What's Next After Mueller? Lawsuits, Investigations And More

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., stands beside a chart during a newss conference following the back-to-back hearings with former special counsel Robert Mueller who testified about his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, July 24, 2019. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

BY MARY CLARE JALONICK

WASHINGTON (AP) — After months of anticipation, Congress finally heard testimony from former special counsel Robert Mueller. So what now?

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Mueller’s appearance was “a crossing of a threshold,” raising public awareness of what Mueller found. And Democrats after the hearing said they had clearly laid out the facts about the Mueller report, which did not find a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia but detailed extensive Russian intervention in the 2016 election. Mueller also said in the report that he couldn’t clear President Donald Trump on obstruction of justice.

But it remains to be seen how the testimony will affect public views of Trump’s presidency and the push for impeachment. Mueller said some of the things that Democrats wanted him to say — including a clear dismissal of Trump’s claims of total exoneration — but he declined to answer many of their questions, and he spoke haltingly at times. Trump claimed victory, saying Mueller did “a horrible job.”

Democrats say they will continue to hold Trump to account. A look at the ways they will try to do that in the coming months:

INVESTIGATIONS CONTINUE

Democrats have struggled to obtain testimony from some of the most crucial figures in Mueller’s report, including former White House counsel Donald McGahn. And the few people they have interviewed, such as former White House aide Hope Hicks, have failed to give them new information beyond what’s in Mueller’s report.

But Democrats have multiple investigations of the president ongoing that don’t require cooperation from the White House or Justice Department. The House intelligence and Financial Services committees are probing Trump’s finances, an area that Mueller appears to have avoided. And the intelligence panel is investigating Trump’s negotiations to build a Trump Tower in Moscow before the campaign.

THEIR DAY IN COURT

To obtain the testimony from McGahn and others, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler said Wednesday that his panel will file lawsuits this week.

Democrats will seek to obtain secret grand jury material from Mueller’s report that has so far been withheld from Congress by the Justice Department. They will also try to force McGahn to provide documents and testimony.

As part of the suits, the House is expected to challenge the White House’s claim of “absolute immunity,” which has been used to block McGahn and others who worked in the White House from testifying.

While going to court can be a lengthy process, Democrats believe it will be their best chance of obtaining information after Trump declared he would fight “all of the subpoenas.”

CALLS FOR AN IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY

Almost 90 House Democrats have called for an impeachment inquiry, and more are certain after Mueller’s testimony. Those who support opening proceedings say it would bolster Democrats’ court cases and show the American people that they are moving decisively to challenge what they see as Trump’s egregious behavior.

But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi isn’t there, not yet. And a majority of the caucus is siding with her, for now.

Pelosi said Wednesday that she wants “the strongest possible hand” by waiting to see what happens in court.

AUGUST RECESS

The House is expected to leave town for a five-week August recess on Friday, so some of the Democrats’ efforts will be on hold until September.

During that time, they’ll be at home listening to their constituents and judging how urgently voters want them to act. Those conversations and town halls could inform next steps in the fall.

Still, not everyone will be taking a break. Rhode Island Rep. David Cicilline said Wednesday that members might fly back in August if witnesses are available for testimony. He said the Judiciary panel understands “the urgency of the moment and are prepared to do whatever is necessary to secure the attendance of witnesses and documents.”

ELECTION SECURITY

Democrats in both the House and the Senate want to move forward with legislation to make elections more secure after Mueller extensively detailed Russian interference.

House Democrats have passed legislation to secure state election systems and try to prevent foreign meddling, but bipartisan legislation in the Senate has stalled. Democrats tried to bring up an election security bill in the Senate on Wednesday, but Republicans objected.

JUSTICE DEPARTMENT REVIEWS

The Justice Department isn’t done with its own investigations into what happened before the 2016 election.

There are two ongoing reviews into the origins of the Russia probe that Mueller eventually took over — one being conducted by the Justice Department’s inspector general and another by U.S. Attorney John Durham, who was appointed by Attorney General William Barr to examine surveillance methods used by the Justice Department.

Republicans have said the department, then led by Obama administration officials, was biased against Trump. They are eagerly anticipating the results of those probes.

REPUBLICANS SAY IT’S OVER

Republicans say that nothing should be next, at least when it comes to investigations of the president. They have strongly defended Trump, who has called Mueller’s probe a hoax, and have said the country wants to move on.

“Today was day we closed the book on this investigation,” said House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy after Mueller’s hearing.

Georgia Rep. Doug Collins, the top Republican on the Judiciary panel, said at the hearing that “we’ve had the truth for months — no American conspired to throw our elections.”

Said Collins: “What we need today is to let that truth bring us confidence and closure.”

Associated Press writer Matthew Daly contributed to this report.

Hundreds Of US Returnees Dumped In Mexico's Monterrey

In this July 17, 2019 photo, a United States Customs and Border Protection Officer checks the documents of migrants, before being taken to apply for asylum in the United States, on the International Bridge 1 in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. Mexico has received some 20,000 asylum seekers returned to await U.S. immigration court dates under the program colloquially known as "remain in Mexico." But there had been no sign of such large-scale moving of people away from the border before now, after the program expanded to Nuevo Laredo in violence- and cartel-plagued Tamaulipas, a state where the U.S. State Department warns against all travel due to kidnappings and other crime. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

BY MARIA VERZA

MONTERREY, MEXICO (AP) — The bus carrying dozens of Central Americans from the Texas border arrived in this northern Mexican city late at night and pulled up next to the station. Men and women disembarked with children in their arms or staggering sleepily by their sides, looked around fearfully and wondered what to do.

They had thought they were being taken to a shelter where they could live, look for work and go to school. Instead they found themselves in a bustling metropolis of over 4 million, dropped off on a street across from sleazy nightclubs and cabarets with signs advertising for “dancers.”

