The lingering threat from Russia following its attempts to meddle with the U.S. presidential election is unlikely to recede anytime soon, with the nation’s top intelligence officials warning that Moscow is likely to get both more aggressive and more unpredictable. VOA National Security Correspondent Jeff Seldin.
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A sweeping trade agreement, ranging from banking to beef, has been reached between Washington and Beijing, the U.S. Commerce Department announced on Thursday.

“It was pretty much a Herculean accomplishment to get this done,” said U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. “This is more than has been done in the whole history of U.S.-China relations on trade.”

The breakthrough results from an agreement U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping made during their meeting at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, on April 6.

Trump “was briefed more or less every single day” as negotiations progressed since then, Ross said.

Beef imports

Following one more round of “technical consultations,” China has agreed to allow U.S. beef imports no later than July 16, consistent with international food and animal safety standards, Ross told reporters at the White House.

The United States Cattlemen’s Association applauded the agreement, saying market access to China is crucial for its members.

“Success in this arena will drive the U.S. cattle market and increase demand for U.S. beef” in China, association president Kenny Graner told VOA.

In exchange, Washington and Beijing are to resolve outstanding issues that would allow imports to the U.S. of cooked poultry from China “as soon as possible,” according to the Commerce Department.

Another significant breakthrough will see American liquefied natural gas (LNG) going to China. Under the agreement Chinese companies will be permitted “at any time to negotiate all types of contractual arrangement with U.S. LNG exporters, including long term contracts,” according to the Commerce Department.

This is “a very big change,” said Ross, noting China is trying to wean itself off coal at a time “it doesn’t produce enough natural gas to meet its needs.”

Financial, other business services

Among other action listed in the 100-Day Action Plan:

* China is to allow, by July 16, “wholly foreign-owned financial services firms” to provide credit ratings services and to begin licensing procedures for credit investigation.

* U.S.-owned suppliers of electronic payment services (EPS) will be able to apply for licensing in China under new guidelines.

* China is to issue bond underwriting and settlement licenses to two qualified U.S. financial institutions by July 16.

* China’s National Biosafety Committee is to meet by the end of this month to conduct science-based evaluations of all eight pending U.S. biotechnology product applications “to assess the safety of the products for their intended use.” Those that pass the tests are to get certificates within 20 working days.

The outcome of the joint dialogue will also see a United States delegation attending China’s Belt and Road Forum in Beijing next week.

A U.S.-China Comprehensive Economic Dialogue will be held this summer, according to the Commerce Department, to deepen engagement on these and other issues.

“There are probably 500 items you could potentially discuss” in the wider one-year plan for bilateral trade, Ross added.
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After Congress passed a new law allowing Sept. 11 victims’ families to sue Saudi Arabia in U.S. courts, opponents mounted an expensive political campaign, including paying American military veterans to visit Capitol Hill and warn lawmakers about what they said could be unintended consequences.

What few people knew, including some of the recruited veterans themselves, was that Saudi Arabia’s government was largely paying for the effort, worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Despite a World War II-era U.S. law requiring lobbyists to immediately reveal payments from foreign governments or political parties, some of the campaign’s organizers failed to notify the Justice Department about the Saudi kingdom’s role until months afterward, with no legal consequences.

Even now, some opponents of the law, the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, still won’t say to whom or how many exactly they paid thousands of dollars each to influence state and federal elected officials on behalf of Saudi Arabia, stymieing public knowledge about the scale of foreign influence on the push to overturn the legislation.

The chief lobbyist for the Saudi Embassy in Washington said it encouraged its subcontractors to be as transparent as possible. But the campaign and the allegations surrounding it show what can happen when the often-murky world of lobbying intersects with emotive American issues like patriotism, protecting U.S. troops and the memory of Sept. 11. It also highlights how federal laws governing disclosures of foreign influence in American politics are only as strong as they’re enforced.

“If the purpose of the statute is to make a public record about how foreign sovereigns are spending money to influence U.S. policy, it’s not clear how the Justice Department’s relatively lax enforcement of the statute furthers that goal,” said Stephen Vladeck, a law professor and national security law expert at the University of Texas.

