Month: April 2017

Robert De Niro helped Burt Reynolds onto the red carpet for the Tribeca Film Festival premiere of his new movie “Dog Years” Saturday night in New York. It was a rare appearance for the 81-year old actor, who at times struggled to walk.

Reynolds was given a chair on the red carpet, so that he could speak to a limited number of press outlets about the film.

He was overjoyed at the turnout.

“Great to see Mr. De Niro, who I love, and … you know, all the people that I know,” Reynolds said. “It’s very sweet.”

In the film, which is still shopping for distribution, Reynolds portrays an aging movie star who realizes his best days are behind him. The actor sees similarities in the character with his own life.

Reynolds laughed at the obvious parallel with his own life, though he said, “I guess I’m doing all right. I think because it’s a hell of a turnout.”

Written and directed by Adam Rifkin, the film also stars “Modern Family’s” Ariel Winter, Chevy Chase and Nikki Blonsky.

Reynolds joked about working with younger co-stars.

“You don’t learn from young actors,” Reynolds said. “You just tell them how to behave.”
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A federal judge revoked the U.S. citizenship of a man who prosecutors say ran a communications hub for an Egyptian terrorist group out of his northern California apartment, authorities said.

Judge Beryl Howell of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia last week ordered the “denaturalization” of Khaled Abu al-Dahab, 57, for lying to immigration officials during the process to gain U.S. citizenship, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Thursday.

The Justice Department said the Egypt native was a member of the terrorist organization Egyptian Islamic Jihad for 10 years starting in 1989, three years after moving to the United States.

The former Silicon Valley car salesman admitted he spent two months at a camp near Jalalabad, Afghanistan, where he received military-style training and taught foreign fighters to fly hang gliders in preparation for terrorist attacks. He also admitted to the FBI that he operated a communications hub for the group out of his Santa Clara, California, apartment, the department said.

Al-Dahab also admitted to U.S. investigators that he worked to recruit Americans of Middle Eastern descent into the terrorist network during his 12 years in California. Al-Dahab told the investigators that Osama bin Laden was eager to recruit American citizens of Middle Eastern descent because their U.S. passports could be used to facilitate international travel by al-Qaida terrorists, and that bin Laden personally congratulated him for this work, the department said.

Al-Dahab became a U.S. citizen on February 7, 1997. The next year he traveled to Egypt, where he was arrested, convicted and sentenced to 15 years in prison for being a member of a terrorist organization and trying to overthrow the Egyptian government. He has lived in Alexandria, Egypt, since his 2011 release.

“We will protect our national security and our borders, and when we identify individuals tied to foreign terrorist organizations who procured their U.S. citizenship by fraud, we will initiate denaturalization proceedings – whether you reside here or abroad – and ensure you are denied entry into the United States,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions said.
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U.S. President Donald Trump will sign several executive orders on energy and the environment this week, which would make it easier for the United States to develop energy on and offshore, a White House official said on Sunday.

“This builds on previous executive actions that have cleared the way for job-creating pipelines, innovations in energy production, and reduced unnecessary burden on energy producers,” the official said on condition of anonymity.

On Wednesday, Trump is expected to sign an executive order related to the 1906 Antiquities Act, which enables the president to designate federal areas of land and water as national monuments to protect them from drilling, mining and development, the source said.

On Friday, Trump is expected to sign an order that would fit into his administration’s “America First” energy policy, the source said, but did not provide details.

The new measures would build on a number of energy- and environment-related executive orders signed by Trump that seek to gut most of the climate change regulations put in place by predecessor president Barack Obama.

It was unclear how Trump planned to address use of the Antiquities Act in his order, or if he will try to undo actions taken by Obama to put certain areas off limits to drilling and mining. No president has ever removed a monument designation created by former presidents.

Obama had used the Antiquities Act more than any other president, his White House said in December, when he designated over 1.6 million acres of land in Utah and Nevada as national monuments, protecting two areas rich in Native American artifacts from mining, oil and gas drilling.

He had also banned new drilling in federal waters in parts of the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans using a 1950s-era law that environmental groups say would require a drawn out court challenge to reverse.

