U.S.-backed forces wrest control of Syria’s Manbij from Islamic StateU.S.-backed forces have seized full control of the northern Syrian city of Manbij near the Turkish border after the last remaining Islamic State fighters, who had been using civilians as human shields, left, a spokesman for the group said Friday.
Syria Democratic Forces (SDF) were now sweeping the city after the departure of a last remaining group of militants who had been holed up in the city. They had freed over 2,000 civilian hostages who had been held by the militants, Sharfan Darwish of the SDF allied Manbij Military Council told Reuters.
« The city is now fully under our control but we are undertaking sweeping operations, » Darwish said, adding militant sleeper cells in the city were still a threat.
The SDF, with heavy air support from a U.S.-led coalition, said last week they had taken almost complete control of Manbij, where a small number of IS fighters had been holed up.
The SDF’s offensive, which began at the end of May, aims to remove Islamic State from areas it controls along the Turkish border.
The Manbij operation in which U.S. special forces have played a significant role on the ground marks the most ambitious advance by a group allied to Washington in Syria since the United States launched its military campaign against Islamic State two years ago.
Manbij’s loss to the militants is a big blow as it is of strategic importance, serving as a conduit for transit of foreign jihadists and provisions coming from the Turkish border.
Earlier the alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters grouped in the SDF said Friday’s operation was « the last operation and the last assault. » Darwish said earlier roughly 100 Islamic State fighters were left in the city centre using civilians as human shields, some of whom were killed trying to flee.
Reuters pictures showed residents being released from an Islamic State-held neighbourhood on Friday and being welcomed by SDF forces.
Kurdish sources and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors Syria’s five-year-old conflict, later said around 500 cars had left Manbij carrying Islamic State members and civilians. They were heading northeast towards Jarablus, a town under Islamic State control on the Turkish border, the Observatory said.
The convoy carried the final Islamic State members leaving the city, under an agreement between the fighting parties that would not be announced officially, Kurdish sources and the monitor said, marking the end of the operation.
The SDF’s campaign quickly captured the countryside surrounding Manbij, but slowed once fighting entered the city. The SDF said it had been avoiding a large-scale assault inside Manbij out of concern for civilians.
Dozens of civilians, including children and women from Manbij who had fled the city at the height of the aerial strikes, were killed in suspected U.S. coalition air strikes last month, residents and monitors said.
U.S. officials have said once the Manbij operation is completed, it would create the conditions to move on the militant group’s de facto capital of Raqqa. U.S. officials anticipate a tough battle.
Rebels’ Aleppo gains improve our negotiating hand -Syria opposition Rebel gains which have broken a Syrian government siege in the city of Aleppo will strengthen the opposition’s hand should a new round of peace talks go ahead, an opposition negotiator told Reuters.
Previous rounds collapsed earlier this year when the opposition objected to the forces of President Bashar al-Assad and his Russian allies continuing to bomb and besiege rebel-held areas while the Geneva talks were seeking a political solution to the Syrian conflict.
Bassma Kodmani, a member and spokeswoman of the opposition High Negotiations Committee (HNC), said Damascus and Moscow had to recognise that last week’s advance in Aleppo had changed the facts on the ground.
« Before this offensive (the Russians) believed they could bring us to their negotiating table and impose a national unity government with Assad remaining in power, » she said in an interview.
« The message from the ground was: we are not going to let this happen. You do not strangle and suffocate a whole city and use it to impose your view of what a political solution should be, » she added. « I think it has given a little bit more leverage to the opposition. » An Aug. 1 deadline for establishing a transitional authority for Syria that would lead to elections in 18 months has come and gone, but United Nations envoy Staffan de Mistura said he now hopes to reconvene talks in late August. Russia and the United States say they are discussing how to reduce violence in the country before any negotiations.
Kodmani said a deal was as remote as ever. « We are nowhere close to even drawing what a political transition should look like, » she said.
The rebel assault broke the month-long siege of rebel-held eastern Aleppo where about 250,000 people are living in deteriorating humanitarian conditions.
It set back Assad’s hopes of using Russian air strikes to reclaim what was Syria’s most populous city before the war, attend peace talks in a militarily strong position and speed the end of the five-year conflict with him still in power.
Kodmani said the HNC still wants a political solution, but the plight of those in bombarded eastern Aleppo had compelled moderate rebels to cooperate with more radical groups in breaking the siege.
« There was no reaction from the international community (to the siege)…the whole world was watching in silence what was going on, » she said.
The HNC is pressing for the restoration of a ‘cessation of hostilities’ deal brokered in February by Washington and Moscow, but which collapsed due to the escalating violence centred on Aleppo.
« We wanted to see a restoration of the cessation of hostilities because that would allow (the HNC) and the opposition to immediately see that the moderate groups can organise life, communities and security, » Kodmani said.
« The more radical groups would be marginalised because their value resides in their firepower. Instead what we saw was exactly the opposite…the moderate groups (were left) with no choice but to join forces with those who can, together, lead an offensive of some significance. » By far the rebels’ biggest coordinated assault since the conflict began in 2011, the Aleppo offensive united around 6,000-8,000 fighters from disparate groups.
These ranged from the Islamist alliance Jaish al-Fateh, which includes Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, known as the Nusra Front until it cut ties with al Qaeda two weeks ago, to the Free Syrian Army (FSA), vetted and backed by the West.
The HNC will present in the next couple of weeks its detailed vision for a political transition, but Assad’s government is not willing to negotiate, Kodmani said.
« We need a lot of heavy lifting between Russia, the U.S., the U.N. and other players … On the regime side we have not seen so far any willingness to engage in good faith, so at the moment I think intensive international consultations need to take place. » « CYNICAL » CEASEFIRES Although some food has entered in recent days, eastern Aleppo continues to suffer heavy air strikes.
Russia said on Wednesday that daily three-hour ceasefires would be declared to allow deliveries of aid supplies, but there has been no let up in the air strikes.
Kodmani said this move, like the Russian offer two weeks ago of ‘humanitarian corridors’ for people to leave the city, was a cynical and unilateral move which was not discussed with opposition groups.
« The purpose of the humanitarian corridors was to evacuate people, to force people to get out. It was basically: ‘leave the city or be bombed’. It was not about bringing relief into the eastern part of the city. » The U.N. said three hours was not enough and it wanted a 48-hour weekly halt to the violence to deliver aid and evacuate the sick. Kodmani welcomed the U.N. calls for a longer pause in fighting, but said this was not a long-term solution. « These measures are again only a way of relieving in a very provisional way, momentarily, a disastrous situation. »
Saudis link Yemeni expatriate who killed policeman to Islamic State A Yemeni expatriate who killed a policeman in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday by running him over with his car and then stabbing him had pledged allegiance to the militant group Islamic State, the state news agency SPA reported.
Omar Bahasama, a 20-year-old Yemeni, ran over the police corporal, Muhthil al-Salouli, as he emerged from a mosque after dawn prayers and then stabbed him to death, SPA quoted an interior ministry spokesman. The attack occurred in the Asir region of the southwestern province of Bisha « The offender had the approval and belonged to Daash, » the spokesman said, referring to IS by an Arabic acronym. « He had monitored the victim … and been in contact with elements of the organization abroad preparing the crime. » No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Six other Yemenis were arrested on suspicion of links to the case, the spokesman said.
Islamic State carried out a series of bombings and shooting attacks since mid-2014 that have targeted police and members of Saudi Arabia’s Shi’ite Muslim minority, raising concerns about security in the country, the world’s top oil exporter.
