Daily: 02/19/2019

Thousands Decry Anti-Semitism in France After Spike in Attacks

Thousands of people rallied across France after a surge of anti-Semitic attacks in recent weeks that culminated on Tuesday with vandals daubing swastikas and anti-Jewish slogans on dozens of graves in a Jewish cemetery.

Political leaders from all parties, including former Presidents Francois Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy, gathered in Paris filling the Place de la Republique, a symbol of the nation, to decry anti-Semitic acts with one common slogan: “Enough!” People also lined the streets of cities from Lille in the north to Toulouse and Marseille in the south.

President Emmanuel Macron paid respects at one of the 96 desecrated graves in the village of Quatzenheim, near the eastern city of Strasbourg.

“Whoever did this is not worthy of the French republic and will be punished… We’ll take action, we’ll apply the law and we’ll punish them,” he said, walking through a gate scarred with a swastika as he entered the graveyard.

Macron later visited the national Holocaust memorial in Paris with the heads of the Senate and National Assembly.

France is home to the biggest Jewish community in Europe – around 550,000 – a population that has grown by about half since World War II, but anti-Semitic attacks remain common.

Government statistics released last week showed there were more than 500 anti-Semitic attacks in the country last year, a 74 percent increase from 2017.

“Some people are provoking the authority of the state. It needs to be dealt with now and extremely firmly,” Sarkozy told reporters. “It’s a real question of authority. Violence is spreading and it needs to stop now.”

Among incidents in recent days, “yellow vest” protesters were filmed hurling abuse on Saturday at Alain Finkielkraut, a well-known Jewish writer and son of a Holocaust survivor.

Artwork on two Paris post boxes showing the image of Simone Veil, a Holocaust survivor and former magistrate, was defaced with swastikas, while a bagel shop was sprayed with the word “Juden”, German for Jews, in yellow letters. A tree in a Paris suburb in memory of Ilan Halimi, a young Jewish man kidnapped, tortured and murdered in 2006, was cut in two.

The series of attacks has alarmed politicians and prompted calls for action against what some commentators describe as a new form of anti-Semitism among the far-left and Islamist preachers.

“I call on all French and European leaders to take a strong stand against anti-Semitism,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a video message recorded in Hebrew. “It is an epidemic that endangers everyone, not just us.”

A rabbi and three children were killed at a Jewish school in Toulouse in 2012 by an Islamist gunman, and in 2015 four Jews at a kosher supermarket in Paris were among 17 people killed by Islamist militants.

 

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Медіарух обурений загрозою розкриття джерел видання «Новое время»

Рух «Журналісти за усвідомлений вибір» (Медіарух) висловлює обурення з приводу загрози розкриття джерел видання «Новое Время» та журналіста-розслідувача Івана Верстюка.

«Ми розцінюємо відповідні дії Генпрокуратури та рішення Печерського райсуду як порушення свободи слова та права журналістів на захист джерел інформації», – ідеться в заяві спільноти, яка об’єднує «UA:Перший», «Українське радіо», «Громадське радіо», ІА «Укрінформ», ІА «Інтерфакс-Україна», Liga.net, «Дзеркало тижня. Україна», «Новое Время», «Цензор.нет», 5 канал, «Український тиждень», регіональні медіа, громадські організації та окремих журналістів.

«Ми закликаємо Генеральну прокуратуру України утриматися від тиску на «Новое время», та від дій, які можуть спричинити розкриття джерел журналіста-розслідувача, а також відмовитися від реалізації ухвали суду. Ми закликаємо Вищу раду правосуддя України дати оцінку професійності та доброчесності судді, який ухвалив рішення, що ставить під удар джерела журналіста і може загрожувати обшуком незалежному виданню. Ми також закликаємо правоохоронні органи і суди виробити нарешті належну практику доступу до документів ЗМІ й журналістів», – вказано в заяві.

Доступ до внутрішніх документів редакції видання «Новое время» потрібний через «розголошення матеріалів досудового розслідування», заявила 18 лютого речниця генерального прокурора України Юрія Луценка Лариса Сарган.

Раніше того ж дня видання «Новое время» заявило, що Генеральна прокуратура України вимагає доступ до внутрішніх документів редакції. За словами журналістів, 4 лютого суддя Печерського районного суду Києва Володимир Карабань окремою постановою надав Генеральній прокуратурі доступ до внутрішніх документів редакції і до всіх матеріалів, які надсилав на емейл-адреси видання журналіст Іван Верстюк.

