Vladimir Putin Hides the Truth - Editorial - NYT | New York Police Department Deploys More Officers to Street Patrols as Shootings, Homicides Rise | Here's how Latin America, Europe, and Africa see China
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DENVER - A psychiatrist testified on Monday that Colorado theater gunman James Holmes chose a midnight screening of a movie to commit mass murder because he believed there would be fewer children present.
Court-appointed psychiatrist William Reid, who made the comments during questioning by a prosecutor in a capital case now in its sixth week, said Holmes also indicated he was sorry when he learned a young girl was among the dead.
"He said that he didn't want to kill children," Reid said Holmes told him of the late-night attack.
A coroner has testified that the girl, Veronica Moser-Sullivan, 6, was shot four times.
Holmes, 27, has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to multiple counts of first-degree murder and attempted murder stemming from the July 2012 rampage that killed 12 moviegoers and wounded 70.
His defense attorneys have said the one-time neuroscience doctoral candidate suffers from schizophrenia and was not in control of his actions when he opened fire inside a Denver-area multiplex during a viewing of the Batman film "The Dark Knight Rises."
Prosecutors say Holmes planned and carried out the massacre because of his "longstanding hatred of mankind" and plan to seek the death penalty if he is convicted.
Reid, who interviewed Holmes nine times over 22 hours last year, testified last week that in his opinion Holmes had serious psychiatric issues but was sane when he opened fire.
In clips of the interviews with the psychiatrist shown in court on Monday, Holmes recounts details of his thought process leading to the massacre, including taking target practice in preparation for the shooting, which he referred to as his mission.
Holmes said he had no experience with firearms before he bought two handguns, a 12-gauge shotgun and a semi-automatic rifle. He chuckled and said he was "a terrible shot" even after multiple trips to a shooting range to familiarize himself with the weapons.
He also told Reid he was aware of media coverage the case generated and described news reports as biased.
"They didn't get it from my perspective," he said, adding they ignored the "psychological reasons." He said he went on the spree because the alternative was suicide.
Asked whether he identified with other mass killers, Holmes said all had mental problems and violent delusions but added he did not study other killings for "improvements to their methods."
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NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Crime has been spiking in New York City — with shootings and murders up — and the NYPD is preparing for a long summer.
As CBS2’s Tony Aiello reported, top brass at the NYPD announced a plan Monday to keep crime down, amid concerns that gun violence is spiking even before the hot weather hits.
In Sunday afternoon in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, a man pulled out a Glock with a magazine that holds 30 rounds, and opened fire on Malcolm X Boulevard. He fired 22 times, and wounded an innocent bystander, police said.
The victim, a 50-year-old man, was struck under his armpit and on his right shoulder, police said.
It was just once instance of firearm violence that the NYPD is trying to get under control.
“We’re struggling with homicides and shootings,” said NYPD Chief of Department James O’Neill.
O’Neill said compared with the same time period last year, shootings are up 9 percent and homicides are up more than 20 percent.
Deputy NYPD Commissioner of Operations Dermot Shea said there were 31 homicides in New York City last month, and 81 percent involved guns, WCBS 880’s Marla Diamond reported. There were a total of 134 shootings in the city overall in May.
NYPD To Beef Up Patrols With Shootings, Homicides On Rise
O’Neill said the violence is largely driven by gang rivalries. Many of the alleged perpetrators of gun violence are either gang members or people out on parole, officials said.
Shea said the perpetrators often did not even have a motive.
He said groups “seem to be shooting each other for absolutely no reason.”
Among the incidents blamed on gangs is the murder of 14-year-old Christopher Duran in the Concourse Village section of the Bronx 10 days ago.
O’Neill said certain neighborhoods present a particular challenge, including Concourse and Mount Eden in the Bronx, and Brownsville in Brooklyn.
In Bedford-Stuyvesant, there were many theories about the spike in violence. Some worry about young people feeling disconnected.
“They’re not a part of the community. They’re just here,” said neighborhood resident Gregory Cantey. “It’s a difference.”
Yak Johnson of the neighborhood said the spike in crime could be attributed to “poverty — no jobs, no money. Guys out here, they’re angry with each other — that’s what happens.”
Anticipating a spike in violence during the hot weather, the NYPD has moved early to beef up patrol presence in the most troublesome precincts.
