У Мінську 30 травня відбувається зустріч Тристоронньої контактної групи зі врегулювання ситуації в зоні конфлікту на сході України, повідомляє Міністерство закордонних справ Білорусі.
Напередодні перший заступник голови Верховної Ради України, член гуманітарної підгрупи ТКГ на переговорах у Мінську Ірина Геращенко в ефірі Радіо Свобода заявила, що переговори в Мінську будуть «дуже важкими».
За її словами, на зустрічі буде дві ключові теми, які порушуватиме українська сторона: припинення порушень режиму тиші і звільнення заручників.
Читайте також: «Натиснути на больові точки Кремля»: як звільнити українських політв’язнів у Росії
Після попереднього засідання контактної групи в Мінську 16 травня Геращенко заявляла, що прогресу на переговорах у Мінську щодо звільнення заручників немає. За її словами, це викликає величезне занепокоєння, особливо на фоні останніх новин, зокрема про оголошене Олегом Сенцовим голодування і тривале голодування Володимира Балуха.
Станом на кінець січня в СБУ повідомляли, що в заручниках на непідконтрольних уряду територіях Донбасу перебувають 108 людей, десятки – в Росії, 402 людини вважалися зниклими безвісти. Востаннє обмін полоненими на Донбасі відбувався в грудні минулого року.
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Кабінет міністрів України схвалив національну транспортну стратегію на період до 2030 року («Drive Ukraine-2030»), передає прес-служба уряду.
Міністр інфраструктури України Володимир Омелян назвав стратегію програмним документом, який визначатиме розвиток транспортної та інфраструктурної галузей найближчі 12 років.
«Так, документ є досить модерновим і спрямованим не тільки на вирішення проблем сьогодення, а й на створення нової інфраструктурної реальності. Ми можемо нескінченно латати дороги або модернізовувати вагони, яким по 40 і більше років. Але тільки амбітні плани і «велика інфраструктурна революція» можуть дати Україні нову якість», – сказав Омелян.
За словами міністра, над документом працювала команда, до якої входили європейські експерти і консультанти, співробітники Мінінфраструктури та офісу підтримки реформ.
«Drive Ukraine-2030 – перетворення України на розвинену, високотехнологічну та інноваційну країну завдяки розвитку сфери транспорту та інфраструктури, застосування новітніх технологій. Drive Ukraine-2030 – цифрова інфраструктура, безпека на транспорті, безпілотні автомобілі, транспортні коридори, єдина транспортна та інфраструктурна мережа з Європейським союзом», – зазначив Омелян.
29 травня заступник міністра інфраструктури з питань європейської інтеграції Віктор Довгань заявив, що лише 10% дорожньої інфраструктури в Україні відповідають європейським стандартам. За його словами, на оновлення доріг до 2030 року потрібно 50 мільярдів євро.
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Spanish police on Wednesday briefly detained Bill Browder, a U.S.-born British financier and prominent critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin who tweeted he had been arrested at the request of Russia.
A police spokeswoman said Browder was taken to a police station to check on the arrest warrant, but that authorities found that it had expired.
“Good news. Spanish National Police just released me after Interpol General Secretary in Lyon advised them not to honor the new Russian Interpol Red Notice,” Browder wrote on Twitter. “This is the 6th time that Russia has abused Interpol in my case.”
The Interpol press office told VOA, “There is not, and never has been, a Red Notice for Mr. Bill Browder,” and that he is “not wanted via Interpol channels.”
Interpol allows member countries to request what it calls a Red Notice, or international alert for a wanted person, and it is then up to local authorities to carry out any arrests.
Browder had earlier posted a message saying he had been arrested, along with a photo from inside a police car on the way to the station. He also posted a photo of what he said was his arrest warrant, but the page he showed only included details about the rights of a person arrested in Spain.
Browder said last year Russia had added him to the Interpol list five times, but that each time the agency had looked at the circumstances and lifted the notices after determining they were illegitimate.
In 2013, the Independent Commission for the Control of Interpol’s Files investigated Russia’s use of the agency to seek information about Browder and determined the Russian activity “was predominantly political in nature” and went against Interpol’s rules. The agency responded by carrying out the commission’s recommendation that it delete all data related to Russian requests about Browder from its databases.
