| UN funding crisis cuts aid to Yemen as it slides near famine Posted: 18 Aug 2020 05:38 PM PDT |
| Mali's president resigns and dissolves parliament Posted: 18 Aug 2020 05:27 PM PDT  Mali's President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta steps down, after being detained by soldiers, state TV reports
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| 2 strong earthquakes shake western Indonesia; no tsunami Posted: 18 Aug 2020 04:36 PM PDT |
| After years of big moments, Bill Clinton's DNC role shrinks Posted: 18 Aug 2020 04:30 PM PDT |
| Global Aerospace Coatings Industry Posted: 18 Aug 2020 04:29 PM PDT |
| Soldiers seize Mali President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta Posted: 18 Aug 2020 04:25 PM PDT  France and regional bloc Ecowas have condemned the mutiny that began with gunfire early on Tuesday.
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| Mpape Crushed Rock: Nigerians flock to new beauty spot Posted: 18 Aug 2020 04:18 PM PDT  Nigeria's Mpape Crushed Rock is an unlikely tourist sensation for fun-seekers near the capital, Abuja.
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| Global Mobile Learning Industry Posted: 18 Aug 2020 03:49 PM PDT |
| The Senate’s Russia Report Implicates More Than Trump’s Campaign Posted: 18 Aug 2020 03:45 PM PDT  (Bloomberg Opinion) -- "This is what collusion looks like."That is how five Democratic senators, including vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris, view the fifth and final volume of the Senate Intelligence Committee's report on Russian interference in the 2016 election.Their argument rests on new evidence, which they say shows that Paul Manafort, former campaign manager for President Donald Trump, "was directly connected to the Russian meddling through his communications with an individual found to be a Russian intelligence officer."It's a devastating claim. The report itself, however, paints a more nuanced picture, though no less horrifying.Start with the Russian intelligence agent. He is a 50-year old man named Konstantin Kilimnik. The committee refers to him as a "Russian intelligence officer." But Kilimnik does not have an official role in any Russian intelligence service. Instead, he "is part of a cadre of individuals ostensibly operating outside of the Russian government but who nonetheless implement Kremlin-directed influence operations." Those initiatives are often funded by oligarchs close to Russian President Vladimir Putin.Special Counsel Robert Mueller's March 2019 report disclosed that Manafort funneled internal campaign polling and strategy documents to Kilimnik during the campaign. The Senate's report fills in the blanks about their relationship.Manafort has known Kilimnik since at least 2005, when Manafort began working as a consultant to former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. Kilimnik, in addition to being a kind of Russian spy, was also a close aide to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska. Manafort had numerous business dealings with Deripaska over more than a decade, including influence operations that targeted countries in Europe, Africa and other former Soviet republics such as Georgia.By 2016, however, Manafort and Deripaska had had a falling out. Deripaska had sued Manafort for money he lost in a joint business venture. Instead of money — perhaps in lieu of payment — Manafort sent information to Deripaska, using Kilimnik as a go-between. The Senate committee "was unable to reliably determine why Manafort shared sensitive internal polling data or Campaign strategy with Kilimnik," the report says. It does say that Manafort and his deputy, Rick Gates, "both claimed that it was part of an effort to resolve past business disputes and obtain new work with their past Russian and Ukrainian clients."After Manafort resigned from the Trump campaign in August 2016, he kept up his relationship with both Kilimnik and some Trump campaign officials, such as the presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner. Kilimnik and Manafort schemed, for example cooking up a plan to persuade the president-elect to endorse a "peace plan" for Ukraine that would have cemented the gains won by Russia after its stealth invasion in 2014. Both men also communicated about how to counter the narrative that Russia sought to influence the 2016 election and discussed a communications strategy to pin the election interference on Ukraine.The report does not conclude that Kilimnik was involved in the Russian intelligence operation to hack Democratic Party emails and then publicize them through Wikileaks and other Russian backed websites. Rather, it says it has "information suggesting Kilimnik may have been connected to the GRU's hack and leak operation targeting the 2016 U.S. election." It goes on to say: "While this information suggests that a channel for coordination on the GRU hack-and-leak operation may have existed through Kilimnik, the Committee had limited insight into Kilimnik's communications with Manafort and [redacted], all of whom used sophisticated communications security practices."Regardless of whether Kilimnik was involved in the hacking and leaking of Democratic emails, the larger point is that Trump's former campaign manager was so close to a Russian spy. That's something both parties should condemn.At the same time, the report raises some deeper questions. According to the report, Kilimnik worked for the International Republican Institute, a congressionally funded, nominally nonpartisan organization, from 1995 to 2005. He has claimed that he ended his work for the Russian government before joining. He was fired from his post in 2005, after the institute learned that he was working with Manafort.Nonetheless, Kilimnik was in "regular contact" with personnel serving in the political section of the U.S. embassy in Kiev until late 2016. To be sure, many U.S. diplomats were wary of him. But he was able in January 2017 to secure a visa to the U.S., where he met with Manafort.If Kilimnik was