Новини

The Trump administration is slapping more sanctions on Russian officials and entities for election interference and what the Treasury Department calls other “malign activities.”

They include the alleged assassination attempt by poison of a former Russian spy and his daughter in Britain.

“The United States will continue to work with international allies and partners to take their collective action to deter and defend against sustained malign activity by Russia, its proxies, and intelligence agencies,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Wednesday.

Among those sanctioned are 15 military intelligence agents and four government entities, including the Internet Research Agency.

A new report this week prepared for the U.S. Senate says the IRA used every major social media platform to try to influence voters to cast ballots for Donald Trump in 2016, and send misinformation to voters unlikely to back Trump to discourage them from voting.

Those sanctioned Wednesday are also accused of hacking the World Anti-Doping Agency, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, and other nonpolitical agencies.

Two Russian intelligence officers are also sanctioned for allegedly using a chemical agent to poison former Russian agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, last March in Salisbury, England.

Both were hospitalized and survived.

U.S. citizens are barred from doing business with sanctioned individuals or entitles, and any assets they have in the United States are frozen.

Treasury said the Trump administration has so far sanctioned 272 Russians and entities for “a broad range of malign activities.”
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More than 750 million people, or 15 percent of the world’s population, would move permanently to other countries if given the opportunity, and the same percentage are not deterred by talk in a number of political circles about curbing immigration.

These are the findings of a recent Gallup poll, which looked at the desire by people around the world to migrate. Gallup found that the desire to go to another country permanently climbed between 2015 and 2017. This marked an increase of one percent from the period spanning 2013 to 2016. Gallup conducted interviews with close to half a million people in 152 countries for the survey.

Factors and motivation

The reasons that motivate people to want a life away from their home countries remain the same, said Gallup’s global managing partner, Jon Clifton.

“The two biggest things that we see that cause people to want to leave is some sort of crisis within the country. So for example, one of the top 10 countries in the world where people want to leave is Syria; nearly 50 percent of Syrians want to leave the country permanently because they’ve been subjected to war.” 

Clifton said he believed the real percentage in Syria was even higher, but not recorded in the survey, because Gallup was not able to conduct face-to-face interviewing in some areas due to the ongoing conflict. 

“The other reason is economics,” he said. “We see that in a lot of poor countries people want to leave for economic opportunities.”

According to Gallup, Latin America is showing growing trends toward migration, driven to a large extent by lack of economic opportunities and concerns about safety. As an example, he cited oil-rich Venezuela, which has sunk into crisis under President Nicolas Maduro. United Nations’ figures estimate an exodus of around 2 million Venezuelans this year. 

“Everyone is very familiar with what’s been happening in Venezuela. When we ask people if they would like to move permanently, the number is moving in a staggering direction. … So Latin America is a region where people are more likely to leave than they were before. So the trend is going in a certain way that is not helpful to leaders in the region.”

Gallup famine and disaster also continue to drive people from their homes in some parts of the world. The desire to leave for another country increased in a number of areas known for sending migrants. Gallup listed sub-Saharan Africa, the Caribbean, the Middle East and North Africa, in addition to Latin America. Parts of Africa have had to deal with an outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus.

Desired destinations

The survey finds that the countries where potential migrants wish to settle is more or less the same, and share the same characteristics of economic prosperity and rule of law. 

“For the past 13 years that we’ve been doing this, we found that the No. 1 destination for migrants has always been the United States. Despite what policies and what leaders might be saying, people still see that this is one of the best economic opportunities for them in the world,” Clifton said.

U.S. President Donald Trump has said he wants to build a wall along the southern border with Mexico to stop migrants. The issue has been a sticking point in budget negotiations on funding the U.S. federal government.

Clifton said the U.S. is a draw for many potential migrants because they have family members in the country. The Gallup poll said one in five migrants, or 158 million people worldwide, say the U.S. is their desired future home; however, the survey said one in six Americans would like to go to another country — the highest number to date.

Desires versus reality

Gallup’s Clifton notes that the Balkans exhibit high rates of migration desires, which point to increasing dissatisfaction with the situation in their respective countries. He adds that the trend is especially concerning since it’s affecting the youngest and most educated segment of the population.  