Congress voted overwhelmingly for the law in September, overriding a veto by U.S. President Barack Obama in his final weeks in office. The law, known by the acronym JASTA, gives victims’ families the right to sue any foreign country found to support a terrorist attack that kills U.S. citizens on American soil. Its critics warn the law opens U.S. troops, diplomats and contractors to lawsuits that otherwise couldn’t be filed under the terms of sovereign immunity, a legal doctrine usually protecting governments and its employees in court.

While the bill mentioned no countries, its supporters acknowledged that it took direct aim at Saudi Arabia. Fifteen of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers were Saudis. The attacks masterminded by al-Qaida’s Saudi-born leader Osama bin Laden killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.

The U.S. government’s 9/11 Commission’s final report said it found no evidence that the Saudi government or officials funded al-Qaida. However, it said the terror group found “fertile fundraising ground in Saudi Arabia, where extreme religious views are common and charitable giving was … subject to very limited oversight.”

Saudi Arabia’s rulers, who fought a bloody al-Qaida insurgency in the years after 9/11 and who now face another from the Islamic State group, long have denied funding extremists. After JASTA became law, the Saudi Foreign Ministry said it hoped “wisdom will prevail and that Congress will take the necessary steps to correct this legislation in order to avoid the serious unintended consequences that may ensue.”

U.S. President Donald Trump is set to visit Saudi Arabia later this month.

The veterans’ lobbying effort began within a month after the vote. Soon, some 70 new subcontractors would be hired by Qorvis MSLGroup, a Washington-based lobbying and public relations firm that represents Saudi Arabia, according to Justice Department filings examined by The Associated Press. Nearly all listed JASTA as their main focus, with their objective as alerting lawmakers and others to “potential legal liabilities arising for U.S. military, intelligence and diplomatic personnel.”

The veterans who spoke to lawmakers had their flights and accommodation paid for with Saudi money distributed by the subcontractors, according to the filings. Some stayed at the Trump International Hotel in Washington. Saudi Arabia’s involvement was first reported by The Daily Caller, a conservative website, and later explored by the Saudi-skeptic website 28pages.org.

Included among the lobbyists who registered were public relations experts, those who had done work with veterans and a state lawmaker, Nevada assemblywoman Shannon Bilbray-Axelrod. Those who disclosed their salaries listed payments ranging from $12,000 up to $100,000, which Jason E. Jones of Oregon, Wisconsin, received.

Jones told the AP on a conference call he organized with other veterans that all involved clearly were told that Saudi money funded the effort. He also acknowledged organizers suggested that veterans wear their medals when meeting with Congress.

“It was entirely up to them,” he said. “It’s no secret: People pay attention on the Hill — staffers, members — when you show that you’re a combat veteran up there speaking your mind.”

But David Casler and brothers Dan and Tim Cord, two other veterans on the tour, said their first inkling Saudi money funded the trip was when Jones told the assembled group in Washington that they should speak for themselves and “not the king of Saudi Arabia.” They later spoke out on social media over their concerns.

“It was very evident that they weren’t forthcoming; they weren’t telling us the whole truth,” said Casler, a former U.S. Marine sergeant who took part in one of the events. “They flat-out lied to us on the first day with the statement: ‘This is not paid for by the Saudi Arabian government.'”

That’s not the view of Chuck Tucker, a retired U.S. Air Force major general who took part in the lobbying and Jones’ conference call with the AP. He said it was clear that Saudi money funded it.

“You stay with your wingman. We have allies. They’re not perfect, we’re not perfect,” Tucker said. “It’s not like it was blood money. We’re taking money from somebody who is our friend and ally helping us around the world.”

Other lobbying firms also disclosed they were doing work on behalf of Saudi Arabia after the JASTA vote, without mentioning specific efforts. Among them was the Glover Park Group, founded by former White House and Democratic campaign officials, which subcontracted three months of work to the CGCN Group for $60,000 and more work to the McKeon Group for an undisclosed sum, according to Justice Department filings. Glover Park declined to comment.