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said during his confirmation hearing in January that he believed Trump could “amend Obama’s” monument designations but that any move Trump made to rescind a designation would immediately be challenged.

There is strong pressure from some Republicans in Congress to reform how future presidents use the act to give more input to states and Congress.

Last month, Trump signed an order calling for a review of Obama’s Clean Power Plan, which required states to slash carbon emissions from power plants. Trump also reversed a ban on coal leasing on federal lands.
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President Donald Trump on Saturday made his first visit to a military hospital with his wife, Melania, in order to award a Purple Heart to an Army sergeant.

Trump said he was moved by the story of Sergeant 1st Class Alvaro Barrientos, who was wounded in Afghanistan last month.

“When I heard about this … I wanted to do it myself,” Trump said during a brief ceremony at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.

Barrientos, whose right leg below the knee had been amputated, was brought into a hospital atrium in a wheelchair, accompanied by his wife, Tammy. Trump kissed Barrientos’ wife before he affixed the award to the sergeant’s shirt collar.

The Purple Heart is awarded to service members who are wounded or killed in action.

Trump reportedly met privately with about a dozen other service members who are receiving care at the medical center.

Before leaving the White House for the hospital, the president tweeted that he looked forward to “seeing our bravest and greatest Americans.”

Trump’s decision to allow news media coverage of the medal ceremony was in marked contrast to the practice of former President Barack Obama, who awarded Purple Hearts behind closed doors.

Trump was driven to Maryland instead of flying in the Marine One helicopter because of annual public tours of the White House south grounds and gardens that were taking place Saturday.

As the motorcade exited the complex, the sidewalks were lined with protesters who had come to Washington on Saturday to promote science and defend it from attack, including Trump’s proposed budget cuts.

The March for Science, coinciding with Earth Day, was anchored in Washington and took place in more than 600 other cities, attracting such celebrities as science educator Bill Nye and Doctor Who actor Peter Capaldi.
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The U.S. Surgeon General under the Obama administration has resigned and been replaced, at least, temporarily, by his deputy.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services confirmed that Vivek Murthy was asked to resign after “assisting in a smooth transition” from the Obama administration to that of President Donald Trump.

Murthy’s replacement is his deputy, Sylvia Trent-Adams, who becomes one of the first nurses to serve in the position. Her photo replaced Murthy’s on the Surgeon General’s web page and Twitter account on Friday.

Richard Carmona, a nurse and a physician who served under President George W. Bush, referred to himself as the first nurse to serve as surgeon general.

The U.S. Surgeon General has little power, but often uses his or her position to draw attention to public health concerns.

Murthy’s confirmation in the Senate was opposed by the National Rifle Association because he has spoken out about gun violence in the past, calling it a public health issue.

Health and Human Services employees privately expressed surprise at the swift change of personnel, although it is not unusual for presidential appointees to be replaced in the early days of a new administration.

 
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Scientists on Saturday took the unprecedented step of staging marches in more than 600 cities worldwide in the face of what they see as a growing political assault on evidence-based knowledge.

Thousands of scientists and their supporters attended March for Science events in such cities as  Cape Town, London, Madrid and Seoul, as well as in Australia, Brazil, Canada and Nigeria.

In Berlin, organizers said about 10,000 people marched toward the Brandenberg Gate holding up placards that read “Facts not feelings” and “We love experts — those with evidence.”

Marchers in Geneva carried signs that said “Science — A Candle in the Dark” and “Science is the Answer.”

In London, demonstrators marched from the Science Museum to Parliament Square in Westminster holding placards supporting science.

New role for scientists

The March for Science thrusted scientists, who generally avoid advocacy and whose work is based on impartial experimentation, into a more visible spotlight.

For nuclear physics graduate student Chelsea Bartram, White House adviser Kellyanne Conway’s “alternative facts” were the last straw.

President Donald Trump had disputed photographic evidence of the size of his inauguration crowd. Reporters challenged him, prompting Conway to respond that the administration had given “alternative facts.”