a Russian spy for this entire period — and the report gives evidence that indeed he was — then why didn't the FBI or CIA do more to protect the U.S. embassy, or for that matter the International Republican Institute, from Kilimnik's schemes?A similar problem arises with Deripaska, the long-time associate of Manafort who the report accuses of masterminding political-influence campaigns from Cyprus to Montenegro. Between 2014 and 2016, the FBI tried to recruit him as a source. The bureau was rebuffed, and he reportedly told the Kremlin about the approach.The new report finds that Christopher Steele, the former British spy who was contracted to produce the now-discredited dossier on the Trump campaign's ties to the Kremlin, also had contracts with Deripaska — at the same time he was compiling his dossier on Trump. "The Committee found multiple links between Steele and Deripaska, including through two of Deripaska's lawyers, and indications that Deripaska had early knowledge of Steele's work," the report says. "Steele had worked for Deripaska, likely beginning at least in 2012, and continued to work for him into 2017, providing a potential direct channel for Russian influence on the dossier."Steele's dossier makes a number of allegations against Manafort that the FBI was never able to confirm. And yet it never mentions one damning and true fact about him: namely, Manafort's longstanding ties to Deripaska.Yet the FBI used that dossier to help obtain a surveillance warrant on a former Trump campaign adviser, Carter Page, and pressed to include its findings in the annex of the intelligence community's assessment of Russian meddling in the 2016 election. After it became public in January 2017, the dossier also helped to shape the public narrative about Trump in the first two years of his presidency. Finally: It's worth noting that, for most of the last two decades, the two men most responsible for protecting America from Russian threats are Robert Mueller and James Comey, who together directed the FBI from 2001 to 2017. It's a pity that the FBI only got around to doing something about people such as Kilimnik and Deripaska — not to mention opportunistic Americans like Paul Manafort — until after the 2016 election.This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Eli Lake is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering national security and foreign policy. He was the senior national security correspondent for the Daily Beast and covered national security and intelligence for the Washington Times, the New York Sun and UPI.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinionSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Here's what we know about Russia's coronavirus vaccine, which has experts questioning whether it's safe and effective Posted: 18 Aug 2020 03:11 PM PDT  Vladimir Putin announced that Russia had registered the world's first coronavirus vaccine after less than two months of testing.
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| Biden's long foreign-policy record signals how he'll reverse Trump, rebuild old alliances and lead the pandemic response Posted: 18 Aug 2020 03:05 PM PDT  Even without a flashy virtual Democratic National Convention to formally introduce his presidential campaign, Joe Biden would be well known worldwide. He was President Barack Obama's second-in-command for eight years and sat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for decades, chairing it for several years. Yet for all his foreign policy credentials, Biden's international agenda remains somewhat opaque. How would a President Joe Biden face the disjointed and radically different world order left by his predecessor? Here's my projection, based on Biden's long track track record in global politics and my many years of teaching, studying and practicing international diplomacy. Joe Biden, internationalistAs vice president, Biden's relationships with world leaders were based on personal chemistry and empathy, enriched by his often rambling anecdotes. Dating back to the early years of Chinese president Xi Jinping's tenure, for example, Biden took many walks and held private dinners in an effort to get Xi to open up. He identified the Chinese leader's nationalistic and authoritarian instincts, which helped to shape Obama's China policy. But this is no longer the Obama era. If elected, Biden would need new approaches to demonstrate that the U.S. can be a responsible world power. Biden's campaign has over 2,000 foreign policy advisers divided into some 20 working groups, each focusing on major international issues such as arms control, the environment, intelligence and regions. Among those slated for high-level posts in his administration are former Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken, former National Security Advisor Susan Rice and several other veteran diplomats. While presidents don't always listen to their advisers, this team is a signal that Biden believes in a multilateral, deliberate foreign policy. They include globalists and isolationists, liberal interventionists and doves. First up: Undoing Trump's foreign policyBiden has been all of those things, by turns, in his long career. When Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, Biden wanted to send weapons to help Ukraine defend itself. Yet he was among the lone voices in Obama's administration to oppose a troop surge in Afghanistan. One constant, though, is Biden's strong belief in engaging with the world. He would likely erase and reverse many of Trump's isolationist policies if elected.Biden has promised to rejoin the 2015 Paris Climate Accord, the World Health Organization and other international agencies shunned by Trump. Biden has also announced that he will undo Trump's Muslim immigrant ban and stop work on the U.S.