WASHINGTON — The White House on Thursday accused China and Russia of using “predatory” practices to exploit Africa, a part of the world that President Donald Trump has largely ignored and frequently mocked.
John Bolton, Mr. Trump’s national security adviser, said China lures African governments into expensive infrastructure projects that hide the true costs those countries are eventually saddled with. Russia, he said, expands its political and economic influence “with little regard for rule of law” or transparent governance.
The Trump administration has slashed foreign aid to Africa and other parts of the world, and is threatening to cut support for United Nations peacekeeping missions, many of which operate in Africa.
Still, Mr. Bolton insisted the prosperity and security of Africa is vital to U.S. interests, especially because poverty fuels terrorism. He complained that past administrations have spent billions in Africa with nothing to show for it.
But even as he criticized China and Russia for exploiting the continent, he vowed that the U.S. would put its interests first in dealing with the region.
“Under our new approach, every decision we make, every policy we pursue, and every dollar of aid we spend will further U.S. priorities in the region,” Mr. Bolton said in a speech at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in Washington that has advised the Trump team on foreign policy.
“The United States will no longer provide indiscriminate assistance across the entire continent, without focus or prioritization,” Mr. Bolton said. “And we will no longer support unproductive, unsuccessful and unaccountable U.N. peacekeeping missions.”
U.N. climate talks inch forward, appear headed for overtime
KATOWICE, Poland — Efforts to agree on the fine print of the Paris climate accord drew closer Thursday, three years after the landmark agreement on curbing global warming, but negotiators remained deadlocked on the thorniest issues and appeared set for overtime.
A summary text from the Polish diplomat chairing the talks was expected around midnight as the two-week U.N. climate summit in the southern Polish city of Katowice neared its scheduled end on Friday.
Diplomats and ministers had huddled behind closed doors, some overnight, weighing every word of the draft text covering issues such as how countries will count both their greenhouse gas emissions and their efforts to reduce them.
Along with the Paris accord rulebook, the other main issues at the talks are how much financial support poor countries will get to combat and adapt to climate change, and what kind of message to send about future work to curb climate change.
Last week, the United States, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait blocked the endorsement of a scientific report on a key element of the Paris climate agreement: capping global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit), if possible. That angered other countries and environmentalists, who accused the four oil-exporting nations of stalling progress toward the accord’s most ambitious emissions-cutting target.
Mohamed Adow, a climate expert at Christian Aid, said the discussions on financial support seemed to be moving in the right direction, though the overall outcome of the talks was uncertain.
House approves resolution calling persecution of Myanmar Muslims a ‘genocide’
WASHINGTON - The House overwhelmingly approved a resolution Thursday to label the deadly persecution of a Muslim minority group in Myanmar by the country’s military a “genocide,” in sharp contrast to President Donald Trump’s public silence on the matter.
The bill, approved by a vote of 394-1, also calls on Myanmar’s government leaders, including state counselor Aung San Suu Kyi, to pardon two Reuters journalists who have been jailed for over a year for their coverage of the violence, which resulted in more than 700,000 Rohingya Muslims fleeing the country last year.
This week, Time magazine included those reporters, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, on the cover of its “Person of the Year” issue, which paid tribute to journalists across the globe who were killed or imprisoned for their work.
The House resolution said the violence against the Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine state last year met the United Nations’ definition of genocide and called on Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to make his own determination “based on available evidence.” The United Nations issued its report in August saying military leaders in Myanmar, also known as Burma, must faced criminal prosecution on charges of genocide.
The resolution also called on Mr. Trump to impose additional economic sanctions on members of Myanmar’s military and security forces responsible for human rights abuses, specifically naming the military commander, Min Aung Hlaing.
In all, 211 House Republicans and 183 Democrats voted in support of the measure. Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., was the only one who voted against it.
Assad’s regime killed an American — and no one seems to care, Kinzinger says
Last month the U.S. government confirmed that an American citizen had died in Syrian captivity. Sources concluded that Layla Shweikani, a U.S. citizen with Syrian roots, had been tortured and then executed.
The response? Nothing. Neither the U.S. government nor the American public reacted in any noticeable way.
“It’s disheartening that there not only has been no outrage over the murder of an American by the Assad regime, but that there has been little to no coverage on her story by our national media,” Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., said this week. “I’ll continue to ask questions, I’ll continue to speak out for Layla, and will urge my colleagues to do the same.”
Ms. Shweikani lived with her family in a suburb of Chicago. Appalled by the destruction of the war raging in her ancestral homeland, she went back in 2015 to help those devastated by the conflict.
Given that at least 6 million people have been displaced inside the country, there was plenty to do. She took part in organizing and delivering relief to the worst-hit regions.
In February 2016, Ms. Shweikani was arrested along with some of her relatives and aid workers. Little was known about her whereabouts. She was being held in solitary confinement with no contact with the outside world.
Finally in December 2016, the Czech Embassy - which represents U.S. interests in Syria, because Washington and Damascus have no diplomatic relations - was able to arrange for its ambassador to visit Ms. Shweikani in prison.
Since then, absolutely nothing was known about her fate. Last month, though, the Syrian government released its civil registry, which tracks births and deaths, and it included Ms. Shweikani, who reportedly died on Dec. 28, 2016.
Palestinians offer new details of Israel’s botched Gaza raid
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — The small town of Abassan in the Gaza Strip is a tough place to infiltrate — everyone knows everyone else and outsiders passing through quickly attract attention. So when strangers drove through town, suspicious Hamas security men stopped the van and questioned those inside.
The answers didn’t add up.
With their covers about to be blown, the Israeli undercover forces inside the vehicle opened fire, setting off a fierce battle that left eight people dead and triggered a brief but intense round of cross-border fighting.
A month after the exchange, the raid remains clouded in mystery. The Israeli army has kept mum, while Hamas officials have declined to comment publicly as they investigate the incident. With each side protective of its secrets, and possibly keen to spread disinformation, the full story may never be known.
But based on interviews with Hamas officials, a picture is emerging of a carefully planned Israeli intelligence operation in which agents posing as Palestinian aid workers may have gone undetected for up to two weeks before it went awry. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity, citing a Hamas gag order.
In the meantime, Hamas has tightened security in Gaza and is questioning foreign visitors such as journalists and aid workers; it has also sentenced six alleged collaborators to death.
Also in the world …
Chinese officials are revising a controversial government program aimed at securing global technology dominance in a bid to address one of President Donald Trump’s chief complaints about China’s trade practices, according to two individuals briefed on the plans.
First Published: December 14, 2018, 7:13 a.m.