In July, suicide bombers struck three cities across Saudi Arabia, killing at least four security officers. The apparently coordinated attacks came on the penultimate day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
The militant group views Shi’ites as heretics but is also bitterly opposed to the wealthy Gulf kingdom’s Sunni Muslim rulers, whom it condemns for betraying Islam through close ties with the West.
Saudi Arabia is involved in a 16 months-old war in neighbouring Yemen, where it leads a coalition that has intervened in support of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi against Iran-allied Houthi forces that had deposed him. Hundreds of thousands of Yemenis live and work in oil-rich Saudi Arabia to support families in their impoverished homeland.
U.S. drone kills Islamic State leader for Afghanistan, Pakistan -officials The leader of Islamic State’s branch in Afghanistan and Pakistan was killed in a U.S. drone strike on July 26, a Pentagon spokesman said on Friday after the Afghan ambassador to Pakistan announced the news to Reuters.
The death of Hafiz Saeed Khan is a blow to efforts by Islamic State – also known as ISIS or Daesh – to expand from its heartlands in Syria and Iraq into Afghanistan and Pakistan, already crowded with jihadist movements including the Taliban and al Qaeda.
It is the second U.S. killing of a prominent militant in the region in months. In May, a U.S. drone killed Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour in a strike in Pakistan.
Despite that, Afghanistan’s 15-year-old war grinds on with no clear victory in sight. Taliban fighters have been threatening at least two provincial capitals this summer, in Helmand and Kunduz, and a U.S. government report said Afghan forces have lost 5 percent of territory this year.
In terms of its own territory, Islamic State has been largely confined to a handful of districts in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province, which borders Pakistan, where IS militants – mostly defectors from the Taliban – are blamed for raiding villages and government outposts.
Still, worries that Islamic State might be expanding its operational reach heightened this week when the group took credit for an attack on a Pakistani hospital that killed at least 74 people in the southwestern city of Quetta. A Pakistani Taliban faction also claimed responsibility.
A few weeks earlier, Islamic State claimed an attack on a rally in Kabul that killed more than 80 people.
BITTER RIVALS Khan has been reported dead before. But a claim by Afghan intelligence agents last year that he had been killed was never confirmed.
On Friday, however, Afghan Ambassador Omar Zakhilwal told Reuters he had seen confirmation from Afghan security forces.
« I can confirm that ISIS Khurasan (Afghanistan and Pakistan) leader Hafiz Saeed Khan along with his senior commanders and fighters died in a U.S. drone strike on July 26 in Kot district of Afghanistan’s Nangharhar province, » he said.
Pentagon spokesman Gordon Trowbridge confirmed Khan’s death, and said in a statement that the air strike took place during joint operations by U.S. and Afghan special operations forces against IS in the southern part of Nangarhar province.
Trowbridge said the airstrike was in Achin district, as opposed to Kot district.
Khan – a longtime commander with the Pakistani Taliban – pledged allegiance in October 2014 to Islamic State’s leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
The Taliban’s various factions in Afghanistan and Pakistan as well as their al Qaeda allies are bitter rivals of Islamic State’s al-Baghdadi. The Taliban reject al-Baghdadi as leader of an envisioned worldwide caliphate.
In Afghanistan, Taliban and Islamic State fighters have battled over territory in Nangarhar, though both have recently been more busy defending against U.S. and Afghan assaults.
Between January and early August, American warplanes conducted nearly 140 air strikes against Islamic State targets in Afghanistan, according to the U.S. military. Afghan forces, backed by the American military, killed an estimated 300 Islamic State fighters in an operation mounted two weeks ago, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan said on Wednesday, calling it a severe blow to the group.
Foiled attack puts spotlight on Canada PM’s security revampThe death of a Canadian supporter of Islamic State who authorities said was preparing an imminent attack has increased calls for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to abandon his plan to scale back a 2015 law that gave increased powers to police and intelligence agents.
But those calls are unlikely to translate into widespread public resistance to changing the law, as long as the Liberal government can frame it as a change that protects civil rights, pollsters and political analysts said on Friday.
« The Liberals have to try to not fall into the trap of looking like they’re weakening the legislation, » said pollster Nik Nanos.
Aaron Driver, 24, was killed by police in a raid on Wednesday in a small Ontario town after authorities received « credible information of a potential terrorist threat. » News of how close Driver came to carrying out an attack sparked a call from the Conservative opposition and others for police and intelligence officers to have more power to stop would-be attackers.
Driver was under a so-called « peace bond » that restricted some of his activities. The conditions of that bond were relaxed in recent months, including a requirement that he wear a monitoring bracelet.
« They never should have varied the conditions. The second he took off that bracelet, it was over, » said an RCMP source who declined to be named because the source was not authorized to speak to the media.
ELECTION PLEDGE While Liberals supported the security law drafted by their Conservative predecessors, Trudeau campaigned on a promise to amend parts of it, dubbed C-51, and increase oversight to protect Canadians’ civil liberties such as the right to protest.
« I’m guessing when you’re in opposition you say one thing, and when you are in power you might say something else. Now that the books are open and there are full briefings, they may see things a bit differently, » said Phil Gurski, a risk consultant and former Canadian Security Intelligence Service analyst.
But the Liberal government will stick to its plan on the law, said Dan Brien, a spokesman for Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale.
One factor that may be motivating the government to stand firm on changing the law is possible legal pressure from liberties groups.
The Canadian Civil Liberties Association, which filed a court challenge of C-51 in 2015, is waiting to see what changes the government will make before going ahead with its case, said Sukanya Pillay, executive director and general counsel.
« The government could lose control if you start having court findings that narrow your range of actions, » said Craig Forcese, a law professor at the University of Ottawa. « They’d better take their first kick at the can while they can. » Driver’s planned attack was not likely to change Trudeau’s high poll ratings, experts said. Trudeau has a four-year term and a majority government, giving him the legislative power to change whatever he wants.
« Public opinion always changes in the short term after you’ve had an attack or a thwarted attack and then after a couple months, the public has a great capacity for amnesia, » said Nelson Wiseman, director of the Canadian Studies Program at the University of Toronto.
UN approves 4,000 more troops to secure peace in South Sudan capital The United Nations Security Council on Friday authorized the deployment of a 4,000-strong protection force in South Sudan’s capital, Juba, as part of the U.N. peacekeeping mission and threatened an arms embargo if the government does not cooperate.
The U.S.-drafted resolution was adopted with 11 votes in favor. Russia, China, Egypt and Venezuela abstained.
The authorization follows several days of heavy fighting involving tanks and helicopters in Juba last month between troops loyal to President Salva Kiir and those backing former Vice President Riek Machar that raised fears of a return to full-scale civil war in the world’s newest nation.
« Until the leaders of South Sudan are willing to put what is good for their people before themselves, putting peace ahead of personal ambition and power … the people of South Sudan will continue to suffer from the bloodshed and instability their leaders reap, » U.S. Deputy U.N. Ambassador David Pressman said.
The protection force of African troops will use all means to enforce peace in Juba and protect the airport and other key facilities, the Council said. It would also act against anyone who is « preparing attacks, or engages in attacks » against U.N.
sites, aid workers or civilians and could confront South Sudanese government troops if needed.
Hundreds of people were killed and the United Nations said government soldiers and security forces executed civilians and gang-raped women and girls during and after last month’s fighting. South Sudan rejected the accusations.
The protection force will be part of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in South Sudan, known as UNMISS, in place since the country gained independence from Sudan in 2011. The force’s chief will report to the UNMISS commander.
The council authorized UNMISS and the protection force until Dec. 15, 2016.
East African bloc IGAD pushed for the creation of the Juba protection force. South Sudan said it would accept a deployment of African troops in the capital, but on Wednesday voiced opposition to those troops being placed under U.N. command.
After the Security Council vote on Friday, a spokesman for Kiir said the government would not accept the force.