-Mexico border wall – both policies congressional Democrats fiercely opposed. As every past Democratic president has done, Biden plans to reverse the so-called "global gag rule," which forbids using U.S. foreign assistance funds for abortion-related services. Research shows this rule doesn't reduce abortions worldwide – it just makes them more dangerous.Biden is also likely to reverse Trump's abdication of U.S. leadership in the coronavirus pandemic. During the 2009 swine flu pandemic, Biden was among those who pushed the Obama administration to release stockpiled vaccines and other emergency equipment and was the point person for getting additional funding from Congress. Next up: Rebuilding America's relationshipsBiden's internationalism indicates he would move quickly to reconstruct the United States' badly ruptured relations with many allies, including NATO, the European Union and Germany, a country Trump has criticized.During the Obama years, Biden worked with the Europeans to coordinate policies countering Russian aggression and pushed for the development of a common trans-Atlantic strategy toward trade and market access issues with China. Economists say reform of the global trading system is now long overdue.Helping the EU deal with Hungary and Turkey – two authoritarian countries, one located right in Europe's heart and the other at its critical border with the Middle East - is another likely area of trans-Atlantic cooperation under Biden, an advocate of liberal democracy. As vice president, Biden had good relations with Turkey's president Reçep Erdogan. But recently he has become much more critical, calling him an "autocrat." Russia and ChinaOne world leader Biden has never been charmed by: Vladimir Putin. "I am looking into your eyes," Biden once told the Russian president, "and I don't think you have a soul." Putin's military aggression toward Ukraine, his Syria campaign and his use of cyber espionage and disinformation strategies to interfere in other nations' elections have frayed U.S.-Russia relations. Still, Biden – a longtime proponent of nuclear disarmament – says he would negotiate extending the last remaining Cold War disarmament treaty with Moscow, which expires in February 2021.China is one area of consensus between Biden and Trump. Democrats in general agree with Trump's hard-line policy toward what he considers "unfair" Chinese trade policies, lack of market access and intellectual property protections. On the campaign trail, Biden has been highly critical of China's assertive territorial behavior in the South China Sea and toward Taiwan, and condemned its repression of Hong Kong and the much abused Uighur Muslim minority in Xinjiang. Still, analysts predict he would seek more professional and constructive relations with China than the Trump White House. Biden knows Xi and has worked with him before. Engaging the Middle EastCandidate Biden has promised to end America's "forever wars" by continuing to withdraw American troops from Afghanistan and avoid reengaging in Iraq, Syria and other trouble spots. Early in his career, he believed in U.S. intervention. In 1993 Biden favored arming the Bosnian Muslims, which the Clinton administration declined to do, and he supported George W. Bush's invasions of Afghanistan and, more reluctantly, Iraq after 9/11. As Obama's vice president, however, Biden vacillated on U.S. military involvement abroad. He opposed intervention in Libya and wanted to replace soldiers in Afghanistan with drone warfare, while encouraging Obama to bomb Syria after the government used chemical weapons against civilians.[Deep knowledge, daily. Sign up for The Conversation's newsletter.]A wholesale withdrawal from the Middle East under a Biden presidency is unlikely. He is attached to too many issues there, among them rethinking the U.S.'s morally dubious alliance with Saudi Arabia and pushing for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian crisis. Biden also hopes to reactivate the 2015 Iran nuclear deal he helped create – but with new geopolitical concessions required of Tehran. Biden has said that the United States has "an obligation to lead." With his reputation for being a collaborative and principled politician, I expect his leadership would be welcomed by America's allies – and perhaps even some of its foes.This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.Read more: * Trump, Ukraine and a whistleblower: Ever since 1796, Congress has struggled to keep presidents in check * Biden's win shows the power of Democratic moderatesKlaus W. Larres does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
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| Many steps needed for accurate COVID-19 test results Posted: 18 Aug 2020 03:02 PM PDT |
| Cindy McCain details husband's friendship with Biden for DNC Posted: 18 Aug 2020 02:31 PM PDT  Cindy McCain is going to bat for Joe Biden, lending her voice to a video set to air during Tuesday night's Democratic National Convention programming focused on Biden's close friendship with her late husband, Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona. It's a continuation of a major theme that Democrats have pushed through the first night of the convention — an effort to broaden the party's appeal to occasional Republicans and disaffected Trump voters. In an advance clip from the video shared with The Associated Press, Cindy McCain talks about how Biden, then a Delaware senator, met her husband when John McCain was assigned to be a military aide for him on a trip overseas.
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| Colleges grapple with coronavirus as students return Posted: 18 Aug 2020 02:17 PM PDT  Notre Dame and Michigan State universities became the latest colleges to move classes online because of the coronavirus on Tuesday as colleges struggle to contain outbreaks and students continue to congregate in large groups without masks or social distancing. The decisions came the same day a third school in the 17-member University of North Carolina system reported a COVID-19 cluster in off-campus housing. Notre Dame president the Rev. John Jenkins announced the university's decision to cancel in-person undergraduate classes for two weeks in an address to students and staff.
