Saudi Jets Hit Yemen's Cholera Treatment Center

Sun Jun 4, 2017 8:0AM
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A Yemeni mother sits near her child suspected of being infected with cholera receiving treatment at a hospital in the capital Sana’a on May 25, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

As Yemen is struggling with a cholera epidemic, Saudi warplanes have reportedly stricken a health center treating cholera patients in the impoverished country’s extreme northwest.

The attack killed and injured a number of people at the facility in the Sa’ada Province, Yemen’s al-Masirah television network reported, citing the province’s health authority.

The epidemic has claimed the lives of 605 Yemenis, 40 percent of whom were children.

UN envoy to Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed (seen below) said on Tuesday that only “less than 45 percent” of medical facilities in the country were functioning.

The disease brings along severe diarrhea, which can kill those afflicted within hours if not treated properly. Malnourished children are especially susceptible.

In March 2015, the Saudi regime and its allies, backed by the US, began a military campaign against Yemen to reinstall its former government. The war has killed over 12,000 civilians since then.

The invasion has been compounded by a Saudi blockade of the country. Back in May, the UN’s children fund reported an unprecedented increase in the number of suspected cholera cases across the country, and said many of those affected were children.

“Yemen has one of the world’s highest number of acutely malnourished children. Public services are on the brink of collapse,” the UNICEF warned, saying, “Anyone with a heart for children cannot let the situation in Yemen continue!”

Attempts at ceasefire have all failed so far on the back of repeated Saudi violations.

On Saturday, the UNICEF said the outbreak was claiming a suspected 3,000 to 5,000 Yemenis every day. Geert Cappelaere, the body’s Middle East director, said in an interview with The Associated Press that 70,000 suspected cases of cholera had been reported in the past month in 19 of Yemen's 22 provinces.

He voiced his concern that cholera cases could double every two weeks -- to 130,000 and then about 300,000 cases -- unless more aid is delivered. The official warned that the outbreak might "spread beyond Yemen" and perturb all states neighboring Yemen where a Saudi war is now in its third year.

"It is sad today, but we hope the cholera outbreak will be the turning point in turning people's attention to Yemen," he said. "Cholera is not going to be stopped by any border."

Yemen counterattacks

Cappelaere said the outbreak is the latest horror faced by Yemeni children alongside growing starvation. "Yemen is one of the worst places in the world to be a child," he said.

The Saudi war has killed more than 10,000 people, displaced 3 million others and devastated the country's health sector and economy. Cappelaere said many patients could not afford to travel to free clinics.

Houthi fighters and their allies have been staging counterattacks in the face of the Saudi incursion. On Saturday, a number of Saudi troops were killed in the kingdom’s southwestern region of Najran, which borders Yemen. The reprisal attack, which had targeted a military outpost, also forced the rest of the troops stationed there to flee.

Houthis further killed dozens of Saudi-backed militants near the Nihm District in Sana’a Province, according to the al-Masirah television channel.

They also downed a Saudi drone over the Dhubab District of Taiz Province in southwestern Yemen, it added.

Saudi-backed militants meanwhile fought to capture a Houthi-held presidential palace in the southwestern province of Ta'izz after clashes that killed 27 people, medics and military sources said.

A statement on Saudi Arabia's official SPA news agency said militants loyal to former president Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi had captured the palace but military sources on the ground denied this.

Yemen’s Ansarullah Slams World’s Inaction Against Saudi War

Sun Jun 4, 2017 11:56PM
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Leader of Yemen's Houthi Ansarullah movement Abdul-Malik Badreddin al-Houthi speaks during a televised speech on June 4, 2017.

The leader of Yemen's Houthi Ansarullah movement has stressed that they will continue to resist Saudi Arabia’s aggression against their country.    

Abdul-Malik Badreddin al-Houthi made the remark on Sunday during a televised speech in which he also noted that Riyadh’s onslaught is aimed at dividing the nation.  

He went on to call on the people of Yemen to safeguard their unity against all external threats and challenges. Houthi further stressed that the nation is united with Ansarullah.

He also slammed the international community’s silence towards Saudi Arabia’s war against Yemen which has now entered its third year.

Saudi Arabia launched its deadly campaign against Yemen in March 2015 to push back the Houthi Ansarullah fighters from Sana’a and to bring back to power Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, Yemen's president who has resigned and is a staunch ally of Riyadh.

The campaign, which lacks any international mandate and has faced increasing criticism, has claimed the lives of more than 12,000 people, most of them civilians.

The relentless airstrikes have also put more than half of all health facilities in Yemen in a state of complete or partial shutdown. Furthermore, the war-torn nation has been grappling with a deadly cholera outbreak since last October, which has killed some 600 people since April.

Nearly 3.3 million Yemeni people, including 2.1 million children, are currently suffering from acute malnutrition. The Saudi aggression has also taken a heavy toll on the country’s facilities and infrastructure, destroying many hospitals, schools, and factories.

Certain Arab countries, including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar, are partners to the military aggression.

Bahrain Targets Opposition Newspaper Over Morocco Unrest

Sun Jun 4, 2017 2:30PM

This picture shows the print version of the opposition-linked Bahraini Arabic-language al-Wasat newspaper on June 4, 2017.

Bahraini authorities have ordered the opposition-linked al-Wasat newspaper to stop publishing until further notice amid the Al Khalifah regime’s heavy-handed crackdown on political dissent and pro-democracy campaigners in the tiny Persian Gulf kingdom.

Mansoor al-Jamri, the independent paper's editor-in-chief, said Bahrain's Information Affairs Authority issued the order first verbally on Sunday, and later through a statement published by the state-run Bahrain News Agency.

Jamri called the order a “total surprise,” noting, “We didn't have any due process basically.”

The sudden closure of al-Wasat daily came after it published an article about popular protests and a general strike in Morocco’s restive northern city of al-Hoceima.

The city, located on the northern edge of the Rif Mountains with a population of 56,000 people, has been the scene of social unrest since last October, when 31-year-old fishmonger Mouhcine Fikri was crushed to death in a garbage compactor as he protested against the seizure of swordfish caught out of season.

Tensions intensified in Hoceima on May 29, when Nasser Zefzafi, who emerged as the leader of the protesters’ Popular Movement, was arrested along with others.

Police had earlier issued the arrest warrant for Zefzafi after he confronted a local cleric, who was criticizing recent anti-corruption protests during his sermon.

Security forces later tried to arrest the activist for interrupting the preacher, but the move led to clashes between them and Zefzafi’s supporters.

This is the third time that Manama regime authorities have ordered al-Wasat newspaper to stop publishing a print edition since the outbreak of pro-democracy rallies in March 2011.

On January 16, Bahraini officials suspended the online version of the opposition newspaper, but the print edition was allowed to continue. The Information Ministry reinstated the online edition of al-Wasat three days later.

Thousands of anti-regime protesters have held demonstrations in Bahrain on an almost daily basis ever since a popular uprising began in the country in mid-February 2011.

They are demanding that the Al Khalifah dynasty relinquish power and allow a just system representing all Bahrainis to be established.

Manama has gone to great lengths to clamp down on any sign of dissent. On March 14, 2011, troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were deployed to assist Bahrain in its crackdown.

Scores of people have lost their lives and hundreds of others sustained injuries or got arrested as a result of the Al Khalifah regime’s crackdown.

On March 5, Bahrain’s parliament approved the trial of civilians at military tribunals in a measure blasted by human rights campaigners as being tantamount to imposition of an undeclared martial law countrywide.  

Bahraini monarch King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifah ratified the constitutional amendment on April 3.

Putin Denies Having Compromising Information on Trump

Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with representatives of foreign companies and business associations at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), Russia, June 2, 2017. REUTERS/Sergei Savostyanov/TASS/Host Photo Agency/Pool

Russian President Vladimir Putin strongly denied he had any compromising material about U.S. President Donald Trump in a televised interview broadcast on Sunday.

"Well, this is just another load of nonsense," Putin said on NBC News' "Sunday Night with Megyn Kelly," when asked whether he had any damaging information on the Republican president.

The remarks were the latest in a series of denials from Moscow that have had little impact so far on a political crisis in the United States over potential links between Russia and Trump's inner circle.

Putin also told NBC he had no relationship with Trump, despite Trump's previous travel to Russia as a businessman. Putin noted that executives from perhaps 100 American companies were currently in Russia.

