The head of Ukraine’s state-owned oil company says Kyiv will remain able to supply Europe with natural gas from its subterranean storage units even if European Union-mediated talks don’t pan out.

“We are fully confident that Ukraine can maintain gas supply … at least during the first quarter of 2020,” Naftogaz CEO Andriy Kobolyev said Friday at a public event in Brussels.

On Thursday, Russia and Ukraine held their third round of ministerial-level talks in Brussels about the transit of Russian natural gas to Europe, where all parties hoped to negotiate a new long-term agreement on gas flows before the current deal expires January 1.

Ukrainian energy authorities are worried Moscow could stop supplies through Ukraine when the current contract expires, possibly limiting gas deliveries to Europe in winter.

Although EU Energy Commissioner Maros Sefcovic said “a certain sense of urgency was really present in the room” throughout Thursday’s talks, no formal commitments were made.

According to Sefcovic, all parties agreed that a future contract would be based on EU law, and that the unbundling of Ukraine’s Naftogaz gas transport operations should be completed, which would create a separate entity to handle the transit of gas through Ukraine.

He also said all parties agreed to resume ministerial-level talks before the end of October, and those representatives from companies involved in the contract development would continue negotiating the details of Thursday’s general agreement.

On Friday, however, CEO Kobolyev said that even if talks fail, Naftogaz’s 19.6 billion cubic meters of natural gas currently held in underground storage will remain in play, and that Ukraine has signed at least one deal for reverse flows from Europe.

It was also reported Friday that Naftogaz is already seeking to recover any losses from maintaining the transit network if the deadline arrives without a deal.

“We are looking for full recovery of all relevant costs, including recovery of residual value of Ukraine’s gas transmission system,” Kobolyev was quoted as saying by Reuters on Friday.

“We are not disclosing a number here. But the number is quite high.”

Nord Stream 2, TurkStream, and litigation

This week’s talks follow a Sept. 10 decision by the top European Union court in Luxembourg to reimpose limits on gas flows via the Opal pipeline, a spur that connects Germany with the Nord Stream pipeline system operated by Russia’s state-owned Gazprom.

Gazprom is pushing to complete the Nord Stream 2 and TurkStream pipeline projects in 2020, after which it would no longer depend upon Ukraine’s pipelines for transit. Ukraine’s loss of roughly $3 billion gas-transit fees — about 3% of national GDP — would be a substantial blow to the Ukrainian economy.

Naftogaz announced in July 2018 that it had submitted a claim to the Stockholm arbitration court demanding compensation of up to $14 billion for the loss of gas-transit system value if Gazprom refuses to sign a contract by the deadline.

Ukraine, however, is ready to recall this claim if Russia signs a contract agreeing to continue transporting gas through its territory after January 1.

In February 2018, the Stockholm arbitration tribunal awarded $4.63 billion in compensation to Naftogaz; Gazprom still owes Naftogaz $2.56 billion plus interest on this amount.

In recent months, however, Russian President Vladimir Putin adopted a conciliatory tone, saying Russia was ready to keep up transit via Ukraine if Naftogaz is willing to recall the legal claims.

Edward Chow, senior associate in the Energy and National Security Program at Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies, says the Ukrainian delegation should resist forfeiting their legal wins to reach the deal.

Litigation and contract negotiations, he said, “should be kept as separate as possible” and that “whenever the final judgment comes, Gazprom should honor that judgment.”

Gas wars

In 2006 and 2009, disagreements between the two nations cut natural gas supplies to Western Europe in the middle of winter, leaving many without heat.

Some analysts say an interruption in gas flows to Europe this winter “might damage the reputation of Gazprom permanently.”

“Europe is already going through an examination of what role fossil fuels should play in the energy future. The gas seemed like a good bridging fuel between carbon-emitting fossil fuels and renewables,” Chow said. “However, it does not have to be that way. So, if Gazprom wants to maintain market share in Europe, it should not want a supply interruption.”

Margarita Assenova, an energy expert with the Washington-based Jamestown Foundation, says although Ukraine has substantial natural gas reserves, other countries would be especially vulnerable to an interruption.

“The most vulnerable countries to gas interruptions from Russia are Bulgaria, Macedonia and Bosnia-Herzegovina,” she told VOA. “They don’t have sufficient gas storage facilities, and they don’t have alternative suppliers.

“Russia depends on sales to Europe more than Europe depends on buying Russian gas,” she added, explaining that this fact gives Ukraine an upper hand in ongoing negotiations.

“Russia supplies about one-third of the gas that Europe consumes, but Russia sells 99% of its gas to Europe,” she said. “So, who is going to lose more if Europe turns to other sources?”

After Thursday’s talks in Brussels, the energy ministers of Russia and Ukraine, Aleksandr Novak and Oleksiy Orzhe, said both sides had agreed to meet again by the end of October.

This story originated in VOA’s Ukrainian Service.

…

Protesters burned a Chinese flag and police fired pepper spray during a march Saturday in an outlying district of Hong Kong in renewed clashes over anti-government grievances.
 
Police accused protesters of spraying water at officers during the march by several thousand people in Tuen Mun in Hong Kong’s northwest. Reporters saw at least one person arrested.
 
The event was relatively small compared with previous demonstrations that have taken place every weekend since June. The protests started with opposition to a proposed extradition law and have expanded to include demands for greater democracy in the semiautonomous Chinese territory.
 
The events are an embarrassment for China’s ruling Communist Party ahead of Oct. 1 celebrations of its 70th anniversary in power. Hong Kong’s government has announced it has canceled a fireworks display that day, citing concern for public safety.
 
Protesters in Tuen Mun marched about 2 kilometers (1 1/2 miles) from a playground to a government office building. Many were dressed in black and carried umbrellas, a symbol of their movement.
 
Protesters chanted, “Reclaim Hong Kong!” and “Revolution of our times!”
 
Most were peaceful but some took down a Chinese flag outside a government office and set fire to it. Government broadcaster RTHK said some damaged fire hoses in the Tuen Mun light rail station.
 
