Ethiopians and U.S. foreign policy observers are trying to unravel a comment made by President Donald Trump last week where he claimed to have “saved a country” and implied he should have been given the Nobel Peace Prize for the achievement.  

Trump made the comments during a rally in Toledo, Ohio, and appeared to be referencing Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed whose Nobel Peace Prize was announced in October. “I made a deal, I saved a country, and I just heard that the head of that country is now getting the Nobel Peace Prize for saving the country. I said, ‘what? Did I have something do with it?’”

Abiy received the prize for his efforts to end nearly 20 years of hostility between Eritrea and Ethiopia relating to disputes over their shared border.

Observers believe Trump was referring to White House efforts to mediate discussions between Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan over water usage from the Nile River. Ethiopia is building a massive hydroelectric power project known as the Grand Renaissance Dam, but countries downstream on the Blue Nile are concerned it will deplete their principal water source.

The U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee wasted no time jumping on what they believed to be a gaffe by Trump. “Trump is confused. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to bring peace to the Horn of Africa, not stalled negotiations about a new dam on the Nile,” the committee said on its Twitter account on Jan. 10.  

The committee, which is chaired by a Democratic lawmaker, also pointed out that the negotiations have not been successful. The three countries continue to be deadlocked and have been unable to reach an agreement as they approach a Jan. 15 deadline to resolve the issue.  

“If they gave the Nobel for deals that didn’t happen, the Pres. would have a shelf full of them,” the Foreign Affairs Committee Twitter account stated.

Trump is confused.
PM @AbiyAhmedAli was awarded the @NobelPrize for his efforts to bring peace to the Horn of Africa, not stalled negotiations about a new dam on the Nile.

If they gave the Nobel for deals that didn’t happen, the Pres. would have a shelf full of them. #Ethiopiahttps://t.co/WhJ6nLvb6Z

— House Foreign Affairs Committee (@HouseForeign) January 10, 2020

 

Trump has not elaborated on the comments since then. When asked about the meaning, the U.S. Embassy in Ethiopia referred reporters to comments made in October by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo congratulating Abiy on the award, the Washington Post reported.

For his part, Abiy did not appear bothered by the statement. “To be honest, I don’t have any clue about the criteria [of] how the Nobel committee selects an individual for the prize. So, the issue of President Trump must go to the Nobel Prize Committee,” Abiy said on Jan. 12 during a press conference in South Africa.  

Abiy added that he is more concerned with progress toward peace in the region than awards. “I am not working for the prize. I am working that peace is a very critical thing for our region and if they recognize and if President Trump complained, it must go to Oslo, not to Ethiopia,” he said.  

VIDEO: After US President Donald Trump said that he believes he deserves the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize, Abiy Ahmed, the winner and Ethiopian Prime Minister replied: “If Donald Trump wants to complain, he should go to Oslo, not Ethiopia” pic.twitter.com/63IrjUKK9D

— AFP news agency (@AFP) January 12, 2020

Ambassador Herman Cohen, a former U.S. assistant secretary of state for African affairs, said these types of confounding, off-the-cuff remarks have become a hallmark of Trump’s presidency. “He has this tendency to make comments without first looking in the background. That’s the way he operates,” Cohen told VOA’s Amharic service.  

But Cohen said the U.S. has the potential to play a leading role in relieving tensions among the Nile River countries. Representatives from Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia met at the White House on November 6. This week, the delegations are continuing to negotiate. They have meetings scheduled with Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin and the President of the World Bank David Malpass.  “

Egypt has been in a very tense situation with Ethiopia. And what President Trump did was he called both countries and said ‘come to the United States and we’ll mediate your dispute.’ And this caused a drop in the tension between Ethiopia and Egypt,” Cohen said. “And for that, I think President Trump deserves a lot of credit. Now, maybe he’ll get the peace prize for that next year.”

VOA Horn of Africa’s Amharic service Solomon Abate contributed to this story.

 

 

…

Hackers from Russia’s military intelligence unit, the GRU, have allegedly targeted a Ukrainian energy firm tied to the impeachment proceedings against U.S. President Donald Trump.

Cybersecurity experts at California-based Area 1 Security released a report on Monday that found Burisma Holdings, where the son of presidential front-runner Joe Biden sat on the board, was successfully penetrated in a wide-ranging phishing campaign that stole e-mail credentials of employees.

