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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President Donald Trump on Tuesday seized on an error by liberal activists who tweeted photos of young-looking immigrants at the U.S.-Mexico border in steel cages and blamed the current administration for separating immigrant children from their parents.
The photos were taken by The Associated Press in 2014, when President Barack Obama was in office. The photo captions reference children who crossed the border as unaccompanied minors.
Early Tuesday, Trump tweeted: “Democrats mistakenly tweet 2014 pictures from Obama’s term showing children from the Border in steel cages. They thought it was recent pictures in order to make us look bad, but backfires. Dems must agree to Wall and new Border Protection for good of country…Bipartisan Bill!”
The immigration debate has reached a fever pitch in recent months following reports that since October about 700 children crossing the U.S.-Mexico border have been separated from their parents.
The number of separated minors is expected to jump once Trump’s new “zero tolerance” policy is enacted. That policy, embraced by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, would enforce criminal charges against people crossing the border illegally with few or no previous offenses. Under U.S. protocol, if parents are jailed, their children would be separated from them.
“The parents are subject to prosecution while children may not be,” Sessions said earlier this month. “So, if we do our duty and prosecute those cases, then children inevitably for a period of time might be in different conditions.”
Enter a June 2014 online story by The Arizona Republic titled “First peek: Immigrant children flood detention center.”
The story linked to photos taken by AP’s Ross D. Franklin at a center run by the Customs and Border Protection Agency in Nogales, Arizona. One photo shows two unidentified female detainees sleeping in a holding cell. The caption references U.S. efforts to process 47,000 unaccompanied children at the Nogales center and another one in Brownsville, Texas.
How or why the story resurfaced on social media four years after it was published is unclear. But among those who took notice was Jon Favreau, Obama’s former speechwriter.
In a now-deleted tweet, Favreau wrote: “This is happening right now, and the only debate that matters is how we force our government to get these kids back to their families as fast as humanly possible.”
Other liberal activists also linked to the Arizona Republic story using the hashtag “WhereAreOurChildren,” which grew out of testimony in April by a federal official that the U.S. government had lost track of nearly 1,500 unaccompanied minor children it placed with adult sponsors in the U.S.
Favreau did not immediately respond to a phone call seeking comment. But he later issued a corrected tweet: “These awful pictures are from 2014 when the government’s challenge was reconnecting unaccompanied minors.”
He added: “Today, in 2018, the government is CREATING unaccompanied minors by tearing them away from family at the border.”
As the immigration debate lit up social media over the weekend, Trump on Saturday falsely claimed that there was a “horrible law” that separates children from their parents after they cross the border. He has said previously that “we have to break up families” at the border because “the Democrats gave us that law.”
That’s not true. There’s no law mandating that parents must be separated from their children. But if an administration opts to impose harsh criminal charges against an adult for crossing the border illegally, their children would be separated from them as a result.
Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen has defended the Trump administration’s practice of separating children from parents when the family is being prosecuted for entering the U.S. illegally, telling a Senate committee earlier this month that removing children from parents facing criminal charges happens “in the United States every day.”
A 2008 law, passed unanimously by Congress and signed into law by President George W. Bush, says children traveling alone from countries other than Mexico or Canada must be released in the “least restrictive setting” – often to family or a government-run shelter – while their cases slowly wind through immigration court. It was designed to accommodate an influx of children fleeing to the United States from Central America.
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The United States on Tuesday walked out of the Conference on Disarmament to protest Syria’s assumption of the rotating presidency of the 65-member U.N. body.
Before staging his walkout, U.S. Ambassador Robert Wood told journalists that handing the gavel of the presidency to Syria marked a sad and shameful day in the history of the conference. He called the development a travesty.
“This is a regime responsible for killing countless of its own civilians, many of whom have been impacted by chemical weapons attacks,” Wood said. “This is no normal presidency and thus the U.S. will not treat it as such.”
Not lost on the U.S. envoy was the irony that Syria had gassed its own people but was now assuming the presidency of an organization that negotiated the Chemical Weapons Convention. Wood noted the chemical weapons attack in Douma on April 7 was just another tragic example of Syria’s disrespect for international law.
“It is important that the United States speak out against the crimes that have been committed by the regime in Damascus,” Wood said. “We will do so. We hope that our other colleagues in the Conference on Disarmament will do the same. It is important that we hold this regime accountable for the crimes that it has committed, and the United States will not be silent.”
