a feature that lets users follow topics the way they do people, starting with sports and K-pop, as part of its efforts to bring in and keep more users on the service. 
 
The new “Topics” option was expected to be available to Twitter users on mobile devices powered by Android or Apple software or through web browsers by Nov. 13. 
 
“We are starting with topics that have the most volume on Twitter for now — sports, K-pop — and you’ll see us add in even more on a week-to-week basis,” Twitter told AFP. 
 
Twitter earlier this year disclosed plans to provide users the option of following any of a small number of interests. 

Accent on conversations
 
The feature was to be rolled out internationally as the messaging platform prioritizes being an online venue for conversations rather than a pulpit for one-way broadcasting to the masses. 
 
“We are basically rewriting the entire conversation service,” Twitter product team leader Kayvon Beykpour said during a briefing at the company’s San Francisco headquarters in August. 
 
Twitter has always let users follow accounts, but the new feature will let users opt into following certain sports teams or categories on a curated list. 
 
For example, sending or interacting with tweets about a team might prompt a query over whether the user wants to “follow” that team or be kept in the know about what is being said on Twitter on the topics, the company explained at the briefing. 

‘Mute’ option
 
There will be an ability to “mute” topics to avoid seeing the score of a sporting match, for example. 
 
Topics people follow will show up in their profiles as long as they are signed up for the interest. 
 
Subjects designated “interests” by Twitter are meant to be lasting — such as football or cricket — rather than passing hot topics, according to Twitter. 

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