"Do you think we're gathering compromising information on all of them right now or something?" Putin asked, before saying: "Have you all lost your senses?"

Trump has called an FBI investigation into alleged ties between his campaign and Russia a "witch hunt" designed to undermine the legitimacy of his 2016 election win.

U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that Moscow interfered in last year's U.S. presidential election campaign to try to tilt the vote in Trump's favor.

"They have been misled," Putin told NBC. "And they aren't analyzing the information in its entirety. I haven't seen, even once, any direct proof of Russian interference in the (U.S.) presidential election."

(Reporting by Phil Stewart and David Brunnstrom; Editing by Peter Cooney)

Police Uncover YouTube Link to London Terror Attack 

Gordon Rayner, political editor  Ben Farmer, defence correspondent  Martin Evans  Robert Mendick, chief reporter

5 JUNE 2017 • 12:55AM

Counter-terrorism officers secretly recorded an alleged Isil-inspired terror cell in Barking last month discussing how to use YouTube to plot a van and knife attack in London, The Daily Telegraph can reveal.

The investigators were monitoring the alleged extremist cell in the east London borough weeks before Saturday night’s attack in the capital, which left seven dead and 48 injured. The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

On Sunday police arrested 12 people, among them seven women – all of them in Barking and other parts of east London, where at least one of Saturday’s killers was believed to have lived. Those arrested were aged from 19 to 60.

Three terrorists shouting “This is for Allah” as they stabbed at their victims were killed by police just eight minutes after the alarm was raised shortly after 10pm on Saturday.

Officers revealed that they fired an “unprecedented” 50 bullets at the attackers, who wore fake suicide belts to maximise panic and fear. Now The Daily Telegraph has learnt that police had been monitoring an extremist cell in that area since March.

Theresa May declared “enough is enough” as she set out her plan to tackle terrorism.

“We cannot and must not pretend that things can continue as they are,” she said.

Addressing the nation from outside Downing Street after the second terrorist attack during the election campaign, the Prime Minister said that internet companies had allowed terror to thrive by creating a “safe space” for extremism and called for international agreements to “regulate cyberspace”.

Mrs May said Britain had been too tolerant of Islamist extremism, 
allowing copycat killers to repeat atrocities in the wake of the Westminster and Manchester attacks.

An unnamed friend of one of the terrorists claimed he had reported the man to the police anti-terrorist hotline after he became radicalised by watching extremist videos on YouTube. He said the attacker had listened to hate speeches by the infamous American Islamist Ahmad Musa Jibril.

A neighbour of one of the suspected attackers claimed she had reported him to Barking police two years ago, after he began “brainwashing” her children at a local park. She said she had confronted him after her two children came home and said “Mummy I want to become a Muslim.”

Police confirmed that three men drove at speed across London Bridge in a hired van, knocking down pedestrians, before leaving the vehicle at nearby Borough Market and marauding through bars and restaurants stabbing and slashing indiscriminately at victims.

One of the terrorists reportedly shouted “this is for my family, this is for Islam” as he plunged a knife into a 23-year-old victim who is now in hospital. In the recent surveillance operation in Barking last month one suspected jihadist discussed what appears to be an identical plot.

The Daily Telegraph has discovered that one alleged suspect said the intended method was to “use a car as a weapon” and boasted that he had radicalised more than a dozen “students” in Barking “wanting to martyr themselves”.

He said the plot would involve driving at pedestrians and then getting out of the vehicle to attack others. He added: “YouTube videos all make it properly easy to do.”

One of the plotters talked about “getting an automatic [vehicle] so the boys can drive it”.

A neighbour of one of the men shot dead by police on Saturday said he had asked him about where he could hire an automatic van, during a conversation when the neighbour was using a hire van to move furniture.

The men under surveillance are also said to have talked about attacking a bridge – in their case Westminster Bridge – and going to the gym to make their arms more powerful and therefore more lethal when using knives. Neighbours said the London Bridge attack suspect was a keen gym user.

Material connected to the alleged plotters who were being tracked last month included pages from the Islamist magazine Ramiyah, which suggest that easy “prey” include “a drunken kafir [non-believer]”.

In a statement released 24 hours after the killings on its official Amaq media channel, Isil said the three suspects had been part of a “sleeper cell”.

It said: “A security unit of Islamic State fighters carried out the London attacks yesterday.” It is the third attack in Britain the terror group has claimed in as many months. Isil had called on its supporters in Europe to carry out attacks on “infidels” during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Election campaigning by the Conservatives and Labour was suspended for most of Sunday as a mark of respect but resumed in the evening and Thursday’s polling will go ahead as planned.

Mrs May said “violence can never be allowed to disrupt the democratic process”. Security at polling stations is 
expected to be increased on Thursday, and Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley said there would be “increased physical measures” on London’s bridges to protect the public.

The Prime Minister is expected to chair a meeting of the Government’s Cobra emergency committee this morning. The terrorist threat level remains at severe.

The Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre decided not to increase it to critical, the highest level, which happened after the Manchester suicide bombing last month. Amber Rudd, the Home Secretary, explained that “we don’t believe there are additional elements which could be carrying on the attack”, in other words the police believe all members of the cell are accounted for.

Mrs May praised the “courage and great speed” with which the emergency services responded. She said: “On behalf of the people of London and on behalf of the whole country, I want to thank and pay tribute to the professionalism and bravery of the police and the emergency services, and the courage of members of the public who defended themselves and others from the attackers.”

Mrs May said the country was “experiencing a new trend in the threat we face, as terrorism breeds terrorism and perpetrators are inspired to attack, not only on the basis of carefully constructed plots after years of planning and training, and not even as lone 
attackers radicalised online, but by copying one another and often using the crudest of means of attack”.

She went on: “Everybody needs to go about their lives as they normally would.

“Our society should continue to function in accordance with our values. We must come together, we must pull together, and united we will take on and defeat our enemies.”

Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, told Londoners that there would be 
extra police officers on the streets but that they should not be “alarmed”.

President Trump appeared to have misinterpreted his advice, saying on Twitter: “We must stop being politically correct and get down to the business of security for our people. If we don’t get smart it will only get worse.

“At least seven dead and 48 wounded in terror attack and Mayor of London says there is ‘no reason to be alarmed!’”

London Attack Spawns Political Controversy as May and Corbyn Trade Barbs Ahead of Vote

By Griff Witte and Karla Adam
June 4 at 5:52 PM

LONDON — Less than 24 hours after terrorists killed seven people and injured dozens more in the heart of London, the latest attack to hit Britain this spring became a campaign issue Sunday, with just four days before an unpredictable national election.

Rival party leaders lashed out at one another as police raided homes and carried out a dozen arrests, and as the nation mourned. Tens of thousands attended an Ariana Grande benefit concert that was originally intended to honor the dead from last month’s suicide bombing in Manchester but was expanded to recognize the newest victims in London.

Following the May 22 attack in Manchester, Saturday night’s van-and-knife rampage was the second mass-casualty attack to intrude on the homestretch of a parliamentary campaign that was once thought certain to end in a landslide for Prime Minister Theresa May and the Conservatives. The race has tightened in recent weeks, and terrorism has introduced an unexpected variable.

With her premiership on the line, May took an aggressive and combative tone Sunday, telling the nation that “enough is enough” and insisting there is “far too much tolerance for extremism in our country.”

“Things need to change,” May said in a speech outside the prime minister’s residence at 10 Downing Street.

She blamed the attack on the “evil ideology of Islamist extremism,” called for a thorough review of the nation’s counterterrorism policies and suggested she will take a much tougher line if she wins Thursday’s vote.

The speech was criticized by the opposition Labour Party as a thinly veiled jab at their far-left leader, Jeremy Corbyn, whom May has often accused of coddling anti-Western militants. May, Corbyn’s backers said, had politicized the attack.

But by evening, Corbyn had hit back with his own political response to the killing, accusing May and her Conservative allies of weakening security services through years of austerity.

“You cannot protect the public on the cheap,” Corbyn said in a speech in the northern English city of Carlisle that ended a brief pause in formal campaigning. “The police and security services must get the resources they need, not 20,000 police cuts.”

Corbyn also derided President Trump, accusing him of lacking both “grace” and “sense” after the U.S. leader twisted a quote from London Mayor Sadiq Khan in order to launch an attack on the West’s most prominent Muslim politician.