The presidency automatically rotates every four weeks among its 65 members in English alphabetical order. Syria assumed the presidency following the end of Switzerland’s four-week term.
Other countries joined the U.S. in voicing their disapproval. Israel’s ambassador, Aviva Raz Shechter, walked out of the meeting, calling the situation “unacceptable.” France downgraded its presence by not sending its envoy. Britain said it would not take part in the meeting.
Russia spoke up in support of its Syrian ally.
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France’s Interior Ministry announced plans on Tuesday to beef up its emergency alert system to the public across social media.
The ministry said in a statement that from June during immediate threats of danger, such as a terror attack, the ministry’s alerts will be given priority broadcast on Twitter, Facebook and Google as well as on French public transport and television.
The statement said that Twitter will give “special visibility” to the ministry’s alerts with a banner.
In a specific agreement, Facebook will also allow the French government to communicate to people directly via the social network’s “safety check” tool, created in 2014.
The ministry said that this is the first time in Europe that Facebook has allowed public authorities to use this tool in this way.
This announcement comes as a much-derided attack alert app launched in 2016 called SAIP is being withdrawn after malfunctions.
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Міністри закордонних справ України та Угорщини під час зустрічі у штаб-квартирі Організації Об‘єднаних Націй у Нью-Йорку домовились провести 5 червня консультації між міністерствами освіти двох країн для вирішення, зокрема, суперечливих моментів, пов’язаних із так званою «мовною статтею» українського закону «Про освіту».
Про це повідомив журналістам в кулуарах штаб-квартири ООН очільник українського зовнішньополітичного відомства Павло Клімкін, передає кореспондент Української редакції Радіо Свобода.
«Це будуть консультації із участю угорської громади. Угорська сторона буде сприяти цим консультаціям для того, щоб вони були результативними», – розповів Клімкін.
За словами міністра, після консультацій відбудеться ще одна – підсумкова – зустріч урядовців двох країн, яка має закріпити й формалізувати домовленості.
«Можливо [зустріч буде] в Києві, можливо, у Будапешті, але, скоріше за все… Усім подобається Берегове (на Закарпатті – ред.). [Там зберуться] два міністри закордонних справ, два міністри освіти і представники угорської громади», – пояснив Клімкін.
Очільник МЗС України зазначив, що Київ та Будапешт під час цієї зустрічі хочуть знайти спільне рішення, яке задовольнило б обидві сторони, але воно обов‘язково включатиме пункт про вивчення етнічними угорцями української мови.
«Рішення полягає в тому, щоб прибрати дискримінацію – щоб вони володіли українською мовою, щоб викладання мови було покращене, щоб вони розуміли, в якій країні вони живуть. Але таким чином, щоб одночасно допомогти повністю зберегти їх самобутність», – сказав міністр.
За словами Клімкіна, така підсумкова зустріч відбудеться у червні – у середині чи наприкінці місяця, але не пізніше.
Восени минулого року набрав чинності новий український закон про освіту. Норма закону щодо мови освіти, державної, викликала загострення у відносинах між Україною та Угорщиною.
Перехідні положення закону передбачають: «особи, які належать до корінних народів, національних меншин України і розпочали здобуття загальної середньої освіти до 1 вересня 2018 року, до 1 вересня 2020 року продовжують здобувати таку освіту відповідно до правил, які існували до набрання чинності цим законом, з поступовим збільшенням кількості навчальних предметів, що вивчаються українською мовою».
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Україна засуджує визнання режимом Башара Асада суверенітету Абхазії та Південної Осетії, написав у Twitter міністр закордонних справ України Павло Клімкін.
«Ми залишаємося вірними підтримці суверенітету та територіальної цілісності Грузії та незмінно стоїмо пліч-о-пліч з нашими грузинськими друзями. Зграя союзників Росії всім давно відома», – заявив він.
29 травня міністр закордонних справ Грузії Міхеїл Джанелідзе написав на своїй сторінці у Twitter, що «визнання незалежності історичних регіонів Грузії маніпульованим Росією режимом Асада у Сирії є ще одним грубим порушенням міжнародного права з боку Асада і має бути засуджене міжнародною спільнотою».
