Lack of Wind Slows Frenchman Crossing Atlantic In Barrel

French adventurer Jean-Jacques Savin is 36 days into his attempt to cross the Atlantic in a specially built orange barrel.

With no engine, sails or paddles, the unusual craft relies on trade winds and currents to push him 4,800 kilometers from the Canary Islands to Caribbean in about three months.

On Wednesday, he reported awaking to an early spring morning and clear sky with a beautiful crescent moon. However, he said there was not a lot of wind, which was slowing his travels.

He described his journey as a “crossing during which man isn’t captain of his ship, but a passenger of the ocean.”

Savin spent months building his bright orange, barrel-shaped capsule of resin-coated plywood that is strong enough to withstand battering waves and other stresses.

The barrel is 3 meters long and 2.10 meters across. It has a small galley and a mattress with straps to keep him from being tossed out of his bunk by rough seas.

Portholes on either side of the barrel and another looking into the water provide sunlight and a bit of entertainment. The unique craft also has a solar panel that generates energy for communications and GPS positioning.

As he drifts along, Savin is dropping markers in the ocean to help oceanographers study ocean currents. At the end of the journey, Savin will be studied by doctors for effects of solitude in close confinement.

He also posts regular updates, including GPS coordinates tracking the journey, on a Facebook page. 

Savin’s adventure, which will cost a little more than $65,000, was funded by French barrel makers and crowdfunding.

Savin hopes to end his journey on a French island, such as Martinique or Guadeloupe. “That would be easier for the paperwork and for bringing the barrel back,” he told AFP.

Facebook Takes Down Vast Iran-Led Manipulation Campaign

Facebook said Thursday it took down hundreds of “inauthentic” accounts from Iran that were part of a vast manipulation campaign operating in more than 20 countries.

The world’s biggest social network said it removed 783 pages, groups and accounts “for engaging in coordinated inauthentic behavior tied to Iran.”

The pages were part of a campaign to promote Iranian interests in various countries by creating fake identities as residents of those nations, according to a statement by Nathaniel Gleicher, head of cybersecurity policy at Facebook.

The announcement was the latest by Facebook as it seeks to stamp out efforts by state actors and others to manipulate the social network using fraudulent accounts.

“We are constantly working to detect and stop this type of activity because we don’t want our services to be used to manipulate people,” Gleicher said.

“We’re taking down these pages, groups and accounts based on their behavior, not the content they post. In this case, the people behind this activity coordinated with one another and used fake accounts to misrepresent themselves, and that was the basis for our action.”

The operators “typically represented themselves as locals, often using fake accounts, and posted news stories on current events,” including “commentary that repurposed Iranian state media’s reporting on topics like Israel-Palestine relations and the conflicts in Syria and Yemen,” Gleicher said.

“Although the people behind this activity attempted to conceal their identities, our manual review linked these accounts to Iran.”

The operation dating back to as early as 2010 had 262 pages, 356 accounts, and three groups on Facebook, as well as 162 accounts on Instagram and were followed by about two million users.

Facebook said the fake accounts were part of an influence campaign that operated in Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Libya, Mexico, Morocco, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, South Africa, Spain, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, U.S., and Yemen.

Facebook began looking into these kinds of activities after revelations of Russian influence campaigns during the 2016 U.S. election, aimed at sowing discord.

Peruvian Emigre Gives US Voice to Venezuela Hard-liners

An emigre who once fled a right-wing strongman in Peru has made his U.S.-based television program a forum for hardline opponents of Venezuela’s leftist President Nicolas Maduro — including some who are quite ready for the shedding of blood.

“I am a conspirator in favor of freedom,” Jaime Bayly says.

Bayly’s news and opinion program airs each weeknight on Mega TV, a relatively small network of Spanish-language stations around the United States. But YouTube videos of his programs are viewed by tens of thousands of people across the hemisphere.

