Кандидат на посаду президента України, керівник студії «Квартал 95», комік Володимир Зеленський подякував працівникам Міністерства внутрішніх справ і інших силових відомств і особисто голові МВС Арсенові Авакову.
«Я хотів би подякувати всім працівникам МВС, кожному поліцейському, кожному рятувальникові, кожному нацгвардійцеві – дякую вам за цю роботу. І окремо я хочу подякувати міністрові пану Авакову: мені здається, це вперше в історії нашої країни, коли міністерство, поліція працювали не на окремого кандидата, а працювали на країну, захищали інтереси України», – заявив Зеленський у відеоролику, який оприлюднив у фейсбуці.
Як встановило напередодні виборів президента України, що відбулися 31 березня, але не визначили переможця, розслідування програми «Схеми», спільного проекту Радіо Свобода і телеканалу «UɅ:Перший», напередодні виборів неодноразово відвідувала Міністерство внутрішніх справ і зустрічалась із його очільником Арсеном Аваковим кандидатка на посаду президента України, лідерка партії «Батьківщина» Юлія Тимошенко – вона врешті обійняла третє місце і не вийшла до повторного голосування 21 квітня, на яке винесені кандидатури Володимира Зеленського і чинного президента Петра Порошенка, який кандидує на другий термін.
«Силові структури стають інструментами в руках окремих кандидатів для перемоги на виборах, – мовиться в розслідуванні. – Служба безпеки і Генеральна прокуратура – це вертикаль голови держави, креатури президента Петра Порошенка, які грають на його боці. По інший бік – Міністерство внутрішніх справ і підпорядкована йому Національна поліція. Партнер Порошенка в коаліції Арсен Аваков, схоже, вже давно грає свою гру, самостійну від президента. І на цих виборах він як політик, вочевидь, зробив ставку не на нього – а на інших лідерів президентських перегонів».
У розслідуванні звернено увагу, що як тільки СБУ і ГПУ повідомили про викриття платної мережі агітаторів за Тимошенко, майже одразу із дзеркальною заявою щодо кандидата-конкурента вийшов Аваков і розповів про інші схеми підкупу виборців, до організації яких, за його словами, імовірно, причетний заступник голови президентської фракції Сергій Березенко. Крім того, Аваков заявляв про виявлення апаратури прослуховування «під офісом» кандидата Зеленського, через що почали розслідування; СБУ повідомила у відповідь, що операція прослуховування, яку зірвала поліція, велася (в будинку через вулицю і за кілька будинків убік від офісу Зеленського – ред.) стосовно іншої особи, яка підозрюється в державній зраді; врешті, це була змушена визнати й поліція.
Міністр Аваков перед виборами не раз запевняв, що підпорядковані йому силовики гарантуватимуть безпеку і чесний перебіг виборчої кампанії і голосування.
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«Запрошую всі канали, щоб дебати були проведені в місці і часі, як хотів Зеленський, і не дати йому зійти з цієї його пропозиції. Це буде безвідповідально щодо країни і виборців»
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U.S. President Donald Trump and White House officials on Sunday rebuffed reports that release of special counsel Robert Mueller’s full report on the 2016 Trump campaign’s contacts with Russia would prove more damaging than the initial conclusion that neither Trump nor his aides conspired with Moscow to help him win.
Trump said on Twitter, “Looks like Bob Mueller’s team of 13 Trump Haters & Angry Democrats are illegally leaking information to the press while the Fake News Media make up their own stories with or without sources – sources no longer matter to our corrupt & dishonest Mainstream Media, they are a Joke!”
Attorney General William Barr is reviewing the nearly 400-page report and says he plans to release it in the coming days after redacting confidential information, such as secret grand jury testimony or foreign intelligence that was included in the report.
Late last month, Barr released a four-page summary of the report saying that Mueller had concluded that Trump and his campaign had not colluded with Russia. At the same time, Barr said the prosecutor had reached no conclusion whether Trump, as president, had obstructed justice in trying to thwart the investigation.
