Новини

U.N. rights experts called on British authorities Friday to allow WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to leave the Ecuador embassy in London without fear of arrest or extradition.

The U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention reiterated its finding published in February 2016 that Assange had been de facto unlawfully held without charge in the embassy, where he has now been holed up for more than six years.

He initially took asylum to avoid being extradited to Sweden, where authorities wanted to question him as part of a sexual assault investigation. That investigation was dropped.

Bail violation

Assange, whose website published thousands of classified U.S. government documents, denied the Sweden allegations, saying the charge was a ploy that would eventually take him to the United States where prosecutors are preparing to pursue a criminal case against him.

Britain says Assange will be arrested for skipping bail if he leaves the embassy, but that any sentence would not exceed six months, if convicted. It had no immediate comment on the experts’ call, but in June, foreign office minister Alan Duncan said Assange would be treated humanely and properly.

“The only ground remaining for Mr. Assange’s continued deprivation of liberty is a bail violation in the UK, which is, objectively, a minor offense that cannot post facto justify the more than six years confinement that he has been subjected to since he sought asylum in the Embassy of Ecuador,” the U.N. experts said in a statement.

“It is time that Mr. Assange, who has already paid a high price for peacefully exercising his rights to freedom of opinion, expression and information, and to promote the right to truth in the public interest, recovers his freedom,” they said.

​Ecuador rules

Lawyers for Assange and others have said his work with WikiLeaks was critical to a free press and was protected speech.

The experts voiced concern that his “deprivation of liberty” was undermining his health and could “endanger his life” given the disproportionate amount of anxiety that has entailed.

Ecuador in October imposed new rules requiring him to receive routine medical exams, following concern he was not getting the medical attention he needed. The rules also ordered him to pay medical and phone bills and clean up after his cat.

Assange has sued Ecuador, arguing the rules violate his rights. An Ecuadorean court on Friday upheld a prior ruling dismissing Assange’s suit.

“We have lost again,” said Carlos Povedo, Assange’s attorney in Ecuador, adding that the legal team would consider bringing a case to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.
…

British police have made two arrests in connection with their investigation into the drone incursions that have hampered operations at Gatwick Airport for three days.

Sussex police said in a statement early Saturday that the arrests were made late Friday, but the statement did not reveal the names or ages of the detainees.

The statement said the investigation is “still ongoing and our activities at the airport continue to build resilience to detect and mitigate further incursions from drones, by deploying a range of tactics.”

The closing down of the runway at Britain’s second largest airport because of the sightings has disrupted flights and has affected hundreds of thousands of passengers.

Gatwick shut down late Wednesday after the first drone sightings and reopened on a limited basis Friday. By Friday afternoon, however, flights were suspended again, following reports of additional drone sightings. Later Friday, the airport’s runway reopened.

“We continue to urge the public, passengers and the wider community around Gatwick to be vigilant and support us by contacting us immediately if they believe they have any information that can help us in bringing those responsible to justice,” the Sussex police said.

Sussex Police Superintendent Justin Burtenshaw said the number of drone sightings at Gatwick has been “unprecedented.”

Gatwick, 45 kilometers (28 miles) south of London, is Britain’s second largest airport. Its shutdowns have affected flights at London’s main airport, Heathrow, as well as other hubs across Europe.

More than 43 million passengers a year travel through Gatwick.
…

Voters who went to the polls last month in the United States’ midterm elections can rest assured that their votes were registered and counted properly.

However, a new report by the U.S. intelligence community concluded Americans were subjected to ongoing influence operations and disinformation campaigns by several countries, a finding that could trigger automatic sanctions.

“The activity we did see was consistent with what we shared in the weeks leading up to the election,” Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats said in a statement late Friday.

“Russia, and other foreign countries, including China and Iran, conducted influence activities and messaging campaigns targeted at the United States to promote their strategic interests,” he added.

Early signs were there

In the months leading up to the November vote, intelligence and security officials, and analysts had expressed concerns that countries like Russia and even non-state actors might seek to physically compromise U.S. voting systems.

But the fears, based on evidence Russian hackers had accessed some U.S. state and local systems, such as voter databases, in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election did not play out according to the new assessment.

“At this time, the intelligence community does not have intelligence reporting that indicates any compromise of our nation’s election infrastructure that would have prevented voting, changed vote counts, or disrupted the ability to tally votes,” Coats said.

The report, required under an executive order signed by President Donald Trump in September, supports the initial assessment by Homeland Security officials the day of the election and in the weeks that followed.

