Historically Black Colleges and Universities, or HBCUs, are facing declining enrollments as are many other American universities. But North Carolina A&T, the country’s largest HBCU, has boasted of growth as it continues to welcome international students to its campus. In Greensboro, Esha Sarai has more.
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Nationwide Strike Paralyzes France
Hundreds of thousands of people went on strike in cities across France, causing a shutdown of public transport and drastically reducing teaching and hospital staff Thursday. Public and private sector workers are protesting President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reforms that include extending minimum retirement age and rewarding employees for each day worked. VOA’S Zlatica Hoke reports.
your ads here!Firefighters Worry About Wildfires Approaching Sydney
Firefighters battled to contain nearly 150 fires burning in New South Wales state Friday as strong winds fanned the flames and again shrouded Sydney, Australia’s biggest city, in hazardous smoke.
Bushfires have killed at least four people and destroyed more than 680 homes since the start of November. Fires are still burning in New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Queensland states.
While nearly 150 blazes were burning across Australia’s east coast, New South Wales Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said authorities were particularly concerned about eight fires now at emergency levels around Sydney, the state capital where about 5 million people live.
“They have the potential or are expected to spread further east, which unfortunately is getting into more populated areas, villages, communities, isolated rural areas, and other farming practices and businesses throughout the region,” Fitzsimmons told reporters in Sydney.
Several fires to the northwest of the city had joined together to create one massive blaze, spreading with hot, dry winds, he said.
Bushfires are common in Australia, but this year’s fire season has begun much earlier than usual, with temperatures soaring regularly above 40 degrees C (104 F) before the start of the southern summer and high winds scouring the drought-parched landscape.
Australia’s worst bushfires on record destroyed thousands of homes in Victoria in February 2009, killing 173 people and injuring 414 more.
your ads here!Trial Set for Man Charged With Threatening Muslim Candidate
A federal trial is scheduled to begin Thursday for a North Carolina man charged with anonymously threatening to lynch a Muslim-American man campaigning for a state Senate seat in Virginia.
Court records say jury selection for Joseph Cecil Vandevere’s trial is set to get underway Thursday morning in Asheville, North Carolina.
Vandevere was charged in June with interstate communication of a threat to injure a person in connection with a tweet directed at Qasim Rashid. The tweet included a picture of a lynching and read, “VIEW YOUR DESTINY.”
Rashid posted a screenshot of the threatening tweet in March 2018 and reported it to the FBI. Rashid, a Democrat, lost his Nov. 5 bid to oust an incumbent Republican state senator in Virginia.
In September, U.S. District Judge Max Cogburn Jr. rejected Vandevere’s argument that his indictment must be dismissed on grounds of First Amendment free speech.
your ads here!Turkish Committee Backs Contentious Maritime Deal With Libya
The Turkish parliament’s foreign affairs committee on Thursday endorsed a controversial deal on maritime boundaries in the Mediterranean reached between Turkey and Libya’s U.N.-supported government.
The committee approved the agreement which would give Turkey access to an economic zone across the Mediterranean, paving the way for a final vote in the parliament’s general assembly later in the day.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signed the agreement last week with Libya’s Tripoli-based government, led by Fayez Sarraj, which controls some of the country’s west. The two also signed a security cooperation agreement.
The deals sparked outrage in the Libyan parliament, which is based in the east and is aligned with the self-styled Libyan National Army, led by Gen. Khalifa Hifter. The parliament denounced the agreements as a “flagrant breach” of Libya’s security and sovereignty, saying they would grant the Turkish government the right to use Libyan airspace and waters as well as build military bases on Libyan soil.
Greece, Cyprus and Egypt have also criticized the boundary agreement, calling it a serious breach of international law. The deal has added tension to an ongoing dispute with Greece, Cyprus and Egypt over oil-and-gas drilling rights in the eastern Mediterranean.
Greece’s prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, said he discussed the issue and other differences between Greece and Turkey with Erdogan on the sidelines of a NATO summit Wednesday in London, adding that both leaders “noted disagreements.”
Since 2015, Libya has been divided between two competing governments, one in the east, based in Benghazi, and the other in the west, in Tripoli. While the LNA and the eastern government enjoy the support of France, Russia and key Arab countries, the Tripoli-based government is backed by Italy, Turkey and Qatar.
your ads here!Pelosi to Speak on House Impeachment Inquiry Status
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will address reporters Thursday on the status of the impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump.
Pelosi’s televised statement comes a day after three U.S. constitutional scholars told Congress that Trump committed impeachable offenses by pushing Ukraine to open investigations to benefit him politically.
Harvard law professor Noah Feldman told lawmakers that Trump, by “corruptly soliciting” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to open an investigation of one of his chief 2020 Democratic rivals, former Vice President Joe Biden, “has clearly committed high crimes and misdemeanors,” the standard set in the U.S. Constitution for impeachment of a president.
Pamela Karlan, a Stanford law professor, said a U.S. president should resist foreign intervention in an American election, not invite it. She called Trump’s request to Zelenskiy an “especially serious abuse of power.”
In his opening statement, University of North Carolina law professor Michael Gerhardt told the House Judiciary Committee, “If Congress fails to impeach here, then the impeachment process has lost all meaning, and, along with that, our Constitution’s carefully crafted safeguards against the establishment of a king on American soil. No one, not even the president, is above the law.”
Republicans supporting Trump called Jonathan Turley, a George Washington University law professor who said he voted against Trump in 2016. But Turley said there was a “paucity of evidence” supporting Trump’s impeachment and “abundance of anger” by Democrats aimed at removing Trump from office. Turley said Trump’s late July call with Zelenskiy was not “perfect,” as Trump has contended, but not grounds to impeach him.
Impeachable offenses
The Judiciary panel’s hearing was the next step in House Democrats’ effort to impeach the country’s 45th president, only the fourth time in the country’s 243-year history that a U.S. leader has faced a formal impeachment proceeding.
The constitutional scholars recalled the history from more than two centuries ago when the country’s founding fathers wrote into the Constitution that presidents could be impeached and removed from office if lawmakers decide they have committed “”treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.” Feldman, Karlan and Gerhardt all said that Trump had met the criteria for impeachment laid out in the Constitution, describing his actions as an “abuse of power.”
Feldman said if Trump is not held to account for his alleged offenses, “We no longer live in a democracy.”
Turley called the case against Trump “the narrowest impeachment in history” and was being conducted by Democrats in an “incredibly short” period of time. The lead Republican on the Judiciary panel, Congressman Doug Collins, asked, “Why the rush?”