“Right now as we speak, more than 330 officers normally assigned to non-enforcement roles are at the Police Academy getting trained for our Summer All Out Program,” O’Neill said. “We’re starting All Out a lot earlier this year. Those officers will be on the street by June 8.”
But he said it was not just a matter of bringing in more officers, 1010 WINS’ Al Jones reported.
NYPD To Beef Up Patrols With Shootings, Homicides On Rise
“We need everybody in the city to help us – not just our criminal justice partners, but the community also – to knock these numbers down,” O’Neill said.
The gun violence spike comes up as stop-and-frisk interactions have dropped significantly versus the years when Michael Bloomberg was mayor.
But O’Neill said he does not think police officers are sitting back.
“The officers are engaged,” said Chief of Patrol Carlos Gomez. “They’re still focusing on the quality of life offenses.”
The number of stop, question and frisk interactions has dropped dramatically since last year, which was the first year of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration. In the first quarter of this year, there were 7,135 stop-and-frisk encounters, compared with 14,261 in the same period last year.
In the first quarter of 2013 – Mayor Bloomberg’s last year in office – there were 99,788 stops. In the same period in 2012, there were 203,500 stops – an all-time high going back to Bloomberg’s first year in office in 2002.
But police brass insisted that stop-and-frisk actions are simply being deployed in a more targeted and focused way.
Police emphasized that crime overall – including property crime and assault – is down 6 percent so far this year.
Police also said total of 45 guns were confiscated this past weekend.
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Today saw some sobering new numbers from the NYPD. What once seemed like a statistical blip is now a trend. Murders and shootings are up significantly this year. NY1’s Dean Meminger filed this report.
The NYPD says it's going to beef up patrols in violent neighborhoods and there's good reason for it —this year at least 22 more people have been murdered compared to the same period last year.
"We are talking about people's lives. These are not just numbers," said Chief of Department James O'Neill.
Through the end of May, there were 135 murders, an increase of more than 19 percent compared to the first five months of 2014—and there were 439 shootings, an increase of nearly 9 percent.
Police say gangs and crews are causing most of this violence. Shootings over turf, drugs and sometimes just for the thrill or fun of it.
"We have seen over the last four to five years in New York City—and certainly to some extent continuing now—groups that seem to be shooting each other for absolutely no reason. that creates an extra layer of difficulty for us," said Deputy Commissioner Dermot Shea.
With shootings and murders up, there's been some discussion in the police department and community as to whether or not the police officers should be increasing the amount of stop, questioning and frisk they are doing.
Under pressure from politicians and a court ruling, the tactic has been drastically reduced. Police admit they're trying to determine if young men now feel they can carry a gun and not worry about getting stopped.
"For the officer on the street, there is a big difference between a gun in someone's apartment and a gun stashed in the garbage can because when the fight happens and it's within 5 feet, we are much more likely to have a shooting. So that is something that we are looking at but very difficult to quantify," Shea said.
Starting next week, many officers with desk jobs will be put on patrol until September.
"More than 330 officers normally assigned to non-enforcement rolls are at the police academy getting trained for our summer all out program,” O’Neill said.
More overtime will be used to boost patrols in communities seeing an increase in murders and shootings.
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New York Police Department officials said Monday they are moving 330 more officers to street patrols to combat an uptick in shootings and homicides this year.
Though overall crime in the city was down 6.6% through May 31, homicides and shootings were up for a second consecutive year after reaching a record low in 2013.
The increase, highlighted in latest data the NYPD released Monday, comes as the city heads into the summer, when crime is historically at its highest.
Through May, shootings in the city were up 8.9% to 439 from 403 for the same period last year, officials said. Of the 36 additional shootings, 23 took place in a 28-day period ended May 31.
During the same period, murders increased by 22—from 113 to 135, a 19.5% increase, officials said. Nine occurred in the 28-day period ended May 31.
“We’re struggling with homicides and shootings,” Chief of Department James O’Neill, the NYPD’s top uniformed officer, said at a monthly crime briefing at police headquarters.
As an example, police released video showing a man firing 22 shots from a handgun with a 30-round clip in the daylight Sunday on a busy Brooklyn thoroughfare.
A bystander was injured. The gun was recovered, but no one has been arrested.