It isn’t clear if anything was stolen from the company or its subsidiaries, which were initially targeted, if any information was gleaned, and what the ultimate goal of the hackers was.

Hunter Biden, the son of former Vice President Joe Biden, was a board member of Burisma from 2014 until last year.

Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to “look into” allegations of wrongdoing by the Bidens and the energy firm in a July 25 phone call. Their conversation was the subject of an ensuing whistle-blower’s complaint that triggered the impeachment investigation, which began in September.

The U.S. president has since been charged with abuse of office and obstruction of Congress by the Democratic-led House of Representatives, which is scheduled on January 14 to vote on the timing of when to send the articles of impeachment to the Republican-controlled Senate for a trial on whether to remove him from office.

No evidence of corruption by either of the Bidens has surfaced in light of allegations by Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, that the former vice president sought to protect his son by pressuring Ukrainian officials.

Evidence has yet to emerge of allegations that Joe Biden pushed for the ouster of Ukraine’s chief prosecutor when he served as vice president and was seen as then-President Barack Obama’s point man on Ukraine.

U.S. allies in Europe and Ukraine’s international lenders supported Joe Biden because successive chief prosecutors were believed to have been either obstructing or stalling investigations into high-profile corruption cases, including probes into Burisma.

The alleged hacker group used a similar phishing pattern and is directly connected to Fancy Bear, the same Russian cyber-infiltrators of the Democratic National Committee in the months leading up the 2016 presidential election that Trump, a Republican, won.

The GRU featured prominently in the Mueller report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign, which concluded that Russia hacked the Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton’s campaign to help Trump.

Russia has denied meddling in the 2016 presidential campaign and election.

Area 1’s eight-page report said the cyberattacks on Burisma began in November, when Ukraine and impeachment, as well as talk of the Bidens, were dominating news headlines in the United States.

Zelenskiy Firm Targeted

“Area 1 Security has also further connected this GRU phishing campaign to another phishing campaign targeting a media organization founded” by Zelensky, the report said.

The New York Times, which first wrote about the anti-phishing company’s report, said the attack “appears to have been aimed at digging up e-mail correspondence” of Studio Kvartal 95, which then was headed by Ivan Bakanov, whom Zelenskiy appointed as head of Ukraine’s Security Service in June.

…

Calling preparations for the 2020 Census “conspicuously deficient,” the NAACP is suing the U.S. Census Bureau, demanding that the agency send more workers into the field and spend more money on encouraging people to participate in the once-a-decade head count.
    
The civil rights group and Prince George’s County, a majority African American county in Maryland, filed the lawsuit last Friday in federal court in Maryland. It  claims the Census Bureau wasn’t planning to put enough workers in the field and hadn’t opened up a sufficient number of field offices.
    
The lawsuit also faulted the bureau for conducting  limited testing, particularly when, for the first time, it is encouraging most respondents to answer the questionnaire online.
    
The 2020 census will help determine the distribution of $1.5 trillion in federal spending and how many congressional seats each state gets. It starts for a few residents next week in a remote part of Alaska, but most people won’t be able to begin answering the questionnaire until mid-March.
    
“These deficiencies will result in a massive and differential undercount of communities of color,” the lawsuit said. “Such a dramatic undercount will especially dilute the votes of racial and ethnic minorities, deprive their communities of critical federal funds, and undervalue their voices and interests in the political arena.”
    
The Census Bureau didn’t immediately respond to an email for comment on Monday. The bureau plans to hire as many as 500,000 temporary workers, mostly to help knock on the doors of homes where people haven’t yet responded to the census. Although that is less than in 2010, the agency has said it doesn’t need as many workers this year because of technological advances, such as the ability of workers to collect information on their mobile devices.
    
An earlier version of the lawsuit was first filed in 2018, but it was dismissed by the district court. An appellate court last month ruled some of the claims could be raised again in the amended complaint filed Friday. In previous court papers, the Census Bureau has called the lawsuit “meritless.”

…

Queen Elizabeth II said Monday that she has agreed to grant Prince Harry and Meghan their wish for a more independent life that will see them move part-time to Canada.

The British monarch said in a statement that “today my family had very constructive discussions on the future of my grandson and his family.”

She said it had been “agreed that there will be a period of transition in which the Sussexes will spend time in Canada and the UK.” Harry and Meghan are also known as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

“These are complex matters for my family to resolve, and there is some more work to be done, but I have asked for final decisions to be reached in the coming days,” the queen said.