Цього ж дня МЗС Грузії заявив, що розпочав процедуру розриву відносин із офіційним Дамаском.
Раніше фактична влада сепаратистських регіонів Грузії – Абхазії і Південної Осетії повідомила, що Сирія погодилася визнати «незалежність» цих регіонів. Згідно з повідомленнями, в Сухумі і Цхінвалі з’являться посольства Сирії, а в Дамаску будуть відкриті абхазьке й південноосетинське представництва.
У 2008 році незалежність Абхазії і Південної Осетії визнала Росія. Це сталося після короткої війни між Росією і Грузією в серпні того ж року. Тбілісі і країни Заходу вважають ці території окупованими регіонами Грузії. Крім Росії, рішення Сухумі і Цхінвалі про незалежність визнали також Нікарагуа, Венесуела і Науру.
Минулого тижня держсекретар США Майк Помпео заявив, що у Вашингтоні вважають окуповані Росією грузинські території – Абхазію і Південну Осетію невід’ємною частиною Грузії, і продовжать надавати підтримку Тбілісі. Помпео закликав Москву вивести війська з Абхазії і Південної Осетії.
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Diving into the midterm elections, President Donald Trump is seeking to build a stable of Republicans who will help promote his agenda and serve as a check on Democrats aiming to win majorities in Congress.
Trump is traveling to Nashville, Tennessee, on Tuesday to raise campaign cash for Republican Rep. Marsha Blackburn, the party’s leading U.S. Senate hopeful in Tennessee, and headline a rally with his most loyal supporters.
Blackburn is expected to face Democratic former Gov. Phil Bredesen to replace Republican Sen. Bob Corker, who is retiring. The Tennessee campaign is among several races crucial to Trump’s plans to maintain control of the Senate, where Republicans are defending a narrow two-seat majority.
Trump is planning a series of political rallies and events in the coming months to boost Republicans and brand Democrats as obstructionists to his agenda. The president held a similar rally in Indiana earlier this month, appearing with Republican businessman Mike Braun and ripping Democratic U.S. Sen. Joe Donnelly as a “swamp person” who refused to aid the GOP agenda.
“We’re not getting complacent. We can’t,” Trump said in Elkhart, Indiana. “If we elect more Republicans we can truly deliver for all of our citizens.”
Earlier Tuesday, Trump raised the prospect of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe affecting the November elections and blamed Democrats for “Collusion.” On Twitter, he said the “13 Angry Democrats” on Mueller’s team “will be MEDDLING with the mid-term elections, especially now that Republicans [stay tough!] are taking the lead in Polls.” Mueller is a Republican.
Beyond Indiana, Trump has used his Twitter page to boost California Republican gubernatorial candidate John Cox, hoping to strengthen the party’s chances of securing a spot on the ballot in November. He has also set his sights on Montana, where Democratic Sen. Jon Tester is seeking re-election in a state Trump carried in a landslide. The two states have primaries on June 5.
The president is raising money later in the week in Texas to benefit Senate Republicans and his 2020 campaign.
Tennessee has a history of electing centrist senators and the race could be complicated by Corker’s up-and-down relationship with Trump. Corker once said Trump had turned the White House into an “adult day care center” and the president tweeted that Corker “couldn’t get elected dog catcher in Tennessee.”
Yet Corker was in the Oval Office on Saturday, receiving praise from the president for his help in securing the release of a man imprisoned in Venezuela. The breakthrough happened after Corker held a surprise meeting in Caracas with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
In his final year in the Senate, Corker has called Bredesen a friend and said he won’t actively campaign against him.
Trump, meanwhile, offered an early endorsement of Blackburn in April, calling her on Twitter “a wonderful woman who has always been there when we have needed her. Great on the Military, Border Security and Crime.”
Blackburn, who served on Trump’s transition team, has embraced the president and called herself a “hardcore, card-carrying Tennessee conservative.”
Bredesen, who is attempting to become the first Democrat to win a Senate campaign in Tennessee since Al Gore in 1990, has aired TV ads in which he says that he’s “not running against Donald Trump” and that he learned long ago to “separate the message from the messenger.”
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The White House says it plans to impose 25 percent tariffs on $50 billion of Chinese goods that contain “industrially-significant technology” as trade talks between United States and China continue.