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Bernie Sanders Joins 2020 Presidential Race

The list of Democrats battling to oppose U.S. President Donald Trump in the 2020 election grew again Tuesday with Senator Bernie Sanders announcing he is joining the race.

Sanders tried to win the Democratic Party’s nomination in 2016, but lost to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

The 77-year-old gained a strong following with plans to make college tuition free and for the government to greatly expand its role in providing health care to Americans.

Sanders joins an already crowded field of Democrats who have announced their candidacy with still about a year before the 2020 primary elections begin.

Those candidates include fellow Senators Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, Amy Klobuchar, Kristen Gillibrand and Kamala Harris.

The senator from the northeastern state of Vermont announced his candidacy in an early morning email to supporters, asking for 1 million people to register to help launch a grassroots movement to counter special interests.

Sanders, a frequent critic of Trump, said in his email Trump was “the most dangerous president in modern American history.” Sanders added: “We are running against a president who is a pathological liar, a fraud, a racist, a sexist, a xenophobe and someone who is undermining American democracy as he leads us in an authoritarian direction.”

Sanders has been ranked among the leaders in opinion polls of prospective 2020 candidates, but he faces challenges from a large pool of other progressives who advocate for many of the same issues that he brought into the party’s mainstream.

The crowded field of liberals could make it harder for Sanders to engender the same level of ardent support he received during his 2016 campaign. He also is likely to face questions about his age and his relevance in a party that is represented by a growing number of women and minorities, groups that Sanders struggled to win over in 2016. 

Sanders also released a YouTube video Tuesday outlining major themes of his campaign.

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Порошенко підписав закон про закріплення євроатлантичного курсу України в Конституції

Президент України зробив це під час спеціального засідання Верховної Ради, на якому також був присутній голова Європейської ради Дональд Туск

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US, China to Begin Third Round of Trade, Economic Talks

Negotiators from China and the United States will resume talks this week to resolve the ongoing trade war between the world’s biggest economies.

The White House says a third round of negotiations will take place Tuesday and Wednesday in Washington between lower-level deputies before moving on to senior-level talks beginning Thursday. The statement said the talks will focus on “achieving needed structural changes in China that affect trade” between the United States and China. 

Washington has long complained that Beijing forces U.S. companies to transfer their technology advances to Chinese firms, and that it limits access to China’s vast market. The Trump administration has imposed punitive tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese imports to compel China to changes its trading practices, prompting Beijing to retaliate with its own tariff increases on $110 billion of U.S. exports.

The trade talks are the result of an agreement in December between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping to stop the tit-for-tat tariff conflict for 90 days starting on New Year’s Day. 

The administration has threatened to raise tariffs from 10 percent to 25 percent if a deal is not reached by March 2, but President Trump said last week he may be willing to push back the deadline depending on how well the talks are going.

Vice Premier Liu He, Beijing’s top economic and trade negotiator, will again lead the Chinese side, while the United States will be led by Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, along with Larry Kudlow and Peter Navarro, President Trump’s top economic and trade advisors.

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16 States Sue Trump Over National Emergency Declaration

Sixteen U.S. states are suing the Trump administration over the president’s declaration of a national emergency so he can get funds to build a border wall.

Attorneys general, led by California, filed their lawsuit late Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

The complaint alleges the emergency declaration is illegal and unconstitutional, and that it harms the states and their residents by taking money away from anti-drug programs, military construction projects and other law enforcement efforts.

The lawsuit asks the court to permanently prohibit the Trump administration from diverting funds from elsewhere in the government to construct a border wall, or to build a wall without Congress appropriating money for that purpose.

“President Trump treats the rule of law with utter contempt,” California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said. “He knows there is no border crisis. He knows his emergency declaration is unwarranted, and he admits that he will likely lose this case in court.”

Becerra accused Trump of engaging in “theater” and hyping a crisis because he failed to get Congress or Mexico to pay for the wall.

An environmental group and three Texas landowners across whose property the wall would be built have already filed lawsuits.

​The White House has not yet responded to the states’ lawsuit. But it had anticipated court challenges to the emergency declaration.

Trump said he declared the national emergency because he was unhappy with the amount of money Congress authorized for border security.

“I want to do it faster,” he said when he announced his declaration last week. “I could do the wall over a longer period of time. I didn’t need to do this. But I’d rather do it much faster” — words that could come back to haunt the administration in court.

Journalist Bob Woodward, who chronicled the first year of the Trump presidency in his best-selling book “Fear,” told Fox News he believes Trump made the national emergency declaration because “he looks strong. He looks tough to lots of people.”