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| Donald Trump's postmaster general halts cuts amid outcry over mail-in voting Posted: 18 Aug 2020 01:35 PM PDT  The US postmaster general on Tuesday night said he was suspending controversial cuts until after the presidential election following allegations from Democrats that the vote was being manipulated in favour of Donald Trump. Louis DeJoy, who has donated more than $2 million to Mr Trump and the Republican party since 2016, had been introducing reductions in service and overtime, and removing mail sorting machines and collection boxes, as he sought to overhaul the loss-making Postal Service . It had caused a political firestorm with postal unions across the country warning they would be unable to cope with an expected surge in mail-in voting due to the coronavirus pandemic. Democrats claimed the White House was attempting to sabotage the postal service to undermine the legitimacy of the election and suppress the vote. Mr Trump has denied trying to slow down postal voting. Mr DeJoy's reversal came after Nancy Pelosi, the Democrat speaker of the House of Representatives, called it back into session to address the issues at the post office. He has been called to testify before committees in the House and the Senate within days, and there have been protests outside his house in Washington. Mrs Pelosi said: "We have to save the post office from the president now." More than 20 US states had also announced they would be suing to stop the cuts. In a statement Mr DeJoy said: "To avoid even the appearance of any impact on election mail, I am suspending these initiatives until after the election is concluded. "The Postal Service is ready to handle whatever volume of election mail it receives." Planned cuts had included taking offline 671 mail-sorting machines, about 10 per cent of the national total. Mail-in ballots could account for as many as half of all votes cast in November's election. Mr Trump has opposed a request from Democrats for $25 billion in emergency aid to the Postal Service. The president has also said widespread mail-in voting will be a "disaster". He said: "You can't have millions and millions of ballots sent all over the place, sent to people that are dead, sent to dogs, cats, sent everywhere." Mr Trump said delayed results could mean that the Nov. 3 election would need to be held a second time. He said: "They'll have to do it again, and nobody wants that." It came as the senate intelligence committee released a 996-page report concluding that Russia interfered in the 2016 election, and meddling was ordered by Vladimir Putin. The report also said the FBI gave "unjustified credence" to allegations in a dossier compiled by former MI6 officer Christopher Steele when investigating Mr Trump's campaign. "Within the FBI, the dossier was given a veneer of credibility by lax procedures and layered misunderstandings," the report said.
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| UN chief demands 'immediate and unconditional release' of Mali president Posted: 18 Aug 2020 01:16 PM PDT  United Nations head Antonio Guterres demanded "the immediate and unconditional release" of Mali's president and members of his government Tuesday after they were seized by rebel soldiers.
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| Global Alfalfa Hay Industry Posted: 18 Aug 2020 12:49 PM PDT |
| Is Putin pulling away from Lukashenko? Posted: 18 Aug 2020 12:34 PM PDT  Russian President Vladimir Putin is playing the role of mediator between European leaders like German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron and embattled Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, whom protesters have called on to step down after 26 years in power. As things stand, it seems like Putin is hedging toward a diplomatic solution, rather than unequivocally backing his old ally.Putin spoke with Merkel, Macron, and Charles Michel, the president of the European Council on the phone Tuesday. Each side had some conditions for the other -- Merkel told Putin that Lukashenko must refrain from violence against protesters, release political detainees, and engage with the opposition, while Putin warned that European interference in internal Belarusian affairs was unacceptable. But still, the discussions suggest there's some semblance of diplomatic plan under way, and Putin seems willing to participate; he reportedly followed up those conversations with another with Lukashenko.Putin's apparent interest in the multilateral dialogue lends credence to the theory that he's not willing to let the situation turn bloody for Lukashenko's sake. That said, not everyone is thrilled about Moscow's role in the talks, even if it ultimately leads to a peaceful solution. > The string of European leaders (Merkel, Macron, Michel) reaching out to Putin about Belarus feeds the false idea that Moscow can/should determine Belarus's political future, rather than Minsk. That sends exactly the wrong signal. https://t.co/rd9cvvJ4KO> > -- Ivo Daalder (@IvoHDaalder) August 18, 2020> I have some concerns about negotiations with Putin regarding Belarus. It sends the wrong message to Belarusians, disorient nomenklatura and demotivate activists. Better discuss how to organize the evacuation of Lukashenka & hold new elections under the international patronage> > -- Franak Viačorka (@franakviacorka) August 18, 2020More stories from theweek.com TV networks are reportedly afraid of giving the RNC too much airtime, so they cut the DNC's time short too Bill Clinton is getting sidelined at the DNC Cuba Gooding Jr. accused of rape in lawsuit