The Associated Press witnessed multiple such busloads in recent days carrying at least 450 Hondurans, Guatemalans and Salvadorans from Nuevo Laredo, across from Laredo, Texas, to Monterrey, where they are left to fend for themselves with no support on housing, work or schooling for children, who appear to make up about half the group.

Mexico has received some 20,000 asylum seekers returned to await U.S. immigration court dates under the program colloquially known as “remain in Mexico.” But there had been no sign of such large-scale moving of people away from the border before now, after the program expanded to Nuevo Laredo in violence- and cartel-plagued Tamaulipas, a state where the U.S. State Department warns against all travel due to kidnappings and other crime.

In response to a request for comment, the National Immigration Institute, or INM for its initials in Spanish, said in a two-paragraph statement that the agency cooperates with consular authorities and all levels of government to attend to returnees. It said Mexico abides by international law and is working to upgrade shelters and immigration facilities “to improve the conditions in which migrants await their processes in national territory.” The INM did not address specific questions about the AP’s findings.

Maximiliano Reyes, deputy foreign relations secretary, acknowledged last week that migrants were being removed from Nuevo Laredo and said it was for their own safety. He did not explain why they were dropped off in Monterrey or give further details.

“It’s clearly important to move people out of very dangerous Mexican border towns,” said Maureen Meyer, an immigration expert at the Washington Office on Latin America, which advocates for human rights in the region. “But simply busing them somewhere else without any guidance on what’s awaiting them and without having the services available to house asylum seekers and support them, the Mexican government’s really exposing them to further risk.”

This account is based on in-person interviews with more than 20 migrants who made the two-hour, 130-mile (220-kilometer) journey south to the industrial city in the week since the new practice began.

Unlike asylum seekers who wait in line for months to file claims in the U.S. and are then sent back, all those taken to Monterrey who spoke with the AP said they had crossed illegally and spent several days in U.S. detention centers before being returned with a court date. Some said they had not asked for asylum but rather to be returned to their home countries, but were told that going to Mexico or continued detention were the only options.

“I don’t know why they gave me this (court date) paper when I didn’t ask for it,” said Antonio Herrera, a Honduran policeman, explaining that he had asked U.S. immigration to deport him because his 7-year-old daughter was ill.

Javier Ochoa, who was with his 16-year-old son, did try to request asylum because the boy would be in danger back home for his participation in anti-government protests. He said he was not allowed to make his case.

“They didn’t interview us,” Ochoa said. “Just sign, like it or not.”

U.S. authorities, those interviewed agreed, told them Mexico would offer them work, schooling and health care while they waited. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security did not respond to requests for comment.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has promised to provide those things, but the reality back in Nuevo Laredo turned out to be different.

The returnees were met at the crossing by waiting Mexican immigration officials who handed them documents presumably allowing them to work and move about the country. Without further explanation they were then loaded at an immigration station parking lot onto buses with the logos of private companies with charter contracts with the INM.

The migrants were not forced to make the journey but said they didn’t see any other option. They know the dangers that lurk in Tamaulipas, where organized crime groups have been known to extort, kidnap and kill people like them. In 2010, 72 were massacred in the town of San Fernando.

In Monterrey they found a big, unfamiliar city where, unbeknownst to them, shelters were already overflowing, and it quickly became clear they’d have to make do as best as they could.

Some asked the bus driver for advice on where to go. Others asked locals to borrow cellphones to beseech relatives for money or call their “coyotes,” or smugglers, to try to cross illegally again into the U.S.

“They have abandoned us here to get rid of us,” said Jazmin Desir, sitting on the floor of the bus terminal surrounded by her four sleeping children. The stylist and her husband, a mechanic, were waiting for relatives to send money for them to get back to Honduras, and they figured it would take two years to pay off the debt they took on to pay their coyote.

Within a half-hour only a handful remained at the terminal. The rest had melted away into the city.

Two days later, with money wired from relatives, a group hired a bus to take them to the southern city of Tapachula, near Guatemala. From there they would make their way home — essentially self-deporting at their own expense, $100 each for the 1,000-mile (1,700-kilometer) journey.

“After suffering so much, this is what we long for,” said Neftalí Anael Cantillana, a Honduran teacher who was traveling with her 16-year-old son.

At least one other group arranged a similar trip according to Jorge Pérez, the driver who took them.

López Obrador’s government did not mention the busings Monday when it presented a report halfway into a 90-day period during which it has agreed to reduce irregular transmigration as part of a deal to head off threatened U.S. tariffs.

The flow has fallen by 36% since, according to U.S. Border Patrol detention figures, and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo praised Mexico during a visit Sunday. Foreign Relations Secretary Marcelo Ebrard said Mexico is fulfilling its commitment to human rights.

But critics assert that the country has become a de facto dumping ground for people the Trump administration is eager to remove from U.S. soil.

“What the United States wants is to get rid of the Central Americans in a legal way, and it does so by handing them those documents,” said Aarón Méndez, director of the Amar shelter in Nuevo Laredo.

Officials in the communities involved say they’re overwhelmed and in the dark

José Martín Carmona, head of Tamaulipas’ governmental Institute for Migrants, acknowledged that the state had refused to receive more migrants, saying it lacks resources.

But he said he was unaware of the buses to Monterrey, even though they depart less than a mile (kilometer) from his offices: “Right now we have zero communication with the INM,” Carmona said.

Those arriving in Monterrey feel like they’ve been lied to and abandoned by everyone — except, some said, by their coyotes who held up their end of the bargain.

The Mexican government says it is studying setting up makeshift shelters at warehouses and other properties to handle returnees to Nuevo Laredo. Meanwhile “remain in Mexico” has gone into effect for another Tamaulipas border city: Matamoros, across from Brownsville, Texas.

Meyer said the busing policy also raises concerns about how asylum seekers will be able to access U.S. lawyers to assist with their claims, and who is going to make sure they can get back to Nuevo Laredo for their U.S. appointments, which are for September and October.

