41 Women Die In Grisly Riot In Honduran Prison That President Blames On ‘Mara’ Gangs

Police guard the entrance to the women's prison in Tamara, on the outskirts of Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Tuesday, June 20, 2023. A riot at the women's prison northwest of the Honduran capital has left at least 41 inmates dead, most of them burned to death, a Honduran police official said. (AP Photo/Elmer Martinez)

BY MARLON GONZALEZ

TEGUCIGALPA, HONDURAS (AP) — A grisly riot at a women’s prison in Honduras Tuesday left at least 41 women dead, most burned to death, in violence the country’s president blamed on “mara” street gangs that often wield broad power inside penitentiaries.

Most victims were burned but there also were reports of inmates shot or stabbed at the prison in Tamara, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) northwest of the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa, said Yuri Mora, the spokesman for Honduras’ national police investigation agency.

At least seven female inmates were being treated at a Tegucigalpa hospital for gunshot and knife wounds, employees there said.

“The forensic teams that are removing bodies confirm they have counted 41,” said Mora.

Local media interviewed one injured inmate outside the hospital who said prisoners belonging to the feared Barrio 18 gang burst into a cell block and shot other inmates or set them afir

Honduran President Xiomara Castro said the riot was “planned by maras with the knowledge and acquiescence of security authorities.”

“I am going to take drastic measures!” Castro wrote in her social media accounts.

Dozens of anxious, angry relatives gathered outside the prison; located in a rural area about 20 miles (30 kilometers) from the capital.

“We are here dying of anguish, of pain ... we don’t have any information,” said Salomón García, whose daughter is an inmate at the facility.”

Julissa Villanueva, head of the country’s prison system, suggested the riot started because of recent attempts by authorities to crack down on illicit activity inside prisons and called Tuesday’s violence a reaction to moves “we are taking against organized crime.”

“We will not back down,” Villanueva said in a televised address after the riot.

Gangs wield broad control inside the country’s prisons, where inmates often set their own rules and sell prohibited goods.

The riot appears to be the worst tragedy at a female detention center in Central America since 2017, when girls at a shelter for troubled youths in Guatemala set fire to mattresses to protest rapes and other mistreatment at the badly overcrowded institution. The ensuing smoke and fire killed 41 girls.

The worst prison disaster in a century also occurred in Honduras, in 2012 at the Comayagua penitentiary, where 361 inmates died in a fire possibly caused by a match, cigarette or some other open flame.

Tuesday’s riot may increase the pressure on Honduras to emulate the drastic zero-tolerance, no-privileges prisons set in up in neighboring El Salvador by President Nayib Bukele. While El Salvador’s crackdown on gangs has given rise to rights violations, it has also proved immensely popular in a country long terrorized by street gangs.

Comparisons Made Between D-Day And Ukraine's Looming Fight

U.S. Gen. Mark Milley, left, meets veterans during a gathering in preparation for the 79th D-Day anniversary in La Fiere, Normandy, France, Sunday, June 4, 2023. The landings on the coast of Normandy 79 year ago by U.S. and British troops took place on June 6, 1944. (AP Photo/Thomas Padilla)

BY TARA COPP

STE MARE EGLISE, FRANCE (AP) — While U.S. military officers caution against too direct a comparison between the 1944 D-Day landings and Ukraine’s upcoming counteroffensive, the echoes of what Kyiv faces today are a dominant theme of this year’s commemorations of the young U.S. soldiers who died on the Normandy beaches nearly 80 years ago.

For days the villages and towns surrounding Omaha and Utah beaches have held parades, memorial events, flyovers and parachute demonstrations to build up to the annual celebration of D-Day, the launch of Operation Overlord. The June 6, 1944, invasion marked the beginning of the Allies’ massive ground offensive, which would eventually lead to Germany’s surrender and the end of World War II in Europe.

The celebration is taking place as Ukraine prepares to launch its own counteroffensive against Russia — an impending fight for which many of those same allied forces have now provided billions of dollars in weapons and training to Kyiv’s soldiers to best prepare them to win.

“There’s echoes of that of course,” said Joint Chiefs chairman Gen. Mark Milley. However, he cautioned against making a direct comparison to World War II’s Normandy invasion, where more than 150,000 troops made landfall in a 24-hour period and millions eventually fought across Europe to defeat the Nazis.

The goal “is certainly the same, to liberate occupied territory and to free a country that has been unjustly attacked by an aggressor nation, in this case, Russia,” Milley said.

Over the last several days, Ukraine has been a theme.

“(They are) very naive, those who think peace is eternal: History shows us quite the opposite,” said Alain Holley, mayor of Ste Mere Eglise, at a D-Day commemoration ceremony Sunday. “The proof is that today, the shells are again falling in Europe, two hours by plane from here. Where and when this new war will stop, no one knows today.”

Holley said it was imperative to stop “these arsonists, before the fire takes away our children, our grandchildren, as well as these brave young American paratroopers.”

At the spot where Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower established the first forward Supreme Allied Command headquarters in 1944, current U.S. Army Europe and Africa commander Gen. Darryl Williams said Eisenhower’s choice to push forward was like the West’s decision to continue arming Ukraine in that it was a sign of hope.

“We particularly need hope today, because the dark clouds of war once again hang over Europe.”

Just 20 miles (32 kilometers) from Omaha beach, the larger town of Carentan was the site of a key victory allowing Allied forces to advance. The commander of the current air assault troops — whose predecessors gave their lives freeing Carentan one week after D-Day — said the grounds were a hallowed reminder of the present.