« We are not going to ‘cooperate’ on that because we will not allow our country to be taken over by U.N., » Ateny Wek Ateny told Reuters. « Any force that will be called Juba Protection force will not be accepted. » Under Friday’s resolution, the council will consider imposing an embargo if U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon reports that South Sudan’s government is obstructing deployment of the protection force or the work of UNMISS.
Several council members wanted an immediate arms embargo.
« Today we also had a chance to stop the violence by implementing an immediate arms embargo on South Sudan. On that we have failed, » Britain’s deputy U.N. ambassador, Peter Wilson, told the Council.
The deployment of more international troops in Juba has been a key demand of Machar, who left Juba following the violence last month. Kiir has since appointed a new vice president.
A spokesman for Machar welcomed the proposed deployment of the U.N. protection force in Juba. South Sudan descended into civil war after Kiir first dismissed Machar as his deputy. They signed a peace deal in August 2015, but implementation was slow and difficult.
Turkey seeks 32 fugitive diplomats in post-coup inquiryTurkey is seeking the extradition of 32 diplomats who went on the run after they were recalled by Ankara as part of investigations into last month’s failed coup attempt, the foreign minister said on Friday.
Turkish authorities have arrested, detained or dismissed tens of thousands of people, including military personnel, civil servants, judges and teachers, following the July 15 coup bid, which President Tayyip Erdogan has blamed on a network led by a U.S.-based cleric.
The purge is worrying Western allies concerned about stability in the NATO member and partner in the fight against Islamic State. But Turkish officials are angered over a perceived lack of sympathy by Western officials who they say are more worried about the crackdown than the coup itself.
Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, speaking at a news conference in Ankara with his Iranian counterpart, said a total of 208 Turkish diplomats had been recalled as part of the coup investigation, but 32 of them had fled to other countries.
« We have been in contact with the countries where they fled and are working on their extradition, » he said.
Three military attaches have also gone on the run, including two who fled from Greece to Italy, and another who fled Bosnia, the minister said, without specifying where the third might have gone.
Two Turkish generals based in Afghanistan who travelled to Dubai and another attache who was working in Saudi Arabia have all already been sent back to Turkey.
The extradition moves expand a domestic purge that authorities say targets a « parallel state » set up by followers of U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Turkey accuses of orchestrating the coup plot.
Gulen, who has lived in the United States for years, denies any part in the putsch.
« If a tenth of accusations against me are established, I pledge to return to Turkey and serve the heaviest sentence, » Gulen said in an opinion piece in French daily Le Monde on Friday.
Turkish authorities have issued an arrest warrant for one of its most celebrated soccer players, former international striker Hakan Sukur, ordering the seizure of his assets as part of the investigation into the failed coup.
Prosecutors accused Sukur of « being a member of an armed terror group », a reference to Gulen’s organisation.
‘POSITIVE SIGNALS’ Erdogan demands the cleric be extradited to Turkey, saying Washington must chose between Turkey and Gulen, in a case that has strained Ankara’s relations with Washington.
American officials have said they need to see clear evidence of Gulen’s involvement in the coup plot.
Cavusoglu said Turkey had sent documents to the United States and had received positive signals about the case, without giving any details. He said a U.S. Department of Justice team would visit Turkey later this month.
« Everything is out in the open. We have an extradition agreement, » he said. « The whole world knows who is behind the coup attempt. Our expectation is for the U.S. to extradite Gulen as soon as possible. » Erdogan says the armed forces have been infiltrated in recent years by Gulen’s supporters.
The president has vowed to restructure the military after the coup attempt, during which soldiers used jets, military helicopters and tanks to attack government institutions including parliament and the intelligence agency.
Despite the purge of the military, including nearly half of the country’s generals, Defence Minister Fikri Isik said on Friday that Turkey’s role in the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State would continue without interruption.
Turkey, which has NATO’s second-largest military, allows the United States to use the Incirlik Air Base in southern Turkey to launch attacks against Islamic State militants.
Isik said a decree would soon be ready to order the recruitment of new air force pilots following the purge.
« Our priority in this decree is the 265 pilots who have been dismissed. We have enough pilots in the Turkish Air Force in the case of an emergency, but we are below the necessary number, » Isik said of the decree.
The ruling AK Party founded by Erdogan has long had testy relations with the military, which for decades saw itself as the guardian of Turkey’s secular order and the legacy of the nation’s founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. The military has ousted four governments in the past 60 years.
Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek said on Friday hundreds of private firms were linked to the the Gulen network.
« We believe that at the core there are fewer than 1,000 companies financing terror, » Simsek said in a speech in Istanbul, referring to Gulen’s network of supporters.
Turkey has issued an arrest warrant for one of its most celebrated soccer players, former international striker Hakan Sukur, ordering the seizure of his assets as part of an investigation into last month’s failed coup, state media said.
Prosecutors accuse Sukur of « being a member of an armed terror group », a reference to the organisation of the U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen whom Ankara says was behind the abortive putsch. Gulen denies the accusation.
After football, Sukur went into politics and was in 2011 elected to parliament for President Tayyip Erdogan’s AK Party.
He resigned in 2013 after a corruption probe that targeted Erdogan and his inner circle, siding with the movement of Gulen.
The player’s father, Sermet Sukur, was detained on Friday in the northwestern province of Sakarya, state-run Anadolu Agency reported. A court on Thursday had ordered his arrest, as well as that of Sukur.
A court ruled on Friday that all bank accounts, vehicles and other assets belonging to Sukur, the national team’s all time top scorer, and his father be seized, Anadolu said.
Hakan Sukur, lives in the United States and is among some 350 people being sought by the Turkish authorities. He faced a separate court case in June accused of insulting Erdogan. The case has yet to be concluded.
The footballer denied having fled to the United States in the insult case, saying he moved there, rather than running away. He has not made any comment in relation to the arrest warrant.
Turkey accuses U.S.-based cleric Gulen of orchestrating the coup attempt. Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile for almost 20 years, is accused of running a decades-long campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police and judiciary.
Sukur, whose football career stretched from 1987 to 2007, was by far the most prolific striker in the history of the Turkish national side, with 51 goals in 112 appearances. Sukur is also remembered for his performance in the 2002 World Cup, where Turkey registered its best showing of third place. Sukur counts Galatasaray, Inter Milan and Blackburn Rovers among his former clubs.
Turkey to announce tourism-boosting steps in coming days Turkey will announce concrete measures to boost its beleaguered tourism industry within the coming days, Turkey’s tourism minister said at an industry event in Germany, following a sharp drop in tourists even before the recent coup attempt.
Tourism revenue in Turkey dropped 35.6 percent in the second quarter of this year, its sharpest fall in 17 years, amid increased security fears following a series of bomb attacks.
The failed coup in mid-July, which saw 240 people killed, further increases pressure on the country’s tourism sector, which contributes around 4.5 percent to Turkish gross domestic product.
« The tourism industry in particular depends on subsidies, » Nabi Avci said in Frankfurt, where he met with international tour operators, such as Thomas Cook and TUI.
« Concrete measures will be discussed in a dialogue with the industry and announced within the next days, » Avci added, declining to provide further details.
Turkey in April introduced fuel subsidies for flights to five of its tourist hotspots.
Airlines receive $6,000 per flight to Antalya, Alanya, Dalaman, Bodrum and Izmir, but the measure expires on Aug. 31 and carriers are demanding certainty over its future. »We will work on seeing what else we can do, as we know how important this is for the industry, » Avci said, adding that he would also announce details on the airline subsidies over the next days.
Austria turns away more migrants at Italian border Austrian police said on Friday they are turning away four times as many illegal immigrants at the Brenner border crossing as in May due to tougher controls and more migrants heading for northern Europe from Italy.
