Leaders of seven southern European countries on Thursday urged Turkey to end “unilateral and illegal activities” in the eastern Mediterranean and resume dialogue to ease tensions in the region.Heads of state and government of France, Greece, Cyprus, Malta, Italy, Spain and Portugal gathered in Corsica amid fears of open conflict, as Turkey seeks to expand its energy resources and influence in the region. In their final statement, leaders reaffirmed their “full support and solidarity with Cyprus and Greece,” who they say are facing Turkey’s “confrontational actions.” “We regret that Turkey has not responded to the repeated calls by the European Union to end its unilateral and illegal activities,” they said. FILE – The Turkish drilling vessel Yavuz is seen being escorted by a Turkish navy frigate in the eastern Mediterranean off Cyprus, Aug. 6, 2019.The leaders warned that “in absence of progress in engaging Turkey into a dialogue, and unless it ends its unilateral activities, the EU is ready to develop a list of further restrictive measures” at a summit later this month. They also called on resuming German mediation in the dispute. Russia also offered this week to mediate. Greece and Turkey have deployed naval and air force units to assert competing claims over energy exploration rights in the eastern Mediterranean. Turkish survey vessels and drill ships continue to prospect for gas in waters where Greece and Cyprus claim exclusive economic rights. France is carrying out military patrols in the region in a show of support for Greece and Cyprus, and the EU is mulling new sanctions against Turkey. Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said, “If Turkey really wants a frank dialogue with Greece and Cyprus with the European Union, it must demonstrate this in practice — to immediately stop unilateral actions, to make convincing indications that it respects international law.” French President Emmanuel Macron welcomes Greece’s Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis ahead of the plenary session of the MED7 Mediterranean countries summit, in Porticcio, Corsica, France, Sept. 10, 2020.Turkey needs to “restrain its aggressive rhetoric” and “return to the table for exploratory talks with Greece,” he added. Turkish leaders have lashed out at France and the EU for siding with Greece and Cyprus in the dispute. Earlier Thursday, French President Emmanuel Macron denounced what he called “unacceptable” provocations from Turkey. “Turkey is no longer a partner in this region,” he told reporters ahead of the summit. “We Europeans need to be clear and firm” with the government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan about its “inadmissible behavior,” he said. Turkey’s Foreign Ministry characterized Macron’s statement as “arrogant” and in line with “old colonial reflexes.” It accused the French president of stoking tensions and putting the “greater interests” of Europe at risk. “It is not for Macron to determine the maritime jurisdiction of any country in the Mediterranean” or anywhere else, the Turkish Ministry said in a statement. Speaking Thursday to EU lawmakers, Greek European Affairs Minister Miltiadis Varvitsiotis appealed for support from European partners, saying the tensions over energy rights “constitute by themselves a grave threat to our common security architecture.” He said that Turkey is looking beyond Greece and is “a major destabilizing factor in the wider area,” citing Turkish government actions in Libya, Syria and beyond. He said that Greece would not provoke conflict but wouldn’t just sit back waiting for European help to arrive. “At the end of the day, we will defend ourselves, even alone,” he said. Separately from the diplomatic discussions, Turkish and Greek military officials met Thursday at NATO headquarters, as part of ongoing meetings aimed at reducing the risk of armed conflict. Greece and Turkey both are NATO members. The leaders also planned to discuss EU and NATO operations in the Mediterranean and their relation to Turkey during a dinner on Thursday evening. The seven countries are aiming for a united southern European front before a full EU summit later this month focused on the bloc’s strategy toward Turkey. FILE – Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu attends a press conference in Ankara, Turkey, Aug. 25, 2020.In a testy exchange with EU lawmakers, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu urged the Europeans to play the role of an “honest broker” in the maritime border and energy dispute, rather than take sides with member countries Greece and Cyprus. “By acting as an international court, defending one side’s claims over the issue, the EU has become a part of the problem, unfortunately,” Cavusoglu said by video link. “We are ready for dialogue without any preconditions. If Greece insists on preconditions, we will also insist on our preconditions,” Cavusoglu said. He added, “We are not for tension. We are not for escalation.” European Council President Charles Michel will travel to Greece, Cyprus and Malta next week for talks with leaders.
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Month: September 2020
What Does Beijing Want From Berlin?
China has announced that its head of state will hold a FILE – German foreign minister Heiko Maas adjusts his glasses during a news conference in Athens, Aug. 25, 2020.“The Himalayas and the Malacca Strait may seem a long way away,” FILE – A man looks at a newsstand with a copy of the day’s Global Times displayed on a basket in Beijing, China, April 5, 2016.Kefferpuetz described the Global Times article as an attempt to accentuate differences among Germany, the EU and the U.S. while “belittl[ing] the EU.” “By doing so, it misses the bigger picture,” he said. “Several years back, China was expanding its influence in Europe — buying up companies, establishing a variety of political platforms and engaging with EU member states bilaterally and regionally. Now, the tables are turning,” Kefferpuetz said. Europe, he said, is increasingly wary of Chinese influence, and “relationships are souring.” Meanwhile, European powers are moving closer to China’s immediate neighborhood, Kefferpuetz said in a written interview with VOA. He cited Britain’s plan to send an aircraft carrier to patrol in the South China Sea next year, Germany’s just-announced Indo-Pacific strategy and a similar strategy that France published last year. “By claiming that the EU is weak, and the transatlantic alliance is divided, the Global Times article just highlights how nervous China must be, given Europe’s push into the Indo-Pacific alongside the United States,” Kefferpuetz said. Robert Spalding, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, has served in senior defense and diplomacy positions in the U.S. government, including senior director for strategy at the National Security Council under U.S. President Donald Trump. He told VOA in a phone interview on Thursday that the Global Times article’s emphasis on the relative importance of the United States in the region contradicted previous Chinese assertions. “They’ve been saying we’re not important, that the United States has ceased being relevant, hence the need for China to take over,” he said with a laugh. He added that Beijing appeared to have lost its footing in managing the increasingly complex global relationships. “They don’t know what they’re doing,” Spalding said.