“There were no indications at the time of any foreign compromises of election equipment that would disrupt the ability to cast or count a vote,” Christopher Krebs, director of the DHS’ Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said a week after voters went to the polls.

Report could spur new sanctions

The new report now goes to the U.S. attorney general and to the Department of Homeland Security, which have 45 days to review the findings. Should they concur with the intelligence community’s assessment, Russia, China and Iran could be slapped with new sanctions.

Those measures could include blocking access to property and interests, restricting access to the U.S. financial system, prohibiting investment in companies found to be involved, and even prohibiting individuals from entering the United States.

Additionally, the president’s executive order authorizes the State Department and the Treasury Department to add additional sanctions, if deemed necessary.

But as in the aftermath of the 2016 election, when the CIA and FBI concluded with “high confidence” that Russia sought to undermine confidence in the U.S. electoral process and help then-candidate Donald Trump win election, gauging the success of the 2018 meddling efforts is difficult.

“We did not make an assessment of the impact that these activities had on the outcome of the 2018 election,” Coats cautioned in his statement. “The U.S. intelligence community is charged with monitoring and assessing the intentions, capabilities and actions of foreign actors; it does not analyze U.S. political processes or U.S. public opinion.”

‘Witch hunt’

That impact will likely be debated in U.S. political circles, fueled in part by the president’s own attacks against the ongoing special counsel investigation into Russia’s activities and into possible collusion with Trump’s own campaign staff.

Trump has repeatedly dismissed the investigation as a “witch hunt.”

Still, some lawmakers see the new intelligence community assessment as reason to act.

“The Russians did not go away after the 2016 election,” Sen. Mark Warner, vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a statement.

Warner, who previously criticized the president’s executive order for failing to lay out strong, clear consequences for election meddling, said it was no surprise China and Iran tried to manipulate American voters, and that the problem will only get worse.

“We’re going to see more and more adversaries trying to take advantage of the openness of our society to sow division and attempt to manipulate Americans,” he added. “Congress has to step up and enact some much-needed guardrails on social media, and companies need to work with us so that we can update our laws to better protect against attacks on our democracy.”

Executive order praised

Former officials have urged patience, praising the executive order as a good start and cautioning it will take time to see how well it works.

“I don’t know that it will be a complete solution,” said Sean Kanuck, a former intelligence officer for cyber issues, said when the order was first introduced. “I doubt it will completely change the incentive-cost-benefit analysis of the other side.”

Even after the executive order was unveiled, U.S. officials, as well as social media companies, continued to turn up evidence that Russia and others tried to meddle in the 2018 U.S. midterm election.

In October, the U.S. Justice Department unsealed an indictment against 44-year-old Elena Alekseevna Khusyaynova, 44, of St. Petersburg, charging her with helping to finance disinformation campaigns on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, targeting both Republican and Democratic voters.

As with previous efforts, the accounts were designed to make it appear as though they belonged to American political activists and some managed to generate tens of thousands of followers.

Later that month, Facebook said it had removed 82 accounts, pages or groups from its site and from Instagram that originated in Iran and targeted liberal U.S. voters.

But U.S. officials and experts have also warned that the heavy focus on social media and influence campaigns, and the lack of evidence of tampering with U.S. voting systems and databases, should not be seen as a victory.

Saving ‘best tricks for 2020’

They say that just as the U.S. has hardened its systems against attacks and intrusions, cyber adversaries like Russia have been watching and learning, with their eyes perhaps on a much more significant target.

“The Russians were going to save their best tricks for 2020,” said William Carter, deputy director, Technology Policy Program, Center for Strategic and International Studies, predicted in the days before the U.S. midterm elections in November.

“They’re going to let us chase our tails in 2018 and look for them where they’re not,” he added.
…

Thousands of pro-independence protesters angry about Spain’s Cabinet holding a meeting in Catalonia blocked roads across the region Friday and clashed with anti-riot police in its capital.

Grassroots separatist groups and unions called the protests to show their disgust at Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s decision to lead his weekly Cabinet meeting in Barcelona.

The Catalan regional government, formed by a coalition of pro-secession parties, is also supporting peaceful protests despite an agreement with central authorities to find a way out of the political crisis that has festered since Catalonia’s failed secession attempt last year.

After their encounter on Thursday, the second since both took power earlier this year, Sanchez and Catalan President Quim Torra issued a joint statement calling for dialogue to settle the conflict over the future of the northeastern region.