Collins accused Democrats of trying to complete the impeachment process before the country turns its attention to the congressional and presidential election campaigns in 2020, when Trump is seeking re-election. Trump’s lawyers declined an invitation to participate in Wednesday’s hearing, while retaining the right to appear at any later sessions in the coming weeks.
At the end of the day, however, both sides stuck to their talking points. Judiciary Committee chair Jerrold Nadler again accused Trump of asking a “foreign government to intervene in our elections, then got caught, then obstructed the investigators twice.” The constitution, he said, “has a solution for a president who places his personal or political interests” above those of the country.
Collins, on the other hand, repeatedly called for Intelligence Committee chair Adam Schiff to testify before the Judiciary Committee. He also accused the Democrats of rushing the process, not talking to enough witnesses and being “so obsessed with the election next year, they just gloss over things.”
What sparked Inquiry
The Trump impeachment drama centers on his late July request to Zelenskiy to “do us a favor,” the investigation of Biden, his son Hunter’s work for a Ukrainian natural gas company and a debunked theory that Ukraine meddled in the 2016 U.S. election that Trump won, not Russia, as the U.S. intelligence community concluded.
At the time, Trump was temporarily withholding $391 million in military aid Kyiv wanted to help fight pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine. Trump eventually released the assistance in September without Ukraine opening the Biden investigations, proof, Republicans say, that there was no quid pro quo, an exchange of favors between Trump and Ukraine.
Trump defended his phone call with Zelensky in a series of tweets late Wednesday night, writing that when he used the word “us, I am referring to the United States, our Country.”
When I said, in my phone call to the President of Ukraine, “I would like you to do US a favor though because our country has been through a lot and Ukraine knows a lot about it.” With the word “us” I am referring to the United States, our Country. I then went on to say that……
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 5, 2019
The president then went on to slam House Democrats over their assertion: “This, based on what I have seen, is their big point – and it is no point at a all (except for a big win for me!). The Democrats should apologize to the American people!”
….”I would like to have the Attorney General (of the United States) call you or your people…..” This, based on what I have seen, is their big point – and it is no point at a all (except for a big win for me!). The Democrats should apologize to the American people!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 5, 2019
The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives could on a simple majority vote impeach Trump before leaving on a Christmas week recess at the end of December, setting up a trial next month in the Republican-majority Senate, where a two-thirds vote would be needed for conviction to remove Trump from office.
Trump’s ouster from the White House remains unlikely, however, with at least 20 Republican senators needed to turn against the president and vote for conviction. Some Republican senators have criticized Trump’s request to Zelenskiy, but none has called for his conviction.
Impeachment history
Two former U.S. presidents — Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton — were impeached but not convicted by the Senate and removed from office, while a third — Richard M. Nixon — resigned in the face of certain impeachment. Many constitutional scholars believe abuse of office and obstruction of Congress by withholding documents as it investigates a president are also impeachable offenses, but the U.S. Constitution makes no specific mention of such offenses.
The new testimony comes a day after the Democratic-controlled House Intelligence Committee released a 300-page report accusing Trump of “misconduct” in seeking Ukrainian political interference in the 2020 presidential election and then relentlessly trying to “obstruct” Congress as it carried out an inquiry into his actions.
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‘Baby Shark’ Video Will Be Released in Navajo Language Version
Children love the song. Parents call it an “earworm” because once they hear it, it continues to pop uninvited into their heads: “Baby Shark” is a two-minute music video that has been dubbed into 11 languages and endeared itself to toddlers across the world.
Now, a 12th version is in the works, dubbed into Dine bizaad—the language of the Navajo—one of the largest Native American tribes in the U.S.
The project is the brainchild of Manuelito “Manny” Wheeler, director of the Navajo Nation Museum in Window Rock, Arizona, part of a part of a 54,000-square-foot center that works to preserve and interpret the Navajo culture through art, archaeological materials, photographs, film and recordings—including Navajo-language versions of major Hollywood motion pictures.
“We dubbed ‘Star Wars Episode IV’ and ‘Finding Nemo’ into Navajo. And we are just finishing up the classic Clint Eastwood Western [film], ‘Fistful of Dollars,’” said Wheeler.
Watch: a clip from the Navajo version of the 1977 movie “Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope”:
Each of these film projects was geared to a different Navajo demographic, Wheeler explained. It’s all part of an effort to preserve and revive a language that, like many Native American languages, is endangered, and unless something is done, could face extinction in the coming decades.
“We want to stem the tide before the tide is irreversible, because it is changing,” said Wheeler. “We needed something that was geared for early childhood. And what better choice than ‘Baby Shark?’”
“Baby Shark,” is more than a song; it’s an international phenomenon. Produced by the South Korean entertainment company SmartStudy’s educational brand, Pinkfong, in 2015, it instantly went viral. Since then, Pinkfong has created spinoff videos—including “Baby Shark Dance.” Together, they have been viewed more than 3 billion times on YouTube.
“We’re working closely with the Navajo Nation Museum for this project,” said Kevin Yoon, SmartStudy’s marketing communications manager, in an email statement. “Pinkfong will be producing the audio and video recording, but the Navajo Nation is advising us throughout the whole process, including localization [translation] and the audition for voice actors.”
The Navajo Nation Museum will host an open casting call Sunday, December 8. Wheeler hopes to announce the final selection of five voice actors by mid-December and launch the final project in time for Christmas.
Future collaborations are possible
On March 1, the first “Baby Shark Live” tour will open in Independence, Missouri, and for the following three months will travel to 100 U.S. cities, including many in states with large Native American populations, such as California, Oklahoma, Montana, New Mexico, and Washington state, to name a few.
Does Pinkfong have plans to meet with any other Indian tribes during the tour to discuss producing other Native language versions?
“Right now, we’re focusing all of our efforts on the Navajo ‘Baby Shar’k (Łóó’ Hashkéii Awéé’) project,” said Yoon. “While we don’t have future plans at this point, we are open to possibilities to collaborate.”
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New College Rankings Look at Your Return on Investment
Most students and their families quickly dive into rankings when searching for the “best colleges and universities.”
However, Georgetown University, itself on many of those “best college” lists, has veered from rankings based on grade-point averages, admission rates and SAT scores, and come up with a new metric, ranking institutions of higher education based on the financial return students receive from their investment in the school.
Traditional private, four-year schools that offer bachelor’s degrees have the highest returns on investment not just immediately after graduation, but 40 years after enrollment, Georgetown’s report on the ranking says.