The unit was one of the first sent back to Europe after Russia invaded last year, to bolster Eastern European defenses.

“While we did not return to fight, we were ready to fight,” said Col. Ed Matthaidess, commander of the 2nd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division. “So we stand here in Carentan today, and across Normandy this week, in remembrance not only of our past, but also mindful of our present.”

Two days before the annual celebration of Operation Overlord, Ukraine’s ministry of defense posted a video to Twitter of soldier after soldier putting his finger to his lips, in a hint that Kyiv’s much anticipated counteroffensive is imminent.

“Plans like silence,” the video text read. “There will be no announcement of the start.”

There’s usually a Ukrainian military delegation here as part of the commemorations, but not this year, as they focus on the fight at home, said a U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

Ste Mere Eglise became the first French town liberated by Allied forces; its namesake church was made famous by 82nd Airborne Division paratrooper John Steele, whose parachute got caught on the church steeple, leaving him hanging there for two hours during the initial invasion.

“D-Day is a commemoration. I think it’s also a warning,” said Army Col. Marty O’Donnell, spokesman for U.S. Army forces in Europe “While certainly there is not a world war going on right now, we certainly must reflect upon the history as we deal with current events.”

Church Associate Arrested In Death Of Pastor, Councilwoman Gunned Down Outside Her New Jersey Home

This undated photo provided by the Sayreville, N.J., Borough Council shows Sayreville Councilwoman Eunice Dwumfour. New Jersey prosecutors said Tuesday, May 30, 2023, that they arrested a Virginia man on murder and gun charges in the February death of the local councilwoman who was found fatally shot in her SUV outside her home. (Sayreville Borough Council via AP)

BY MARYCLAIRE DALE

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. (AP) — A church associate of a pastor and town councilwoman who was gunned down in her SUV outside her home in February was arrested Tuesday on murder and gun charges, New Jersey prosecutors said.

Rashid Ali Bynum, 28, of Portsmouth, Virginia, was linked to the death of Sayreville Councilwoman Eunice Dwumfour, 30, after investigators traced his travels from his cellphone and vehicle location data on Feb. 1, Middlesex County Prosecutor Yolanda Ciccone said at a news conference.

He also matched the description of the gunman given by neighbors in Sayreville, where Dwumfour had served on the council for about a year.

Tuesday’s announcement came nearly four months after she was found gunned down in her white SUV outside her rented townhome, while her 11-year-old daughter heard the shots from inside. Her death on Feb. 1 sent the community reeling.

Dwumfour was a pastor in a prosperity gospel church, Champions Royal Assembly, that is based in Nigeria, and she got married there in November to a fellow pastor from Abuja. She was also an officer of a related entity, the Fire Congress Fellowship, that has a branch in Virginia. Bynum was listed in her cellphone contacts under that group’s acronym.

Court records and tax filings suggest that church finances in the U.S. were tight. Dwumfour had been named in a series of landlord-tenant disputes in Newark dating from 2017 to 2020 involving the fellowship, which had seen its income drop from about $250,000 in 2017 to just $350 in 2020.

Dwumfour, who grew up in Newark, had lived in Virginia at one point, and family lawyer John Wisniewski said Bynum had lived in Sayreville. But beyond that, he did not know the nature of their relationship and the prosecutor declined to discuss a possible motive.

Sayreville Mayor Victoria Kilpatrick — a political ally who decided not to run for reelection as the slaying went unsolved — took some comfort that the killing did not appear politically motivated, but was troubled by the apparent link to a church to which Dwumfour was deeply devoted.

“The fact that it was connected to that component of her life is even more saddening to me because you look to God for light and protection. So to know that that was the connection hurts, but at the same time, evil can lurk anywhere,” she said.

Dwumfour’s father and family pastor learned of the arrest just ahead of the news conference and declined to comment afterward. While they welcome the arrest, they have “even more questions today than there were before,” Wisniewski said. Her new husband, Peter Ezechukwu, is no longer in the U.S.

“We have an alleged murderer in custody in Virginia, but now they are trying to also understand the relationship, how this person came to target Eunice, what was the rationale,” Wisniewski said.

Bynum was arrested in Chesapeake City, Virginia, without incident, authorities said. It was not immediately clear if he had a lawyer or when he might be extradited to New Jersey.

Dwumfour, a Republican, was elected to her first three-year term in 2021, when she ousted a Democratic incumbent. Colleagues recalled her as a soft-spoken devout Christian who could maintain her composure in contentious situations.

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Follow Legal Affairs Writer Maryclaire Dale on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Maryclairedale

Texas Man Admits To Targeting St. Louis Woman In $1.2M Romance Scam

Most of the money went to other scammers in Nigeria and the United States, the plea says.

BY CLARISSA COWLEY

ST. LOUIS (KSDK) — A Texas man admitted Monday to targeting a St. Louis woman in a $1.2 million romance scam.

According to a press release, 37-year-old Rotimi Oladimeji pleaded guilty to two counts of mail fraud, two counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud.

Oladimeji admitted that in May of 2019, someone in Nigeria created a fake LinkedIn profile of a veterinarian and animal behaviorist who was allegedly a Belgian national living in St. Louis, according to the release. 

They also used a picture of a German man. In August of that year, a St. Louis woman made an online dating profile. Then, Oladimeji and others started contacting her, using the Belgian identity in the following months.

The perpetrators of the fraud made plans to meet the victim, but never followed through, such as on one occasion when they left her waiting at the Missouri Botanical Garden.