Programs have frequently featured Venezuelan opposition leaders such as Henrique Capriles, Leopoldo Lopez and other critics of the Maduro administration, many of whom have encouraged their country’s entrepreneurs and military officials to repudiate the embattled leader.

That campaign got a dramatic boost last week when the head of Venezuela’s opposition-controlled congress, Juan Guaido, a Lopez protege, proclaimed himself the country’s interim president. The United States, Canada and a dozen regional nations quickly announced that they recognize Guaido — and not Maduro — as president, saying Maduro’s re-election last May was a sham.

Hours after Guaido’s announcement, Bayly was behind his wooden desk on television calling on members of Venezuela’s all-important military to rally behind the National Assembly leader and maintaining that “the dictator Maduro has his hours counted.”

Bayly says he has done nothing wrong, but his program has featured guests who openly advocate killing Maduro and quite a few of his supporters.

In a program following an Aug. 4 attempt to assassinate Maduro with explosives-laden drones, Bayly expressed regret it failed.

He also had a sympathetic exchange on the program with opposition activist Roberto Olivares, an occasional guest, who called toppling Maduro “a spiritual duty.” 

“What good is it to annihilate Maduro if Cabello takes office?” Bayley responded, referring to socialist party leader Diosdado Cabello. 

Maduro aware of Bayly

However, Bayly then noted Maduro’s denunciations of assassination plots and said: “But it seems to me that’s the natural consequence of all the evil he has done, no?”

With no objection from Bayly, Olivares proposed “a civilian-military junta, more military than civilian, that at a minimum would impose order for six months, a year, to be able to clean up certain radical factions on their side who are going to remain in the country and have to be eliminated as well, and eliminate them is kill them, full stop.”

Maduro has taken note of such statements, accusing Bayly of conspiring with the U.S. to remove him from power and saying he had proof the political commentator was involved in the done attack.

“It’s easy for a U.S. television station to direct the death of a president,” Maduro said. “What would happen if a braggart like this one, from a Venezuelan TV station, ordered the assassination of the president of the United States? We would prosecute him, because that is a serious crime.”

Where is FCC?

David Smilde, a professor of sociology and Latin American studies at Tulane University, said the Federal Communications Commission has never paid as much attention to Spanish-language media as it should. 

“Jaime Bayly engages in speech that can reasonably be said to incite violence,” Smilde said. “It is doubtful that an English-language show with this content would be able to operate without FCC investigations or impediments.” 

Bayly says that before the drone incident, a group of soldiers told him of the planned attack.

“I didn’t know if it was true or false. They told me: ‘Let’s kill him with drones,’” the commentator told The Associated Press in a December interview at his home in Key Biscayne, an island near Miami where dozens of wealthy Venezuelan families live.

“They wanted money to hide or to plot a second conspiracy,” Bayly said, adding that he made calls soliciting support to exiled Venezuelan businessman and U.S. officials, but without success. He did not identify the people he called.

No direct role in plots

Bayly insisted he played no direct role in violent plots to bring down Maduro. 

“No, it doesn’t come to that,” he said. “It’s about promoting it, persuading people that it’s the best option.”

“I ask rich Venezuelans, free in exile, to understand that they are the ones who have to solve the problem,” Bayly said.

A well-known novelist and journalist in Peru, Bayley fled to the United States in 1992 during the strong-arm government of Alberto Fujimori. After Fujimori was driven from power in 2000, Bayley began returning home and dabbling in politics, and several times toyed publicly with a presidential run.

Targets abuse of power

Speaking slowly, he reiterated his disdain for both right-wing and left-wing dictatorships and said he is solely taking a stand against abuse of power.

“You have to be transparent,” he said.

Bayly said he has been threatened because of his opposition to Maduro. After the assassination attempt, Bayly said, his car was rammed against a lamp post. The attacker managed to flee.

“I do not know if they wanted to scare me or if they wanted to kill me,” he said.

