Month: January 2020

Iranian Americans are closely watching the unfolding situation in their home country as protests continue in Tehran over  the Iran military’s admission on Saturday that it mistakenly shot down a civilian Ukrainian plane, killing all 176 on board.

Many Iranian Americans have taken to the streets to express their support for the Iranian people and their demands in the ongoing protests in Iran.

On Sunday, dozens of Iranian-American activists gathered in Washington D.C, to honor the victims of the Ukrainian plane crash and to show support for their fellow countrymen who reportedly have been facing a violent government crackdown on recent protests.

“I’m here to support the Iranian people [and] be their voice,” said Monir, an Iranian-American, who only gave her first name. 

“If you go in the streets  [in Iran], you might be jailed, you might be killed in the streets, and these people are so brave,” she said as she was standing with a crowd in downtown Washington.

خطاب به رهبران ايران: معترضان خود را نكشيد. هزاران تن تاكنون به دست شما كشته يا زنداني شده اند، و جهان نظاره گر است. مهمتر از ان، ايالات متحده نظاره گر است. اينترنت را دوباره وصل كنيد و به خبرنگاران اجازه دهيد ازادانه حركت كنند! كشتار مردم بزرگ ايران را متوقف كنيد! https://t.co/rzpx3Nfn03

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 12, 2020

Framarz Zafi, another Iranian American who attended the Washington gathering, said while he appreciated U.S. support for protesters in Iran, he didn’t want a military confrontation between Washington and Tehran.

“It’s nice that President Trump [is] tweeting in Farsi, but we want to tell him that we don’t want war,” Zafi told VOA.

“People of Iran don’t want war. They have suffered enough,” he said.  

More activities are expected to be held by the Iranian-American community in other U.S. cities.  

According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s  2018 survey, there are over 450,000 people of Iranian background living in the U.S.    

Activists in the Iranian-American community said they have been increasingly watching developments after  the recent tensions between the U.S. and Iran, following the killing of  top Iranian general  Qassem Soleimani  in a U.S. airstrike in Baghdad.

“I’m constantly checking the news and I’m in touch with various people both in Iran as well as in the Iranian diaspora community,” said Cklara Moradian, an Iranian-American activist based in Los Angeles.

“One of the biggest points of contention has been this idea of wanting to support the Iranian protest movement against the Islamic regime in Iran while the same time not beating the drums of war,” she told VOA in a phone interview.

Demands  evolved

Some activists said demands of Iranian protesters have evolved over the years from basic reforms to regime change.

“If you listen to people on the streets of Tehran and other Iranian cities, it is clear that people are fed up with this regime,” said Ahmad Batebi, a human rights activist based in Washington, who was imprisoned in Iran for his role in a student protest movement in 1999.

“In today’s Iran, there are two governments,” he told VOA. “One that is just a façade, which is represented by people like [Iranian President Hassan] Rouhani and [Foreign Minister Javad] Zarif.”

The other is the government that works in the shadow and holds real power is represented by the Supreme Leader and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Batebi said.

In April 2019, the U.S. government designated the IRGC a terrorist organization.  

Lobbying lawmakers  

Sadegh Amiri, another Iranian-American activist who lives in Annapolis, Maryland, said that his objective is to raise more awareness among the American public about what has actually been happening in Iran.“

“We reach out to local lawmakers [in Maryland] and ordinary people to tell them Iran is not what they see on television,” he said. 

“We would like people in America to understand (that) Iranian people wish to live in freedom, and that this current regime in Tehran doesn’t represent them,” he told VOA.

Ali Afshari of the Iranians for Secularism and Democracy, an advocacy group based in the U.S., says Iranian Americans could be effective in two ways in response to the latest events in Iran.  

“First we, in the diaspora, need to amplify the voices of protesters on the ground,” he told VOA, adding that, “we need to empower people so that can sustain their demands against the Iranian regime.”

“Second we need to be more active in terms of reaching out to lawmakers and policymakers in Washington. Iranian Americans have a historic responsibility to convey accurate information and facts from inside Iran to people in the United States,” Afshari added.  

Divisions

Analysts say there are many differences among Iranian Americans that reflect their political, ethnic and cultural diversity.  

Shahed Alavi, an Iranian political analyst based in Washington, says when it comes to attitude towards the Iranian government, there are three types of people within the Iranian American community.

“There are those who fully support a regime change in Tehran and hope this ongoing protest movement will turn into something bigger,” he said.  “There are others who believe that Iranian people have the right to protest, but they don’t think the U.S. should interfere in Iranian affairs.”

However, he added, “the silent majority among the Iranian community in America refuses to get involved or even have an opinion about that’s happening in Iran, because they visit Iran and still have relatives there. So they simply fear retribution from the Iranian regime.”

VOA’s Persian Service, Cindy Saine  and  Saqib  Ul  Islam contributed to this story from Washington.  