In a six-sentence statement that mentioned the word “family” six times, the queen said that “though we would have preferred them to remain full-time working Members of the Royal Family, we respect and understand their wish to live a more independent life as a family while remaining a valued part of my family.”

Monday’s meeting involved the queen, her heir Prince Charles and his sons William and Harry, with Meghan expected to join by phone from Canada.

…

Talks between leaders of Libya’s two warring sides wrapped up Monday in Moscow, with Russia’s foreign minister noting some progress, a day after a fragile cease-fire brokered by Russia and Turkey came into force.

Russia and Turkey are emerging as key arbiters in the war-torn country, trying to push Fayez al-Sarraj, head of the internationally recognized Government of National Accord (GNA), and his rival, renegade General Khalifa Haftar, to start agreeing to the outlines of a longer-term political settlement, one suiting both Ankara and Moscow.

On Monday, before talks started, al-Sarraj urged Libyans to “turn the page” on the turmoil of the past,” saying all Libyans should “reject discord and close ranks to move toward stability and peace.” He said the GNA had entered the cease-fire to end the bloodshed and that his beleaguered government is in “a position of strength to maintain national and social cohesion.”

The latest phase of the long-running violent turmoil that followed the 2011 ouster of then-dictator Moammar Gadhafi has been bogged down in stalemate for months.

The warring factions failed to sign the truce as scheduled Monday, and adjourned for further discussions Tuesday. But Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters in the Russian capital he was confident they would ink the document, saying they viewed the document “positively.”

More than 280 civilians and about 2,000 fighters have been killed and 146,000 Libyans displaced since Haftar launched an assault last year on Tripoli, according to monitoring groups. Formerly one of Col. Gadhafi’s most trusted lieutenants, Haftar, since 2014, has been waging a campaign against the GNA, which is recognized by the U.S. and most Western states as the legitimate Libyan government.

Last week, his forces seized the coastal town of Sirte, Gadhafi’s birthplace and the scene of the ousted autocrat’s brutal death.

Both Russia and Turkey have much invested in Libya — Russia in terms of reputation, clout and potential oil deals, and Turkey with even more wide-ranging commercial interests, say analysts. They have been backing opposing sides in Libya, posing a risk to their fledgling, albeit competitive, partnership in northern Syria, where Moscow has accepted, at least temporarily, a Turkish military intervention against the Kurds. Moscow has also been working with Ankara to try to forge a post-war future for Syria that works for both the Turks and Russians and balances out their interests and influence.

The Libya cease-fire followed a joint call by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan — who backs al-Sarraj and has deployed troops to help the GNA — and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, who has been supporting Haftar. Hundreds of military contractors from Russia’s Wagner Group have been fighting alongside Haftar. The Wagner Group is a Kremlin-tied private military contractor whose mercenaries have been identified fighting in Syria and other hotspots on the side of Moscow’s allies.

Last week, President Putin said he was aware of the presence of Russian mercenaries in Libya, but denied they were they on his command. “

If there are Russian citizens there, then they are not representing the interests of the Russian state and they are not receiving money from the Russian state,” he said.

Pro-Haftar forces are supported also by the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. French officials have denied a charge by Sarraj that it has been tacitly supporting Haftar’s siege of the Libyan capital, Tripoli.

In December, Russian energy companies signed contracts with Libya’s National Oil Corporation for exploration. Turkey also is determined to establish a long-term partnership with Libya, formerly part of Turkey’s Ottoman empire. Turkish companies, which moved into Libya aggressively after the ouster of Gadhafi, are owed millions of dollars in unpaid business they conducted prior to 2014.

And in November, Erdogan signed signed memorandums with the GNA on security cooperation and maritime boundaries. The latter agreement, which Brussels says violates international law, secured in principle oil shale deposits in the Mediterranean Sea for Turkey. The memorandums between the GNA and Ankara prompted alarm in Moscow. Kremlin officials warned the deals — along with Erdogan’s announcement he would send troops to Libya to buttress the GNA — could derail peace negotiations scheduled for later this year in Berlin.

The increasing involvement of foreign forces and rival outside powers in Libya prompted German Chancellor Angela Merkel last week to warn that the country risked sliding into a Syria-like civil war.