Browder, who ran one of the most successful investment funds in Russia before his expulsion in 2005 when his business was expropriated, lobbied hard for U.S. sanctions to be introduced after his lawyer Sergei Magnitsky was arrested and died in Russian custody. That resulted in Congress passing the Magnitsky Act, a measure enabling Washington to withhold visas and freeze financial assets of Russian officials thought to be corrupt or human rights abusers.
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Greece’s largest labor unions are staging a general strike against plans to extend austerity measures, in a 24-hour protest that halted ferry services to the islands, and disrupted flights, public transport and other services.
Wednesday’s strike also closed schools and left public hospitals running on emergency staff.
Government budget austerity measures are due to continue for at least two more years after the international bailout ends in August, starting with another major round of pension cuts next January. Hundreds of protesters gathered in central Athens as several protest marches are planned in the capital and other cities Wednesday.
“The government is continuing disastrous policies for society and the economy, forcing unsustainable measures onto the backs of wage-earners and retired people,” the country’s largest union, the GSEE, said.
“The constant deterioration in the living standards is part of a downward trend that people [in government] chose not to see.”
Greece is currently negotiating the terms of its bailout exit with European creditors, including how its finances will be monitored and the conditions of a promised debt relief package. But the talks, due to be concluded in a few weeks, have been overshadowed by the political crisis in Italy and the resulting financial turmoil.
Eurozone member Greece has relied on money from three consecutive bailouts since losing market access in 2010. The rescue funds have been provided by a eurozone bailout fund and the International Monetary Fund, though the IMF has held off on a cash contribution toward Greece latest program.
A new round of administrative and market reforms demanded by creditors is due to be voted on in parliament on June 14.
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У Туркменистані поліція проводить рейди житловими будинками. Дільничні і співробітники силових відомств оглядають туалети в пошуках газет з портретом президента. Тим, у кого знаходять зображення Ґурбанґули Бердімухамедова, погрожують звільненням й адміністративною відповідальністю. Про це повідомляє Радіо Азатлик, туркменська служба Радіо Свобода.
Вперше про проблеми, пов’язані з використанням портрета президента Туркменистану замість туалетного паперу, стало відомо в березні. Директора однієї зі шкіл звільнили з формулюванням «не впорався з повноваженнями» після виявлення в шкільному туалеті газет із портретами президента. Після цього перевірки стали масовими. Регіональні чиновники від коментарів відмовилися.
Забруднені фотографії президента дільничним наказано також шукати на звалищах серед побутового сміття всередині житлових кварталів. За кожним звалищем закріплені персональні доглядачі, які зобов’язані перевіряти сміття, шукати зіпсовані фото в газетах, встановлювати будинок і квартиру за вказаним на виданні номером будинку передплатника і доповідати в органи.
Зараз у Туркменистані регулярно виходять 62 видання. Незалежних серед них немає – всі вони пов’язані з президентом і його адміністрацією. І кожна газета або журнал зобов’язані друкувати портрет голови держави на першій шпальті. Всього ж зазвичай в одному номері не менше від двох фотографій президента, а у свята фото Ґурбанґули Бердімухамедова публікується на кожній шпальті.
Підписка на кожне видання обходиться приблизно в 60 манатів на рік, за офіційним курсом це 18 доларів, за курсом чорного ринку 3 долари. Середній дохід у країні – 800–900 манатів, тобто підписка на одне видання обходиться менш ніж в 10% від однієї місячної зарплати. Але купити на ті ж гроші звичайного туалетного паперу не вийде. Цей товар продається тільки в Ашгабаті, і ціна одного рулону – 5–6 манатів.
У 2016 році президент Туркменистану Ґурбанґули Бердімухамедов отримав право очолювати країну довічно. У 2017 році він почав свій третій семирічний термін, набравши на виборах більше ніж 97% голосів виборців. Бердімухамедов очолив країну після смерті першого президента Туркменистану Сапармурата Ніязова.
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Голову фонду Hermitage Capital Вільяма Браудера, якого 30 травня затримували в Мадриді за запитом Росії в Інтерпол, відпустили. Про це він сам написав у Twitter.
«Добрі новини. Національна поліція Іспанії щойно відпустила мене після того, як генеральний секретар Інтерполу в Ліоні порадив їм не зважати на нову червону картку за запитом Росії. Це вже шостий раз, коли Росія зловживає Інтерполом у моїй справі», – написав Браудер.