“For example, Babson College, a private college in Massachusetts, ranks 304th in net present value at the 10-year horizon, but ranks seventh at the 40-year horizon,” Georgetown’s University Center on Education and the Workforce said. Its detailed project included 4,500 schools that offer degrees and certificates.
Tops on the list for return on investment over 40 years was Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, a private nonprofit institution that costs about $50,000 per year. It was calculated to return $385,000 at 10 years, $1.3 million at 20 years, and $2.72 million on that investment to the graduate after 40 years.
By comparison, the private, nonprofit, four-year Stanford University in California that ranked No. 5 on the Georgetown list would return $307,000 in 10 years, $1.013 million in 20 years; and $2.068 million in 40. Tuition and fees are about the same as Albany College of Pharmacy.
Those calculations are published prices and do not include financial aid discounts.
“Everyone is asking, ‘Is college worth it?’ and we set out to try to find an answer,” said Anthony P. Carnevale, lead author and CEW director in a statement. “Not only will it help students, but this kind of information on the costs and benefits of higher education holds institutions more accountable.”
Carnevale served for a decade as vice president for public leadership at the Educational Testing Service, the largest private nonprofit testing service, which administers the SAT and other tests that are required or highly recommended for admission into higher-education programs.
Data from some obvious affordable schools CEW could not gain access to include the U.S. service academies. Those schools do not collect tuition and fees, and students are given stipends to pay for expenses like dry cleaning, barbers and laundry. Admission and graduation is exchanged for service in the U.S. military after graduation.
And who’s who in Georgetown’s Top 20? Some names you don’t typically see in the popular annual rankings and careers that you won’t find on many other lists. (Hint: Get your sea legs on.)
Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (N.Y.)
St. Louis College of Pharmacy (Mo.)
Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (Mass.)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Mass.)
Stanford University (Calif.)
Maine Maritime Academy (Maine)
Babson College (Mass.)
Harvard University (Mass.)
Georgetown University (D.C.)
U.S. Merchant Marine Academy (N.Y.)
University of the Sciences (Pa.)
St Paul’s School of Nursing-Queens (N.Y.)
Massachusetts Maritime Academy (Mass.)
Harvey Mudd College (Calif.)
Stevens Institute of Technology (N.J.)
University of Pennsylvania (Pa.)
California State University Maritime Academy (Calif.)
California Institute of Technology (Calif.)
Colorado School of Mines (Colo.)
Bentley University (Mass.)
No, that’s not a typo, you are reading correctly: Pharmacy and maritime schools offer excellent return on investment along with notable STEM colleges and universities.
For-profit and certificate schools scored the lowest return on investment, and include beauty, rabbinical, ethnic and arts schools.
your ads here!Maduro’s Foes Balk at UN-backed Deal to Rebuild Power Grid
A proposal to rebuild Venezuela’s collapsed power grid with the help of the United Nations is proving a political hot potato for Nicolas Maduro’s opponents.
On Tuesday, the opposition-controlled National Assembly at the last minute scratched a schedule debate on a $350 million credit from a regional development bank to address an electricity emergency that has left much of western Venezuela in the dark from blackouts for months.
The project’s promoters accuse opposition hardliners of playing politics with Venezuela’s humanitarian crisis while ignoring the plight of millions of Venezuelans who urgently demand solutions to everyday travails as the fight to remove Maduro drags on.
“We can’t condemn millions of Venezuelans to life without power while we wait for Maduro to give up power,” said Oscar Rondero, an opposition lawmaker from Nueva Esparta state, one of the most impacted by the blackouts.
The proposed loan agreement with the Development Bank of Latin America, or CAF, enjoys the backing of Maduro but still requires the National Assembly’s approval. The funding would be used to reconnect 1,206 megawatts of power — about half of its current output from diesel and gas-powered facilities — in four hard-hit areas as well as backup generators for hospitals nationwide.
The proposal puts the opposition, which considers the Maduro administration corrupt and illegitimate, in a difficult spot, said David Smile, a Venezuela expert at Tulane University. It also lays bare divisions that have grown more embittered as the U.S.-backed campaign to oust Maduro loses its momentum, with many of his opponents exiled for fear of arrest.
“Supporting it would require tacit recognition of the Maduro government,” said Smilde, who is also a senior fellow at the Washington Office on Latin America. “But opposing it would mean denying Venezuelans a significant opportunity to improve the terrible conditions they are living in.”
To address those concerns, the U.N.’s development agency would be responsible for administering the funding in conjunction with an independent board comprised of representatives of Maduro and opposition leader Juan Guaido. No funds would be provided directly to the state-run utility Corpoelec, which is run by Maduro loyalists and widely blamed for the grid’s collapse.
If approved, Smilde says it could help foster closer cooperation between the two feuding sides to stem a crisis that has led more than 4.6 million Venezuelans to flee the country, including support for an “oil for food” deal that is increasingly being floated by policymakers and analysts.
Still, for some in the opposition, any attempt at cooperation with Maduro to address the country’s humanitarian crisis, however modest, smacks of treason.
“Is the legislative branch going to pretend everything is normal approving funding for an executive power that’s supposedly usurping power?” Pedro Urruchurtu, the national coordinator for the Vente Venezuela movement, said on Twitter following Tuesday’s legislative session.
The loan proposal dates from March, when moderate opposition lawmakers gathered with their socialist counterparts at a forum sponsored by what’s known as the Boston Group.
The informal group came about in the wake of a 2002 coup as a way for Venezuelan lawmakers across the ideological spectrum, as well as Democrats and Republicans in the U.S., to rebuild trust following Hugo Chavez’s brief removal from power. Maduro was among its founding members.
More recently, the group was activated to secure the release of Joshua Holt, a Utah man arrested and held for almost two years on what were widely seen as trumped-up weapons charges.
Guaido, who leads congress and is recognized as Venezuela’s rightful president by more than 50 countries, including the U.S., has yet to publicly comment on the debate.
But Rondero said that members of his Popular Will party have expressed misgivings, while the Justice First party — which controls the largest bloc in congress — opposes the bill outright.
In removing a scheduled debate on the loan deal from Tuesday’s legislative session, lawmaker Enrique Marquez said more time was needed to build consensus.
your ads here!Back for Gig in Stockholm, A$AP Rocky Won’t Play in Prison
Sweden’s prison board says U.S. rapper A$AP Rocky won’t be able to perform in the Swedish prison where he was held until convicted of assault in a June street brawl in Stockholm.
Citing logistical and security issues, Vilhelm Grevik of Sweden’s Prison and Probation Service told the Swedish daily Svenska Dagbladet on Wednesday that the prison board won’t be able to organize a concert in the Kronoberg prison.