That outcome was beyond the low expectations that had been placed before the talks, when disagreement over their scope and format kept officials negotiating until the very last minute. Sanchez, who inherited the Catalan crisis when he toppled his conservative predecessor in June, made mending relations with the prosperous region one of his priorities.

But despite the progress, distrust prevailed. Security in the prosperous northeastern region, normally in the hands of the Catalan police, was reinforced with hundreds of anti-riot officers sent by Spain’s national police forces for Friday’s ministers’ meeting.

“It is a provocation,” said Oriol Benet, a 24-year-old pharmacist who joined others marching near the headquarters of the National Police in Barcelona.

Spanish television broadcast live Sanchez’ walk from his hotel to the 14th-century Gothic palace in downtown Barcelona. It was an attempt to display a sense of everydayness and normalcy but instead showed the prime minister walking through empty streets heavily guarded by police.

Meters away a crowd of mostly young protesters jeered “Go away! Go away!” Police charged to keep them at bay when they moved trash containers and tried to break the double security cordon shielding the meeting’s venue. Larger clashes erupted around midday.

The regional Mossos d’Esquadra police force said that one of four protesters arrested for public order offenses carried material to manufacture Molotov cocktails.

In the northern province of Girona, a main highway was blocked with tires and barricades, and at least a dozen more roads saw disruptions according to the regional transit authorities.

Carrying a banner calling for the release of nine jailed Catalan politicians and activists who face a rebellion trial, Carme Almarza said she didn’t trust the politicians’ agreement. “Not until I see the prisoners freed,” the 52-year old social worker said.

“Any chance to talk is good,” said Carlos Castilla, watching from a distance how protesters launched smoke bombs. “It is clear the status quo doesn’t work, they agreed on that. I think the answer is more self-government and that Catalonia manages its own finances.”

Sanchez, who has been harshly criticized by the right-wing opposition for his meeting with Torra, has presented the meeting in Barcelona as “a way of showing affection to Catalonia.”

The cabinet is expected to rename the Barcelona airport in honor of Josep Tarradellas, who headed the Catalan government in exile during Gen. Francisco Franco’s dictatorship, and raise the country’s monthly minimum wage from 736 to 900 euros ($1,019).

Sanchez, whose minority government controls only a quarter of the national parliament, hopes that the plan’s social spending will make it difficult for Catalan separatist parties to reject his 2019 budget in a vote scheduled for January.

 
…

Pope Francis has called on the church’s predator priests who have sexually abused children to turn themselves in.

Speaking Friday in his annual address to the Roman Catholic Church’s governing Curia at the Vatican, Francis said, “To those who abuse minors I would say this: convert and hand yourself over to human justice and prepare for divine justice.”

The Catholic church has been rocked in recent years by a worldwide sexual child abuse scandal that it has seemingly covered up for decades.

“It is undeniable that some in the past, out of irresponsibility, disbelief, lack of training, inexperience, or spiritual and human short-sightedness, treated many cases without the seriousness and promptness that was due,” Francis said.  “This must never happen again.”

Francis, the leader of the world’s more than one billion Roman Catholics, said predator priests “perform abominable acts yet continue to exercise their ministry as if nothing had happened.  They have no fear of God or his judgement, but only of being found out and unmasked.”

He added,  “Often behind their boundless amiability, impeccable activity and angelic faces, they shamelessly conceal a vicious wolf ready to devour innocent souls.”

Bishops, leaders of religious organizations and experts are set to participate in a conference at the Vatican in February about the sexual abuse crisis.

Some victims are hopeful the conference will finally establish a clear policy that makes bishops accountable for the mishandling of sexual abuse cases.
…

Britain’s second busiest airport reopened on a limited basis Friday.

Gatwick Airport shut down late Wednesday after drone sightings forced officials to cancel flights, disrupting the travel plans of hundreds of thousands of holiday travelers.

Chris Woodroofe, Gatwick’s chief operating officer, advised passengers to “check with their airline on each of those flights that they’re intending to get, to establish whether it’s one of the flights that’s being operated or one of the flights that’s being canceled, before they come to the airport.”

Threat of collision

Sussex Police Chief Steve Barry said the number of drone sightings at Gatwick has been “unprecedented,” but police have “a number of options” to help to deal with the disruptions.

Woodroofe told the BBC’s Today Program that the situation at Gatwick has highlighted that airports are ill-prepared to deal with drones.