« The situation for us is still relatively relaxed, » said Edelbert Kohler, deputy head of Tyrol police, in charge at the crossing. « But the recent developments in Italy are causing us a great deal of concern. » More than 25,000 migrants, mainly from Nigeria and Ethiopia, arrived in Italy in July, 12 percent more than in the same period last year, EU border agency Frontex said on Friday.
Most of the more than 94,000 people who have arrived in Italy by boat this year travelled from sub-Saharan Africa to Libya where people smugglers, who have taken advantage of the breakdown of order there, charged them hundreds of dollars for the passage, often in unseaworthy boats.
After a clash at the Italian-French border, where migrants broke through police barriers, and as the number of migrants waiting to be let into Switzerland has been building up over the past days, Austrian authorities fear migrants could shift their routes as they try to reach wealthier northern Europe.
Police turned away 35-50 people who entered Austria illegally from Italy per day in July compared to about 10 a day in May, Kohler said.
Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka has been pushing for tough new immigration rules which would allow unsuccessful asylum seekers to be turned away at the border within an hour.
But Chancellor Christian Kern, whose Social Democrats govern together with Sobotka’s People’s Party as junior coalition partner, has so far rejected this and focussed on securing the borders of Austria’s neighbours. Austria provides equipment and personnel to help countries like Hungary secure its borders. It also plans to support Serbia, Kern said on Friday.
Don’t demonise refugees, UN says, as poll reveals negative attitudesThe United Nations warned against « demonising » refugees on Friday, after a global poll revealed 60 percent of people thought Islamic extremists were posing as refugees.
Around 40 percent also said they wanted their borders shut to refugees, with support for such a move highest in Turkey, India and Hungary.
The Ipsos MORI survey of attitudes towards refugees and immigration polled more than 16,000 people in 22 countries including Britain, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia.
The survey comes as Europe grapples with its worst migration crisis since World War Two. More than one million people, including many fleeing conflict in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, made their way to Europe last year.
The U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) said that while security threats were a concern, people fleeing persecution or conflict needed to be protected.
« Like in any population, there are people who are criminals and the law should be applied to them. Nobody is above the law, whether you are a refugee or not, » UNHCR spokesman William Spindler told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
« But we should not forget that the vast majority of refugees are law-abiding and we should not demonise them or see them all as criminals and terrorists because that’s not the case. » Last month, Islamic State claimed responsibility for two attacks in Germany – an axe attack by a 17-year-old Afghan refugee and a suicide bombing by a Syrian refugee which injured about 20 people.
A Syrian refugee was also arrested in July after killing a pregnant woman with a machete in Germany, though police said it did not appear linked to terrorism.
On Tuesday, German police arrested another Syrian refugee after receiving a tip-off that he was planning a possible Islamist-motivated attack.
CLOSING BORDERS Respondents in nearly all the countries surveyed believed immigration had risen over the past five years. Almost half thought immigration had had a negative effect on their country, with only 40 percent confident refugees would successfully integrate.
Despite the refugee crisis in Europe, head of Ipsos MORI’s Social Research Institute Bobby Duffy said attitudes towards refugees have not changed much since 2011.
« There has not been a wholesale negative shift in attitudes … across the 22 (countries) as a whole, attitudes have remained fairly stable over the last five years, » Duffy said in a statement.
Spindler said the majority of people understand the plight of refugees and the protection they are entitled to. « Most people in the world also believe that people who are fleeing persecution should be protected and they want their countries to keep their borders open to them. »
Pope visits Rome safe house for women forced into prostitution Pope Francis, who has condemned human trafficking as a crime against humanity, on Friday made a surprise visit to a Rome safe house where a Catholic charity is protecting women freed from a life of forced prostitution.
The Vatican, which did not disclose the exact location of the house, said the pope met 20 women from Romania, Albania, Nigeria, Tunisia, Ukraine and Italy. He encouraged them to « be strong » as they start new lives, a Vatican official said.
The statement said the pope made the visit to the Pope John XXIII Community – started by an Italian priest to help free women from their pimps – in order to « appeal to consciences to fight human trafficking ».
Under his papacy, the Vatican has hosted a series of conferences bringing together international police organisations, legislators and religious groups to find ways to work together to fight human trafficking and modern slavery.
Addressing one such group in 2014, he called trafficking an open wound for society and a crime against humanity.
Using the promise of a job, traffickers bring women to Italy and other Western European countries from Africa and Eastern Europe and then force them into prostitution. Human rights groups estimate that millions of people around the world are victims of human trafficking and forms of modern slavery such as forced prostitution or unpaid manual labour.
Italy frees Iranian activist after son of late shah appeals Mehdi Khosravi, an Iranian activist arrested last week in Italy, said on Friday he had been released from jail, following an appeal to the Italian government by the son of the deposed shah.
Reza Pahlavi, 55, whose late father was toppled by the 1979 Islamic Revolution, said in a letter to Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi on Monday that Khosravi risked torture and execution if Italy extradited him as Tehran has demanded.
Pahlavi posted the letter on his Twitter account..
Khosravi, 37, told Italian newspaper La Repubblica he had been let out of jail in Lecco, northern Italy, five days after police arrested him on an international warrant for alleged corruption.
« These are false and ridiculous accusations to which I will not even respond, » said Khosravi, who says he fled Iran after getting in trouble with authorities for writing about « democracy, rights and freedom » on his blog.
Khosravi has lived as a political refugee in Britain since 2010. In his comments to the newspaper, asked why he was arrested in Italy, given that he had travelled freely in France, Germany and Spain.The Italian interior ministry had no immediate comment.
U.S. general calls on Russia to allow observers at military drills Russia should allow observers, including Western journalists, to attend upcoming military drills that could again put Ukraine on edge just as Russian President Vladimir Putin has sharpened his rhetoric, the commander of the U.S. Army in Europe told Reuters.
The comments by Lieutenant General Ben Hodges came as Ukraine accuses Russia of amassing more than 40,000 troops in Crimea, a Ukrainian peninsula seized by Moscow in 2014, and on the Ukrainian border.
Ukraine’s U.N. ambassador, Volodymyr Yelchenko, warned this week that the Russian forces could reflect « some very bad intentions. » Hodges declined to offer estimates of Russian forces or speculate about Putin’s intentions ahead of pre-announced, large-scale exercises in Russia’s south that are expected to include Crimea.
But he said Russia could help address concerns by following the example of military drills led by the United States and its allies in Europe, to which Russia was allowed to send observers.
« The Russians could really help alleviate and provide some stability if they had invited observers, » Hodges said. « That would do a lot, frankly, to lower anxiety. » A U.S. intelligence official called the absence of observers at the Russian exercises « a worrisome development that we hope is just an oversight. » A spokeswoman for the U.S. Army in Europe said Russia sent observers to the « Anakonda » exercises in Poland in June, which included some 31,000 forces from countries including Poland, the United States and other NATO allies and partners.
The Russian Defense Ministry said in December that its main military exercise for 2016 would test its Southern Military District troops, which now includes Crimea and Russia’s Black Sea Fleet. It said the drills – called Caucasus-2016 – would take place in September.
Washington rejects Russia’s annexation of Crimea.
The Russian Army’s Red Star newspaper in January quoted Colonel-General Alexander Galkin as saying the exercise would check combat readiness and test how air, sea and land forces collaborated together.
« There’s nothing wrong with an exercise. It’s … the lack of transparency, » Hodges said.
RISING TENSIONS The September exercises appear poised to take place at a moment of rising tensions. Putin this week pledged to take counter-measures against Ukraine after accusing it of sending saboteurs into Crimea to carry out terrorist acts.