Julio Hernández, who was beaten and threatened in Guatemala for refusing extortion demands by gang members, is one who’s getting by. Left in Monterrey last week, he found work at a food stand and is not giving up on U.S. asylum.

But on Wednesday he said he was thinking of sending his wife and two kids home: “It’s very dangerous here too, and I don’t want to put them at risk.”

“I’ll stay here,” Hernández said, “and keep fighting.”

Associated Press video journalists Juan Antonio Calderón in Nuevo Laredo and Peter Orsi in Mexico City contributed to this report.

Puerto Rico's Incoming Governor Faces Crisis, Wary Populace

In this Jan. 16, 2018 file photo, then Puerto Rico Justice Secretary Wanda Vazquez answers reporters' questions, in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Vazquez is to become Puerto Rico's new Governor after Gov. Ricardo Rossello said, Wednesday, July 24, 2019, that he is resigning Aug. 2 after weeks of protests over leaked obscene, misogynistic online chats. (AP Photo/Carlos Giusti, File)

BY DANCIA COTO

SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO (AP) — The woman set to become Puerto Rico’s next governor has been criticized for her reluctance to confront problems in Gov. Ricardo Rosselló’s administration during her nearly two years as the territory’s top law enforcement official.

That criticism is likely to complicate Justice Secretary Wanda Vázquez’s ability to complete Rosselló’s term in the face of widespread public anger toward the departing governor and some of his male aides over a leaked online chat in which they mocked their constituents and made insulting remarks about women.

Vázquez, a 59-year-old former prosecutor, has limited experience in leading government agencies, let alone an entire administration.

Early Thursday, she issued a statement shortly after Rosselló announced his resignation.

“I understand he made the right decision, for the good of both his family and for Puerto Rico,” she said. “We will be working together to have a responsible and transparent transition process.”

Before she was sworn in as justice secretary in January 2017, Vázquez worked as a district attorney for two decades at the island’s justice department and in 2010 was appointed director of the Office for Women’s Rights.

After she became secretary, she was criticized by some for not being aggressive enough in pursuing corruption investigations involving members of her pro-statehood New Progressive Party, of which Rosselló also is a member.

Critics also said Vázquez, who once handled domestic and sexual abuse cases as a prosecutor, did not prioritize gender violence cases as secretary.

Nearly two years after she became justice secretary, Vázquez became embroiled in a high-profile court case that turned some Puerto Ricans against her.

Last November, the Office of Government Ethics said it had received a complaint about possible ethical violations involving Vázquez, who was accused of intervening in a case involving a suspect charged with stealing government property at a home where Vázquez’s daughter lived.

Vázquez appeared in court to face charges that included two violations of a local government ethics law. In December, a judge found there was no evidence to arrest her.

Vázquez becomes Puerto Rico’s second female governor. Under the island’s constitution, the secretary of state is first in line to take over if the governor resigns. But Secretary of State Luis Rivera Marín, one of the 12 men who took part in the chat, resigned July 13 in the uproar over the leak.

Shortly after the 889-page chat was leaked, Vázquez issued a statement stating she was “profoundly affected and saddened” by the remarks.

“I recognize that the frustrations and pressures of the day-to-day can be expressed in an incorrect way within the privacy of a friendship,” she said. “But I have to express the deep regret this causes me as a woman, as a mother, as a professional and as a citizen of this beautiful island.”

Earlier this month, Vázquez vowed to cooperate with U.S. authorities to fight corruption and oust all those accused of wrongdoing after federal agents arrested the island’s education secretary, Julia Keleher, and other government officials on corruption charges.

Puerto Rico's Governor To Quit Aug. 2 In Face Of Protests

People celebrate outside the governor's mansion La Fortaleza, after Gov. Ricardo Rossello announced that he is resigning Aug. 2 after weeks of protests over leaked obscene, misogynistic online chats, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Wednesday, July 24, 2019. (AP Photo/Dennis M. Rivera Pichardo)

BY DANCIA COTO

SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO (AP) — Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló announced late Wednesday that he will resign Aug. 2, conceding power after nearly two weeks of furious protests and political upheaval touched off by a leak of crude and insulting chat messages between him and his top advisers.

A crowd of thousands outside the governor’s mansion in Old San Juan erupted into cheers and singing after Rosselló’s announcement on Facebook just before midnight.

“My only priority has been the transformation of our island and the well-being of our people,” a shaken-looking Rosselló said in an address that listed his accomplishments before making clear he was resigning. Addressing the protests, Rosselló said, “The demands have been overwhelming and I’ve received them with highest degree of humility.”

The 40-year-old son of a former governor, Rosselló became the first chief executive to resign in the modern history of Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory of more than 3 million American citizens without full representation in Congress or the right to vote for president.

Justice Secretary Wanda Vázquez will assume the post less than halfway through Rosselló’s four-year term, becoming Puerto Rico’s second female governor.

“It’s historic, but we have to be cautious. What will happen beyond this? There are concerns, but there is also hope,” designer Jalil Serrano said. Gesturing to the young crowd outside the mansion, he said, “This belongs to them.”

Daniel López, a businessman also in the protest, wiped tears from his eyes as people leaped into the air, beat drums, waved flags, hugged and cried, “We did it!”

“This is for the future of my family,” López said. “It’s big, what’s happened.”

Rosselló’s announcement came after a bizarre, hours-long standoff unfolded in colonial Old San Juan, as the governor pledged to deliver a message to the people of Puerto Rico, then passed hour after hour in unexplained silence while thousands of protesters chanted demands for his resignation.

An announcement was first expected at 5 p.m., then finally came less than a half-hour before midnight.

“Despite expecting to service the term that the people democratically elected me to, today I feel that continuing in this position represents a threat to the success we have achieved,” Rosselló said.

