Cameroon says it has again closed more than 60 schools on its northern border with Nigeria to protect children and teaching staff from increasing Boko Haram attacks. Many people have fled the region and are now displaced.
 
The Islamist group has stepped up its use of suicide bombers, even as the country’s military has drastically reduced the jihadists’ firepower.
 
The central African country has deployed its military to assure the safety of the remaining civilian population in the affected regions.  
 
Ousmanou Garga, Cameroon’s basic education official on the northern border with Nigeria, says recent Boko Haram attacks have made many schools unsafe.
 
Garga says several dozen schools in Cameroon’s Mayo Sava, Mayo Tsanaga and Logone and Chari administrative units that border Nigeria’s Borno state, the epicenter of Boko Haram’s activities, no longer function.
 
“Sixty-two schools have been closed. The children have to be either scholarized (educated) in other schools very far from their own villages or to abandon schools. Thirty-four-thousand-and-fifty-four students have been registered as IDPs. We have the students of the host communities; we have even refugee students,” he said.
 
Garga said teachers in all the affected schools fled with the children they teach.
 
Cameroon’s military has been reporting at least three Boko Haram attacks every week since January. The military says most of the attackers are suicide bombers, mainly women and children. The military says the terrorist group has torched 13 schools within the past two months, held at least 200 people for ransom and abducted an unknown number of civilians.
 
Colonel Ndikum Azeh, commander of Cameroonian troops fighting Boko Haram in the Mayo Sava, Mayo Tsanaga and Logone and Chari administrative units, says the military has been deployed to protect civilians in the area. Azeh says some troops have also been deployed to teach displaced students in safer areas less susceptible to Boko Haram attacks.
 
“Ashigashia (a border town) has for long been a target for Boko Haram assault as early as 2014. The hierarchy (military) thinks that to sustain a good security situation, it is through the youths and the best process is through their education,” Azeh said.
 
Nongovernmental organizations, rights and humanitarian groups have been calling on Boko Haram to respect the intergovernmental Safe School Declaration. Desire Fouda of the NGO School First says the declaration should be observed to protect students and ensure they are able to receive an education.
 
“We sensitize different actors in education to respect those guidelines on safe schools declaration so that all the different actors should contribute to help those children to have access to education,” Fouda said.
 
Boko Haram terrorists have been fighting for 11 years to create an Islamic caliphate in northeast Nigeria. The fighting has spread to Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Benin, with regular killings, abductions and burnings of mosques, churches, markets and schools.   
 
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New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s party Saturday won the country’s general election in a landslide, achieving an absolute majority and securing her a second term.
 
With two-thirds of the vote counted, her center-left Labour Party had already won more than 49% of the vote and was expected to secure roughly 64 seats in the country’s 120-member parliament.
 
The figure was high enough for opposition leader Judith Collins to concede and telephone Ardern to congratulate her.
 
“Congratulations on your result because it is, I believe, an outstanding result for the Labour Party. It has been a tough campaign,” Collins said in the city of Auckland.
 
Her conservative National Party would take about 35 seats in what seems to be its poorest election showing in nearly 20 years.
 
No political leader has secured an absolute majority since New Zealand adopted a proportional voting system in 1996, leading to several coalition governments.
 
Ardern’s result is better than expected and it is likely to give Labour its strongest victory since 1946.
 
She was highly praised for her leadership during the coronavirus pandemic, which caused only 25 deaths in the country of 5 million.
   
She showed empathy and decisive action on gun control after a white supremacist gunman killed 51 Muslims in an attack on mosques last year.
 
Ardern also displayed strong leadership in handling the aftermath of a volcanic eruption at White Island, also known as Whakaari, that killed 21 and left dozens injured in December.
 