Barr quoted the report in his summary as saying on the obstruction question that “while this report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.”
With Mueller failing to reach a decision on obstruction, Barr, a Trump appointee as the country’s top law enforcement official, and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein decided that obstruction charges against Trump were not warranted. Trump has claimed the report totally exonerates him, “no collusion, no obstruction, no nothing.”
But according to news accounts, Mueller’s prosecutors have told associates they were dismayed at the cryptic account of the Mueller report issued by Barr, saying the full report is a more damaging account of Trump’s actions. Democratic opponents of Trump in Congress, and some Republicans, have called for release of the full Mueller report, with one Democratic-controlled committee in the House of Representatives last week voting to subpoena the full report and supporting material.
Trump attorney Jay Sekulow told ABC News does not believe the full report will be “more damaging” for Trump.
Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, told Fox News that Democrats “really did believe” that Mueller would conclude that Trump had colluded with Russia, saying, “The Democrat Party is contaminated with Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
“If we give the Democrats all 400 pages unredacted that’s not going to be the end of the inquiry,” Mulvaney said. “Then they’re going to want another thousand pages that went into making it. This is not about getting to the truth. This is a political show by the Democrats.”
House Democrats have also asked the country’s tax agency, the Internal Revenue Service, to turn over the last six years of Trump’s federal tax returns, which, breaking custom from previous presidents the last four decades, Trump has refused to disclose.
Mulvaney said Democrats will never see Trump’s tax returns, “nor should they.”
Sekulow said that “if necessary,” release of Trump’s tax returns “will be litigated.”
He said, “We should not be in a situation where… individual private tax returns are used for political purposes.”
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s party is asking for a recount of votes in Istanbul after the ruling party lost last week’s mayoral election.
In a humiliating setback for Erdogan, the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) narrowly won Istanbul, the country’s economic and cultural center. It also won the mayoral contest in Ankara, the capital.
A recount in some districts in Ankara is already under way, and the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has asked for a full recount in Istanbul.
AKP officials say the voting in Istanbul was “tainted” and cited “organized abuse, something going beyond simple individual error.”
As of Sunday, the CHP candidate, Ekrem Imamoglu, held a slim 16,000-vote lead over the AKP in Istanbul and urged the AKP to concede.
“I understand that it is not easy to lose Istanbul after ruling it for 25 years, but this is what democracy is about,” Imamoglu said, adding that losing “is not the end of the world.”
An AKP spokesman dismissed his statement and called appealing the results a “natural.”
Erdogan was elected mayor of Istanbul in 1994, propelling him from obscurity to international headlines. Analysts say the city usually is a harbinger for what happens on Turkey’s national political stage. Losing his home city would be seen as a major setback for Erdogan and the AKP.
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Top EU leaders meet Chinese Premier Li Keqiang this week at a summit in Brussels, but their hopes of winning solid commitments on trade look set for disappointment.
Brussels is trying to beef up its approach to the Asian giant as it shows little willingness to listen to longstanding complaints about industrial subsidies and access to its markets, and as fears grow about growing Chinese involvement in European infrastructure.
But the half-day summit on Tuesday is on course to fizzle out with little to show in terms of agreements, with European sources saying it looks highly unlikely a final joint statement will be agreed.
EU officials say China is unwilling to give binding commitments on their key demands, including the inclusion of industrial subsidies as part of World Trade Organization reform, and they are reluctant to agree the kind of anodyne declaration of good intentions pushed out after last year’s summit in Beijing.
The European Commission last month issued a 10-point plan proposing a more assertive relationship with Beijing, labelling China a “systemic rival” — a move welcomed by French President Emmanuel Macron as a belated awakening.
But while the EU’s 15 trillion euro market gives it significant economic clout, it struggles to maintain unity among its 28 members on issues of foreign policy, allowing China to pursue one-on-one deals with individual countries.
“When economic policy intersects with foreign policy and security, the EU lacks the will and capacity to act strategically,” Philippe Legrain, visiting senior fellow at the London School of Economics’ European Institute, wrote in an analysis for Project Syndicate magazine.
