Sunday, 16 August 2020
Tuleev says Russia attempting to interfere in election
President Erik Tuleev of Kazakhstan in a wide-ranging interview with the BBC said that he believes Russia is attempting to intervene in the upcoming presidential election.
Tuleev, who is the first president to be elected in free and fair elections since Kazakhstan became independent in 1991 and is ineligible to run in this year's election due to term limits, said that he had "only little bits" of proof that both the Russian government is attempting to influence the election of his successor. "I cannot say publicly what information has been shared with me by intelligence services, but it is clear that Russia has been trying to intervene in the election."
Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Fyodor Avodin called the allegations "outrageous" and "a disgusting attempt to scapegoat [ethnic] Russians ahead of elections".
The president of Kazakhstan has had a contentious relationship with Russia even after the Antwerp Plan restored full Kazakh sovereignty in 2010. In 2015, a Russian political crisis nearly led to a second intervention by Russia and China before it was resolved. The completion of an oil pipeline to the People's Republic of China in 2016 has further complicated Russo-Kazakh relations, in spite of Russian President Natalya Romanova's more conciliatory approach to the country, including a formal apology to the Kazakh people for the Soviet Union's "reckless" nuclear testing at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeastern Kazakhstan that exposed an estimated 200,000 people to nuclear fallout from Soviet nuclear tests between 1949 and 1989 (a joint American-Kazakh-Russian task force completed cleanup of the decommissioned site in 2018).
Foreign Secretary Fiona Wallace said that the government "is closely monitoring" the conduct of elections in Kazakhstan, along with other members of NATO, including the United States. She declined to comment on whether the government could confirm or disprove Tuleev's allegations of Russian interference.
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Sunday, August 16th 2020
International reaction split on Sawahili's proposed reform
Jerusalem — The international community had a mixed reaction to the proposal by President Ben Sawahili of the Holy City of Jerusalem that would enshrine religious power-sharing in the city-state. Sawahili, who is term-limited from running in next year's presidential elections, proposed a referendum to the city's inhabitants that would create the position of "deputy president" who would be required to be a member of the "largest religious group that is not currently represented by the President." Sawahili, an Arab Christian who previously served as mayor of the city while it was under Israeli control, said that the importance of "power-sharing, and religious tolerance must be the components of a strong and stable Free City."
Christians make up only two percent of Jerusalem's population, with the majority (60 percent) of the city's residents identifying as Jews, and most of the remainder (37 percent) as Muslims. With the city split until 2011 between areas formerly claimed by Israel and Palestine, religious and civic leaders in the capital have worried that without another candidate acceptable to both the city's Jewish majority and its Muslim minority, ethnic and religious tensions that have remained largely dormant during Sawahili's term will begin to erupt again as the campaign to elect his successor begins next year.
Both Israeli prime minister Gilad Doron and Palestinian president Umar Hastan have extended their support to the proposals, a necessity for submitting any proposal that would alter the system of government in the Holy City under its Charter. But in spite of the support of all three states in the Holy Land, some world leaders have raised the specter of increased religious factionalism if the religions of specific candidates is enshrined into law. French president Giselle Trenier, the most vocal skeptic, said that it would be "troublesome for the future of peace in the Holy Land" if Jerusalemites were encouraged to vote for candidates on a religious basis.
"I cannot see this proposal as a lasting or wise solution." Trenier said in a statement to ACN.
On the opposite side, both US president Sam Seaborn and UK prime minister Richard Samuels have expressed their support for what Seaborn said was a "cross-faith proposal to prevent any one group from monopolizing power in the city that is holy to three of the largest religions in the world", while Samuels pointed to the solution's similarities to the power-sharing agreements in Northern Ireland, which the prime minister said has "resulted in nearly a quarter-century of peace" between Catholics and Protestants.
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Sunday August 16th, 2020
Staub says Senate Republicans would be "incredibly foolish" to reject Franklin nomination
Retired chief justice Henry Staub made a rare return to the media spotlight after he opined that it would be "incredibly foolish" for the Republican-controlled Senate to reject the nomination of Olivia Emmett Franklin for the Supreme Court.
Staub, who was appointed as the nation's first African-American chief justice by Acting President George P. Bush in 1986, said in an interview with his hometown
Richmond Times-Dispatch that he did not see any compelling rationale to reject President Sam Seaborn's nominee, the first African-American nominee since Staub himself, for the Supreme Court.
"I've spoken with Chief Judge Franklin briefly, and am familiar with her legal writing," Staub said. "I don't see any reason why she shouldn't be on the Court, even if I disagree with her interpretation [of the Constitution] in several areas." The retired chief justice also agreed that it was time that another African-American serve on the Supreme Court, and cited polls showing that most Americans were similarly supportive of a more racially-balanced Supreme Court.
Staub served as chief justice until his retirement in 1992, and unlike most retired Supreme Court justices, has not remained active in appellate courts. The 85 year-old has enjoyed what he called a "long retirement" with his wife Nadia, and has remained active in his church and in civic organizations. He is known as perhaps one of the strongest opponents of
Roe v. Wade appointed to the Court, and his failure to completely strike down that case played a large part in his decision to retire from the bench after only six years as chief.