Oladimeji then told the victim that the Belgian man was taking a business trip to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, according to the release.

One day after his alleged arrival, Oladimeji texted the victim, claiming that he needed help with “an urgent business issue,” and asked for $15,000, the plea said.

This request started a pattern of texts requesting electronic transfers of cash from the victim between October 2019 and March of 2020.

In total, the victim sent or attempted to send $931,000 to the scammers in a mistaken belief that the Belgian would not be permitted to leave Dubai unless she paid, the plea said.

Oladimeji also had the victim send cash and cashier’s checks via FedEx to the Texas home of his co-defendant, Olumide Akrinmade, 37, of Richardson, Texas, his plea said.

Oladimeji admitted recruiting Akrinmade and Adewale Adesanya, another Texas resident, to receive the funds, the plea said, in exchange for a cut of the money.

The victim sent about $314,000 to Texas, the plea said. Oladimeji admitted to taking part of the money for his role in the scam. The majority went to other scammers in Nigeria and the U.S., the plea said.

The scam began to unravel on February 3, 2021, when Oladimeji returned to the U.S. from a trip to Nigeria, according to the release. When he landed in Atlanta, Homeland Security Investigations agents inspected two phones belonging to Oladimeji and discovered text messages from and to his victim.

Each count to which Oladimeji pleaded guilty carries a possible sentence of up to 20 years in prison, a fine of $250,000 or both.

Oladimeji is scheduled to be sentenced on March 23.

He will also be ordered to repay the money and could face deportation.

Akrinmade’s case is pending. He has pleaded not guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud and four counts of mail fraud, according to a release.

Adesanya pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court in Dallas in April and was sentenced in September to four years in prison.

He was also ordered to repay $1.5 million that resulted from various frauds.

Democratic Sen. Warnock Wins Georgia Runoff Against Walker

Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock speaks during an election day canvass launch on Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2022, in Norcross, Ga. Sen. Warnock is running against Republican candidate Herschel Walker in a runoff election. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

BY BILL BARROW AND JEFF AMY

ATLANTA (AP) — Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock defeated Republican challenger Herschel Walker in a Georgia runoff election Tuesday, ensuring Democrats an outright majority in the Senate for the rest of President Joe Biden’s term and helping cap an underwhelming midterm cycle for the GOP in the last major vote of the year.

With Warnock’s second runoff victory in as many years, Democrats will have a 51-49 Senate majority, gaining a seat from the current 50-50 split with John Fetterman’s victory in Pennsylvania. There will be divided government, however, with Republicans having narrowly flipped House control.

In last month’s election, Warnock led Walker by 37,000 votes out of almost 4 million cast, but fell short of the 50% threshold needed to avoid a runoff. Walker, a football legend who first gained fame at the University of Georgia and later in the NFL in the 1980s, was unable to overcome a bevy of damaging allegations, including claims that he paid for two former girlfriends’ abortions.

Democrats’ Georgia victory solidifies the state’s place as a Deep South battleground two years after Warnock and fellow Georgia Democrat Jon Ossoff won 2021 runoffs that gave the party Senate control just months after Biden became the first Democratic presidential candidate in 30 years to win Georgia. Voters returned Warnock to the Senate in the same cycle they reelected Republican Gov. Brian Kemp by a comfortable margin and chose an all-GOP slate of statewide constitutional officers.

“I’ll work with anyone to get things done for the people of Georgia,” Warnock, the state’s first Black senator, said throughout his campaign, a nod to the state’s historically conservative lean and his need to win over GOP-leaning independents and at least some moderate Republicans in a midterm election year.

Warnock, 53, paired that argument with an emphasis on his personal values, buoyed by his status as senior pastor of Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, where civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. once preached.

Walker’s defeat bookends the GOP’s struggles this year to win with flawed candidates cast from Trump’s mold, a blow to the former president as he builds his third White House bid.

Democrats’ new outright majority in the Senate means the party will no longer have to negotiate a power-sharing deal with Republicans and won’t have to rely on Vice President Kamala Harris to break as many tie votes.

About 1.9 million runoff votes were cast by mail and during early voting, while the state was on track for a robust Election Day, with state officials estimating an additional 1.4 million votes cast — slightly more than in the November midterm and the 2020 election.

Early and mail voting did not reach the same levels as years past, and it was likely the total number of votes cast would be less than the 2021 Senate runoff election. Voting rights groups point to changes made by state lawmakers after the 2020 election that shortened the period for runoffs, from nine weeks to four, as a major reason for the decline in early and mail voting.

Elections officials reported few problems processing early votes and tabulating ballots cast Tuesday, but there were some delays. In south Georgia’s Lowndes County, two poll workers were in a car accident on the way to the county elections office with the memory cards from one precinct’s polling machines. A Lowndes official said a member of the local elections board went to the accident site to retrieve the memory cards so tabulations could continue.

Walker benefited during the campaign from nearly unmatched name recognition from his football career, yet was dogged by questions about his fitness for office and allegations of hypocrisy.

A multimillionaire businessman, Walker inflated his philanthropic activities and business achievements, including claiming that his company employed hundreds of people and grossed tens of millions of dollars in sales annually, even though records indicate he had eight employees and averaged about $1.5 million a year. He has suggested that he’s worked as a law enforcement officer and graduated college, though he has done neither.

He was accused by two former girlfriends of encouraging and paying for their abortions, despite supporting an outright national ban on the procedure during the campaign. He denied both women’s claims.