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‘I Didn’t Lie,’ Trump Asserts About Seriousness of Coronavirus
“I didn’t lie,” U.S. President Donald Trump bluntly responded at a White House news conference Thursday after a reporter asked him, “Why did you lie to the American people?” The question from ABC News White House correspondent Jon Karl came in the wake of audio released by journalist and author Bob Woodward, to whom Trump acknowledged early this year he wanted to play down the threat from the coronavirus. “I don’t want to jump up and down screaming, ‘Death. Death,’ ” Trump replied to justify intentionally misleading the country about the severity of COVID-19. He called Karl’s question disrespectful and took queries from only two other reporters before abruptly departing the briefing room. FILE – Bob Woodward attends the 2019 PEN America Literary Gala at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, May 21, 2019.The president also sought to calm the uproar about revelations from the 18 interviews he gave to Woodward, which appeared in Woodward’s new book, Rage. Trump said if Woodward thought his comments on the coronavirus were so bad, “he should have immediately gone out publicly,” instead of waiting many months to release the tapes. “I wanted to always play it down,” Trump is heard saying on the recording about the coronavirus, taped on March 19. The next day, in response to a White House reporter’s question during a live news conference, Trump denied that his minimizing of the risk was giving Americans a false sense of security. Fewer lives would have been lost, according to Democratic Party politicians and many public health officials, if the president had emphasized early on the seriousness of the coronavirus. Trump repeatedly claimed early in the year that the coronavirus was no worse than influenza, that it would soon go away and that the federal government had the situation under control. Democratic vice presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., participates in a roundtable discussion at Florida Memorial University during a campaign stop in Miami Gardens, Fla., Sept. 10, 2020.Trump is engaged “in reckless disregard of the lives and health and well-being” of the American people, Senator Kamala Harris, the Democratic vice presidential candidate, said Thursday at an event in Florida. “I find it so outrageous.” COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus for which vaccines are currently under development, had killed 191,727 people in the United States as of Thursday evening EDT, according to Johns Hopkins University’s Coronavirus Resource Center — the largest number reported by any country. Nearly 6.4 million infections of the 28 million worldwide are in the United States. FILE – National security adviser Robert O’Brien speaks at the State Department in Washington, Aug. 11, 2020.According to Woodward’s book, as the virus started to sweep from China throughout the world, national security adviser Robert O’Brien told Trump in a January 28 White House meeting, “This will be the biggest national security threat you face in your presidency. This is going to be the roughest thing you face.” Woodward, a Washington Post associate editor, said deputy national security adviser Matthew Pottinger agreed with O’Brien’s assessment. Yet Trump publicly minimized the threat. Ten days after the White House meeting, he called Woodward and said he thought the situation was far more frightful. “You just breathe the air, and that’s how it’s passed,” Trump said in a February 7 call. “And so, that’s a very tricky one. That’s a very delicate one. It’s also more deadly than even your strenuous flu.” “This is deadly stuff,” the president repeated for emphasis. Reaction from BidenThe revelations came less than eight weeks before the November 3 presidential election between Trump and his Democratic challenger, former Vice President Joe Biden. Biden, on a campaign trip to the Midwestern political battleground state of Michigan on Wednesday, assailed Trump’s performance in dealing with the coronavirus. Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden speaks with reporters before boarding a plane at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport in Detroit, Sept. 9, 2020.”He knowingly and willingly lied to the American public about the threat posed to the country for months. … He failed to do his job on purpose,” Biden said. “It’s beyond despicable.” Trump made a campaign speech in Michigan on Thursday evening, telling a large crowd that was not socially distanced, “With or without the vaccine, we’re rounding the turn” in the fight against the coronavirus. Political ammunition Political management professor Todd Belt at George Washington University said revelations from the book about Trump’s response to the coronavirus could provide political ammunition for both Republicans and Democrats. “Of course, the Republicans will say, ‘Look, he was providing leadership. He didn’t want people to panic,’ ” Belt told VOA. “Whereas the Democrats will say, ‘Look, this was a poor decision, and it made the problem worse.’ So, I think people will probably interpret this part through the same partisan lenses.” Woodward is best known in American journalism for joining Post reporter Carl Bernstein in uncovering the Watergate political corruption scandal in the 1970s that led to President Richard Nixon’s resignation. The new Woodward book tracks the Trump administration’s missteps in dealing with the pandemic and touches on numerous other controversies during Trump’s nearly four years as president. FILE – Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington, July 31, 2020.”Trump never did seem willing to fully mobilize the federal government and continually seemed to push problems off on the states” to deal with the pandemic, Woodward wrote. “There was no real management theory of the case or how to organize a massive enterprise to deal with one of the most complex emergencies the United States had ever faced.” Woodward said infectious-disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci, often the administration’s public face answering questions about the COVID-19 disease, at one point told others that Trump “is on a separate channel” and unfocused in meetings, with “rudderless” leadership. Ken Bredemeier and Patsy Widakuswara contributed to this report.
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Dem Report: Medicare Chief Used Fed Money to Bolster Image
Private consultants to the federal official who oversees Medicare billed taxpayers almost $6 million in less than two years to bolster her personal image, including efforts to win awards, place her on lists of powerful women and arrange meetings with influential people, a report by congressional Democrats said Thursday.Medicare is a U.S. government program that pays most health care costs incurred by senior citizens.The consultants, many with Republican Party ties, billed taxpayers up to $380 per hour on work largely aimed at polishing the profile of Medicare administrator Seema Verma, the investigators wrote. The contractors were “handpicked” by Verma’s aides, the report said, creating “a shadow operation” that sidelined the communications staff of the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.The consultants’ work often had nothing to do with running Medicare, Medicaid and other massive health programs that the agency operates, said the 56-page report, which was backed by more than 1,700 pages of documents. Verma has run the agency since 2017. “Congress did not intend for Administrator Verma or other senior CMS officials to use taxpayer dollars to stockpile CMS with handpicked consultants or promote Administrator Verma’s public profile and personal brand,” the report said. “Given the reckless disregard she has shown for the public’s trust, Administrator Verma should reimburse the taxpayers for these inappropriate expenditures,” it said. Agency officials did not immediately respond to emails and phone calls placed to them seeking comment. ‘Deep concerns’ from Verma When similar findings were unveiled by the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services in July, Verma said she had “deep concerns” with the conclusions and said that report mischaracterized the contractors’ jobs. The report released Thursday was prepared by the Democratic staffs of two Senate and two House committees. It said that besides burnishing Verma’s image, the consultants took the lead fashioning agency communications strategies and had access to sensitive internal information that could affect financial markets. Marcus Barlow, a consultant who’d previously worked for Verma at a firm in Indiana, billed the Medicare agency for hours comparable to those of full-time workers and had decision-making powers over some federal workers, the report said. Consultants arranged for private meetings between Verma and hosts of conservative Fox News and editors of Woman’s Day and Women’s Health magazines, the investigators wrote. VOA contributed to this report.