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden urged Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Friday « to do his part » to avoid escalating tensions with Russia and told him in a phone call that the United States had asked Moscow to do the same.
At the Pentagon, spokesman Gordon Trowbridge dismissed Russian accusations about Ukrainian saboteurs, saying the United States had no information to support them. But he appeared to downplay concerns about recent Russian troop movements, saying Washington was more focused on rhetoric from Moscow.
« We don’t necessarily see any evidence of troop movements that are so large that we are concerned about those on their own, » Trowbridge said.
U.S. officials, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said they saw no firm indications of any new Russian military activity pointing to fresh intervention in Ukraine.
One U.S. official noted a recent rotation of several divisions of Russian forces into Crimea to relieve an equal number, which have since departed.
Pro-Russian separatists are fighting the Kiev government’s forces in the eastern Ukraine region despite a fragile ceasefire. Civilian casualties from shelling, mines and booby traps in eastern Ukraine are at their highest in a year, the United Nations’ human rights chief has said.
A peace plan for the eastern Donbass region of Ukraine, negotiated in Minsk between Ukraine and Russia by Germany and France some 18-months ago, has stalled for months.
The Pentagon voiced alarm this week about escalating violence, noting that attacks by pro-Russian separatists killed 40 Ukrainians and wounded 170 in July alone.
Hodges cautioned that Moscow had « no incentive » on its own to see things stabilize in Ukraine. « That’s why … the OSCE (the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) and the rest of the West and the EU and all have got to maintain pressure, » Hodges said, praising commitments by the United States and its allies during the NATO summit in Warsaw last month.
Olympics-Judo-Egyptian booed for not shaking hands with Israeli Egypt’s Islam El Shehaby refused to shake hands with Israel’s Or Sasson after their judo match at the Rio Olympics on Friday, drawing boos from the crowd and stirring a debate about intolerance at the Games.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) opened a disciplinary commission after El Shehaby, who lost the first round elimination bout, backed away when Sasson bowed and approached him to shake hands.
El Shehaby, 32, had been reportedly pressured by fans on social media not to show up for the match with his Israeli opponent because it would shame Islam.
Egypt was the first Arab power to make peace with Israel, in 1979, but the treaty remains unpopular among many Egyptians.
El Shehaby and Sasson did not comment after the match inside the Carioca Arena 2.
An IOC official said the organization’s president, Thomas Bach, ordered the disciplinary commission as soon as he heard about the incident.
« We believe that the Olympic spirit should be about building bridges, never about erecting walls, » IOC spokesman Mark Adams told a news conference.
« Things happen in the heat of the moment that are not acceptable and obviously we would remind all competitors of Olympic values. » He said that the general spirit of toleration at the Games was exemplified by the athletes’ village, where competitors spend time socialising after competing.
‘HIS DECISION’ Sasson, speaking to reporters after winning bronze in the +100kg category, shrugged off the incident.
« For me it doesn’t matter because I’m a professional, I only think about fighting. I knew there was a chance he would not shake my hand, » said Sasson, who was fighting El Shehaby for the first time.
« I cannot say anything, this was his decision, » he said.
El Shehaby did not comment after their match.
Nicolas Messner, a spokesman for the International Judo Federation, said judokas are not obligated to shake hands under IJF rules, only to bow, which El Shehaby did after he was called back.
« Nevertheless, after the Games the situation will be studied and analysed to see if further action must be taken, » he told Reuters.
Some Israeli and Lebanese athletes had an argument last week about sharing a bus to the opening ceremony of the Rio Olympics.
The Lebanese team admitted preventing Israeli athletes from boarding but said it was because the bus was reserved for members of its team.
The Egyptian Olympic Committee said in a short statement on its Facebook page: « We told Islam El-Shehaby before the game he should fulfill all the sporting behaviors and rules against his Israeli opponent as this is just a game in a big world tournament. What happened after the match was just personal behavior ».
Sasson’s brother told Israel’s Channel 10 that Sasson was focused professionally and tactically on the competition. The incident with the Egyptian did not appear to involve any personal animosity, he added. »This is something driven perhaps by the Egyptian people, by the Egyptian regime, but it does not look to me like something personal, » he said.
Nike’s stock falls behind rivals amid Rio Olympics Nike has top billing among sports brands at the Rio Olympics, but a week into the Games, its stock is losing to Adidas and Under Armour.
The quadrennial global sports event exposes apparel brands worn by top athletes to hundreds of millions of viewers, but growing competition and higher costs may be reducing the benefits of major endorsement deals.
Since the Summer Olympics started last week, shares of official games sponsor Nike had gained 1.0 percent as of Friday. But rival stocks have dashed ahead, with Under Armour up almost 3 percent and Adidas nearly 6 percent, after a strong quarterly report.
Neither Adidas nor Under Armour are official Olympics sponsors. But Under Armour sponsors about 250 athletes, including U.S. swimming legend Michael Phelps. Adidas supplies uniforms to teams including Britain and Germany, and it is releasing special-edition sneakers lined in bronze, silver and gold.
Shares of Nike, which also sponsors the U.S. team, had delivered strong Summer Olympics performances until the last two Games.
The stock surged by a range of 4 percent to 19 percent during the six summer Games from 1984 to 2004. But it fell almost 3 percent during the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and the same amount during the 2012 Games in London, according to Bespoke Investment Group.
Under Armour listed its shares in 2005.
« You have increased competition. Under Armour is a public company out there now competing for more sponsorships. It’s more expensive for the companies involved, » said Bespoke co-founder Paul Hickey.
Following Thursday’s gold-medal performances from Phelps and U.S. gymnast Simone Biles, the next couple of days may be climactic for investors rooting for the shares of Nike and Dick’s Sporting Goods, the official retailer of U.S.team T-shirts and other apparel.
« This might be the weekend when people go out to stores, because last night was the most excitement I’ve had so far, » said TD Ameritrade Chief Market Strategist JJ Kinahan, who is tracking the stock performance of 24 Olympics sponsors.
So far, Nike has seen a « positive reaction » to its Olympics-related products sold through its own stores and by its wholesale partners, Nike spokesman Brian Strong told Reuters.
Ralph Lauren shares surged 12 percent this week after the U.S. team appeared at Friday’s opening ceremony sporting uniforms it designed, emblazoned with the company’s logo.
Shares of Adidas hit a record high on Thursday after the German company earlier this month posted its highest second-quarter sales growth in a decade. Expansion is being fueled by its Originals fashion business as well as soccer and running gear. Nike, feeling the heat from Adidas, Under Armour and rivals in China, disappointed Wall Street with its most recent quarterly scorecard in late June. While its shares have gained 6 percent since, they remain down 10 percent in 2016, making Nike the worst performer in the Dow Jones industrial average.
Weak U.S. retail sales, inflation data dim prospect of Fed rate hike U.S. retail sales were unexpectedly flat in July as Americans cut back on discretionary spending, pointing to a moderation in consumption that could temper expectations of a sharp pickup in economic growth in the third quarter.
Other data on Friday showed that producer prices recorded their biggest drop in nearly a year in July amid declining costs for services and energy goods. Cooling consumer spending and tame inflation suggest the Federal Reserve will probably not raise interest rates anytime soon despite a robust labor market.
« Fed members are afraid to come out from under their rocks until growth is sustainably solid and inflation in, near or at their target, and today’s reports don’t provide them with any comfort that will happen soon, » said Joel Naroff, chief economist at Naroff Economic Advisors in Holland, Pennsylvania.
July’s unchanged retail sales reading followed an upwardly revised 0.8 percent increase in June, the Commerce Department said. Retail sales in June were previously reported to have increased 0.6 percent. Sales rose 2.3 percent from a year ago.