In August, A$AP Rocky, whose real name is Rakim Mayers, was convicted of assault. The rapper and his two bodyguards were given “conditional sentences,” meaning they won’t serve prison time unless they commit a similar offense in the future.
Mayers, who wanted to entertain inmates at the Kronoberg prison, is due to perform Dec. 11 at Stockholm’s Ericsson Globe arena.
US, Taliban to Renew Push for Afghan Peace
The United States is set to formally restart peace talks with the Taliban insurgency, nearly three months after President Donald Trump abruptly suspended the year-long process aimed at finding a political settlement to the war in Afghanistan.
U.S. chief peace negotiator Zalmay Khalilzad arrived in Kabul Wednesday for meetings with government representatives and other Afghan leaders before heading to the Gulf nation of Qatar, where Taliban interlocutors are based, according to a State Department announcement. It did not give a date for Khalilzad’s visit to the Qatari capital, Doha.
“In Doha, Ambassador Khalilzad will rejoin talks with the Taliban to discuss steps that could lead to intra-Afghan negotiations and a peaceful settlement of the war, specifically a reduction in violence that leads to a cease-fire,” it noted. Taliban sources expect the meeting with Khalilzad will take place next week.
The U.S. statement said that during his stay in the Afghan capital, Khalilzad will follow up on Trump’s recent Thanksgiving Day visit to the country, the site of America’s longest war, and discuss “how best to support accelerated efforts” to get all parties to Afghan-to-Afghan peace negotiations.
The Afghan-born American diplomat led his team in nine rounds of talks with the insurgent group in Qatar before Trump canceled them on Sept. 7. Trump cited a spate of Taliban attacks in Kabul that killed a U.S. soldier among others.
At the time, the two adversaries in the 18-year-old war had come close to concluding an agreement that could have set the stage for a phased withdrawal of U.S. and allied troops from Afghanistan.
“The Taliban wants to make a deal and we’re meeting with them and we’re saying it has to be a cease-fire and they (the Taliban) didn’t want to do a cease-fire and now they do want to do a cease-fire,” Trump said last Thursday during his meeting with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani at Bagram Air Base.
But the Taliban insist that under the deal it negotiated with the U.S, the insurgent group had committed itself to observe a cease-fire with foreign troops to facilitate their drawdown and open peace talks with Afghan stakeholders for ending decades of hostilities in the country.
Insurgent officials say, however, a cease-fire with Afghan security forces will be on the agenda when the intra-Afghan negotiations begin. Those talks, they maintain, will he held with representatives of the larger Afghan society where government officials will participate in their private capacity and not as Kabul envoys.
For their part, Ghani’s aides insist any peace negotiations with the Taliban must be led by the Afghan government. Taliban-Afghan talks remain a daunting challenge for Khalilzad and his team to deal with, say analysts.
The Taliban, which controls or influences nearly half of Afghan territory, refuses to engage with the Kabul government, dismissing it as an illegitimate entity and a product of the “American occupation” of Afghanistan.
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Russia, US Spar Over Former Marine Detained on Espionage Charges
Russia’s Foreign Ministry has accused a former U.S. Marine currently facing charges of espionage of faking health problems and lying about his poor treatment while in custody — comments the U.S. Embassy in Moscow called “pulp fiction.”
The diplomatic back and forth involves Paul Whelan, who was arrested for spying in December 2018 after allegedly accepting classified materials on a computer flash drive in a central Moscow hotel.
The case has proven an additional irritant to U.S.-Russian relations that already are strained by events in Syria, Ukraine, and Moscow’s alleged interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential elections.
Whelan, who holds passports from Britain, Canada and Ireland, in addition to the United States, has repeatedly denied the charges. He insists he was in Moscow for a friend’s wedding and accepted the flash drive from a Russian acquaintance without knowing or ever viewing its contents.
In occasional court appearances and through his lawyer, Whelan has consistently claimed mistreatment by prison officials and Russian security services, including physical threats and a lack of medical care during his detention over the past year.
A statement posted to Russia’s Foreign Ministry website addressed those claims.
The statement accused Whelan of fabricating the complaints as part of “yet another mass-scale disinformation campaign aimed at smearing Russia’s image.” It also said American “controlled media” had artificially “created noise around this person” by disseminating numerous falsehoods about Whelan’s case.
The ex-Marine, the statement noted, had been caught “red-handed,” with his “spying activities fully documented.”
The statement also insisted Whelan had regular visits “every week” from U.S. Embassy personnel, as well other countries from which he holds passports.
The Russian Foreign Ministry noted that Whelan received medical care upon request but had declined a “minor surgery” at a Russian hospital, opting for medication, instead.
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US Detainee Paul Whelan Declines Surgery for Medical Condition
Lawyer for American held on espionage allegations says client distrusts Russian physicians
“So, there is no threat to Whelan’s health,” concluded the statement. “As for feigned illnesses to which he resorts from time to time, this is apparently part of U.S. intelligence agent training.”
US reacts
U.S. Embassy press spokeswoman in Moscow, Rebecca Ross, responded with an extended tweet that called the Foreign Ministry’s version “pulp fiction,” while presenting a starkly different narrative.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs should stop distorting the facts. #PaulWhelan is not a spy. Still no evidence. Still no calls to his family. Enough is enough. Let Paul go home. @mfa_russia (7/7)
— Rebecca Ross (@USEmbRuPress) December 3, 2019
Ross condemned Russia’s depiction of Whelan’s health, arguing it was, in fact, “deteriorating.” She said Russia had not allowed Whelan a single phone call to family since his detention.
Ross also noted that “no evidence of any crime has been provided to date,” while Whelan — who speaks little or no Russian — had been kept uninformed about trial proceedings.
“How is Paul supposed to understand what he is being accused of if he can’t even read it?” she asked. “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs should stop distorting the facts. #PaulWhelan is not a spy. Still no evidence. Still no calls to his family. Enough is enough. Let Paul go home,” she said.
Ordeal nears end
After nearly a year of pre-trial hearings largely closed to the public, the espionage case against Whelan appears now headed toward a final conclusion.
In its statement, Russia’s Foreign Ministry confirmed that an investigation by Russia’s Federal Security Services was now complete, but it accused Whelan of “deliberately drawing out” the process with a delayed response to an indictment.
Yet at his most recent court hearing, Whelan was only allowed to attend by video simulcast and was seen holding an illegible handwritten sign.