“When you have educated people that would like to live in another country and people lacking education that want to move to your country, we see that it’s a real issue in terms of brain drain or lack of brain gain. We see this as a seriously concerning issue for leaders,” Clifton said.

The Gallup survey said in Albania, for example, 60 percent of people surveyed expressed a desire to migrate, marking the highest rates in any European country. Clifton cited dissatisfaction over incomes as well as purchasing power. Other parts of Europe have experienced a migrant crisis in recent years with thousands of refugees and migrants dying while trying to reach the continent, said Gallup.

Separately, Gallup noted that in all regions of Asia, “the percentage of adults who would like to move to another country permanently has remained flat.” 
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French “yellow vest” protesters occupied highway toll booths, setting a number on fire and causing transport chaos in parts of the country just days before the Christmas holidays getaway.

France’s biggest toll road operator, Vinci Autoroutes, said there were demonstrations at about 40 sites along its network and that some highway intersections had been damaged, notably in tourist towns such as Avignon, Orange, Perpignan and Agde.

Protesters set fire overnight to the Bandol toll station, forcing the closure of the A50 highway between Marseille and Toulon, said Vinci, whose network is mainly in southern and western France. The Manosque station was also torched.

Some 20 people were arrested on Tuesday following the blazes, while four others remain in custody following fires on Saturday.

“Motorists should take utmost care as they approach toll gates and motorway access ramps due to the presence of numerous pedestrians,” Vinci said in a statement.

Several people have died in roadside accidents at yellow vest roadblocks in recent weeks, mostly at the many roundabouts blocked by groups of demonstrators.

The “yellow vests” protesters — named after the fluorescent jackets French motorists must have in their cars — have blocked roads and roundabouts across France since mid-November. The demonstrations began as a protest against fuel tax increases, but have morphed into a wider backlash against the liberal economic policies of French President Emmanuel Macron.

Protesters took to the streets of Paris and other cities on Saturday in a fifth weekend of demonstrations, though they were noticeably smaller than in previous weeks after Macron announced tax and salary concessions.

Costly damage

Protesters angry about high fuel costs and new speed limits have also damaged or torched hundreds of traffic radars.

Radars-auto.com estimated that by the middle of last week some 1,600 – about half of all French traffic radars — had been damaged. More than 250 have been entirely destroyed, it said.

The French state will also lose several tens of millions of euros in revenues, it said, adding that in 2017 the radars had yielded on average 84 million euros ($96 million) per month.

The interior ministry declined comment on the number of radars damaged, but said that minor damage cost on average 500 euros per radar to repair, with major damage costing up to 200,000 euros.

Fines for damaging radars can run as high as 75,000 euros. “Even wrapping a radar in plastic or a yellow vest … without destroying it is an offense,” a ministry official said. Vinci estimates the damages since the start of the protests will cost it “several tens of millions” of euros, not including lost revenue, as the protesters have allowed thousands of motorists onto the highways for free.

It dropped a plan to send invoices to motorists who drove through toll booths without paying and whose license plates were captured on cameras following government criticism.

($1 = 0.8792 euros)
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U.S. President Donald Trump has sent a letter to Kosovo counterpart Hashim Thaci urging him to do everything to reach a longstanding deal with Serbia two decades after their war ended, according to Thaci’s official website.

Serbia and its former province of Kosovo, which declared independence in 2008, committed in 2013 to a European Union-sponsored dialogue meant to resolve all unsolved issues but little progress has been made.

“Failure to capitalize on this unique opportunity would be a tragic setback, as another chance for a comprehensive peace is unlikely to occur again soon,” says the text of the letter posted Tuesday on Thaci’s website.

“The United States has invested heavily in the success of Kosovo as an independent, sovereign state,” it said.

In Washington, the White House had no comment. There was no immediate comment from the U.S. Embassy in Kosovo’s capital Pristina.

Serbian-Kosovar tensions rose anew last week when Kosovo’s parliament voted to approve the creation of a 5,000-strong standing army — only a week after Serbia’s premier suggested such a move could provoke military intervention by Belgrade.

In June this year, Thaci said he would seek a solution with Serbia by “correcting borders,” but politicians and analysts in Kosovo said that means land swaps.

