Category Archives: Viva!

Trump was out of his depth in Hanoi. This failure is his greatest flop yet | Simon Tisdall

The blunderer-in-chief has let North Korea’s dictator emerge unscathed over his regime’s appalling human rights abuses

Donald Trump’s self-reverential style of personalised, fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants diplomacy just crashed and burned in Hanoi. It is fitting, perhaps, that Vietnam – scene of past American humiliations – was the setting for the blunderer-in-chief’s greatest flop. Trump tried to wing it in nuclear talks with North Korea’s more canny leader, Kim Jong-un, and got what he deserved: precisely nothing. The summit, like last year’s effort in Singapore, was a Trump vanity project – and proved a labour in vain.

In principle just about everybody, including close neighbours South Korea, China and Russia, would like to see North Korea’s nuclear arsenal brought under international supervision, and preferably eliminated altogether. To make such a mess of things, given this exceptional consensus, is a true measure of Trump’s incomparable incompetence. Yet this is barely a surprise. It is entirely of a piece with his amateurish approach to key foreign policy challenges the world over.

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Will violence Let Go of the DRC long enough to kick out Ebola virus?

The 2018/19 outbreak of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) was showing some promising signs of control earlier this week. Then the latest attacks hit. Now, who knows?


A health worker prepares to disinfect MSF’s partly burnt-out Ebola treatment centre in Katwa, North Kivu, DRC, 25 February 2019. Photo and text from MSF.[1]

This week has seen two violent attacks resulting in damage to Ebola treatment centres (ETCs) and in one instance, the death of a nurse.

The first attack came at night

The first attack occurred on an Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) ETC on 24th of February in Katwa, North Kivu.[1] Structures were burned and equipment damaged.

The Katwa health zone is the hotzone for most current EVD activity, having surpassed the case count in the previous most active zone of Beni (now almost controlled).

There were 10 EVD patients, including 4 confirmed cases, in this ETC. All safely transported to other ETCs.

⚡#DRCongo #News:

We have decided to suspend the activities of an #Ebola Treatment Centre in #NorthKivu after a violent attack on 24 February where our facility was partially burnt down. pic.twitter.com/iT9clrSDIR— MSF International (@MSF) February 26, 2019

A second attack, a second hotspot

#RDC En ce moment, attaque du Centre de Traitement d’Ebola de l’ITAV/Butembo par des “assaillants” non autrement identifiés. Échange de tirs avec les FARDC. C’est la 2ème fois en l’espace de qlqs jours qu’un CTE est attaqué à Butembo. Quelle irresponsabilité! pic.twitter.com/21O3UtL9l8— Grégoire Kiro (@kiro_gregoire) February 27, 2019

The second and most recent attack was on 27th February and targeted the MSF ETC in Butembo; the biggest ETC built for this outbreak so far.[2] 32 of 38 suspected cases and 4 of 12 confirmed cases fled as a result.[3]

#News ⚡

Tonight another deplorable attack on an #Ebola treatment facility has taken place, this time in the city of #Butembo.

This follows last week’s attack on our Ebola treatment centre in Katwa.

Our efforts are now focused on the immediate safety of our staff & patients. https://t.co/AKLIYP4ipO— MSF International (@MSF) February 27, 2019

Both Katwa and Butembo health zones are active Ebola virus transmission areas.

That means these health zones have active cases in their ETCs and most likely, in the surrounding community.

OCHA Map of the hotzones, via Reliefweb.[4]

There has been frequent mention of resistance to the response to this EVD outbreak, from the community in the Katwa HZ. There is resistance to vaccination, resistance to presenting early for treatment when ill and resistance to safe and dignified burials. And there’s evidence for that; the outbreak is in its 8th month. That MSF article painfully spelt out the problem.

Organisations, including MSF, have failed to gain trust from communities; approaches to people must change

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) [1]

Working together, anything is possible

There was overwhelming evidence from the multi-country EVD epidemic in West Africa that engaging the community could shut down EVD. This engagement hasn’t succeeded – for whatever reasons – in the DRC this time around. Without everyone on the same page, transmission will continue its cruel and relentless path through family after family.

Disrupted responses in the region of most active transmission are bound to cause problems, just as we were warned from the outset. Infected people may move away from conflict and carry the virus to new (or back to old) places. Interruption of treatment, contact tracing, data recording, reporting and vaccination could drive new flare-ups in Katwa and Butembo.