Whelan’s lawyer, Vladimir Zherebenkov, later called for his client to be included in a wider prisoner swap, given his various passports.
“Paul is a citizen of four countries. None of them has asked to organize his exchange, yet,” said Zherebenkov. “Take the initiative, gentlemen!”
Whelan has called on President Donald Trump to intervene on his behalf, asking him “to tweet your intentions” about what Whelan has called “the Moscow goat rodeo.”
If convicted of espionage, Whelan faces the possibility of 10 to 20 years in prison.
your ads here!OPEC Nations Grapple With Oversupply of Oil
The world may be heading for an even greater oversupply of oil, and that possibility — which could drive down fuel and energy prices — is hanging over members of the OPEC cartel as they head into negotiations Thursday.
The oil-producing nations will decide whether to stick with production cuts they’ve endured for the past three years, relax them or deepen them in the hopes of propping up prices.
They’re negotiating through a tangle of tensions driving members in competing directions.
Saudi Aramco’s stock market debut, which will get off the ground Thursday when the state-run oil giant prices its shares, has put Saudi Arabia in a precarious position as it bets on what volume of oil production will hit a sweet spot for prices, with the added pressure of considering the interests of its shareholders. The nation is already bearing the burden of the largest share of OPEC’s production cuts.
But some nations such as Iraq have been ignoring the agreement and producing more than their allotted amount.
“If people are already not complying to the current agreement, what’s the point to those that are complying cutting more? So the others can go on cheating?” said Bhushan Bahree, executive director of global oil at research group IHS Markit. “I think the Saudi position is they’re willing to cut more if needed, but they want better compliance.”
Production cuts
Brent crude oil hovered around $61 per barrel Wednesday afternoon. Prices have fluctuated throughout the year, reaching nearly $75 per barrel in April after U.S. sanctions on Iran and Venezuela limited world supply, but lingering trade tensions between the U.S. and China dampened economic expectations, pushing prices back down.
West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark crude, was trading at around $56 Wednesday afternoon, and its price followed a similar trajectory throughout the year.
As it stands, OPEC nations have agreed to cut production by 1.2 million barrels per day through March 2020, and most analysts expect OPEC nations to extend those production cuts until at least summer.
“If they just keep the existing situation, then you get this massive oversupply,” said Jacques Rousseau, managing director at Clearview Energy Partners.
Rousseau believes OPEC nations will cut production by an additional 400,000 barrels per day to keep supply and demand in balance during the first half of next year, with the cuts made mainly by Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. But substantial cuts may be difficult to achieve with some OPEC members following their own agendas.
“Iraq has exceeded its production target every month this year,” Rousseau said. “Granted, there’s some unrest going on in the country, but I don’t think they’ll voluntarily reduce.”
Russia
Meanwhile, Russia, which is not part of OPEC but has been following its lead on production limits in recent years, has indicated it wants its oil production re-calculated in a way that’s in line with OPEC nations. That could enable it to produce more oil.
And even if members of the cartel cut production, there’s more oil coming online from non-OPEC nations including the U.S., Canada, Brazil, Norway and Guyana, which will more than make up for any drop in production, according to IHS Markit.
The dynamic to watch will be whether Russia and Saudi Arabia will come to an agreement on production levels in the early and middle parts of next year, said Heather Heldman, managing partner at Luminae Group, a geopolitical intelligence firm.
“If something goes awry with Saudi production in the next few months, and there’s a fairly good chance something will happen … Russia’s going to be the first party looking to fill that gap,” Heldman said. “And I think the Saudis know that.”
Fears Deepen for Families of People Held in Iran Amid Unrest
Families of several U.S. and British people held in Iran expressed fear for their loved ones Tuesday amid the deadliest unrest in decades in the Islamic Republic.
The relatives spoke at a news conference in Washington to demand the release of spouses and parents held in Iran — in at least one case for more than a decade. Among those who spoke was a daughter of Robert Levinson, the former FBI agent who disappeared in Iran in 2007.
The protests now roiling Iran, reflecting widespread economic discontent and outrage over spiking gasoline prices, have been an added challenge to families who have gone years without seeing their loved ones. Iranian state television acknowledged Tuesday that security forces shot and killed protesters in multiple cities.
“Of course any kind of protest that goes on in Iran, and any kind of situation, that overlaps potentially with the fact that our families and loved ones are being held there as well,” said Babak Namazi, whose brother and father are held captive in Iran. “We’ve been talking about the brutality of what our family members have been facing. But I guess this is just a reminder of what the abilities and capabilities are.”
Prisons are more overcrowded now because of the demonstrations, the internet has been down, and communication has been even more complicated than it already is, Namazi said.
Sarah Moriarty, one of Levinson’s seven children, said she was heartened by Iran’s acknowledgment last month that it had an open case before its Revolutionary Court after years of denying any involvement in his disappearance.
Moriarty said she interpreted the development as Iran’s first acknowledgment that it had indeed taken Levinson into custody, though Iran has also said it regards Levinson’s case as a “missing person” file. She said she believes it’s clear that Iran knows where her father is and is in a position to send him home immediately.
“This is incredibly significant because it means that they have a case against my father, and it means that they have him,” Moriarty said. “And we want to see him, and we want him to be released immediately.”
Nearly two dozen of Levinson’s relatives are expected in a Washington court this week to testify in a wrongful death lawsuit against Iran that seeks damages against the government.
“We want Iran to know that this is not acceptable, and a big portion of our lawsuit is punitive damages because we want them to discourage them from doing this practice to anyone else,” Moriarty said.
Levinson disappeared from Iran’s Kish Island on March 9, 2007. For years, U.S. officials would only say that Levinson, a meticulous FBI investigator credited with busting Russian and Italian mobsters, was working for a private firm on his trip.
In December 2013, The Associated Press revealed Levinson in fact had been on a mission for CIA analysts who had no authority to run spy operations.
Also present for the news conference was Richard Ratcliffe, whose wife, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, is a British-Iranian charity worker held in Iran for more than three years. He said that though different Western nations have their own approaches to hostage negotiations, “none of them have worked.”
He said sanctions should be considered as one option of punishment for hostage taking.
“There should be a real clear cost to hostage taking,” he said. “It should be an anathema in the modern world.”
Trump Looks Beyond DOJ Watchdog’s Russia Report
President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he expected an upcoming watchdog report to be “devastating” on the origins of the Russia investigation that dogged his presidency for nearly two years, but also suggested Americans should really be more interested in the findings of a federal prosecutor appointed to do a similar probe.