…

Leila Ben Gacem guides a visitor through the Tunis Medina, ducking the cars and carts rattling down narrow, cobblestoned streets, and the occasional smear of dog poop.

“Historically, the Medina was the heart of trade, craft and art, and it’s structured with many souks — each dedicated to a specific craft,” she says.

She points down the maze of roads towards markets dedicated to coppersmiths, and those making Tunisia’s famous, flat-topped chechia hat, which exports to Libya and parts of sub-Saharan Africa.

A municipal councillor in a village outside the capital, Ben Gacem is also a social entrepreneur on a mission; helping not only to preserve the Medina’s ancient buildings and community, but also to revitalize trades that once powered this historic quarter, some of which risk going extinct.

“If investments are inclusive and pay attention to shared economy,” she says, “then maybe the whole community will grow together.”

It’s a lesson that might inform Tunisia’s next government, still under construction nearly three months after elections. The Arab Spring’s only democracy to date, the North African country is challenged to turn around its sluggish economy and deepening poverty that has fed emigration and unrest.  While up to one-third of Tunisia’s youth are jobless, some old Medina trades are struggling for manpower.

A fading tradition

At his cramped shop, Mohammed Ben Sassi reverently opens an old Quran he is working on, its pages decorated in blue and gold. Behind him are piles of half-finished tombs. At 64, Ben Sassi is the Medina’s only surviving bookbinder.

“There’s demand, but young people are no longer interested,” Ben Sassi says.

He isn’t the only craftsman facing challenges. While central Medina still houses more than 500 artisan workshops, that number is about half what it was fifty years ago, according to Ben Gacem’s research. The decline, she believes, translates to a broader loss for the country’s very identity.

‘’Throughout history, Tunisians have worked  with their hands,” she says. “I can’t imagine a Tunisian family that doesn’t have an artisan.”

The reasons for the decline are multiple, Ben Gacem says. The country’s sinking economy and currency have made some quality raw materials unaffordable, driving artisans to abandon trades handed down through generations. Others have switched to inexpensive substitutes –making the final product less attractive to buyers.

But revitalizing these trades might also suggest a broader rethink of one key economic driver. Tourism has largely turned around Tunisia’s beachfronts and deserts, and less on its artistic heritage — including the centuries-old Medina, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

“We’re not promoting Tunisia with all it’s wealth, especially in the tourism industry,” Ben Gacem says. “We haven’t communicated the best story. We have communicated the easiest story.”

Revitalizing the Medina

Founded in the 7th century, the Tunis Medina was restored under hardline president Zine el Abidine Ben Ali, but suffered under the 2011 revolution that ousted him, and subsequent instability. Building codes were sidelined, traditional residents fled to safer places, and squatters occupied historic mansions. Tunisians from the south moved in, further fraying a once close-knit community.

“But the revolution also had a positive impact,” says architect Soulef Aouididi of the Medina Conservation Association. From the association’s headquarters in a sumptuous, 19th-century palace, she describes new civic groups springing up, including those offering school tours of the Medina, helping the next generation better appreciate its history.

Aouididi’s association also organizes events bringing together the quarter’s disparate population, to help restitch relations.

“Our strategy is to safeguard the buildings, but also the social heritage,” she says.

Several blocks away, a pair of elegant guesthouses offer another experiment in community development. Ben Gacem has converted two dilapidated Medina mansions into boutique tourist hotels, tapping local residents to run them, and sourcing her supplies from area businesses.

She also networks with local artisans like Ben Sassi, organizing workshops so hotel guests can learn about their craft, as one way to bring in business—while offering tourists an “authentic experience” of Tunisia.

“It’s part of creating a new economic dynamic to preserve the artistry and culture around historical urban spaces,” Ben Gacem says.

The last hat maker?

Whether such initiatives can help to preserve old trades however is uncertain.

“Young Tunisians aren’t interested in working,” says Mohamed Troudi, a chaouachine, or chechia hat maker, as he points to his own calloused hands. “They want office, Facebook and a coffee at 10 am.”

Troudi himself started his career as a computer technician. He soon made a U-turn back to the family trade.  Like Ben Sassi, he is part of Ben Gacem’s network of artisans. He has no lack of business—in no small part because the numbers of chaouachine are dwindling.

At 28, he is the Medina’s youngest traditional hat maker. One day, he fears, he may be its last.

“See that old man,” Troudi says, pointing to a colleague across from his workshop. “His son doesn’t want to work in the trade, so his store will shut. It’s a big problem.”

…

Contempt for regulators, airlines and their own colleagues coupled with a casual approach to safety: a series of emails by Boeing employees paint an unflattering portrait of a company culture of “arrogance” imbued with a fixation on cost-cutting.

The emails underscore the task awaiting incoming CEO David Calhoun when he takes the company’s reins on Monday, under intense pressure to restore public confidence — and that of aviation regulators worldwide — after two fatal crashes of the 737 MAX aircraft.