The White House said Tuesday the proposed tariffs are in response to China’s practices with respect to technology transfer, intellectual property, and innovation. It will announce the final list of covered imports by June 15, 2018, and the tariffs will be imposed shortly thereafter.
The Trump administration made the announcement in a statement called “Steps to Protect Domestic Technology and Intellectual Property from China’s Discriminatory and Burdensome Trade Practices.”
Other punitive steps include implementing stronger investment restrictions and enhanced export controls for Chinese citizens and companies related to the acquisition of industrially significant technology to protect national security.
The proposed investment restrictions and export controls will be announced by June 30, 2018 and adopted shortly thereafter, according to the White House.
Trade barriers
In addition, the Trump administration said trade talks with China will continue and it will request China remove all of its many trade barriers, including non-monetary trade barriers, and that tariffs and taxes between the two countries be “reciprocal in nature and value.”
In response to the latest threat of tariffs from the White House, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said in a short statement it is “surprised” by the announcement but added it “also expects it.”
The Chinese ministry’s statement claimed the White House move “was apparently contrary to the consensus both sides reached recently.”
“China has the confidence, ability, and experience to safeguard its core interests, China urged the United Sates to act in accordance to the spirit of their recent joint statement,” it said.
In April, Trump announced he planned to impose tariffs on $150 billion worth of Chinese goods, and Beijing responded by declaring it will retaliate by imposing similar amount of tariffs of imported American goods.
China in violation
The Trump administration’s decision to take action is a result of an investigation conducted by the U.S. Trade Representative under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 to determine whether Beijing’s trade practices may be “unreasonable or discriminatory” and may be “harming American intellectual property rights, innovation or technology development.”
After a seven-month investigation, the USTR found the policies were in violation.
The United States and China subsequently conducted two rounds of trade talks aimed at avoiding a full-blown trade war. The last round of trade talks was concluded on May 19 after both sides reached a deal for Beijing to buy more American goods to “substantially reduce” the huge trade deficit with the United States. But there was no mention of any specific import and export targets in the statement agreed to by the two countries.
Following the trade talks in Washington, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced the world’s two biggest economic powers have agreed to back away from imposing tough new tariffs on each other’s exports.
Trump initially touted the agreement, but later contended he was neither pleased nor satisfied with the result.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross is set to go to Beijing this week to negotiate on how China might buy more American goods to reduce the huge U.S. trade deficit with Beijing, which last year totaled $375 billion.
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The World Trade Organization is being slowly strangled to death, a retiring trade judge whose replacement has been blocked by the United States said in his farewell speech, delivering a thinly-veiled rebuke to the Donald Trump administration.
Ricardo Ramirez-Hernandez served two terms as a judge on the WTO’s Appellate Body, which acts as the final court for trade disputes between countries. Since his departure last year, the United States has been blocking the process to replace him and other judges, throwing the WTO into crisis.
“This institution does not deserve to die through asphyxiation,” Ramirez-Hernandez said. “You have an obligation to decide whether you want to kill it or keep it alive.”
In a speech introducing Ramirez-Hernandez, WTO Deputy Director-General Karl Brauner said there was “no movement in sight” to unblocking appointments.
“This is frightening,” he said, adding that it was an illusion to believe the WTO could manage without its appeals judges. It remained to be seen if the WTO was an achievement of civilization or only a temporary experiment, he added.
Founded in 1995
The Geneva-based World Trade Organization, founded in 1995, is the final arbiter for trade disputes between its 164 member economies and the main global forum for discussing trade.
Its appellate body normally has seven members, but because of the Trump administration’s veto on new hires, only four of the posts are now filled. One judge is due for reappointment in September and two are due to leave next year.
Three judges are needed to hear any case, which means the court will cease to function altogether next year unless Trump lifts his refusal to fill vacancies.
‘Unfair’ treatment
Trump and his trade advisers take a tough and unorthodox line on what they see as “unfair” treatment by the trade body.
Ramirez-Hernandez did not point fingers directly at any particular country for the crisis, saying all WTO members were responsible for dealing with problems.
“It seems to me that the crisis we now face could have been avoided if it had been addressed face-on, as it began to escalate,” he said.
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Hundreds of women’s rights activist rallied in Belfast on Monday to put pressure on British Prime Minister Theresa May to reform Northern Ireland’s highly restrictive abortion rules after neighboring Ireland’s vote to liberalize its laws.