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| US Senate report goes beyond Mueller to lay bare Trump campaign's Russia links Posted: 18 Aug 2020 12:27 PM PDT  Bipartisan intelligence panel says that Russian who worked on Trump's 2016 bid was career spy, amid a stunning range of contactsA report by the Senate intelligence committee provides a treasure trove of new details about Donald Trump's relationship with Moscow, and says that a Russian national who worked closely with Trump's presidential campaign in 2016 was a career intelligence officer.The bipartisan report runs to nearly 1,000 pages and goes further than last year's investigation into Russian election interference by special prosecutor Robert Mueller. It lays out a stunning web of contacts between Trump, his top election aides and Russian government officials, in the months leading up to the 2016 election.The Senate panel identifies Konstantin Kilimnik as a Russian intelligence officer employed by the GRU, the military intelligence agency behind the 2018 poisoning of the Russian double agent Sergei Skripal. It cites evidence – some of it redacted – linking Kilimnik to the GRU's hacking and dumping of Democratic party emails.Kilimnik worked for over a decade in Ukraine with Paul Manafort, Trump's campaign manager. In 2016 Manafort met with Kilimnik, discussed how Trump might beat Hillary Clinton, and gave the Russian spy internal polling data. The committee said it couldn't "reliably determine" why Manafort handed over this information, or what exactly Kilimnik did with it.It describes Manafort's willingness to pass on confidential material to alleged Moscow agents as a "grave counterintelligence threat". The report dubs Kilimnik part of "a cadre of individuals ostensibly operating outside of the Russian government but who nonetheless implement Kremlin-directed influence operations". It adds that key oligarchs including Oleg Deripaska fund these operations, together with the Kremlin.The investigation found that Kilimnik tweets under the pseudonym Petro Baranenko (@PBaranenko). The account regularly propagates Moscow's line on international issues, such as the conflict in Ukraine and the downing of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17.The fact that a Republican-controlled Senate panel established a direct connection between the Trump campaign and Russian intelligence makes it harder for Trump and his supporters to allege that the investigation into possible collusion was a "witch-hunt" or "hoax" as the president has repeatedly claimed, in the remaining three months before the election.The Republican-controlled Senate panel said it was hampered in its search for the truth by the fact that Kilimnik and Manafort kept their communications secret. They used burner phones, encrypted chat services, and frequently changed email accounts. They also messaged via a shared email draft. The committee is dismissive of the dossier by the ex-MI6 officer Christopher Steele, which alleged that the Kremlin had been cultivating Donald Trump for at least five years, but stops short of offering an opinion on whether the allegations within it are true. That dossier contained an allegation that Russia spied on Trump during a visit to Moscow in November 2013 and filmed him in his private suite at the Ritz-Carlton hotel with two prostitutes. Trump strenuously denies the claim.However, the Senate report offers the most compelling account yet of what went on inside the hotel. It alleges that a suspected Russian intelligence officer is stationed permanently in the building and presides over a "network" of security cameras, some of them hidden inside guest rooms. The officer's agency is redacted, but is likely to be the FSB, the spy agency Vladimir Putin headed, in charge of counter-intelligence.The report says: "The committee found that the Ritz Carlton in Moscow is a high counterintelligence risk environment. The committee assesses that the hotel likely has at least one permanent Russian intelligence officer on staff, government surveillance of guests' rooms, and the regular presence of a large number of prostitutes, likely with at least the tacit approval of Russian authorities.It adds: "According to two former employees of the Ritz Carlton in Moscow, in 2013 there was at least one [redacted] officer permanently stationed at the hotel. This non-uniformed officer was believed to be a [redacted] and had access to the hotel's property management system, guest portfolios and notations, as well as the network of "hundreds" of security cameras at the hotel."The [redacted] was believed to be able to monitor the camera feeds from his office."The committee, which spent three years taking evidence for its report, also examined previous trips by Trump to Russia. It says that during a 1996 visit, Trump attended a party for a group of American investors at the Baltschug Kempinski hotel. The party was arranged by David Geovanis, a Moscow-based businessman who the report says has links to the Russian security services.The report notes: "In some circles of the US expatriate business community in Moscow, it has been common for visiting businessmen to be taken to nightclubs or parties where prostitutes are present. It is likely that Russian security or intelligence services capitalize on those opportunities to collect information."During the 1990s and into the 2000s, David Geovanis developed a reputation in Moscow, in part as a host for visiting businessmen."It goes on to say that Trump "may have begun a brief relationship with a Russian woman" he met at the Geovanis party. Her name is blacked out. One source of the information is Theodore Liebman, an architect who lived in Moscow and New York in the 1990s, and who travelled to Russia with Trump to the event. Geovanis has spoken to journalists and is reluctant to visit the US, the committee notes.It describes the Russian government's overall operation in support of Trump in 2016 as "aggressive and multi-faceted". The language echoes that of Mueller, who called Moscow's meddling "sweeping and systematic". But in many places the committee is more damning, suggesting a high level of coordination between the Trump campaign and Russian intermediaries.The report says that Trump's close friend Roger Stone was working closely with WikiLeaks in summer 2016. It suggests Stone was briefing Trump in real time, and that the Trump campaign was shaping its messages ahead of releases by WikiLeaks of Democratic emails stolen in Moscow by GRU state hackers.It says: "Trump and senior campaign officials sought to obtain advance information about WikiLeaks's planned releases through Roger Stone. At their direction, Stone took action to gain inside knowledge for the campaign and shared his purported knowledge directly