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Climate Change May Shift Risks of Mosquito-borne Diseases
More dengue, less malaria. That may be the future in parts of Africa on a warming planet, depending on where you live. FILE – A doctor tests a child for malaria at the Ithani-Asheri Hospital in Arusha, Tanzania, May 11, 2016.Using mosquito optimal temperature data and population density, the researchers predicted the risk of malaria and dengue in Africa under “worst-case, business-as-usual” climate projections. The dengue mosquito — which also spreads a lot of viruses that cause diseases such as chikungunya, Zika and yellow fever — is expected to expand its range, increasing the risk of these diseases throughout sub-Saharan Africa by 2080. In contrast, the areas of greatest risk for malaria are predicted to shrink, shifting further south and into high-elevation regions. The researchers say that rising urbanization in Africa may further enhance the risk of dengue. Malaria is often more of a problem in rural areas because the mosquito breeds in natural bodies of water such as ponds and streams. But the dengue mosquito prefers to breed in tiny, human-made containers “as small as a bottle cap” that are common in cities, said Mordecai. FILE – An Indian woman walks with a child along an open drain filled with plastic and stagnant water, which act as a breeding ground for mosquitoes in New Delhi, India, Sept. 20, 2016.Urban areas also tend to be warmer than surrounding rural regions, providing more suitable habitat for the heat-loving dengue mosquito. “We’re predicting that dengue is going to become a much bigger problem in Africa. And I think that, itself, is a very big deal, because Africa on the whole is probably not well-prepared, because they’ve been focused on another very important vector-borne disease — malaria,” said Desiree LaBeaud, professor of pediatric infectious diseases at Stanford University and co-author of the study. Public health measures such as insecticide-treated bed nets have helped curb malaria because they protect against the nighttime-biting malaria mosquito. But nets are little help against dengue because the mosquito bites during the day. Growing cases of dengue and other viral diseases may pose new challenges for Africa. According to Mordecai, diagnostic tools for dengue are not widely available in many parts of the continent, which can lead to misdiagnosis and inappropriate treatments. “Generations of scientists and control people have been trained and have experience in controlling malaria vectors. But for dengue, you need to start retraining people essentially for a very different creature and a different enemy,” said Philip McCall, professor of medical entomology at Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, who was not involved with the study. According to McCall, other studies have also shown links with climate change and dengue. “It’s more likely you would have an increase in dengue, or possibly chikungunya and Zika, becoming an emerging serious urban phenomenon,” he said. “But I can’t see malaria, which is so established in Africa, disappearing easily. So, it could be like double trouble.” Experts say this study shows just one possible scenario for mosquito-borne diseases in Africa. “This study is only looking at the very high emission, very fossil fuel-intensive future, which some people think is a little bit unlikely,” said Joacim Rocklöv, professor of epidemiology at Umeå University, who did not contribute to the research. “I think if you would look at another scenario which would perhaps be more plausible, or given we make changes in controlling emissions, then you might see quite different results, actually, in regards to malaria.” The best way to control dengue is reducing breeding habitats for the mosquito by removing containers that hold standing water or making sure they’re fitted with a tight cover. But there is new hope for a different type of dengue control. A naturally occurring bacterium called Wolbachia blocks dengue virus replication in the mosquito and prevents transmission. A trial involving release of Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes in Indonesia was found to reduce dengue cases. “They have reduced transmission in a huge area of Yogyakarta by 77%, which is incredible,” said McCall.
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Даже без нефтегазового эмбарго путляндия осталась у разбитого корыта…
Даже без нефтегазового эмбарго путляндия осталась у разбитого корыта…
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С момента крайне неудачного для обиженного карлика пукина разрешения газового спора с Украиной, ситуация на этом политически важнейшем для него мировом рынке посыпалась окончательно…
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Вертолёты пукина продолжают падать в Ливии, пока он торгует шкурой хафтара
Вертолёты пукина продолжают падать в Ливии, пока он торгует шкурой хафтара.
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Турецкий президент в этом плане действует крайне предусмотрительно. Он по-прежнему
демонстрирует всеобъемлющую поддержку законному правительству, но не стремится к эскалации конфликта. Его вполне устраивает сценарий, при котором крысы сожрут друг друга без лишней помощи
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Даже фаны путляндии устали от преступлений обиженного карлика пукина
Даже фаны путляндии устали от преступлений обиженного карлика пукина.
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В путляндии сейчас с радостью признали бы, что не только Украина, но и Хабаровский край, – это тоже не россия, и нет им никакого дела до всего этого. Системный кризис нарастает и путиноидам всё больше хочется просто спрятать голову от него куда-нибудь, и таким приятным способом снять все свои проблемы. Разумеется, не в песок, а в подушки уютного бункера и с приятной компанией. Вот только системный кризис в путляндии им это не позволит сделать
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10 мільярдів дегенератам суркісам – сюрприз за вкрадені в українців гроші
10 мільярдів дегенератам суркісам – сюрприз за вкрадені в українців гроші.
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Фірми з орбіти дегенератів суркісів отримали судове рішення, що дозволяє стягнути з українського ПриватБанку майже 10 мільярдів гривень. Чи витримає держбанк, якщо їх таки спишуть? І що взагалі це рішення означає для наших грошей?
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Як нападник раптово поїхав з Інтерполу в СІЗО: стрімка кар’єра тітушки авакова
Як нападник раптово поїхав з Інтерполу в СІЗО: стрімка кар’єра тітушки авакова.
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Співвиконавець другого замовного нападу костянтин карбенюк опинився у СІЗО. Але не за те, що на авто поліціянта брав участь у нападі на Стерненка, а за те, що викрав поляка та представлявся працівником Інтерполу
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Mali’s New Leadership Raises Questions About French Counterinsurgency Mission
Over the past seven years, France’s Barkhane counterinsurgency operation in the Sahel has weathered terrorist attacks, flagging political support from its African allies, and growing popular protests against the ongoing presence of Paris, the region’s former colonial power. Now, it faces the coup in Mali. August’s power grab by a group of army colonels — Mali’s fourth coup since independence — is again posing questions about whether and for how long French boots should remain in an increasingly shifting and dangerous terrain. That debate ratcheted up a notch this week, following the deaths of two French soldiers in northern Mali, bringing to 45 the number of French fatalities in the region over the past seven years. FILE – French Defense Minister Florence Parly pays tribute to two French soldiers with the anti-jihadist Barkhane force in Mali killed when their armored vehicle hit an improvised explosive device, during a tribute ceremony in Tarbes, Sept. 9, 2020.“After the coup in Mali, doubts on the Barkhane operation,” France’s Le Figaro newspaper headlined this week, while some leftist lawmakers have called for a parliamentary debate about the future of France’s 5,000-plus strong regional force. Yet along with the questions about France’s future in the region, some analysts see potential opportunities from the coup which ousted a government long accused of corruption and mismanagement — even as others fear deepening unrest. For its part, France’s official answer remains the same. “There is no question of letting down the guard,” Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told French radio hours after news of the soldiers’ deaths. “We are making progress in Mali, where we are fighting to ensure our security and that of other countries.” Talks on next steps The debate comes as Mali’s new military rulers hold local and international talks about the country’s next steps. The 15-nation Economic Commission of West African States, or ECOWAS, has set a 12-month limit for new elections and a September 15th deadline for the appointment of an interim president and prime minister. FILE – Col. Assimi Goita, center, self-declared leader of the National Committee for the Salvation of the People, and other officials from the group meet with a delegation from the West African regional bloc known as ECOWAS, in Bamako, Mali, Aug. 22, 2020.There are also reportedly rocky talks between the self-styled National Committee for the Salvation of the People, or CNSP junta, and the civilian coalition whose massive protests helped topple the government of former President Ibrahim Boubakar Keita. Within this changing political landscape, France and other Western countries involved in regional counterinsurgency operations have offered mixed responses. Even as the European Union and Washington announced the suspension of some military missions in Mali following the coup, French President Emmanuel Macron announced in late August the Barkhane peacekeeping force “would continue.” FILE – French President Emmanuel Macron meets soldiers of Operation Barkhane, France’s largest overseas military operation, in Gao, northern Mali, May 19, 2017.