Speaking to reporters in London, Trump said the “big report” on the Russia investigation will come from U.S. Attorney John Durham, who was appointed by Attorney General William Barr in July to lead the inquiry into the origins of special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election. It’s not clear when that probe will be completed
But the Justice Department’s inspector general is scheduled to release a report on Monday on the early stages of the FBI’s Russia investigation.
The president’s comments could mean that Monday’s report, centered in part on the use of a secret surveillance warrant to monitor the communications of Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, wouldn’t be a full-throated confirmation of his allegations that the Russia probe was a politically-motivated “witch hunt.” Republicans could instead play up that Durham’s inquiry is far from done, and could uncover wrongdoing that the inspector general wasn’t examining.
“I do think the big report to wait for is going to be the Durham report,” Trump said. “That’s the one that people are really waiting for.”
Trump’s remarks come a day after The Washington Post reported that Barr told associates he disagrees with a finding from the inspector general’s upcoming report that the FBI was justified in July 2016 in opening a counterintelligence investigation into members of the Trump campaign.
The newspaper, citing unidentified people familiar with the matter, reported that Barr had not been swayed by Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s rationale for concluding that the FBI had a good enough reason to open the investigation that would become the special counsel’s probe.
While the president said the inspector general’s report was also very important, and that he’s heard “it’s devastating,” the watchdog is limited in what he was examining, and Durham has a wider investigative scope. The inspector general does not have the power to compel former employees to be interviewed.
Durham is conducting a criminal investigation examining what led the U.S. to open a counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign and the roles that various countries played in the U.S. probe. He is also investigating whether the surveillance methods and intelligence gathering methods used during the investigation were legal and appropriate. Durham, the U.S. attorney in Connecticut, is a career prosecutor who has led investigations into the FBI’s cozy relationship with Boston mobsters like James “Whitey” Bulger and the CIA’s use of tough interrogation techniques on terrorism suspects.
The FBI’s counterintelligence investigation later morphed into special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. Mueller concluded that the Russian government interfered in the 2016 election, but his investigation didn’t find sufficient evidence to establish a criminal conspiracy between Trump’s campaign and Russia. Mueller also examined 10 possible instances of obstruction of justice and has pointedly said he could not exonerate the president.
The inspector general uncovered that an FBI lawyer is suspected of altering a document related to surveillance of Page, according to a person familiar with the case who was not authorized to discuss the matter by name and spoke to AP only on the condition of anonymity.
The inspector general cannot bring criminal charges, but can make referrals to federal prosecutors if potential crimes are uncovered.
Trump and his supporters are likely to seize on any findings of mistakes or bad judgment in the report to support their claims of a biased investigation. Supporters of the FBI, meanwhile, are likely to hold up as vindication any findings that the investigation was done by the book, or free of political considerations.
The Justice Department has no plan to submit a formal rebuttal as part of the inspector general’s report, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press. The person spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations surrounding the report.
The attorney general has taken a hands-on role in leading the Durham investigation and has traveled overseas with Durham for personal meetings with foreign law enforcement officials, some of which were initiated by Trump. The president has asked the Australian prime minister and other foreign leaders to help Barr with the Durham investigation.
Trump’s interactions with foreign leaders — and Barr’s role in those discussions — have received heightened scrutiny as the House conducts an impeachment inquiry into the president’s efforts to press the leader of Ukraine to investigate Democratic rival Joe Biden at the same time as military aid was being withheld from the country.
The report from the intelligence committee on the House impeachment inquiry was made public Tuesday.
your ads here!Jimmy Carter ‘Feeling Better’ After Latest Hospitalization
A spokeswoman for Jimmy Carter says the former U.S. president is already feeling better after being treated for a urinary tract infection.
Carter Center spokeswoman Deanna Congileo said Monday that the 95-year-old was admitted to Phoebe Sumter Medical Center in Americus over the weekend.
“He is feeling better and looks forward to returning home soon. We will issue a statement when he is released for further rest and recovery at home,” her statement said.
Carter’s recent health challenges have included surviving cancer and hip replacement surgery. He helped build a Habitat for Humanity home in October despite hitting his head in a fall, and then fractured his pelvis in another fall. He was released last Wednesday from Emory University Hospital in Atlanta after surgery to relieve bleeding on his brain.
Zimbabwe’s Mugabe Left Behind $10 Million, No Will
Zimbabwe’s former President Robert Mugabe left behind $10 million, 10 cars, a farm and several homes, but apparently no will, his estate revealed Tuesday.
The state-run Herald newspaper reported Tuesday that Mugabe’s daughter, Bona, registered the estate with the High Court on behalf of the family.
The family’s lawyers say they are still searching for a will but if one is not found, the estate will be divided between former first lady Grace Mugabe and four children.
Mugabe died in September at a Singapore hospital two years after he was forced out of office by his Zanu-PF party and the military.
Mugabe has long been rumored to have amassed a massive fortune during his 37-year rule.
A 2001 diplomatic cable sent by the U.S. Embassy in Harare and released by WikiLeaks said Mugabe was rumored to have more than $1 billion worth of assets in Zimbabwe and overseas, which “include everything from secret accounts in Switzerland, the Channel Islands and the Bahamas, and castles in Scotland.”
News of his wealth comes days after the United Nations warned that millions of people in Zimbabwe are facing food insecurity.
“Zimbabwe is on the brink of man-made starvation,” and the number of people needing help is “shocking” for a country not in conflict, Hilal Elver, U.N. special rapporteur on the right to food, said.
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Carbon Dioxide Emissions on Steady Upward Trend
Carbon dioxide emissions rose in 2019 for the third straight year, according to the latest Global Carbon Project estimate, and do not look set to fall before the end of the next decade.
This is more bad news for United Nations negotiators in Madrid to consider as they aim to hammer out rules for implementing the 2015 Paris international agreement on limiting climate change.
This year’s 0.6% growth in CO2 emissions is slower than the previous two years. Steep declines in coal use in the United States and Europe, combined with weaker global economic growth, were behind the slowdown, the report says.
But slowing growth is not enough. A recent United Nations report said emissions must decline by at least 2.7% per year to keep the planet from overheating.
Emissions look likely to continue in the wrong direction for years to come, according to Stanford University Earth scientist Rob Jackson, chair of the Global Carbon Project, the international research consortium that published the findings Tuesday in Earth System Science Data.
“I am, I have to confess, not very optimistic that in a five-to-year timescale, we’ll see a peak in emissions,” he said. “I hope I’m wrong. I really hope I’m wrong.”