“Many scientists I know, myself included, spend so many hours in the lab sacrificing enormous amounts of their life for this abstract idea” that understanding reality can benefit human civilization, said Bartram, who is pursuing a doctorate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

“And then to have someone say, ‘Well, that’s not important anymore,’ it’s so devastating,” Bartram added.

So Bartram planned to support science’s role in government decisions on health, safety, the economy and more by joining demonstrators at the flagship March for Science event in Washington.

Karen Tanyer, an English teacher, and her son, Michael, 10, traveled to Washington from Efro, New Jersey, to participate in the march because “science affects everything.”

“When we look at art today, it is all influenced by science and the properties of science that we’ve exploited to express the human spirit,” Karen Tanyer told VOA.

The Washington event featured speakers and several large teach-in tents on the National Mall where scientists, educators and leaders from a variety of disciplines discussed their work, effective science communication strategies and training in public advocacy. Organizers said the event was nonpartisan and was not aimed against the Trump administration or any politician or party.

Proposed cuts to programs

Nevertheless, the March for Science was effectively a protest against steep cuts Trump has proposed for federal science and research budgets and his administration’s skepticism about climate change.

The international event coincided with Earth Day, which Trump recognized by issuing a statement saying his administration was committed to supporting science and protecting the environment.

“Rigorous science is critical to my administration’s efforts to achieve the twin goals of economic growth and environmental protection,” the statement said.

Organizers of the March for Science said it was the first step in a global movement to acknowledge and defend the vital role science plays in everyday life.

“Science extends our lives, protects our planet, puts food on our table [and] contributes to the economy,” said Caroline Weinberg, national co-chair of the March for Science.

“Policymakers threaten our present and future by ignoring scientific evidence when crafting policy, threatening scientific advancement through budget cuts and limiting the public’s knowledge by silencing scientists,” Weinberg said.

Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, a first-generation Iraqi immigrant, is the pediatrician who alerted officials in Flint, Michigan, that the city’s water had been contaminated with lead. She was a March for Science honorary national co-chair.

“We march for science so that scientists have the freedom, like I did, to speak out, free from politicization and to continue to make the world a better place,” Hanna-Attisha said.

Tipping point

Organizers had not released crowd size estimates by Saturday afternoon. But the dispute over crowd sizes was just one small example of what scientists see as a larger pattern.

During the U.S. presidential campaign, Trump dismissed the scientific consensus about the dangers of human-induced climate change. His appointee to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, Scott Pruitt, also does not accept climate science. He has repeatedly clashed with the agency he now heads.

But scientists say their frustration has been building for decades.

“We might have reached a tipping point now, but acting as though this is a new thing is giving too much credit to the current administration,” national co-chair Weinberg said.

And it goes far beyond climate change, Weinberg added. “It’s about not paying attention to the best research on things like food stamps. It’s about cutting things like Head Start and after-school programs,” to name a few, she said. “And that all affects health, because that’s a time to set kids on the right path.”

Critics said a public protest risked further politicizing science, turning scientists into just another interest group.

Bartram summed up a widespread response: On hot-button issues such as climate change, opponents have already done it. “I don’t think anything we do is going to further politicize it,” Weinberg said.

Disconnect

But if the goal is to get policymakers to listen, “a march isn’t going to change anything,” said Rob Young, head of coastal research at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, North Carolina.

Young said much of the problem stems from the growing disconnect between scientists and voters, especially the rural and working-class people who voted for Trump.

Scientists need to get out of the lab more, he said, and explain how their work affects people’s health and livelihoods.

That’s what march organizers said they hoped for, too.

Geochemist Eric Davidson, president of the 60,000-member American Geophysical Union, one of the march co-sponsors, said a major post-march goal is  more public engagement.

“I think the day is gone when scientists can stay in their ivory towers and assume that everyone is going to recognize their value,” Davidson added.
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U.S. officials who have been toughening their stance toward Iran in recent weeks have said almost nothing about its presidential election, now less than one month away.

And, some Iran observers say the silence regarding the May 19 vote could be a reflection of broad skepticism about its significance.

Wednesday during a State Department briefing, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson made no mention of the Iranian presidential election as he gave his most detailed outline yet of the Trump administration’s toughening Iran policy. But he did accuse Tehran of being the world’s “leading state sponsor of terrorism” and carrying out “provocative actions” that threaten the United States, such as ballistic missile testing.