He was also forced to acknowledge during the campaign that he had fathered three children out of wedlock whom he had never before spoken about publicly. The mother of one of those children told The Daily Beast that Walker had not seen his young son since January 2016 and had to be taken to court for child support — in direct conflict with Walker’s years spent criticizing absentee fathers and his calls for Black men, in particular, to play an active role in their kids’ lives.

His ex-wife said Walker once held a gun to her head and threatened to kill her. He has never denied those specifics and wrote of his violent tendencies in a 2008 memoir that attributed the behavior to mental illness.

As a candidate, he sometimes mangled policy discussions, attributing the climate crisis to China’s “bad air” overtaking “good air” from the United States and arguing that diabetics could manage their health by “eating right,” a practice that isn’t enough for insulin-dependent diabetic patients.

On Tuesday, Atlanta voter Tom Callaway praised the Republican Party’s strength in Georgia and said he’d supported Kemp in the opening round of voting. But he said he cast his ballot for Warnock because he didn’t think “Herschel Walker has the credentials to be a senator.”

“I didn’t believe he had a statement of what he really believed in or had a campaign that made sense,” Callaway said.

Walker, meanwhile, sought to portray Warnock as a yes-man for Biden. He sometimes made the attack in especially personal terms, accusing Warnock of “being on his knees, begging” at the White House — a searing charge for a Black challenger to level against a Black senator about his relationship with a white president.

“My opponent is not a serious person,” Warnock said during the runoff campaign. “But the election is very serious. Don’t get those two things confused.”

Warnock promoted his Senate accomplishments, touting a provision he sponsored to cap insulin costs for Medicare patients. He hailed deals on infrastructure and maternal health care forged with Republican senators, mentioning those GOP colleagues more than he did Biden or other Washington Democrats.

Warnock distanced himself from Biden, whose approval ratings have lagged as inflation remains high. After the general election, Biden promised to help Warnock in any way he could, even if it meant staying away from Georgia. Bypassing the president, Warnock decided instead to campaign with former President Barack Obama in the days before the runoff election.

Walker, meanwhile, avoided campaigning with Trump until the campaign’s final day, when the pair conducted a conference call Monday with supporters.

Walker joins failed Senate nominees Dr. Mehmet Oz of Pennsylvania, Blake Masters of Arizona, Adam Laxalt of Nevada and Don Bolduc of New Hampshire as Trump loyalists who ultimately lost races that Republicans once thought they would — or at least could — win.

___

Associated Press writers Christina A. Cassidy and Ron Harris contributed to this report.

UN Document Shows Kenya Seeking To Close Somali Refugee Camp

In this Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2017 file photo, some of around 20 Somali refugee families wait to be flown to Kismayo in Somalia, under a voluntary repatriation programme, at the airstrip of Dadaab refugee camp, hosting over 230,000 inhabitants, in northern Kenya. An internal United Nations document obtained by The Associated Press on Friday, March 29, 2019 says Kenya again seeks to close the Dadaab camp that hosts more than 200,000 refugees from neighboring Somalia. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File)

BY TOM ODULA

NAIROBI, KENYA(AP) — An internal United Nations document says Kenya again seeks to close the Dadaab camp that hosts more than 200,000 refugees from neighboring Somalia and is one of the largest such camps in the world.

The U.N. refugee agency document obtained by The Associated Press says it “appreciates” Kenya’s suggestion, made on Feb. 12, to close the camp within six months. But it notes that security remains “precarious” in Somalia, where the al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab extremist group is based, and says returns must be voluntary.

Kenya calls the refugee camp near the Somalia border a source of insecurity. Some officials have argued that it has been used as a recruiting ground for al-Shabab and a base for launching attacks inside Kenya, but the officials have not provided conclusive proof.

A Kenyan court in 2017 blocked the closure of Dadaab, however, saying it was not safe for refugees to return home.

A senior government official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the issue, confirmed Kenya’s latest plan to close the camp.

The decision followed the deadly al-Shabab attack on a luxury hotel complex in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, in January, he said.

The senior official said plans for the Nairobi attack were made at the Dadaab camp. In the government’s previous attempt to close the camp, it said plans for the 2013 attack on the Westgate mall in Nairobi that left 67 people dead had been made in Dadaab, but it offered no proof.

The internal U.N. document says Kenya suggested alternatives including moving the camp to Kakuma, away from the Kenya-Somalia border. The document also notes Kenya’s national security concerns.

The first settlement in Dadaab was established in 1991, when refugees fleeing conflict in Somalia started to cross the border into Kenya, according to the U.N. refugee agency.

The document says that more than 82,000 refugees had been assisted to return to Somalia under voluntary repatriation as of the end of 2018.

Follow Africa news at https://twitter.com/AP_Africa

Attacks In Mali Kill 2 UN Peacekeepers, Wound More than 12

United Nations Mission Spokeswoman Myriam Dessables

BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — The United Nations mission in Mali says armed men attacked a U.N. camp outside of Timbuktu killing at least two peacekeepers and wounding at least a dozen others.

U.N. Mali mission spokeswoman Myriam Dessables said men in heavily armed vehicles drove up to the camp in the town of Ber, about 60 kilometers (37 miles) east of Timbuktu on Saturday. She said all the peacekeepers affected are from Burkina Faso.

Dessables said a U.N. peacekeeping mission control vehicle also ran over an explosive device Saturday in Konna in Mali’s central Mopti region, wounding four Togolese peacekeepers.