But his plan rang alarm bells among Balkan neighbors and some Western governments who saw it as a move to take three Serbian municipalities inhabited mainly by ethnic Albanians, who make up more than 90 percent of Kosovo’s population.

If there would be a land swap, then Serbia would get part of northern Kosovo populated mainly by minority Serbs who refuse to recognize the authority of the Pristina government.

Britain and Germany have said they do not favor border changes, but the United States said if these were agreed by Serbia and Kosovo, it would respect such a deal.

The United Nations Security Council publicly discussed the issues between the two countries and recent tensions on Monday at a meeting attended by the presidents of Serbia and Kosovo.

The letter posted by Thaci’s website said Trump would welcome hosting the Kosovo and Serbian presidents at the White House as part of such an “historic accord.”

Kosovo is recognized by more than 110 countries, including the United States, but not by Serbia, Russia or China.

Washington remains the biggest supporter of Kosovo both politically and financially.

It was under U.S. command that NATO bombed Serbian forces in 1999 to halt killings and expulsions of Kosovo Albanians during a counter-insurgency operation.
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Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel offered to resign on Tuesday after socialists and greens tabled a motion of no confidence in his minority government.

Michel relaunched his government a week ago as a minority administration after the Flemish N-VA, the biggest party in his coalition, quit in protest at his support of the U.N. migration pact.

Some European politicians say the accord could increase immigration as the bloc has turned increasingly restrictive on accepting refugees and migrants alike.

Michel’s slimmed down three-party coalition consisted of his French-speaking liberal MR and two Flemish parties.

With parliamentary elections due in May, Michel could be asked by King Philippe to stay on in a caretaker capacity but with limited power. The king may also speak to other political leaders in a bid to resolve the issue.
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The size and scope of Russia’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election was far more extensive and thorough than previously understood, according to two newly released reports.

The reports that emerged this week support conclusions by the U.S. intelligence community — and published in an unclassified January 2017 report — that the goal of all of Russia’s meddling in the months leading up to the 2016 elections was to get their preferred candidate elected president of the United States.

“What is clear is that all of the messaging clearly sought to benefit the Republican Party and specifically Donald Trump,” according to the report by Oxford University’s Computational Propaganda Project and network analysis firm Graphika.

Russia on Tuesday rejected the allegations in the two reports. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the accusations baseless.

The findings, as first reported by The Washington Post, said Russians working for a group called the Internet Research Agency (IRA) began experimenting with social media to influence local elections in 2009 and expanded its operations to U.S. elections in 2013 using Twitter.

​It gradually added other popular social media sites to its campaign, including YouTube, Facebook and Instagram, using race and social issues such as gun rights, immigration and police brutality, to sow division and discontent.

“Conservative and right-wing voters were actively encouraged to get behind Trump’s campaign,” according to the report by Oxford and Graphika. “Other voters were encouraged to boycott the election, abstain from voting for Clinton, or to spread cynicism about participating in the election in general.”

Russia’s IRA activity also sought out African-American voters in particular with advertising on Facebook and Instagram and with video content on YouTube.

“Most of the interest-based targeting focused on African-American communities and interests,” the second report by the cybersecurity firm New Knowledge showed. 

“Messaging to African-Americans sought to divert their political energy away from established political institutions by preying on anger with structural inequalities faced by African-Americans, including police violence, poverty and disproportionate levels of incarceration,” the Oxford University-Graphika report added. “These campaigns pushed a message that the best way to advance the cause of the African-American community was to boycott the election and focus on other issues instead.”

Other groups such as liberals, women, Muslims, Latinos and veterans were also targeted with similar messages either appealing to their politics or trying to discourage them from voting.

This newly released data demonstrates how aggressively Russia sought to divide Americans by race, religion and ideology, and how the IRA actively worked to erode trust in our democratic institutions,” Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr, a Republican, said in a statement Monday. “Most troublingly, it shows that these activities have not stopped.”

“This should stand as a wake-up call,” added Senate Intelligence Committee vice chair, Democrat Mark Warner, who has been critical of social media companies and the way they have handled Russia’s online influence campaigns.