On Capitol Hill

On Capitol Hill, U.S. lawmakers also have said little about the impending Iranian vote. There has been no action in the Senate or House since legislation was introduced by bipartisan groups of lawmakers on March 23. The legislation would impose new U.S. sanctions on Iran in retaliation for its January ballistic missile test.

A sponsor of the Senate bill, Republican Bob Corker, said at a hearing this month that the Iran sanctions legislation has been delayed by concerns about “elections that are coming up,” an apparent reference to the May 19 vote.

U.S. news site The Weekly Standard also quoted Democratic Senator Chris Coons as saying, “Some members have concerns about Iran’s domestic politics, and I think we have to be mindful of the potential impact” of the proposed U.S. sanctions.

Learning process

It may be too soon to expect the 3-month-old Trump administration to express any view on Iran’s electoral process, said Alex Vatanka, an Iran observer at the Washington-based Middle East Institute.

“The administration really has not had the time to get down to the key aspects of Iranian domestic politics, and whether the U.S. needs to or can in any way take sides in support of one Iranian faction against another,” Vatanka told VOA Persian in an interview.

In a Thursday report, Iranian state television said the country’s 12-member Guardian Council has vetted and approved six candidates to compete in the May 19 presidential vote, most notably the relatively moderate incumbent President Hassan Rouhani, and prominent conservative Ebrahim Raisi, appointed last year as custodian of one of Iran’s holiest shrines by Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Behnam Ben Taleblu, a Washington-based Iran analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, says Iran’s system of vetting candidates for a presidential post that is subordinate to Iran’s supreme leader has long been understood by U.S. executive and legislative branches of government.

“They know Iran’s president is not the ultimate commander in chief nor the ultimate person who has the say over foreign policy, that person is the supreme leader and his affiliated institutions like the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps,” Taleblu said.

Presidential influence

But Washington still has a basis for being interested in who wins the presidential race, Taleblu said. 

“Iranian presidents can say or do things to impact the tone of Iran’s foreign policy,” he added.

Vatanka said that tone would be evident if Rouhani wins re-election. 

“In that case,” he said, “there is a strong likelihood that Rouhani can continue to push for Iran to enter mainstream international politics.”

A win by a conservative candidate such as Raisi could push Iran in a different direction, Vatanka said.

“Hard-line challengers to Rouhani openly have said that the 2015 nuclear agreement (between Rouhani’s government and six world powers) has not delivered what Rouhani promised (in economic benefits), and have suggested it might not be a bad idea to revisit this deal or to even walk away from it,” he said.

Taleblu says there is an even greater reason for the U.S. to care about Raisi’s presidential candidacy.

“Should he win, Raisi has a clear path to being the likely candidate for Iran’s next supreme leader,” he said. “But should Raisi lose, that would erode the little political clout that he has, in terms of public support, and likely negatively impact his chances to become the supreme leader.”

Vatanka says Raisi, a former little-known Iranian judiciary official, is unlikely to win the presidency without election-rigging help from his conservative allies. The last Iranian presidential vote to be overshadowed by allegations of massive fraud — conservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s 2009 re-election — triggered months of nationwide streets protests.

“The Obama administration, which at the time was very new, didn’t know what to do about the unrest that engulfed Iran in 2009,” Vatanka said. “The Trump administration can start thinking about what would be their response to more political turmoil — would they seek to engage directly with Iran’s so-called moderates, or would they think it is not worth the time? That is the big test.”

This report was produced in collaboration with VOA’s Persian Service.
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The United States has offered to help fund Mexico’s efforts to eradicate opium poppies, the U.S. assistant secretary for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) said Friday, as Mexican heroin output increased again last year.

“We would be prepared to support (opium eradication efforts) should we reach a basic agreement in terms of how they would do more and better eradication in the future,” William Brownfield of INL, part of the State Department, said in an interview.

“That is on the table, but I don’t want you to conclude that it’s a done deal, because we still have to work through the details,” he said, without specifying how much money the United States could provide.