Organizers announced the event, due to last two hours, was ending after one hour due to the chaotic scene at the station.
 
An organizer quoted by RTHK, Michael Mo, complained that police escalated tensions by sending armed anti-riot officers.
 
That will “only escalate tension between protesters and police,” Mo was quoted as saying.
 
Elsewhere, scuffles were reported as government supporters heeded a call by a pro-Beijing member of the Hong Kong legislature to tear down protest posters at subway stations.
 
Hong Kong’s leader, Chief Executive Carrie Lam, has agreed to withdraw the extradition bill. But protesters are pressing other demands, including an independent investigation of complaints about police violence during earlier demonstrations.
 
Protesters complain Beijing and Lam’s government are eroding the “high degree of autonomy” and Western-style civil liberties promised to the former British colony when it was returned to China in 1997.
 
The protests have begun to weigh on Hong Kong’s economy, which already was slowing due to cooling global consumer demand. The Hong Kong airport said passenger traffic fell in August and business is off at hotels and retailers.
 
Police refused permission for Saturday’s march but an appeal tribunal overturned that decision. The panel on Friday gave permission for a two-hour event that it said had to end at 5 p.m.
 
Protesters in Tuen Mun also complained about a group of women from mainland China who sing in a local park. Residents say they are too loud and accuse some of asking for money or engaging in prostitution.
 
Those complaints prompted a similar march in July.
 
Also Saturday, there were brief scuffles as government supporters tore down protest posters at several subway stops, according to RTHK.
 
The campaign to tear down protest materials was initiated by a pro-Beijing member of Hong Kong’s legislature, Junius Ho.
 
Near the subway station in the Tsuen Wan neighborhood, a woman who was tearing down posters threw a bag at a reporter and a man shoved a cameraman, RTHK reported. It said there was pushing and shoving between the two sides at stations in Yuen Long and Lok Fu.
 
Ho made an appearance in the Shau Kei Wan neighborhood but residents shouted at him and told him to leave, RTHK said.
 
Ho initially called for protest signs to be torn down in all 18 of Hong Kong’s districts but he said Friday that would be reduced to clearing up trash from streets due to “safety concerns.”
 
On Wednesday, the Hong Kong Jockey Club canceled a horse race after protesters suggested targeting the club because a horse owned by Ho was due to run.
 
Later Saturday, some protesters planned to go to another district, Yuen Long, where a group of men with sticks hit protesters and subway passengers in a July 21 incident that caused controversy in Hong Kong.

…

Dozens of demonstrators were arrested at yellow vest protests in Paris on Saturday as more than 7,000 police were deployed to quell any violence by the movement and its radical, anarchist “black blocs.”

There were also fears that the demonstrators could try to infiltrate a march against climate change in the French capital.

The yellow vest movement erupted 10 months ago and blindsided President Emmanuel Macron, whom protesters accused of being out of touch with the needs of ordinary French people.

Their weekly demonstrations prompted Macron to loosen the state’s purse strings to the tune of nearly 17 billion euros ($18.8 billion) in wage boosts and tax cuts for low earners, but tapered off over the summer.

However, it remains to be seen whether the movement will regain the momentum of the winter and early spring, when the protests often descended into violent clashes with security forces, especially in Paris.

Several hundred protesters were in the streets of the French capital around 11am (0900 GMT) on Saturday.

By then police had arrested 39 of them, police headquarters said, adding that some protesters had been found to carry hammers or petrol canisters.

Macron on Friday called for “calm”, saying that while “it’s good that people express themselves”, they should not disrupt a climate protest and cultural events also due to go ahead on Saturday.

The number of police deployed for Saturday’s rallies are on a par with the peak of the yellow vest protests in December and March.

‘Black blocs’

Key yellow-vest figure Jerome Rodrigues has billed Saturday’s protest as “a revelatory demonstration”, claiming “many people are going to come to Paris”.

But officials have again outlawed protests on the Champs-Elysees and other areas in the heart of the capital, where previously protesters had ransacked and set fire to luxury shops and restaurants.

Some demonstrators in January even used a forklift truck to break down the doors of a government ministry.

The police have also been criticized for being heavy-handed in clashes with hardcore anti-capitalist “black bloc” groups blamed for much of the violence that has accompanied the demonstrations.

Saturday coincides with the annual European Heritage Days weekend, when public and private buildings normally off-limits to the public are open to visitors.

After attracting 282,000 people nationwide on the first day of protests last November, yellow-vest protest participation had fallen sharply by the spring, and only sporadic protests were seen over the summer.

Macron said in an interview with Time magazine published Thursday that the movement had been “very good for me” as it had made him listen and communicate better.

“My challenge is to listen to people much better than I did at the very beginning,” the president said.

…

Rare small protests were staged overnight in Cairo and other Egyptian cities calling for the removal of President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, but authorities quickly dispersed them and arrested dozens, a security source said.

Hundreds of citizens took to the streets late Friday to protest, chanting slogans including “Leave, Sissi!” and holding up placards.

At least 74 were arrested overnight, a security source told AFP, with plain clothed police patrolling sidestreets of downtown Cairo.

The country effectively banned protests under a 2013 law and a state of emergency is still in full effect.

Police fired tear gas and deployed forces in Tahrir Square — the epicenter of the 2011 revolution that unseated long-time autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

The protests came on the back of an online call put out by Mohamed Aly, a disgruntled exiled Egyptian businessman, demanding Sissi be toppled.

The construction contractor has been posting videos from Spain that have gone viral since early September, accusing Sissi and the military of rampant corruption.

The president flatly denied the allegations last week at a youth conference and sought to assure Egyptians that he “was honest and faithful” to his people and the military.

In his latest video posted early Friday morning on his growing social media accounts, Aly urged Egyptians to head to the streets after a highly anticipated football match between Cairo powerhouses Al-Ahly and Zamalek in the Super Cup.