Він додав, що в Іспанію прибув для надання свідчень «іспанському борцеві з російською мафією прокуророві Хосе Ґрінді про значні обсяги грошей зі справи Магнітського, які перетекли до Іспанії».
Речниця поліції Іспанії повідомила, що Браудера затримали в Мадриді і доправили до відділення поліції для перевірки за ордером Інтерполу, але він виявився вже недійсний.
Наприкінці минулого року Тверський суд столиці Росії Москви вдруге заочно засудив голову фонду Hermitage Capital Вільяма Браудера до дев’яти років колонії, визнавши його винним у навмисному банкрутстві й ухиленні від сплати податків на суму понад три мільярди рублів.
У 2013 році Браудера заочно засудили в Росії до дев’яти років позбавлення волі у справі про ухилення від сплати податків на суму понад півмільярда рублів.
Вільям Браудер був одним з ініціаторів ухвалення в США «закону Магнітського», названого в пам’ять про померлого в російському СІЗО юриста фонду Hermitage Capital Сергія Магнітського, який розкрив схему великих розкрадань з російського бюджету. Документ передбачає візові й економічні санкції щодо росіян, причетних, на думку Вашингтона, до порушень прав людини. Нещодавно в нього внесли голову Чечні Рамзана Кадирова.
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Starbucks closed 8,000 of its stores Tuesday to give 175,000 employees about four hours of anti-bias training.
The sessions were part of the company’s response to the April 12 arrests of two black men at a Starbucks in Philadelphia.
Rashon Nelson and Donte Robinson had not purchased anything and told a store manager they were waiting for a friend to join them. They were asked to leave and an employee called the police, which led to their arrest. The scene was recorded on cellphones and quickly spread on social media, prompting sharp criticisms of Starbucks along with protests and calls to boycott the coffee chain.
Tuesday’s sessions involved asking employees to discuss with small groups of their colleagues aspects of race and bias and how they can make people feel like they belong.
There were exercises of personal reflection asking people to think about when they have thought about their own race, how it has affected their day-to-day lives and interactions with other people.
Questions included evaluating how in the case of speaking to someone of the same race, or the case of speaking to someone of a different race, how easy or hard is it to talk about race, feel comfortable using their natural language and gestures, to be respected without having to prove their worth and express dissatisfaction with something without being told they seem angry.
“Without assigning good or bad, do you notice ways you treat people differently?” read one question.
Participants were also shown a series of videos including Starbucks executives discussing bias with experts, a company-funded documentary about the history of how African-Americans have been denied access in public places in the United States and employees describing instances in which they made assumptions about customers based on appearances.
Starbucks President and CEO Kevin Johnson acknowledged what he called the “disheartening situation that unfolded in Philadelphia” in one video and said the company’s mission is to be a “place where everyone feels welcome.” He said the focus of the training was not to be “color blind” by pretending race does not exist, but rather to be “color brave” and discuss race directly.
The training was developed with the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, the Perception Institute and other social advocacy organizations, and included contributions by the rap music artist Common.
Similar unconscious bias training has been used by police departments, companies and other organizations to help address racism in the workplace and encourage workers to open up about implicit biases.
In one video, Common told employees that while people usually seek similarities with others, there are great advantages to learning to love what makes you different from other people.
“It’s a life skill to make someone else in your presence feel welcome. You do that by not only loving what makes them the same as you, but by appreciating what makes them different from you,” he said.
Starbucks has announced policy changes following the Philadelphia incident, mainly that it will no longer require people to buy anything in order to be welcome in the company’s stores. It also promised to give employees more training in the coming year, and to provide each store with a list of local resources for mental health and substance abuse services, housing shelters and protocols for calling authorities.
“Today was a starting point. We have much to do,” said Rosalind Brewer, chief operating officer and group president.
Nelson and Robinson reached an agreement with Starbucks for an undisclosed amount of money and offers of a free education. They also accepted from the city of Philadelphia a symbolic $1 each and a promise to launch a $200,000 program for young entrepreneurs.
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The U.S.-North Korea summit appears to be back on track, but Pyongyang is showing increased impatience at comments coming out of Washington that what leader Kim Jong Un really wants, even more than his nuclear security blanket, is American-style prosperity.