No group has claimed responsibility, but the attacks bear the marks of jihadi groups linked to al-Qaida which are very active in Mali’s northern and central regions.

The U.N. secretary-general condemned the attacks.

Jimmy Carter: To Beat Trump, Dems Cannot Scare Off Moderates

President Jimmy Carter takes the podium to answer questions from students during his annual town hall with Emory University freshman in the campus gym on Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2018, in Atlanta. (Curtis Compton/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP

BY BILL BARROW

ATLANTA (AP) — Former President Jimmy Carter sees little hope for the U.S. to change its human rights and environmental policies as long as Donald Trump is in the White House, but he has a warning for his fellow Democrats looking to oust the current administration: Don’t go too far to the left.

“Independents need to know they can invest their vote in the Democratic Party,” Carter said Tuesday during his annual report at his post-presidential center and library in Atlanta, where he offered caution about the political consequences should Democrats “move to a very liberal program, like universal health care.”

That’s delicate — and, Carter admitted, even contradictory — advice coming from the 93-year-old former president, and it underscores the complicated political calculations for Democrats as they prepare for the November midterms and look ahead to the 2020 presidential election.

“Rosie and I voted for Bernie Sanders in the past,” Carter noted.

He was referring to his wife, Rosalynn, and their support for the Vermont senator, an independent who identifies as a democratic socialist, over establishment favorite Hillary Clinton in the 2016 Democratic presidential primary. At another point, he pointed to California’s environmental policies — limits on carbon emissions, stiffer fuel-efficiency standards — as the model for combating climate change.

Still, Carter stressed, Democrats nationally must “appeal to independents” who are souring on the current administration.

Trump’s job approval rating, according to Gallup, has dipped to 40 percent, mostly because of declining support among independents.

Carter alluded to arguments from self-identified progressives that Democrats will sacrifice votes on the left if they don’t embrace the liberal base: “I don’t think any Democrat is going to vote against a Democratic nominee,” and he insisted that he’s not asking the left to sacrifice its goals, only to see that winning elections is necessary to accomplish any of them.

There is some historical irony in Carter’s analysis. He came to the White House in 1976 from the moderate wing of the Democratic Party, and he clashed with party liberals, drawing a spirited primary challenge in 1980 from Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy. Carter prevailed, but he was wounded, abandoned by Kennedy’s most liberal supporters and unable to win over independents who helped deliver a landslide for Republican Ronald Reagan.

Carter’s latest handicapping comes near the conclusion of a midterm primary season that has seen Democratic primary voters move the party to the left.

In some states and districts, that means nominating full-throated advocates of single-payer health care, a $15 minimum wage and abolishing or at least overhauling the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. In other races, it means nominees who back more cautious moves to the left, such as background checks before certain gun purchases, a “public option” health insurance plan to compete alongside private insurance policies, step raises for the minimum wage and an immigration overhaul that offers legal status to some immigrants in the country illegally.

Carter did not delve into those distinctions, instead offering a sweeping condemnation of his latest successor to remind Democrats of the stakes.

He denounced the administration’s latest environmental policy proposal to make it easier for energy companies to release methane gas that contributes to climate change. He singled out Trump’s policy of separating immigrant families at the border, including those seeking asylum.

“America is inherently committed to human rights, and I think in the future we will let that prevail,” Carter said, “but for the next two years, I can’t predict the imprisoned children are going to be any better off — unfortunately.”

Carter has previously criticized Trump for his repeated falsehoods, and he’s chided Trump for his hardline support for Israel over Palestinians. Yet Carter has found common ground with Trump on other foreign policy fronts, and did so again Tuesday.

While avoiding any mention of the special counsel’s investigation into whether Trump’s presidential campaign coordinated with Russia in the 2016 U.S. election, Carter said he has engaged for years with Russian President Vladimir Putin concerning the ongoing Syrian civil war.

“I have his email address,” Carter said, adding that he and Putin share the same Russian river as their favorite spot for salmon fishing. That friendship, Carter said, means when Russia and other nations hold multilateral talks about the Syrian conflict, “Quite often they invite the Carter Center. ... They do not invite the U.S. government.”

Carter also praised Trump for meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Carter repeated his frustrations with the last Democratic president, Barack Obama, for not engaging more directly with the insular Asian nation. Carter said he’s not sure Trump has made real progress yet with North Korea, but he endorsed calls for the U.S. to formally declare an end to the Korean War and normalize relations with Pyongyang.

“Let them be part of the community of nations,” he said. “I think that would be enough in itself to bring an end to the nuclear program in North Korea.”

Follow Barrow on Twitter at https://twitter.com/BillBarrowAP

US Will Reunite And Release Over 50 Immigrant Children

American Civil Liberties Union attorney Lee Gelernt addresses reporters after a hearing in San Diego, Calif., Monday, July 9, 2018. More than 50 immigrant children under age 5 will be reunited with their parents by Tuesday's court-ordered deadline for action by Trump administration, and the families will then be released into the U.S., a government attorney said Monday. That's only about half of the 100 or so toddlers covered by the order.

BY ELLIOT SPAGAT

SAN DIEGO (AP) — More than 50 immigrant children under age 5 will be reunited with their parents by Tuesday's court-ordered deadline for action by Trump administration, and the families will then be released into the U.S., a government attorney said Monday.

That's only about half of the 100 or so toddlers covered by the order. At a court hearing, Justice Department lawyer Sarah Fabian acknowledged the government wouldn't meet the deadline for all the children, citing a variety of reasons, including that the parents of some of the youngsters have already been deported.