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Authorities in Azerbaijan say a missile attack on the city of Ganja killed at least 12 people and wounded 40 others in early hours of Saturday.Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry claimed that the cities of Ganja and Mingachevir were hit with missiles fired from two different locations in Armenia.Armenian authorities have neither denied nor accepted the responsibility for the attacks on the two cities.According to official sources in Azerbaijan, Saturday’s missile attack destroyed at least 20 residential buildings in Ganja, the country’s second-largest city.The ongoing fighting between Azerbaijan and Armenia erupted on Sept. 27 and has killed hundreds of people, marking the biggest escalation of the decades-old conflict over breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh since a 1994 cease-fire.The predominantly ethnic Armenian territory declared its independence from Azerbaijan in 1991 during the collapse of the Soviet Union, sparking a war that claimed the lives of as many as 30,000 people before a 1994 cease-fire.   However, that independence is not internationally recognized. 
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Two female Iranian dissidents have responded defiantly to being summoned to start prison terms in Iran, saying they have no regrets for signing the 2019 letter that called for the nation’s Islamist ruler to quit and triggered their arrest.In exclusive Thursday interviews with VOA Persian from Iran, Shahla Entesari and Shahla Jahanbin said they had received phone calls the previous day from Tehran’s Evin prison, notifying them that they must report to the jail within 10 days. Iran’s judiciary has ordered the two women to serve 27-month prison terms for signing the Aug. 9, 2019, open letter that demanded the resignation of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.Entesari and Jahanbin were among 14 Iranian women who signed the letter and who were later charged by Iranian authorities with spreading anti-government propaganda and “gathering and conspiring against national security.”The signatories wrote, “We rise against this anti-woman regime that has wiped out our human values and demand a complete departure from the Islamic Republic and drafting of a new constitution for the establishment of a state in which women’s dignity, identity and equal rights are recognized in all areas.”Iran has been led by Shiite clerics since they seized power in a 1979 Islamist Revolution.’Don’t regret’ signingIranian security agents arrested Entesari and Jahanbin in connection with the August 2019 letter later that month before releasing both on bail in November.The two women told VOA they “don’t regret” signing the letter, even though they face the prospect of imminent imprisonment that could exacerbate their existing medical problems and put them at risk of coronavirus exposure. International rights activists have documented multiple coronavirus outbreaks in Iran’s unsanitary and overcrowded prison system.Jahanbin suffers from osteoarthritis, a degenerative joint disease affecting both her neck and shoulders, while Entesari has heart disease and tremors in her arm and leg.Jahanbin said she had received an initial prison summons in May but asked authorities to delay her incarceration so that she could undergo a needed back surgery and have time to recover from the procedure. She said the authorities granted her a two-month recovery period, but she was unable to schedule the surgery because of the pandemic.Iranians who resist an initial prison summons can receive several follow-up notices over a period of weeks or months, but also risk being arrested and sent to jail at any time.“We stand by our words,” Jahanbin said in reference to the letter demanding Khamenei resign. She said she remains concerned about the increasing problems facing Iran as its Islamist rulers struggle with the Middle East’s worst coronavirus outbreak and a two-year economic recession fueled by escalating U.S. sanctions and government mismanagement.’We only made a request’Jahanbin also said she and the other signatories of the letter did nothing wrong. “We did not gather or foment any violent movement. We only made a request (of Khamenei) based on our constitutional rights,” she said.Speaking separately to VOA, Entesari said the more time that has passed since signing the letter, the more she believes it was the right thing to do.“Iran’s worsening situation, whose main cause is the incompetence of its Islamist rulers, shows how correct our statements were,” Entesari said. “It is because of their weakness that they want to imprison anyone who seeks freedom and makes the slightest criticism against them,” she added.Iranian state media have been silent on the cases of the two women in recent weeks.The letter signed by Entesari and Jahanbin was inspired in part by an earlier June 2019 open letter in which another 14 dissidents, mostly men, issued similar demands for Khamenei to quit and for Iran’s Islamist constitution to be changed.Most of the signatories of the first letter also were arrested and charged with national security offenses. One of those detained in August 2019 was Jahanbin’s husband, Abbas Vahedian Shahroudi. He was granted a temporary release from a prison in Mashhad in July.This article originated in VOA’s Persian Service. Click here for the original Persian version of the story. 