Trump centered much of his 2016 presidential campaign on a vow to build the wall and make Mexico pay for it. After he was elected, he said he never meant that Mexico would write a check for a wall, but that the money would come from the benefits from a new North American trade deal. 

Mexican leaders have said under no circumstances would they pay for a border wall. Trump has since shifted the focus on winning congressional funding. 

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У США помер моряк з фотографії «Поцілунок на Таймс-Сквер»

У США помер Джордж Мендонса, герой фотознімку «Поцілунок на Таймс-Сквер», що став одним із символів закінчення Другої світової війни. Як повідомляє CBS, Мендонса помер від інсульту, не доживши двох днів до свого 96-річчя.

Знімок «Поцілунок на Таймс-Сквер» був зроблений 14 серпня 1945 року, після того як президент США Гаррі Трумен оголосив про майбутню капітуляції Японії. На фотографії моряк Мендоса цілує асистентку стоматолога Грету Циммер Фрідман, яка пізніше стала його дружиною. Подружжя прожило разом 70 років. Фрідман померла в 2016 році у віці 92 років.

Майже півстоліття більше 30 американців претендували на звання героїв знімка. Остаточно особистості Фрідман і Мендонса підтвердили кілька років тому за допомогою технології розпізнавання осіб.

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Cheap and Green: Pyongyang Upgrades Its Mass Transit System

Pyongyang is upgrading its overcrowded mass transit system with brand new subway cars, trams and buses in a campaign meant to show leader Kim Jong Un is raising the country’s standard of living. 

 The long-overdue improvements, while still modest, are a welcome change for the North Korean capital’s roughly 3 million residents, who have few options to get to work or school each day. 

First came new, high-tech subway cars and electric trolleybuses — each announced by the media with photos of Kim personally conducting the final inspection tours. Now, officials say three new electric trams are running daily routes across Pyongyang. 

Transport officials say the capacity of the new trams is about 300, sitting and standing. Passengers must buy tickets in shops beforehand and put them in a ticket box when they get on. The flat fare is a dirt cheap 5 won (US$ .0006) for any tram, trolleybus, subway or regular bus ride on the public transport system. The Pyongyang Metro has a ticket-card system and the Public Transportation Bureau is considering introducing something similar on the roads as well. 

Private cars are rare

Privately owned cars are scarce in Pyongyang. Taxis are increasingly common but costly for most people. Factory or official-use vehicles are an alternative, when available, as are bicycles. Motorized bikes imported from China are popular, while scooters and motorcycles are rare.

The subway, with elaborate stations inspired by those in Soviet Moscow and dug deep enough to survive a nuclear attack, runs at three- to five-minute intervals, depending on the hour. Officials say it transports about 400,000 passengers on weekdays. But its two lines, with 17 stations, operate only on the western side of the Taedong River, which runs through the center of the city.

“The subway is very important transportation for our people,” subway guide Kim Yong Ryon said in a recent interview with The AP. “There are plans to build train stations on the east side of the river, but nothing has started yet.”

The lack of passenger cars on Pyongyang’s roads has benefits. Traffic jams are uncommon and, compared to Beijing or Seoul, the city has refreshingly clean, crisp air. Electric trams, which run on rails, and electric trolleybuses, which have wheels, are relatively green transport options. 

Crowded and slow

But mass transit in Pyongyang can be slow and uncomfortable. 

The tram system, in particular, is among the most crowded in the world. 

Swarms of commuters cramming into trams are a common sight during the morning rush hour, which is from about 6:00 to 8:30. Getting across town can take about an hour.

Pyongyang’s tram system has four lines. In typical North Korean fashion, one is devoted to taking passengers to and from the mausoleum where the bodies of national founder Kim Il Sung and his son, Kim Jong Il, lie in state.

The city’s red-and-white trams look familiar to many eastern Europeans. In 2008, the North bought 20 used trams made by the Tatra company, which produced hundreds of them when Prague was still the capital of socialist Czechoslovakia.

North Korea squeezes every last inch out of its fleet. 

Red stars are awarded for every 50,000 kilometers (31,000 miles) driven without an accident, and it’s not unusual to see trams with long lines of red stars stenciled across their sides. One seen in operation in Pyongyang last month had 12 — that’s 600,000 kilometers (372,800 miles), or the equivalent of about 15 trips around the Earth’s circumference.

The numbers work

Impossible as that might seem, the math works.