May, who has gone to great lengths to cultivate ties with Trump, had earlier defended Khan while carefully avoiding any criticism of the U.S. president.

The multilayered controversy came as investigators were just beginning to unravel details of the assailants and the plot behind the killings, which jolted the country Saturday night.

At just after 10 p.m. that night, three men plowed a rented ­Renault van into a crowd of pedestrians on London Bridge, then got out and used knives to slash bar and restaurant patrons at the nearby Borough Market.

The attackers were fatally shot by police within eight minutes of the first emergency call, with eight officers firing a total of 50 rounds at men who had donned camouflage and fake suicide vests to carry out the carnage.

British authorities did not identify the victims. But Canada’s prime minister and France’s foreign minister both confirmed that their nationals were among the dead.

Mark Rowley, assistant commissioner of London’s Metropolitan Police, said in a late afternoon news conference on Sunday that investigators were still trying to confirm the identities of the attackers and that they were “increasingly confident” there were no other perpetrators. He said police had “more to do” to determine whether the assailants had help in planning the attack.

Rowley praised the performance of officers in responding to the attack — a view that was echoed almost universally Sunday — and described the number of shots fired as “unprecedented” in a country where most officers do not carry a firearm and those who do rarely, if ever, use it.

The fusillade, Rowley said, was necessary “to be completely confident [officers] had neutralized the threat that those men posed.”

At least 48 people were injured in the attack — including one bystander who was shot by an errant police bullet and was expected to recover. Four officers were among the injured. Rowley said Sunday that 21 of those injured are in critical condition.

As doctors and nurses tended to the wounded, police carried out raids in the East London neighborhood of Barking in a signal that authorities are probing at least the possibility that others may have been involved in the planning of the attack. A dozen people were arrested, police said.

In Barking, neighbors said police had taken at least five people away early Sunday from a mixed-income, 10-story building believed to have been home to one of the attackers. Neighbors said that they heard loud bangs during the raid and that one of the men who was ultimately arrested had tried to flee.

Even as the investigation intensified, authorities did not raise the nation’s threat level, as they had after the bombing in Manchester last month. The decision suggested authorities did not believe another attack is imminent, though under the existing “severe” rating, one is considered highly likely.

Investigators were focused on the likelihood that the attack had been inspired, if not directed, by the Islamic State, which claimed responsibility Sunday (though similar claims in the past have been shown to be unreliable). The militant group has called on its followers to carry out attacks in the West, especially during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Saturday’s killings follow both the Manchester attack and a March attack that was eerily similar in style to the one that unfolded at and around London Bridge. In March, an attacker rammed pedestrians on a different Thames River crossing and stabbed to death a police officer at the gates of Parliament.

The three recent attacks were not connected, May said. But she described it as “a new trend” in which terrorists are “copying one another and often using the crudest means of attack.”

May did not detail her plans for confronting the threat. But she floated the idea of tougher prison sentences for less serious terrorism-related offenses and called on tech companies to do more to crack down on extremist content online.

Facebook responded with a statement calling for “strong partnerships” between tech firms and policymakers.

May also seemed to acknowledge Sunday that British security services are struggling to keep up as the scale of the threat grows. The services say they have disrupted at least 18 plots in recent years. But they have about 3,000 suspected extremists on watch lists — far too many to actively monitor at all times.

Previous attacks have been carried out by people who had been flagged to the security services for concern but had been judged to be peripheral to any active plots.

May had returned from the campaign trail to 10 Downing Street late Saturday for emergency meetings with security officials. On Sunday morning, all the major parties, including May’s Conservatives, suspended campaigning.

Amid speculation that the election could be postponed, May quickly announced that it would go ahead as scheduled, a position that was endorsed by her rivals. Corbyn told Sky News that “democracy must prevail. If we allow these attacks to disrupt our democratic process, then we all lose.”

Adding to the growing political debate over the attack were Sunday morning tweets by Trump, who took aim at political correctness, the push in the United States for tougher gun laws and Khan, London’s mayor. Trump chided Khan for attempting to calm the public by assuring that there was “no need to be alarmed.”

Khan’s comments were in reference to an escalated police presence on the streets of London. But Trump incorrectly implied they were a comment on the attack itself.

Khan’s office released a statement saying the mayor “has more important things to do than respond to Donald Trump’s ill-informed tweet.”

Trump’s tweets were widely mocked in Britain, where the overwhelming mood was one of unity against terrorism and praise for security services.

The police cordon around London Bridge and Borough Market was gradually reduced Sunday as forensics teams continued to secure evidence and heavily armed officers guarded empty streets. On several streets leading toward Borough Market, tourists and London residents had dropped flowers. Signs reading “ISIS will lose. #Love will win” were attached to street signs.

On Sunday evening, Grande, the pop star who performed in Manchester on the night of the concert attack, sang again in a charity concert to benefit the victims.

“I love you guys so much,” an emotional Grande told the crowd of 50,000 that had packed into a cricket ground amid extraordinary security. “This night is the kind of thing the world really needs right now.”

William Booth and Rick Noack contributed to this report.

Griff Witte is The Post’s London bureau chief. He previously served as the paper’s deputy foreign editor and as the bureau chief in Kabul, Islamabad and Jerusalem.  Follow @griffwitte
Karla Adam is a reporter in the Washington Post’s London bureau. Before joining the Post in 2006, she worked as a freelancer in London for the New York Times and People magazine.  Follow @karlaadam

Portland Rally, Counter Protests Draw Thousands 

By Associated Press
June 4 at 5:31 PM

PORTLAND, Ore. — The Latest on competing rallies in Portland following fatal stabbings (all times local):

2 p.m.

Crowds have swelled to several thousand as demonstrators from varying groups have converged in downtown Portland.

A pro-Donald Trump free speech rally organized by a conservative group has begun. Kyle Chapman, the speaker for the planned event, told media earlier Sunday that it’s good to see people “uniting under the banner of American nationalism.”

Meanwhile, a number of community groups have organized counter demonstrations to rally against hate and racism.

Hundreds of people on the steps of City Hall are holding signs that read “Our city is greater than hate” and “Black lives matter.” They’re chanting “love, not hate.”

Other demonstrators across the street are chanting “USA” and holding banners in support of President Donald Trump.

Dozens of police officers and yellow police tape are attempting to keep various groups separated.

Police have arrested at least two people and confiscated various weapons.
___

12:42 p.m.

Portland Police say one person has been arrested as hundreds have begun gathering for opposing rallies following the fatal stabbing of two Portland men who tried to stop another man’s anti-Muslim tirade.

Police said on its Twitter account that the person was arrested by Federal Protective Service but provided no other details.

Dozens of officers in black protective gear and others on bicycles are in downtown Portland working to keep groups separated on opposite sides of the street.

Officers say they want protesters to stay with their groups and not cross the street to escalate tensions.

Police have said they’re planning a “robust law enforcement presence due to online threats of violence between different groups.” They have warned people not to bring any weapons or items that can be used as weapons to any of the events.
____

9:13 a.m.

Hundreds of people are expected to gather in Portland, Oregon, for competing rallies following the fatal stabbing of two men on a light-rail train by a man police say was shouting anti-Muslim slurs.

A pro-Donald Trump free speech rally had been previously planned for Sunday afternoon by a conservative group. The event organized by the group Patriot Prayer was billed on its Facebook page as a Trump Free Speech Rally.

Mayor Ted Wheeler last week unsuccessfully tried to get a permit for the event yanked, saying he feared violence after the May 26 killings. Counter protesters organized by religious and labor groups are also expected to show up downtown.

Mat Dos Santos, the legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon, has said it was wrong and unconstitutional for Wheeler to try to stop the demonstration based on the viewpoint of the organizers.

Some Palestinian Ex-prisoners in Gaza Say Their Salaries Withheld

By Nidal al-Mughrabi | GAZA

Scores of former Palestinian prisoners freed by Israel and living in the Gaza Strip said on Sunday their stipends from the Western-backed Palestinian Authority have been suspended in an apparent bid to appease Israel and the United States.

A spokesman for Palestinian prisoners said that 277 freed prisoners in the Gaza Strip, most of whom are aligned with the Islamist Hamas group that runs the coastal enclave, were surprised to find their May stipends had not been paid.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has demanded that the Palestinians, who view prisoners as national heroes, stop paying stipends to them and their families, and U.S. lawmakers have warned that Palestinian funding could be cut off unless Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas halts the practice.