Thousands shared footage on social media documenting the demonstrations that sprang up in several cities including sizeable crowds blocking traffic in Alexandria, Al-Mahalla, Damietta, Mansoura and Suez.

Many users commented on the curious absence of military personnel and speculated about internal political squabbles between various Egyptian security agencies.

Dangers of protesting

Under the rule of general-turned-president Sissi, authorities have launched a broad crackdown on dissidents, jailing thousands of Islamists as well as secular activists and popular bloggers.

He led the military ouster of former Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013 and won back to back landslide elections running virtually unopposed.

At the same youth conference where he denied graft allegations, he also warned of the dangers of protesting — a position he has repeatedly taken.

He has regularly invoked security and stability as hallmarks of his reign in contrast to the situations in regional hot spots such as Iraq, Libya and Syria.

But with his government imposing strict austerity measures since 2016 as part of a $12 billion loan package from the International Monetary Fund, discontent over rising prices has been swelling.

Nearly one in three Egyptians live below the poverty line on less than $1.40 a day, according to official figures released in July.

Human Rights Watch urged authorities on Saturday to “protect the right” to protest peacefully as well as demanding that those arrested be released.

Sissi flew to New York on Friday night where he is scheduled to address the United Nations General Assembly next week.

The president’s office did not comment on the protests, when asked by AFP on Saturday.

…

U.S. President Donald Trump announced new sanctions against Iran’s national bank Friday, further escalating economic pressure on the Islamic Republic.

“I think the sanctions work,” Trump said during a joint White House news conference with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Trump also said “the military would work, but that is a very severe form of winning.”

The sanctions came after last weekend’s attacks on Saudi Arabian oil installations that U.S. officials said were carried out by Iran, an allegation that Tehran denies.

But Trump said he was not planning a military response to the attacks, telling reporters in the Oval Office, “the strong person approach and the thing that does show strength would be showing a little bit of restraint.”

Trump warned, however, that “Iran knows if they misbehave, they’re on borrowed time.”

Trump announced the sanctions as his administration weighs options on Iran, including actions to further weaken its economy, deploying more U.S. troops to the Middle East region and targeted military strikes.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Thursday a U.S. or Saudi Arabian military strike against his country would trigger “an all-out war.”

The United States previously imposed sweeping sanctions on Iran because of its alleged nuclear program. But the U.S. Treasury Department said Friday the latest sanctions were imposed because Iran’s central bank engaged in “terrorism” by providing “billions of dollars” to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and Hezbollah.  

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has often said that any negotiations between himself and Trump can only occur if the U.S. first provides sanctions relief.

…

President Donald Trump irritably defended himself Friday against an intelligence whistleblower’s complaint, including an allegation of wrongdoing in a reported private conversation Trump had with a foreign leader. 
 
The complaint, which the administration has refused to let Congress see, is “serious” and “urgent,” the government’s intelligence watchdog said. But Trump dismissed the matter, insisting he did nothing wrong. 
 
He declared Friday that the complaint was made by a “partisan whistleblower,” though he later said he did not know the identity of the person. He chided reporters for asking about it and said it was “just another political hack job.” 
 
“I have conversations with many leaders. It’s always appropriate. Always appropriate,” Trump said. “At the highest level always appropriate. And anything I do, I fight for this country.” 
 
Some of the whistleblower’s allegations appear to center on Ukraine, according to a person familiar with the matter. The person was not authorized to discuss the issue by name and was granted anonymity. 
 
Trump, who sat in the Oval Office with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, whom he was hosting for a state visit, was asked if he knew if the whistleblower’s complaint centered on a July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The president responded “I really don’t know” but continued to insist any phone call he made with a head of state was “perfectly fine and respectful.” 

Intelligence director’s role
 
The standoff raises fresh questions about the extent to which Trump’s appointees are protecting the Republican president from oversight and, specifically, whether his new acting director of national intelligence, Joseph Maguire, is working with the Justice Department to shield the president from the reach of Congress. 
 
It also plunged the Trump administration into an extraordinary showdown with Congress over access to the whistleblower’s Aug. 12 complaint as lawmakers press their oversight of the executive branch. 
 
The administration has kept Congress from even learning what exactly the whistleblower is alleging, but the intelligence community’s inspector general said the matter involves the “most significant” responsibilities of intelligence leadership. A lawmaker said the complaint was “based on a series of events.” 
 
The inspector general appeared before the House Intelligence Committee behind closed doors Thursday but declined, under administration orders, to reveal to members the substance of the complaint.  

The chairman of the House committee said Trump’s attack on the whistleblower was “disturbing.” Representative Adam Schiff, D-Calif., told reporters it’s also “deeply disturbing” that the White House appears to know more about the whistleblower’s complaint than its intended recipient — Congress. 
  
The information “deserves a thorough investigation,” Schiff said. “Come hell or high water, that’s what we’re going to do.” 
 
Schiff, who said he was prepared to go to court to force the administration to open up about the complaint, said he was worried the president’s actions will have a “chilling effect” on other whistleblowers. 
  
House Democrats are fighting the administration separately for access to witnesses and documents in impeachment probes. Democrats are also looking into whether Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani traveled to Ukraine to pressure the government to aid the president’s re-election effort by investigating the activities of potential rival Joe Biden’s son Hunter, who worked for a Ukrainian gas company. 
 
Trump was asked Friday if he brought up Biden in the call with Zelensky, and he answered, “It doesn’t matter what I discussed.” But then he used the moment to urge the media “to look into” Biden’s background with Ukraine. 
 
During a rambling interview Thursday on CNN, Giuliani was asked whether he had asked Ukraine to look into Biden. Giuliani initially said, “No, actually, I didn’t,” but seconds later he said, “Of course I did.” 

‘On my own’
 
Giuliani has spent months trying to drum up potentially damaging evidence about Biden’s ties to Ukraine. He told CNN that Trump was unaware of his actions. 
 
“I did what I did on my own,” Giuliani said. “I told him about it afterward.” 
 
Later, Giuliani tweeted, “A President telling a Pres-elect of a well known corrupt country he better investigate corruption that affects US is doing his job.” 