The emails were contained in some 100 pages of documents dated between 2013 and 2018 and transmitted to U.S. lawmakers by the Seattle-based aviation giant. The messages were seen by AFP after their release Thursday.

Often cutting, dismissive, mocking or cavalier, the messages show that Boeing’s current difficulties reach far beyond the 737 MAX, shining a light on a level of dysfunction that seems almost unimaginable for a company that helped democratize air travel — and which builds the US president’s iconic Air Force One airplane.

The emails show that Boeing tried to play down the role of its MCAS flight-control system in order both to avoid the costs involved in having to train pilots on the system in flight simulators and to speed the federal green-lighting of the MAX plane.

Investigators singled out the role of the MCAS (the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System) in the fatal crashes of MAX planes flown by Indonesia’s Lion Air (Oct. 29, 2018) and Ethiopian Airlines (March 10, 2019).

Those crashes claimed 346 lives and led to the plane’s worldwide grounding last March.

“I want to stress the importance of holding firm that there will not be any type of simulator training required,” one Boeing employee messaged a colleague on March 28, 2017, a few months before the MAX received federal certification.

The message went on: “Boeing will not allow that to happen. We’ll go face-to-face with any regulator who tries to make that a requirement.”

A few months later, the same employee — a test pilot — bragged about having “save(d) this company a sick amount of $$$$.”

The names of most of the employees who sent the messages were blacked out.

‘I wouldn’t’

In 2018, several employees working on the MAX simulators complained of encountering numerous technical difficulties.

“Would you put your family on a MAX simulator-trained aircraft? I wouldn’t,” said a message sent in February 2018, eight months before the first crash.

“No,” a colleague agreed.

Two other employees said they were concerned about the impact on Boeing’s image at a time, they said, when the company’s leaders seemed obsessed with the idea of gaining ground on Airbus’s narrow-body A320neo.

“All the messages are about meeting schedule, not delivering quality,” one employee said.

A colleague replied: “We put ourselves in this position by picking the lowest-cost supplier and signing up to impossible schedules.

“Why did the lowest-ranking and most unproven supplier receive the contract? Solely because of the bottom dollar.”

Robert Clifford, a US lawyer representing victims’ families from the Ethiopian Airlines crash, said the Boeing culture led to “unnecessary and preventable deaths.”

“Excuses will not be heard,” he said in a statement on his law firm’s website.

‘Ridiculous’

The documents also show Boeing employees questioning the competence of the company’s engineers.

“This is a joke,” an employee wrote in September 2016, in a reference to the MAX. “This airplane is ridiculous.”

“Piss poor design,” said another, in April 2017.

And yet for decades Boeing was seen as representing the very best in aerospace engineering and design. It developed the 747, nicknamed the “queen of the skies,” and contributed to the Apollo program that sent man to the moon.

The aerospace company and its huge network of suppliers are goliaths of the U.S. economy.

In June 2018, one employee messaged his own analysis of the problem: “It’s systemic. It’s culture. It’s the fact that we have a senior leadership team that understands very little about the business and yet are driving us to certain objectives” while not “being accountable.”

Michel Merluzeau, an analyst with Air Insight Research, said, “Boeing needs to re-examine an operational culture from another era.”

Greg Smith, Boeing’s interim chief executive officer, insisted that “these documents do not represent the best of Boeing.”

In a message to staff sent Friday and seen by AFP, he added, “The tone and language of the messages are inappropriate, particularly when used in discussion of such important matters.”

Some emails are dismissive of federal regulators, starting with those from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) who approved the MAX.

“There is no confidence that the FAA is understanding what they are accepting,” an employee wrote in February 2016.

Nor were airlines spared.

“Now friggin’ Lion Air might need a sim(ulator) to fly the MAX, and maybe because of their own stupidity,” an employee wrote in June 2017, more than a year before a 737 MAX crashed near Jakarta. “Idiots!”

Yet another employee, this one more somberly, wrote in February 2018: “Our arrogance is (our) pure demise.”

…

The Dec. 22 parliamentary elections in Uzbekistan highlighted the complex mix of change and inertia that characterizes this Central Asian country today.

In Almalyk, an industrial town in the Tashkent region, leading journalist Dilfuza Ruziyeva said corruption is still deeply rooted, even so close to the country’s capital.

“There is very little accountability and transparency despite reform efforts and bold statements from Tashkent,” said Ruziyeva, the chief editor of the local newspaper.

Yet modest changes abound. Uzbekistan’s politicians, however befuddled they sometimes seem by the new need to respond to voters, were compelled to acknowledge and then commit to address citizens’ growing demands.

Indeed, Uzbekistan’s political class, which has long had a sense of insulation and impunity, now seems to recognize, sometimes quite explicitly, that it owes the public real answers to real problems.