“Apart from France and the UK, which is leaving the EU, member governments lack a geopolitical mindset.”
This most striking recent example came last month when Italy became the first G7 nation to sign up to China’s “Belt and Road Initiative” (BRI), a massive network of transport and trade links stretching from Asia to Europe.
Concerns have been raised about the way the BRI saddles countries with Chinese debt and leaves key infrastructure nodes owned by a potential strategic rival, though Beijing insists the initiative is a “win-win” arrangement.
Former Greek finance minister and scourge of the EU, Yanis Varoufakis, said Europe only had itself to blame if Mediterranean countries turned to China.
“We created a vacuum and the Chinese are filling it. The Chinese are coming in because there is a dearth of investment in this continent… We are failing to generate investment that would give our business the opportunity to compete with them,” he said in Brussels last week.
‘The summit has already taken place’
Macron’s own China initiative last week — hosting President Xi Jinping for a summit with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker — may also have been a double-edged sword for the EU.
The meeting in Paris gave the EU — through its two most powerful members — the chance to press its concerns directly with the paramount Chinese leader.
But analysts say it also seriously undercut this week’s summit in Brussels, where Li will hold talks not with heads of government but with Juncker and EU Council President Donald Tusk.
“The China summit has already taken place. It is not Europe for China without France and Germany in the same room,” Hosuk Lee-Makiyama, director of the ECIPE Brussels think tank, told AFP.
“Xi has already spoken. Xi has already shaken hands with his counterparts so by default the summit has already taken place. In a sense, they only bring out Li for Europe or when something bad is going to happen and somebody needs to take the blame.”
At the same time, Lee-Makiyama warned, Europe risks being left playing catch-up if ongoing U.S.-China trade talks result in a deal between the world’s two biggest economies.
“China is going to probably offer us some watered down version of what they gave to the Americans, but that also means that we have to give something,” he said.
But while Tuesday’s meeting may not yield a breakthrough in the EU’s complex relationship with China, European officials insist it still has value in keeping up the pressure.
“There is broad agreement within the EU that it is important to communicate to China that we are at a point where we want to see… concrete steps forward on their willingness to work with us at the WTO,” an EU diplomat told AFP.
“What is important is that we give a signal to China that the EU is partner but also a competitor and requires Beijing to make some steps.”
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Голова Демократичного союзу угорців Румунії Хунор Келемен заявив, що йому без будь-яких пояснень відмовили у допуску на територію України.
«Про інцидент я повідомив міністра закордонних справ Румунії, і в понеділок я попрошу роз’яснень», – написав він у Facebook 6 квітня.
У відповідь посол України у Румунії Олександр Банков заявив, що цьому румунському політику заборонено в’їжджати в Україну вже більше року.
«Пану Келемену Хунору заборонено в’їзд на територію України з 03.11.2017 року. З того часу він вже намагався в’їхати в Україну з угорським паспортом і йому було відмовлено, тож він точно знав про ухвалене українською стороною рішення. І цього разу, відповідно до українського законодавства, пану Келемену Хунору було вручено рішення про відмову в перетині державного кордону України, яке він підписав. Це правда, що відповідне рішення не містить мотивів, але така практика є загальною для всіх європейських держав», – написав Банков.
Хунор Келемен відреагував на це зауваження, заперечивши, що раніше намагався в’їхати на територію України з угорським паспортом.
«За останні 20 років я не був в Україні і ніколи не використовував угорський паспорт. Я можу представити документи сьогоднішнього інциденту. Тому я прошу пана Олександра Банкова, українського посла, також представити подібні документи, які нібито заборонили мій попередній в’їзд до України», – заявив Келемен.
Відносини між Україною та Угорщиною загострилися у зв’язку з новим українським законом про освіту, який набрав чинності 28 вересня 2017 року. Венеціанська комісія рекомендувала українській владі збалансувати положення мовної статті цього закону. У лютому минулого року український уряд схвалив законопроект про перехідний період імплементації мовної статті закону «Про освіту» до 2023 року. Офіційний Будапешт продовжує заявляти про порушення прав угорської меншини через норму закону щодо обов’язкового отримання освіти державною мовою. Офіційний Київ ці звинувачення відкидає.