The German leader has been supportive of the arbitration of Moscow and Ankara. And during a joint press conference Saturday with Putin in Moscow, she said, “We hope that the joint efforts by Russia and Turkey will lead to success, and we will soon send out invitations for a conference in Berlin.”

Analysts say the Europeans, the largest donors of humanitarian aid to Libya, have increasingly become bystanders as events unfold in the north African country — and are eager for someone, or anyone, to secure a resolution to a conflict that’s helped facilitate the movement of sub-Saharan migrants to Europe.

The European Union has been anything but united on which side to support in Libya, say Karim Mezran and Emily Burchfield, analysts with the U.S.-based research group the Atlantic Council. “

The main rift is between France, which claims to support the GNA, but has been linked to military and financial support to Haftar; and Italy, which aligns with the United Nations in backing Sarraj. The clash between Italy and France over Libya has contributed to the failure of international efforts to develop a political solution for the conflict, they say.

Without European leadership on Libya, Russia and Turkey have found it easier to insert themselves into the conflict,” they added.

 

 

 

 

…

Iranian protesters took to the streets in the third day of demonstrations against the government after it acknowledged mistakenly shooting down a Ukrainian passenger jet, killing all 176 aboard.
 
Video posted online showed students outside universities in Tehran and Isfahan Monday chanting at the country’s rulers, “Clerics get lost!”
 
Earlier videos from the night before appear to show security forces firing live ammunition and tear gas at the protesters in Tehran. Authorities denied they opened fire but the semi-official Fars news agency reported police had “shot tear gas in some areas” in an attempt to disperse the demonstrators.
 
The videos showed protesters coughing and sputtering as they tried to escape the tear gas fumes. VOA could not independently verify the authenticity of the videos.
 
Tehran’s police chief, Gen. Hossein Rahimi, insisted authorities treated protesters with “patience and tolerance.”

“Police did not shoot in the gatherings since broad-mindedness and restraint has been the agenda of the police forces of the capital,” Iranian media quoted him as saying.

The protests erupted after Iran on Saturday acknowledged that “human error” led a missile operator to fire on the Boeing 737 jet last Wednesday. The accident occurred hours after Iran fired 16 ballistic missiles at Iraqi bases housing U.S. forces in retaliation for U.S. President Donald Trump ordering the Jan. 3 drone strike at the Baghdad airport that killed Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Revolutionary Guard’s Quds Force.
 
As protests started against Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei,Trump voiced support for the demonstrators and warned Iranian officials, “Don’t kill your protesters.”
 
After Iran fired the missiles at the Iraqi bases, Trump retreated from threats of further armed conflict with Tehran. He instead imposed more economic sanctions against Iran in an effort to force it to renegotiate terms of the 2015 international treaty aimed at restraining its nuclear program, the deal that Trump withdrew the U.S. from.

Watch related video report by Henry Ridgwell:

Embed

Copy

U.S. national security adviser Robert O’Brien told CBS’ Face the Nation show on Sunday that Iran is “being choked off” economically and that U.S. officials see an opportunity to further intensify pressure on the country’s leaders and leave them with no choice but to negotiate. But late Sunday, Trump seemed indifferent to the possibility of more negotiations.
 
“Actually, I couldn’t care less if they negotiate,” Trump said on Twitter.  “Will be totally up to them but, no nuclear weapons and ‘don’t kill your protesters.'”

To the leaders of Iran – DO NOT KILL YOUR PROTESTERS. Thousands have already been killed or imprisoned by you, and the World is watching. More importantly, the USA is watching. Turn your internet back on and let reporters roam free! Stop the killing of your great Iranian people!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 12, 2020

 
On Sunday, in an emotional speech before parliament, the head of the Revolutionary Guard apologized for the missile attack on the jetliner and insisted it was a tragic mistake.
 
“I swear to almighty God that I wished I was on that plane and had crashed with them and burned, but had not witnessed this tragic incident,” said Gen. Hossein Salami. “I have never been this embarrassed in my entire life. Never.”
 
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, on Twitter, expressed “profound regrets” and apologized for the shoot-down of the Ukraine International Airlines jet. But he contended that ‘Human error at time of crisis caused by US adventurism led to disaster.”

O’Brien rejected Zarif’s claim in a Fox News Sunday interview, saying Iran first covered up its actions then claimed the civilian aircraft veered toward a military base. He said Iran needs to investigate the accident, apologize for it, pay compensation to the victims’ families and “make sure it never happens again.”
 