Puerto Rico Rep. Gabriel Rodríguez, a member of Rosselló’s pro-statehood party, told The Associated Press that legislators had initially agreed to set aside the impeachment process and give the governor until 5 p.m. to announce that he was going to resign. The president of Puerto Rico’s House of Representatives issued the embattled governor an ultimatum: Either take the best decision for a U.S. territory demanding his resignation or face an impeachment process.

At one point, dozens of officers in full riot gear marched out of the governor’s mansion toward protesters.

“We want peace, and they want war!” the crowd yelled as many became increasingly frustrated.

Hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans have been outraged by the online chats between Rosselló and his advisers, and have protested for nearly two weeks demanding his resignation.

The chat participants discussed the awarding of government contracts in ways that some observers called potentially illegal. They also insulted women and mocked constituents, including victims of Hurricane Maria. Rosselló called a female politician a “whore,” referred to another as a “daughter of a bitch,” and made fun of an obese man with whom he posed in a photo.

On Tuesday, officials announced that a Puerto Rico judge had issued search warrants for the cellphones of government officials involved in the chat as part of an investigation. One of the search warrants said officials used the chat to transmit official and confidential information to private citizens in potential violation of ethics laws.

More than a dozen government officials have resigned since the chat was leaked earlier this month, including Rosselló confidant and chief of staff Ricardo Llerandi, former Secretary of State Luis Rivera Marín and former chief financial officer Christian Sobrino, who also held five other positions.

The obscenity-laced online messages involving the governor and 11 other men infuriated Puerto Ricans already frustrated with corruption, mismanagement, economic crisis and the sluggish recovery from Hurricane Maria nearly two years ago.

In reaction, tens of thousands took to the streets to demand Rosselló’s resignation in Puerto Rico’s biggest demonstrations since the protests that put an end to U.S. Navy training on the island of Vieques more than 15 years ago.

Under Puerto Rico’s constitution, the secretary of state would normally assume the governorship, but since Secretary of State Luis Rivera Marín became one of more than a dozen officials to resign in the uproar over the leak, leadership of the island falls to Vázquez.

Over the weekend, Rosselló posted a video on Facebook in which he announced he would not seek re-election in 2020 or continue as head of his pro-statehood political party, but his refusal to resign further angered Puerto Ricans and led to a colossal demonstration Monday on one of the capital’s main highways.

Pressure on Rosselló to step down included calls from Puerto Rico music stars Ricky Martin, Bad Bunny and Residente and a string of U.S. politicians, including members of Congress from both parties and several Democratic presidential candidates.

The upheaval comes as the island tries to restructure part of $70 billion in debt and cope with a 13-year recession that has led to an exodus of nearly half a million people to the U.S. mainland in the past decade. Many Puerto Ricans are resentful over the resulting pension cuts, school closings and other austerity measures.

The economic crisis is in part a result of previous administrations — including that of Rosselló’s father, Pedro — that overspent, overestimated revenue and borrowed millions as the island sank deeper into debt. In 2017, Puerto Rico filed for the equivalent of bankruptcy. Congress approved a financial package, and a federal board is overseeing the island’s finances.

An MIT graduate with a doctorate in genetics, Rosselló spent much of his time as governor fighting austerity measures and seeking federal funds after Maria devastated the island in September 2017, causing thousands of deaths and more than $100 billion in damage.

Nearly two years later, some 30,000 homes still have tarp roofs, power outages remain common, and Puerto Rico has received less than a third of the roughly $40 billion pledged by the U.S. government. Rosselló complained earlier this year of unfair treatment and a hostile attitude from some U.S. officials.

The public’s confidence has also been rocked by a recent string of corruption arrests involving such figures as the island’s former education secretary and the one-time chief of health services.

Associated Press writers Mariela Santos in San Juan and Michael Weissenstein in Havana contributed to this report.

Sweeping The Bush, Protecting The land - The All-Female Anti-Poaching Unit Quashing Poaching

Image by Julia Gunther via United Nations Environment

BY UN ENVIRONMENTAL RIGHTS AND GOVERNANCE

The black mamba is the most venomous snake in sub-Saharan Africa. One bite can kill a person in just a few hours. It is also the namesake of the all-female anti-poaching unit that operates in the 56,000-acre private Balule Nature Reserve at Kruger National Park in South Africa.

The name choice represents “the strength of the mambas, and their quick reactions,” said Valeria van der Westhuizen, communications manager for the Mambas. “Strength of the woman in South Africa, strength of the Mamba.” (Not sure why you should quote me, as it is not my interview).

The Black Mambas were founded in 2013 and comprise of 14 women largely from the Phalaborwa community that resides near the park. Prior to the group’s formation, poaching for rhino horn and bushmeat in the reserve was rampant, with poachers—many who came from the local communities—fetching up to US$26,000 for one horn. Leitah Mkhabela, the supervisor Mamba, said that a reason for the nearby communities’ involvement was that they didn’t feel the wildlife belonged to them, as most had never had a chance to even see the animals. Poaching was a way to make a lot of money, quickly.

This is why one of the Mambas’ mandates is to educate on the importance of conservation as well as gather information from locals about poachers.

“The community needs to benefit from the reserves that are near,” said Mkhabela, highlighting a wider ongoing discussion across Africa on protected areas. “If the game reserves can benefit the local communities by providing freshwater sources or giving bursaries for higher education, we are going to see a decrease in rhino and bushmeat poaching.”

Through the Bush Babies Environmental Education Program, the Mambas take members, especially children, from the communities to the reserve to see the wild animals. “There are some people who live just 10 km from the reserve, but have never seen a rhino, lion or elephant in their life,” said Mkhabela.

Aside from educating the local communities, the Black Mambas track 126 km of the park’s border every day, looking for snare traps, inspecting the electric border fence and searching cars. Their work has reduced poaching in the reserve by 75 per cent.

“In 2013 when this project started, we used to come back from sweeps with 80 fresh snares,” said Mkhabela. “Today if we sweep the whole area we might come back with just five, some of which are old.”