Widening gap
The data follow a bleak report from the United Nations on the widening gap between what the world needs to do to prevent the worst impacts of climate change and what countries actually are doing to meet their Paris pledges to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Under the Paris agreement, countries aim to limit global warming to “well under” 2 degrees Celsius and to “pursue efforts” to keep it to 1.5C over pre-industrial times. Currently, the planet has warmed about 1C, raising sea levels and producing more weather extremes, including heat waves, droughts, and heavy storms.
The U.N. Emissions Gap Report finds that the world is headed for 3.4 to 3.9 degrees of warming by 2100. If all the Paris pledges are met, temperatures still will warm by 3.2 degrees, with potentially devastating impacts on food security, water supplies and public health.
The report says countries need to triple their greenhouse gas reductions to reach the 2-degree target and cut them five-fold to reach 1.5 degrees.
That report is based on 2018 data. The new report released Tuesday offers the first look at 2019.
Coal, oil
The good news is that, compared to last year, the world burned less coal, the most carbon-intensive fuel. Coal emissions were down 0.9%, mostly from sharp falls in the United States and Europe (both about 10%). China and India increased coal emissions (0.8% and 2%, respectively), but less than in recent years.
Oil makes up the second-largest share of greenhouse gas emissions, mainly from transportation. Unlike coal, however, emissions from oil have been growing steadily for decades and show no signs of decreasing. They were up 0.9% this year.
Electric vehicle sales are rising, but not nearly fast enough to offset the growing global fleet of gas and diesel engines.
For example, more than a million electric vehicles were sold last year in China, the world’s largest auto market.
“They led the world in electric vehicle purchases,” Jackson said. “But they still put 20-million-plus new gasoline-based vehicles on their roads.”
Natural gas
The decline in coal CO2 emissions also was partly canceled out by rapid growth in natural gas. It’s the fastest-growing source of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. More than one-third of the increase in global CO2 over the last decade has come from the rise of natural gas.
Burning natural gas produces 40% less carbon dioxide than coal, and the switch from coal to gas has played a major role in reducing emissions in the United States.
Globally, however, most natural gas is fueling new power plants, not replacing coal, Jackson said.
“We’re not taking fossil fuels offline,” he added. “We’re just adding new production.”
The same pattern is true for renewable energy, he said. While increasing amounts of wind and solar power are coming online, they mainly are meeting demand growth, not replacing fossil fuels.
“Public policies need to place far more importance on directly cutting back the use of fossil fuels,” the report says.
Rosenstein Said He was ‘Horrified’ at How Comey was Fired
Former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein told the FBI he was “angry, ashamed, horrified and embarrassed” at the way James Comey was fired as FBI director, according to records released Monday.
Rosenstein was interviewed by FBI agents several weeks after Comey’s firing as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into ties between Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and Russia. An FBI summary of that interview was among roughly 300 pages of documents released as part of public records lawsuits brought by BuzzFeed News and CNN.
The records also include summaries of FBI interviews of key Trump associates, including Hope Hicks, Corey Lewandowski and Michael Cohen. They provide additional insight into Mueller’s two-year investigation, which shadowed the first part of Trump’s presidency and preceded an ongoing impeachment inquiry centered on his efforts to press Ukraine for investigations of political rival Joe Biden.
Hicks described efforts to prepare for media scrutiny of a 2016 Trump Tower meeting between Russians and the president’s oldest son. Lewandowski told investigators the president prodded him to tell then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions to make an announcement that the scope of the Russia investigation had been limited to future election interference.
And Cohen, who is now serving a three-year prison sentence for campaign finance violations and lying to Congress, told investigators he advised Trump’s personal lawyer that there was more detail about a proposed deal for a Trump Tower in Moscow than what he had shared with lawmakers. He said he “vaguely recalled” telling Jay Sekulow about a call he had “with a woman from the Kremlin,” and said Sekulow’s response was in line with “so what” and the deal never happened, according to the FBI document.
Sekulow told The Associated Press on Monday night that Cohen’s statements were false and that Cohen never told him anything about any call with a woman from Russia.
Rosenstein, who left his Justice Department post last spring, was interviewed about his role in Comey’s May 2017 firing. Rosenstein wrote a memo harshly criticizing Comey for his handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation, a document held up by the White House as justification for his firing.
Rosenstein said he was asked during a White House meeting one day before Comey’s firing to produce a memo laying out his concerns with the FBI chief. He said he knew when he left the office that day that Comey would be fired, though he said he did not expect for his memo to be immediately released, and was surprised by the portrayal in the media that the termination was his idea instead of the White House’s, according to the FBI document.
Rosenstein said he expected Comey would be contacted by either Trump or Sessions so a meeting could be scheduled and he could be fired in person. Comey instead learned of his firing from television while speaking with agents in Los Angeles.When he learned of how Comey was fired, he was “angry, ashamed, horrified and embarrassed. It was also humiliating for Comey,” an FBI agent wrote of Rosenstein’s reaction.
At one point during the interview, as Rosenstein was describing how he had “always liked Jim Comey” but disagreed with his decisions in the Clinton case, the deputy attorney general “paused a moment, appearing to have been overcome by emotion, but quickly recovered and apologized,” according to the FBI.
your ads here!Somalians Remember Hotel Bombing Ten Years Later
Ten years ago on December 3, a suicide bomber attacked a graduation ceremony at Shamo Hotel, one of Mogadishu’s main hotels.
Fourteen medical students, lecturers, and doctors from Banadir University were among 30 people who were killed, more than 50 others injured.
Dr. Osman Mohamud Dufle was on the podium when the suicide bomber detonated the bomb.
“The explosion occurred right in front of me,” says Dr. Dufle, a physician and a member of the parliament.
Before going to the podium, his friend, Higher Education Minister Dr. Ibrahim Hassan Addow, asked if he could speak before him as he was rushing to another event. But the event organizer, Dr. Mohamed Mohamud Biday, intervened and convinced Dr. Addow he will speak next. The bomber detonated the explosion in the space between them. Dufle survived, Addow died.
Also killed were Health Minister Qamar Aden Ali, Education Minister Ahmed Aden Wayel, and Youth & Sports Minister Suleiman Olad Roble, who succumbed to his injuries few days later. Two journalists and one of the country’s leading embryologists, Dr. Mohamed Adam Shahid, were among the dead.
“That has particular memory for me,” says Dufle. “To see the colleagues I was sitting alongside two minutes ago, lifeless in front of me, it’s a shocking memory.”
Dr. Biday, a cardiologist who was among the seriously injured, thought it was a mortar attack. He tried to get up and run, fearing that a second mortar round may be on the way, but he could not move.