with Trump and senior campaign officials on multiple occasions."Trump believed Stone was getting "inside information" from WikiLeaks, the committee said, adding that it wasn't able to establish if this was indeed the case. It also said it was "implausible" that Trump's foreign policy aide George Papadopoulos – who learned of the hack in April 2016 – did not pass this information on to the Trump campaign.Scott Horton, a lecturer at Columbia law school, said on Tuesday the Senate committee's report "confirms nearly everything" about Trump's ties to Moscow. He said it vindicated claims by the Democrats and others that the campaign had indeed colluded with the Russians – something Trump has vehemently denied."The committee offers a much deeper view into the intelligence collected by US authorities than does the much sketchier Mueller report. It will support the view that Mueller, far from exonerating Trump, simply expected to pass the baton to Congress to conduct deeper inquiries." Manafort was convicted in 2018 and 2019 of multiple counts of money laundering and bank and tax fraud, as well as obstruction of justice. The charges related to his lobbying work in Ukraine. In May he was allowed out of jail, where he was serving a 90-month sentence, because of the risk of contracting Covid-19.In February a court sentenced Stone to 40 months in prison for lying to investigators and witness tampering – only for Trump to commute his sentence in July, days before he was due to report to prison.A new poll published by the Pew Research Center on Tuesday found that 75% of Americans now expect Russian or other foreign interference in the November election, and a diminishing percentage (47% compared with 55% two years ago) are confident the administration will make "serious efforts" to protect the election from hacking and other external threats.
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| Ballot drop boxes seen as a way to bypass the post office Posted: 18 Aug 2020 12:16 PM PDT  With the Trump administration openly trying to undermine mail-in voting this fall, some election officials around the country are hoping to bypass the Postal Service by installing lots of ballot drop boxes in libraries, community centers and other public places. Such boxes have been used with success for several years in states like Oregon, Washington and Colorado that rely largely or entirely on ballots that must be sent in. State or local authorities in places such as Arizona, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania are pressing for more boxes or drop-off sites that would enable ballots to reach election officials without going through the mail.
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| Israeli court: Damascus Bibles to stay in National Library Posted: 18 Aug 2020 12:10 PM PDT  A quarter century after Israeli spies, a Canadian activist and a Syrian rabbi smuggled nine rare medieval Jewish manuscripts out of Damascus, an Israeli court decided the books will remain under the National Library's custodianship for their preservation. The decision ends a protracted legal battle over the ownership of the Damascus Crowns, illuminated Bibles written on parchment that belonged to the Syrian capital's Jewish community for centuries until they were secreted to Israel in the 1990s. The best way to do so would be to keep them at the National Library under a public trust, it ruled.
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| She Was a Communist Party Insider in China. Then She Denounced Xi. Posted: 18 Aug 2020 11:57 AM PDT  During her career teaching at the Communist Party's top academy, Cai Xia cheered on signs that China's leaders might ease their political grip, making her an uncommonly prominent voice for democratic change near the heart of the party.Now Cai has turned her back on such hopes, and the party has turned against her. She has become the latest intellectual punished for challenging the hard-line policies of the current leader, Xi Jinping.The Central Party School in Beijing, where Cai taught for 15 years until 2012, announced Monday that she had been expelled from the Communist Party after she denounced both the party and Xi in recent speeches and essays."This party has become a political zombie," she had said in a talk that circulated online last month, apparently spurring the party school to take action. "This system, fundamentally speaking, has to be jettisoned."In an interview from the United States, where she has lived since last year, Cai quoted from a copy of the party school's internal decision that said she had "maliciously smeared the image of the party and the country, and rabidly insulted the party and state leader.""Cai Xia's attitude has been vile," the party school said, "and she showed not the slightest contrition for her erroneous statements."Cai returned fire, accusing Xi of undermining China's prospects for peaceful democratization and recklessly alienating the United States and other powers.Xi "bears a great deal of culpability," Cai said during the long, sometimes tearful interview Tuesday about her evolution from party insider to apostate. "But for one person to do ill over a long time, and for the whole party to not utter a word, that clearly shows that the party's system and bodies have big problems."Cai, 67, is among a cluster of Chinese dissenters who have recently decried Xi's policies, including his handling of the coronavirus outbreak and imposition of a national security law on Hong Kong.Two of those critics, Xu Zhangrun and Ren Zhiqiang, already faced retribution last month. Xu, a law professor, was detained for a few days and dismissed from his post at Tsinghua University in Beijing. Ren, a once well-connected property developer, was expelled from the party, accused of corruption and put under criminal investigation after he derided Xi's handling of the coronavirus crisis.Incensed by the treatment of Xu and Ren, Cai has spoken out in their defense."They have persecuted Xu Zhangrun by ruining his reputation, humiliating his dignity, stripping him of his right to work and cutting off his livelihood," she wrote in an essay published by Radio Free Asia last month. "This is