Fabian said that 54 children will be joined with their parents by the end of Tuesday at locations across the country and that an additional five were undergoing final background checks. It was the first time the government indicated whether the parents and children would be released or detained together. They will be set free in the U.S. pending the outcome of their immigration cases, which can take several years.

Fabian didn't say why they were being released, but U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has little space to hold families. ICE has three family detention centers with room for about 3,000 people in all, and the places are already at or near capacity. The Trump administration is trying to line up thousands more beds at military bases.

American Civil Liberties Union attorney Lee Gelernt told reporters he was "both pleased and disappointed" with the government's progress toward meeting the deadline. "Tomorrow there will hopefully be more than 50 babies and toddlers reunited with their parents, and that is obviously an enormous victory," he said. But he said those who remain split from their parents are "in for a long process."

U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw ordered both sides back in court on Tuesday to give another update. The ACLU was drawing up a proposal to shorten the wait for the remaining children. Gelernt said some procedures — such as DNA testing, fingerprinting and requests for other information — were designed for releasing children to distant relatives, not to parents.

More than 2,000 children in all were separated from their parents by U.S. immigration authorities at the border this spring before President Donald Trump reversed course on June 20 amid an international outcry and said families should remain together.

Late last month, Sabraw, an appointee of Republican President George W. Bush, set a 14-day deadline to reunite children under 5 with their parents and a 30-day deadline for older children. The 30-day deadline is up July 26.

Monday's hearing set the stage for a dramatic day of reunifications on Tuesday across the country, though they are likely to occur largely outside public view. Fabian did not disclose where the reunions would take place.

As for most of the rest of the under-5 children who have yet to reunited with their families, Fabian said that their parents have already been released into the U.S., have been deported, or are behind bars on criminal charges.

One child has not been matched with a parent, Fabian said. The ACLU identified him as a 3-year-old boy. The hearing followed a feverish weekend of talks between the administration and the ACLU after the judge refused on Friday to grant a blanket extension to the deadline, saying instead that he would only consider certain exceptions.

Associated Press writer Nomaan Merchant in Houston contributed to this report.

Cambridge Analytica Played Roles In Multiple African Elections

BY SALEM SOLOMON

People walk past the building housing the offices of Cambridge Analytica in central London, March 20, 2018.

WASHINGTON (VOA) — Long before its controversial roles in the 2016 Brexit vote and the U.S. presidential election, Cambridge Analytica influenced elections in Africa.

The data mining company, under fire for its alleged use of 50 million Facebook accounts to shape campaign messages for then-candidate Donald Trump, also played a role in elections in Kenya and Nigeria, according to new reports.

The company’s first involvement in Africa dates to the general election in South Africa in 1994. That election marked the end of the apartheid era and the assent of Nelson Mandela to the presidency.

Widespread violence and deep-seated societal fractures had put the elections in jeopardy, Martin Plaut, a journalist and senior research fellow at the University of London's Institute of Commonwealth Studies, told VOA.

“The 1994 election in South Africa was on an absolute knife’s edge. There was no reason to believe that it would go ahead without severe loss of life,” Plaut said.

The Inkatha Freedom Party, which represented the Zulu population — South Africa’s largest ethnic group — had not reconciled with the African National Congress (ANC). Amid divisions that were stoked, in part, by the old apartheid regime, hundreds died ahead of the election, Plaut said.

A political party — unnamed, but most likely the ANC — hired Cambridge Analytica to mitigate election violence, according to the company's website. Their exact role in the election hasn’t been independently verified, but the violence subsided during and after the historic vote for Mandela and the ANC.

Involvement in Kenya, Nigeria

More recently, Cambridge Analytica worked with Kenya's ruling Jubilee Party ​— not to build consensus, but rather to exploit divisions to re-elect President Uhuru Kenyatta.

The firm designed a campaign strategy based on interviews with nearly 50,000 potential voters gathered over three months. Their work with the Jubilee Party had been widely suspected but unconfirmed.

But in an undercover video broadcast this week on Britain’s Channel 4 News, Cambridge Analytica executive Mark Turnbull boasted that the company and its parent, SCL Group, ran the Kenyatta campaign.

“We have rebranded the entire party twice, written the manifesto, done huge amounts of research, analysis, messaging. Then we’d write all the speeches and stage the whole thing. So, just about every element of his campaign,” Turnbull said.

Those elements included social media videos that played to the fears of the electorate, warning that a victory by opposition leader Raila Odinga would lead to disease, famine and terrorism.

Cambridge Analytica denied any involvement with the videos or negative campaigning in Kenya.

VOA reached out to both Cambridge Analytica in Washington and the SCL Group, but they did not respond to requests.

Similar allegations of malfeasance have emerged in Nigeria. The Guardianreported Wednesday that Israeli hackers provided Cambridge Analytica with President Muhammadu Buhari's personal emails.

Buhari was running against incumbent Goodluck Jonathan, and a Nigerian billionaire paid Cambridge Analytica $2.8 million to dig up damaging information about Buhari as part of an attack campaign, The Guardian reported. The emails included information about Buhari’s health and medical records, a source told The Guardian.

Since assuming office, Buhari has taken extended medical leaves in London, because of an undisclosed illness.

Precise analysis

Data analysis companies such as Cambridge Analytica provide information to governments and political parties, Plaut said, to influence “people in the middle” — those with moderate views who can be persuaded to join a side through emotional appeals.