Voters in Ireland on Friday backed the removal of a constitutional abortion ban by two-to-one.
That leaves British-ruled Northern Ireland as the only part of the British Isles with a restrictive abortion regime, and May on Sunday faced calls from within her cabinet and the opposition to scrap Northern Ireland’s strict rules.
Not May’s call?
A spokeswoman for May said on Sunday changing the rules should only be undertaken by a government in Northern Ireland.
The province, divided between unionists who favor continued British rule and nationalists who want to unify with Ireland, has had no devolved regional government since January last year after a power-sharing agreement collapsed between the two communities’ main parties.
Activists gathered outside Belfast City Hall carrying placards emblazoned with messages such as “I am not a vessel” and “Mind Your Own Uterus.” They said it was May’s responsibility to act.
“1, 2, 3, 4, we won’t be silenced any more,” the crowd chanted. “5, 6, 7, 8, it’s time for May to legislate.”
Abortion is permitted in Northern Ireland only if a woman’s life is at risk or there is a risk to her mental or physical health that is long-term or permanent. It is not permitted in cases of rape, incest or fatal fetal abnormality.
Both Northern Ireland’s mainly unionist Protestants and its mainly nationalist Catholics tend to be more socially conservative than elsewhere in Ireland or Britain.
The main unionist party, the DUP, opposes liberalizing abortion laws, while the main nationalist party, Sinn Fein, backs some changes. DUP lawmakers in London provide votes needed to support May’s minority government.
Trip has its risks
It is estimated that around three women travel from Northern Ireland to England for an abortion every day, while others risk prosecution by self-medicating with abortion pills.
“It is awfully unfair that people here should not be able to get an abortion,” said schoolgirl George Poots, at the rally with her mother and brother. “At present they have to worry about travelling to England and I also think of the women who cannot travel.”
Anti-abortion group Precious Life said Ireland’s vote would spur it to “up the battle to protect Northern Ireland’s unborn children.” “Northern Ireland is now the beacon of hope to the pro-life movement around the world,” leader Bernie Smyth said.
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Російський мільярдер, власник англійського футбольного клубу «Челсі» Роман Абрамович репатріювався в Ізраїль, пише видання «Ісраель а-Йом». Інший портал – NEWSru.co.il – зазначає, що бізнесмен отримав документи громадянина цієї країни.
Водночас журналісти сумніваються, чи отримав Абрамович ізраїльський паспорт («даркон»). Одне з джерел NEWSru каже, що бізнесмен має всі документи, включно з паспортом. ЗМІ пояснює, що подібна процедура зазвичай не практикується, але допустима, оскільки після ухвалення «закону про даркони» новий репатріант може отримати паспорт відразу після того, як стає громадянином Ізраїлю.
20 травня ЗМІ писали, що в Абрамовича закінчилася британська віза. На той час бізнесмен нібито очікував на нову.
Журнал Forbes ставить Абрамовича на 140 місце в рейтингу найбагатших людей світу. Його остатки оцінюють у 10,8 мільярда доларів.
Деякі британські посадовці закликали запровадити санкції проти заможних росіян, які живуть у Великій Британії. Це сталося після отруєння колишнього російського подвійного шпигуна Сергія Скрипаля та його дочки Юлії. Лондон стверджує, що вони були отруєні нервово-паралітичною речовиною «Новачок», розробленою в Росії. Москва це заперечує.
Наразі обох Скрипалів виписали з лікарні.
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Народний депутат від «Народного фронту» Антон Геращенко заявляє, що розцінює свій заочний арешт у Росії «як високу оцінку боротьби на захист інтересів народу України проти російської агресії».
«Басманний суд міста Москви ухвалив заочно заарештувати мене за те, що я закликав документувати злочини російських військових проти мирного населення в Сирії. Заклик фіксувати військові злочини російських військових Слідчий комітет і суд трактує як заклики до тероризму з мого боку. Звичайно, усе це абсолютна маячня», – написав Геращенко у Facebook.
28 травня речниця Басманного суду Москви повідомила, що 22 травня Геращенка заочно заарештували на два місяці «з моменту екстрадиції чи затримання на території Росії».