“They’re still pushing for a quick [political] transition,” said Andrew Lebovich, Sahel expert with the European Council on Foreign Relations policy institute, of Paris’ response to the junta.Still, he said, France’s tone toward the coup’s leaders has softened after it became clear Keita would not be returning to power. Respecting engagements Helping to ease relations, Mali’s coup leaders have said they would respect the country’s previous military engagements, which include partnering with other so-called G-5 Sahel member states and France in fighting the long-running Islamist insurgency in northern Mali and neighboring countries. When they met with France’s ambassador to Mali in August, analyst Lebovich noted, Barkhane’s commander was also present. “There was a clear message being sent,” he added, “that from their perspective, nothing changed with Barkhane.” And for now, the military appears to have the support of at least a slice of the Malian population, which staged weeks of anti-government protests leading up to the coup. FILE – A man holds a sign reading “A transition led by the army” as supporters of the National Committee for the Salvation of the People take part in a rally on Independence Square in Bamako, Sept. 8, 2020.“The soldiers, the soldiers,” some chanted at a Bamako rally on Monday. “In theory it’s an opportunity,” Lebovich said of the junta, who he noted moved swiftly to show “they wanted to play a role in pushing anti-corruption measures and good governance” — reforms long demanded by French and other Western powers. Whether Mali’s new rulers carry them out remains unclear. Also unclear, for some, is France’s future relationship with them. Coup leader Colonel Assimi Goita, 37, received training in the United States and Germany — but not in France, France’s Les Echos newspaper noted. Indeed, only one of the coup’s senior officers spent time in the country, it said, adding French military officials initially didn’t seem to know who they were. “We knew the situation remained unstable, but the five officers who led the coup took us by surprise,” it reported a French defense official as saying. Barkhane essential? Either way, Barkhane’s supporters argue the force remains key in fighting the Sahel insurgency. Mali’s own 13,000-strong army is underpaid and underequipped, while some G-5 alliance forces have been accused of human rights abuses. For its part, Paris has described a recent string of tactical successes, including the June killing of a senior al-Qaida leader, Adbemalek Droukdel. FILE – A member of a French military medical unit provides medical action for the benefit of the population during Operation Barkhane in Ndaki, Mali, July 29, 2019.“I think today, Barkhane is vital for Mali,” Nicolas Normand, a former French ambassador to Mali, told France’s Marianne magazine in a recent interview. “If it’s withdrawn, there will be chaos and towns will fall.” But, he added, while “Barkhane is an insurance of Mali’s survival, it cannot stay forever.” French opposition parties have expressed their own doubts about the status quo. A number of analysts are also skeptical about Barkhane’s effectiveness. Some point to a tangle of sometimes conflicting French and other European military missions in the region, and to protests in Mali and elsewhere against foreign involvement. “The French say they’re making headway,” analyst Lebovich said. “Most outside specialists look at this and say, ‘Yes, there’s some improvement, but in general the overall security situation is not that much better.’ ”
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‘A Bargaining Chip’: Jailed British-Iranian Mother Faces New Trial in Tehran
Dual British-Iranian citizen Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, jailed for five years in Iran on spying charges, will face a new trial in the coming days. Her sentence was to expire next April but she has been hit with new charges that have not been made public. The charity worker and her young daughter were detained at Tehran’s airport in 2016 after visiting her family. She strongly denies all the charges against her. As Henry Ridgwell reports, her family believes she is being used as a bargaining chip in a dispute over payment for tanks purchased before the Iranian Revolution but never delivered.
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FBI Investigating Hundreds of Cases of Suspected COVID Relief Fraud
The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation says it is investigating several hundred suspected fraud cases involving a popular economic relief program created for small businesses struggling due to the coronavirus pandemic. John Jimenez, deputy assistant director of the FBI, said Thursday the bureau has identified nearly 500 individuals suspected of defrauding the program known as Paycheck Protection Program or PPP. “We take this fraudulent activity seriously, and aggressively investigate each [case],” Jimenez said.The disclosure came at a Justice Department press conference where U.S. law enforcement officials trumpeted new fraud charges against nearly a dozen defendants.In all, the department’s criminal division has charged 57 people with defrauding the program, on top of number of several similar cases brought by federal prosecutors around the United States.Brian Rabbitt, the acting chief of the criminal division, warned Thursday more charges are in the pipeline. “Our work in ongoing,” Rabbitt said. “We are not done yet.”The Paycheck Protection Program was created in March as part of a $2.2 trillion congressional economic stimulus package in response to the coronavirus pandemic. The program, administered by the Small Business Administration, offered forgivable loans to small businesses provided they used the funds to keep workers on their payrolls.More than 5.2 million loans totaling at least $525 billion were ultimately given to borrowers, mostly small businesses, but in some cases, large corporations. Congress is considering continuing the program as part of a new scaled-down stimulus package. While the loan program aimed to provide a lifeline to distressed business owners, it also created opportunities for fraud. The 57 people accused of defrauding the program attempted to steal $175 million from the program, ultimately costing the government $70 million in losses, Rabbitt said. The cases ranged from requests for as little as $30,000 to as much as $24 million.“The money these defendants stole was taxpayer money,” Rabbitt said. “Every dollar received was a dollar drawn from the American people’s account. Even worse, every dollar they took was a dollar that we’d all set aside to help our fellow Americans weather one of the worst national crises in recent history.”To obtain loans, the defendants allegedly lied about the number of their employees on their loan applications and submitted falsified tax documents, among other misrepresentations, according to law enforcement officials.The first fraud charges under PPP were brought in May. In that case, two men from Massachusetts and Rhode Island allegedly sought more than half a million dollars in loans by claiming to own four businesses with dozens of employees, when they had none.Others operated as part of coordinated criminal rings. In August, prosecutors charged the owner of a Florida-based talent management company and eight others in connection with a scheme to obtain more than $24 million in PPP loans.Phillip J. Augustin, the owner of Clear Vision Music Group LLC, fraudulently obtained a loan for his company, prosecutors charged. Augustin and a co-conspirator then recruited other loan applicants, submitting applications on their behalf in exchange for kickbacks, according to court documents.Others charged with defrauding the program include a reality TV personality in Georgia and two Florida neighbors who sought more than $1 million in loans by claiming to employ more than a dozen workers on “farms” located in the yards of their homes.Those charged then went on personal spending sprees. The TV personality, Maurice Fayne, who goes by “Arkansas Mo” on a VH1 reality show, allegedly used a $2 million PPP loan to buy a Rolls-Royce and a Rolex watch, among other luxury items.
“PPP funds were intended to help keep American businesses afloat,” Rabbitt said. “I can assure you that they were not intended to help support fraudsters’ dreams of owning Lamborghinis, Rolls-Royces, Range Rovers or diamonds.”