“He just fired randomly on the street,” NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said. “This is a Sunday afternoon.”
To tackle the uptick, the NYPD has pulled more than 330 officers from nonenforcement jobs and sent them to the police academy, where they are being trained to return to the streets, starting Monday.
The department launched a similar operation in 2014 after an increase in shootings, but the operation is starting a month earlier this year, Chief O’Neill said.
Officials said last year’s effort helped to reduce the number of shootings.
“When we’re talking about murders and shootings, we’re talking about people’s lives,” Chief O’Neill added. “These aren’t just numbers. We do not take this lightly.”
The department also is formulating a plan to use overtime to put additional officers on the streets in the top 15 crime precincts on weekends—from Friday through Sunday, Chief O’Neill said.
ENLARGE
The city is in the midst of a discussion on how it implements “broken windows” policing, the theory championed by NYPD Commissioner William Bratton and Mayor Bill de Blasio that focuses on stopping small crimes as a way to a reduce more serious crime.
The increase in homicides and shootings comes as overall documented contact between police officers and the public has decreased.
Total numbers of summonses and arrests are down, department data show.
That came after Mr. Bratton urged his top commanders to instruct officers to use their discretion when making arrests and issuing summonses.
Officials said the rise in shootings and homicides is mostly centered on 10 precincts in Brooklyn and the Bronx. The crimes are largely committed by people who have lengthy criminal records or have been involved in shootings in the past, they said.
“We know it’s a relatively small number of people committing this violence,” Chief O’Neill said.
The additional resources will mean more enforcement, which in turn will lead to an increase in the number of people being stopped in city hot spots, but Chief O’Neill said “the stops that we want are good stops.”
“We want stops and we want…enforcement activity [against] the people connected with the violence,” he said.
Write to Pervaiz Shallwani at pervaiz.shallwani@wsj.com
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For President Vladimir Putin of Russia, the manipulation and suppression of facts is as much a tool of his war in Ukraine as an AK-47 or a rocket launcher. He continues to insist that Russian soldiers and weapons are not involved in the conflict in the eastern sector of the country, despite evidence to the contrary from NATO, the United States and independent journalists.
Last week Mr. Putin added a new and especially cruel twist to his formula of deception by decreeingthat the deaths or wounds of Russian soldiers in “special operations” can be classified as military secrets, even in peacetime. In the past, the list of state secrets applied only to personnel losses in wartime.
The decree furthers a climate of propaganda and secrecy that was well established during Soviet times and that Mr. Putin has worked hard to revive. It could lead to the arrest of journalists and human rights activists who gather and publicize information about soldiers’ deaths, further restricting the open flow of essential information.
On a personal level, the decree is especially heartless because it could make it even more difficult for loved ones to obtain the facts about their soldiers’ deaths or injuries, which grieving families need to understand the circumstances of the casualties. Government critics also charge that Russia’s refusal to acknowledge that its soldiers are in combat denies them disability payments and their relatives death benefits and other awards.
Mr. Putin clearly fears a political backlash from Russians who could turn against him and his destructive policies if they learn the truth about Ukraine. Public opinion polls have largely shown that Russian support for Mr. Putin is high and many Russians don’t believe their military forces are involved in Ukraine.
But that could change. A recent report by members of Russia’s political opposition said that at least 220 active-duty Russian soldiers had died in Ukraine since last spring. And there are signs that the toll is rising, including wounded troops showing up at hospitals, new graves appearing in cemeteries, dozens of military funerals during the past year and testimony from relatives of the dead, The Times reported.
Some analysts suspect the new decree may also be a sign that Mr. Putin is gearing up for another military push in Ukraine, when the casualty numbers could be even higher.
Regardless of the executive order, Russians have access to the Internet and even in villages, information gets through. Mr. Putin may not be able to count on the complicity of his citizens if more young men come home in body bags.
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LONDON Oil prices rose on Tuesday in response to a weaker dollar and expectations that OPEC producers will maintain their group production target at its current level and resist pressure for an increase.
The dollar fell against the euro and a basket of currencies, making oil cheaper for consumers in Europe and also for holders of other currencies. [FRX/]
Brent crude oil for July was up 40 cents at $65.28 a barrel by 1030 GMT. U.S. crude was up 60 cents at $60.80 a barrel.