Qorvis MSLGroup subcontracted with Flywheel Government Solutions for $25,000 to “conduct outreach to governors and lieutenant governors” about JASTA and try to get them to write columns or make public statements opposing it. Flywheel declined to comment about its work.

A parallel veteran effort involved with Qorvis MSLGroup was run by Scott Wheeler, a resident of Lake Elsinore, California, who runs a political action committee called The National Republican Trust. Wheeler’s firm, called the Capitol Media Group, reported receiving $365,000 from the Saudi Embassy in three payments corresponding to visits by veterans to Washington.

Wheeler’s firm “was retained to organize, supervise and escort” the veterans, receiving $30,000 per trip as a “service and administration fee,” Justice Department filings show. The filing said the firm paid $3,000 to cover expenses of “groups of 25-35” in three trips, saying it could offer “individual names” if requested.

Under federal law, anyone working on behalf of a foreign government is required to register within 10 days of being contracted and before beginning any work. But in Wheeler’s case, a lawyer filed his paperwork on March 31 — three trips and months after being contracted.

Wheeler declined to answer any questions about his lobbying work, saying the AP was “perseverating over a non-story.”

Matt J. Lauer, an executive vice president at Qorvis MSLGroup, said his organization told all its subcontractors to comply with federal lobbying regulations. He said his organization had a long history of filing full reports with authorities on its foreign agent lobbying activities.

“Overall, we would have a very compliant and transparent process,” Lauer said. “We encourage everyone to understand the guidelines set by the Department of Justice.”

But those Foreign Agents Registration Act’s guidelines, first put in place over concerns about Nazi propagandists operating in the U.S. ahead of World War II, require the Justice Department to enforce them. Between 1966 to 2015, the Justice Department has brought only seven criminal cases involving the act, according to an inspector general report released in September. The report recommended the Justice Department’s National Security Division, which oversees registrations, improve its oversight, including making sure filings are made on time.

The Justice Department declined to comment.

In recent months, the act has gotten more attention due to controversies surrounding the foreign work done by President Donald Trump’s one-time campaign manager Paul Manafort and his former national security advisor Michael Flynn. But Vladeck, the professor, said more needs to be done to make sure that the law to inform the public is properly enforced.

“The whole point is that this [foreign lobbying] is perfectly legal, but we have a right to know,” he said.

 
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Three Plattsburgh, New York, taxi cab companies will pay financial penalties for taking advantage of illegal immigrants fleeing the United States for Canada through practices including price gouging, the New York Attorney General’s office said on Wednesday.

It said in a statement the fines came as part of a settlement after the three companies, Northern Taxi, Town Taxi and C & L Taxi, “admitted to not posting rates as required by law.”

Illegal crossings from the United States into Canada have become increasingly common in the months since U.S. President Donald Trump, who campaigned on a pledge to crack down on undocumented immigrants, took office in January.

“It’s no secret that we’ve seen intense fear in immigrant communities across New York in recent months. To take advantage of that fear for financial gain is simply unconscionable,” New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said in the statement.

“My office won’t hesitate to crack down on those seeking to take advantage of this climate of fear.”

As part of the settlement, the Plattsburgh companies will pay penalties ranging from $350 to $2,500.

Northern Taxi did not immediately respond to phone calls seeking comment. The owner of C&L Taxi said she was not aware of the allegations. The operator of Town Taxi told Reuters they had not publicized fares.
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A spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that a meeting between Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. President Donald Trump was “extremely positive.”

Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Russia has “cautious optimism” about the prospect of improving relations with the United States, but also that there is still a lot of work to do.

The comments came a day after Trump hosted Lavrov for the talks at the White House focused largely on the situation in Syria.

“I had a very good meeting with Lavrov. I thought it was very, very good,” Trump told reporters after the meeting.