Bayly said he feels afraid at times, but tries to focus on his job: putting the news in context and giving his owns opinion.

“I prefer not to think about that because if I let myself be trapped by fear, I don’t leave my house, I don’t do the program,”he said.

Venezuelan Opposition Leader Accuses Security Forces of Threatening His Family

Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido says security forces showed up at his wife’s Caracas apartment Thursday in an effort to intimidate him.

Guaido said the agents from a feared police unit arrived at the unit Thursday, asking for his wife, Fabiana. In a tweet, Guaido said the incident happened while his 20-month-old daughter and her grandmother were home and that if anything happened to the child, he would hold socialist leader Nicolas Maduro responsible. There was no immediate response from the Maduro government.

In comments to reporters, Guaido thanked neighbors who rushed to the apartment, banging pots and pans after the police showed up. Guaido, whom the U.S. and other countries recognized as Venezuela’s interim president, said the neighbors denounced and vocalized what was happening at that moment and came to protect and watch over his wife and daughter while the agents searched for information.

 

WATCH: Venezuela’s Guaido Accuses Maduro of Intimidating His Family

Reports say the agents later left the building.

U.S. Senator Marco Rubio also tweeted about the incident and described the security forces as “Maduro shock troops.” Rubio said the incident was clearly an effort to intimidate Guaido and the opposition.

Guaido, the president of the opposition-controlled National Assembly, declared himself interim president last week after the Assembly declared that Maduro’s re-election last May was illegitimate, as most opposition candidates either boycotted the race or were prevented from running. The United States has recognized Guaido as interim leader.

In a Jan. 30 opinion piece for The New York Times, Guaido said more than 50 countries have either recognized him as interim president or the National Assembly as the legitimate authority in Venezuela, and has appealed to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for humanitarian assistance. Guaido says he has begun the process of appointing ambassadors and “locating and recovering national assets tied up abroad.”  

Guaido claims he has held “clandestine meetings” with members of the military to convince them to withdraw their support for Maduro, which he says is “crucial to enabling a change in government.”

Venezuelans took to the streets of Caracas Wednesday in response to Guaido’s call for a peaceful, two-hour, midday protest “to demand that the armed forces side with the people.” He is offering amnesty to soldiers who back his movement and reject Maduro’s socialist government.

“Mr. Maduro no longer has the support of the people,” Guaido wrote.

During an interview with Russia’s RIA news agency Wednesday, President Maduro said he is ready to hold talks with the country’s opposition forces and hold early legislative elections; but, he rejected Guaido’s demands to hold a new presidential election before 2025.

The White House says President Donald Trump expressed his “strong support” for efforts to restore democracy in Venezuela during a conversation Wednesday with Guaido.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Trump and Guaido also committed to maintaining “regular communication to support Venezuela’s path back to stability, and to rebuild the bilateral relationship” between the two countries.

Trump issued a tweet earlier Wednesday acknowledging Maduro’s offer to negotiate with Guaido, but warned Americans not to travel to Venezuela “until further notice.” 

Five foreign journalists have been detained by Venezuelan authorities covering the deteriorating political situation.  A Spanish reporter and a Colombian television producer working for the Spanish news agency EFE were detained Wednesday, a day after the arrest of two French television journalists in Caracas. Two Chilean television journalists were detained for several hours Tuesday before they were expelled from the country.  

The collapse of world energy prices, corruption and failed socialist policies have created an economic and humanitarian crisis in oil-rich Venezuela.

Food, fuel and medicine are in extremely short supply. Inflation is out of control. Millions of Venezuelans have fled the country, and Maduro has shown little tolerance for opposition-led protests.

Maduro has blamed his country’s woes on the United States, which he accuses of working with the opposition to topple the government. He has called world leaders who want him gone “Trump sycophants.”