У жовтні 2015 року Слідчий комітет Росії порушив кримінальну справу щодо Геращенка. Правоохоронці тоді заявляли, що політик опублікував пост на своїй сторінці в одній із соціальних мереж, де публічно закликав користувачів надавати відому їм інформацію про російських військових, які беруть участь в операції в Сирії.
На думку Слідчого комітету, «фактично Геращенко підтримав і поширив ідею свого співрозмовника в соціальній мережі про те, що таким чином «терористи і їхні побратими в Росії зможуть помститися російським військовослужбовцям за канонами шаріату».
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Україні необхідно створити антикорупційний суд, заявив голова МЗС Данії Андерс Самуельсен.
«Відсутньою ланкою в антикорупційному ланцюгу є незалежний антикорупційний суд, який забезпечить притягнення до відповідальності корумпованих чиновників. Я переконаний, що Україна повинна заповнити цю прогалину», – заявляє голова данської дипломатії.
Самуельсен вважає, що також слід докладати зусиль для побудови державних установ, які працювали б коректно і базуючись на демократичних принципах.
«Добре державне управління – це також чинник боротьби з корупцією. Нещодавні реформи в Україні допомагають закрити лазівки для корупції», – каже міністр.
1 березня Верховна Рада України підтримала президентський законопроект № 7440 про антикорупційний суд у першому читанні.
21 травня комітет Верховної Ради з питань правової політики й правосуддя підготував законопроект до другого читання. Наразі депутати розглянули 1272 з 1927 поправок до законопроекту. Розгляд документа мають продовжити наступного пленарного тижня (5-8 червня).
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In an effort to stem the outcry over the arrest of two black men at one of its stores, Starbucks will close 8,000 U.S. stores Tuesday afternoon for anti-bias training for its employees.
On April 12, two black men went to a Philadelphia store and did not buy anything; instead, they told the store manager they were waiting for a friend to join them. They were asked to leave and an employee called police, which led to their arrest, prompting protests and accusations of racism.
A video of the incident that was posted on social media became a major embarrassment for the coffee chain.
Soon after, Starbucks announced a policy change, welcoming anyone to sit in its cafes or use its restrooms, even if they don’t buy anything.
Previously, it was left to individual store managers to decide whether people could access Starbucks premises without making a purchase.
“We are committed to creating a culture of warmth and belonging where everyone is welcome,” Starbucks said in a statement.
The company has asked employees to follow established procedure when dealing with “disruptive behaviors,” and are still asked to call 911 in case of “immediate threat or danger” to customers or employees.
The men who were arrested in April, settled with Starbucks earlier this month for an undisclosed sum and an offer of a free college education for each of them.
They also reached a deal with the city of Philadelphia for a symbolic $1 each and a promise from city officials to set up a $200,000 program for young entrepreneurs.
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Starbucks will close more than 8,000 stores nationwide Tuesday to conduct anti-bias training, the next of many steps the company is taking in an effort to restore its tarnished diversity-friendly image.
The coffee chain’s leaders reached out to bias training experts after the arrest of two black men at a Philadelphia Starbucks last month.
The plan has brought attention to the little-known world of “unconscious bias training” used by corporations, police departments and other organizations. It’s designed to get people to open up about implicit biases and stereotypes in encountering people of color, gender or other identities.
A video previewing the training says it will include recorded remarks from Starbucks executives as well as rapper and activist Common. From there, the company says, employees will “move into a real and honest exploration of bias.”
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Під американськими санкціями перебувають 245 російських громадян і 439 юридичних осіб, заявив директор департаменту Північної Америки Міністерства закордонних справ Росії Георгій Борисенко.
«Треба сказати, що з 2011 року, коли американці в часи [екс-президента США Барака] Обами згорнули перезавантаження і почали займатися знову стримуванням Росії, США запроваджували санкції проти Росії 52 рази. Усього під американськими санкціями перебувають 245 російських громадян і 439 російських юридичних осіб», – зазначив Борисенко.
Вашингтон запроваджував санкції проти Москви, зокрема, через анексію Росією українського півострова Крим та збройний конфлікт на Донбасі. Київ та країни Заходу звинувачують Росію в підтримці сепаратистів, однак у Москві це заперечують.
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China told the World Trade Organization’s dispute settlement body on Monday that U.S. accusations that Beijing forced companies to hand over technology as a cost of doing business in China were groundless.
U.S. President Donald Trump has accused China of stealing American ideas and announced a plan for a $50 billion tariff penalty against Chinese goods.