Sussex Police Superintendent Justin Burtenshaw said earlier this week, “Each time we believe we get close to the operator, the drone disappears. When we look to reopen the airfield, the drone reappears.” He said the newer-generation drones are bigger and have more range, making it harder for police to locate the person controlling the device.

Police said while they have no doubt the intrusion was a deliberate attempt to disrupt operations, there were “absolutely no indications to suggest this is terror-related.”​

Thousands affected

The shutdown at Gatwick, located about 45 kilometers south of London, affected flights at London’s main airport, Heathrow, as well as other hubs across Europe. Authorities diverted all incoming flights to alternate destinations, while all outgoing flights were grounded.

More than 43 million passengers a year travel through Gatwick.

Authorities haven’t released details about the drones being used except to characterize them as meeting “industrial specifications.”

The motive for the drone use isn’t clear. Police say there is no indication it is “terror related.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
…

A major earthquake with a magnitude of 7.4 struck off Russia’s far east on Thursday, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) said, although Russian news agencies carried no immediate reports of damage from the sparsely populated area.

The quake off Russia’s Kamchatka peninsula, which was initially measured at 7.8 before being revised downwards, struck 82 km (55 miles) west of Nikolskoye at a depth of 9 km, it said.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said hazardous tsunami waves from the earthquake were possible within 300 kilometers of the epicentre along the coasts of Russia.

 
…

U.S. President Donald Trump has urged Serbia and Kosovo to secure a “historic” deal that would bring “long-sought” peace to the Balkan region — a sign that Washington is willing to take a more active role in mediating between the two wartime foes.

The office of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic on Thursday published a letter he received from Trump, in which the U.S. president says, “I encourage you to seize this moment and to exercise the political leadership in making decisions needed to balance the interests of both countries.”

“It would be extremely regrettable to miss this unique opportunity for peace, security, and economic growth,” Trump said.

Kosovo President Hashim Thaci received a similar letter from Trump.

Kosovo broke away from Serbia after a 1998-99 war and NATO intervention that stopped a bloody Serbian crackdown against Kosovo Albanian separatists. In 2008, Kosovo unilaterally declared independence which is recognized by the U.S. and most of the West, but not by Serbia and its allies Russia and China.

Belgrade has warned of an armed intervention after Kosovo made moves toward creating an army earlier this month.

Serbia and Kosovo have been conducting EU-mediated talks aimed at normalizing relations, but with little headway. Trump’s letter appears to be an attempt by Washington to take a role in the mediation after showing little interest in tensions in the Balkans since he assumed the presidency.

Trump said in the letter that the U.S. stands ready to assist and that he is looking forward to hosting the two presidents in the White House “to celebrate what would be an historic accord.”

“An agreement between Serbia and Kosovo is within reach,” Trump said.
…

Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed support for a surprise White House decision to pull 2,000 U.S. troops out of Syria, calling their presence there illegitimate and an impediment to peace in the region.

Addressing a record 1,700 journalists at his 14th annual end-of-year marathon press conference Thursday, Putin said he agreed with President Donald Trump’s assessment that Islamic State had largely been defeated on the ground in Syria.

“Donald is right, I agree with him [about that],” he said, stating that radical militants still holding small parts of northern Syria had suffered at least a “serious blow” over the past year.

“I don’t think the [U.S. forces] are needed there,” Putin said. “And let’s not forget that the presence of [U.S.] troops there is illegitimate. The U.S. is there without backing from the United Nations or an invitation from the Syrian government. Russia is there at the invitation of the Syrian government. But if the U.S. has decided to withdraw, that’s good.”

The U.S. has justified its military presence in Syria to combat the Islamic State as part of its global war on terrorism.

Putin then expressed skepticism about whether the U.S. withdrawal from Syria will actually happen.

“We don’t yet see any signs yet of the withdrawal of U.S. troops,” he said. “And how long has the U.S. been in Afghanistan? 17 years? And almost every year they say they’re pulling out their troops.”

On Wednesday, Russian state media outlets reported that Russia’s Foreign Ministry called a prospective U.S. withdrawal auspicious for a political settlement of the seven-year-old crisis.

The ministry also said an initiative to form a Syrian constitutional committee had better prospects for success without a U.S. presence in the region.

Fueling Trump’s critics

The Kremlin’s reception of Wednesday’s White House announcement provided rhetorical ammunition to U.S. critics of Trump’s decision, which even a few of Trump’s congressional allies called chaotic and misguided.