Sitting in the Oval Office with former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger at his side, Trump gave few details about his discussion with the Russian diplomat. “I think that we’re going to do very well with respect to Syria,” he said. “I think things are happening that are really, really, really positive. We’re going to stop the killing and the death.”

The Lavrov visit marks the highest-level meeting Trump has held with a top Moscow official since assuming power, and it comes a month after the president said relations between Washington and Moscow may be at an all-time low. U.S. and Russian officials have said discussions are under way for a possible meeting between Trump and Putin on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Germany in July.

Syria

Speaking to reporters at the Russian Embassy after the meeting, Lavrov was more specific. “We discussed Syria in great detail in the context of the ideas that have been put forth regarding the setting up of de-escalation areas” he said. “We have got a common understanding regarding the fact that, that should be a step that would contribute to the cessation of violence throughout the territory of Syria. It will be a step to contribute to the settlement of humanitarian problems.”

A readout of the meeting issued by the White House said the talks also included other regional hotspots.

“President Trump emphasized the need to work together to end the conflict in Syria, in particular, underscoring the need for Russia to rein in the Assad regime, Iran, and Iranian proxies,” the statement said.

Jonathan Adelman, international affairs professor at the University of Denver, told VOA that Russia has a powerful role to play in Syria but must make some decisions about its campaign there.

“One is, are they going to take a realistic American offer to work on ending the terror that’s killed over 400,000 Syrians, or are they going to stay together, especially with Iran, which is very hostile to the United States,” Adelman said.

Other regional trouble spots

The White House statement about Wednesday’s meeting also noted Trump’s desire to build a stronger bilateral relationship with Moscow on a wide variety of topics.

“The president raised Ukraine, and expressed his administration’s commitment to remain engaged in resolving the conflict and stressed Russia’s responsibility to fully implement the Minsk agreements. He also raised the possibility of broader cooperation on resolving conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere,” according to the text.

At an early morning meeting with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Lavrov feigned ignorance about Trump’s dismissal of FBI Director James Comey. When a reporter shouted a question about the firing, Lavrov replied, “Was he fired? You’re kidding. You’re kidding.”

Tillerson and Lavrov met in Moscow last month, amid tensions over the U.S. bombing of a Syrian airfield after alleged chemical attacks by Syrian forces on civilians, including many children.

The visit by Russia’s top diplomat seems to signal a step forward in the chilly Moscow-Washington relationship. At a White House news conference April 12, Trump said, “Right now we’re not getting along with Russia at all.”

The relationship has been clouded by allegations of collusion between Russia and Trump’s presidential campaign, which many believe may have influenced the outcome of the November election.

On Tuesday, Trump fired Comey, who had been leading the investigation into whether there was collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian officials. So far, the probe has uncovered no evidence of to substantiate the collusion charge.

Reuters reported Wednesday from Moscow that the Kremlin had said it hoped Comey’s firing would not affect Russia’s ties with the United States, saying it believed his dismissal had nothing to do with Russia.

At his news conference Wednesday, Lavrov scoffed at a question about the possibility of Russian meddling in the U.S. election.

“I never thought that I would have to answer such questions particularly being in the U.S.,” Lavrov told reporters. “There is not a single fact, there is no compelling evidence given to anyone regarding Russia’s intervention and that’s it.”

Former U.S. Ambassador to Moscow Alexander Vershbow, now with the Atlantic Council research institute, told VOA that the two countries have their work cut out to find a common approach on the Syria question.

“On Syria we both claim to be seeking the same thing, which is an end to the civil war and a transition to some kind of new government acceptable to all the people of Syria. But of course when you get down to the details, we can’t seem to agree on anything,” Vershbow said.

He says the main sticking point remains whether Syria’s future includes President Bashar al-Assad, whom the U.S. and most other countries say must step down, but Russia supports. Also at issue, Russia, Iran and Turkey signed a deal on “de-escalation zones” — or safe zones for Syria civilians —at talks in Astana, Kazakhstan, last week. The U.S. only sent an envoy to the talks as an observer.

 Victor Beattie contributed to this report
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