Cecilia Njenga, head of UN Environment Programme South Africa said that the Black Mambas highlighted the importance and effectiveness of local knowledge and commitment, crucial to combatting the illegal wildlife trade.

“The Black Mambas are an inspiration not only locally, but across the world to all those working to eliminate the scourge of the illegal wildlife trade,” said Njenga. “We recognize the rapid and impressive impact they have made, and the courage required to accomplish it.”

While the rewards of protecting wild animals is unparalleled, Mkhabela says the job isn’t for everyone. With salaries being minimal, at roughly US$224 per month, living conditions rough, and the dangers from poachers always present, it takes guts to be a ranger.

“I have to put my life at risk every day, making sure that South Africa’s iconic wildlife is safe,” said Mkhabela.

For example, in 2017, Mkhabela and two other Mambas were staging an ambush in Balule when three poachers, whom they were pursuing, spotted them due to a full moon that evening. The women—who patrol unarmed—were lucky enough to escape unscathed after finding a blown-out section of the park’s electric fence, which an elephant had brought down earlier that day.

But for Mkhabela the risks are worth it. She says that being women and mothers, the Mambas understand what it means to care and protect.

“We need to speak for the animals because if we don't speak for them, nobody will speak for them. We have to fight for them, because if we don't fight for them, there's nobody that will fight for them. We know what love is,” she said.

In 2015, the Black Mambas were bestowed with UN Environment’s Champion of the Earth lifetime achievement award. Since winning, Mkhabela says that the anti-poaching unit has received even more admiration from the communities than previously, and this has given the Mambas confidence in the value of what they are doing.

Mkhabela says that there are another 10 women currently in training to become Mambas and she hopes the project will grow further and receive more funding.

“I'd like to see many more girls from the community getting jobs as rangers,” she said. “We need the Black Mambas project to continue. We cannot let the poachers win.”

World Ranger Day, an initiative of the International Ranger Federation, is on 31 July to celebrate the work rangers do to protect the planet’s biodiversity and commemorate those killed in the line of duty.

How China’s Africa Alliance Is Shifting World Order

Image via IPS

BY DANIEL YANG

UNITED NATIONS,  (IPS) - When the United Nations General Assembly met in 2007 to vote on North Korea’s human rights record, only 10 of the 56 African countries voted with the U.S.-led western coalition.

The overwhelming majority followed China – either by voting against or abstaining from the resolution.

This has not always been the case. Just three decades prior, the consequential General Assembly vote to replace the Republic of China (Taiwan) with the People’s Republic of China – signaling international recognition of Communist Party rule – was met with resistance from the United States. Although the resolution was passed, African countries did not abide by any side.

In the interim three decades, China rose to be one of the world’s most formidable economic and military powers, surpassed the United States as Africa’s largest trading partner and financed more than 3,000 large, critical infrastructure projects.

More than 10,000 Chinese firms operate in Africa, claiming nearly 50 percent of Africa’s internationally contracted construction market.

China transitioned from the world’s supplier of cheap labor to a leading financier of the developing world, aiming to build bridges – both figuratively and literally – through economic cooperation. Its chief foreign policy project – the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) – has connected 152 countries across continents and facilitated more than 1.3 trillion in trade.

Yet to the west, China’s ascent means an authoritarian challenge to the liberal international system.

In a foreign policy address last December, U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton warned that China has been “deliberatively and aggressively” undermining U.S. interests.

“China uses bribes, opaque agreements, and the strategic use of debt to hold states in Africa captive to Beijing’s wishes and demands,” Bolton said. “Such predatory actions are sub-components of broader Chinese strategic initiatives… with the ultimate goal of advancing Chinese global dominance.”

Although Washington is becoming increasingly alert on Africa, Beijing devised its own Africa strategy long before the twenty-first century.

Shortly after China’s founding in 1949, much of the developing world was still struggling with anti-colonialism and anti-imperialism. China’s then-premier Zhou Enlai saw this as an opportunity to position China – a country that triumphed in the same struggle – as a leader of the developing world.

“Africa’s always been important for China going back to the 1950s,” Dr. Stanley Rosen, professor of political science at the University of Southern California’s US-China Institute, told IPS.

“In the earlier period under Mao, it was because of the number of countries in Africa that had votes at the United Nations and the fact that China was promoting revolutionary movements, so it’s very political.”

“Shortly after the reforms began in China in 1979, Africa became more important economically,” Dr. Rosen added.

In the 1990s, encouraged by then-President Jiang Zemin’s “Go Out Policy” – a government-backed program to incentivize private overseas investment – Sino-African trade grew by 700 percent. With the help of the low-interest loans from the Chinese Export-Import Bank, companies like Huawei spearheaded a new generation’s quest for markets abroad.

Dr. Rosen told IPS that China now seeks to build mutually beneficial relationships with resource-rich countries regardless of their domestic political situation.

In September last year, Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged that China will provide an additional $60 billion in financial support to Africa for at the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) through foreign direct investment (FDI) and infrastructure loans.

Perhaps more telling of China’s attraction, more African countries attended FOCAC than the similarly-timed UN General Assembly meeting in 2018.

Xi calls China’s foreign policy, “major country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics” – a doctrine that prioritizes peaceful cooperation than single-power domination.

However, regardless of Xi’s intentions, China’s investment has boosted domestic economic growth and gainedpolitical sway over willing African leaders who need technical aid and infrastructure development.

More importantly, China has shown that the western-dominant model of development characterized by neoliberal economic policies and democratic political principles is not the only way. By doing so, China is shifting the eye of world affairs eastward.

In June, 43 African countries drafted a statement to oppose the U.S. veto power on judicial appointments at the Appellate Body of the World Trade Organization (WTO), the world’s highest trade court. Again, they sided with China.

China has urged the WTO to oppose U.S. veto power since early last year. Zhang Xiangchen, China’s WTO ambassador, said the international trade system is facing “grave challenges,” referring to President Trump’s trade policy.