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U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is calling on Haiti’s government to hold legislative elections “as soon as technically feasible.””Haiti’s legislative elections are now overdue. We continue to call for elections as soon as technically feasible. We understand that the OAS secretary-general has called for those elections to be held by the end of January,” Pompeo said in a video clip posted on Twitter..Haitian Président Jovenel Moïse welcomes new members of electoral council, Sept. 22, 2020. (Yves Manuel/VOA Creole)”Your country is grateful for your courage,” Moise tweeted.Je suis donc heureux aujourd’hui de procéder à l’installation de ce CEP. C’est dans un contexte difficile que vous avez pris la décision de servir la République. En acceptant de devenir membres de ce CEP, vous faites un acte de courage pour lequel le pays vous sera reconnaissant. Pierre François Sildor, president of Haiti’s Senate. (Renan Toussaint/VOA Creole)”What it (the constitution) says is what must be done,” the senator said. “It says there must be a representative from the executive branch – the executive did not name a representative. It says there must be a representative of the Episcopal Conference – the Catholic church and other religious sectors did not name a representative. It requires a representative of the universities – there isn’t one. It requires a union representative – they didn’t name one – these are four huge sectors of society – everyone knows that – and they are not represented.”Residents of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, interviewed by VOA Creole shortly after the CEP swearing-in ceremony in September, opposed the idea of holding elections.”This president thinks he can rule unilaterally, but we’d like to remind him he needs to consult the people (before making these decisions),” a man who declined to give his name said.”We are dealing with insecurity, we have no customers, no cash flowing in – forget about elections, Jovenel Moise needs to understand we need security first,” a female merchant at an open-air market told VOA.”People are dying in the streets, we don’t have food to eat, and you’re talking about elections?” a male customer at an open-air market said. “Jovenel Moise cannot hold elections.”OAS expresses concern about HaitiIn May 2020, the Organization of American States Secretary General Luis Almagro An anti-US protest leader says America has no right to interfere in Haiti’s politics. (Matiado Vilme/VOA Creole)Presidential adviser Patrick Crispin announced on June 23 that legislative elections are planned for December 2020. In the meantime, there have been no parliamentary checks and balances on the president’s decrees.Leadership vacuumFailure to hold elections before Moise’s term ends would leave Haiti in a leadership vacuum. The opposition has floated the idea of a “transitional government” to rule the country in the meantime, but after countless meetings, they have failed to agree on much of anything.”A transitional government should organize elections because we cannot campaign for office, the political climate is not conducive at this time,” an opposition leader told VOA Creole.Anti-US protestOn Sept. 24, the opposition held a small protest in front of the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince, during which protesters chanted, “In this climate of insecurity we will not participate in elections!””We … Haitians want Americans to know that although they are threatening sanctions against those of us who stand against this illegitimate (electoral) council, we’re not afraid,” a protest leader told VOA Creole. “There will be no election as long as Jovenel Moise is in power. The United States has no authority to order us around.”The opposition announced nationwide protests on Oct. 17, a national holiday honoring the life of Jean Jacques Dessalines, one of the nation’s founders and a hero of the revolutionary war for independence. They say they will be calling on Moise to resign.In Port-au-Prince, VOA Creole’s Renan Toussaint, Matiado Vilme and Yves Manuel contributed to this report. 
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There are growing concerns the United States is vastly underestimating al-Qaida’s strength and influence in Afghanistan, even as the White House continues to talk about ever more ambitious deadlines for bringing home U.S. troops still stationed in the country.Specifically, international terrorism officials, as well as Afghan officials, point to a widening gap between U.S. assessments of a significantly diminished al-Qaida and their own, which see a terror group that is strengthening its grip despite absorbing numerous blows.“Senior figures remain in Afghanistan, as well as hundreds of armed operatives,” Edmund Fitton-Brown, coordinator of the United Nations monitoring team for Islamic State, al-Qaida and the Taliban, said Friday during a webinar on the future of Afghanistan.“[Al-Qaida leader] Ayman al-Zawahiri remains close to the Taliban,” he said, adding, “The Taliban regularly consulted with al-Qaida during the negotiations with the United States and they offered informal guarantees that would honor their historic ties with al-Qaida.”The warning of a retrenched al-Qaida is not entirely new.A U.N. report issued this past July warned the group “is covertly active in 12 Afghan provinces,” adding it likely commands 400 to 600 fighters.U.N. member states have further warned of additional armed support from al-Qaida in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), an affiliate that is thought to have another 150 to 200 fighters in Afghanistan’s Nimruz, Helmand and Kandahar provinces.Afghan officials have, likewise, cast doubt on reports that the threat from the terror group has faded.Instead, they argue their intelligence shows the Taliban have used ongoing peace talks with the United States to strengthen their ties to al-Qaida and others.