The Trump administration has imposed sanctions on PDVSA, Venezuela’s government-owned oil company. The sanctions announced Monday will freeze any assets the state-owned PDVSA has in the United States, and bars U.S. firms and citizens from doing business with it.

PDVSA’s U.S.-based subsidiary, Citgo, which refines Venezuelan oil and sells Citgo brand gasoline in the U.S., will continue to operate as usual. But any money Citgo earns will be placed in a blocked account.

Maduro said the United States is trying to “steal” Citgo from Venezuela.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Venezuela can get relief from the sanctions when control of the oil company is turned over to Guaido.

Alvaro Algarra, VOA Spanish Service’s reporter in Caracas, contributed to this story.

Defense Lawyer: Government Witnesses Lied about El Chapo

A defense lawyer at the U.S. trial of the Mexican drug lord known as El Chapo has accused government witnesses of lying about his exploits.

Attorney Jeffrey Lichtman asked jurors in closing arguments Thursday to not accept testimony by dishonest cooperators as fact.

 

Lichtman singled out an allegation by a cooperator that Joaquin Guzman had paid a $100 million bribe to a Mexican president to call off a manhunt. He argued that made no sense since authorities still arrested his client and sent him to the U.S. in 2017 to face drug-trafficking charges.

A prosecutor in her closing Wednesday called the evidence against Guzman “overwhelming.” She argued that his constant attempts to evade capture were proof of his guilt.

 

Jury deliberations are expected to begin Monday.

 

 

Defense in El Chapo Drug Trial Calls Government’s Case a ‘Fantasy’

Lawyers for alleged Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman are calling the government’s case “a fantasy.”

Guzman is on trial in New York for 10 charges ranging from drug trafficking, money laundering, and murder when he allegedly led the Sinaloa drug cartel.

In summing up, the defense’s case for the jury, attorney Jeffrey Lichtman says prosecutors failed to see what he calls the “600 pound gorilla” in the courtroom — reasonable doubt.

Lichtman told the jury the government’s witnesses “lie, steal, cheat, deal drugs, and kill people.”

“A house that’s built on a rotten foundation won’t stand for too long. We have to trust the word of these lunatics?” he asked.

Lichtman said an allegation that Guzman paid former Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto a $100 million bribe to call off the manhunt for him makes no sense because the manhunt went forward.

If there were a bribe, Lichtman said it would likely have come from  the fugitive who he says is the cartel’s real leader — Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada. Pena Nieto denies taking any bribes.

In summing up their case, federal prosecutors said Wednesday  there is an “avalanche of evidence” to convict Guzman. They displayed rifles, a bulletproof vest and a brick of cocaine. They say they also have intercepted phone calls, text messages, and written letters ordering drug deals and killings. 

Prosecutors say Guzman’s goal was to smuggle huge quantities of illegal drugs to the United States and make millions of dollars, saying it doesn’t matter who was in charge of the cartel because Guzman was  “one of the top bosses.”

Guzman was captured and extradited to the United States, two years ago after his dramatic escape from Mexican prisons.

The case will now go to the jury. If convicted, Guzman faces life behind bars.

 

 

 

Apple Busts Facebook for Distributing Data-Sucking App

Apple says Facebook can no longer distribute an app that paid users, including teenagers, to extensively track their phone and web use.

In doing so, Apple closed off Facebook’s efforts to sidestep Apple’s app store and its tighter rules on privacy.

The tech blog TechCrunch reported late Tuesday that Facebook paid people about $20 a month to install and use the Facebook Research app. While Facebook says this was done with permission, the company has a history of defining “permission” loosely and obscuring what data it collects.

“I don’t think they make it very clear to users precisely what level of access they were granting when they gave permission,” mobile app security researcher Will Strafach said Wednesday. “There is simply no way the users understood this.”

He said Facebook’s claim that users understood the scope of data collection was “muddying the waters.”

Facebook says fewer than 5 percent of the app’s users were teens and they had parental permission. Nonetheless, the revelation is yet another blemish on Facebook’s track record on privacy and could invite further regulatory scrutiny.