“It is time to get serious in addressing this challenge,” Warner said. “That is going to require some much-needed and long-overdue guardrails when it comes to social media.”

The Oxford-Graphika report said it is clear the response by social media companies has been lacking. 

“We clearly observe a belated and uncoordinated response from the platforms that provided the data,” the report said. “In some cases, activity on one platform was detected and suspended months before similar action was taken against related activity on another platform.”

In a statement Monday, Facebook said it continues to “fully cooperate with officials investigating the IRA’s activity on Facebook and Instagram around the 2016 election.”

“We’ve made progress in helping prevent interference on our platforms during elections, strengthened our policies against voter suppression ahead of the 2018 midterms, and funded independent research on the impact of social media on democracy,” the statement said, adding the company believes Congress and intelligence officials “are best placed to use the information we and others provide.”

“Our singular focus is to improve the health of the public conversation on our platform,” Twitter said in a statement of its own. “We’ve made significant strides since 2016 to counter manipulation of our service, including our release of additional data in October related to previously disclosed activities to enable further independent academic research and investigation.”

Google reactions

The reports, though, indicate the measures that have been taken may not be enough, as Russia and others continue to make use of social media platforms.

The Oxford-Graphika report said Russia’s use of social media did not peak until after the election, with the IRA buying the most ad volume on Facebook in April 2017, shortly after the U.S. airstrikes against chemical weapon sites in Syria.

And U.S. intelligence and military officials have told VOA that Russia continued to target segments of U.S. society, including ongoing efforts to influence U.S. military personnel and their families in the run-up to the 2018 midterm elections. 

The United States has already leveled criminal charges against IRA for interfering in the 2016 campaign.

Current and former intelligence officials also warn that it would be a mistake to focus only on Russia’s use of social media, pointing to last week’s guilty plea by Russian spy Maria Butina, who admitted to using the National Rifle Association to get close to key conservative politicians.

“It illustrates … the astute understanding the Russians have of our political ecosystem,” James Clapper, former director of National Intelligence, told VOA.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller is investigating whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to influence the 2016 election and whether the president has tried to obstruct justice by trying to undermine the probe.

Trump denies there was any collusion and calls the Mueller probe a “witch hunt.”
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Ukraine has elected the head of a newly unified Orthodox Church, following a split from the Russian Orthodox Church, announced Saturday. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has hailed the move as an important safeguard against future Russian aggression. The head of the Russian Orthodox Church has condemned Ukraine’s church split from the Russian Orthodox church in October and calls it uncanonical. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports.
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A few thousand demonstrators gathered in freezing temperatures outside Hungary’s state broadcaster Monday night in a fifth day of protests against the right-wing government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban. 

Lawmakers from all opposition parties took to a temporary podium to declare they would continue protests until they are allowed to read out their demands on state television. 

The protests were sparked by a new labor law that in essence enables the return of a six-day work week, if an employee agrees, with overtime payments potentially unpaid for up to three years.

Demands expand

But the demands of protesters have expanded to include cleaning up state corruption, creating an independent judiciary and ensuring neutral state media. 

“We will continue with protests all the while our demands are not read out over state media. We are not going anywhere,” Timea Szabo, a Parliament member for the small, centrist Dialogue party, told the crowd. 

“The law has not been trampled on in such a way here for 30 years,” she said, apparently referring to the roughing up of some legislators by security guards at the MTVA building early Monday. 

Protesters chant slogans

Demonstrators repeatedly chanted slogans like “We won’t leave” and “They are lying day and night!”

Legislators charged that police took orders from private security guards in forcing them out of the MTVA building, rather than protect their right to enter a public building.

Agnes Vadai of the Democratic Coalition, a center-left party, told The Associated Press that she had been manhandled by security guards, 

 “This is nonsense,” she said of the lack of help from police officers. “It’s their obligation to protect all Hungarian citizens, regardless of their position.”

 defendsThe group of 10 lawmakers had entered the building insisting on the right to read their five demands live on air, including the revocation of the labor law.

Government defends law

The government has defended the law, saying it will ease the shortage of workers, most especially in the booming auto and manufacturing sectors, and enable employees to earn more money as they wish.  