“The Taliban try to use these groups and organizations more than before in fighting inside Afghanistan,” Zia Seraj, the acting head of the National Directorate of Security (NDS), the Afghan spy agency, said in May.US threat assessmentWhile international and Afghan counterterror officials see a growing threat, a number of key U.S. officials continue to portray al-Qaida in Afghanistan as a fading power.During a virtual talk at the Washington-based Atlantic Council in September, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said there are “fewer than 200 al-Qaida left in Afghanistan.”Days later, National Counterterrorism Center Director Christopher Miller went even further in written testimony submitted to lawmakers on the House Homeland Security Committee.“Al-Qaida’s presence in Afghanistan has been reduced to a few dozen fighters who are primarily focused on their survival,” Miller asserted, adding the terror group is “probably incapable of conducting attacks outside the country under sustained CT [counterterrorism] pressure.”One international counterterrorism official, though, speaking on the condition of anonymity, called such optimistic pronouncements “hugely problematic.” Others warn the U.S. is making a mistake by failing to account for substantial support from a vast majority of the 10,000 foreign fighters currently in Afghanistan.Still other officials and experts fear the U.S. assessments of a “few dozen” al-Qaida fighters are not intended to be accurate, but rather to align with repeated calls by U.S. President Donald Trump to bring U.S. troops home from Afghanistan as soon as possible.We should have the small remaining number of our BRAVE Men and Women serving in Afghanistan home by Christmas!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 7, 2020“It’s just not credible to say that there are only a few dozen al-Qaida guys running around Afghanistan,” said Thomas Joscelyn, a senior fellow with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.“That’s clearly undercounting for your own policy desires,” he said, cautioning that the U.S. has long been guilty of sharing overly optimistic assessments of al-Qaida in Afghanistan.“There are so many pronouncements made by the military on al-Qaida’s strength in Afghanistan that were wrong over the years,” he said, noting earlier U.S. estimates of as few as 50 operatives. “They just go from one inaccurate assessment to another.”‘Relationship with al-Qaida’But Joscelyn added even the U.N. estimates of 400 to 600 al-Qaida operatives might be too low.“The Pakistani Taliban is known to have a very tight relationship with al-Qaida,” Joscelyn said. “How many of the Pakistani Taliban guys…are dual-hatted, they’re also al-Qaida guys? Nobody can tell you, but we know that some of them are.”Even within U.S. military and intelligence circles, there is some skepticism that al-Qaida is barely hanging on – thanks in part to ongoing support from the Taliban despite pledges to counter the threat.NEW: “The #Taliban has not yet demonstrated that it is upholding its commitment to dissociate from terrorist organizations” per @DoD_IG”The Taliban remained supportive of #alQaida, even to the point of working together to attack Afghan security forces”https://t.co/KXrb1Dhmjr— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) August 18, 2020“They have taken steps. But this is unfinished business from my point of view,” U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad, who has been spearheading peace talks with the Taliban, told the U.S. Institute for Peace last month. “They need to take more.”#Taliban taking on #alQaida? “They have taken steps. But this is unfinished business from my point of view. They need to take more” per @US4AfghanPeace, who declines to share any details about what exactly Taliban have done to crack down on AQ#AfghanPeace— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) September 24, 2020Still, Khalilzad insisted al-Qaida fighters “are a very small number.”“They are mostly focused on survival because we are hunting for them,” he said.Mirwais Rahmani of VOA’s Afghan Service contributed to this story.
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The Superior Court in Washington, D.C., has ruled that actions taken by the U.S. Agency for Global Media’s chief executive against the board of the Open Technology Fund are invalid.The court ruling came in response to a July lawsuit regarding who controls the OTF. The suit was filed by the office of the District of Columbia’s attorney general under the district’s Nonprofit Corporations Act.OTF, an independent, nonprofit grantee of USAGM, In one of his first acts as chief executive of USAGM, the federal agency that oversees Voice of America and other networks and grantees, including OTF, Michael Pack fired the heads of the networks and OTF Chief Executive Libby Liu and replaced their boards. The director and deputy director of Voice of America resigned two days before Pack joined the agency.The D.C. court ruling on Wednesday said Pack’s replacement of OTF’s board of directors was unauthorized and any actions taken by the new board were invalid. It stated that the original members were the valid board.The USAGM did not respond to VOA’s request for comment.A copy of the FILE – Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., speaks during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Sept. 24, 2020.“From the start, Michael Pack has tried to turn USAGM into an arm of the White House by obliterating its independence and objectivity. I’m glad the court ruling invalidated his attempts to dissolve the Open Technology Fund board and supported the independence that USGAM and its predecessors have stood for,” Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, said.