The on-going #Ebola transmission in Butembo and Katwa 🇨🇩 means the outbreak could reach into even more volatile & dangerous areas – where almost no partners would be able to operate. This is why support is needed now. https://t.co/quhDfJ03GR pic.twitter.com/PgZ2Zilp1U

— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) February 26, 2019

We don’t know what’s next

As with all things outbreak, it’s impossible to accurately predict what will happen next. Impossible except for knowing that the heroic and dangerous efforts of a host of foreign and local health workers of all types will keep striving to grind the virus to a standstill.

And now there are new calls by the World Health Organization for vigilance and urgent financial aid.[5] A new plan to better empower the local response and communities has also been rolled out.

The violence and community resistance seems unwilling to let go and after recent events, this outbreak has regained the upper hand. There is still much work ahead before this particular Ebola virus is kicked out of the DRC.

References

  1. North Kivu: Ebola centre inoperative after violent attack
    https://www.msf.org/msf-ebola-centre-north-kivu-inoperative-after-violent-attack-democratic-republic-congo
  2. Unknown forces attack Butembo Ebola treatment center, CIDRAP
    http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2019/02/unknown-forces-attack-butembo-ebola-treatment-center
  3. EPIDEMIOLOGICAL SITUATION IN THE PROVINCES OF NORTH KIVU AND ITURI Wednesday, February 27, 2019  http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=auto&langpair=auto|en&u=https://us13.campaign-archive.com/%3Fu%3D89e5755d2cca4840b1af93176%26id%3D693337893b
  4. RD Congo – Ituri et Nord-Kivu : 3W Qui faitquoi Où – Riposte de la Maladie à Virus Ebola (Semaine 06 : du 04 au 10 février 2019)
    https://reliefweb.int/report/democratic-republic-congo/rd-congo-ituri-et-nord-kivu-3w-qui-fait-quoi-o-riposte-de-la-1
  5. Ebola response in Democratic Republic of the Congo risks slowdown.
    https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/26-02-2019-ebola-response-in-democratic-republic-of-the-congo-risks-slowdown

The post Will violence Let Go of the DRC long enough to kick out Ebola virus? appeared first on Virology Down Under.

Israel trying to deport stateless Palestinian journalist from Jerusalem

Mustafa al-Haruf has spent the last 20 years living in East Jerusalem, where he has a wife, daughter, and works as a photographer. Now Israel wants to deport him to Jordan, where he has no family or legal status.

Palestinian journalist Mustafa al-Haruf seen at a Jerusalem Court following his arrest for supposed incitement on Facebook. He was released the following day and the case was closed, December 2017.

Palestinian journalist Mustafa al-Haruf seen at a Jerusalem Magistrates Court following his arrest for supposed incitement on Facebook. He was released the following day and the case was closed, December 2017.

Mustafa al-Haruf, a stateless Palestinian journalist who lives and works in Jerusalem, has been in an Israeli detention facility for the past month, fighting a deportation order to Jordan, a country he has no ties to. Al-Haruf, born in Algeria to a Palestinian father, has lived in East Jerusalem since he was 12, and is married to a Jerusalemite Palestinian woman, with whom he has a small child.

[tmwinpost]

His story is a complicated one. It also encapsulates the problematic situation for Palestinians in East Jerusalem, who are residents of the city, but not citizens of the State of Israel. Their residency can be taken away from them at any given moment — even if they were born or raised in Jerusalem.

Al-Haruf, 32, is the son of an Algerian mother and a Palestinian father from East Jerusalem. His family moved to East Jerusalem shortly after his twelfth birthday. Like many other Palestinians, it took years for his father to formalize his status, since he had been living abroad for so long. After finally receiving status, al-Haruf’s father attempted to formalize that of his children. Mustafa’s request was rejected since he was 18 and four months, and therefore too old according the Israeli authorities.

According to al-Haruf’s attorney, Adi Lustigman, who is representing him on behalf of Israeli human rights organization Hamoked, the family went to the Interior Ministry office on Jerusalem’s Nablus Road, which is known for its endless lines. “There were no procedures for a parent who wanted to register his or her children. Therefore, by no fault of their own, it took the family a long time to request residency for the children,” says Lustigman.

“In all my 18 years of work, I have not seen a single case in which Israel arrested someone who came to Jerusalem as a child for being undocumented. Mustafa has no other place where he can legally be,” says Lustigman.

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After being rejected by the Nablus Road office, Al-Haruf turned to the Interior Ministry’s humanitarian committee, which also refused to accept his request. Eventually, he was granted a B1 visa, most often given to foreign workers for a one-year period. “The state is treating children who were born in East Jerusalem or abroad as foreigners,” Lustigman explains. “It defines the requests of these children as family unification cases, even in instances in which the resident has left to study abroad.”