Motor vehicle sales increased 1.1 percent last month. Rising demand for autos is pulling spending away from discretionary items, including sporting goods, whose sales in July suffered their biggest drop since January 2015.
Excluding automobiles, gasoline, building materials and food services, retail sales were also unchanged last month after rising 0.5 percent in June. These so-called core retail sales correspond most closely with the consumer spending component of gross domestic product.
Economists had forecast overall retail sales rising 0.4 percent and core sales climbing 0.3 percent last month. Some cautioned against reading too much into the July data, citing a labor market that is at or near full employment, and said they expected sales to bounce back in August.
« You have had two months of very strong job growth. It just seems very odd that spending would be weak. I will wait for the revisions before declaring July retail spending means anything more than random volatility, » said Steve Blitz, chief economist at M Science in New York.
U.S. Treasuries were trading higher on the data, while the dollar fell against a basket of currencies. U.S. stocks were little changed as the impact of rising oil prices offset the weak data.
There was another jump in online sales last month as they continued to grab market share from traditional retailers.
Macy’s said on Thursday it would close an additional 100 stores as it tries to turn around its business after six quarters of falling sales. Like other department stores, Macy’s has been squeezed by stiff competition from online retailers such as Amazon.com.
« The growth of on-line retailing is having impacts on the broader economy. For one, construction of shopping centers and other commercial structures obviously has suffered, » said Michael Feroli, an economist at JPMorgan in New York.
« Thankfully, commercial building has never been a huge share of business construction spending and so the impact on GDP is rather limited. »
PRICE PRESSURES MUTED Separately, the Labor Department said its producer price index for final demand dropped 0.4 percent last month, the first decline since March and the largest since September 2015. It increased 0.5 percent in June.
In the 12 months through July, the PPI slipped 0.2 percent.
That was the biggest drop since December 2015 and followed a 0.3 percent increase in the 12 months through June.
A strong dollar and cheaper oil continue to keep price pressures muted, leaving inflation running persistently below the Fed’s 2 percent target. Fed officials have repeatedly expressed concern about low inflation.
The U.S. central bank raised its benchmark overnight interest rate last December for the first time in nearly a decade. Although a Reuters poll on Thursday found that most economists expect another rate increase in December, financial markets currently anticipate such a move only next year.
Interest rate futures after Friday’s data placed only a 43 percent probability of a December rate hike, compared to 47 percent before the data.
Robust consumer spending has helped to cushion the blow on the economy from an inventory correction and the prolonged drag from lower oil prices that have restricted GDP growth to an average 1.0 percent annualized rate in the last three quarters.
While Friday’s data suggested consumer spending was cooling after the second quarter’s brisk 4.2 percent rate of increase, economists still expected growth in consumption to top a 2.5 percent pace in the current quarter.
Strong labor market gains as well as rising home and stock market prices should underpin spending. The economy created a total of 547,000 jobs in June and July.
A third report showed consumer sentiment was stable in early August, though households’ views on income softened a bit. Most of the weakness was among younger households who cited higher expenses than anticipated, according to the University of Michigan’s preliminary consumer sentiment survey.
Americans are facing rising rents and healthcare costs.
Following the retail sales report, the Atlanta Fed lowered its third-quarter GDP growth estimate by two-tenths of a percentage point to a 3.5 percent rate.
Growth is expected to be driven by a rebound in inventory investment, as well as consumer spending.
A fourth report from the Commerce Department showed businesses made significant progress in June in their efforts to reduce an inventory overhang that has weighed on economic growth since the second quarter of 2015. The inventory-to-sales ratio fell to a seven-month low of 1.39 months in June.
Trump backs off ISIS comments; party head appears at rallies in show of unity Republican Donald Trump on Friday backed away from comments calling President Barack Obama and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton the founders of the militant group Islamic State, while the Republican Party sought to project unity behind their candidate.
A new poll showed Trump, whose unfiltered speaking style has repeatedly landed him in hot water, losing ground in three crucial states ahead of the Nov. 8 general election against Clinton.
In a surprise appearance, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, who in private expressed fury over some of Trump’s actions earlier this month, introduced the candidate at a campaign event in Erie, Pennsylvania, and the two hugged onstage.
« We’re so honored to be working with Donald Trump and the campaign, » Priebus told thousands of Trump supporters.
« And don’t believe the garbage you read. Let me tell you something. Donald Trump, the Republican Party, all of you, we’re going to put him in the White House and save this country together. » Republican sources earlier this month said Priebus was furious over Trump’s failure to endorse House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan and his feud with the parents of a Muslim American soldier killed in Iraq. Trump did endorse Ryan a few days later.
Trump brought Priebus on stage later at another rally, in Altoona, Pennsylvania, to thank him for the work he has done as he insisted there is great unity in the party.
« I have to say we have great unification, » Trump said.
Trump on Friday told the rallies in Altoona and Erie that his remarks earlier this week calling Obama and Clinton the founders of ISIS, as Islamic State is also known, had been sarcastic.
« I have been saying because it’s true, but somewhat sarcastically, that he’s the founder of ISIS and she’s a close second, » Trump said in Altoona.
Trump first made the unfounded claim on Wednesday and repeated it through the week.
Trump claimed sarcasm in July as well after he was heavily criticized for inviting Russia to dig up tens of thousands of « missing » emails from Clinton’s time as U.S. secretary of state.
A Wall Street Journal/NBC News/Marist poll released on Friday suggested support for Trump is eroding among voters in three battleground states.
Such states are hotly contested because their populations can swing either to Republicans or Democrats and thus play a decisive role in presidential elections, which are ultimately decided by the state-by-state tally of the Electoral College.
The poll found Clinton widening her lead in Colorado, Virginia and North Carolina, while holding her advantage in Florida.
Clinton released her tax returns on Friday, painting the move as a sign of transparency that her campaign says Trump lacks.
U.S. presidential candidates are not required to release their tax returns, but it has become a common custom.
Trump has cited an audit by the Internal Revenue Service in refusing to release his returns. Trump also has said his taxes are no one’s business and that they reveal little.
Trump scheduled a speech in Warren, Ohio, on Monday that will focus on how he would handle the threat posed by Islamic State. Trump has said he would « knock the hell out of ISIS, » without offering details.
Trump has been mired in repeated controversies in recent days. He drew heavy criticism after he suggested gun rights activists could take action against Clinton, a statement he later said was aimed at rallying votes against her.
Nearly one-fifth of registered Republicans now want Trump to drop out of the race for the White House, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Wednesday.
Republicans frequently trace the birth of Islamic State to the Obama administration’s decision to withdraw the last U.S.forces from Iraq by the end of 2011.
But many analysts argue its roots lie in the decision of George W. Bush’s Republican administration to invade Iraq in 2003 without a plan to fill the vacuum created by Saddam Hussein’s ouster. It was Bush’s administration that negotiated the 2009 agreement that called for the withdrawal of all U.S.forces from Iraq by Dec. 31, 2011.
At his Erie event, Trump seemed to acknowledge he is facing a formidable opponent in Clinton as well as a difficult electoral path.
« The Republicans have a tougher path – not my fault, » he said. He said Clinton’s campaign is smart to keep her out of the spotlight.
« She doesn’t talk to reporters very often. … She doesn’t expose what’s going on up here, which isn’t good, » he said, meaning her brain. « She’s doesn’t expose her mind to questions.