And it comes less than a week after court documents revealed that Facebook allowed children to rack up huge bills on digital games and that it had rejected recommendations for addressing it for fear of hurting revenue growth.

For now, the app appears to be available for Android phones, though not through Google’s main app store. Google had no comment Wednesday.

Apple said Facebook was distributing Facebook Research through an internal-distribution mechanism meant for company employees, not outsiders. Apple has revoked that capability.

TechCrunch reported separately Wednesday that Google was using the same privileged access to Apple’s mobile operating system for a market-research app, Screenwise Meter. Asked about it by The Associated Press, Google said it had disabled the app on Apple devices and apologized for its “mistake.”

The company said Google had always been “upfront with users” about how it used data collected by the app, which offered users points that could be accrued for gift cards. In contrast to the Facebook Research app, Google said its Screenwise Meter app never asked users to let the company circumvent network encryption, meaning it is far less intrusive.

Facebook is still permitted to distribute apps through Apple’s app store, though such apps are reviewed by Apple ahead of time. And Apple’s move Wednesday restricts Facebook’s ability to test those apps — including core apps such as Facebook and Instagram — before they are released through the app store.

Facebook previously pulled an app called Onavo Protect from Apple’s app store because of its stricter requirements. But Strafach, who dismantled the Facebook Research app on TechCrunch’s behalf, told the AP that it was mostly Onavo repackaged and rebranded, as the two apps shared about 98 percent of their code.

As of Wednesday, a disclosure form on Betabound, one of the services that distributed Facebook Research, informed prospective users that by installing Facebook Research, they are letting Facebook collect a range of data. This includes information on apps users have installed, when they use them and what they do on them. Information is also collected on how other people interact with users and their content within those apps, according to the disclosure.

Betabound warned that Facebook may collect information even when an app or web browser uses encryption.

Strafach said emails, social media activities, private messages and just about anything else could be intercepted. He said the only data absolutely safe from snooping are from services, such as Signal and Apple’s iMessages, that fully encrypt messages prior to transmission, a method known as end-to-end encryption.

Strafach, who is CEO of Guardian Mobile Firewall, said he was aghast to discover Facebook caught red-handed violating Apple’s trust.

He said such traffic-capturing tools are only supposed to be for trusted partners to use internally. Instead, he said Facebook was scooping up all incoming and outgoing data traffic from unwitting members of the public — in an app geared toward teenagers.

“This is very flagrantly not allowed,” Strafach said. “It’s mind-blowing how defiant Facebook was acting.”

 

Survey: 2018 ‘Worst Year Ever’ for Smartphone Market

Global smartphone sales saw their worst contraction ever in 2018, and the outlook for 2019 isn’t much better, new surveys show.

Worldwide handset volumes declined 4.1 percent in 2018 to a total of 1.4 billion units shipped for the full year, according to research firm IDC, which sees a potential for further declines this year.

“Globally the smartphone market is a mess right now,” said IDC analyst Ryan Reith.

“Outside of a handful of high-growth markets like India, Indonesia, (South) Korea and Vietnam, we did not see a lot of positive activity in 2018.”

Reith said the market has been hit by consumers waiting longer to replace their phones, frustration around the high cost of premium devices, and political and economic uncertainty.

The Chinese market, which accounts for roughly 30 percent of smartphone sales, was especially hard hit with a 10 percent drop, according to IDC’s survey, which was released Wednesday.

IDC said the top five smartphone makers have become stronger and now account for 69 percent of worldwide sales, up from 63 percent a year ago.

Samsung remained the number one handset maker with a 20.8 percent share despite an eight percent sales slump for the year, IDC said.

Apple managed to recapture the number two position with a 14.9 percent market share, moving ahead of Huawei at 14.7 percent, the survey found.