“Protecting free speech and freedom of the press is essential in a democracy, and this week’s court ruling is a step in the right direction to reverse the damage done by Pack and other pro-Trump appointees,” Murphy said.The senator on Friday released details of proposed legislation to increase protections for journalists from political interference.In a release, his office said the proposal came in response to allegations that officials at USAGM had launched a politically motivated investigation into VOA’s White House bureau chief, Steven Herman.In an Oct. 5 statement to VOA about the allegations of an investigation, USAGM said it would not comment because it involved the leak of privileged information. “This is an internal VOA management issue being handled by the VOA leadership,” USAGM said.Changes proposedThe legislation proposes amending the U.S. International Broadcasting Act, which established the board that later became USAGM, to more explicitly protect journalists at the agency’s networks from influence by U.S. government officials, including investigations into private political views.It would also require the chief executive to protect journalists from interference by government agencies or officials; ensure employees are judged on their professional standards and not political views made in private; and authorize the inspector general to investigate any potential infringements or attempts to pressure journalists.
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On Friday, President Donald Trump campaigned in Fort Myers, Florida, a state with one of the highest populations of elderly voters, delivering remarks aimed at reassuring older Americans that he will protect them from the pandemic. “I am honored to be here in Fort Myers to reaffirm my solemn pledge to America’s seniors,” Trump said. “I will protect you, I will defend you, and I will fight for you with every ounce of energy and conviction that I have.” Trump delivered his speech in front of an indoor crowd, some of them not socially distanced and many not wearing masks. “My message to American seniors today is one of optimism, confidence and hope,” Trump said, adding that “the light at the end of the tunnel is near, we are rounding the turn” on the pandemic. President Donald Trump speaks during an event on Protecting America’s Seniors, in Fort Myers, Fla., Oct. 16, 2020.Adults age 65 and older make up 23% of the FILE – The Florida state flag hangs behind Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden as he speaks at Southwest Focal Point Community Center in Pembroke Pines, Fla., Oct. 13, 2020.On Friday, Trump repeated his promise to “deliver life-saving therapies in record time, and to distribute a safe and effective vaccine before the end of the year.” “Seniors will be the first in line for the vaccine, and we will soon be ending this pandemic,” he vowed. Trump said the Food and Drug Administration and Health and Human Services are working to make the antibody treatment from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals — the drugs that he received after his own COVID-19 diagnosis — available “to everyone who needs it for free.” Trump’s statement repeats the claim he made in a video he tweeted days after his release from the hospital earlier this month, promising seniors the same treatment he received from his doctors, including the experimental drug currently undergoing clinical trials. TO MY FAVORITE PEOPLE IN THE WORLD! pic.twitter.com/38DbQtUxEu— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 8, 2020Trump was diagnosed with COVID-19 Oct. 2 and spent three days at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. His campaign has tried to frame his illness as an electoral asset, claiming the president has firsthand experience dealing with the coronavirus that Biden lacks. But a new AP-NORC poll finds just 26% of Americans approve of the way the administration handled Trump’s diagnosis, while 54% disapprove. About 8 in 10 Democrats and 2 in 10 Republicans disapprove. “His diagnosis, his quick recovery after world-class medical care, and him talking about himself like Superman and saying the diagnosis was a blessing from God, probably does not sit very well among most Americans,” said Republican strategist Whit Ayres. No longer the moderate While the pandemic is one factor in Trump’s losing ground, seniors’ support for the president has slipped since mid-2019. One possible reason is that Trump is no longer seen as the moderate candidate in 2020 as he was in 2016, said Robert Griffin, research director for the Democracy Fund Voter Study Group. “When we asked people who they perceive as moderate, Donald Trump scored much higher on this among seniors than did Hillary Clinton,” Griffin said of the 2016 race. “Donald Trump is far less likely to be considered moderate today,” Griffin said, adding that more moderate candidates tend to get higher shares of votes, particularly among seniors who themselves are a more moderate portion of the electorate. In Florida, the 74-year-old Trump renewed attacks on his opponent, who is 77, again calling him “Sleepy Joe.” He recently tweeted a photoshopped meme of Biden in a wheelchair surrounded by seniors. pic.twitter.com/wJN4zv0y8O— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 14, 2020″Trump has doubled down on the idea that Joe Biden isn’t functioning well anymore, simply that he is too old, implying with no evidence that he has dementia,” said Chris Cooper, a professor of political science at Western Carolina University. “It doesn’t play very well with a senior audience.” Meanwhile, the Trump campaign this week launched ads targeting senior voters in key battleground states. The ads argue that the president has lowered the cost of drugs and protected Social Security and Medicare, federal government programs that help seniors. 
 