Both sides launched legal complaints at the WTO over the issue earlier this year.
“There is no forced technology transfer in China,” Chinese Ambassador Zhang Xiangchen told the meeting, according to a copy of his remarks provided to Reuters.
“According to the U.S.’s view, China forces the U.S. companies to transfer technologies by imposing joint venture requirements, foreign equity limitations and administrative licensing procedures,” Zhang said.
“But the fact is, nothing in these regulatory measures requires technology transfer from foreign companies.”
Zhang said the U.S. argument involved a “presumption of guilt.” The U.S. Trade Representative believed U.S. firms in China faced an obligation to hand over technology, while failing to produce a single piece of evidence.
Some of its claims were “pure speculation,” he said, adding that the USTR saw Chinese M&A activity as a Chinese government conspiracy.
‘Diligence and entrepreneurship’
Technology transfer was a normal commercial activity that benefited the United States most of all, he said, while Chinese innovation was driven by “the diligence and entrepreneurship of the Chinese people, investment in education and research, and efforts to improve the protection of intellectual property.”
Legal experts say Washington needs WTO backing to implement its tariffs as far as they relate to WTO rules, while China has rejected the tariff plan wholesale and resorted to WTO action to stop it.
Under WTO rules, if disputes are not settled amicably after 60 days, the complainant can ask for a panel of experts to adjudicate, escalating the dispute and triggering a legal case that takes years to settle.
The United States, which launched its complaint on March 23, could have used the dispute meeting on Monday to take that step. China could do so at next month’s meeting.
But since the dispute erupted, U.S.-China trade policy has been the subject of high-level bilateral talks. Trump tweeted cryptically that “our trade deal with China is moving along nicely” but that it probably needed a “different structure.”
The United States put China’s technology transfer policies on the agenda of Monday’s meeting, without elaborating. A copy of the U.S. remarks was not immediately available.
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New Zealand will slaughter more than 100,000 cows in an effort to eradicate a bacterial disease.
The government and agricultural leaders announced Monday that it will spend over $600 million over the next decade to rid the country of Mycoplasma bovis, which causes udder infections, pneumonia, arthritis and other illnesses. The bacteria is not a threat to humans, but can cause production delays on farms.
“This is a tough call,” said Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. “But the alternative is to risk the spread of the disease across our national herd.”
Mycoplasma bovis has been detected on more than three dozen farms since it was first detected in New Zealand last year, leading to the slaughter of about 26,000 cattle. The country is the world’s largest exporter of milk and dairy products.
your ad hereМіністр громадської безпеки Ізраїлю Ґілад Ердан закликав пенітенціарну службу країни заборонити палестинським в’язням, які є членами руху «Хамас», перегляд футбольного чемпіонату світу.
«Я не маю наміру дозволити членам «Хамасу», які є затриманими в наших в’язницях, насолоджуватися матчами Кубка світу, поки у нас є ізраїльські заручники та солдати в Смузі Гази», – заявив 27 травня Ердан.
Чемпіонат світу з футболу, найпопулярніша спортивна подія в світі, відбуватиметься з 14 червня до 15 липня в різних містах Росії та приверне увагу мільйонів телеглядачів у всьому світі.
За чинними в Ізраїлі правилами, ув’язнені мають право дивитися телевізор. Ердан зазначив, що вивчає, чи можна змінити ці правила до початку чемпіонату світу.
В ізраїльських в’язницях перебувають близько шести з половиною тисяч палестинців, але не всі вони пов’язані з «Хамас», провідною палестинською групою, яка має владу в Смузі Гази
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Vietnam is imitating China in its efforts to grow economically and lags its larger neighbor only by about a decade, experts say.
The two communist countries, though political rivals, have built up their state-controlled economies on job creation through factory work for export.
China opened that effort to foreign investment in 1978 and Vietnam got started 10 years later. Now Vietnam is grappling with corruption, traffic gridlock and the sinking performance of state-run companies as its middle class grows, all hallmarks of China’s development.
In the latest sign of similarity, Vietnam’s National Assembly is examining a bill to let the country run three special economic zones. It has a chance of passing next month. The zones would offer foreign factory investors tariff exemptions and long land leases, Vietnamese news website VnExpress International says. China created its first four zones in 1979 to attract foreign investment. It now has 32.