openly intimidating all in the Chinese scholarly community, inside and outside the system."Such vocal critics are few in China, where censorship and political pressure have intensified under Xi. But bigger numbers of disgruntled liberals are quietly waiting for a crisis that could shake Xi's power, said Deng Yuwen, a former editor at Study Times, a newspaper issued by the Central Party School. The academy trains rising officials in political doctrine, party history and other subjects."Based on my observations, a considerable number of reformists inside the party are despairing, like Cai Xia," Deng said in a telephone interview from the United States, where he now lives. "But for the most part they put the blame on Xi Jinping and are waiting for some kind of error by Xi to reinvigorate reformist forces within the party."It could be a long wait. Not even the coronavirus, which spread after local officials held back information about early cases, appears to have badly hurt Xi's standing.Many Chinese people say they are pleased that their country is emerging from the pandemic relatively well compared with other countries that have struggled. Many also support the government's imposition of the sweeping national security law on Hong Kong."No matter how Cai Xia defines freedom of speech, I think that as a retired party school professor, she should defend the leadership of the country by the party," Hu Xijin, an editor in Beijing who often echoes party views, said in an online comment Tuesday. "Now when the United States is aiming an offensive against the Chinese Communist Party, as a party member, she should not, objectively speaking, stand on the side of the attacker."In the interview, Cai argued that in the longer term, Xi's policies would push China toward a political crisis by isolating the country and extinguishing domestic hopes for orderly economic and political relaxation.She said that she supported the tough line that the Trump administration has taken against the Chinese government on trade and other issues, even if she had qualms about some of its tactics. And she maintained that China's harsh measures to suppress the spread of the coronavirus had become a drive to spread surveillance into every corner of society.After Xi abolished a term limit on the Chinese presidency in 2018, in effect opening the way for an extended stay in power, Cai told a party school official that such a move would hurt China's international image, she said."I said, 'You are forcing Western countries into a showdown with us,'" she recalled.Cai was raised in a family steeped in Communist values in eastern China. For a decade, she was one of the most well-known scholars at the Central Party School.Under Jiang Zemin, the leader who brought China into the World Trade Organization in 2001, Cai promoted Jiang's opening of the party to more businesspeople and professionals. Then and later, she often appeared in the Chinese news media, arguing that the party could be a vehicle for steady political and economic liberalization.In private, Cai said, she became increasingly frustrated with party leaders' unwillingness to match economic changes with political ones. She was disheartened by the dour authoritarian ways of Jiang's successor, Hu Jintao, then even more alarmed by the draconian turn of Xi, who took power in 2012, after Hu.Cai said that the incident that broke her waning faith in the party was not a great crisis, but the government's handling of the death of Lei Yang, a Chinese environmentalist who died in police custody in 2016. The police accused him of hiring prostitutes, a claim that Cai and other supporters said was slander aimed at diluting public anger over his death."That incident left me totally disillusioned," she said, pausing to choke back tears. "Their methods were despicable to an extreme that surpassed anything we could imagine."Cai faces daunting uncertainties in her new home in the United States. The party school cut off her pension and other retirement benefits, and she said she would probably be detained if she returned to China. But she said she felt relieved that now she could fully speak her mind."In my own mind, I've long wanted to resign from the party," she said. "Now that they've expelled me, I'm really happy, because at last I've regained my freedom."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| More eggs harvested from last 2 northern white rhinos Posted: 18 Aug 2020 10:56 AM PDT  An international team of scientists said they successfully extracted eggs from the last two remaining northern white rhinos, a step on the way to possibly saving the subspecies from extinction. Ten eggs were harvested from the female rhinos at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya. The harvested eggs — the third round to be taken from the two females since August 2019 - were immediately flown to the Avantea Laboratory in Italy to be artificially inseminated with frozen sperm from now-deceased northern white rhino bulls.
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| Global Electric Bikes Industry Posted: 18 Aug 2020 10:52 AM PDT |
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| UN Security Council discusses disputed Belarus vote, protests Posted: 18 Aug 2020 10:42 AM PDT  The United Nations Security Council held a discussion on Belarus Tuesday in which members were urged to do everything they can to stop the crisis from escalating.
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| Iran denies Taliban were paid bounties to target US troops Posted: 18 Aug 2020 10:39 AM PDT |
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| Egypt’s lawmakers approve maritime deal with Greece Posted: 18 Aug 2020 09:42 AM PDT |
| Teens struggle to balance school, family, work amid COVID-19 Posted: 18 Aug 2020 09:31 AM PDT  With her baby brother in her arms, Kara Apuzzo tried to follow along in an online class as he squirmed or slept. Other times, the 18-year-old rushed to get ready for work at a front-line job at Target as her virtual high school lessons were still wrapping up. Before the coronavirus pandemic, Apuzzo, who lives in New Haven, Connecticut, knew she wanted to go to college right after high school.