Ri Jae Hong, a representative of the Capital Public Transportation Bureau, told an AP television news crew the main tram route, from Pyongyang Station in the central part of town to the Mangyongdae district, is 21 kilometers from end to end. He said a tram might do the full route there and back on average six times a day. 

By that reckoning, it would take just over 198 days of actual driving to win that first red star. 

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Brazil’s Bolsonaro Fires Senior Minister, Investor Sentiment Sours

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Monday fired one of his most senior aides and cabinet members, Gustavo Bebianno, amid a scandal involving campaign financing for some of his party’s congressional candidates.

Bebianno was secretary general of the president’s office.

His departure punctuated Bolsonaro’s first cabinet crisis since he took office on Jan. 1 and has cast a shadow over the young government’s plans.

Brazilian markets fell on Monday as investors feared that the brewing scandal could hurt Bolsonaro’s ability to pass a pension overhaul seen as key to fiscal and economic recovery.

In a short video clip released late on Monday, Bolsonaro said he took the decision to dismiss Bebianno due to “differences of opinion on important issues,” although he did not elaborate.

Bebianno, who helped coordinate government affairs and was acting president of Bolsonaro’s right-wing Social Liberal Party for the election campaign last year, denies any wrongdoing.

Analysts at Eurasia Group said in a note on Monday, before Bebianno was dismissed, that the scandal is unlikely to dent Bolsonaro’s approval ratings. Despite the dubious optics, the president can claim to be taking a tough stand against an aide accused of illicit activity.

But the timing could not be worse. Days before unveiling its landmark pension reform proposal, the government is mired in scandal, even if it is one that probably will not have much lasting impact on the administration or pension reform.

“It is indicative, however, of a political team in disarray,” they wrote, adding that everything points to “an end result that will probably lead to the approval of a less ambitious version of the government’s proposal for pension reform.”

The scandal is denting investor sentiment, which had brightened last week after early details of Bolsonaro’s social security reform proposals were released. The full package will be presented to senior lawmakers on Wednesday.

Brazil’s Bovespa stock market fell 1 percent on Monday, the dollar rose almost 1 percent to 3.7350 reais and January 2020 interest rates rose two basis points to 6.39 percent.

Last week, the Bovespa rose 2.3 percent, within touching distance of its record-high 98,588. Interest rates fell 15 basis points, the biggest weekly drop in two months, and the real also rose.

The Bebianno scandal got personal after one of Bolsonaro’s sons branded him a liar on Twitter, putting pressure on the president to dismiss him just weeks into his term.

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Pressure Grows on Europe to Back Venezuelan Opposition Leader

Pressure is growing on the European Union to formally back Venezuela’s opposition, after three EU lawmakers were refused entry into the country Sunday.

The Venezuelan government accused them of having “conspiratorial aims,” and forced them back on a plane to Madrid. The three had been invited by Venezuelan members of parliament to visit the country.

“[It was] very unpleasant and a pure demonstration that Venezuela is a country held hostage by a power that is almost like North Korea,” Esteban Gonzalez Pons, a senior member of the European Parliament, told reporters on his arrival in Madrid Monday.

The diplomatic snub has triggered calls for Brussels to take a stronger stand against the government of disputed President Nicholas Maduro. The United States and many allies have recognized opposition leader Juan Guaido as interim president, after accusations of vote rigging in last year’s election.

The EU lawmakers have demanded that the bloc now abandon the International Contact Group or ICG, an EU initiative among European states and four Latin American countries, that is seeking a political way forward in Venezuela. The group met in the Uruguayan capital, Montevideo, earlier this month.

Europe’s foreign policy chief rejected pulling out of the ICG Monday.

“On the contrary, all member states have reaffirmed how crucial it is to have this instrument, which is currently probably the only one that we can use, to be at the same time in contact with relevant stakeholders and clear on the objective, which is a democratic, peaceful, and early election outcome for the crisis,” Federica Mogherini said in a press conference.

At the Munich Security Conference Saturday, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said the European Union must recognize the American-backed interim president.

The Netherlands was among the EU member states that followed Washington’s lead. Foreign Minister Stef Blok spoke to VOA following Pence’s speech.

“Twenty-two European countries did recognize Guaido as the interim president. And of course I would have preferred to see the European Union united,” Blok said.

The EU, however, is divided. Spain, which retains the closest links to its former colony, rejected Washington’s demands.

“Mr. Pence can’t ask us to not accept the constitutional law of Venezuela,” Spain’s foreign minister, Josep Borrell, said at the Munich conference.