Giuliani’s efforts have sparked anger among Democrats who have claimed that Trump, in the aftermath of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, may have asked for foreign assistance in his upcoming re-election bid. 
 
Among the materials Democrats have sought is a transcript of Trump’s July 25 call with Zelensky. The call took place one day after Mueller’s faltering testimony to Congress effectively ended the threat his probe posed to the White House. 
 
Schiff said he, too, could not confirm whether newspaper reports were accurate because the administration was claiming executive privilege in withholding the complaint. But letters from the inspector general to the committee released Thursday said it was an “urgent” matter of “serious or flagrant abuse” that must be shared with lawmakers.  

The letters also made it clear that Maguire consulted with the Justice Department in deciding not to transmit the complaint to Congress, a further departure from standard procedure. It’s unclear whether the White House was also involved, Schiff said. 
 
Trump named Maguire, a former Navy official, as acting intelligence director last month, after the departure of Dan Coats, a former Republican senator who often clashed with the president, and the retirement of Sue Gordon, a career professional who held the No. 2 position. 
 
Maguire has refused to discuss details of the whistleblower complaint, but he has been subpoenaed by the House panel and is expected to testify publicly next Thursday. Maguire and the inspector general, Michael Atkinson, also are expected next week at the Senate Intelligence Committee. 

‘Impasse’
 
Atkinson wrote in letters that Schiff released that he and Maguire had hit an “impasse” over the acting director’s decision not to share the complaint with Congress. Atkinson said he was told by the legal counsel for the intelligence director that the complaint did not actually meet the definition of an “urgent concern.” And he said the Justice Department said it did not fall under the director’s jurisdiction because it did not involve an intelligence professional. 
 
Atkinson said he disagreed with that Justice Department view. The complaint “not only falls under DNI’s jurisdiction,” Atkinson wrote, “but relates to one of the most significant and important of DNI’s responsibilities to the American people.” 
 
The inspector general said he requested authorization to at the very least disclose the “general subject matter” to the committee but had not been allowed to do so. 

…

Two reporters for the U.S.-based Bloomberg news agency have appeared in court accused of trying to undermine Turkey’s economic stability with a story they wrote on last year’s currency crisis.

The trial against Kerim Karakaya and Fercan Yalinkilic opened in Istanbul on Friday. Thirty-six others have also been charged for their social media comments on the story written in August 2018, increasing concerns over media freedoms in Turkey.

The trial is part of a fierce crackdown on journalists and media outlets. The Turkish Journalists Syndicate says at least 126 journalists or media workers are currently in prison.

Karakaya and Yalinkilic face up to five-year jail terms if convicted.

Bloomberg has condemned the prosecution and defended the pair, saying they reported “fairly and accurately on newsworthy events.”

…

Sixty years ago, children accounted for more than one-third — 36% — of the U.S. population. Today, that number is 22% and shrinking faster than anticipated.

The U.S. Census Bureau had not expected the kid population to drop that low until 2030, but the reality hit more than a decade ahead of projection.

Last year, the U.S. birth rate dropped to its lowest number in 32 years.  The births of 3,788,235 babies in 2018 is a 2% drop from 2017. That’s the lowest number of babies born in the U.S. since 1986.

The birth rates declined among all racial groups and all women under 35, while rising slightly for women in their late 30s and early 40s. 

And it’s a nationwide trend. Since 1990, child population rates have fallen off in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, according to the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s KIDS COUNT Data Center.

The biggest drops were in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. The share of kids in each of those states decreased from 25% in 1990 to 19% in 2018. 

New Jersey experienced the smallest decline. Children accounted for 23% of the Garden State’s population in 1990 and 22% in 2018.

Meanwhile, the overall adult population has continued to climb since 2009.

The decline in births might be attributable to the fact that young American adults in their 20s and 30s, among the hardest hit by the Great Recession of 2007-2009, are still recovering professionally and financially from their rough entry into the workforce, prompting them to postpone starting their families.

Meanwhile, the graying of America continues. By 2030, all Baby Boomers — those born between 1946 and 1964 — will be over the age of age 65, meaning that 1 in every 5 residents will be of retirement age.

Experts had expected the U.S. birth rate to stabilize by now. America’s senior citizens will need more young workers, not fewer, to help bolster economic safety net programs like Social Security, which was designed in 1935 primarily to provide retired workers with a continuing income.

The program currently also serves disabled workers and their dependents as well as survivors of deceased workers.

In 2014, there were 35 workers per every 100 people drawing Social Security benefits. By 2030, the number of workers is projected to drop to 44 for every 100 beneficiaries.

As of June 2018, about 175 million workers paid Social Security taxes while approximately 62 million people received monthly Social Security benefits.

…

Police in Zimbabwe say the leader of a doctors’ strike, who allegedly was abducted by government agents, is receiving care at a Harare hospital and is not under arrest.

Dr. Peter Magombeyi reappeared in the village of Nyabira late Thursday, five days after he went missing. In his absence, doctors and nurses held protests in Harare, demanding the government find him and ensure his safe return.

Speaking Friday to VOA’s Zimbabwe service, national police spokesperson Paul Nyathi said Magombeyi is under observation at a hospital.  

“He has been examined by his own medical team and a government team,” Nyathi said. “He is safe and has not been arrested at all as claimed in some sections of the media.”

He added: “Dr. Magombeyi has accessed his lawyers who are interacting with the police. He has accessed his family and they are also interacting with the police.”

Nyathi said police will interview Magombeyi once he is cleared by doctors.

Magombeyi is acting president of the Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association, whose members went on strike September 3.  

The doctors, who are paid less than $200 per month, are demanding a pay raise to keep pace with Zimbabwe’s soaring inflation. The doctors have rejected government calls to return to work while negotiations continue.

Officials have denied accusations that agents kidnapped Magombeyi as a form of punishment or intimidation.