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A look at people coming up with new ideas to help their community.   
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Finland’s prime minister, Sanna Marin, was the latest official to prematurely leave the EU summit in Brussels due to coronavirus fears, as the bloc’s meeting wrapped Friday.
 
She said it was a “precautionary measure,” the AP reported.
 
Her departure come a day after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen left because a staffer tested positive.  
 
Previously, the EU’s top diplomat and Josep Borrell and the commissioner for humanitarian aid, Janez Lenarcic, self-quarantined after they reportedly came into contact with people who tested positive.
 
The high-profile departures come against a backdrop of what many are calling a second wave of the virus roiling the continent.
 
On Thursday, EU leaders signed a statement calling for more cooperation among EU member states and the European Commission, including better contact tracing and testing strategies, according to Euronews.
 
The resurging virus also has led to the cancelation of a Nov. 16 EU meeting to discuss China policy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Friday.
 
The so-called “summit of gloom,” had hoped to tackle a series of thorny issues, from the bloc’s future trading relationship with post-Brexit Britain to an ambitious climate action plan to reduce carbon emissions and achieve “climate neutrality” by 2050.
 
Talks with Britain stalled Thursday with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson saying Friday he would pursue a no-deal Brexit if the EU did not change its stance.
 
“Unless there’s a fundamental change of approach, we’re going to go to the Australia solution, and we should do it with great confidence,” Johnson said, according to Reuters, after talks failed ahead of his self-imposed Oct. 15 deadline.
 
The “Australia solution” basically means the two parties would trade without a formal deal.
 
According to the AP, the EU says Britain wants to keep the benefits of EU membership without following the bloc’s rules. Britain says it’s puzzled it can’t get a quick free trade deal like the one made a few years ago between the EU and Canada.
 
On climate change, EU leaders failed to reach an agreement on cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and instead said they’d “return to the issue” in December, Reuters reported.
 
The EU proposed to cut emissions by 55% by 2030 as long as the target applied collectively to the whole EU and did not require all countries to meet the objective.
 
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Національний банк України встановив опівдні довідкове значення курсу 28 гривень 37 копійок за долар, це на три копійки більше за офіційний курс на 16 жовтня.

На українському міжбанківському валютному ринку, де торги відкрилися на рівні 28 гривень 33–34,5 копійки за долар, станом на 12:25 котирування сягнули 28 гривень 36,5–38 копійок за одиницю американської валюти, свідчать дані Finance.ua.

«На торгах по долару поки попит перевищує пропозицію, що і відбивається на котируваннях», – відзначають експерти сайту «Мінфін».