Borrell’s French counterpart, Jean-Yves Le Drain, is insisting on new elections.

“The only way out of the political crisis in Venezuela is a presidential election with democratic guarantees,” Le Drian said.

The Dutch government has agreed that its overseas territory of Curacao, an island off Venezuela, can be used as an aid hub.

“In order to get the aid toward Venezuela, we will need the consent of the Venezuelan authorities,” Blok told VOA.

As the diplomatic debate intensifies over how to end Venezuela’s political crisis, hundreds of tons of foreign aid remain stranded on the country’s borders — and the Venezuelan people continue to suffer.

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Seven British MPs Quit Labor Party Over Brexit, Anti-Semitism

Seven British lawmakers have quit the main opposition Labor Party over the leadership’s approach to Brexit and anti-Semitism allegations in the ranks.  

The seven moderate members of parliament say they will form an independent group. Their defection is the biggest split in the Labor Party since four senior members quit in 1981 to form the Social Democratic Party.  

The group told reporters in London’s County Hall Monday that the Labor Party has changed since leader Jeremy Corbyn came to power in 2015 and said the party no longer tolerates center-left views.

 “The bottom line is this — politics is broken. It doesn’t have to be this way. Let’s change it,” said Chuka Umunna, one of the lawmakers.  

Chris Leslie, another defector, said: “Marxism is now masquerading as the Labor Party. It has the Labor brand, but it is a machine that has taken over.”  

In a direct challenge to Corbyn, the seven centrist parliament members say they are courting other lawmakers to join their group.  

One of the group’s chief complaints is that the Labor Party has been complicit in facilitating Brexit. Corbyn has come under fire by some party members for not doing enough to oppose Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May’s plans for leaving the EU and for not pushing hard enough for a second referendum.  

The Labor Party has been divided by the Brexit vote, with many traditional voters, particularly in northern England, having chosen to leave the European Union in the 2016 referendum, while a majority of Labor MPs had supported staying in.

 Brexit has also divided the country’s Conservative Party into pro-Brexit and pro-EU wings. Britain’s departure from the EU — the terms of which are still up in the air — is set for March 29.

The seven lawmakers also accused Corbyn Monday of failing to tackle anti-Semitism in the party, a charge that has previously been leveled at the Labor leader.

A longtime supporter of Palestinian rights and a critic of the Israeli government, Corbyn denies the allegations, saying he is stamping out anti-Semitism in the party.

Luciana Berger, one of the seven MPs who defected, said Labor has become “institutionally anti-Semitic.” Berger, who is Jewish, said in leaving the Labor Party, “I am leaving behind a culture of bullying, bigotry and intimidation.”

Corbyn said he was “disappointed that these MPs have felt unable to continue to work together for the Labor policies that inspired millions at the last election and saw us increase our vote by the largest share since 1945.”

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Росія знищила ракети С-400, які були продані в Китай

Росія знищила пошкоджені при транспортуванні ракети для комплексів C-400, які були продані в Китай. Про це 18 лютого повідомив голова російської державної корпорації «Ростех» Сергій Чемезов.

За словами чиновника, судно, яке перевозило ракети, потрапило в шторм. Кріплення, які утримували обладнання, не витримали, і воно було сильно пошкоджене.

Чемезов заявив, що Росія виготовляє нові ракети для Китаю. Сума контракту на поставку шести дивізіонів С-400 становить більше ніж три мільярди доларів. Про початок поставок оголосили в січні 2018 року.

Читайте також: Розгортання ЗРК С-400 у Криму: що означає і кому це потрібно

У вересні 2018 року Сполучені Штати запровадили санкції проти Міністерства оборони КНР за купівлю 10 російських винищувачів Су-35 і зенітно-ракетних комплексів С-400.

Китай став першою країною, до якої США застосували обмеження за співпрацю з Росією. 

Раніше повідомлялося, що Росія й Індія уклали контракт на поставку п’яти дивізіонів зенітно-ракетних комплексів С-400. Контракт вартістю понад 5 мільярдів доларів укладено під час візиту в Делі президента Росії Володимира Путіна восени 2018 року. За покупку російського озброєння Індії можуть загрожувати санкції з боку США.

Зенітно-ракетні комплекси С-400 призначені для знищення засобів повітряно-космічного нападу. Їхні керовані ракети можуть вражати аеродинамічні цілі на висотах до 27 кілометрів, а балістичні цілі – до 25 кілометрів.

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