Israel says the payments are a reward and encouragement for the prisoners' actions against it but the Palestinians say they are welfare payments to support them and their families.

Some 6,500 Palestinians are currently being held in Israeli jails, many of whom were convicted of attacks or planning attacks against Israelis.

Zaid Al-Kilani, a former prisoner from Hamas who was serving a life sentence before he was freed in a prisoner swap for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in 2011 said:

"Abu Mazen (Abbas) is punishing freed prisoners by suspending the salaries they and their families rely on...We believe the Palestinian Authority has succumbed to American and Israeli pressure," he said.

Palestinian Authority officials were not available for comment but the move may also be an attempt by Abbas to force reconciliation between the Fatah movement, which holds sway in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Hamas, which controls Gaza.

Several attempts at reconciliation, most recently in 2014, have failed to produce a power-sharing government for the West Bank and Gaza.

In April, the Palestinian Authority said it would no longer fund electricity that Israel supplies to the Gaza Strip and it has slashed the salaries of its 60,000 civil servants in Gaza - but not the West Bank - by 30 percent, offering no explanation other than a lack of foreign aid money.

(Additional reporting by Ali Sawafta in Ramallah, Writing by Ori Lewis)

Zimbabwe: All Roads Lead to Mash East - Province's Youths Ready to Host President - Over 200 Buses, Other Logistics in Place

Zimbabwe Herald
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All is set for President Mugabe's first provincial interactive meeting with youths in Mashonaland East Province tomorrow, where Zanu-PF will launch a massive campaign for voter registration of youths ahead of the 2018 harmonised elections. Youth rallies in all 10 provinces, effectively launch the League's campaign for 2018 on the back of recent findings by respected think-tank Afrobarometer that President Mugabe's approval ratings have been increasing in inverse proportion to trust for the opposition.

The province has secured over 200 buses to ferry youths, women and war veterans to Rudhaka Stadium in Marondera.

Members of the Zanu-PF Youth League, led by their secretary Cde Kudzanayi Chipanga, yesterday toured the venue alongside Politburo member Cde Sydney Sekeramayi, Mashonaland East Provincial Affairs Minister Cde Ambrose Mutinhiri and Youth Development, Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Minister Cde Patrick Zhuwao.

Both parties expressed satisfaction with the level of preparedness, saying Zanu-PF was reinforcing its groundwork ahead of polls next year.

Cde Chipanga said everyone, including war veterans, was invited to the event.

"I can safely say we are now at 90 percent in terms of preparedness," he said. "The tent facilities are being put in place and people have been mobilised. All is in place logistically and we hope by the end of day tomorrow everything will be in its position."

He added: "The only person we consider of paramount importance is the President, but at the same time we are a party wing and we work hand in hand with the Women's League.

"They are free to come, we have invited the secretary for Women Affairs, Dr Grace Mugabe. The moment she comes it means women will also be part of us. Because the President is coming, obviously our Vice Presidents, Politburo, Central Committee members will come and that will not deter us from putting across our points as far as youths challenges are concerned."

Apart from launching a campaign for voter registration for the youths, Cde Chipanga said, President Mugabe would interact with the youths, responding directly to their concerns.

Cde Chipanga said war veterans were invited to the event despite negative comments by some members of the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association.

"War veterans are our parents," he said. "Don't mind about certain individuals in the association. They are not the association. We have invited them because they are our colleagues in the party. Don't mind about individuals, mind about the association."

Cde Sekeremayi said Mashonaland East felt honoured to receive President Mugabe, who is the Zanu-PF First Secretary and President.

"We are here to ensure there are no issues that can complicate things and that the people attend the event and get the way forward for our country from the President himself," he said.

"Being the first province to host the meetings, we are obviously under pressure, but we are able to deal with that without any real set back. The leadership is here and if there are any issues which are observed as weak points, they will be addressed."

From Mashonaland East, President Mugabe will head to Manicaland on June 16, before visiting Masvingo.

All the 10 provinces will have similar gatherings.

Cde Zhuwao said the meetings were indicative of the value and importance of young people.

"Young people were at the forefront of delivering political independence of this country and we believe as a ministry and as articulated by President Mugabe that young people will be at the forefront of delivering economic independence," he said.

"The economy resides within the provinces and the President is coming to meet those young people who will deliver economic independence. The youths will also be able to articulate some of the opportunities available and able to direct Government on how those opportunities can be unlocked."

Cde Mutinhiri weighed in: "All roads will lead to Rudhaka Stadium. We have done the necessary preparations as we have more than 200 buses and trucks to ferry people to the venue.

"Our aim (as Mashonaland East) is to set a pace that no province will be able to emulate. That's our spirit approach and all our people know this."

President Mugabe's engagements with the youths will run until October.

Zimbabwe: Sweden Avails U.S.$8 Million for Resilience Fund

By Praise Bvumbamera
Zimbabwe Herald

The Swedish government, in partnership with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), has awarded an $8 million grant to the Zimbabwe Resilience Building Fund (ZRBF). The fund, led by the Ministry of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development, is meant to build resilience of households and communities in Zimbabwe from the effects of climate change, land degradation, droughts and flooding.

Speaking during the signing ceremony in Harare, UN Resident coordinator Mr Bishow Parajuli expressed gratitude to the Swedish embassy and UNDP for the strong partnership which will establish a robust national resilience building fund in Zimbabwe.

"I would like to appreciate this initiative by the Swedish embassy together with UNDP which is a renewed commitment contributing to sustainable use of natural resources, strengthen value chains and increase access to renewable energy in efforts to promote sustainable and resilient economic growth in Zimbabwe," said Mr Parajuli.

"We should increase our focus and investment towards building strong national resilience to ensure the integration of development and humanitarian nexus, lest our progress towards Sustainable Development Goals can be lost in an instant due to natural disasters, shocks, and stresses or completely reversed for decades by man-made crises."

Swedish ambassador to Zimbabwe Mrs Sophia Calltorp said the embassy believed that resilience building was essential in Zimbabwe following economic hardships and increased occurrence of extreme climatic events.

"The embassy sees resilience building as a key to all the work that it carries out," she said. "Addressing these pre-existing vulnerabilities to shocks, be they climatic, socio-economic or political, is vital in ensuring that development gains are established, maintained and built on."

Mrs Calltorp said Sweden would strive to ensure gender equality was adequately integrated into the work carried out by ZRBF, including its implementing partners and consortia, to ensure that Zimbabwean women equally benefited from the support.

Ministry of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development director of economics and markets Mr Clemence Bwenje appreciated the contribution of Sweden to the Zimbabwean Government in resilience building.

The nine districts benefiting from the fund are Binga, Umzingwane, Kariba, Mwenezi, Mbire, Umguza, Bubi, Chiredzi and Nkayi.

Zimbabwe: Vibrant NRZ Will Oil Economic Recovery

Zimbabwe Herald

The expression of interest by 53 companies to finance the National Railways of Zimbabwe's recapitalisation is a welcome development. It is an indication that not all is lost for the parastatal, as there is still hope for its turnaround.

NRZ requires $2 billion in the long-term to return to full operation and about $400 million in the short-term to scale up operation. The $400 million is needed to acquire new machinery and to rehabilitate existing infrastructure to increase quality services.

NRZ has 168 locomotives, of which 64 (38 percent) are serviceable, and 7 255 wagons, 3 467 of which (48 percent) are operational, while the rest are set for different reasons.

This has resulted in its carrying capacity falling from 9,5 million tonnes in early 2000 to 3,4 million tonnes in 2015, which does not bode well for current efforts to turn around the economy.

The holding of the pre-bidding conference is a critical step towards reviving NRZ, but more importantly it shows Government's commitment to resuscitating NRZ, especially when it is coming just days after it scrapped duty on importation of locomotive spares.

The scrapping of duty on engine spares, equipment and components, which was done in terms of Section 235 of the Customs and Exercise Act, will be in force for the duration of this year.

It is, therefore, critical that Government expedites the process of identifying and bringing an investor on board to ensure that NRZ returns to full operation in the shortest possible period. This is not to say that Government should not properly screen the investors.