Speaking Thursday on VOA Zimbabwe Service’s Livetalk program, a disoriented-sounding Magombeyi confirmed he was alive, but said he could not remember exactly what happened to him or how he ended up in Nyabira.

“That part I’m just so vague about, I need time to recall,” he said.

Magombeyi said his last recollection before being taken by unnamed people was the memory of being electrocuted.

“I remember being in a basement of some sort, being electrocuted at some point, that is what I vividly remember. I, I just don’t remember,” Magombeyi said, struggling to speak.

Officials also suggested a third party could be involved in the disappearance to taint the government’s image.

Responding to the police allegation, and also Twitter posts alluding to the same accusations, Magombeyi said he had no answers.  

“I need time to think about it, I don’t know,” he said.

…

Online shopping giant Amazon revealed a carbon footprint Thursday that rivals that of a small country and vowed to reduce the damage to the planet by cutting its use of fossil fuels.

The company, which ships more than 10 billion items a year on fuel-guzzling planes and trucks, said it has ordered 100,000 electric vans that will start delivering packages to shoppers’ doorsteps in 2021. It also plans to have 100% of its energy use come from solar panels and other renewable energy by 2030. That’s up from 40% today.

“We’ve been in the middle of the herd on this issue and we want to move to the forefront,” said Amazon CEO and founder Jeff Bezos, who announced the initiatives at an event in Washington.

Amazon said it emitted 44.4 million metric tons of carbon dioxide last year, a number that comes close to pollution rates of some small nations.

“Its greenhouse gas emissions are about 85% of the emissions of Switzerland or Denmark,” said Gregg Marland, a professor at the Research Institute for Environment, Energy and Economics at Appalachian State University.

Amazon’s employees have pressed the company to do more to combat climate change. Earlier this year, more than 8,000 Amazon staffers signed an open letter to Bezos, demanding that Amazon cut its carbon emissions, end its use of fossil fuels and stop working with oil companies who use Amazon’s technology to find drillable oil faster. More than 1,500 employees are planning a walkout Friday to support the Global Climate Strike, a worldwide climate change protest.

Amazon plans to be carbon neutral by 2040 and wants other companies to join it. Bezos unveiled a climate pledge and said he would talk with CEOs of other large companies to get them to sign it.

“We want to use our scale and our scope to lead the way,” Bezos said.

Amazon workers get ‘huge win’

A climate change advocacy group founded by Amazon workers said the company’s announcement amounted to a “huge win” and proved that employee pressure works. In a statement, Amazon Employees For Climate Justice said that it would keep pushing the issue as long as Amazon continues working with oil and gas companies and donating to politicians who deny climate change.

Bezos defended Amazon’s work with the oil and gas industry, arguing that “we need to help them instead of vilify them,” and said Amazon would take a “hard look” at campaign contributions to climate deniers. However, he stopped short of saying such donations would stop.

Employees from other big tech giants, including Google and Microsoft, also planned to walk out Friday. Their gripes mirror those of Amazon’s employees, including that their companies provide technology to the oil industry. Ahead of the strikes, Google made its own announcement Thursday, saying it would buy enough renewable energy to spur the construction of millions of solar panels and hundreds of wind turbines across the world.

Comprehensive carbon footprint

To measure its carbon footprint, Amazon looked at emissions from all of its businesses, including the planes it operates and the energy it uses to make Echos, Kindles and its other devices. Amazon even included customers’ trips to Whole Foods, the grocery chain it owns.

“It’s very comprehensive,” said Beril Toktay, professor of operations and supply chain management at Georgia Tech’s Scheller College of Business. She said she would like to see Amazon include the carbon footprint of the products it sells on its website, which could help drive people to shop for items that are less damaging to the environment.

Robin Bell, a research professor at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, said it was exciting to see Amazon taking meaningful steps to reduce its carbon footprint.

“They’re blazing a trail for other companies to follow suit,” Bell said.

…

The U.S. military is joining federal, state and local officials on the frontlines of the battle to protect the country’s elections from foreign interference.

Defense Secretary Mark Esper made the announcement Thursday, saying that, from now on, election security will be one of the military’s enduring missions, and that his department will seek to take the fight to the country’s enemies.

“The lines between war and peace have now blurred,” Esper said, citing an exponential expansion of dangers in cyberspace. “Our paradigm for war has changed.”

“Our adversaries see cyberwarfare as a way to take on the United States and impose costs without confronting our traditional strengths,” he said.

Election security

The decision to make election security a core part of the military’s mission comes with campaigning for the 2020 U.S. presidential election well underway, with more than a dozen candidates looking to unseat President Donald Trump.

It also represents a significant expansion of the military’s role in protecting the integrity of U.S. elections, which until now had been more modest.

Despite concerns about Russian and Chinese efforts to meddle in last November’s midterm elections, the Defense Department was in the background, standing up a handful of cyber protection teams that could have been called upon to assist the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), if needed.

“There would not be any independent DoD teams. We would operate in concert with DHS for incident response for election security,” Ed Wilson, deputy assistant secretary of defense for cyber policy, said at the time, emphasizing Homeland Security officials would be in the lead.

But Esper said the growing threat landscape necessitated a larger military role.

“We need to do more than just play goal line defense,” he said. “The Department of Defense has an important role in defending the American people from this misinformation, particularly as it pertains to preserving the integrity of our democratic elections.”

For months now, current and former U.S. intelligence and security officials have warned that Russia is actively working to interfere in the 2020 elections, whether with disinformation campaigns or by targeting U.S. election infrastructure, such as voter databases.

“It wasn’t a single attempt. They’re doing it as we sit here,” former special counsel Robert Mueller, tasked with investigating Russia’s meddling in the 2016 elections, told lawmakers this past July. “And they expect to do it during the next campaign.”

Intelligence officials’ warnings

Mueller also echoed warnings from top intelligence officials that in 2020, Russia would not be alone.

“Many more countries are developing capabilities to replicate what the Russians have done,” he added.

Esper agreed.

“Our adversaries will continue to target our democratic processes,” he warned Thursday. “This is already happening in preparation for the 2020 elections.”