Orban’s allies have denounced the protests as the work of liberal groups financed by Hungarian-American financier George Soros. The Open Society Foundations, an organization founded by Soros, again denied that Monday. 

“The Hungarian people are protesting against their government because they have legitimate grievances. Nobody believes Viktor Orban’s false assertion that George Soros is behind these protests,” the group said in a statement. 

 
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The Czech Republic’s cybersecurity watchdog is warning against the use of products by Chinese electronics giant Huawei and another Chinese telecommunications company, ZTE.

The National Cyber and Information Security Agency said Monday their software and hardware pose “a security threat.”

Huawei is the biggest global supplier of network gear for phone and internet companies.

It has become the target of U.S. security concerns because of its ties to the Chinese government. The U.S. has pressured other countries to limit use of its technology, warning they could be opening themselves up to surveillance and theft of information.

A Czech spy agency recently warned against the activities of Chinese spies on Czech territory.
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Three years after she was acquitted over her role in Turkey’s Gezi Park protests, Mucella Yapici was called in last month by police to face more questions about the unrest that had posed a direct challenge to the authority of President Tayyip Erdogan.

Yapici is one of dozens who were involved in demonstrations that brought millions onto Turkey’s streets in 2013 to protest against the government and who are now caught up in a renewed investigation, raising concerns among Turkey’s Western allies.

Opposition figures say the renewed crackdown is designed to polarize public opinion and rally support for Erdogan’s AK Party ahead of local elections in March, when it could face tight races in some of Turkey’s largest cities.

“It is a political maneuver,” Yapici said of her questioning two weeks ago. “We were tried in Turkish courts and acquitted. And the state did not appeal,” she told Reuters, adding that authorities had produced no new evidence.

The moves by prosecutors and police have been accompanied by renewed and sharp criticism of the Gezi protesters by Erdogan.

Such attacks have been a hallmark of his election triumphs since he first won power 16 years ago. But they also risk alienating allies such as the European Union and United States at a time when Turkey is trying to resolve diplomatic disputes that helped fuel a currency crisis this year.

Yapici, a 67-year-old architect whose activist group Taksim Solidarity was at the heart of the Gezi protests, was one of 26 defendants acquitted in April 2015 of charges carrying jail terms of up to 13 years.

She said the investigations were an attempt to rewrite social memory of the protests.

“They are trying to blacken the clear celebration of democracy that was Gezi in the minds of children, youths and society,” Yapici said.

She has not been charged again, but last month more than a dozen people were detained as part of an investigation into the Gezi protests and prosecutors have issued warrants for a prominent journalist and an actor, both living abroad.

“Five years later the prosecutor has suddenly remembered the Gezi resistance and started a new witch hunt,” the Berlin-based journalist, Can Dundar, said after details of his arrest warrant emerged on Dec. 5.

A senior Turkish official said the Gezi incidents were solely a matter for the courts.

“Of course the government does not make any requests in this respect,” he told Reuters. “Ultimately courts and prosecutors take various steps in cases based on the evidence which they obtain.”

“It is not a matter of the incidents specially being put onto the agenda five years later,” he added. “Ultimately the judiciary will take up these dossiers and reach the necessary verdicts.”

‘Pay the price’

According to government estimates, 3.6 million people took part in the Gezi protests, which began with a small demonstration against the redevelopment of a park near Istanbul’s Taksim Square. It evolved into a demonstration of wide-ranging discontent with the government.

Over the summer of 2013 the chant “everywhere is Taksim, everywhere is resistance” resounded in daily protests across Turkey, with many banging pots and pans at their windows every evening. Nine people, eight young protesters and a police officer, were killed in the unrest, and 5,000 injured.

Three years later, following a failed coup against Erdogan, authorities launched a sweeping roundup in which 77,000 people have so far been jailed pending trial. A two-year state of emergency was lifted in July, but arrests linked to the coup attempt have continued alongside the revived Gezi investigations.

Prosecutors have prepared an indictment targeting 120 people over their participation in a Gezi-related protest in Ankara and an investigation into 600 others is continuing, state media says. Pro-government journalists say the probe will widen.