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China, US Trade Barbs After Paper Refuses to Carry Envoy’s Op-Ed
China and the United States traded attacks about who best understands press freedom as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo criticized the official newspaper of China’s ruling Communist Party for refusing to carry an op-ed by the U.S. ambassador.The strongly worded comments from both sides come amid rapidly deteriorating relations between the world’s two largest economies ahead of November’s U.S. presidential election, with arguments over trade, human rights and the COVID-19 pandemic.”The People’s Daily’s response once again exposes the Chinese Communist Party’s fear of free speech and serious intellectual debate – as well as Beijing’s hypocrisy when it complains about lack of fair and reciprocal treatment in other countries,” Pompeo said in a statement late on Wednesday.The refusal by the People’s Daily comes after a U.S. decision to revoke more than 1,000 visas of Chinese nationals this week, and as both countries restrict or revoke visas for each others’ journalists.Titled “Resetting the Relationship Based on Reciprocity,” Ambassador Terry Branstad’s article referred to an imbalance in the U.S.-China relationship, noting that U.S. companies, journalists, diplomats, and even civil society suffered unequal access in China.”While U.S. journalists face restrictions on reporting and even entering China, Chinese state media workers have long enjoyed open access in the United States,” Branstad wrote.Issuing its response in a letter, the People’s Daily said the U.S. envoy’s article failed to meet its standards.”In our opinion, the op-ed in the name of Ambassador Branstad is full of loopholes and seriously inconsistent with facts,” the paper said, in a letter released by the State Department.In a statement on Thursday, the paper said it had the right, like U.S. media, to decide what it publishes and to make necessary edits, decrying Pompeo’s remarks as a vicious attack on Chinese media.”It is extremely ironic that on the one hand the U.S. side rudely and unreasonably suppresses Chinese media like the People’s Daily as Communist Party ‘propaganda machines’, and on the other demands they disseminate wrong points of view for the United States.”Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said China’s ambassador in Washington, who frequently appears in U.S. media, has never smeared his host country and is committed to promoting friendly exchanges and cooperation.Pompeo said China must respect the free press.”Their refusal to do so shows just how much China’s unelected Party elites fear their own people’s free-thinking and the free world’s judgment about their governance practices inside China.”
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Brazilian Surfer Breaks Own Record for Big Wave Ride
The World Surf League (WSL) announced Thursday that Brazilian big wave rider Maya Gabeira beat her own world record this year when she rode a 22.4-meter wave at Portugal’s Nazare, the same place she set the record in 2018.Gabeira broke her previous mark by nearly 2 meters during a big wave competition at Nazarre on February 11. Not only was the wave a new women’s record, but the WSL says it was the biggest wave ridden by a man or woman in 2020.FILE – Surfer Maya Gabeira arrives for the 27th anniversary Sports Spectacular at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in Los Angeles, May 20, 2012.The record is particularly sweet for Gabeira, who broke her ankle and nearly drowned in the same spot in 2013.The WSL says its big wave awards are presented months after the rides because video and other data from all potential award-winning wave rides need to be submitted and analyzed by an independent team of scientific experts. The team included members from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the University of Southern California’s Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, among others.The experts examine video and still photos, consider the angles that video or pictures were taken from, and environmental conditions, including tides, sunlight and wave formation.In recent years, Nazare has become a global focal point for big wave surfers. Scientists say big waves form there usually in the winter months, between October and March, when the harsher weather generates larger swells.When those swells come from the west to northwest, they interact with a deep, underwater canyon off the coast of Nazare that, scientists say, can magnify wave height by three to five times.The largest documented wave ever surfed was at Nazare, a 24.38-meter wave in 2017.
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South Africa Mourns Death of Anti-Apartheid Icon, Lawyer George Bizos
South Africans are mourning the death of anti-apartheid activist and attorney George Bizos, best known for his role as defense lawyer for South African icon Nelson Mandela. Bizos’ family said Thursday that the Greek-born lawyer, who came to South Africa as a refugee during World War II, died late Wednesday, “peacefully at home of natural causes, attended to by family.” He was 92. In a statement Wednesday, President Cyril Ramaphosa described Bizos as “the legal eagle of our country.” Bizos defended Mandela and others in the so-called Rivonia Trial of the 1960s, named for the location where the defendants had been arrested, which saw Mandela and companions sentenced to long prison terms for their roles in fighting the racist apartheid system. FILE – Police join hands to hold back demonstrators outside court in Pretoria, June 12, 1964 after eight of the accused in the Rivonia Sabotage trial, including Nelson Mandela and Walter Sisulu, were sentenced to life imprisonment.After Mandela was released from prison and elected the nation’s first Black president, Bizos played a role in crafting one of the world’s most progressive constitutions. “George Bizos is one of those lawyers who contributed immensely, immensely to the attainment of our democracy,” Ramaphosa said. News of his death prompted an outpouring of sentiment from the highest levels of South African government and society. “Mr. Bizos, who represented Walter Sisulu and Nelson Mandela during the infamous Rivonia Trial of 1963, will be remembered as one of the greatest proponents of human rights, social justice, and equality,” National Assembly Speaker Thandi Modise and National Council of Provinces Chairperson Mr. Amos Masondo said in a joint statement. “With his tactical skills and a remarkable grasp of the law, he defended many anti-apartheid activists with integrity, passion, and resoluteness against a regime hellbent on persecution, killings, and destruction of Black lives,” they said. Bizos met Mandela while the two were studying law at the University of the Witwatersrand. FILE – Former South African president Nelson Mandela walks past George Bizos as he leaves a media briefing after his acceptance of the historical collections from the National Archives at the Mandela foundation in Houghton, Nov. 28, 2008.After he defended Mandela in the Rivonia trial, he continued to offer support, with Mandela once saying that Bizos had “behaved like a brother” to him while he was in jail, helping Mandela maintain communication with the exiled leaders of the then-banned African National Congress. Mandela went on to lead the ANC to victory in the nation’s first democratic election, in 1994. Bizos memorably refused to take a seat in Mandela’s post-apartheid government, choosing instead to devote his time to overhauling the nation’s justice system. He appeared before the nation’s six-year Truth and Reconciliation Commission on behalf of families who had lost loved ones to the anti-apartheid struggle. He also played a pivotal role in South Africa’s decision to ban the death penalty, in 1995. in his later years, he led a legal team seeking justice for victims of the 2012 Marikana massacre, where police killed 34 miners who were on strike, the worst single incident of police brutality in South Africa since the end of apartheid. The head of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, Sello Hatang, said in a statement that Bizos stands shoulder to shoulder with Mandela, a man many South Africans refer to by his clan name, Madiba. “At a moment like this,” Hatang said, “we remember Madiba and a whole generation of South Africans who endured much and achieved more. We owe it to them to keep walking that long walk to freedom.”