Ministers from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), responsible for more than a third of the world's oil output, meet in Vienna on Friday to decide on production policy for the next six months.
The group has been producing up to 2 million barrels per day (bpd) more than needed this year, but analysts expect demand to pick up, helping to drain stocks and balance the market.
Saudi Arabia's oil minister, Ali al-Naimi, has said he expects oil demand to increase in the second half of this year while supply decreases, in a sign that the kingdom's strategy of defending market share was working.
"Demand is picking up. Good! Supply is slowing, right? That is a fact," Naimi told reporters. "You can see that I'm not stressed, I'm happy."
Carsten Fritsch, senior oil analyst at Commerzbank in Frankfurt, noted that the Saudi oil minister had said it would take time for the oversupply to be reduced and for balance to be restored on the oil market.
"A weaker U.S. dollar is lending prices buoyancy, as are comments made by the Saudi Arabian Oil Minister," Fritsch said.
Several banks and analysts, including Morgan Stanley, have suggested that OPEC could raise its production target, acknowledging that it has been producing more than planned over the last few months.
But most investors expect no change in OPEC's official target.
"OPEC meets on Friday and is in no mood to cut output," said Amrita Sen, chief oil analyst at consultancy Energy Aspects.
"The gulf between the member countries remains extremely wide, and without a contribution from everyone ... Saudi Arabia will not reduce production."
The contrasting views between OPEC members are partly the result of differing extraction costs, with Saudi Arabia the driving force behind keeping output high in defence of market share, while Venezuela and Iran have favoured cuts to help to promote higher prices.
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Bloomberg View |
China's Military Isn't Worried About Obama
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Sean Gallup/Getty Images
China’s Asia-Pacific neighbors perceive its rise with a certain level of anxiety, stemming from China’s ambiguous strategic ambitions.
Especially among some Asian countries and the United States, political and strategic concerns drive perceptions of China.
According to the 2014 Pew Global Research survey, the percentages of people with a favorable view of China are as low as 35 percent in the United States and 7 percent in Japan.
China’s economic engagements have greatly contributed to the favorable perceptions of China in these regions via channels such as trade, investment, and infrastructure financing. As China continues to grow and expand its global economic and political outreach, it is critical for the United States to understand the origins of China’s popularity and the lingering concerns of each region.
Each region’s attitude is nuanced and subject to constant fluctuations stemming from Chinese policies and practices.
Africa
According to the survey by the Pew Research Center, nowhere is public opinion more positive about China than in Africa.
This result should not be surprising, as China’s engagement with Africa comes at a time when the continent is developing and pursuing its agenda for economic transformation and is in need of strong economic partnership.
Indeed, after a long delay in the post-independence era, African countries were only able to restart growing their economies in the 1990s, and they did so at a robust pace.
Some African countries such as Angola, Mozambique, Ethiopia, and Rwanda have even joined the club of “growth miracles”, countries that have experienced 7 percent or more gross domestic product growth for 25 years or longer.
But to reach Asian levels of income, African states needs to transform their economies to achieve a more sustainable and inclusive growth. This agenda starts with addressing Africa’s large infrastructure gap.
This context for Africa’s growth is important for understanding why perceptions of China are so positive. Indeed, China’s economic engagement with the continent through bilateral trade and foreign investment has increased dramatically in recent years.
Some countries such as Angola, which exports half of its oil to China, rely heavily on this new economic partner for trade. Chinese investments go to a relatively broad range of sectors (not just natural resources) and to broad range of countries (from fragile to middle income countries). China is also a major financer of African infrastructure and the only player in some sectors such as railroads.
China’s rising economic engagement with Africa has, however, not been without criticisms. For instance, concerns about violations of labor rights, investments with relatively low local content, and insufficient transparency in loans to African countries (especially when they are in exchange for natural resources) have been relayed loudly by the global press.
Africa is in need of economic partnership and China is engaging the continent on the economic front at an unprecedented scale and scope. As a result, Africa is becoming increasingly globalized through China. These all contribute to the rather positive perception of China on the African continent.
Latin America
ReutersChinese Premier Li Keqiang (L) and Peru's President Ollanta Humala shake hands at the government palace in Lima, May 22, 2015.
Latin America’s perceptions of China are largely driven by economics, and the China-Latin America relationship has undergone dramatic changes recently.