Take Senator Rahmatulla Nazarov, who is shifting jobs to manage a think tank. In an impromptu interview with VOA at his suburban Tashkent polling station, he acknowledged that “distrust in the system is the biggest problem.”

Such an acknowledgement — an admission that the system has simply not been responsive to citizen concerns — has become common here, and it is changing the political discourse.

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Chance to Vote Boosted Uzbeks’ Hopes Despite Limited Choices

Candidates all backed government policies but were forced to answer to public and media

Alisher Qodirov, who leads Milliy Tiklanish (National Revival Party), told VOA that “for the longest time, we punished those who wanted change and pushed for progress. We tortured them, we killed them … we kicked them out. We must learn to honor the human being, ideas and human rights. Only then can Uzbekistan move forward as a society and state.”

His party claims to be the most critical of the government among the five parties that were permitted to contest the election. In fact, none of the state-sanctioned parties really opposes the policies of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev; what has changed is that the lack of real opposition can now be openly discussed.

At a pre-election debate Dec. 19, VOA asked party leaders whether they should place a higher value on security or freedom. All five leaders replied that both were important and made sure to claim to be against torture and the abuse of human rights.

Yet they offered few, if any, specific policy proposals for achieving a more balanced system. Indeed, all five struggled to explain more specific policy positions, much less differences, perhaps because so little sets them apart, and because the president, not the parties or the legislature, sets the agenda for the country. Reforms happen when Mirziyoyev wants them.

Adolat (Justice Party) leader and former presidential candidate Narimon Umarov bluntly says the political elite “did what we had to do” during the rule of the late dictator Islam Karimov, and urges citizens to “focus on the present and future now.” He says Uzbek politicians should feel “challenged in every way” by public expectations, while adding that he is personally “hopeful and energized.”

Aktam Haitov, leader of Mirziyoyev’s own Liberal Democratic Party (O’zLiDep), argues that the party deserves credit for the progress so far. O’zLiDep says it is pushing for deeper reforms in agriculture and to empower the private sector, precisely reflecting Mirziyoyev’s stated policy goals.

Ulugbek Inoyatov is a teacher who became education minister and has been widely criticized for not being effective in that role. Now, he leads Uzbekistan’s People’s Democratic Party and acknowledges that “the election campaign was a learning process for me.”

Inoyatov’s party did not have prescriptions for every problem, and its program still lacks substance. But he stresses the benefits of the improved process: “This campaign and our engagement with the people around the country is helping us to strengthen our focus,” he said.

It is easy to dismiss the electoral process, as many international observers have. Uzbekistan is neither a constitutional democracy nor on the way to becoming one. But by creating an opening for social mobilization, for citizens to question authorities, and by forcing the politicians to respond to public expectations and demands, the process marked a step toward more diverse politics.

More questions on more issues were openly aired than at any time in recent memory, including by the media. At live debates, the press corps was aggressive. And not surprisingly, the party representatives on stage seemed nervous, confused and at times forgot why they were even there.

It was long forbidden to discuss the government’s refusal to allow visits to Uzbekistan by thousands of overseas Uzbek natives, citizens and non-citizens alike. Some fear they are on blacklists, while others are simply denied entry. But during the election debate, the leaders of all five parties felt compelled to say that the country is — or should be — open to these compatriots.  

The next challenge will be to see whether the newly elected parliament can exercise more meaningful oversight of the administration.

Akmal Burhanov, a reelected MP, is calling for an end to the practice whereby legislators also operate businesses or even serve simultaneously as regional governors. Those who are elected today should work as lawmakers only if they are to provide an effective check on the government, he said.

That is why the biggest tests are yet to come. The parliament is more representative than ever before for instance, nearly one-third of its members are women, the most in its history. But as the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe noted the day after the contest, “The elections showed that the ongoing reforms need to continue and be accompanied by more opportunities for grassroot civic initiatives.”

…

The morning of Dec. 22, dawned cold but bright in Tashkent, the Uzbek capital, as a morning snowfall gave way to afternoon light. For the first time since the death in 2016 of the country’s longtime strongman, Islam Karimov, voters went to the polls to choose a parliament and local councils.

For the first time also, they projected the heightened expectations of a much more mobilized and aware citizenry, despite their low opinion of the current crop of candidates for the so-far toothless legislature.

“Members of parliament have no trust or respect [from] the citizens because citizens don’t feel their impact,” said Kamil Fakhrutdinov, a blogger in the region of Kashkadarya. His Yakkabog24 focuses on once-forbidden socio-political issues.

Meaningful change

Three weeks after the election, it is apparent that something meaningful has changed in this Central Asian republic, even though the electoral process itself was flawed and the country remains an authoritarian regime.

Even this highly circumscribed election gave citizens and the media space to ask questions that would have been unthinkable just three years ago.

“We are not the same passive society we were three years ago,” Fakhrutdinov told VOA. “So those who want to represent us must know that they will have been gifted [with] a trust and charged with working for the people.”