In addition to Russia, officials have said evidence shows Iran and China tried to meddle in the 2018 elections. And they expect the list to grow.

“2018 was maybe a playoff game; 2020 is the Super Bowl with election security,” Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan said Thursday.

“State and local election officials are standing on the frontlines of a renewed conflict, defending our nation’s election systems against state and criminal actors,” he said. “I’m committed to ensuring that they do not stand alone.”

For state and local election officials, more help may soon be on the way.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Thursday agreed to support legislation that would provide states with an additional $250 million for election security.

Congressional approval needed

The measure still needs approval from the full Senate and from the House of Representatives, as well as Trump’s signature, for the funds to be doled out. But while lawmakers and officials see McConnell’s support as a positive sign, other security officials worry it, by itself, will not be enough.

“I think (it’s) a great step forward. But what’s next?” Chris Krebs, director of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said to reporters.

“Because if it’s these inconsistent, mass injections of cash every 10 years or eight years, that creates some disruption,” he said. “The thing they (state officials) want more than anything with funding, whether it comes from their state or whether it comes through the federal government, is consistency.”

At least one key lawmaker believes the U.S. is at least on the right track.

“I’m quite confident in 2020, in terms of the election being legitimate and secure,” said Republican Sen. Ron Johnson, who chairs the Senate Homeland Security Committee.

“Russia has always been trying to interfere. They always have, always will. Iran, China. We just have to be more discerning as consumers,” he said.

…

As Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg met Thursday with President Donald Trump and other critics of the tech industry, the Senate’s most vocal detractor offered a challenge: Sell your WhatsApp and Instagram properties to prove you’re serious about protecting data privacy.

It may have been more than Zuckerberg expected from his private meeting with Sen. Josh Hawley, a conservative Republican from Missouri, in his Capitol Hill office. Zuckerberg left the hourlong meeting — one of several with lawmakers on Capitol Hill — without answering questions from a throng of reporters and photographers pursuing him down a hallway.

Hawley, though, had plenty to say. “The company talks a lot. I’d like to see some action,” he told reporters. “I will believe Facebook when I see some real action out of Facebook.”

Rather than moving users’ personal data from properties such as WhatsApp and Instagram to the core Facebook platform, the company should put a wall around the services or, better yet, sell them off, Hawley said he told Zuckerberg.

Zuckerberg, who requested the meeting, “did not think that was a great idea,” he said.

Zuckerberg “had a good, constructive meeting with President Trump at the White House today,” a Facebook spokesman said. On Facebook and Twitter, Trump posted a photo with the caption, “Nice meeting with Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook in the Oval Office today.”

Nice meeting with Mark Zuckerberg of @Facebook in the Oval Office today. https://t.co/k5ofQREfOcpic.twitter.com/jNt93F2BsG

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 20, 2019

No details were given on the meeting, first reported by the Axios website.
 
Trump has persistently criticized social media companies like Facebook, Google, Amazon and his platform of choice, Twitter, embracing conservative critics’ accusations that they censor religious, anti-abortion and politically conservative views. Trump has claimed, without evidence, that the companies are “against me” and even suggested U.S. regulators should sue them on grounds of anti-conservative bias.  
 
A Facebook spokesman declined to comment on Hawley’s remarks concerning his meeting with Zuckerberg.

The popular services WhatsApp and Instagram are among some 70 companies that Facebook has acquired over the past 15 years or so, giving it what critics say is massive market power that has allowed it to snuff out competition.

Zuckerberg’s discussion with Hawley touched on industry competition, data privacy legislation, election security and accusations by conservatives that Facebook and other social media giants are biased against right-leaning content.

During his visit, Zuckerberg also met with other senators including Mark Warner, D-Va., vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee; Mike Lee, R-Utah, a senior member of the Judiciary Committee; and John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Tom Cotton, R-Ark. He also declined to answer reporters’ questions when he left Lee’s office earlier in the afternoon.

Lee’s office said the two discussed bias against conservatives on Facebook’s platform, regulation of online services, enforcement of antitrust laws in the tech industry and data privacy issues.

Congress has been debating a privacy law that could sharply rein in the ability of companies like Facebook, Google, Amazon and Apple to collect and make money off users’ personal data. A national law, which would be the first of its kind in the U.S., could allow people to see or prohibit use of their data.

‘New rules’ needed

Acting preemptively, Zuckerberg last spring called for tighter regulations to protect consumers’ data, control harmful online content, and ensure election integrity and data portability. The internet “needs new rules,” he said.

It was Zuckerberg’s first public visit to Washington since he testified before Congress last spring about privacy, election interference and other issues.

Facebook, a social media giant based in Menlo Park, California, with nearly 2.5 billion users, is under heavy scrutiny from lawmakers and regulators following a series of privacy scandals and amid accusations of abuse of its market power to squash competition.

The Justice Department, the Federal Trade Commission and the House Judiciary antitrust subcommittee are all conducting antitrust investigations of the big tech companies, and a bipartisan group of state attorneys general has opened a competition probe specifically of Facebook.

At Facebook’s request, Warner helped organize a dinner meeting in Washington on Wednesday night for Zuckerberg and a group of senators.

Warner told The Associated Press he wanted Zuckerberg to hear his Senate colleagues’ “enormous concerns about privacy and about protecting the integrity of our political system.”

Their message for the Facebook chief was “self-regulation is not going to be the answer,” Warner said. “I think Zuckerberg understood that.”

Warner and Hawley have proposed legislation that would force the tech giants to tell users what data they’re collecting and how much it’s worth. The proposal goes to the heart of Big Tech’s hugely profitable business model of commerce in users’ personal data. The companies gather vast data on what users read and like, and leverage it to help advertisers target their messages to individuals they want to reach.

The tech companies view with particular alarm a separate legislative proposal from Hawley that would require them to prove to regulators that they’re not using political bias to filter content. Failing to secure a bias-free audit from the government would mean a social media platform loses its long-held immunity from legal action.