From 2000 to 2013, trade increased 22 fold, from $12 billion to over $270 billion.
Between 1990 and 2009, China invested only $7 billion total in Latin America. After 2010, China has invested between $10 and $14 billion per year in the region, with Brazil, Peru, and Venezuela as the largest recipients.
Chinese trade and investment with Latin America will continue to grow: at the first meeting of the China-Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (China-CELAC) forum in January 2015, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced a goal of $500 billion in trade by 2019. China needs Latin American products, and Latin America needs Chinese capital and investment—particularly in infrastructure, where China has a good deal of recent domestic experience.
But not all Latin Americans view the relationship with China positively. Manufacturers across the region view Chinese companies as unfair competitors, and they see many informal barriers to entry into the Chinese market. China’s demand has largely been for commodities, which has mainly benefited South American agricultural and mining interests and reinforced economic sectors. These are specifically the sectors that many Latin American countries have relied too heavily on in the past and whose weight retards the further development of their economies.
Chinese investments in mining and agriculture have led to ugly disputes with some of the region’s labor unions, environmentalists, and indigenous rights activists. And China’s policy of trading and investing without attaching conditions has benefited some of Latin America’s most populist regimes—in Argentina, Ecuador, and Venezuela—which enables their leaders to pursue public policies detrimental to macroeconomic stability, democracy, and human rights.
So while public perceptions of China in Latin America tend to be positive, there are still a number of barriers to increasing China’s soft power.
Europe
Yves Herman/ReutersBritain's Prime Minister David Cameron (L) broke with Washington two weeks ago and announced it was signing up for the AIIB.
Recently, China has become an active investor in Europe, with $18 billion invested in 2014, up from $10 billion the previous year.
All European countries seem of interest to China—including particularly the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, and France—in areas as diverse as energy, real estate, automobiles, food, retail, insurance, and airport infrastructure.
Paradoxically, two of the top European recipients of Chinese investment—Germany and Italy—also have the worst perceptions of China: according to the 2014 Pew survey, only 28 percent of Germans hold a positive opinion of China, and among Italians the figure is only 26 percent.
On one hand, European leaders want Chinese investment; on the other, many of the Europeans Pew interviewed do not seem to perceive China as a reliable partner.
In France, a similar paradox exists: according to a 2012 survey, French people recognize China’s status as an important power but have doubts about the Chinese system and companies, which they don’t know well. The French reported having no positive emotions towards China as a country, though they have a positive opinion of Chinese people (hard working, disciplined, friendly). They also don’t know many Chinese brands.
These negative perceptions seem hard to correct. The main factor for the distrust is perhaps the lack of information—or perhaps lack of positive information. European media do not convey positive news about China as a country.
REUTERS/Fabrizio BenschGerman Chancellor Angela Merkel and China's President Xi Jinping arrive for an agreement signing at the Chancellery in Berlin March 28, 2014.
China’s soft power has not been very successful in Europe, and investment remains relatively limited (3 percent of total foreign direct investment in Europe are Chinese)—but it is the latter rather than the former which can help improve the country’s image.
For this, China needs to commit to long-term investment, as well as create jobs and employment opportunities; in other words, do exactly what it expects from foreign investors on his own territory. So forget about soft power, let’s focus on economic power.
Read the original article on The Brookings Institution. Copyright 2015. Follow The Brookings Institution on Twitter.