Erdogan blames the protests on billionaire philanthropist George Soros and Osman Kavala, a well-known Turkish civil society leader. Kavala has been in jail for a year awaiting trial on charges of seeking to overthrow the government.

“They are still in solidarity, the operatives of the project to make our country surrender,” Erdogan said last month in a speech denouncing the two men. Kavala was directed by “the famous Hungarian Jew, Soros … who assigns people to divide nations”, he said.

Two weeks ago the Soros-funded Open Society Foundation announced it was closing down in Turkey because it could no longer work there.

Responding to last month’s arrest of 13 academics and civil society representatives linked to Kavala, EU commissioner Johannes Hahn said Brussels was troubled by the arrest of journalists, human rights defenders and civil society activists.

“Criminal and judicial proceedings must be based on the presumption of innocence,” he said after talks in Ankara with Turkey’s foreign minister.

‘Hatred and revenge’

The leader of the main opposition CHP party, which is challenging Erdogan’s AK Party for control of Istanbul and Ankara in the March elections, has said there are no grounds for the latest protest-related arrests.

“If you throw innocent people in jail and then go and see where you can create evidence, there is no justice there. There is a feeling of hatred and revenge,” Kemal Kilicdaroglu said.

Kilicdaroglu’s party say the Gezi arrests are an attempt to divert attention from a slowing economy, high inflation and rising unemployment – significant weak points in Erdogan’s election plans after years of stellar economic growth.

By focusing on perceived security threats, Erdogan could rally support. A survey for the Center for American Progress this year found that around half the public approved of the government’s response to the failed coup in 2016, including 80 percent of AK Party voters.

The challenge, however, will be significant.

Although he strengthened his presidential powers after elections in June, support for Erdogan’s AK Party fell to 43 percent, meaning he needed an alliance with nationalists for a parliamentary majority.

A survey by pollster Metropoll last month showed his personal approval had fallen below 40 percent, having been around 50 percent ahead of the June elections.

Aykut Erdogdu, a CHP lawmaker for Istanbul, said trust in Erdogan was declining due to economic hardship.

As things stand “they know they will lose the local elections. Hence it is necessary to polarize the people,” Erdogdu wrote on Twitter. “They are setting up their election stall using Gezi.”
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A bomb blast early Monday damaged a building in Athens housing the headquarters of Greece’s private radio and television network Skai, but there were no casualties, police said.

Anti-terrorist police opened an investigation into the attack that focused on Greek extremist groups.

Attacks targeting broadcasting groups, public companies or embassies have been frequent in Greece in recent years, and have been blamed on anarchist or far-left groups.

The coalition government led by leftist Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras condemned the blast as “an attack on democracy” while his administration decried an act of “terrorism.”

In a statement, Tsipras slammed what he termed “an attack on democracy by cowardly and dark forces,” vowing that “they will not realize their goal of terrorizing and disorientating.”

He further offered his “sincere support to journalists and all those who work at the station” targeted.

The homemade device went off at around 2:30am (0030 GMT), 45 minutes after an anonymous telephone warning to another TV network.

Police cordoned off the neighborhood in the Athens suburb of Neo Phaliro and evacuated the building, which contains the offices of Skai, a group owned by the Alafouzos shipping family, as well as those of Kathimerini, a center-right daily critical of the government.

Police said the bomb was placed in a narrow street near a fence around the building and smashed windows on the facade.

Skai said in a statement the blast caused “major damage.”

“The terrorist attack will not discourage us,” it said, accusing the government of failing to do enough to protect the media despite “recurrent threats against the station.”

Government spokesman Dimitris Tzanakopoulos rejected the accusation.

The minister for civil protection, Olga Gerovassili, visited the site with police.

“Democracy is not threatened,” she said, while warning against those who “leave the way open to terrorism or fascism.”

There were no claims of responsibility by late afternoon but some analysts said the bombing bore the hallmarks of an attack by the far left Popular Fighters Group (OLA).

It has previously claimed to be behind at least five other similar blasts, none causing fatalities, since its formation in 2013.

The group last claimed a bombing outside the Athens Court of Appeal in December 2017, which caused extensive material damage.

Last month, police defused a bomb outside the Athens home of a controversial prosecutor following two anonymous telephoned warnings to the media.

 
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