What they want to do is try to fake it through. » Trump also said in Altoona that the only way he could lose Pennsylvania to Clinton is if « cheating goes on. » He said he wants authorities to monitor the voting closely. »I know what’s happening here, folks. She can’t beat what’s happening here. »
Clinton happily yields national spotlight to Trump, avoids its glare If you haven’t heard a lot about what Hillary Clinton thinks of a string of controversial comments by Donald Trump that have generated round-the-clock coverage on cable news broadcasts, there is a reason – it’s by design.
Since becoming the Democratic nominee last month, Clinton has been touring toy manufacturers, visiting tie makers and dropping in on public health clinics, where if she mentions Trump at all, it is usually to contrast their policies.
Her swift condemnation at a Wednesday campaign rally of Trump’s remark that gun rights activists could stop her from nominating liberal U.S. Supreme Court justices was a rare instance where she has directly engaged her Republican rival in the 2016 race for the White House.
Aides say Clinton’s strategy is simple: let Trump be Trump.
Trump has suffered a series of missteps over the past two weeks that go beyond his remarks on gun rights activists, which he later accused the media of deliberately misinterpreting.
He has tangled with party leaders, clashed with the parents of a fallen Muslim American Army captain and this week accused Clinton, a former secretary of state, and President Barack Obama of « founding » the Islamic State militant group. On Friday, he said he was just being sarcastic when he made that remark.
« There is an adage in politics: Don’t get in the way of a train wreck, » said Democratic strategist Bob Shrum, a top campaign aide to presidential candidates Al Gore in 2000 and John Kerry in 2004.
Clinton’s advisers say they see little benefit in her going toe-to-toe with Trump over every personal accusation, generating sound bites that would dominate cable news broadcasts. Rather, they are happy for him to be embroiled in controversy while Clinton focuses on policy.
Trump’s campaign declined to comment for this story, but the New York real estate developer has accused the national media of bias toward Clinton. He re-posted a supporter’s Tweet on Friday that said the « corrupt media » was deliberately exaggerating his remarks to favor his Democratic opponent.
Trump has slipped in opinion polls, and worried Republican Party leaders have urged him to stop making off-the-cuff inflammatory statements that generate blanket, often negative, media coverage and distract from efforts to highlight what they see as Clinton’s many shortcomings.
SUCKING OUT THE OXYGEN « He’s sucking all the oxygen out of the room to his own detriment, » said Republican strategist and Trump supporter Ford O’Connell. It’s not enough to dominate media coverage, he needs to « win » it, O’Connell said.
Trump has boasted that the news coverage he generates means he does not have to spend as much on campaign ads, but political veterans say he is squandering the attention and missing opportunities to win over undecided voters.
For example, Trump gave an economic speech on Monday that was meant to help his campaign regain momentum, but it was quickly eclipsed by the fallout over his remarks on gun rights activists.
Clinton, meanwhile, has been busy courting local media in must-win states. Her national press pool, which seldom gets to question the candidate, often waits as she conducts interviews with local news outlets.
She has granted few recent interviews to national outlets and rarely holds press conferences, a strategy her critics say is calculated to avoid questions about her use of a private email server during her time as secretary of state, and the relationship between her family’s global charity, the Clinton Foundation, and the State Department.
Clinton, who has said she is one of the most transparent presidential candidates in history, has acknowledged her use of the private email server was a mistake but said she properly handled all classified information. She has denied any improper links between the foundation and the State Department.
In interviews with local outlets, Clinton is more likely to face questions about job creation, public health and raising wages – all parts of her platform that she is keen to discuss.
In Florida, a crucial battleground state, Republican lobbyist Gus Corbella says the contrast between the local coverage of Clinton’s campaign stops there and Trump’s events has been stark.
« Clinton’s campaign seems to have the more disciplined approach, » Corbella said. « The rollout that day is on a specific event she’s attending, a message she’s trying to deliver. Whereas on the Trump side, it’s what crazy thing did he say today and the response to that. » After Clinton’s visit last week to a tie maker in Colorado, the lead story on the front page of the Denver Post was « Clinton pledges millions of jobs. » Trump also featured on the front page, but in a smaller story about « damage control » in his troubled campaign.
POLL-Clinton leads Trump by 5 points in White House race -Reuters/Ipsos Democrat Hillary Clinton led Republican Donald Trump by more than 5 percentage points in the Reuters/Ipsos tracking poll released on Friday, little changed in weeks as the U.S. presidential campaign wobbles into the heart of summer.
Since July 28, Clinton’s daily support among likely voters in the poll has hovered between a low of 41 and a high of 44 percentage points. She was at 41 percentage points on Thursday, down slightly this week.
Trump’s support has moved slightly more, ranging from a low of 33 percentage points to a high of 39 points. He was at 36 points on Thursday, up slightly this week.
Among registered voters, Clinton was ahead by 9 points on Thursday, 42 to 33.
At this point in the 2012 election, both President Barack Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney had solidified their support, and Romney held a 45 percent to 41 percent lead, with only 14 percent of likely voters not picking one of the two candidates.
Trump, a New York businessman seeking his first elected office, has been mired in controversies in recent days, and many establishment Republicans have begun to distance themselves from his campaign.
He drew heavy criticism for suggesting gun rights activists could take action against Clinton, a statement he later said was meant to rally votes against her. On Thursday he repeatedly accused Clinton and Obama of being co-founders of the Islamic State militant group. On Friday he said the remarks were meant to be sarcasm.
On Thursday, the number of likely voters who were not picking either Clinton or Trump in the Nov. 8 presidential election was 22 percent. That number has remained stubbornly in the 20- to 25-point range for weeks.
Despite that, neither of the alternative candidates is gaining traction. In a four-way race, Libertarian Gary Johnson saw his support dip slightly to 7 percentage points on Thursday, down from a high of nearly 9 points earlier this week. Green Party nominee Jill Stein was at about 3 points on Thursday, largely unchanged.The results on Thursday were taken from a sample of 1,446 registered voters and 1,116 likely voters surveyed between Aug.7 and Aug. 11. The results have a credibility interval of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
Changing Cuba pays homage to Fidel Castro ahead of 90th birthday Cuba is awash with official tributes to former leader Fidel Castro ahead of his 90th birthday on Saturday, even as its people and leadership have begun to look beyond the legacy of the Communist-ruled state’s founding figure.
Dotted around Havana, flags read « Gracias, Fidel » and billboards cite his best-known phrases, while state media churns out stories about the man who toppled a U.S.-backed dictator in 1959 and went on to rule Cuba for nearly half a century.
Thousands are expected to attend street concerts over the weekend in honor of Castro, who is revered by many for freeing Cuba from U.S. domination and bringing universal healthcare and education, but loathed by others for his long grip on the island.
« Fidel is an example for the whole world, he is a large personality because of all he did for our country, » said Yoelmis Mengana, a shop owner, after touring an exhibition of photos of Fidel in Havana’s grandiose Hotel Nacional.
The birthday celebrations hark back to an era when « El Comandante » nationalized the economy and ruled almost single-handedly, but Cuba has changed since Fidel’s brother, President Raul Castro, officially took the reins of power in 2008.
The younger Castro, 85, has brought detente with « eternal enemy » the United States and pushed through market-oriented reforms to the Soviet-style command economy, while also offering more internet access and fewer restrictions on travel.
Hundreds of thousands of Cubans now work for themselves or for small private businesses and a jump in tourism, likely to accelerate with the start of regular commercial flights to and from the United States later this month, has fueled a new sense of openness and economic opportunity on the island.
In public comments, Fidel has lent only lukewarm support to his brother’s initiatives, but his influence has waned externally as well as at home.
On his 80th birthday, Fidel Castro was frail from an intestinal ailment that nearly killed him, but his ideas were enjoying a revival among a bloc of leftist presidents resisting the traditional domination of the United States in Latin America.