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Ukraine Names Georgia's Saakashvili as Governor of Black Sea Hotspot by webdesk@voanews.com (Reuters)
Ukraine's Petro Poroshenko has appointed former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili to be governor of Ukraine's southern Odessa region, in a surprise move that is certain to raise hackles in Moscow. President Poroshenko made the announcement on Saturday, standing alongside Saakashvili at a ceremony in Odessa, where he described him as "a great friend of Ukraine". He granted Saakashvili Ukrainian citizenship to facilitate the move. The security of the Black Sea city of Odessa and its surrounding region has become increasingly worrisome for Ukrainians since a separatist conflict broke out in eastern Ukraine following Russia's annexation of Crimea further along the coast. Saakashvili replaces Ihor Palytsia, a businessman who was appointed governor in May last year after more than 40 people, most of them pro-Russian sympathizers, died in a fire in the port city during a confrontation with pro-Western demonstrators. Poroshenko, who is pursuing a course of European integration to take his country out of the Russian orbit, has appointed several non-Ukrainian nationals to government posts including the finance ministry where U.S.-born Natalia Yaresko has taken over. But this is the first non Ukrainian by birth to be named to head what is in effect a provincial government. Saakashvili is widely credited with carrying out radical reforms in Georgia and cracking down on corruption during his term in office from 2004-2013. But the present Georgian leadership has accused him of abuse of power and has asked for his extradition. He denies any wrongdoing and says charges against him are politically motivated. Like Poroshenko, Saakashvili, whose country fought a brief war with Russia in August 2008, is a strong proponent of NATO and European Union membership for his native Georgia and for Ukraine. His appointment drew immediate derision in Moscow. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev tweeted: "Saakashvili - head of Odessa region. The Chapiteau show goes on. Sad Ukraine ...". The 'chapiteau show' is a Russia way of referring to circus routines. Poroshenko expressed confidence that Saaksahvili would bring discipline and carry out much-needed reforms in the region. "The people of Odessa should soon feel that their living standards have been raised," he said. Separately in Ukraine, Kyiv's military reported on Sunday that one serviceman had been killed and another wounded in attacks by separatists in the past 24 hours which violated a February ceasefire.
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 РБК Украина |
Саакашвили придумал, как Одессе экономить 4 миллиона гривен в год
РИА Новости Губернатор Одесской области Михаил Саакашвили намерен "ликвидировать должности, не имеющие никакого смысла". Это, по мнению чиновника, позволит Одессе экономить 4, 1 миллиона гривен в год. Михаил Саакашвили. © РИА Новости. Михаил Палинчак | Купить иллюстрацию. Саакашвили "случайно" спел с выпускниками "Ще не вмерла Україна"Московский комсомолец Президент Грузии осудил Саакашвили за отказ от гражданстваNEWSru.com Президент Грузии считает "оскорблением" отказ Саакашвили от гражданстваРБК Украина Дни.Ру -Mail.Ru -БалтИнфо.ru Все похожие статьи: 85 » |
President Poroshenko’s surprise appointment of ‘great friend of Ukraine’ to key post in Black Sea region greeted with derision in Moscow
Petro Poroshenko, the president of Ukraine, has appointed former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili to be governor of Ukraine’s southern Odessa region, in a surprise move that is certain to raise hackles in Moscow.
At least three people were killed in the east of the country where government forces are fighting Russian-backed separatists.
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 ABC News |
Russia Doctored Photos in Shooting Down of Airliner, Report Finds
ABC News A new independent report finds that Russia doctored photos to implicate the Ukrainian military in the shooting down of the Malaysian airliner MH17 last July, casting doubt on Russian claims that neither separatists armed by Russia nor its own military ... Satellite images show clearly that Russia faked its MH17 reportMashable Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17: Russia Faked Evidence To Blame Ukraine For ...The Inquisitr Russia doctored MH17 photos to implicate Ukraine, report saysThe Malaysian Insider Astro Awani-TravelPulse all 11 news articles » |
Chinese Admiral Calls Island-Building 'Justified, Legitimate, Reasonable' by webdesk@voanews.com (Steve Herman)
China has strongly rejected U.S. criticism of its land reclamation activities in the South China Sea. Chinese Admiral Sun Jianguo told a security summit in Singapore Sunday that construction work is "justified, legitimate and reasonable," and that the projects are for the purpose of providing "international public services."
Britain: New Russian Travel Ban Shows Western Sanctions Working by webdesk@voanews.com (VOA News)
Former British Foreign Secretary Malcolm Rifkind says Russia's entry ban on 89 European politicians and military leaders shows Western sanctions imposed on Moscow for its March 2014 annexation of the Crimean peninsula are working. Rifkind told British radio Sunday that Russian officials "would not have reacted unless they felt very sore at what happened." Rifkind spoke a day after the European Union issued a statement saying it considers the new ban, which was disclosed last week, as "totally arbitrary and unjustified in the absence of further clarification." The Russian list includes scores of European lawmakers and heads of government who last year backed several waves of European and U.S. sanctions aimed at penalizing Moscow for its role in the ongoing Ukraine crisis. Beyond travel bans on top Russian officials and businesspeople, U.S. President Barack Obama and European leaders slapped harsh economic sanctions on Russia's biggest financial institution, Sherbank, last September. The Western leaders also blocked Russian energy companies from access to Western technologies used in deep water shale oil extraction. Those sanctions, coupled with a sharp decline late last year in Russian oil exports and the free fall of the Russian ruble, pushed the Russian economy to the brink of recession earlier this year. Analysts expect the economy to contract more than 4 percent by year's end. Moscow has strongly protested the Western penalties, while repeatedly insisting it is not playing an active role in the pro-Russian rebellion gripping eastern Ukraine. The Kremlin has described Russian troops seen or captured inside Ukraine as volunteers.