Since coming to power three years ago, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev has announced a spate of reforms and changed some elements of this once brutal dictatorship. He has openly acknowledged the country’s legacy of torture and human rights abuses, removed from power the feared leader of the Uzbek security services, and dismissed dozens of national and local officials, including from the country’s coercive apparatus, such as the prosecutor’s office.

But Mirziyoyev’s hopeful words and modest actions have raised expectations sky-high, not just among international observers but, more important, among Uzbek citizens themselves. Uzbekistan is no democracy, but its citizens approached their first post-Karimov opportunity to cast votes with very real expectations for change.

Across the country, from Tashkent to regional cities like Namangan in the Fergana Valley, the process raised hopes that in the future Mirziyoyev might undertake bolder reforms and adopt enduring systemic changes. But the management of the Dec. 22 election also served to demonstrate the limits to the president’s reform agenda.

Managed Uzbek Election Exposes Mix of Reform and Inertia

Candidates acknowledged need for more reform but took care not to contradict the president

Five parties, little difference

The central problem for Mirziyoyev is that he aims to preserve the core elements of Uzbekistan’s political and economic system, and his own power, even as he opens greater space for rulers and ruled to interact. His government permitted five parties to contest seats, but all five were pro-presidential parties, chartered by the state and with proposed policies that varied not at all from Mirziyoyev’s and very little from one another’s.

No opposition parties, or opposition politicians in exile, were permitted to participate.

The Uzbek parliament itself has been historically weak. In interviews with members of the Mirziyoyev administration, as well as with the private sector, the most common criticism of parliamentarians was their lack of professionalism. Many fail to grasp even the basics of lawmaking and oversight.

That has been much on the minds of those who showed up at polling stations on voting day.

Namangan-based human rights defender Zohidjon Zakirov told VOA that voters in his region knew very little about parliamentary or local council elections, much less who was running or for what office. That sentiment was echoed in comments to VOA at polling stations.

To be sure, the voters were interested in the election. But few had illusions that meaningful changes could be expected from the candidates, who often seemed confused about why they were running, or what policies they would espouse should they win a seat.

Even so, the cynicism among the voters found expression in ways that, in themselves, suggested just how much has changed in Uzbekistan. For decades, the Uzbek media have been tightly controlled and a reliable mouthpiece of the state. But private journalists and bloggers found their voices in this contest. They asked tough questions of the candidates at state-organized debates.

In recent weeks, a humorous fake television advertisement, “As Much As We Can,” lampooned the electoral process, making fun of all five of the officially sanctioned parties by noting that they had simply promised to do “as much as we can.” The video and other commentary directly addressed the lack of substance and relevance in the political parties’ agendas.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE/ODIHR), which monitored the election, issued an official statement emphasizing that while the vote “took place under improved legislation and with greater tolerance of independent voices,” it “did not yet demonstrate genuine competition and full respect of election day procedures.”

Still, it added, “The contesting parties presented their political platforms and the media hosted debates, many aired live.” For a country that was among the world’s worst dictatorships just three years ago, that is notable progress that will raise citizen expectations all the more.

…

Hundreds of Iranians protested in several cities around the country Saturday after Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps admitted to mistakenly shooting down a civilian Ukrainian plane, killing all 176 on board.

* VOA could not independently verify the authenticity of these videos.

…

A 61-year-old man has died from pneumonia in the central Chinese city of Wuhan after an outbreak of a yet to be identified virus while seven others are in critical condition, the Wuhan health authorities said Saturday.

In total, 41 people have been diagnosed with the pathogen, which preliminary lab tests cited by Chinese state media earlier this week pointed to a new type of coronavirus, the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission said in a statement on its website.

Two of them have been discharged from the hospital and the rest are in stable condition, while 739 people deemed to have been in close contact with the patients have been cleared, it said.

The man, the first victim of the outbreak that began in December, was a regular buyer at a seafood market in the city and had been previously diagnosed with abdominal tumors and chronic liver disease, the health authority said.

Treatments did not improve his symptoms after he was admitted to hospital and he died Jan. 9 when his heart failed. He tested positive for the virus.

Outbreak centers on seafood market

The commission added that no new cases had been detected since Jan. 3.

The Wuhan health authority also said that the patients were mainly vendors and purchasers at the seafood market, and that to date no medical staff had been infected, nor had clear evidence of human-to-human transmission been found.

The World Health Organization said Thursday that a newly emerging member of the family of viruses that caused the deadly Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) outbreaks, could be the cause of the present outbreak.

Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that can cause infections ranging from the common cold to SARS. Some of the virus types cause less serious disease, while some like the one that causes MERS, are far more severe.

The outbreak comes ahead of the Lunar New Year holidays in late January, when many of China’s 1.4 billion people will be traveling to their home towns or abroad. The Chinese government expects passengers to make 440 million trips via rail and another 79 million trips via airplanes, officials told a news briefing Thursday.