“I was seriously injured, I could not stand,” he said. “I suffered multiple fractures; I was carried in a sheet.” He was among 20 badly wounded evacuated abroad for medical emergency.
Dr. Biday only learned the extent of the tragedy after 24 hours.
“It was a very painful day. A dark day.”
University bounces back
On the day of the attack, Banadir University, which started admitting its first students in 2002, was graduating its second class, 60 students, 30 of whom were doctors.
It was a big blow not only to Banadir University but to the education sector in Somalia, which was reviving despite the absence of a strong, functioning government.
“It was a sad day but today we recovered,” says Dr. Biday, who is now the rector of Banadir University.
“The intention was to shut down our eyes, the university, and to stop the effort and the work. But the leadership stood up. Today we are stronger.”
Biday says it would have been like a “second death” had the university collapsed after the attack.
To date, Banadir University has 11 different colleges. Last week, it graduated its 13th class, with 633 students achieving their dreams. Nearly 270 of the students graduated from the medical college, including 138 female doctors. Overall, 3210 students, including 938 females, have graduated since the University was opened.
The attack on the Shamo hotel graduation was one of the most gruesome suicide bombings in Somalia history. Ten years after the tragic event, and after multiple reviews of CCTVs and other recordings made of the event, it was concluded that the bomber was impersonating a journalist as he was holding a camera wandering around the ballroom of the graduation ceremony. At 11:15am, he detonated a laptop bomb that he was carrying.
At that time, even the participants did not expect that anyone would target such an event where students and parents attended to express delight and celebrate achievement in a country where such happy gatherings, at the time, were rare.
Government security agencies blamed the attack on the al-Shabab militant group. The bomber was identified as an Al-Shabab member who travelled from Denmark to join the militant group.
Al-Shabab denied responsibility for the attack.
your ads here!US College Leaders See Too Much Competition Ahead
A survey of nearly 500 leaders at colleges and universities reflects other reports that found American higher education is facing challenges on many fronts.
School officials were asked to name the biggest issues their institutions would face in the next three to five years and how they would deal with them. The study was a joint effort with the Georgia Institute of Technology and the Huron Consulting Group, and was released in October.
The study identified the top six issues that the 500 leaders listed. The most common concern? Increasing competition with other educational institutions. About 62% of those questioned noted that concern.
The next most common issue? The increase in non-traditional students, meaning students who fall outside the typical 18 and 24 years olds who enter school each year. The growth of non-traditional students – mostly adults with full-time jobs — were cited by 39% of leaders.
Two other concerns were shrinking state and federal financial support, and decreasing public trust in higher education. Officials said they were worried about political conditions around the world, too, and their effect on international students coming to the United States.
But the college and university officials said they have answers. In fact, 89% expressed confidence in their school’s ability to meet the needs of the growing number of students who are working adults.
Peter Stokes says colleges and universities have always been dealing with change. Stokes is the managing director for higher education with Huron.
After World War II, when the U.S. experience a sharp jump in the U.S. birth rate — known as the Baby Boom — more young people enrolled in college. Then, after the Great Recession in 2008, the birth rate dropped. Around that time, the number of working adults starting or returning to college or university began to rise.
The traditional student population will likely recover eventually, Stoke says. Until then, schools will have to adapt and increase internet-based and short-term programs to meet the needs of students who have less time and money to spend.
As for the five other issues identified in the study, only seven leaders polled felt very confident in their school’s ability to find solutions.
Louis Soares is the chief learning officer at the American Council on Education. He says that in recent years, Americans have come to think of higher education as more of a means of getting a well-paying job than as a public benefit.
This may not be surprising given the increased cost of higher education. But Soares said that this put many educational institutions in competition with one another to prove how their programs can results in better jobs.
At the same time, U.S-based companies like Amazon and Google are creating their own educational programs to compete with traditional degree programs. And countries like France, Canada and Australia are becoming more appealing to international students who would have likely looked to U.S. schools in the past.
As a result, some colleges and universities across the country have been closing. The U.S. Department of Education reports that in 2018 the number of institutions nationwide dropped to its lowest level since 1998.
Soares suggests that schools have a better chance of surviving if they work together, as Georgia Tech has, sharing new program ideas and methods with 50 other institutions. But that is not always easy.
“U.S. higher education is innovative, but the innovation tends to be small-scale,” he said.
Lynn Pasquerella, president of the Association of American Colleges and Universities, says it is important to focus on public trust and governmental support of higher education.
Pasquerella says U.S. higher education has failed to promote its own importance to society. Many people have come to think of colleges and universities as places where students waste time learning unnecessary subjects or hearing one-sided beliefs.
She says colleges and universities educate future business and political leaders who shape policies that improve conditions in communities and the nation. Major scientific and technological developments usually emerge from a college or university laboratory.
“Demonstrating the ways in which … their success is inextricably linked to the physical, emotional, economic well-being of people in the communities in which they’re located and which they seek to serve … is a first and critical step in helping to restore public confidence in higher education,” said Pasquerella.
She added that as Americans better appreciate the contributions and impact of colleges and universities, funding from state and federal governments will likely increase to previous levels.
your ads here!Typhoon Hits Philippines, Disrupting Travel, Work
A typhoon struck the Philippines on Tuesday bringing heavy rains and prompting preemptive halts in air travel, schools and government offices, with some 200,000 people evacuated after warnings of floods and landslides.
Typhoon Kammuri, the 20th typhoon to hit the country this year, weakened slightly and moved slowly across central parts of the archipelago during the night, with damage minor reported in some areas.
The storm was packing 155 kph (96 mph) wind speeds and gusts of up to 235 kph (146 mph), the weather bureau said. Authorities warned of landslides, storm surges and floods triggered by heavy winds and rain, preemptively moving 200,000 people to safe places in several dozen provinces.
There were no immediate reports of casualties or significant damage.
The main airport in Manila would be closed for 12 hours from 11:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. as a precaution, although air travel continued in unaffected areas of the country.
Government offices and schools were closed in affected areas and utilities firms appealed for patience ahead of anticipated power outages. The coastguard halted commercial sea travel in affected areas.
Local television showed footage of the main airport in Legazpi province with cables, lighting and panels hanging from the ceiling. Pictures posted by social media users showed waves crashing against bulwarks, felled trees and signage, and some minor damage to electricity poles.
The Philippines is hosting the Southeast Asian Games and organizers postponed several events, including the surfing, kayak, windsurfing, sailing and canoe contests.
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