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 Jerusalem Post Israel News |
Report: Russia turning its back on Syrian regime, not honoring prior agreements
Jerusalem Post Israel News According to the report, for three months Moscow has been reducing its diplomatic staff in Damascus to essential personnel exclusively and the most recent move saw 100 Russians, along with their families, board a plane at the Latakia airport. Lebanese ... Russia said abandoning Assad as Syria regime collapses furtherYnetnews Assad's Army May Be Losing Its Biggest Backers: Russia And IranInternational Business Times Russia reportedly pulling experts from Syria, in bid to save itself from sanctionsHaaretz The Times of Israel -Antiwar.com -i24news all 17 news articles » |
US Senate Debates NSA Reforms as Key Program Expiresby webdesk@voanews.com (Michael Bowman)
The U.S. Senate has advanced a bill to reform the government’s domestic surveillance program. The chamber voted 77-17 to begin debate on the USA Freedom Act, which gives telecommunications companies, rather than the National Security Agency, the task of collecting and retaining Americans’ phone records in the fight against terrorism. The bill was overwhelmingly approved by the House of Representatives, but failed in an initial Senate test vote a little more than a week ago. On Sunday, the Senate reversed itself hours before the midnight expiration of the existing program, which is now defunct two years after it was exposed by fugitive former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. For weeks, Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had argued for a temporary extension of the NSA’s snooping abilities – to no avail. On Sunday, he conceded defeat, saying the USA Freedom Act is better than the alternative: no telephone records being collected at all. “Allow(ing) the program to expire altogether without attempting to replace it, in the face of growing, aggressive and sophisticated threats. That is a totally unacceptable outcome,” McConnell said. The Senate will debate the bill through Tuesday. Should it pass unaltered, it would go to the White House for President Obama’s signature. A statement issued by the White House press secretary after the Senate's action late Sunday urged lawmakers to ensure that what it called an "irresponsible lapse" in the surveillance program "is as short-lived as possible." The statement says: "On a matter as critical as our national security, individual Senators must put aside their partisan motivations and act swiftly. The American people deserve nothing less." This turn of events constitutes a major victory for Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy, who co-authored the bill. “The USA Freedom Act is a carefully crafted bipartisan compromise that protects Americans’ privacy but also keeps this country safe,” Leahy said. “This is a bill that does both.” For some, the bill’s reforms do not go far enough to protect Americans’ civil liberties. Republican Senator Rand Paul, who recently spoke for more than 10 hours on the subject, said the bulk collection of telephone records by any entity is an unconstitutional threat to privacy. “We are not collecting the information of spies. We are not collecting the information of terrorists. We are collecting all American citizens’ records all of the time. Are we going to so blithely give up our freedom?” Paul said. “I’m not going to take it anymore.” Backers of the expired program said it had been much maligned by critics eager to inflame public passions about government snooping. “A portion of the public has been led to believe that big government is in their bedroom, in their house, in their car, in their phone, that it tracks them wherever they go,” said Republican Senator Dan Coats. “It’s a bunch of hokum, and it’s wrong.” The Senate cut short last week’s recess by one day in order to try once again to address the NSA program. The chamber’s options were limited, given that the House of Representatives does not gavel in until later Monday. As a result, even if the Senate had voted to extend the program, House consideration would have occurred after it expired. Last month, a federal appeals court ruled the program illegal. Its expiration means there will be no need for a hearing of the case before the Supreme Court.
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Key parts of of post-September 11 Patriot Act that allow U.S. spy agencies to bulk collect phone data expired after the Senate failed to reach a deal by midnight local time (6 a.m. Prague time).
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