Take precautions

The Wuhan health authority in its statement also urged the public to take more precautions against infectious diseases, and said it was pushing ahead with tests to diagnose the pathogen and as of Friday had completed nucleic acid tests.

Hong Kong’s Department of Health said in a separate statement Saturday that it strengthened checks and cleaning measures at all border check points, including the port, airport and the city’s high-speed rail station which receives passengers from Wuhan city.

In 2003, Chinese officials covered up a SARS outbreak for weeks before a growing death toll and rumors forced the government to reveal the epidemic. The disease spread rapidly to other cities and countries. More than 8,000 people were infected and 775 died.

…

Oman’s Sultan Qaboos bin Said, the Mideast’s longest-ruling monarch who seized power in a 1970 palace coup and pulled his Arabian sultanate into modernity while carefully balancing diplomatic ties between adversaries Iran and the U.S., has died. He was 79.

The state-run Oman News Agency announced his death early Saturday on its official Twitter account. Later Saturday, the Al Watan and Al Roya newspapers reported Qaboos’ successor, his cousin, Haitham bin Tariq al-Said, according to Reuters.

The sultan was believed to have been in poor health and traveled to Belgium for what the court described as a medical checkup last month. The royal court declared three days of mourning.

The news agency mourned the death of the Sultan and praised the “towering renaissance” he had presided over. It said his “balanced policy” of mediating between rival camps in a volatile region had earned the world’s respect.

Reclusive, educated in Britain

The British-educated, reclusive sultan reformed a nation that was home to only three schools and harsh laws banning electricity, radios, eyeglasses and even umbrellas when he took the throne.

Under his reign, Oman became known as a welcoming tourist destination and a key Mideast interlocutor, helping the U.S. free captives in Iran and Yemen and even hosting visits by Israeli officials while pushing back on their occupation of land Palestinians want for a future state.

“We do not have any conflicts and we do not put fuel on the fire when our opinion does not agree with someone,” Sultan Qaboos told a Kuwaiti newspaper in a rare interview in 2008.

Oman’s longtime willingness to strike its own path frustrated Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, longtime foes of Iran who now dominate the politics of regional Gulf Arab nations. How Oman will respond to pressures both external and internal in a nation Sultan Qaboos absolutely ruled for decades remains in question.

“Maintaining this sort of equidistant type of relationship … is going to be put to the test,” said Gary A. Grappo, a former U.S. ambassador to Oman. “Whoever that person is is going to have an immensely, immensely difficult job. And overhanging all of that will be the sense that he’s not Qaboos because those are impossible shoes to fill.”

The sultan had been believed to be ill for some time, though authorities never disclosed what malady he faced. A December 2019 report by the Washington Institute for Near-East Policy described the sultan as suffering from “diabetes and a history of colon cancer.”

Fashionable figure, outsized influence

Sultan Qaboos cut a fashionable figure in a region whose leaders are known for a more austere attire. His colorful turbans stood out, as did his form-fitting robes with a traditional curved khanjar knife stuck inside, the symbol of Oman. He occasionally wore a white turban out of his belief that he spiritually led Oman’s Ibadi Muslims, a more liberal offshoot of Islam predating the Sunni-Shiite split.

The sultan’s willingness to stand apart was key to Oman’s influence in the region. While home only to some 4.6 million people and smaller oil reserves than its neighbors, Oman under Sultan Qaboos routinely influenced the region in ways others couldn’t.

Oman’s oil minister routinely criticizes the policies of the Saudi-led OPEC oil cartel with a smile. Muscat hosts meetings of Yemen’s Houthi rebels, locked in a yearslong bloody war with Saudi Arabia. When Americans or dual nationals with Western ties are detained in Iran or areas under Tehran’s influence, communiques that later announce their freedom routinely credit the help of Oman.

Iran nuclear deal

The sultan’s greatest diplomatic achievement came as Oman hosted secret talks between Iranian and U.S. diplomats that led to the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers. The agreement, which limited Iran’s atomic program in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions, has come unraveled since President Donald Trump withdrew from it in May 2018.

As he grew older, Sultan Qaboos also grew increasingly reclusive. He is known to have had three major passions — reading, music and yachting.

He “read voraciously,” Grappo said, played the organ and lute. He created a symphony orchestra and opened a royal opera house in Muscat in 2011. His yacht “Al Said” is among the world’s largest and was frequently seen anchored in Muscat’s mountain-ringed harbor.

Sultan Qaboos was briefly married to a first cousin. They had no children and divorced in 1979.

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Climate change rallies have been held in Australia by thousands of protesters critical of the government’s handling of the bushfire crisis. A demonstration in Sydney has reportedly attracted 30,000 people, while events have also been held in other major cities. 