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Record Flooding Kills 100 in Sudan
Sudanese authorities have declared a three-month state of emergency after record flooding left over a hundred people dead and tens of thousands homeless. Floodwaters are also threatening to damage Sudan’s ancient Meroe Pyramids, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. FILE – Creeping desert sands surround the Royal Cemeteries of Meroe Pyramids in Begrawiya at River Nile State, Sudan, Nov. 10, 2019.The River Nile has crested to its highest level in one hundred years. At least 103 people have been killed by drowning, houses collapsing and road accidents caused by the flooding. Now, thousands of Sudanese families are sleeping in the outdoors, waiting for shelter, food and medicine.40-year-old widow Aisha Adam is one of them. Adam says she is sleeping in the street after the river suddenly destroyed her house in Northern Khartoum; she says she is looking after her sister and five children, and waiting for shelter and aid.The Sudanese government has made an urgent call for organizations and civil society to provide assistance. U.N. agencies started efforts this week to supply medicine, tents and safe drinking water. This is Tinago Chikoto, deputy head of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Sudan.He says help is definitely required from the government and their partners in the U.N. and NGOs besides civil society. The urgent needs are for plastic sheets, tents, health supplies and the provision of safe drinking water. Sudan Refugees Face Life-threatening Risks from Floods, Coronavirus, UN Says Officials say an estimated 125,000 refugees and internally displaced people are affected by Sudan’s worst flooding in a century Floodwaters are also threatening to damage Sudan’s ancient Meroe Pyramids, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.The national museum of Sudan was also affected by the waters this week after the flooding hit central Khartoum.UNESCO began to evacuate artifacts from the museum Thursday and said it shall preserve all the affected World Heritage sites. Siddig says UNESCO has registered many monumental sites in Sudan. The goal of registration was to preserve this heritage and save it from destruction whether by human or natural factors. Siddig adds that the flooding is raising concerns regarding the sites, especially the museum, so UNESCO started to evacuate it in a coordination with the authorities. Many Arab countries including Saudi Arabia, UAE and neighboring Egypt have sent tons of medical and food supplies this week. The Sudanese government has allocated $2.7 million to help those made homeless. The government is also making plans to combat expected epidemics like malaria and cholera. Meanwhile, the floods are likely to continue, as Sudan’s meteorological authority expects the rainy season to extend until the end of September.
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Tokyo Lowers COVID-19 Alert Level as Infections Drop
Tokyo lowered its COVID-19 alert status to the second highest level Thursday, as the number of new cases continues to drop.The government announced it will loosen restrictions on nighttime activity.Japan’s capital city raised its alert to “red” in July, as infections surged. New infection rates hit 300 to 400 cases a day, peaking at 472 daily cases on Aug. 1.About 276 new cases were reported on Thursday. Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike said at a news conference that the city government would lift a measure that shortened hours for restaurants and karaoke bars beginning next week.Koike urged citizens to continue washing their hands and practicing other preventive measures, as another surge in cases is possible.At the national level, the Japanese government will consider adding Tokyo to its “Go to Travel” subsidized domestic tourism campaign, following its exclusion for being a coronavirus hot spot. The campaign was criticized for potentially facilitating the spread of the virus.As of Thursday morning, Tokyo has confirmed a total of 22,454 coronavirus infections and 379 deaths. Japan has a confirmed total of 73,957 cases and 1,416 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center.
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Journalist Woodward Defends Decision to Withhold Trump’s Virus Comments
Bob Woodward, facing widespread criticism for only now revealing President Donald Trump’s early concerns about the severity of the coronavirus, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that he needed time to be sure that Trump’s private comments from February were accurate.
In Woodward’s upcoming book on Trump, “Rage,” the president is quoted saying the virus was highly contagious and “deadly stuff” at a time he was publicly dismissing it as no worse than the flu. Woodward, the celebrated Washington Post journalist and best-selling author, spoke with Trump more than a dozen times for his book.
“He tells me this, and I’m thinking, ‘Wow, that’s interesting, but is it true?’ Trump says things that don’t check out, right?” Woodward told the AP during a telephone interview. Using a famous phrase from the Watergate era, when Woodward’s reporting for the Post helped lead to President Richard Nixon’s resignation, Woodward said his mission was to determine, “What did he know and when did he know it?”Trump Knew of COVID Danger But Downplayed It, Book Recounts Journalist Bob Woodward says US leader was warned in early 2020 of deadly nature of disease, but in recorded interview said, ‘I wanted to always play it down’On Twitter and elsewhere online, commentators accused Woodward of valuing book sales over public health. “Nearly 200,000 Americans have died because neither Donald Trump nor Bob Woodward wanted to risk anything substantial to keep the country informed,” wrote Esquire’s Charles P. Pierce.
The issue of daily journalists presenting newsworthy information in books isn’t new. The competition for attention is intense, and headlines help boost sales and guest shots for interviews. Reporter Michael S. Schmidt of The New York Times recently attracted attention for his book, “Donald Trump v. The United States,” by reporting new details on an unannounced visit by Trump to Walter Reed military hospital in November 2019. Schmidt reported that Vice President Mike Pence was put on alert that he might have to briefly assume the powers of the presidency if the president had to undergo a procedure that required anesthesia.
Pence later said he didn’t recall being put on standby for the Reed visit, which the White House has said was part of the president’s routine annual physical. But Schmidt’s book renewed speculation about Trump’s health.
Political figures with book deals also have been chastised for holding back timely material. Former national security adviser John Bolton, whose scathing memoir “The Room Where It Happened” came out in June, declined discussing Trump’s actions towards Ukraine while the impeachment hearings were being held earlier this year.
Woodward’s book, which comes out next week, draws from 18 conversations with Trump between December and July. During his AP interview, Woodward said Trump called him “out of the blue” in early February to “unburden himself” about the virus, which then had few cases in the U.S. But Woodward said that only in May was he satisfied that Trump’s comments were based on reliable information and that by then the virus had spread nationwide.
“If I had done the story at that time about what he knew in February, that’s not telling us anything we didn’t know,” Woodward said. At that point, he said, the issue was no longer one of public health but of politics. His priority became getting the story out before the election in November.
“That was the demarcation line for me,” he said. “Had I decided that my book was coming out on Christmas, the end of this year, that would have been unthinkable.”
Asked why he didn’t share Trump’s February remarks for a fellow Post reporter to pursue, Woodward said he had developed “some pretty important sources” on his own.
“Could I have brought others in? Could they have done things I couldn’t do?” he asked. “I was on the trail, and I was (still) on the trail when it (the virus) exploded.”