“I don’t know whether it’s deliberate or otherwise, but it seems there is that hint of taking that page from the CPC playbook — Chinese Communist Party,” said Song Seng Wun, economist in the private banking unit of CIMB.
“Vietnam has a Communist Party, so I suppose there is that kind of ‘if China is doing it, we can also perhaps adapt it to Vietnamese conditions.’”
Controlled economy and factory work
Governments in both countries turned to factory work to employ large, uneducated populations, said Ralf Matthaes, founder of the Infocus Mekong Research consultancy in Ho Chi Minh City.
Reliance on factory work, especially for export, drove Chinese economic growth of about 10 percent per year over the decade to 2010. Vietnam’s economy has expanded at more than 6 percent annually since 2015.
Vietnam, like China a decade ago, depends largely on production of low-tech exports such as garments, furniture and car parts. China is moving up the value chain into high tech, and leaning more on services.
Companies from Japan, Singapore, South Korea and the West often offshore factory work to China as well as Vietnam to save on labor costs. China has been dubbed the “world’s factory” and Vietnam a “China+1” destination for investors looking to expand production to a cheaper country.
“How do you employ a bunch of unskilled workers?” Matthaes said. “Obviously mass manufacturing is one way. I think even though Vietnam holds Singapore in high regards in terms of ‘Singapore’s our greatest model,’ it’s China.”
Five years ago Vietnam’s ambassador to Singapore called relations with the fellow Southeast Asian country a model as trade links were growing then. Vietnam, though dependent on China for trade, regards China as a political rival. They fought a border war in the 1970s and now dispute sovereignty over parts of the South China Sea.
Managing outcomes of fast growth
Outcomes of factory-driven economic growth that China saw a decade ago are showing now in Vietnam, analysts note.
The number of Vietnamese who are middle class and higher will double between 2014 and 2020 to about one-third of the country’s population of 93 million, the Boston Consulting Group says. China says just 3.1 of its 1.38 billion people lived in poverty last year.
In other signs of following China, Vietnamese workers are known for job hopping within a few months for higher pay and showing it off with expensive smartphones, new cars and meals at expensive restaurants. Traffic is starting to thicken in the financial center Ho Chi Minh City as it has in China’s major cities such as Beijing and Shanghai since 2000.
Vietnam’s crackdown on corruption that went public in 2017 also followed the Chinese anti-graft campaign that experts say became more rigorous in 2012.
It’s Vietnam’s turn now to make its state-owned firms perform well or be sold off, analysts say. State-owned enterprises, another feature of communist countries, dominated the Vietnamese stock exchange from its inception in 2000 through 2005 as those assets were sold, said Kevin Snowball, chief executive officer with PXP Vietnam Asset Management in Ho Chi Minh City.
Thousands of Vietnam’s state firms have been all or partly privatized. China began reforming its state firms about 20 years ago and is still pressing them to change following a decline in profits in 2015 due to issues with corporate governance and labor productivity.
“Vietnam established the stock market in order to sell state assets basically, because when it started, essentially everything that was listed was state owned up until the end of 2005,” Snowball said.
“The government needs to spend probably 25 billion dollars a year on infrastructure development in order to keep encouraging (foreign direct investment) to come in, and sale of state assets is partially funding that,” he said.
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Міністр закордонних справ Франції Жан-Ів Ле Дріан заявив 27 травня, що його країна прагне активізувати зусилля для розв’язання конфлікту між Вірменією та Азербайджаном щодо Нагірного Карабаху.
«Ми сподіваємося, що в найближчі місяці ми активніше працюватимемо над пошуками шляхів врегулювання карабахського конфлікту», – заявив Ле Дріан на прес-конференції з його азербайджанським колегою в Баку. Він додав, що «Франція прагне до миру та стабільності в регіоні».
Міністр закордонних справ Азербайджану Ельмар Мамедьяров заявив про відданість «стратегії врегулювання конфлікту мирним шляхом». «Я впевнений, що Франція як співголова Мінської групи ОБСЄ продовжуватиме допомагати врегулювати цю ситуацію», – відзначив Мамедьяров.
Міністр закордонних справ Франції Жан-Ів Ле Дріан здійснює турне країнами Південного Кавказу, він планує провести переговори в столиці Вірменії Єревані 28 травня.
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