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Britain’s government has been forced to talk to Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn to save Brexit, Andrea Leadsom, its leader in the House of Commons, said on Sunday, suggesting ministers were ready to compromise with the opposition leader.
“Specifically provided we are leaving the European Union then it is important that we compromise, that’s what this is about and it is through gritted teeth. But nevertheless the most important thing is to actually leave the EU,” she told the BBC’s Andrew Marr show.
She suggested that Prime Minister Theresa May’s proposal for a customs arrangement with the EU after Brexit was not too far from Labour’s insistence on a customs union.
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Пакистанський міністр закордонних справ Махмуд Куреші заявив, що, за його даними, Індія має намір атакувати його країну пізніше цього місяця, між 16 і 20 квітня, про що він також поінформував ООН.
Він не уточнив, яку саме інформацію має про це, але сказав, що прем’єр-міністр Імран Хан погодився оприлюднити цю інформацію.
Міністерство закордонних справ Індії наразі не відреагувало на заяву пакистанських чиновників.
Заява Куреші з’явилася на тлі простистояння між двома державами, що триває з лютого цього року.
Внаслідок нападу смертника у Кашмірі 14 лютого загинули 44 індійських поліцейських. Це був найбільший за десятки років напад на сили безпеки у спірному регіоні. Відповідальність за напад на себе взяло базоване в Пакистані угруповання «Джаіш-е-Мохаммад».
26 лютого, за повідомленням влади Індії, індійські літаки атакували на території Пакистану тренувальні центри бойовиків, пов’язаних, на їхню думку, зі згаданим нападом нападом.
Цей авіаудар був першим після війни між двома країнами 1971 року.
Наступного дня після авіаудару, 27 лютого, Пакистан повідомив, що збив два індійські військові літаки і захопив індійського пілота у підконтрольній Ісламабаду частині спірного регіону Кашмір.
1 березня пілота повернули Індії.
ООН і світові лідери, зокрема Сполучені Штати, Китай, Росія і Європейський союз, висловили занепокоєння через загострення між Індією і Пакистаном і закликали сторони до стриманості.
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A British man poisoned along with his partner with a nerve agent, amid an assassination attempt on a Russian ex-spy in England blamed on Moscow, met its top UK envoy on Saturday, according to reports.
Charlie Rowley, 45, whose partner Dawn Sturgess died after exposure to the toxin, held a 90-minute meeting with Ambassador Alexander Yakovenko at Russia’s embassy in London, Britain’s Sunday Mirror said.
“I went along to ask them ‘why did your country kill my girlfriend?'” he told the tabloid newspaper.
“But I didn’t really get any answers. I just got Russian propaganda,” Rowley added, saying Yakovenko’s explanations of Russian innocence in the plot were “ridiculous”.
Rowley and Sturgess, a 44-year-old mother of three children, who lived near the southwestern English city of Salisbury, fell ill on June 30 last year.
Authorities determined they had been exposed to Novichok, a military-grade nerve agent developed by the Soviet Union during the latter days of the Cold War.
The poison was contained in a perfume bottle that Rowley had found in Salisbury and given to Sturgess.
She died eight days later but after two weeks in an induced coma, he was discharged from hospital.
It followed former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia being left in critical condition after they were targeted with Novichok in Salisbury three months earlier.
The pair survived and have made full recoveries, according to British authorities.
Western allies accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of being ultimately responsible for the poisoning, which sparked dozens of diplomatic expulsions by both sides.
British prosecutors in September issued arrest warrants for two alleged officers of Russia’s military intelligence service, known as the GRU.
But the Kremlin has repeatedly denounced the accusations as “unacceptable.”
“The ambassador kept saying the substance definitely wasn’t the novichok they had made because if it was it would have killed everyone,” Rowley told the Mirror.