A decade later, that bloc is crumbling. In Brazil and Argentina, a shift to the political right has toppled Fidel’s friends.
Venezuela’s socialist President Nicolas Maduro will visit Cuba for Fidel’s birthday, local media reported. But Venezuela, an important ally of Cuba under late left-wing populist Hugo Chavez, is in crisis and has slashed the exports of subsidized oil that Havana long depended on.
It is not clear whether Fidel, who has not been seen out and about for months, will make a public appearance.
HISTORIC LEADER While Castro no longer has a government or Communist Party office, he still holds sway with the honorific title Historic Leader. In March he wrote a column criticizing U.S. President Barack Obama’s recent historic visit and then shocked some Cubans at the Communist Party Congress in April by musing about death.
He remains hugely popular even with his aura of invincibility gone. And he plays a role as a brake on the pace of change, with Communist Party conservatives using his moral authority and popularity to bolster attempts to thwart reform, analysts say.
« Regime hard-liners, quite possibly with his approval, are playing upon the general populations’ reservoir of sympathy for Fidel to legitimize their resistance to change, » said Richard Feinberg, author of a new book, « Open for Business: Building the New Cuban Economy ».
Adulation of Fidel in the official media is grating to many, especially at a time when an economic slowdown is a reminder of the flaws in his utopian dreams and many Cubans are still desperately seeking to emigrate to the United States.
« This time there have been too many tributes, » said Yosmara Castaneda, adding that her « very revolutionary » Havana-based family celebrated his birthday every year.
« It’s almost like they are giving him a big farewell …
They have been paying tributes since June, » said the 27-year- old, who once sang for Fidel as a child in a choir.
While many of the official birthday activities have targeted such young Cubans, to remind them of Fidel’s role in history, some say they will skip the party.
« His time is past and it’s now the moment to give way to the young, » said Yaniel Pupo, a 23-year-old accountant. « If you’ve created a regime … which doesn’t work, then it’s time to change it.
More airline outages seen as carriers grapple with aging technology Airlines will likely suffer more disruptions like the one that grounded about 2,000 Delta flights this week because major carriers have not invested enough to overhaul reservations systems based on technology dating to the 1960s, airline industry and technology experts told Reuters.
Airlines have spent heavily to introduce new features such as automated check-in kiosks, real-time luggage tracking and slick mobile apps. But they have avoided the steep cost of rebuilding their reservations systems from the ground up, former airline executives said.
Scott Nason, former chief information officer at American Airlines Group Inc, said long-term investments in computer technology were a tough sell when he worked there.
« Most airlines were on the verge of going out of business for many years, so investment of any kind had to have short pay-back periods, » said Nason, who left American in 2009 and is now an independent consultant.
The reservations systems of the biggest carriers mostly run on a specialized IBM operating system known as Transaction Processing Facility, or TPF. It was designed in the 1960s to process large numbers of transactions quickly and is still updated by IBM, which did a major rewrite of the operating system about a decade ago.
A host of special features, ranging from mobile check-ins to seat selection and cabin upgrades, are built on top of the TPF core, or connected to it.
« They have surrounded that old industry infrastructure with modern technology, » said Bob Edwards, United Continental Holdings Inc’s former chief information officer until 2014. « Those systems have to always reach back into the old core technologies to retrieve a reservation or to figure out who flies between Dallas and New York City. » When a power outage shuts off that reservations system – as happened on Monday to Delta Air Lines Inc’s « Deltamatic » system – TPF falls out of sync with the newer technologies that passenger service agents use to assist travelers, Edwards said.
Airlines are then forced to cancel flights as demands from stranded customers flood their employees – who meanwhile are handling bookings on an older platform without their familiar, modern tools, he said. Several years ago, it took United six hours to recover from a test shutdown, thanks to complications with the many add-ons built atop TPF, Edwards said.
Other recent disruptions include one in July that prompted Southwest Airlines Co to cancel over 2,000 flights and two outages last summer at United Continental. IBM Senior Vice President Tom Rosamilia said in a statement that TPF « was not named as the source or issue in any of the recent outages » and that it « is one of the most modern and reliable systems in the airline infrastructure. » Rosamilia added that the vast majority of airlines use TPF « to process up to a million complex transactions per second, uninterrupted by frequent feature updates or the failure of other systems. » PRESSURE FOR PROFITS Delta spokeswoman Kate Modolo said in a statement that a small fire on Monday resulted in a « massive failure » at the airline’s technology center. Delta was forced to cancel flights because critical systems did not switch over to backup power as intended, she said. Reuters sent Delta and other major carriers detailed questions on TPF infrastructure and their technology investments. Modolo did not answer whether Delta relies on TPF, but said « the functionality of the IT programs we use » was not an issue.
She had no comment on whether Delta had decreased or increased its spending on back-end technology over the past decade.
« We have a new CIO who has a go-forward plan to ensure Delta is on the cutting edge of customer service technology while strengthening our IT infrastructure so that it is reliable, redundant and nimble, » she said in a statement.
Most big airlines, including the four largest in the United States – American, Delta, United and Southwest – rely on TPF in some form, industry experts said.
In response to questions from Reuters, those airlines did not answer whether their aging systems put them at risk of future disruptions, but all stressed that they are upgrading their technology and are focused on reliability. Southwest, for example, said it is in the process of replacing its reservations system. Earlier this week, in a video statement, Delta Chief Executive Ed Bastian said: « Over the last three years, we have invested hundreds of millions of dollars on technology infrastructure upgrades and systems including backup systems to prevent what happened yesterday from occurring. I’m sorry that it happened. » U.S. and Canadian airlines are projected to spend an average of 3 percent of their revenue on information technology this year – compared to 8 percent by commercial banks and 4 percent by healthcare firms, according to Computer Economics, a firm that tracks IT spending.
Nason cautioned that comparing technology spending by airlines to some other industries, including banking, can be tricky. Banks have lower capital costs and they rely more heavily on information technology for their core business.
Still, technology experts say that level of spending by the major airlines is not sufficient, pointing to the recent failures as evidence.
Part of the challenge is that U.S. airlines are under pressure from investors to top recent record profits and boost stock prices, even as economic troubles overseas have reduced travel demand.
Delta, for example, is looking to boost its operating profit margin to between 17 percent and 19 percent by 2018. That’s up from last year’s margin target of 14 percent to 16 percent. FEAR OF FAILURE Airlines have also held off on making major network upgrades out of fear that systems could fail during the transition, making them feel that they cannot afford to take them down to add equipment, install patches and perform other maintenance, said Gartner analyst Mark Jaggers.
Some consumer groups have called on airlines to do a better job at planning for disruptions like the one this week at Delta, which affected hundreds of thousands of passengers over four days.
« It is unfair to the traveling public that the cost of under-investment in needed equipment be shifted and placed on the back of air travelers, » said travel consumer advocates Paul Hudson and Charlie Leocha in a letter to the heads of the U.S.
Transportation Department and U.S. Federal Aviation Administration on Wednesday.
Henry Harteveldt, founder of the travel consultancy Atmosphere Research Group, said some airlines are choosing to risk outages that might cost them $20 million to $40 million rather than invest, for example, $100 million on technology upgrades. He believes investors and the general public will apply increasing pressure on airlines to avoid outages at any cost.
« We cannot afford, as a nation, for any of our airlines to be rendered useless by a technology failure, » Harteveldt said.
Yet it can be hard to convince airline management that the cost-benefit analysis justifies the major investments to make their computer systems truly fail-safe, said Edwards, the former United chief information officer. « When fuel prices are low and there’s extra cash on hand, they want to spend it on the cool shiny things like planes and mobile apps, » he said. « Nobody gets excited about the data center. »
(World news summary compiled by Maghreb news staff)