Попри зростання минулого тижня, гривня все ще перебуває поблизу до найнижчих цього року показників (28,4 за долар). Близько двох місяців тому, 17 серпня, торги завершилися на гривню нижче – на рівні 27 гривень 23,5–25,5 копійки за одиницю американської валюти.
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When #MeToo movement founder Tarana Burke thinks about the group’s future as the world celebrates its anniversary, her vision is clear.
It predates the moment that most people know — when the #MeToo hashtag went viral three years ago on Oct. 15, 2017, sparking a global conversation about sexual harassment and assault.  
For her, that mission emerged years earlier — in 2006, when Burke, after a career of community service, began working directly with survivors, many of whom were young Black girls and children of color.  
“It sort of triggered something in me because I had experienced sexual violence myself as a child,” Burke said. “What would my life have been like if somebody had intervened at 12, 14 or 16, even just to say that I deserve healing, and that I deserve wellness and wholeness and joy?”  
“And so it started off trying to bring those messages, that idea of healing into these young women’s lives and using the power of empathy,” she said.
As the #MeToo movement marks the third year since it received global recognition, Burke is working to make sure it remains inclusive and reclaims its original intent: A focus on marginalized voices and experiences.
She sees that path forward through Dani Ayers, a 39-year-old Black woman who quietly, yet with a bold vision, transitioned into becoming the movement’s CEO in July after joining the organization in 2018.  
In a year marked by a nationwide reckoning over systemic racism and inequities that have disproportionately impacted Black Americans, the #MeToo movement is now jointly led by two Black women keenly aware of the inequality that has long existed in America — something they find both empowering and challenging.  
“I think it’s a testament and it’s a representation of the fact that there are many movements that have been started by Black women. The Black Lives Matter movement was also started by Black women,” Ayers told the Associated Press in her first joint interview with Burke.  
“It’s an opportunity to shine a light. We are absolutely centering Black women and girls, people of color, queer, trans, disabled folks in our work because we know that solving and interrupting the issue of sexual violence in those communities means ending sexual violence everywhere.”
Several events are planned to mark the third anniversary, including the announcement of the new leadership structure and a survey of survivors that Burke and Ayers expect will reignite momentum behind the movement. Their goal is to create a global network of organizations united behind the movement to end sexual violence.
But after a groundswell of support from celebrities, politicians, marches and more, they said it’s been challenging to keep the spotlight on the need for funding to continue the fight against sexual violence.  
As Black women, they said it’s frustrating that many don’t see the intersection of race and the sexual violence women of color endure.  
“We’ve got to make that connection clear for folks,” Ayers said. “We’ve seen money start to be pushed to Black-led organizations and it needs to happen, but sexual violence has not seen that same funding support. And I think it’s because folks don’t automatically understand the intersection of sexual violence and structural racism. And so we really have a lot of work to do.”
They also noted the Breonna Taylor case and the #SayHerName campaign, which brings attention to Black women like Taylor whose cases go unheard or are silenced.
Burke said she herself has dealt firsthand with the erasure that Black women often endure, when people failed to acknowledge the #MeToo movement was started and led by Black women and people of color.  
“I’ve heard people … not acknowledge that there is a Black woman right now trying to hold this narrative, hold this work and push a narrative forward that is opposite of what we’ve heard in the news, about it being about Hollywood and white women, powerful white men, or powerful men, period,” Burke said.  
“So as a Black woman, I feel both the pride and the burden of carrying this kind of work forward,” she said.  
The coronavirus pandemic has also presented unique challenges for the movement.  
During the pandemic, the group has seen a 20% rise in intimate partner violence and increased concerns about child sexual assaults, Ayers said, so they’ve shifted toward offering virtual resources and programming, including a survey that revealed stark disparities.
“We’re hearing Black survivors say, ‘I don’t have money to eat,'” Ayers said. “The disparity is just growing as a result of the pandemic and we need to be able to talk about that, not only in a qualitative way but we need the data to be able to help those who have money understand where we need to be pushing resources and why.”
Ayers and Burke also recognize the power that survivors hold — especially in this moment as the nation is just weeks away from selecting its next president after a campaign fraught with divisiveness.
Burke late last year launched #MeTooVoter as a way to galvanize the millions who have supported the movement. Both Burke and Ayers view survivors as a significant voting bloc whose voices deserve to be heard.
While the group has not officially endorsed either candidate, the women said they have serious concerns about what another four years of President Donald Trump would mean for survivors of sexual violence.
“I think we are in a critical moment and survivors’ voices in this moment should be the loudest,” Burke said.  
“If we look at the two candidates, for a lot of people, neither of them are their top choice,” she said. Trump has faced multiple accusations of assault  and harassment, all of which he denies. Earlier this year, a former Senate staffer  accused Democrat Joe Biden of sexually assaulting her in 1993, which Biden has denied.  
“But this fight that we have will continue, not just for the next four years, it will continue for the next four decades. We have a person right now who won’t even get in the fight, who won’t even engage in the conversation,” Burke said. “I think survivors are lined up to get Trump out of office.”  
But beyond the election, Ayers is hopeful about the work that remains.  
“The survivors, they inspire me every day,” she said. “We’re creating a culture inside this organization that gives people the space to be who they are and to show up as their full selves. There are so many people working to end sexual violence and watching their work inspires me. So there is hope.”
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An American grandfather is awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty Thursday to negligent homicide in the death of his toddler granddaughter in Puerto Rico.
 
Salvatore Anello, of the Midwestern state of Indiana, was accused in 18-month-old Chloe Wiegand’s fall from an 11th-story window of a cruise ship docked in the U.S. territory last year.
 
The young girl slipped from her grandfather’s hands, falling about 46 meters on the Royal Caribbean Cruises’ Freedom of the Seas ship in July 2019.
 
Arnello has reportedly said he did not know the window in the play area was open when he lifted Chloe to knock on the window.
 