“He [Yakovenko] kept on saying the British won’t talk to him so he can’t tell us anything that he hasn’t read in the media, so he can only give his view.”
A Russian TV station also reported Saturday’s meeting, saying Rowley was eager for answers that Britain had failed to provide.
Yakovenko gave him a book on the “unanswered questions” concerning the events in Salisbury and a tour of Russia’s grand west London embassy on one of its most exclusive streets, it added.
your ad hereErnest F. “Fritz” Hollings, the silver-haired Democrat who helped shepherd South Carolina through desegregation as governor and went on to serve six terms in the U.S. Senate, has died. He was 97.
Family spokesman Andy Brack, who also served at times for Hollings as spokesman during his Senate career, said Hollings died at his home on the Isle of Palms early Saturday.
Hollings, whose long and colorful political career included an unsuccessful bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, retired from the Senate in 2005, one of the last of the larger-than-life Democrats who dominated politics in the South.
He had served 38 years and two months, making him the eighth longest-serving senator in U.S. history.
Nevertheless, Hollings remained the junior senator from South Carolina for most of his term. The senior senator was Strom Thurmond, first elected in 1954. He retired in January 2003 at age 100 as the longest-serving senator in history.
In his final Senate speech, made in 2004, Hollings lamented that lawmakers came to spend much of their time raising money for the next election, calling money “the main culprit, the cancer on the body politic.”
‘Real, real trouble’
“We don’t have time for each other, we don’t have time for constituents except for the givers. … We’re in real, real trouble,” he said.
Hollings was a sharp-tongued orator whose rhetorical flourishes in the deep accent of his home state enlivened many a Washington debate, but his influence in Washington never reached the levels he hoped.
He sometimes blamed that failure on his background, rising to power as he did in the South in the 1950s as the region bubbled with anger over segregation.
However, South Carolina largely avoided the racial violence that afflicted some other Deep South states during the turbulent 1960s.
Hollings campaigned against desegregation when running for governor in 1958. He built a national reputation as a moderate when, in his farewell address as governor, he pleaded with the legislature to peacefully accept integration of public schools and the admission of the first black student to Clemson University.
“This General Assembly must make clear South Carolina’s choice, a government of laws rather than a government of men,” he told lawmakers. Shortly afterward, Clemson was peacefully integrated.
In his 2008 autobiography, Making Government Work, Hollings wrote that in the 1950s “no issue dominated South Carolina more than race” and that he worked for a balanced approach.
I was 'Mister-in-Between.' The governor had to appear to be in charge; yet the realities were not on his side,'' he wrote.I returned to my basic precept … the safety of the people is the supreme law. I was determined to keep the peace and avoid bloodshed.”
In the Senate, Hollings gained a reputation as a skilled insider with keen intellectual powers. He chaired the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee and held seats on the Appropriations and Budget committees.
Troublesome remarks
But his sharp tongue sometimes got him in trouble. He once called Sen. Howard Metzenbaum, D-Ohio, the “senator from the B’nai B’rith,” and in 1983 he used a derogatory term for unlawful immigrants in referring to the presidential campaign supporters of former Sen. Alan Cranston, D-Calif.
Hollings began his quest for the presidency in April 1983 but dropped out the following March after dismal showings in Iowa and New Hampshire.
Early in his Senate career, he built a record as a hawk and lobbied hard for military dollars for South Carolina, one of the poorest states in the nation.
Hollings originally supported American involvement in Vietnam, but his views changed over the years as it became clear there would be no American victory.
Hollings, who made three trips to the war zone, said he learned a lesson there.
It's a mistake to try to build and destroy a nation at the same time,'' he wrote in his autobiography, warning that America is nowrepeating the same wrongheaded strategy in Iraq.”
Despite his changed views, Hollings remained a strong supporter of national defense, which he saw as the main business of government.
In 1969 he drew national attention when he exposed hunger in his own state by touring several cities, helping lay the groundwork for the Women, Infants and Children feeding program.
A year later, his views drew wider currency with the publication of his first book, The Case Against Hunger.