These companies analyze precisely who to target and craft messages that play on hopes and fears, not facts, according to Plaut.

Social media platforms such as Facebook and WhatsApp, which Facebook bought in 2014, provide an in-depth view into people's likes and dislikes —from which psychological profiles can be built and exploited to changing behavior through tailored messaging.

Julie Owono, executive director of Internet Without Borders, a group that advocates for online freedom and privacy, told VOA's French to Africa service that her organization has been warning about the dangers of letting companies like Facebook collect the personal data of billions of people around the world.

“Since 2010, we've been saying that countries with low-to-nil data protection are testing ground for worst practices by companies and governments,” Owono tweeted.

The ANC, South Africa’s ruling political party since the end of apartheid, has used similar techniques through its own data mining, according to Plaut. Through billboards along the highways of Johannesburg and fake social media posts, they have invested millions of dollars in messages that advance their agenda, regardless of truth.

‘Open to manipulation’

African voters, Plaut said, “are as open to manipulation as any voter in the world.” They’re a sophisticated electorate, Plaut said, that knows politicians craft and distort messages to suit their needs. But knowledge doesn’t inoculate people against the effects of disinformation.

“Everybody is open to manipulation,” Plaut said.

In Kenya, political advertisements played to fears surrounding terrorist group Al-Shabab and disease outbreaks. Persuasive messages about safety and health influenced an unknown number of voters, but enough to make an impact, Plaut acknowledged.

African ties

The role of data mining in Africa hasn’t been confined to elections.

The SCL Group has extensive ties across Africa, with past projects spanning from Libya to Rwanda, and from South Sudan and Somalia all the way to Ghana, according to their website.

SCL says its mission is to be “the premier provider of data analytics and strategy for behavior change.” The kinds of behaviors they seek to influence shift, depending on their clients and partners — of whom there are many.

In Rwanda, SCL partnered with World Vision, a global Christian aid organization, to conduct research on community attitudes about nutrition and sanitation. In South Sudan, SCL worked with the United Nations Development Group to conduct a survey on the Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration Program.

SCL partnered with the Ghanaian Ministry of Health, along with a major British construction company, to research the country's attitudes toward the health care system.

In Somalia, SCL researched the tenability of the nationwide Somtelcom telephone network. The group also interviewed nearly 3,000 Libyans to develop policy recommendations to help the government address instability countrywide.

VOA reached out to John Apea, who is listed on SCL’s website as its special adviser for SCL Ghana. Apea said he no longer works with SCL and would not provide additional information about the office’s operations in the country.

Safeguarding democracy

The growth of digital media across Africa will present new opportunities to engage in sophisticated campaigns to influence not just voters but also policymakers and governments.

The solution, according to Plaut, is international oversight.

“The African Union should be much more robust in insisting on its observers going to see elections and spending a good deal of time there, not just five minutes before the vote takes place,” Plaut said.

In-depth reports filed months in advance of elections will give the public the tools they need to combat propaganda with a transparent account of their governments’ efforts to ensure a free and fair process.

Plaut anticipates closer scrutiny of the democratic process will lead to pushback and complaints of interference. Nonetheless, the efforts are worth it, he said.

“The African Union, as the guardian of democracy in the continent, has a duty to go out there and really push for democracy throughout the continent,” Plaut said.

In Egypt, Police arrest two journalists for 'filming without a license'

COMMITTEE TO PROTECT JOURNALISTS

Stormy weather hits the Egyptian port city of Alexandria in January 2018. Police in the city are detaining two journalists for allegedly filming without a license. (AFP/Stringer)


WASHINGTON (CPJ) --The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on Egyptian authorities to release reporter Mai El-Sabagh and cameraman Ahmad Mustafa, of the local news website Raseef22, who were arrested in Alexandria on February 28.

Police in the city's al-Attarin neighborhood arrested the journalists for allegedly filming without a license, according to statements and social media updates from the journalists' family members and lawyers. At the time of their arrest, the journalists were reporting a story about a tram.

Mohamed Abdelaziz, the executive manager of the local human rights group ‎Al-Haqanya,‎ wrote on his personal Facebook page today that the journalists are also under investigation for possessing "photographic tools" that would spread false news, and other national security charges including being members of the banned April 6 youth organization.

Journalists working in Egypt do not require a license to report or film, according to CPJ research

"Egyptian authorities must end their witch-hunt against the press and immediately release Mai El-Sabagh and Ahmad Mustafa," said CPJ Middle East and North Africa Coordinator Sherif Mansour. "Reporting any story of public interest requires no security approval and certainly does not justify detention."

The independent news website Mada Masr cited a lawyer for the journalists as saying that prosecutors today reviewed the journalists' footage and questioned them about their reporting and for whom they work.

Abdelaziz said on Facebook that he and several lawyers are working to secure the journalists' release and that the decision is in the hands of the al-Attarin area prosecutor.

Egypt's prosecutor general's office did not immediately respond to CPJ's request for comment.

Family members, colleagues, and press freedom advocates decried the arrest on social media. El-Sabbagh's work on Raseef22 featured reports on women's rights. The website also covers local and social issues.

Raseef22 did not immediately respond to CPJ's request for comment sent via Facebook messenger.

Egyptian authorities have been ratcheting up their rhetoric against media outlets. Yesterday, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi said that media defaming the military or police are committing treason, Reuters reported. On February 28, the prosecutor general, Nabil Sadiq, ordered state prosecutors to monitor media reports and take action against any outlets publishing "false news, [false] statements, and rumors," The Associated Press and Reuters reported. Sadiq urged Egyptian media regulatory bodies to report alleged irregularities in news reports to prosecutors, the news agencies said.