“The most urgent and burning question that the WTO has to answer now is how to respond to unilateralism and protectionism,” Zhang said. “What is most dangerous and devastating is that the U.S. is systematically challenging fundamental guiding principles by blocking the selection process of the Appellate Body members.”

“If left untreated, [the policy] will fatally undermine the functioning of the WTO,” Zhang added.

China’s challenge to the U.S.-dominant world order doesn’t stop with the WTO. China has set up international institutions such as the New Development Bank and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) to further solidify its position as the developing world’s financier.

While some have argued that these institutions are potential rivals to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), some are more cautious to assume that China is attempting to change the international order because of China’s lack of clarity in its policy implementation process.

Dr. Yuen Yuen Ang, associate political science professor at the University of Michigan, told IPS that China’s intentions are “not verifiable.”

“While observers are free to speculate upon China’s intentions,” Dr. Ang said. “What we should and can know for sure is a persistent gap between policy formulation and implementation.”

Dr. Ang explained that the implementation of BRI has been “fragmented and uncoordinated,” causing confusion for international partners and participant companies and blurring Beijing’s strategic vision.

Despite its flaws, however, the BRI is showing the world the China way.

On the 95th anniversary of the Communist Party’s founding, Xi announced to a hall of thousands that the Chinese people “are fully confident in offering a China solution to humanity’s search for better social systems.”

As China continues to form alliances in Africa and around the globe, the west may soon need to acknowledge Xi’s foresight.

SOURCE: INTER PRESS SERVICE INTERNATIONAL. READ ORIGINAL ARTICLE HERE.

40% Of Doctors In Nigeria Are Unemployed, Says FCT NMA President

Image via This Day

BY KUNI TYESSI

ABUJA (THIS DAY) -- The President, Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Chapter and the Medical Director, Nyanya General Hospital, Dr. Ekpe Philips Uche, has revealed that up to 40 per cent of doctors in Nigeria are unemployed.

He added that after their National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) programme, it takes an average of a year or two to get employment which is usually offered by private hospitals and they are under paid.

Uche who spoke in Abuja at the national round-table discussion on Accountability for Maternal Health, which was organised by Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre (WARDC) and Centre for Reproductive Rights, New York, said inasmuch as Nigeria is bereft in the quantity with medical personnel, the ones on ground are not utilised through engagement.

He said to reduce maternal mortality, there was need to engage capable hands with the prerequisite qualifications to work in the Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs) as it is not about building the structure and recruiting incapable hands.
“At the end of the day, we lose out on our best hands that are supposed to take care of our patients. Ideally doctors are not enough, including pharmacists and nurses.

“We should keep the ones we have but unfortunately, the government of the day is not keeping them.

“We have so many doctors roaming the streets of Nigeria without jobs. Up to 40 per cent of them are unemployed. Many of them are taken up by private hospitals who do not even pay them well,” he said.

The Executive Director, WARDC, Dr. Abiola Akiyode-Adolabi in her speech, said maternal health issue was a human right concern and that government has the obligations to ensure that women’s rights were respected, promoted and protected.

“It is our belief that beyond the much touted medical and social reasons for maternal deaths, preventable and needless deaths of women at childbirth constitute a violation of fundamental rights, including right to life and eight to family life,” she said.

Lakeith Stanfield To Play Popular Young D.C. Chef In Movie Based On His Memoir

Image via ABC 7

BY ANNA-LYSA GAYLE

WASHINGTON (ABC7 WJLA) — Chef Kwame Onwuachi’s journey has been challenging.

There were some bitter moments, which he talks about in his memoir “Notes from a Young Black Chef”.

The book documents his hardships in the Bronx, after joining a gang, the time his parents sent him to Nigeria to correct his behavior and his rise in the culinary world, after landing on the show “Top Chef”.

“I think the Nigeria scene is going to be an important one. That was the turning point in my life...really appreciate the small things....what I have here,” he said. “Going from playing PlayStation to doing your home work by kerosene lamp.”


Soon “Selma” and “Sorry to Bother You” star Lakeith Stanfield will be the main ingredient in the movie based on his memoir.

“Really, he’s my favorite actor, so for that to happen it’s incredible,” Onwuachi said. “I would honestly pick him, and to see that it actually came to fruition, it’s awesome.”

The 29-year-old Executive Chef at Kith and Kin has recently been named by Food and Wine Magazine as one the “Best New Chefs of 2019” and in May he received a James Beard Award for “Rising Star Chef of the Year.”

Onwuachi says he would like the movie’s name to be original.

“The True Life Story of Kwame Onwuachi or Kwame. All that is out of the question. It has got to be something that’s broad that a lot of people can relate to,” said Onwuachi.

While he waits for his story to be told on the big screen, his journey still continues off the screen.

“I’m still working, so it’s a wake-up call, someone calls out, you have to figure that out, process payroll...this is a moment that a lot of people dream of and I’m just happy to be apart of it, he said.

US Imposes Visa Sanctions On Nigerians Who Undermined Democracy During Elections

Electoral commission officers prepare ballot boxes in Adamawa State, Nigeria, during the presidential election in February.
BY BUKOLA ADEBAYO

LAGOS (CNN) -- The US government has imposed visa restrictions on Nigerians who tried to undermine the country's democracy during February's general elections.

The US State Department did not name those affected but said the visa sanctions were targeted at some individuals who were involved in election violence, not the general population.

"These individuals have operated with impunity at the expense of the Nigerian people and undermined democratic principles and human rights," Morgan Ortagus, a State Department spokeswoman, said in a statement announcing the travel restrictions on Tuesday.

"This decision reflects the Department of State's commitment to working with the Nigerian government to realize its expressed commitment to end corruption and strengthen democracy, accountability, and respect for human rights, " she added.