IDC said fourth-quarter smartphone sales fell 4.9 percent – the fifth consecutive quarter of decline.

“The challenging holiday quarter closes out the worst year ever for smartphone shipments,” IDC said in its report.

A separate report by Counterpoint Research showed similar findings, estimating a seven percent drop in the fourth quarter and four percent drop for the full year.

“The collective smartphone shipment growth of emerging markets such as India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Russia and others was not enough to offset the decline in China,” said Counterpoint associate director Tarun Pathak.

 

Greece to Ratify Macedonia’s NATO Accession in ‘Coming Days’

Greece will bring Macedonia’s NATO accession agreement to parliament for ratification “in the coming days,” the government spokesman said Thursday, which will bring into effect the change of the country’s name to North Macedonia.

Once parliament ratifies the NATO protocol, Greece’s Foreign Ministry will inform Macedonia’s Foreign Ministry of the result, a move which will automatically bring into effect the name change, government spokesman Dimitris Tzanakopoulos said. He didn’t give a specific date.

 

The name change deal, dubbed the Prespa Agreement after the border lake where it was signed last year, ends a 27-year dispute between the two neighbors that had kept the former Yugoslav republic out of NATO and the European Union. Greece argued that the use of the name “Macedonia” implied territorial claims on its own northern province of the same name and usurped Greek history and culture, and had blocked its neighbor’s efforts to join NATO over the issue.

 

Tzanakopoulos said the nearly three-decade dispute had given rise to “the monster of lies, nationalism and extreme historic revisionism” in Greece. Greek lawmakers’ Jan. 25 ratification of the deal was “a historic milestone for peace, cooperation and stability in the Balkans,” he said during a media briefing, adding that the agreement restores Greece’s “leading role in the Balkans.”

 

The agreement’s ratification “symbolizes the victory of political courage and respect of the country’s history, over opportunism, nationalism, the taking advantage of patriotism and the commerce of hate,” he added.

 

The deal has been met with vociferous opposition by many in both countries, with critics accusing their respective governments of making too many concessions to the other side.

 

Once the deal comes into effect, Macedonia will have a five-year period to implement many of the practical changes it must make, including changing vehicle license plates and issuing new passports.

 

 

Diverse, International Flock Awaits Pope Francis’ UAE Trip

At St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Dubai, an effort to transcribe the Bible in the native tongue of its flock saw the holy book presented in 52 languages — a sign of the cosmopolitan welcome awaiting Pope Francis’ upcoming visit to the United Arab Emirates.

The diversity among its parishioners can be seen in its pews and heard in the sermons of St. Mary’s priests, who celebrate Mass and offer prayers in Arabic, English, French, Tagalog, Tamil, Urdu and other languages.

The church, they say, offers an anchor for the Roman Catholics among the UAE’s vast foreign labor force, many of whom live in this federation of seven sheikhdoms alone while their families stay home.

“The whole world meets here in a way,” said the Rev. Lennie Connully, the parish priest of St. Mary’s. “We have people from all over.”

Pope Francis’ visit from Feb. 3 through Feb. 5 marks the first papal visit to the Arabian Peninsula, the birthplace of Islam. The pontiff will visit Abu Dhabi, the headquarters of the Catholic Church’s Apostolic Vicariate of Southern Arabia, which covers the UAE, Oman and Yemen.

There are nine Catholic churches in this federation of seven sheikhdoms governed by hereditary rulers; four other Catholic churches are in Oman. The Catholic flock’s rapid growth followed the discovery of oil in what was previously known as the Trucial States. Officials consecrated the first Catholic church in Abu Dhabi in 1965.

As Abu Dhabi became a major oil exporter and Dubai grew into the skyscraper-studded city it is today, the Emirates’ rapid economic expansion drew millions of foreigners to everything from white-collar office jobs to hard-hat construction work. Of the over 9 million people now living in the UAE, around 1 million are Emirati while the rest are foreign-born.