It is critical that NRZ gets a credible investor of good standing, otherwise all the efforts being made to revive the parastatal will come to naught

The resuscitation of NRZ will be critical as it will add more impetus to the country's economic turnaround that has been given a major boost by a rebound in agricultural production anchored by Government's Command Agriculture programme.

The revival of NRZ will ensure that the movement of inputs to different parts of the country and the movement of agriculture produce to different collection points is done efficiently and cost effectively by rail, because of its ability to move large volumes of goods at once.

This is important, especially for the tobacco sector where there has been concerted efforts to persuade farmers to use coal for curing their tobacco as an alternative to wood. The sticking point has been getting the coal to the farmer cheaply, and a revived and ticking NRZ will be handy for the crucial job.

Being a bulky mineral, the transportation of coal requires rail transport to be cost effective, instead of road transport which is in use at the moment, which tends to be more expensive.


There has also been a lot of development in the mining sector where mines have been scaling up operations by investing in new machinery, which require rail transport as opposed to road transport.

A case in point is the Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company that bought heavy duty equipment, which is being delivered to the Chiadzwa diamond fields via Forbes Border Post in Mutare by road.

Reviving NRZ is also critical in ensuring that it grows its revenue, which in turn will be able to pay salaries and clear backlog, and retire debt that is weighing down the parastatal. We welcome the efforts being made to revive NRZ, which, in all fairness, we view as long overdue.

Of course, we are alert to the fact that illegal sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe by Western countries contributed to the problems affecting NRZ, as it had become difficult to obtain spare parts from countries like Britain, which originated the railways system during the days of Rhodesia. The coming in of other investors should be able to bust the sanctions and ensure that NRZ is overhauled and ready to serve the nation at its full capacity.

China to Tackle Climate Change "Steadfastly": Premier

Xinhua
2017/6/2 8:28:17

China will continue to work steadfastly to implement the commitment of the Paris climate deal and join hands with all parties to tackle climate change, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang told reporters in Berlin on Thursday.

In a joint press conference with his German counterpart Angela Merkel, Li said that China, a large developing country, should shoulder its international responsibilities to jointly address the challenge of climate change with other countries.

Combating climate change is a global consensus, said Li, adding that "with tremendous efforts, China will move towards the 2030 goal step-by-step steadfastly."

China has actively participated in promoting and the signing of the Paris Agreement, Li said, adding that China was also one of the first countries to submit the file of national plan on dealing with climate change to the United Nations.

The Paris Agreement was adopted by 196 parties in Paris in 2015 and it went into effect in November last year. The pact sets a target of holding the global average rise in temperature below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, and preferably below 1.5 degree Celsius.

So far, 147 parties representing more than 82 percent of greenhouse gas emissions have ratified the agreement.

The United States, one of the biggest greenhouse emitters in the world, has not decided whether to leave the deal or to stay, as its newly-elected president, Donald Trump, has yet to unveil his decision on the issue.

The Chinese premier is on a three-day official visit to Europe. He wrapped up his German trip and arrived in Brussels, the capital city of Belgium on Thursday afternoon.

In Brussels, Li will co-chair the 19th China-EU leaders' meeting with European Council President Donald Tusk and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, and pay an official visit to Belgium.

China Reiterates Its Position on Implementation of Paris Agreement

Xinhua
2017/6/1 23:17:19

China will continue its implementation of the Paris Agreement and positively participate in the multilateral process of global climate governance, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Thursday.

Spokesperson Hua Chunying made the remarks when responding to a report that US President Donald Trump will announce his decision on whether to pull the United States out of the Paris climate accord Thursday afternoon.

Hua said China and the United States have maintained close communication at various levels on subjects including climate change.

"The Paris Agreement was a hard-won result," Hua said, noting that climate change is a global challenge and no country can remove itself from the issue.

Hua said the Paris Agreement reflects the broad consensus of the international community and sets a target for global cooperation on climate change.

Even if other countries change their position, China will continue its plan of innovation, coordination, green development, opening up and sharing, Hua said.

China is willing to work with the European Union to strengthen practical cooperation on climate change, Hua said.

China, EU Face Climate Change Challenges

By Zhang Hui
Global Times
2017/6/1 22:03:39

China and the EU will have to face a tougher challenge in dealing with climate change, Chinese experts said, following the possible withdrawal of the US from the Paris agreement.

China and EU will release a joint statement on climate change cooperation in Brussels on Friday, where Chinese Premier Li Keqiang will meet EU leaders at a summit as part of his three-day Europe visit.

The statement, the first between China and the EU, includes their stand on cutting back on fossil fuels, developing more green technology and helping raise $100 billion a year by 2020 to help poorer countries cut emissions, Reuters reported.

Just before the statement was released, US President Donald Trump posted on Twitter that he would announce his decision on the Paris deal by Thursday afternoon. Previous reports said he was likely to pull the US out of the deal.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said Thursday that China would strengthen its measures in dealing with climate change no matter what other countries do.

China will also strengthen communications and cooperation with the EU on climate change, Hua said.

With its stable political and economic environment and resolve to reducing emissions, China is expected to play a more proactive role in slowing down global warming, Yang Fuqiang, a senior advisor at the Natural Resources Defense Council, told the Global Times.

China will face more pressure from the international community to deal with climate change once the US pulls out, said Li Haidong, a professor at the Institute of International Relations of China Foreign Affairs University.

In January, China released a comprehensive plan on emission reductions for 2016 to 2020. Measures include reducing the coal consumption rate, controlling energy consumption and intensifying controls on emissions.

Yang warned that other developed countries, especially those allied with the US, may also withdraw from the Paris deal or reduce their roles.

The Paris Agreement was adopted by 196 parties in Paris in 2015, and took effect in November, the Xinhua News Agency reported. 

The Global Reaction to Trump's Climate-Change Decision

Trump speaks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the G7 Summit in Taormina, Italy.Andrew Medichini / AP

Nations like China and India remain committed to the Paris climate change agreement—with or without the U.S.

The Trump administration’s reported announcement that it is withdrawing from the Paris climate change agreement has prompted nations and world leaders to reiterate their commitment to the global pact. Signed in 2015 during the Obama administration, the Paris Agreement is an unprecedented global climate deal that aims to contain greenhouse gas emissions and protect the world against global warming. Only two countries—Nicaragua and Syria—declined to sign the agreement in 2015.

At the G7 Summit last week in Italy, many world leaders encouraged President Trump to remain a member of the pact, with foreign diplomats reportedly holding conversations with members of the Trump administration in hopes of getting the president to change his mind. On Wednesday morning, the United Nations reiterated this plea, tweeting a quote from its Secretary General, António Guterres: “Climate action is undeniable. Climate change is unstoppable. Climate solutions provide opportunities that are unmatchable.” Even Pope Francis hinted at his desire for the U.S. to remain part of the agreement when he handed Trump a signed copy of his work chronicling the need to combat human-driven climate change during Trump’s visit to the Vatican.

On Wednesday morning, White House officials confirmed that Trump planned to leave the Paris Agreement, though some still argue a decision has yet to be made. Trump’s staff was reportedly divided on the matter, with Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner, and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson suggesting he stay, while EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, chief strategist Steve Bannon, and White House counsel Don McGahn pushed for an exit. Last week, 22 U.S. senators also wrote a letter to Trump encouraging the president to withdraw from the pact, arguing that it could legally prevent him from rescinding the Clean Power Plan—another Obama-era global warming initiative.

Late Wednesday evening, Trump tweeted that he would announce his decision Thursday at 3:00 p.m. at the White House Rose Garden. Trump previously stated on the campaign trail that he would exit the Paris Agreement. In the past, he has referred to global warming as a “hoax.” According to Axios, which was first to report the news that Trump is planning to withdraw, the administration is debating whether to formally exit the pact—a process that could take several years—or simply leave the UN climate change treaty that negotiated the Paris Agreement—a speedier, but more controversial, process.

Regardless of whether Trump stays, most foreign governments are committed to honoring the pact. In March, a spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry said that all members of the Paris Agreement should “fulfill their commitments,” adding that China would do the same “regardless of how other countries’ climate policies change.” Two months later, the ministry said that Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke with the president of France, Emmanuel Macron, about how the nations “should protect the achievements of global governance, including the Paris agreement.” With the U.S. likely to leave the pact, China aims to be the world’s foremost leader on combatting climate change.