“I came here as a child, it was not my choice to live here,” Al-Haruf said to Judge Michael Silberschmidt, who headed the Interior Ministry tribunal that heard the case, during a hearing on February 19. “I have lived my entire life in a giant prison — Jerusalem. I have been waiting for 20 years. I went to the Jordanians and told them I am Palestinian. The Palestinians told me that I am from Israel. The Israelis tell me I am Jordanian. So now I ask the Interior Ministry — who am I?”

“This is my first time in prison,” al-Haruf continued as he choked back tears, “it is hard for me to have my family see me this way. I know myself, I did not do anything illegal in the 20 years I have been living here.”

Rejected for ‘security reasons’

The fact that Al-Haruf is a journalist adds yet another complication. Over the last few years, he has been working as a photojournalist for the Turkish outlet Anadolu Agency. Before that he worked as an independent photographer, focusing on clashes in the Old City, and specifically around Al-Aqsa Compound.

Al-Haruf’s request to renew his visa was rejected in 2015 for “security reasons.” His attorneys say that this was likely due to the photos of clashes he had published on his personal Facebook page (Al-Haruf closed his Facebook account in 2016). He was arrested once again for Facebook incitement in 2017 — both cases were closed.

Al-Haruf was also arrested in 2015 near Al-Aqsa Compound and charged with attacking a police officer. Al-Haruf says that he, not the police officer, was the one who was attacked, and in a rare turn of events an Israeli court accepted his argument. The case was dropped, and the officer responsible was convicted in a disciplinary proceeding by the Justice Ministry’s Police Internal Investigations Department.

In 2016 Al-Haruf married a Palestinian woman from East Jerusalem, with whom he has a daughter. Following his marriage, he reached an agreement with the Interior Ministry to undergo a process of family unification and thus forgo the humanitarian route. As part of the family unification process, the authorities looked into his criminal and security record.

Mustafa al-Haruf seen at an Interior Ministry tribunal with his wife and daughter, February 19, 2019, in Jerusalem.

Mustafa al-Haruf seen at an Interior Ministry tribunal with his wife and daughter, February 19, 2019, in Jerusalem.

On January 21, 2019, the Interior Ministry informed Lustigman that it would refuse the family unification request. Al-Haruf appealed the decision, but a few hours later, in the early hours of the morning, police officers and immigration inspectors raided his family home in the Wadi Joz neighborhood and arrested him. At first, they instructed his wife to pack her belongings and go with them, until they were convinced that she was indeed an East Jerusalem resident. Their landlord, too, was arrested overnight on suspicion of harboring an “infiltrator.” He was later released.

Since his arrest, al-Haruf has been held in Givon Prison in the city of Ramle, where he is waiting for a decision on his case.

During the tribunal hearing, Lustigman argued that Israel could not deport al-Haruf since he does not have citizenship or status in any country. The Interior Ministry claims he has a Jordanian passport, but Lustigman says that the passport’s sole purpose is to allow Palestinians to reach Arab countries through Jordan, but does not grant them any legal status in the Hashemite Kingdom, nor does it allow them to live there.

A representative of the Interior Ministry admitted that al-Haruf is not a Jordanian citizen, yet still insisted on deporting him to the country. “We look into the case of a specific detainee when there is a final decision that he can be deported,” she said at the hearing. “If there’s a problem, we will deal with it.”

‘An attack on freedom of the press in Israel’

“Can a person be deported to a country in which he is not a citizen?” Lustigman asked aloud during the hearing. “It is our understanding that the answer is no. Even if this is technically possible, Al-Haruf has no connection to Jordan, he has no family [there], he has no ability to live there legally. He has no ability of living anywhere and he cannot move with his family anywhere.”

Following his arrest, the Interior Ministry claimed it had received recent “classified material” from the Shin Bet — in addition to that which had been presented during the family unification process — according to which al-Haruf is a “member of Hamas involved in illegal activity and in contact with other members in a proscribed organization.” Al-Haruf had never been arrested or charged on these grounds in the 20 years he has lived in East Jerusalem.

Al-Haruf denies the allegations. “If I did something, let them take me to prison. But they did not tell me a thing. I need to understand the charges.” He says his contract stipulates that he act according to the same rules that apply to Israeli journalists. “I do not belong to any side. I am a journalist. I do not write, I photograph,” he told the tribunal. When asked about his contacts with terrorist groups, al-Haruf responded: “Let them give me a list of people with whom I cannot speak and publish it in all the newspapers.”

Turgut Alp Boyraz, al-Haruf’s superior at Anadolu, says the allegations are baseless. “This is an attack on freedom of the press in Israel,” he told the tribunal. Lustigman further argued that “people call him because he is a journalist. People he knows and those he doesn’t; he goes and photographs. (Full disclosure: I know al-Haruf from his work as a journalist).