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With world leaders about to gather in New York for a U.N. Climate Action Summit next week, millions of young people from Australia to Iceland will take off from school or work on Friday to demand urgent measures to stop environmental catastrophe. 

Protests, inspired by Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, 16, are planned in 150 countries. The aim is for students and others from around the world to speak in one voice about the impending effects of climate change on the planet. 

“Soon the sun will rise on Friday the 20th of September 2019. Good luck Australia, The Philippines, Japan and all the Pacific Islands. You go first!” Thunberg posted Thursday on Instagram. 

Solo start

Thunberg has galvanized young people around the world since she started protesting alone with a sign outside the Swedish parliament building in August 2018. Over the past year, young people in other communities have staged scattered strikes in solidarity with her Fridays for Future movement. 

In conjunction with the U.N. summit this week, organizers on Friday will hold coordinated strikes around the world for a third time, with Thunberg spearheading a march and rally in New York, home of U.N. headquarters. 

In a show of support, New York City education officials will excuse the absences of any of its 1.1 million public school students who want to participate. 

Demonstrators will gather in Lower Manhattan at noon and march about a mile to Battery Park at the edge of the financial district for a rally featuring speeches and music. 

Thunberg, who was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in March, sailed to New York from England aboard a zero-carbon-emissions vessel to partake in the U.N. summit. 

It brings together world leaders to discuss climate change mitigation strategies, such as transitioning to renewable energy sources from fossil fuels. 

Effects being felt

Global warming caused by heat-trapping greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels has already led to droughts and heat waves, melting glaciers, rising sea levels and floods, scientists say. 

Carbon emissions climbed to a record high last year, despite a warning from the U.N.-backed Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in October that output of the gases must be slashed over the next 12 years to stabilize the climate. 

Organizers said the demonstrations would take different forms, but all aim to promote awareness of climate change and demand political action to curb contributing factors to climate change, namely carbon emissions. 

Demonstrators in Plettenberg Bay, South Africa, planned to dance on the beach in a celebratory pledge to protect their natural heritage. Protesters in Istanbul were heading to a public park for a climate festival with concerts and workshops scheduled throughout the day. 

On Wednesday, Thunberg appeared before several committees of the U.S. Congress to testify about the next generation’s view on climate change. In lieu of testimony, she submitted a 2018 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that urged rapid, unprecedented changes in the way people live to keep temperatures from rising 1.5 degrees C by 2030. 

“I want you to unite behind the science. And then I want you to take action,” she said. 

…

Christy Lee contributed to this report, which originated with VOA’s Korean Service.

WASHINGTON — Increased international cooperation is essential for curtailing the ship-to-ship transfers that Pyongyang continues to use to evade sanctions, said a former United Nations panel expert on North Korean sanctions enforcement.

“Every member state (of the United Nations) has one or two pieces of the puzzle,” said Neil Watts, a maritime expert who served as a member of the United Nations panel that monitors North Korea sanctions compliance from 2013 to 2018. “And if they all cooperate, they can put together the full picture.”

North Korea seemingly is receiving a steady supply of oil through illegal transshipments, said Watts, as indicated by fuel prices that he said have been stable for the last 18 months in North Korea.

Two essential tactics

Watts told VOA’s Korean Service Tuesday that two things are essential for going after Pyongyang’s illicit ship-to-ship transfers at sea: Identify key North Koreans driving illicit transshipping networks, and follow the money trails.

Watts said there are a handful of key North Korean individuals whom the country relies on to operate illicit networks for ship-to-ship transfers.

“It’s an activity that involves a number of characters. But you can be sure that there are only a few trusted individuals from (the) North Korean side that are making these arrangements with complicit actors.”

Then, Watts suggested following the money trail to disrupt North Korea’s networks that involve numerous front companies and banks in different countries that coordinate deceptive shipping practices to evade sanctions.

“One needs to find the money trails,” he said, “because it’s substantial amounts of money involved. They always make sure that the money is deposited beforehand. … The key is also to find which companies are involved so that you can identify the banks involved and thereby contact the banks to curtail the banks keeping the money for these North Korean entities that are used to pay for the transactions.”

Watts said this is possible only when U.N. member states investigate and share information among themselves and with the maritime and shipping industries.

“One can go a lot further in terms of cooperation between the member states and the maritime industry involving the brokers or the commodity brokers, the shipping industry,” he said.

According to Watts, North Korea operates its illegal networks across borders to make it difficult for authorities to track down foreign individuals and companies involved in ship-to-ship transfers. This setup also makes it difficult to find North Korean entities overseeing the activities designed to evade sanctions.

“The North Koreans, knowing full well that should they involve companies and entities that are in multiple jurisdictions, it makes it very hard to follow the trails back to these individuals that are driving it from the North Korean side,” he said.

Watts said North Korea uses ship-to-ship transfers as a primary method to evade sanctions and obtain fuel because it knows monitoring and interdicting illicit practices in international waters are difficult.

“International waters are often in disputed areas of jurisdiction, also, and they take advantage of that, as well,” he said.

North Korea uses several deceptive shipping practices such as removing a flag, name, and identification number of a vessel it uses. It also turns off the transponders, called an automatic identification system (AIS), that sends off its location and identification to nearby ports and ships.

“What has been done in the commercial sector is to get companies to include in contracts no switching off AIS as a clause to say that there’ll be severe penalties,” Watts said. “In the case of insurers,” he added, “they would lose the insurance.”

Illegal history

There is a history to North Korea’s use of illicit ship-to-ship transfers.

In 2017, the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution banning sales of Pyongyang’s key export commodities, including coal and seafood, in order to cut off its foreign sources of income — money needed to support its nuclear weapons program. In the same year, the council also prohibited North Korea from importing more than 500,000 barrels of refined petroleum per year.

More recently, on Aug. 30, the U.S. Treasury Department blacklisted two Taiwanese-based individuals and two Taiwanese-based companies, and a Hong Kong-based company, for helping North Korea evade sanctions. It also listed a tanker suspected of transferring oil to North Korean ships and in connection to all three companies and two individuals. 