A team of Canadian officials is due to travel Monday to Iran to work with the families of victims, including identifying those killed and repatriating their remains. They will also assist in the investigation.
 
Off the 176 dead, at least 57 were Canadians.
 
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau participated in a memorial service Sunday in Edmonton where he expressed sorrow for those who died and said, “This tragedy should never have occurred.”
 
“We will continue to work with our partners to ensure that a full, transparent investigation is conducted,” Trudeau said.  “I want to assure all families and all Canadians we will not rest until there are answers. We will not rest until there is justice and accountability.”

 

…

It looked more like April than January across parts of the eastern U.S. after powerful spring-like storms pummeled several states over the weekend.

Tornadoes, floods, and hurricane-strength winds killed at least 11 people in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Alabama.

About 200,000 people were without electricity Sunday as the strong storms blew down power lines, overturned cars, and tore up trees.

Gusty winds also knocked out power along the East Coast while flood warnings were out Sunday in several other southern states.

Meanwhile, millions in the Northeast let their winter coats hang in the closet Sunday as record-breaking warmth gave a treat to runners, golfers, and just about anyone who loves the outdoors.

Thermometers reached highs of 22 Celsius in Boston and 20 in New York City and Washington, D.C.

Meteorologists say an intense polar vortex — frigid air in high altitudes surrounded by powerful winds — has been keeping the cold in the Arctic.

But forecasters say the East can expect more January-like temperatures the rest of the week.

 

…

Vietnam will enjoy the fastest economic growth in Southeast Asia in 2020, according to a new forecast from British multinational investment bank HSBC.

Vietnam has been a beneficiary of the China-U.S. trade war, enjoying a boost in services and exports that should drive economic growth to 7% this year, HSBC economist Yun Liu said last week. But she said the country remains vulnerable to economic risks including trade protection and inflation.

Inflation is increasing as swine flu forces up the price of pork, showing how a single product can weigh on the economic indicators of an entire nation of nearly 100 million people. Vietnam also fears rising inflation if simmering Middle East tensions continue to push up oil prices.

Nevertheless, Liu predicted the communist nation’s “impressive” economic performance will give it another “year in the 7% club,” outshining fast-growing Myanmar, the Philippines, and other members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

Nintendo, Apple

Liu noted that some of the biggest names in technology, ranging from Nintendo to Google, are relocating to Vietnam, probably because the trade war is making production in China more expensive.

“Likely due to the trade tensions that have accelerated multinational corporations’ relocation decisions, many tech giants, including Apple, Google, Nintendo and Kyocera, have now followed in Samsung’s footsteps and plan to move parts of their production to Vietnam,” Liu forecast

Samsung, the Korean smartphone giant, already accounts for close to one quarter of Vietnam’s exports, but others are following the same path. Total electronics exports to the United States rose 76% in the first 11 months of 2019, as U.S. tariffs made Chinese-made phones more expensive for Americans.

“Contrary to many Asian countries which have seen a contraction in industrial activity, Vietnam’s manufacturing sector remained resilient [in 2019], contributing 30% to headline GDP growth,” Liu said.

Also contributing to GDP growth are increases in tourism and private consumption among Vietnamese citizens themselves.

Risks

The solid growth has brought renewed risk of inflation, a problem Hanoi had mostly brought under control in recent years. Prices last month rose by 5.2% on an annualized basis — the highest monthly figure since January 2014. Economists attribute the unexpected jump in part to higher pork prices.

“The economy faces two key risks over the coming year,” said Gareth Leather, a senior Asia economist, in an analysis for research company Capital Economics. Citing trade protectionism as one risk, he said the other “is the outbreak of African swine fever, which has led to a sharp rise in pork prices.”

Liu agrees. She said Vietnam faces “a confluence of factors including higher pork demand in the run-up to the Tet holidays [Lunar New Year] and likely competition with mainland China on pork imports as the latter has recently lowered pork tariffs.”

The regional minimum wage in Vietnam has also increased, while oil prices around the world spiked after a U.S. airstrike killed Qassem Soleimani, commander of Iran’s Quds Force. Leather said the most vulnerable Asian nations are Vietnam, India and China.

He also voiced a widely held sentiment regarding Vietnam’s trade imbalance with the United States. “Vietnam’s growing bilateral trade surplus with the U.S. could lead to retaliatory action,” Leather said.

 

…