The UK government and the US announced they were considering such sanctions in January, warning that those found inciting violence on social media and the polls might be prosecuted. Family members may also be affected by the travel restrictions, the US government said at the time.

Nigeria's general elections were marred by logistical delays, technical problems and violence.
At least 39 people were killed in election-related violence, according to local election observers, and two offices of Nigeria's Independent Electoral Electoral Commission were set on fire a few days before the presidential polls.

Incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari won the election, despite claims of irregularities by political opponents.

Ebola Vaccine Hampered By Deep Distrust In Eastern Congo

In this Sunday, July 14, 2019 photo, burial workers dressed in protective gear carry the remains of Mussa Kathembo, an Islamic scholar who had prayed over those who were sick, in Beni, Congo. He and his wife, Asiya, died of Ebola. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)

BY KRISTA LARSON

BENI, CONGO (AP) — Until his last breath, Salomon Nduhi Kambale insisted he had been poisoned by someone and that was the reason he was vomiting blood. The 30-year-old man wouldn’t give community health teams his phone number, and when they found it, he hung up on them.

Health workers were desperate to persuade him to get vaccinated for Ebola after a friend fell ill with the lethal and highly contagious disease.

But within days, Nduhi was dead. His widow and their four young children were given his positive Ebola test result and a chilling warning from a team of health workers: “If you don’t accept vaccination, you can prepare to die.”

Deep distrust — along with political instability and deadly violence — has severely undermined efforts by public health authorities in Congo to curb the outbreak by tracing and vaccinating those who may have come into contact with infected people.

Health experts agree the experimental Ebola vaccine has saved multitudes in Congo. But after nearly a year and some 171,000 doses given, the epidemic shows few signs of waning. The virus has killed more than 1,700 people and has now arrived in the region’s largest city, Goma. The World Health Organization last week declared the outbreak a global health emergency.

During the 2014-16 Ebola epidemic in West Africa, which left more than 11,300 people dead, health workers could only dream of a vaccine with a 97.5 percent effectiveness rate that could improve the odds of survival even in those already infected.

“We have it now and it’s not the miracle we wanted it to be,” said Dr. Joanne Liu, president of Doctors Without Borders. “The fact that we’ve used so much vaccine, and the epidemic hasn’t stopped, that shows us that contact tracing is not great.”

WHO says as many as 90 percent of those eligible for vaccination have accepted it, but that figure only includes those who gave contact tracers enough information to be included on a list. The success rate excludes those who distrusted health workers and fled, or those who couldn’t be found in the first place.

Health workers have been using what is known as a ring vaccination strategy: The vaccine is first given to those who were in close contact with a sick person. Then a second so-called ring is created by giving the vaccine to those who were in contact with those people.

Because of the difficulties in making that strategy work, some people didn’t get vaccinated until they had already been infected with the virus, and they developed Ebola anyway. That increased doubts about the vaccine in communities where the public health campaigns led by outsiders already were viewed with suspicion and hostility.

“The rumors were if you got vaccinated you would die,” said Liboke Kakule Muhingi, a 43-year-old farmer in Mangina, where the epidemic began last August.

His mother was among the first to die. Then, one by one, six of his sisters who had cared for their ailing mother were killed by Ebola. Kakule accepted the vaccine and made sure his wife and eight children got it, too.

“If I hadn’t, we’d all be dead,” he said.

In some cases, health teams have been unable to reach certain areas because of violence or rebel activity. Earlier this month, the head of the Congolese health ministry’s response efforts in Beni was at one point unable to return from a field visit while the military battled ADF rebels, who are linked to the Islamic State.

More often, though, contact lists have fallen apart simply because people have deliberately evaded health workers or did not understand they shouldn’t travel after being exposed. A pastor who became the first confirmed case in Goma had apparently put down fake names at health checkpoints to avoid detection. He had been sickened in the town of Butembo and then took a bus while ill.

WHO and the Congolese health ministry have now switched tactics and are offering the vaccine to anyone who wants it.

With Ebola’s arrival in Goma, a city of more than 2 million people, some wonder whether there will be enough of the vaccine if the outbreak continues.

The vaccine’s manufacturer, Merck, said it has 245,000 1-millileter doses on hand and that could rise to 900,000 over the next 18 months. The dose in Congo also has been reduced to 0.5 mL, effectively doubling the supply.

“Whether or not the available doses are sufficient to fulfill the demands depends on the evolution of the outbreak, the access to the communities and the successful expansion of the production of additional doses by Merck in early 2020,” WHO said.

There is a second experimental vaccine, produced by Johnson & Johnson, but health officials in Congo have said it will not be used because it needs further testing and would cause too much confusion. It requires two doses given one month apart.

It’s unclear how long the Merck vaccine will protect people. Scientists know from early studies that it lasts for at least a year, but the epidemic is approaching that limit. The only study to report longer vaccine durability tracked only a small number of healthy volunteers in Geneva for two years.

The new strategy of giving shots to anyone who wants them involves setting up “pop-up” sites in the neighborhoods most affected. Last week a vaccination team headed to the neighborhood in Beni where Nduhi’s wife had stayed after he died.

Outside the mud-brick home where his children still lived, a pickup truck full of plastic tables and chairs pulled over. Soon a tent was set up, and vaccination teams donned eye protection and yellow surgical gowns. Neighborhood children climbed the trees to watch.

Baraka Kathembo Makasi, a 22-year-old motorbike taxi driver, brought his wife and two children with him.

“At first I refused,” he said, “but I started seeing people die and decided to go.”

Associated Press writers Al-Hadji Kudra Maliro in Beni, Congo; Lauran Neergaard in Washington; Maria Cheng in London; and Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed to this report.