“Withdrawal of this small American force in Syria would be a huge Obama-like mistake,” tweeted Senate Armed Services Committee member Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.

“I found someone who is supportive of the decision to retreat from #Syria,” tweeted Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio in a post that linked to a Russian embassy statement of support for Trump’s decision.

“[Trump] is sliding another big gift under Vladimir Putin’s Christmas tree,” said Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas.

Analysts say up to 30,000 IS militants remain active in Iraq and Syria, and that Trump’s decision appears to have been made without the support or knowledge of top Pentagon officials.
…

The European Commission says it has started to implement plans for a no-deal Brexit — in preparation for Britain crashing out of the European Union without a withdrawal deal — which would dislocate manufacturers’ supply chains, disrupt air-travel, and gridlock busy seaports on both sides of the English Channel.

With just 100 days to go before Britain’s scheduled departure on March 29, the Conservative government of Theresa May is also accelerating arrangements for a chaotic “no-deal Brexit,” ordering all ministries to shelve non-essential business and to divert staff to focus on contingency planning.

Both the British government and Brussels are trying to offset the impact of a possible no-deal Brexit on business, as well as on their citizens, but acknowledge there will be severe disruption.  

The acceleration of “no-deal” planning in London and Brussels follows last week’s testy meeting between Theresa May and the leaders of the other 27 EU countries, in which May was firmly rebuffed in her bid to reopen negotiations on a withdrawal agreement.

The leaders held out little hope of offering any legal assurances that would help May sell the 585-page deal to unenthusiastic British lawmakers.  

Analysts said there is little evidence May will be able to squeeze anything out of the bloc that would substantially alter the political dynamic in London, where a majority of the House of Commons is opposed to May’s Brexit deal.

Long negotiated agreement

May’s deal, which was negotiated after almost two years of ill-tempered haggling between British and EU negotiators, tries to square the circle between Britons who want to remain in the EU, or closely tied to it, and Brexiters.

The proposed deal would see Britain locked in a customs union with the European Union for several years while it negotiates a more permanent, but vaguely defined, free trade settlement with its largest trading partner.  

In the temporary customs union, Britain would be unable to influence EU laws, regulations and product standards it would have to observe. It would not be able to implement free trade deals with non-EU countries.

The transition was reached to avoid customs checks on the border separating Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic, but British lawmakers fear Britain could be trapped indefinitely in the transition.

Britain’s main business groups Wednesday warned there is not sufficient time to plan for the repercussions of the country leaving without any withdrawal agreement and says hundreds of thousands of companies have not yet even started preparing for the consequences. 

“Businesses have been watching in horror as politicians have focused on factional disputes rather than practical steps that business needs,” said Britain’s Chambers of Commerce in a statement along with four other major employer groups.

Big disruptions 

The European Commission’s measures announced Wednesday are designed to limit disruption in several sectors, including finance, transport and data protection. “These measures will not — and cannot — mitigate the overall impact of a no-deal’ scenario,” it said in a statement.

“This is an exercise in damage limitation,” said European Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis during a news conference. 

Unveiling 14 measures, he said a contingency plan had to be done “given the continued uncertainty in the UK.” The 14 measures aim to ensure some continuity for a temporary period, but the Commission has ruled out negotiating any bilateral agreements to replace the temporary measures.

They include allowing British-owned airlines to operate flights in and out of EU countries, but not between them, and recognizing for up to two years British financial-service regulations so British banks, investment houses and insurers can continue to sell their products in EU countries. And British haulers will be allowed to transport freight by road into the EU for a nine-month period without having to apply for special third-country permits. 

But there is no overall plan for what happens to an estimated 1.5 million Britons living and working in Europe. The commission is urging member states to adopt a “generous” approach to their residency rights, but only “provided that this approach is reciprocated” by London in how it handles three million EU citizens living in Britain. 

Britain’s decision to accelerate contingency planning was made during an ill-tempered three-hour Cabinet meeting Tuesday, in which ministers clashed over what to do if May fails next month, as still seems likely, to secure House of Commons approval for her exit deal.

The Cabinet is split between a faction that wants May to call a second Brexit referendum, another that wants Britain to negotiate another deal with Brussels, and a third group that says Britain shouldn’t worry about going it alone and breaking cleanly from the bloc.

Some Conservative lawmakers have warned they will quit the party if May moves towards a no-deal Brexit. Some lawmakers suspect the government is raising the stakes by planning for a no-deal Brexit in order to pressure the House of Commons to approve her withdrawal agreement. 
…