It’s a core issue for Kim and a message President Donald Trump shouldn’t ignore as they work to nail down their summit next month in Singapore.
Kim is as enthusiastic as Trump to see the summit happen as soon as possible, but the claim that his sudden switch to diplomacy over the past several months shows he is aching for U.S. economic aid and private-sector know-how presents a major problem for the North Korean leader, who can’t be seen as going into the summit with his hat in his hand.
The claim is also quite possibly off target.
North Korea is far more interested in improving trade with China, its economic lifeline, and with South Korea, which it sees as a potential gold mine for tourism and large-scale joint projects. Getting the U.S. to back off sanctions so he can pursue those goals, along with the boost to his legitimacy and whatever security guarantees he can take home, is more likely foremost on Kim’s mind.
Even so, the North’s perceived thirst for U.S. economic aid has consistently been the message coming from Trump and his senior officials. All Kim needs to do, they suggest, is commit to denuclearization and American entrepreneurs will be ready to unleash their miracles on the country’s sad-sack economy.
“I truly believe North Korea has brilliant potential and will be a great economic and financial nation one day,” Trump tweeted Sunday. “Kim Jong Un agrees with me on this.”
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has laid Washington’s road map out in more detail.
“We can create conditions for real economic prosperity for the North Korean people that will rival that of the South,” he said earlier this month in a televised interview. “It won’t be U.S. taxpayers. It will be American know-how, knowledge, entrepreneurs and risk-takers working alongside the North Korean people to create a robust economy for their people.”
Pompeo suggested that Americans help build out the North’s energy grid, develop its infrastructure and deliver the finest agricultural equipment and technology “so they can eat meat and have healthy lives.”
Kim has emphatically not agreed to any of that.
Under Trump’s “maximum pressure” policy, international sanctions on North Korea are stronger than ever. Sanctions relief would open the door for more trade with China, South Korea and possibly Russia – partners North Korea trusts more than it trusts Washington – and potentially unlock access to global financial institutions.
The last thing Kim wants is to give up his nuclear weapons only to have his country overrun with American businessmen and entrepreneurs.
To Pyongyang’s ears, that scenario is less an offer than a threat.
Despite its very real need for foreign investment, Kim’s regime has good reason to be wary of economic aid in general. Opening up to aid inevitably involves some degree of increased contact with potentially disruptive outsiders, calls for change, loosening of controls and restrictions – all of which could be seen as a threat to Kim’s near absolute authority.
North Korea’s message on that has been clear.
Almost as soon as Pompeo started talking about his plan to rebuild North Korea’s economy, Kim Kye Gwan, the North’s first vice foreign minister, shot back that Pyongyang has no interest in that kind of help, saying, “We have never had any expectation of U.S. support in carrying out our economic construction and will not at all make such a deal in future, too.”
State media unleashed another attack on the idea Sunday, calling Fox News, CBS and CNN “hack media on the payroll of power” for airing programs that featured U.S. officials talking about how large-scale, nongovernmental economic aid awaits North Korea if it moves toward verifiable and irreversible denuclearization.
The North’s media have been careful not to criticize Trump directly.
But the issue is sensitive enough that the North has also stepped up its response in ideological terms, stressing the superiority of the socialist system and the value of independence, while warning against the underhanded scheming of the “imperialists,” which in North Korea speak is interchangeable with “Americans.”
“It is the calculation of the imperialists that they can attain their aims without firing a single shot if they make the people degenerate and disintegrate ideologically and foment social disorder,” said an editorial Sunday in the ruling party’s newspaper.
The commentary went on to call the capitalist way of life “ideological and cultural poisoning” and concluded, “Unless such poisoning is prevented, it would be impossible to defend independence and socialism and achieve the independent development of each country and nation.”
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Missouri Governor Eric Greitens, a sometimes brash outsider whose unconventional resume as a Rhodes Scholar and Navy SEAL officer made him a rising star in Republican politics, abruptly announced his resignation Tuesday after a scandal involving an affair with his former hairdresser led to a broader investigation by prosecutors and state legislators.
The 44-year-old governor made the announcement nearly 17 months after taking the oath as Missouri’s chief executive with a pledge to root out “corrupt career politicians.” The investigations of him widened to include questions about whether he had violated the law in financing the campaign.
Greitens said his resignation would take effect Friday.