According to the EU’s climate commissioner, Miguel Arias Cañete, the EU and China have formed a new alliance in response to Trump’s impending decision. The nations “are joining forces to forge ahead on the implementation of the Paris Agreement and accelerate the global transition to clean energy,” Cañete told The Guardian on Wednesday. As part of their joint efforts, China and the EU have expressed their “highest political commitment” to the agreement, and are encouraging all signatories to do the same.

“For Europe there is no plan B, because we do not have a plan B,” Maroš Šefčovič, the vice president of the EU’s Energy Union, told reporters last week. The president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, had harsher words to share on Wednesday, informing members at a student conference that “Europe’s duty is to say … The Americans can’t just leave the climate protection agreement. Mr. Trump believes that because he doesn’t know the details.” Juncker added that European leaders tried to explain the ramifications of leaving the agreement to Trump, but couldn’t get through to the president. “Not everything in international agreements is fake news,” Juncker said.

While India was reluctant to join the Paris Agreement in 2015, the nation has also reiterated its commitment to the pact. India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, met with the prime minister of Spain, Mariano Rajoy, on Wednesday, where both countries said they would remain signatories. Canada’s environment minister, Catherine McKenna, has also confirmed the nation is committed to the agreement. “Canada is going to show leadership with China and the EU and we certainly hope the U.S. will be joining us,” McKenna said recently. As late as Wednesday, Peter Altmaier, the chief of staff for German Chancellor Angela Merkel, remained optimistic that Trump could be convinced to stay. “As far as I can see, it is an ongoing debate within the administration,” Altmaier said.

While Trump’s decision may not affect whether nations choose to remain in the Paris Agreement, it could affect whether signatories are held accountable. In the absence of U.S. oversight, nations may be less inclined to transparently report their greenhouse gas emissions. Other experts argue that Trump’s decision could weaken the authority of the U.S. on the global stage. “From a foreign policy perspective, it’s a colossal mistake—an abdication of American leadership,” Nicholas Burns, a senior official for the Bush administration, told The New York Times. “I can’t think of anything more destructive to our credibility than this.”

Trump Announces U.S. Will Exit Paris Climate Deal, Sparking Criticism at Home and Abroad 

President Trump has decided to pull the U.S. out of the Paris Agreement. Here's what you need to know.

By Philip Rucker and Jenna Johnson
Washington Post
June 1 at 7:44 PM

President Trump announced Thursday afternoon that he is withdrawing the United States from the landmark Paris climate agreement, an extraordinary move that dismayed America’s allies and set back the global effort to address the warming planet.

Trump’s decision set off alarms worldwide, drawing swift and sharp condemnation from foreign leaders as well as top environmentalists and corporate titans, who decried the U.S. exit from the Paris accord as an irresponsible abdication of American leadership in the face of irrefutable scientific evidence.

Trump, who has labeled climate change a “hoax,” made good on a campaign promise to “cancel” the Paris agreement and other Obama-era regulations that he said were decimating industries and killing jobs. The president cast his decision as a “reassertion of America’s sovereignty,” arguing that the climate pact as negotiated under President Barack Obama was grossly unfair to the U.S. workers he had vowed to protect with his populist “America First” platform.

“I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris,” Trump proclaimed in a forceful, lengthy and at times rambling speech from the Rose Garden of the White House. He added, “As of today, the United States will cease all implementation of the nonbinding Paris accord and the draconian financial and economic burdens the agreement imposes on our country.”

The United States joins only two countries — Nicaragua and Syria — in opposing a climate agreement reached by all other nations in 2015. A signature diplomatic achievement for Obama, the Paris accord was celebrated at the time as a universal response to the global warming crisis.

The U.S. withdrawal from the Paris agreement cannot actually be finalized until near the end of Trump’s term because of the accord’s legal structure and language.

With the world’s second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases walking away from the pact, scientists said it would be nearly impossible for the world to realize its agreed goal of limiting global warming to below a 2 degree Celsius (3.6 degree Fahrenheit) rise above preindustrial temperatures.

Still, many U.S. states and private companies announced Thursday that despite Trump’s decision, they would continue their own existing policies, such as restricting greenhouse gas emissions, as well as pursue new ones to demonstrate urgency in addressing the climate threat.

Citing a litany of statistics disputed by environmentalists, Trump argued Thursday that the pact would hurt domestic manufacturing and other industries and would put the United States at a “permanent disadvantage” with China, India and other rising powers. Staying in the accord, he said, would cost the United States as many as 2.7 million jobs by 2025 and as much as $3 trillion in lost gross domestic product.

“We’re going to have the cleanest air,” Trump said. “We’re going to have the cleanest water. We will be environmentally friendly. But we’re not going to put our businesses out of work. We’re not going to lose our jobs.”

In a gesture to those who had encouraged him to remain in the accord, Trump said he was open to negotiating a new climate deal that, in his assessment, would be more fair to U.S. interests.

“We’re getting out,” he added, “but we will start to negotiate and we will see if we can make a deal that’s fair. If we can, that’s great. And if we can’t, that’s fine.”

The leaders of France, Germany and Italy issued a joint statement voicing “regret” about Trump’s move, promising to redouble their efforts to implement the Paris agreement and asserting that it cannot be renegotiated.

“We deem the momentum generated in Paris in December 2015 irreversible and we firmly believe that the Paris Agreement cannot be renegotiated, since it is a vital instrument for our planet, societies and economies,” read the statement from French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni.

Trump spoke by phone with Merkel and Macron, as well as Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and British Prime Minister Theresa May — who led a chorus of world leaders urging Trump to keep the United States in the Paris agreement.

“He is making a mistake for the future of his country and his people and a mistake for the future of the planet,” Macron said.

Erik Solheim, executive director of the United Nations Environment Program, said in an interview that “the biggest losers will be the American people.”

“It’s obviously regrettable,” he said. “The world needs American leadership. However, the impact is less than most people would believe, because China, India and Europe will provide leadership.”

Central to Trump’s rationale was his feeling that the United States had been taken advantage of. Trump argued the Paris accord was so unfavorable to U.S. interests that other countries were laughing at America.

“The rest of the world applauded when we signed the Paris agreement,” Trump said. “They went wild. They were so happy. For the simple reason that it put our country, the United States of America, which we all love, at a very, very big economic disadvantage.”

The president, who recently returned from his maiden foreign trip, added, “We don’t want other leaders and other countries laughing at us anymore — and they won’t be.”

Obama strongly defended the Paris agreement as a measure to “protect the world we leave to our children.” In a statement released Thursday, he said the pact was the product of “steady, principled American leadership on the world stage,” pointing out that it had broad support from the private sector.

“I believe the United States of America should be at the front of the pack,” Obama said. “But even in the absence of American leadership; even as this administration joins a small handful of nations that reject the future; I’m confident that our states, cities, and businesses will step up and do even more to lead the way, and help protect for future generations the one planet we’ve got.”

A divide in Trump’s camp

The atmosphere in the Rose Garden was celebratory, with a military band performing “Summertime” and other jazz hits as Cabinet members, White House staffers, conservative activists and other Trump supporters took their seats in the garden under a bright sun.

The scene was a reflection of the deep divide within the Trump administration over Paris. The president took much of the spring to make up his mind amid an intense campaign by both sides to influence his decision.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter and adviser, are among those who urged him to stay in the deal, arguing it would be beneficial to the United States to remain part of negotiations and meetings surrounding the agreement as a matter of leverage and influence. Neither attended Thursday’s ceremony.

White House chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt pushed for a withdrawal. When Trump announced that he would pull out, there was a burst of applause and some whoops from the assembled crowd in the Rose Garden — and Bannon held his hands up in the air, clapping enthusiastically.

Introducing Trump, Vice President Pence said the climate decision was an example of the president putting what he sees as the interests of the United States above all else.

“Our president is choosing to put American jobs and American consumers first,” Pence said. “Our president is choosing to put American energy and American industry first. And by his action today, President Trump is choosing to put the forgotten men and women first.”

More than 190 nations agreed to the accord in December 2015 in Paris, and 147 have since formally ratified or otherwise joined it, including the United States — representing more than 80 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions.

It’s also heavily backed by U.S. and global corporations, including oil giants Royal Dutch Shell, ExxonMobil and BP. Large corporations, especially those operating in international markets, have had years to get used to the idea of reductions on carbon emissions, and they have been adapting their businesses accordingly for some time.