In 1982, Hollings proposed an across-the-board federal spending freeze to cut the deficit, a proposal that was a cornerstone of his failed presidential bid.
He helped create the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and write the National Coastal Zone Management Act. Hollings also attached his name to the Gramm-Rudman bill aimed at balancing the federal budget.
Hollings angered many of his constituents in 1991 when he opposed the congressional resolution authorizing President George Bush to use force against Iraq.
In his later years, port security was one of his main concerns.
As he prepared to leave office, he told The Associated Press: “People ask you your legacy or your most embarrassing moment. I never, ever lived that way. … I’m not trying to get remembered.”
After the Senate
He kept busy after leaving the Senate, helping the Medical University of South Carolina raise money for the cancer center that bears his name and lecturing at the Charleston School of Law.
Hollings’ one political defeat came in 1962 when he lost in a primary to Sen. Olin Johnston. After Johnston died, Hollings won a special election in 1966 and went to the Senate at age 44, winning the first of his six full terms two years later.
Ernest Frederick Hollings was born in Charleston, S.C., on Jan. 1, 1922. His father was a paper products dealer but the family business went broke during the Depression.
Hollings graduated from The Citadel, the state’s military college in Charleston, in 1942. He immediately entered the Army and was decorated for his service during World War II. Back home, he earned a law degree from the University of South Carolina in 1947.
The next year, he was elected to the state House at age 26. He was elected lieutenant governor six years later and governor in 1958 at age 36.
As governor, he actively lured business, helped balance the budget for the first time since Reconstruction and improved public education.
Hollings had four children with his first wife, the late Patricia Salley Hollings. He is survived by three of his four children. His second wife, “Peatsy,” died in 2012.
A funeral home handling arrangements said that after a three-hour visitation April 14 in Charleston, the senator’s body will lie in repose April 15 at the South Carolina Statehouse in Columbia, with a funeral to follow the next day at the Citadel in Charleston.
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U.S. President Donald Trump said Saturday that he made the controversial decision to recognize Israel’s 1981 annexation of the Golan Heights after getting a quick history lesson during a conversation on a different
subject.
Speaking at a Republican Jewish Coalition gathering in Las Vegas, Trump said he made the decision during a discussion with his top Middle East peace advisers, including the U.S. ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, and son-in-law Jared Kushner.
“I said, ‘Fellows, do me a favor. Give me a little history, quick. Want to go fast. I got a lot of things I’m working on: China, North Korea. Give me a quickie,” Trump said to laughter from the Las Vegas crowd.
“‘How do you like the idea of me recognizing exactly what we’re discussing?'” said Trump, recounting the conversation.
Trump, who typically demands short, sharp briefings and is known for his colorful retelling of stories, said Friedman was shocked, “like a wonderful, beautiful baby,” and asked the president if he would actually do it.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Trump last month. At their March 25 meeting, Trump signed a proclamation officially granting U.S. recognition of the Golan as Israeli territory, a dramatic departure from decades of U.S. policy. The move, which Trump announced in a tweet days prior, was widely seen as an attempt to boost Netanyahu, who is up for re-election on April 9.
‘Bing!’
Israel captured the Golan in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed it in 1981 in a move not recognized internationally.
“I went, ‘Bing!’ It was done,” Trump said Saturday, describing the swiftness of his decision. “We make fast decisions. And we make good decisions.”
When Trump asked the crowd who would win Israel’s election — there were shouts of “Bibi!” — Trump responded, “I think it’s going to be close. Two good people.”
Netanyahu is fighting for his political survival against former top general Benny Gantz, a political novice.
Republican megadonor Sheldon Adelson, who is reportedly gravely ill, watched the speech in person.
Earlier, three protesters stood on their chairs as Trump began to speak, shouting, “Jews are here to say: Occupation is a plague.” The rest of the crowd quickly drowned them out with chants of “USA! USA!” Security guards removed the protesters.
“He is going back to Mommy and he will be reprimanded,” Trump said of the protesters. “She gets it.”
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