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US Unemployment Benefit Claims Hold Steady
The U.S. Labor Department reported Thursday that 884,000 workers filed for unemployment compensation last week, a figure that was virtually unchanged from the week before but an indication that the coronavirus pandemic continues to wreak havoc on the American economy. Millions of workers remain unemployed in the United States, although the U.S. unemployment rate dropped to 8.4% in August even as economists say the jobless figure could remain elevated for months. Only about half of the 22 million U.S. jobs lost in the pandemic have been recovered, with the world’s biggest economy adding 1.4 million jobs last month.Last week’s jobless claims total was only the third weekly figure to drop below 1 million since the coronavirus severely impacted the economy starting in March. U.S. employers have called back millions of workers who were laid off during mandatory business shutdowns earlier this year, yet some hard-hit businesses have been slow to ramp up their operations again or have closed permanently, leaving workers idled or searching for new employment.In politically fractious Washington less than two months from November’s presidential and congressional elections, President Donald Trump and Republican and Democratic lawmakers have been unable to reach an agreement on extending federal unemployment benefits and how much should be paid.Until the end of July, the national government sent an extra $600 a week to unemployed workers on top of less generous state jobless benefits. The Republican-controlled Senate is trying Thursday to advance $300-a-week payments through the end of the year, but Democrats say the amount is too small and continue to call for resumption of the $600 weekly payments.Democrats say they have enough votes to block the Republicans’ more limited funding for coronavirus relief. The Republican plan could cost from $500 billion to $700 billion, far less than the $2.2 trillion relief package that Democrats want.If the Republican measure is defeated, it is unclear whether stalled negotiations might resume or whether an agreement will be reached before Congress adjourns so lawmakers can campaign for re-election in their home states ahead of the November 3 vote.As the first round of payments expired in July, Trump signed an executive order calling for $400 a week in extra payments for a few weeks. But only a handful of state governments have started delivering the reduced payments to jobless workers.The coronavirus pandemic has now killed more than 190,000 people in the United States, according to Johns Hopkins University figures, and caused the economy to plummet. While the U.S. has been adding more jobs in recent months, the pace of the recovery seems to slow as a second wave of coronavirus infections in the U.S. surged in June and rose still more by mid-July, forcing employers to close their businesses again. The 1.4 million jobs added in August includes the Census Bureau’s temporary hiring of about 240,000 workers to help conduct the once-a-decade count of the U.S. population.
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Assange Extradition Hearing Paused Over COVID-19 Risk
The London hearing on WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s extradition from Britain to the United States was suspended Thursday because one of the lawyers may have been exposed to the coronavirus.
District Judge Vanessa Baraitser ordered the proceedings adjourned until Monday while a lawyer representing the U.S. government is tested for the virus.
Assange’s attorney, Edward Fitzgerald, said it had to be assumed that the lawyer had the virus and “COVID will be in the courtroom.”
“Court staff themselves would be at risk, and you yourself may well be at risk,” he told the judge.
“Finally, our client Mr. Assange, who is vulnerable you are aware, would be at risk in court.”
The judge asked for submissions from both legal teams about what to do if the lawyer is confirmed to have COVID-19.
Assange is fighting American prosecutors’ attempt to get the British government to send him to the U.S. to stand trial on spying charges.
U.S. prosecutors have indicted the 49-year-old Australian on 18 espionage and computer misuse charges over WikiLeaks’ publication of secret U.S. military documents a decade ago. The charges carry a maximum sentence of 175 years in prison.
Assange’s lawyers say the prosecution is a politically motivated abuse of power that will stifle press freedom and put journalists around the world at risk.
The hearing started Monday at London’s Old Bailey criminal court and is scheduled to last about a month.
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Europe Furious Over Johnson’s Plan to Override Brexit Agreement
Brexit negotiations hit a new low this week as the European Union’s top leaders in Brussels reacted angrily to British prime minister Boris Johnson’s plans to override a key part of Britain’s withdrawal agreement from the EU, which was struck only last year.They say any repudiation of the divorce deal will ruin the chances of a free-trade agreement being struck between Britain and the EU and will poison relations between London and Brussels for years to come.The British government’s plan included in draft legislation published Wednesday, to in effect repudiate parts of the exit deal, prompted European leaders to complain of an “unprecedented breach of trust” and to warn the move could wreck current fraught negotiations dealing with Britain’s future trade relationship with the bloc.Johnson Says UK Will Quit Brexit Talks if No Deal by Oct 15Prime Minister Boris Johnson says Britain is prepared to walk away and insists a no-deal exit would be a ‘good outcome for the UK’ Under the new legislation if passed, ministers would be able to pick and choose what customs checks, if any, are applied to goods transported between Northern Ireland and the British mainland. They would be able to ignore EU limitations on state aid to businesses in the British-ruled province. Northern Ireland was treated differently under the withdrawal agreement so as to avoid the necessity of a so-called hard border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic, which many feel could undermine peace on the island of Ireland.EU warningsMicheál Martin, the Irish prime minister, said midweek the negotiations on Britain’s future relationship would go nowhere until Johnson’s ruling Conservative government withdraws the bill. Irish lawmakers were stunned when they heard news of the proposed legislation. “Any negotiation process can only proceed on the basis of trust,” he warned. British PM Defends New Brexit Bill to Protect UK’s ‘Internal Market’ EU officials demand emergency meeting with London over proposed legislation The EU’s top leaders chorused identical warnings. Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, said it showed the government’s “intentions to breach the withdrawal agreement.” In the wake of the publication of the controversial legislation, EU officials considered instructing Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief negotiator, to walk out of talks that are under way in London to hammer out an agreement on Britain’s future trade relationship with the 27-member bloc. In the event they decided to keep the talks going, but the discussions are reportedly tense and tough with mounting expectations that a no-deal result will be the eventual outcome.British officials say the proposed legislation would clarify ambiguity in the withdrawal agreement, but on Tuesday Britain’s Northern Ireland minister admitted that technically the legislation would break international law. That view is shared generally by Britain’s legal establishment. In a letter to The Times newspaper, Edward Garnier, a former Conservative solicitor-general, said, the “admission by the Northern Ireland secretary that the government is prepared to break the law is shocking.”Future trade relationsThe move has provoked a sharp political response from senior U.S. lawmakers, mainly Democrats, who are largely fretful that the move might undermine peace on the island of Ireland. Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the House of Representatives, warned a free trade deal between Britain and America would be jeopardized, saying a British violation would mean “there will be absolutely no chance of a U.S.-UK trade agreement passing the Congress.”Johnson defended the move in the House of Commons, saying, “We need a legal safety net to protect our country against extreme or irrational interpretations of the protocol which could lead to a border down the Irish Sea in a way.” His officials have suggested the withdrawal agreement, which Johnson concluded with the EU but was mainly the work of his predecessor, Theresa May, was negotiated at pace and maybe signed in haste. Theater, Brinkmanship Mark Brexit TalksNegotiators on both sides of English Channel say this week is ‘moment of reckoning’ for post-Brexit trade deal between European Union and BritainJohnson’s defense is not, so far, assuaging some senior Conservative lawmakers, including a few on the Brexit wing of the party. “Put simply, I will not vote to break the law,” said the pro-Brexit Roger Gale . “Why would any country want to strike a deal with Britain knowing that any agreement might not be worth the paper that it was written on?” he added.Johnson’s Conservative predecessors in Downing Street have also expressed disapproval of the government’s plan to repudiate the withdrawal agreement using domestic legislation to do so. “For generations our signature on any treaty or agreement has been sacrosanct,” said John Major. “Over the last century as our military strength has dwindled, our word has retained its power. If we lose our reputation for honoring the promises we make, we will have lost something beyond price.”Theresa May also condemned the mover and her aides say she is ready to lead a Conservative rebellion in the British parliament to defeat the proposed legislation. Some lawmakers and commentators are suggesting that the legislation may be part of a Johnson strategy to shock the EU into agreeing a free-trade deal more favorable to Britain than it would otherwise secure. A Trump approach?They point to comments Johnson made in 2018, before he was prime minister, in which he reportedly said Britain should be negotiating with the EU like U.S. President Donald Trump would. “I am increasingly admiring of Donald Trump,” Johnson is reported to have told a private gathering of Conservative lawmakers. “Imagine Trump doing Brexit,” Johnson continued. “There’d be all sorts of breakdowns, all sorts of chaos. Everyone would think he’d gone mad. But actually you might get somewhere. It’s a very, very good thought.”Conversely, some uncompromising Brexiters in Johnson’s ruling Conservative party, who want a clean break from the EU, fear Johnson might be game-playing and laying the ground to offer significant concessions to the EU to get a last-minute free-trade deal that he will advertise as a great win for Britain. They worry he’s engaging in a piece of theater. Brexiters point to what happened last year when he repudiated the Withdrawal Agreement negotiated by his predecessor in Downing Street, Theresa May, only to sign an almost identical divorce deal after he was elected her successor.