Arnello’s sentencing is set for Dec. 10. The Associated Press reports his attorney said in a statement that Anello will not face any jail time and that he will serve probation in Indiana.
 
No ruling has been reached on a civil lawsuit filed by the girl’s parents, accusing Royal Caribbean of negligence.
 
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North Korea’s new intercontinental ballistic missile, unveiled at a military parade last week, appears designed to overwhelm U.S. missile defenses, security analysts say, a development that may spur the U.S. to add costly new interceptors.The massive ICBM, the largest ever displayed by North Korea, is likely the “new strategic weapon” promised by the country’s leader, Kim Jong Un, at the beginning of the year.The missile has not been flight-tested and its range is unknown, but North Korea has little need to prove its missiles can go farther; it already tested an ICBM in 2017 that can reach anywhere in the continental United States.Instead, analysts say, North Korea is likely trying to show it can fit multiple nuclear warheads on a single ICBM, making it much more difficult and costly for U.S. missile defense systems to intercept.Cost imbalance“If you have multiple warheads coming out of that single missile, you now have to have multiple interceptors for each incoming warhead,” said Melissa Hanham, who closely tracks North Korea’s weapons program and is deputy director of the Vienna-based Open Nuclear Network.The new ICBM, Hanham said, appears large enough to not only fit multiple warheads but also decoys, known as penetration aids, which could confuse missile defense systems.“It’s not cheap to make missiles like this, but it’s a lot cheaper than what the U.S. is now going to spend on missile defense,” Hanham added.Missile defense has always been risky, as it is cheaper and easier to build a new missile than create a missile defense system involving sensors for detection and multiple interceptors for each missile, Hanham said.To keep up with the changes in North Korea’s growing force, the U.S. will have to spend “hundreds of millions [of dollars] adding interceptors,” said Ankit Panda, a nuclear policy specialist at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.“North Korea, meanwhile, even under economic sanctions, appears fully capable of continuing to expand its ICBM capabilities,” Panda added.The United Nations expanded sanctions against North Korea in 2017 following a series of nuclear and ICBM tests by Pyongyang. The U.S. and North Korea engaged in nuclear negotiations in 2018 and 2019, but North Korea eventually walked away, angry at the U.S. refusal to relax the sanctions and provide other security guarantees.100% confidence?U.S. officials have dismissed concerns that North Korea’s rapidly evolving missile program could produce a weapon capable of evading ground-based U.S. missile defenses, based in the U.S. states of Alaska and California.In January, General John Hyten, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he had “100% confidence” in the ability of U.S. missile defense systems against North Korea.Independent defense analysts are much more skeptical about U.S. missile defense capabilities, especially if North Korea deploys ICBMs with multiple warheads.“It is hard to see how Americans could be confident that a finite number of U.S. missile-defense interceptors would be sufficient to stop an attack by a volley of North Korean ICBMs with multiple warheads each,” wrote Markus Garlauskas and Bruce Perry, two former members of the U.S. intelligence community.“Even if the United States were to attempt to build more interceptors to keep up, the costs could be prohibitive,” the analysts said.Missile not perfectNorth Korea’s new ICBM, which will presumably be named the Hwasong-16, does have strategic drawbacks.Though the ICBM is technically road mobile, it is not as versatile as it may seem.The missile is carried by a transporter erector launcher with 22 wheels. Depending on its turning radius, the launcher vehicle may be too large to travel on many North Korean roads, which are often in poor repair.The large size of the missile also means it likely must travel with a team of fuel trucks and a crane to help erect it, Hanham said.“If you were thinking about fueling that missile after it’s erected, it would take several hours,” she said — which could allow U.S. reconnaissance sources to observe the missile’s setup.Another drawback is that the missile remains untested, but that could soon change, analysts say.In January, Kim said he no longer felt bound by his self-imposed moratorium on nuclear and long-range missile tests.However, he may be reluctant to conduct a major test before the Nov. 3 U.S. presidential election. U.S. President Donald Trump has warned Kim against any big provocations before the vote.“What I would expect is to see that ICBM tested next year,” said Bruce Klingner, a North Korea specialist at the Heritage Foundation.“North Korea tends to … do something very provocative in the first year of a new U.S. or South Korean administration,” he said.Hanham said while North Korea may watch to see what happens in the U.S. election, “they certainly have a powerful way of signaling their dissatisfaction now by testing this missile.”
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