Throughout the hearing, tribunal head Silberschmidt asked representatives from the Shin Bet to enter the room to discuss the classified information. It is difficult to describe the absurdity of the situation: al-Haruf and Lustigman were asked to leave, with the latter given the option of handing her pre-written questions to Silberschmidt, who would then hand them over to the Shin Bet representative who would be able to respond. The representative of the Interior Ministry was allowed to remain in the room.

Lustigman asked the Shin Bet representative whether the activities described in the classified material are directly or indirectly connected to al-Haruf’s activity as a photojournalist, and why he has never been taken in for questioning regarding these supposed allegations. After a 30-minute closed-door hearing, Silbschmidt read aloud the Shin Bet’s response, according to which the agency has “information that goes beyond the work of the appellant.” The Shin Bet did not explain why al-Haruf was never questioned.

Unsurprisingly, the appeal was rejected. “Indeed, the fact that the appellants do not have access to the information available to the security services makes it difficult for them to respond or refute the information,” Silberschmidt wrote in a decision published on Sunday, while adding that “there is no reason” to intervene in the decision to reject the family unification request. “The Minister of the Interior is given extensive discretion when considering a person’s request to receive status in Israel, even more so when the Minister of the Interior believes that the candidate poses a danger to the security of the state and the public.”

Lustigman plans to appeal the decision to the District Court. Al-Haruf’s family and friends hope that with the help of an international campaign, they will be able to stop his deportation.

This article was first published in Hebrew on Local Call. Read it here.

The post Israel trying to deport stateless Palestinian journalist from Jerusalem appeared first on +972 Magazine.

Facebook withholding data on its anti-disinformation efforts, EU says

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Commissioners demand hard numbers from firm ahead of European parliament elections

Facebook has repeatedly withheld key data on its alleged efforts to clamp down on disinformation ahead of the European elections, the EU’s executive has said.

Related: Anti-vaxx propaganda has gone viral on Facebook. Pinterest has a cure

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Wednesday Open Thread | Republican congressman Matt Gaetz sends apparent threat to Michael Cohen

WASHINGTON – One of President Donald Trump’s fiercest allies in the House of Representatives posted a tweet Tuesday that many are calling a direct threat to Michael Cohen ahead of his public testimony before Congress on Wednesday.

Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz posted on Twitter that Cohen’s wife was “about to learn a lot” about him and accused the former Trump attorney and fixer of being unfaithful in his marriage.

“Hey @MichaelCohen212 – Do your wife & father-in-law know about your girlfriends?” Gaetz wrote on Twitter. “Maybe tonight would be a good time for that chat. I wonder if she’ll remain faithful when you’re in prison. She’s about to learn a lot…”

Cohen spent Tuesday behind closed doors testifying to the Senate Intelligence Committee. He will appear before the House Oversight and Reform Committee on Wednesday in a public appearance that’s expected to revolve around the president’s alleged infidelities, businesses and finances.

When asked by reporters on Capitol Hill about the tweet, Gaetz denied that the post was a threat or attempt to intimidate Cohen.

“This isn’t witness tampering, it’s witness testing,” he told reporters outside his office. “When people like Michael Cohen, who’s about to go to prison for lying, come before the Congress, there’s an enhanced responsibility on the part of members of Congress to test that veracity, to test the truthfulness and character of the witness, and I think we ought to do it with great vigor.” .

Gaetz did not elaborate on his allegations that Cohen had an affair, which hasn’t been previously reported, or where he obtained this information, only saying that reporters should tune in during Wednesday’s hearing.

“I also trust that his constituents will not appreciate that their congressman has set a new low — which in today’s political culture is hard to imagine as possible,” Davis added.

Those on Twitter, including members of Congress, reacted quickly, many pointing that the comments could be seen as intimidating a witness and witness tampering.

Rep. Bill Pascrell, D-New Jersey, said the tweet warranted an investigation by the House Ethics Committee.

“One of my colleagues, a duly elected member of Congress, has taken to twitter to intimidate a witness,” Pascrell, Jr.‏ wrote. “This is grossly unethical and probably illegal (18 USC § 1512(b)). House Ethics must investigate this disgrace and stain on our institution.”

The statute Pascrell, Jr.‏ noted in his tweet is the law that states intimidating a witness is illegal.

Sen. Chris Coons, D-Delaware, said Gaetz’s tweet seemed like something “out of a Mob novel” not from a member of Congress.

“That’s the sort of behavior that’s sadly become normalized in the last two years,” Coons told CNN. “I think that would previously be considered absolutely shocking for a congressman to publicly engage in sort of badgering a witness in advance of their appearing.”