Withdrawing the United States from the agreement could take years because of the accord’s legal structure and language, but such a move would weaken its goals almost immediately. The United States is the world’s second-largest greenhouse gas emitter and would otherwise have accounted for 21 percent of the total emissions reductions achieved by the accord through 2030.

‘Reckless and indefensible’

Condemnations of Trump’s decision were immediate and strongly worded. Former vice president Al Gore, who won a Nobel Peace Prize for his work raising awareness about global warming and personally tried to persuade Trump, said the president’s decision was “reckless and indefensible.”

“It undermines America’s standing in the world and threatens to damage humanity’s ability to solve the climate crisis in time,” Gore said in a statement.

Jeff Immelt, the chief executive of General Electric, tweeted: “Disappointed with today’s decision on the Paris Agreement. Climate change is real. Industry must now lead and not depend on government.”

Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs chief executive Lloyd Blankfein issued his first tweet Thursday, saying: “Today’s decision is a setback for the environment and for the U.S.’s leadership position in the world.”

Tesla chief executive Elon Musk and Disney chief executive Robert Iger both announced Thursday that they were leaving Trump’s business advisory council over his decision to withdraw from the Paris deal.

In Europe, a top German politician slammed Trump’s decision, mocking him for his brusque brush-aside of a Balkan leader last week at a NATO meeting in Brussels. “You can withdraw from a climate agreement but not from climate change, Mr. Trump,” Social Democratic leader Martin Schulz wrote on Twitter. “Reality isn’t just another statesman you shove away.”

But on Capitol Hill, Republican leaders praised Trump’s move. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said in a statement, “I applaud President Trump and his administration for dealing yet another significant blow to the Obama Administration’s assault on domestic energy production and jobs.”

House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) said, “The Paris climate agreement was simply a raw deal for America … I commend President Trump for fulfilling his commitment to the American people and withdrawing from this bad deal.”

There was some Republican dissent, however. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) tweeted: “Climate change requires a global approach. I’m disappointed in the President’s decision.”

Brady Dennis, Juliet Eilperin and Chris Mooney in Washington, Michael Birnbaum in Brussels and James McAuley in Paris contributed to this report.

Philip Rucker is the White House Bureau Chief for The Washington Post. He previously has covered Congress, the Obama White House, and the 2012 and 2016 presidential campaigns. He joined The Post in 2005 as a local news reporter.  Follow @PhilipRucker
Jenna Johnson is a political reporter who covers the White House. She spent more than a year writing about Donald Trump's presidential campaign, traveling to 35 states to attend more than 170 political rallies and interview hundreds of Trump supporters.  Follow @wpjenna

The UAE’s Military and Naval Reliance on Eritrea Makes the War in Yemen Even Riskier for the U.S.

By Rahma A. Hussein
Wednesday, May 31, 2017 at 9:50 AM

The Saudi-led coalition’s near three-year conflict in Yemen appears to be converging on the Houthi-controlled city of Hodeidah. Foreign diplomats, international humanitarian NGOs, and experts have rightly voiced concerns of the humanitarian disaster that would result if an operation to recapture the city takes place. As the United States weighs backing the United Arab Emirates (UAE) plan to seize Hodeidah, it should consider that it could find itself not only potentially complicit in war crimes, but also closely aligned with one of UAE’s key strategic partners sustaining its war efforts in Yemen: Eritrea, a country subject to United Nations sanctions and alleged to have committed crimes against humanity against its population.

A recent Just Security piece described how an assault on Hodeidah would likely involve UAE-supported ground forces. It would also likely include coalition airstrikes and attacks from helicopters and warships launched from, and facilitated by, the UAE’s military base in Eritrea, which has previously served as a primary base to support the UAE’s campaign to push out Houthi rebels from Aden.

Eritrea’s assistance to the UAE is deeply concerning, but it is not the only African country where the Gulf nation has set its sights for military expansion. Described once by Defense Secretary James Mattis as “Little Sparta,” the UAE is expanding its military and strategic foothold in the Horn of Africa, an expansion directly linked to its campaign in Yemen. These efforts have mostly gone unnoticed. Recently, on March 19, the parliament of the self-declared republic of Somaliland formally signed an agreement with the UAE to build and lease a military and naval base in its port city of Berbera for 25 years. The UAE more recently signed a similar agreement with the semi-autonomous Somali region of Puntland. Thus far, the exact nature and scale of the UAE’s plans for the Somaliland and Puntland bases remain unclear, although Somaliland’s Foreign Minister Saad Ali Shire recently stated that the Emiratis could use the Berbera port for any purpose, including “training, surveillance, and military operations.” A look at the UAE’s prior efforts in Eritrea, however, suggests that the Horn of Africa region is emerging as a key strategic foothold for the UAE to support the Saudi-led coalition war efforts against Houthi rebels.

Aside from general concerns regarding the UAE’s military and naval bases in Somaliland, Puntland, and Eritrea, the Emiratis involvement in the Horn does elicit important legal and policy concerns that demand greater scrutiny. It also further reveals the extent of African state involvement in military operations in Yemen. These questions include whether the UAE is violating a United Nations arms embargo on Eritrea, what the scale and nature of Eritrea’s support to the UAE is in Yemen, what extraterritorial human rights and humanitarian law obligations African states have with respect to the conflict in Yemen, and lastly what legal and policy risks African states face in providing assistance to the Saudi-led campaign in Yemen.

The UAE and the Horn

The UAE’s 2017 military and naval base agreement with Somaliland is only the latest in a series of overtures the Gulf nation recently made in the Horn of Africa region. Under a 2015 agreement, the UAE constructed an air and naval base in Eritrea at the red sea port of Assab from which it has already mounted operations in Yemen. Satellite images obtained from Stratfor, a U.S.-based intelligence firm, reveal the UAE is increasing its military presence in Eritrea, through the development of Assab and the deployment of tanks, fighter jets, helicopters, and drones.

Controversially, Eritrea has reportedly provided its troops to fight in Yemen. According to a report by the United Nations Monitoring Group on Somali and Eritrea, 400 Eritrean soldiers have been embedded with UAE-backed forces in Yemen fighting on behalf of the Saudi-led coalition. The report further revealed that the “presence of coalition forces in Assab expanded to encompass not only personnel from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates but also Yemeni troops and other troops in transit.” The UAE has used its Eritrean base to train and equip 4,000 Yemeni fighters – specifically Hadrami Elite Forces and Security Belt Forces, who have been implicated in enforced disappearances and detainee abuse. The Yemeni forces are needed to support broader efforts by the UAE military and U.S. Special Operation Forces to liberate southern cities, such as Mukalla in 2016, which was being held by al-Qaeda in the Arab Peninsula (AQAP).

Far from just training Yemeni fighters, the UAE has reportedly used the Eritrean base as a transit point for African soldiers from Sudan and Senegal. The UAE has also launched military operations from the base, including airstrikes in southern Yemen. Sudanese battalions have, for instance, been transported from Assab to Aden to assume responsibility for security in Aden, and to participate in war efforts in Yemen’s mountain areas of Ibb and Taiz. Human rights groups have raised concerns about Sudanese troop involvement in Yemen, and have publicly stated that Sudanese forces will likely ignore the laws of war and abuse civilians with impunity as they have done in Sudan.

Assab also served as a base of operations for UAE combat ships involved in enforcing the coalition’s naval blockade of the Red Sea ports of Hodeidah and Mokha in Yemen. Human rights groups have noted that the blockade has contributed to severe food and fuel shortages, as well as prevented the delivery of key humanitarian assistance to the country. A United Nations Panel of Experts report on Yemen has similarly voiced concerns about the Saudi-led coalition’s obstruction of humanitarian and food aid into the country.

Aside from contributing to apparent violations of international humanitarian and human rights law in Yemen, the UAE base agreement in Eritrea appears to further violate a 2009 UN Security Council sanction imposed on Eritrea for its alleged role in providing weapons, logistical, and financial support to armed groups in Somalia, specifically to the “al-Qaeda-linked” group al-Shabaab.