“Sack the prime minister,” protesters chanted as they turned on Australia’s conservative leader, Scott Morrison. He is accused of not taking global warming seriously and of underplaying its role in the bushfire emergency. Protesters believe that “fossil fuel loving politicians” have overseen “decades of climate destruction.”

They want the Morrison government to phase out the use of fossil fuels. That is unlikely given their immense value to the Australian economy. Coal generates much of the nation’s electricity and earns billions of dollars through exports to China, India and other countries.

The prime minister has previously defended his energy and climate policies as adequate and responsible, but at least one protester in Sydney is demanding he give a more sensitive response to the bushfire emergency.

“Humanely, with empathy. I think that is a huge thing,” the protester said. “I think the way Scott Morrison has handled this and his lack of empathy to the whole situation is embarrassing. I would like the firefighters to be funded more, I would like more schemes to be set up, and just money and to actually admit that climate change is real, like it is clearly happening and this is what we are doing about it. We are marching.”

Victoria State Premier Daniel Andrews had urged the organizers of a rally in Melbourne to postpone the protest because it would put pressure on police resources during the bushfire crisis. But despite that plea, and heavy rain, hundreds of people turned out to join a nationwide chorus of anger and frustration.

Dozens of fires continue to burn, mostly in southeastern Australia. Cooler conditions are forecast for the next week, which will help the firefighting effort. In New South Wales, Australia’s most populous state, 147 bush and grass fires are burning. Sixty-five have yet to be contained.

Since September, at least 27 people have died in Australia’s bushfires. More than 10 million hectares (24 million acres) of land — an area bigger than Portugal — have been scorched.

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The United States and Iran appear to be pulling back from the brink of war after the U.S. killed a top Iranian general last week and Iran fired missiles at bases housing American troops in Iraq. But some observers are concerned that days of seemingly contradictory messaging on Iraq and Iran policy by Trump administration officials has resulted in mixed messaging that makes U.S. intentions unclear. VOA’s Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports from the State Department.

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At least 40 victims of the Ukrainian plane crash in Tehran were students or researchers active in Canadian universities or research communities.

Most were students returning to Canada after spending winter break in Iran, according to University Affairs (UA) of Canada. Dozens of students, professors and researchers from at least 18 universities across the country have been identified among the victims, the UA news service reported. Among the 176 killed in the crash, 140 were traveling to Canada, with a stopover in Kyiv, Ukraine. Sixty-three were Canadian citizens.

“We have learned, with profound sorrow, that several U of T students were among the 176 people killed in the crash,” University of Toronto President Meric Gertler wrote. “On behalf of the entire University of Toronto community, I want to say how deeply saddened we are, and how concerned we are for the families and friends of those who lost their lives.” 

With great sadness, We received the heartbreaking news about the tragic death of two of our students, Shahab Raana & Sahand Hatefi-Mostaghim, following a plane crash in Iran.

On behalf of Aviron, we offer their families our sincere condolences.

Rest in Peace🖤#Flight752pic.twitter.com/7osPgkf2gT

— Aviron de Montreal (@AvironTechMtl) January 9, 2020

Newlyweds Arash Pourzarabi and Pouneh Gorji were master’s students in computer science at the University of Alberta.

The university also lost Mojgan Daneshmand, a Canada Research Chair in radio frequency microsystems, who was returning to Canada with her husband, Pedram Mousavi, a professor of mechanical engineering. The couple’s two daughters were also killed in the crash.

University of Alberta President David H. Turpin wrote, “Words simply cannot express the loss I know we all are feeling. On behalf of the University of Alberta, I wish to extend our deepest condolences to the families, friends, colleagues and loved ones of the victims of this tragedy.”

“Ours is a closely interconnected community, and we grieve with everyone touched by this terrible loss — friends, classmates, roommates, professors, students, mentors and colleagues,” Turpin added.

In some cases, the victims included family members — such as Dalhousie University engineering student Masoumeh Ghavi and her younger sister Mandieh Ghavi. The younger sister was an incoming student at the Nova Scotia school, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

Among those killed in the crash were undergraduate, graduate and doctoral students in fields including electrical engineering, computer systems technology, human and veterinary medicine, geography, finance, business, environment, geomatics, marketing and consumer studies, molecular genetics and human resources.

“The Science Students’ Association is deeply saddened by the loss of our peers in the tragic plane crash in Iran,” tweeted @SSA_AES. “We extend our deepest condolences to the families and friends of those affected. Our thoughts are with you as we face this very sad time.”

The Science Students’ Association is deeply saddened by the loss of our peers in the tragic plane crash in Iran. We extend our deepest condolences to the families and friends of those affected. Our thoughts are with you as we face this very sad time.🕊 https://t.co/wmCb84tN9k

— SSA-AÉS (@SSA_AES) January 9, 2020

The educational institutions impacted were the University of Toronto, University of Alberta, Carleton University, Dalhousie University, University of Guelph, McMaster University, University of Manitoba, Ontario Tech University, University of Ottawa, University of Quebec, Queen’s University, Ryerson University, Saint Mary’s University, University of Victoria, University of Waterloo, Western University, University of Windsor and York University.