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Trump-Kim ‘Love Letters’ Reveal Friendship, Flattery
Veteran Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward’s new book, Rage, is shining more light on the unlikely relationship between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
The book won’t be released until next week, but several U.S. media outlets on Wednesday published excerpts, including portions of personal letters that Trump and Kim exchanged over the past two years.
In the letters, the young North Korean leader showers Trump with extravagant praise, repeatedly addressing him as “Your Excellency” and hailing their “deep and special friendship,” even as the wider U.S.-North Korea nuclear talks were breaking down.
“Even now I cannot forget that moment of history when I firmly held Your Excellency’s hand at the beautiful and sacred location as the whole world watched,” Kim told Trump after their first meeting in Singapore in June 2018. It was one of two Kim letters published by the U.S.-based cable news network CNN.
Following their second summit in Vietnam, Kim told Trump “every minute we shared 103 days ago in Hanoi was also a moment of glory that remains a precious memory,” according to CNN, which says it obtained transcripts of the two letters.
Trump often returned the praise. After their Singapore meeting, Trump described Kim as “far beyond smart,” according to the Post. The paper said Trump boasted to Woodward that Kim “tells me everything,” including a graphic description of how he killed his uncle, Jang Song Thaek. The powerful Jang was executed in late 2013 for treason.
Those comments mirror an interview Trump gave to VOA immediately after his Singapore summit, when Trump said Kim was “smart, loves his people, [and] he loves his country.”
Excessive praise?
For the book, Woodward says he obtained access to 25 Trump-Kim letters, although it’s not clear how much of the correspondence will be included.
So far, the excerpts contained no huge surprises about the Trump-Kim relationship, parts of which Trump has already made public. However, analysts say the correspondence reveals important insights about each man’s personality and negotiating style.
“It’s interesting to see how you can see Kim’s personality refracted through these letters,” said Jung Pak, a former CIA analyst who now works at the Washington-based Brookings Institution.
“Surrounded by sycophants his entire life and as an observer and student of excessive displays of admiration that enveloped his father and grandfather, Kim Jong Un almost certainly understands how to weaponize praise and prey on one’s insecurities and desire for greatness,” said Pak, who recently wrote the book Becoming Kim Jong Un.
Unlikely friendship
Trump and Kim didn’t always get along. In 2017, the two regularly exchanged insults, with Trump calling Kim “Little Rocket Man” and Kim slamming Trump as a “mentally deranged U.S. dotard.” At one point, Trump threatened to “totally destroy” North Korea.
The tensions dissipated after Trump, a former real estate developer and reality television host who often claims an unmatched deal-making ability, became the first sitting U.S. president to meet a North Korean leader. Trump later claimed the two “fell in love.” FILE – In this photo taken June 12, 2018, and released by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un (R) walks with U.S. President Donald Trump (L) during a break in talks at their summit in Singapore.The relationship has held firm, even after North Korea last year resumed short-range ballistic missile tests and walked away from nuclear negotiations.
If he wins reelection in November, Trump has said he will reach a deal “very quickly” with Kim. Trump’s opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden, has said he will not continue Trump’s personal outreach to Kim, signaling a return to a more traditional U.S. posture.
Impact on future talks
Some now fear the publication of the private Trump-Kim letters risks offending North Korean sensitivities and upsetting future talks.
“That’s privileged diplomatic communication,” said Mark P. Barry, a veteran Korea observer and associate editor of the International Journal on World Peace.
The matter is also tricky, Barry said, because Kim’s words are typically treated with the utmost respect in authoritarian North Korea.
“The worst that could happen is that internally Kim could appear to be a supplicant to Trump,” he says.
North Korea has not responded to the release of the correspondence, but Pyongyang may not be too surprised, since Trump previously tweeted out one of Kim’s letters in July 2018.
“It won’t affect Kim Jong Un’s attitude that much,” Lee Sang-sin of the Korean Institute for National Unification, said. “Kim understood the possibility of leaking,” he said.
Kathryn Botto, a research analyst in the Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said she wouldn’t be surprised if Kim cited the release of the letters as a reason for refusing to hold talks.
“More evidence of disrespect from the U.S. or something like that,” she said of a possible North Korean response.
“But in reality [Kim’s] willingness to hold future talks is based on the potential of securing sanctions relief or other changes in the U.S. negotiating position, and of course this doesn’t change that.”
Cracks emerge?
North Korea has for months boycotted the talks, which began to break down after the February 2019 summit in Hanoi ended without a deal. Trump and Kim met once more in June 2019 at the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas, briefly raising hopes the negotiations could be revived.
A month after the DMZ meeting, though, Kim wrote to Trump “with a new tone,” apparently upset that the U.S.-South Korea joint military exercises had not been fully stopped, CNN reports.
“I am clearly offended and I do not want to hide this feeling from you,” Kim told Trump. “I am really, very offended.”
In recent months, North Korean officials have repeatedly said that while the Trump-Kim relationship remains strong and has likely prevented tensions from spiraling out of control, it is not enough to ensure progress in the nuclear talks.
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US Revokes Visas of 1,000 Chinese Students
The U.S. says it has revoked the visas of more than 1,000 Chinese citizens considered “high risk” to U.S. security because of alleged ties with the Chinese military. A statement issued Wednesday by the State Department said the revocation of the visas was authorized by a proclamation signed by President Donald Trump on May 29. The proclamation was aimed at students who had previously studied at colleges and universities in China that have ties to the People’s Liberation Army. The Trump administration has charged that Chinese students have come to the United States to steal intellectual property to advance China’s economic and military sectors. A State Department spokeswoman said the 1,000-plus “high-risk graduate students and researchers” whose visas have been cancelled since June 1 make up just a “small subset” of the more than 360,000 Chinese nationals currently studying in the United States. “We continue to welcome legitimate students and scholars from China who do not further the Chinese Communist Party’s goals of military dominance,” the spokeswoman said. China Thursday accused Washington of “political persecution and racial discrimination.” The visa cancellations are among many back-and-forth retaliatory actions that represent worsening relations between the world’s two largest economies. The two sides have clashed over issues such as trade, technology, Beijing’s harsh, new national security law imposed on Hong Kong and its increasingly aggressive behavior toward a self-ruled Taiwan, and the COVID-19 pandemic, which was first detected late last year in the central Chinese city of Wuhan.
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