Mueller: No Russia Exoneration For Trump, Despite His Claims

Former special counsel Robert Mueller arrives to testify before the House Intelligence Committee hearing on his report on Russian election interference, on Capitol Hill, in Washington, Wednesday, July 24, 2019. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

BY ERIC TUCKER, MARY CLARE JALONICK,  MICHAEL BALSAMO

WASHINGTON (AP) — Robert Mueller, the taciturn lawman at the center of a polarizing American drama, bluntly dismissed President Donald Trump’s claims of “total exoneration” Wednesday in the federal probe of Russia’s 2016 election interference. In a long day of congressional testimony, Mueller warned that Moscow’s actions represented — and still represent — a great threat to American democracy.

Mueller’s back-to-back Capitol Hill appearances, his first since wrapping his two-year Russia probe, carried the prospect of a historic climax to a rare criminal investigation into a sitting American president. But his testimony was more likely to reinforce rather than reshape hardened public opinions on impeachment and the future of Trump’s presidency .

With his terse, one-word answers, and a sometimes stilted and halting manner, Mueller made clear his desire to avoid the partisan fray and the deep political divisions roiling Congress and the country.

He delivered neither crisp TV sound bites to fuel a Democratic impeachment push nor comfort to Republicans striving to undermine his investigation’s credibility. But his comments grew more animated by the afternoon, when he sounded the alarm on future Russian election interference. He said he feared a new normal of American campaigns accepting foreign help.

He condemned Trump’s praise of WikiLeaks, which released Democratic emails stolen by Russia. And he said of the interference by Russians and others: “They are doing it while we sit here. And they expect to do it during the next campaign.”

His report, he said, should live on after him and his team.

“We spent substantial time assuring the integrity of the report, understanding that it would be our living message to those who come after us,” Mueller said. “But it also is a signal, a flag to those of us who have some responsibility in this area to exercise those responsibilities swiftly and don’t let this problem continue to linger as it has over so many years.

Trump, claiming vindication despite the renewal of serious allegations, focused on his own political fortunes rather than such broader issues.

“This was a devastating day for the Democrats,” he said. “The Democrats had nothing and now they have less than nothing.”

Mueller was reluctant to stray beyond his lengthy written report, but that didn’t stop Republicans and Democrats from laboring to extract new details.

Trump’s GOP allies tried to cast the former special counsel and his prosecutors as politically motivated. They referred repeatedly to what they consider the improper opening of the investigation.

Democrats, meanwhile, sought to emphasize the most incendiary findings of Mueller’s 448-page report and weaken Trump’s reelection prospects in ways Mueller’s book-length report did not.

They hoped that even if his testimony did not inspire impeachment demands — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has made clear she will not pursue impeachment, for now — Mueller could nonetheless unambiguously spell out questionable, norm-shattering actions by the president.

The prosecutor who endured nearly seven hours of hearings was a less forceful public presencethan the man who steered the FBI through the Sept. 11 attacks and the 12 years after that. But Mueller, 74, was nonetheless skilled enough in the ways of Washington to avoid being goaded into leading questions he didn’t want to answer.

Mueller frequently gave single-word answers to questions, even when given opportunities to crystallize allegations of obstruction of justice against the president. He referred time and again to the wording in his report.

Was the president lying when he said he had no business ties to Russia? “I’m not going to go into the details of the report along those lines,” Mueller said.

Did you develop any sort of conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia? “Again,” Mueller said, “I pass on answering.”

But he was unflinching on the most-critical matters, showing flashes of personality and emotion.

In the opening minutes of the Judiciary Committee hearing, Chairman Jerrold Nadler, a New York Democrat, asked about Trump’s multiple claims of vindication by the investigation.

“Did you actually totally exonerate the president?” Nadler asked.

“No,” Mueller replied.

When Rep. Adam Schiff, the Democratic chairman of the House intelligence committee, asked, “Your investigation is not a witch hunt, is it?”

“It is not a witch hunt,” Mueller flatly replied.

He gave Democrats a flicker of hope when he told Rep. Ted Lieu of California that he did not charge Trump because of a Justice Department legal opinion that says sitting presidents cannot be indicted. That statement cheered Democrats who understood him to be suggesting he mightd otherwise have recommended prosecution on the strength of the evidence.

But Mueller later walked back that statement, saying: “We did not reach a determination as to whether the president committed a crime.” His team, he said, “never started the process” of evaluating whether to charge Trump.

Though Mueller described Russian election interference as among the most serious challenges to democracy he had encountered in his decades-long career, Republicans focused on his conclusion that there was insufficient evidence to establish a criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia.

“Those are the facts of the Mueller report. Russia meddled in the 2016 election. The president did not conspire with Russians. Nothing we hear today will change those facts,” said Rep. Doug Collins, the Judiciary Committee’s top Republican.

Mueller, pressed as to why he hadn’t investigated a “dossier” of claims that the Republicans insist helped lead to the start of the probe, said that was not his charge. That was “outside my purview,” he said repeatedly.

Mueller mostly brushed aside Republican allegations of bias, but in a moment of apparent agitation, he said he didn’t think lawmakers had ever “reviewed a report that is as thorough, as fair, as consistent as the report that we have in front of us.”

And when he was pressed on the fact that multiple members of his team had made contributions to Democratic candidates, Mueller bristled at the implication his prosecutors were compromised.

“I have been in this business for almost 25 years, and in those 25 years I have not had the occasion to ask somebody about their political affiliation,” Mueller said. “It is not done. What I care about is the capability of the individual to do the job and do the job quickly and seriously and with integrity.”

Wednesday’s first hearing before the Judiciary Committee focused on whether Trump obstructed justice by attempting to seize control of Mueller’s investigation. The special counsel examined nearly a dozen episodes, including Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey and his efforts to have Mueller himself removed.

The afternoon hearing before the House intelligence committee dove into ties between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin.

On that question, Mueller’s report documented a trail of contacts between Russians and Trump associates, including a Trump Tower meeting at which the president’s eldest son expected to receive dirt on Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Associated Press writer Jonathan Lemire in New York contributed to this report.

For more of AP’s coverage of the Trump investigation: https://apnews.com/TrumpInvestigations