In its interim report released in August, the U.N. Panel of Experts said North Korea exceeded the cap on refined petroleum in the first four months of the year and continued to violate sanctions through illicit ship-to-ship transfers.

In June, the U.S. and dozens of other countries claimed North Korea violated a U.N. sanctions cap on fuel imports by using at least eight illegal ship-to-ship transfers and 72 illegal deliveries.

…

A quiet strip of land in northern Syria contains a volatile mix of troops from various nations and militias allied with some of those countries, but viewed as enemies by others.  In an attempt to keep this powder-keg from blowing up, the U.S. and Turkey brokered a deal last month to create a “safe zone” between Turkey and Kurdish areas. But Turkey now says the original deal still leaves it in danger, and analysts warn there is no long-term strategy to peaceful coexistence.  VOA’s Heather Murdock has this story from Manbij and al-Bab in Syria.

…

A new poll shows Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren surging into second place in the Democratic presidential race behind former Vice President Joe Biden.  The NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll found Biden leading the Democratic field with 31% support, followed by Warren at 25% and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders in third place with 14%. VOA National correspondent Jim Malone has the latest on the Democratic primary race from Washington.

…

More than 150 world leaders are preparing to attend the U.N. Sustainable Development Summit in New York beginning Sept. 25, with the aim of agreeing on a new agenda to tackle global poverty. But a new report warns that African children are being left further and further behind and will make up more than half of the world’s poor by 2030. As Henry Ridgwell reports from London, the report authors are critical of both African governments and the international community for failing to adequately tackle the problem.
 

…

The American Dream is many things to many people. For the Savchuk family who came to the U.S. from Ukraine more than 15 years ago, achieving their dream meant opening a small business and making a decent living. VOA’s Iryna Matviichuk met with the family and saw their dream come true.
 

…

Israelis went to the polls again this week, but unofficial results show another deadlock. Neither Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of the Likud Party nor challenger Benny Gantz of the Blue and White party can form a governing coalition. Many in Israel say the two large parties must unite despite their differences. Linda Gradstein reports for VOA from Jerusalem.
 

…

President Donald Trump has named Robert C. O’Brien as his new National Security Adviser, replacing John Bolton who was fired last week.

“I am pleased to announce that I will name Robert C. O’Brien, currently serving as the very successful Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs at the State Department, as our new National Security Advisor. I have worked long & hard with Robert. He will do a great job!,” Trump said on Twitter Wednesday.

I am pleased to announce that I will name Robert C. O’Brien, currently serving as the very successful Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs at the State Department, as our new National Security Advisor. I have worked long & hard with Robert. He will do a great job!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 18, 2019

Trump had said Bolton had been a “disaster” on North Korea policy, “out of line” on Venezuela, and did not get along with important administration officials.

…

Spain’s acting prime minister asked voters Wednesday for an even bigger victory for his Socialist party after his failure to form a government triggered a new election in November.

Pedro Sánchez told opposition parties in parliament that “when we will be forced back to the polls, I hope that the Spanish people give the Socialist Party an even bigger majority so that you … cannot block the formation of a government that Spain needs.”

He spoke a day after King Felipe VI announced that there was no viable candidate who could win parliament’s endorsement before a Sept. 23 deadline.

The Nov. 10 election will be Spain’s fourth in four years.

Spain to Hold Snap Election on Nov. 10 After Party Talks Fail

Acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez acted after King Felipe VI said there were no viable candidates to lead a new government

Sánchez’s Socialists won the April 28 election, but fell short of a majority and he was unable to win the support of any major rival parties. The far-left United We Can party both refused to enter into a coalition government or to endorse his formation of a single-party government. The center-right Citizens party also wouldn’t negotiate until a last-minute effort that flopped.

Sánchez’s rivals criticized his unwillingness to win them over.

Popular Party leader Pablo Casado, the conservative opposition leader, said that Sánchez “wanted new elections from the start, but you have spent five months playing with the Spanish people.”

Early polls show the Socialists again winning the most votes, but still coming nowhere near the outright majority of 176 seats. Now they have 123 deputies in the 350-member lower chamber.

That means it is very likely the parties will have to change tact and find a way to strike a deal to get a government in place after the new vote.

Spain’s caretaker government has limited powers and can’t propose laws to the parliament.

The upcoming political campaign will likely coincide with a highly-anticipated verdict from the Supreme Court for a rebellion case against 12 of the leaders of Catalonia’s 2017 secession attempt. A guilty verdict would likely spark protests from separatists in northeastern Catalonia.

Spain is also facing a slowing economy and, like the rest of Europe, the likelihood of further economic troubles caused by the planned exit of Britain from the European Union scheduled for Oct. 31.

…

Iran has been suspended from international judo competitions because it boycotts bouts with Israeli athletes.

Less than a month after world champion Saeid Mollaei walked off the Iranian team in protest at the boycott policy, the International Judo Federation said Wednesday that Iran is suspended ahead of a full hearing.

Iran’s judo federation is accused of discriminating against Israeli athletes and breaking rules over manipulating competition results.

“The IJF Executive Committee considered that such a conduct is intolerable,” the federation said.

Mollaei has said he was repeatedly ordered by Iranian officials to lose matches or withdraw from competitions, including last month’s world championships, so as not to face Israelis. He is currently in hiding in Germany.

Iran does not recognize Israel as a country, and Iranian sports teams have for several decades had a policy of not competing against Israelis.

It’s not yet clear if the IJF will seek to stop Iran competing in the 2020 Olympic judo events. Meanwhile, the IJF is exploring ways to allow Mollaei to compete on the International Olympic Committee’s team of refugees.

The IOC has signaled a harder line on boycotts in recent years.

In June, IOC president Thomas Bach criticized governments who “clearly abuse sport for their political purposes,” noting a case in May of a Tunisian court blocking four Israelis from competing at the taekwondo junior world championships. 

…