“This is not right,” London, Ontario, Mayor Ed Holder told the Western News, his voice breaking with emotion. “We should not be here this afternoon grieving the loss of these four young people. We should be celebrating their return home. It’s not right.”

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Vietnamese startups are heading into the new year looking to avoid the mistakes of such companies as Uber and WeWork, which disappointed investors in 2019 for failing to turn a profit after so much buildup.

Investors and entrepreneurs in the communist nation are taking a more critical look at their businesses after seeing others get burned overseas. WeWork, which rents out shared workspaces, was seen as a cautionary tale of a startup that did not live up to expectations and was not profitable.

For years, investors were willing to back losing businesses to gain market share. But now, there is more scrutiny of new investments.

Benchmarks set

The Vietnam Innovative Startup Accelerator (VIISA) requires its technology startups to meet a list of benchmarks throughout their time in the program.

“Apart from very intuitive selection criteria that all applying startups have to go through, the program has introduced a new development measurement method, which helps us to capture the progress of startups that are accepted into VIISA,” Hieu Vo, a board member and chief financial officer at VIISA, said. “I think this process will bring out the best in each person for the particular business they have founded and committed to.”

Vo said his colleagues sit down with startups when they join the accelerator to discuss key performance indicators, or KPI, that will be set as goals. VIISA also does training for the young businesses so they have quantifiable skills, such as how to structure a business deal, or how to set up their accounting system.

Having metrics and ratings, Vo said, supports “both business performance, as well as personal transformation of founders.”

Founder scrutiny

The founder as an individual has become a point of scrutiny for investors, who used to be more forgiving of an eccentric or aggressive founder, seen as part of the package to have a tech genius head an innovative business. But there has been a backlash among those who think too much permissiveness can damage a business, from the sexual misconduct amid the workplace culture of Uber, to the conflicts of interest in business decisions at WeWork.

It helps to not just think short term and to have an outside perspective, according to Pham Manh Ha, founder and chief executive officer of Beekrowd, an investment platform in Ho Chi Minh City.

“As a first-time founder, it seems impossible for us to look beyond the first six months to a year of our business,” he said, adding that experienced third parties can help businesses take the long view. “They stand outside the trees that are blocking us from seeing the forest.”

To see the forest, Vietnamese businesses like his are taking a more measured approach. Vietnam has seen an escalation of tech startups, as investors have rushed to put their money to work and take advantage of the economy’s fast growth.

They also remember the dot-com bubble in the United States, and the more recent global tech bubble, two reminders for caution.

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Outgoing Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales said Wednesday that his government had not agreed to receive Mexicans who sought asylum in the U.S. 
 
Morales, whose presidency ends next week, said he had told U.S. officials that the issue would have to be negotiated with his successor. 
 
“It’s more than clear, in the agreement it only lays out Salvadorans and Hondurans,” Morales said. “The United States has talked about the possibility of including Mexican nationals, but that they have to discuss it with the next government. In the last visit we made to the White House with President [Donald] Trump we were clear saying that that negotiation had to be done with the new government.” 

Aggressive U.S. move
 
The U.S. government moved aggressively last year to curb the number of asylum seekers arriving at its southwest border. The majority came from Central America. The U.S. began making many of those requesting asylum wait out their cases in Mexico. Then it forged agreements with Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador that would allow it to send some asylum seekers there. The U.S. government argued that migrants should request asylum in the first country they entered, not wait until they arrived at the U.S. border. 

To date, the U.S. has sent 94 asylum seekers from El Salvador and Honduras to Guatemala. Only six of them decided to seek asylum there while the rest returned to their countries. 
 
Mexicans do not pass through any other countries to arrive at the U.S. border. But in recent days, guidance was sent to U.S. asylum officials that said Mexicans would now be included under the bilateral agreement with Guatemala. 
 
Pedro Brolo, who has been designated foreign affairs minister by President-elect Alejandro Giammattei, and his spokeswoman did not immediately answer requests for comment. 

Talks on expansion
 
On December 19, Morales’ interior minister, Enrique Degenhart, suggested that talks were underway to expand the program to Mexicans because it had yielded such strong results with Central Americans. 
 
Mexico has expressed its unhappiness with the plan. Mexican Interior Secretary Olga Sanchez Cordero said via Twitter on Tuesday that “it would be an action contrary to international law and the bilateral relationship.” 

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Investors are closely watching the escalating tensions between the United States and Iran. Oil prices have fluctuated since the targeted killing of Iranian General Qassem Suleimani, but overall are holding steady. VOA’s Ardita Dunellari spoke with market analysts to understand what investors are thinking.

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