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| Officials say Israel, Sudan close to peace agreement Posted: 18 Aug 2020 09:21 AM PDT  Israel and Sudan on Tuesday said they are close to reaching a peace agreement — setting the stage for a possible second dramatic diplomatic breakthrough for Israel with its Arab neighbors in a matter of days. A Sudanese Foreign Ministry official announced that his government is "looking forward to concluding a peace agreement with Israel," drawing a pledge from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to "do all that's needed" to wrap up a deal. The announcements came days after Israel and the United Arab Emirates announced an agreement to establish formal diplomatic ties.
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| Global Flexible Pipes Industry Posted: 18 Aug 2020 09:12 AM PDT |
| Wearable Medical Devices Market Worth $139,353.6 Million by 2026, at 24.7% CAGR; Superior Treatment & Diagnostic Outcomes to Spur Demand, Fortune Business Insights™ Posted: 18 Aug 2020 08:58 AM PDT |
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| Israeli leader denies weaponry linked to peace deal with UAE Posted: 18 Aug 2020 08:45 AM PDT |
| Merkel rules out easing coronavirus rules as German cases spike Posted: 18 Aug 2020 08:20 AM PDT  Chancellor Angela Merkel warned on Tuesday there could be no further relaxation of coronavirus restrictions while Germany grapples with a surge in new infections.
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| German media accuses Merkel of 'scare tactics' as she warns crisis is not over Posted: 18 Aug 2020 07:50 AM PDT  Germany's highest-selling newspaper has accused Angela Merkel's government of "scare tactics" in its handling of the coronavirus crisis. Even as Mrs Merkel called on Germans to follow restrictions amid concerns over rising infections on Tuesday, Bild newspaper accused her government of "damaging the country" with its warnings of a second wave. "This has nothing to do with reality. There is no sign of the much-invoked 'second wave' in hospitals. The hospitalisation rate is lower than ever. So put an end to the scare tactics!" the newspaper wrote in an editorial. "It is not the task of those in power to fuel fear, but to ensure normality. This mood of alarm is damaging our country." So far Germans have united behind Mrs Merkel's handling of the crisis, and the veteran chancellor has seen her popularity restored to the heights she enjoyed before the 2015 migrant crisis. But the criticism from Bild may be a sign that the mood is changing amid warnings of new restrictions. Mrs Merkel used a visit to western Germany on Tuesday to warn that the crisis is not over. "We are in the middle of the pandemic. The virus is still there even if it is not visible. There is no vaccine yet, nor is there a drug," she told a press conference.
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| In a first, Oman's sultan names foreign, finance ministers Posted: 18 Aug 2020 07:43 AM PDT  Oman's sultan on Tuesday named foreign and finance ministers for the first time, putting officials in positions long wielded by his late predecessor. Sultan Haitham bin Tariq Al Said also issued 28 decrees renaming and reorganizing ministries in a nation he took over in January, following the death of longtime ruler Sultan Qaboos bin Said, who died after 50 years in power. Previously, Sultan Qaboos held the position of foreign minister, with Yusuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah serving as a minister of state for foreign affairs.
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| Mauritius oil spill: MV Wakashio captain arrested Posted: 18 Aug 2020 07:40 AM PDT  Crew members say there was a birthday party on the ship the day it ran aground, according to police.
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| EU leaders urge Putin to push for talks in Belarus over disputed vote Posted: 18 Aug 2020 07:35 AM PDT  European leaders urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to push for dialogue in neighbouring Belarus on Tuesday as opposition supporters protested President Alexander Lukashenko's disputed election win for a 10th day.
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| Trump campaign's Russia contacts 'grave' threat, Senate says Posted: 18 Aug 2020 07:23 AM PDT  The Trump campaign's interactions with Russian intelligence services during the 2016 presidential election posed a "grave" counterintelligence threat, a Senate panel concluded Tuesday as it detailed how associates of Donald Trump had regular contact with Russians and expected to benefit from the Kremlin's help. The nearly 1,000-page report, the fifth and final one from the Republican-led Senate intelligence committee on the Russia investigation, details how Russia launched an aggressive effort to interfere in the election on Trump's behalf. It says the Trump campaign chairman had regular contact with a Russian intelligence officer and says other Trump associates were eager to exploit the Kremlin's aid, particularly by maximizing the impact of the disclosure of Democratic emails hacked by Russian intelligence officers.
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| Lebanon's Hariri: punishment must be served after U.N.-backed tribunal verdict Posted: 18 Aug 2020 07:15 AM PDT |