According to a report by the United Nations Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea, “Eritrea’s making available to third countries its land, territorial waters, and airspace to conduct military operations in another country is not in itself a violation of resolution 1907 Security Council . . . but any compensation diverted directly or indirectly towards activities that threaten peace and security in the region for the benefit of the Eritrean military would constitute a violation.” It further notes that “if the range of support provided by Eritrea to the regional coalition [. . .] constitutes either a direct or indirect transfer of prohibited material to or from Eritrea or an exchange of military assistance, it would be a violation of the arms embargo.”

These findings are further supported by the 2017 UN Panel of Experts report on Yemen, which directly cites the U.N. Monitoring Group on Eritrea’s earlier report mentioned above. Indeed, the panel report describes how UAE vessels “operating in direct support of military operations by the United Arab Emirates in Yemen,” have been regularly permitted access to the country and “mak[e] regular deliveries of supplies, troops, and equipment from Assab, Eritrea, to Yemen.” Such observations are troubling, and reveal the extent of Eritrean involvement in Yemen, and the potential violations of U.N. sanctions by the UAE.

Legal and policy concerns

The extent of the UAE’s involvement in Eritrea begs the question of whether it is directly violating U.N. sanctions. The U.N. sanctions resolution 1907 specifically prohibits that “all Member States shall immediately take the necessary measures to prevent the sale or supply to Eritrea by their nationals or from their territories or using their flag vessels or aircraft, of arms and related material of all types, including weapons and ammunition, military vehicles and equipment, paramilitary equipment, and spare parts for the aforementioned, and technical assistance, training, financial, and other assistance, related to the military activities or to the provision, manufacture, maintenance or use of these items.”

UAE’s support for Eritrea, a pariah state on the continent known as the “North Korea of Africa,” also has wider implications for the United States, which has partnered with the UAE military in Yemen. In June 2016, a UN Commission of Inquiry on human rights accused the Eritrean government of committing crimes against humanity against its population, including murder, extrajudicial killings, rape, imprisonment, and enforced disappearances since 1991. As Ryan Goodman and Alex Moorehead recently wrote, UAE forces are supporting U.S. counterterrorism operations against AQAP, particularly in Yemen’s southern provinces where Eritrean and Sudanese forces are allegedly deployed and embedded with UAE-backed forces. The U.S. support for the Saudi-led coalition, and in particular the UAE, should alarm policymakers in Washington, who should be concerned about potential complicity in war crimes, and the expanding list of pariah states with which the U.S. finds itself allied.

States in the Horn of Africa should also be wary of any cooperation with the UAE that may directly or indirectly drag them into the war in Yemen and accordingly risk their complicity in violations of international law carried out by the Saudi-led coalition.

First, as Goodman and others have previously discussed (here, here, here, and here), states which provide assistance to their state partners may incur international legal responsibility for doing so. Possible situations that may trigger responsibility include, “knowingly providing a facility or financing the activity in question,” or by “providing means for the closing of an international waterway.” Credible reports of international humanitarian law violations and human rights abuses by all sides of the Yemen conflict further demonstrate that Eritrea has permitted the use of its land, air, and sea territory with the knowledge that the UAE and its allied partners have targeted civilian populations and infrastructure in Yemen, and imposed a naval blockade on the country, which has blocked the delivery of food and other humanitarian assistance. As a recent Chatham House report highlighted, continued assistance to states in situations where “wrongful acts are manifestly being committed” should not be a basis to deny responsibility for contributing to the wrongful acts in question.

Eritrean (and other African states’) support for UAE, Saudi, and U.S. operations in Yemen may also trigger obligations under Common Article 1 of the Geneva Conventions, which places obligations on State Parties to “undertake to respect and to ensure respect” for the Convention in all circumstances. Turning to Eritrea’s obligations, the government would be required under its Common Article 1 obligations to ensure respect for the laws applicable in war and cease permitting use of its military base by the UAE to launch operations including airstrikes, given credible reports of systematic law of war violations committed by the Saudi-led coalition and the UAE.

As Shaheed Fatima noted in a previous piece at Just Security, there are several rules under international and regional human rights treaties, to which Eritrea is bound, that may trigger its responsibility when substantive provisions of a human rights treaty are breached. As a State party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (“Banjul Charter”), Eritrea is obligated to give effect to the fundamental rights guaranteed therein, including the right to life and the right to food, which are implicated through its involvement in the Yemen conflict. The nature of such an obligation carries both a positive and negative dimension, and includes the duty to respect, protect, and fulfill the rights guaranteed contained under the international instruments, as well as the duty to refrain from acts that would interfere with the rights of others. While the topic of the extraterritorial application of human rights treaties is one of continued debate, the case law, and commentaries of international bodies such as the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the United Nations Human Rights Committee, and others, demonstrate how international human rights obligations bind states in relation to activities they take outside of their territory. While this does hinge on certain tests including jurisdiction, a State’s control over the other territory or persons, and the nature of the rights in question, Eritrea’s control over its nationals fighting in Yemen, and its military base where operations have launched in Yemen, provide further support to hold Eritrea responsible for violations of international human rights law in Yemen.

The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) Principles and Guidelines on Human and Peoples’ Rights while Countering Terrorism in Africa (“Principles and Guidelines”) are also relevant to assessing the responsibility of African states’ involvement in Yemen. The Principles and Guidelines reflect international law, including the ILC’s Draft Articles on State Responsibility by outlining that States are bound by their human rights obligations while conducting counterterrorism operations abroad, and should “withhold cooperation that would result in violations of international human rights, humanitarian, or refugee law . . .” and “take all practical steps to determine whether foreign entity activities on, and movement through, their territory involve such practices. In addition, States shall not assist or support another State in the commission of an internationally wrongful act.” The allegations by the U.N. and human rights groups are important here. It is clear that Eritrea has not taken all practical steps to determine whether the foreign entity – in this case, the UAE and the other Gulf States in the coalition – are not engaging in practices that violate international law.

The extent of African State involvement in Yemen, in support of its Emirati partner, is truly troubling. Continued assistance to the Gulf States, with knowledge that such assistance would support credible reports of international violations, underscores the need for the African human rights system to take up the issue, voice their concern, and ensure their role as a guarantor of human rights and government accountability on the continent.

UAE-backed Forces Gain Control Over Aden Airport

By AHMED AL-HAJ,
ASSOCIATED PRESS
SANAA, Yemen
May 31, 2017, 1:23 PM ET

Forces backed by the United Arab Emirates have taken over the airport in the southern city of Aden, according to Yemeni security officials, further fueling tension between internationally recognized President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi and the UAE.

The officials said that one soldier from among the forces guarding the airport died in clashes Wednesday morning. The officials spoke anonymously as they were not authorized to brief the media.

The UAE contributed forces to the Saudi-led coalition that secured Hadi's return to the country following his exile in 2014. Hadi was originally forced to flee the capital, Sanaa, when it was seized by Shiite rebels, and Aden became his temporary seat of power.

However, tensions have grown between Hadi and the UAE over control of Aden's airport, the main gateway to Yemen's second largest city. UAE-led forces have made several previous unsuccessful attempts to seize the airport.

Hadi's supporters accuse the UAE of aiding groups attempting to create an independent government in the south of Yemen, which would allow the leading economic power in the region to maintain a permanent presence in the south with its strategic ports.

Conflicts over the airport started in February when the head of airport security Saleh al-Emeiry, an ally of the UAE, refused to allow Hadi's plane to land in Aden. Hadi ordered Emeiry fired and clashes broke out when armed Hadi loyalists arrived at the airport to enforce his decree. Since then control of the airport had remained split between UAE-backed forces and Hadi supporters.

In May, Hadi sacked two senior officials from the south who allegedly supported the separation and had ties to the UAE. The move was met with protests in the south and fueled further calls for separation.

Meanwhile, The United Nations envoy for Yemen said on Tuesday that the cholera outbreak in the war-ravaged country has killed over 500 people since the disease reemerged last month.

Ismael Ould Cheikh Ahmed said at a Security Council briefing that there are 60 thousand suspected cases of the cholera in its second outbreak in Yemen in six months.

The UN envoy said that Yemen's collapsing medical sector contributed to the rapid outbreak, noting that less than 45 percent of medical facilities are functioning and only half of Yemenis have access to clean water.

The World Health Organization said in its latest update on Monday that the disease continues to spread but at a slower pace, putting the death toll at 471.

A Saudi-led coalition has been battling Shiite Houthi rebels in Yemen since March 2015, in a war that has killed more than 10,000 civilians.