A St. Louis grand jury indicted Greitens on Feb. 22 on one felony count of invasion of privacy for allegedly taking a photo of the woman without her consent at his home in 2015, before he was elected governor. The charge was dismissed during jury selection, but a special prosecutor was considering whether to refile charges.
In April, the local St. Louis prosecutor’s office charged Greitens with another felony, alleging that he improperly used the donor list for a charity that he’d founded to raise money for his 2016 campaign.
Less than two weeks ago, the Missouri Legislature began meeting in special session to consider whether to pursue impeachment proceedings to try to oust Greitens from office.
A special House investigatory committee had subpoenaed Greitens to testify next Monday.
Greitens’ brashness alienated some GOP legislators even before his affair became public in January.
The woman’s then-husband released a secretly recorded conversation in which she described the alleged incident. The woman later told a Missouri House investigative committee that Greitens restrained, slapped, shoved and threatened her during a series of sexual encounters that at times left her crying and afraid.
Greitens said the allegations amounted to a “political witch hunt,” and vowed to stay in office. But the report’s release created a firestorm, with both Republicans and Democrats calling for his resignation.
His departure elevates fellow Republican Lieutenant Governor Mike Parson to the governor’s office.
Greitens’ administration was thrown into chaos the night of Jan. 10, when a St. Louis TV station aired a report about Greitens allegedly taking the compromising photo and threatening to blackmail the woman if she ever spoke of their encounter. The report aired shortly after Greitens delivered his State of the State address to lawmakers.
Greitens admitted to having an affair but denied any criminal wrongdoing. He said the criminal case was politically motivated and called St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner, a Democrat, a “reckless liberal prosecutor.”
Lawmakers from both parties immediately began questioning whether Greitens could continue to lead the state in the wake of the scandal. The House authorized the legislative investigation a week after the indictment.
Charity questions
Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley also launched an inquiry into a veterans charity Greitens founded. Federal law bars 501(c)(3) charities such as The Mission Continues from intervening in political campaigns on behalf of candidates.
The Associated Press first reported in October 2016 that Greitens’ campaign had obtained a list of individuals, corporations and other nonprofits that had given at least $1,000 to The Mission Continues. The AP reported that Greitens raised about $2 million from those who had previously given significant amounts to the charity.
Hawley, a Republican running for U.S. Senate, turned evidence over to Gardner, saying April 17 that he believed Greitens had broken the law. Her office charged him with tampering with computer data for allegedly disclosing the donor list without the charity’s permission.
A May 2 report from a special House investigatory committee indicated that Greitens himself received the donor list and later directed aides to work off it to raise money for his gubernatorial campaign. A former campaign aide testified that he was duped into taking the fall when the campaign tried to explain how it had gotten the list.
Invasion-of-privacy indictment
The invasion-of-privacy indictment stated that on March 21, 2015, Greitens photographed the woman and transmitted the photo “in a manner that allowed access to that image via a computer.”
During her testimony to the House investigative committee, the woman said Greitens invited her to his home and offered to show her “how to do a proper pull-up.” The woman said she initially thought “this is going to be some sort of sexy workout.” But once in his basement, Greitens taped her hands to pull-up rings, blindfolded her, and started kissing and disrobing her without her consent, according to her testimony.
Then she saw a flash and heard a click, like a cellphone picture, she said. The woman testified that Greitens told her: “Don’t even mention my name to anybody at all, because if you do, I’m going to take these pictures, and I’m going to put them everywhere I can. They are going to be everywhere, and then everyone will know what a little whore you are.”
Greitens, a married father of two young boys, repeatedly denied blackmailing the woman. He declined to say whether he took a photo.
Greitens, who had also served as a White House fellow and written a best-selling book, entered the 2016 gubernatorial race as a brash outsider. He won an expensive Republican primary, then defeated Democratic Attorney General Chris Koster in the general election to give Republicans control of the governor’s mansion for the first time in eight years. Some considered him a potential future presidential contender.
Republicans also controlled the Missouri House and Senate, but there were frequent clashes between lawmakers and Greitens, who compared them to third-graders and labeled them “career politicians.”
He confronted criticism from some educators and lawmakers for working to pack the State Board of Education with members who would fire the education commissioner. Greitens’ use of a secretive app that deletes messages after they’re read also sparked a review by Hawley.
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