At least 20 journalists were behind bars in Egypt as of December 1, 2017, according to CPJ's prison census, with at least seven facing charges of spreading "false news."

Saudi: Hajj Free Of Ebola Amid Protective Measures

Thousands of Muslim pilgrims make their way to throw stones at a pillar, symbolizing the stoning of Satan during the annual pilgrimage, known as the hajj, outside of Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

MINA, SAUDI ARABIA (AP) — Saudi Arabia's acting health minister said Monday that this year's hajj has been free of Ebola and other contagious diseases because of measures taken by the kingdom to protect more than 2 million pilgrims who took part in the annual Islamic pilgrimage.

The hajj, which lasts around five days, ends Monday. Pilgrims began leaving the desert tent city of Mina, where they were taking part in the ritual of the stoning of the devil, one of the last rites of the hajj. Many headed back to Mecca, ending the hajj as they started it by circling the cube-shaped Kaaba seven times.

There were concerns regarding Saudi Arabia's readiness to ensure a healthy hajj for pilgrims after the kingdom became the epicenter for the potentially fatal Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, or MERS. Several health workers and doctors died of that coronavirus in Saudi Arabia earlier this year, raising alarm about the safety of hospitals.

Acting Health Minister Adel Faqih told reporters that the kingdom deployed thousands of health workers during the hajj and performed data screening on pilgrims upon arrival to the kingdom as a precaution.

"I am pleased to announce that the hajj ... was free of epidemic diseases. May God accept the pilgrimage of our guests and ensure that they enjoy good health and wellness," Faqih said. Faqih told The Associated Press on the sidelines of the press conference that the kingdom's ban on issuing visas to people from Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea would remain in place for the foreseeable future. The measure affects some 7,400 would-be pilgrims from the west African countries, which have been the hardest hit by the virus.

"That will continue until further notice until we are comfortable that it is not anymore an epidemic in these countries," Faqih said. The World Health Organization estimates that Ebola has killed more than 3,400 people.

President Jonathan Spends U.S.$60,000 on CNN Interview

By Ini Ekott, All Africa Global Media 

Davos, Switzerland: 43rd World Economic Summit: Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, speaks during a TV debate De-risking Africa. AP Photo

As the dust over President Goodluck Jonathan's embarrassing outing in a recent CNN interview is yet to settle, PREMIUM TIMES can report that the presidency actually spends thousands of dollars in public funds to arrange interviews with foreign media outlets.

Mr. Jonathan's penchant for foreign media has fetched him criticism, with citizens often bashing him for what they consider his unpresidential poise and bad grammar on camera.

Commentators on social media ranked his performance in the interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour two weeks ago amongst the president's worst yet.

While this newspaper is unable to determine how much was spent in procuring the late January CNN and Aljazeera interviews with Mr. Jonathan, we are in possession of documents suggesting that the presidency has retained the services of an American lobbying firm, Fleshman-Hillard Inc. to help arrange these interviews.

The firm, which reports to the presidency through Enyi Odigbo, Chairman of Lagos-based advertising and public relations company, Caser's Group, was hired in 2010, without any formal agreement and budget.

The lobbying firm submits bills to the presidency as it pleases.

In at least one of its bills seen by PREMIUM TIMES, the company requested $59, 200 from the Nigerian government for arranging an interview for President Jonathan with the CNN Nigerian affiliate in late 2010.

The interview, anchored by Isha Sesay, held in Aso Rock in Abuja on September 30, 2010, in preparation for the Golden Jubilee Celebration of Nigeria Independence.

Fleshman-Hillard was also to contact other foreign media outlets such as Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Reuters as Mr. Jonathan planned at the time to announce his intention to run for president in the 2011 presidential election.

But the firm was only able to deliver on the CNN interview. It was unable to get interviews for the president on the other platforms.

It is not known why the President needed to hire a lobbyist to procure interviews for him even when he has a Reuben Abati, a Doyin Okupe, and a Reno Omokri among his numerous media aides.

Since taking office in early 2010, some of the president's key decisions and pronouncements have been made public via foreign outlets, mainly the CNN.

Mr. Jonathan delivered his first public comments on late President Umaru Yar' Adua's health, in an interview with Ms. Amanpour in 2010, where he spoke of how the ailing president's family blocked him from seeing Mr. Yar'adua.

He would not force himself to see Mr. Yar'adua, he said at the time.

Regardless of the channel through which he opened up, the interview was well-received as the president also spoke on governance, promising improved electricity supply (which he enjoys calling POWER) and security.

Mr. Jonathan has yet to grant exclusive interviews to Nigerian channels. The closest to that is the occasional presidential media chat on the state-run Nigerian Television Authority.

But the president's preference for the foreign networks has not gone without knocks, with critics often rebuking him for his unassertive demeanor before the camera, and poor quality responses to questions.

Critics say the last interview was even worse.

Fleshman-Hillard was also mandated to hire a trainer to work on the president, to help improve his delivery. The firm was yet to deliver on that as at the time the document seen by this newspaper was filed.

A presidency source said the presidency has continued to retain the company for the foreign interview arrangement.

But Fleshman-Hillard could not be reached for comments Friday. Sarah Vellozi, who was the company's contact for the project was not available on her desk the two times PREMIUM TIMES called her New York office. She is yet to return the calls.

Presidential spokesperson could not also be reached for comments.