US epidemic

The United States is in an opiate epidemic that has killed tens of thousands of people, and with much of its heroin coming from the mountains of Mexico, the issue has become a key topic of discussion between the Mexican government and the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.

The U.S. offer to help fund Mexico’s war on poppy cultivation stands in stark contrast to Trump’s threats to rip up the North American Free Trade Agreement and force Mexico to pay for a wall along the U.S. border, and reveals the more subtle discussions taking place between the two governments.

Mexico’s president’s office, the Interior Ministry and the Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Heroin output jumps

Speaking on condition of anonymity because the figures are not yet public, a U.S. official said separately that the area of opium poppies under cultivation in Mexico reached 32,000 hectares in 2016, equivalent to about 81 tons.

In 2015, Mexico had 28,000 hectares under cultivation, almost triple the area in 2012, according to U.S. data.

Support for eradicating Mexico’s opium crop could come in various forms, Brownfield said. For example, the U.S. government could provide more vehicles, or pay for helicopter flights to access the isolated, mountainous regions where poppies are grown.

“If it’s a matter of having other sorts of equipment, we could talk about support in terms of equipment,” he said.

The INL will not write Mexico a blank check but is willing to help fund specific units involved in eradication, he said.

Mexico is engaged in fraught discussions with the Trump administration over drug trafficking, trade and immigration, and Trump focused on the heroin scourge in his election campaign.

Progress made

Nonetheless, Brownfield said the two governments were making substantial progress.

“Our cooperation with the Mexican government on the heroin challenge is in fact good, and it is better than it has ever been in the past,” he said.

Brownfield also confirmed a Reuters report that Mexico’s army is allowing the United States and the United Nations to observe eradication efforts.
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U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly and U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions vowed Friday to continue their tough approach to illegal immigration, warning of the dangers of cross-border gangs and sanctuary cities.

Speaking in San Diego on the second day of a trip through the U.S. Southwest, where border concerns are most prominent, Kelly told reporters, “We will continue to expand our approach to deterring illegal migration. That includes constructing a physical barrier, supporting it with technology, and patrolling it with dedicated and professional men and women of DHS. It also includes our approach of prosecuting anyone who pays traffickers to smuggle people into our country. That includes especially those who smuggle children.”

Kelly, Sessions and Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, spent Friday meeting with officials and observing immigration detention operations on the San Diego-Tijuana border.

Sanctuary cities

Sessions used the encounter with reporters to criticize sanctuary cities, which he said sabotage the effort to rid the country of illegal immigrants who commit crimes, sometimes as part of cross-border gangs.

“Sanctuary jurisdictions put criminals back on the streets,” he said. “They help these gangs to refill their ranks, and put innocent life, including the lives of countless law-abiding immigrants, in danger by refusing to share vital information with federal law enforcement.”

Sessions said he urged jurisdictions that allow sanctuary cities to exist “to reconsider.” He said, “Our federal law enforcement officers and prosecutors stand ready to work with you because every neighborhood, every street corner, deserves to be free from gang violence.”

Prodded by a reporter, Sessions also defended his statement of apparent indignation from earlier this week that a judge “sitting on an island in the Pacific,” a reference to the U.S. state of Hawaii, could hold up President Donald Trump’s new travel ban.

Sessions answered Friday’s query by noting that the judge in Hawaii was just one of hundreds of U.S. federal judges. He vowed that the ruling would be reversed.

Hawaiians offended

Hawaiian politicians have objected to Sessions’ characterization of Hawaii, saying the tone was insulting.

Protesters gathered at the news conference as well, to declare their objections to the federal government’s stance on immigration, including the building of a wall along the border with Mexico. The organizing group, the Southern Border Communities Coalition, has complained that officials have “declared war on our communities.”

The statement echoed those of some community leaders in El Paso, Texas, a day earlier, who objected to Sessions’ use of terminology such as “ground zero” and “beachhead” to describe their community on the border. During his Thursday visit, Sessions was describing El Paso as important territory in the struggle against cross-border drug cartels and violence.

“That language and that attitude and that rhetoric is un-American,” said El Paso County Judge Veronica Escobar, according to the El Paso Times.
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