In 2010, there were an estimated 940,000 Christians living in the UAE, according to a 2015 Pew Research Center report, including 750,000 Catholics. The report suggests the number of Christians in the UAE would rise to about 1.1 million by 2020, with Catholics making up the lion’s share. The Catholic Church itself believes there are some 1 million Catholics in the UAE today.

The backbone of that population is Filipino and Indian. Life for them and others can be incredibly difficult as many move to the UAE often leaving their families and loved ones back home.

“The church is a base for them. They are far away from their homes,” Connully said. “They don’t have an extended family to support them. That family atmosphere is created here.”

Rulers in the UAE, which has described 2019 as the nation’s “Year of Tolerance,” have supported the Catholic community in the past by donating land for their churches. However, there are limits in this Muslim nation.

Proselytizing by non-Muslims remains illegal. Islam is enshrined as the UAE’s official religion in the country’s constitution, with government websites even offering online applications to convert. Conversion from Islam to another religion, however, is illegal, the U.S. State Department has warned. Blasphemy and apostasy laws also carry a possible death sentence.

At St. Mary’s and other churches, crosses are for the most part carefully concealed behind compound fences. There are no bells that toll to mark the start of services, though loudspeakers on minarets proclaim the call to prayers, like at the mosque across the street from St. Mary’s.

Despite facing restrictions, Christians in the UAE have never faced the violence that has targeted those in Syria and Iraq during the rise of the Islamic State group and other militants. Coptic Christians, a minority in Egypt that has faced extremist attacks in their homeland, also can safely worship.

In recent years, militant attacks have only exacerbated a “long, slow decline” of Christianity in the wider Middle East that began with mass migrations of the 19th Century, said Robin Darling Young, a professor studying church history at the Washington-based Catholic University of America.

The growth of ultraconservative Islamic beliefs, like Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia, coupled with the creation of independent states, further fueled that, she said. America’s 2003 war in Iraq and the chaos that followed made it even worse, she said.

“Particularly in areas where Wahhabi Islam is strong, like the Arabian Peninsula, Christians have been subject to more restrictions,” Young said. “The UAE is trying to make itself look better to the West by permitting, under certain restrictions, public Christian worship.”

Catholics in the UAE, however, make a point to thank the UAE’s ruling sheikhs for being able to worship freely. During a recent Mass at St. Mary’s, the Father Andre Francisco Fernandes led worshippers in a prayer asking for God’s blessings upon “the rulers of the UAE,” specifically naming UAE President and Abu Dhabi ruler Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Dubai’s ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.

Fernandes’ sermon that day focused on the parable of the loaves and the fishes, the story of Jesus Christ feeding a crowd of 5,000 with just five loaves of bread and two fish. The priest urged those listening to keep their faith and view the world with an open heart.

“Every day, miracles are happening,” he told parishioners. “We need to believe.”

Banks, Businesses React With Mounting Alarm Over Brexit

British banking giant Barclays has drawn up plans to shift more than $200 billion worth of assets from London to Dublin amid mounting business alarm that Britain is more likely now to leave the European Union without an exit deal.

With Prime Minister Theresa May’s ruling Conservative government now backing away from a contentious withdrawal agreement negotiated in November and locked in a standoff with Brussels, Britain is heading for a scheduled March 29 departure without any kind of negotiated exit agreement. That means tariffs would have to be imposed on goods moving back and forth across the English Channel. It would also block market access to the EU for banks based in Britain.

British and international firms with European headquarters in London have become increasingly angry with the Brexit crisis. Earlier in January, in at times a testy conference call, 331 business leaders, including from U.S. banking giants and major companies like Amazon and Apple, were assured by senior government ministers that a no-deal exit would be taken off the table and that Britain wouldn’t part company with its largest trading bloc until a deal had been struck.

Since then, though, there has been no resolution to the major differences between Britain and the other 27 EU member states – if anything, frustrations have deepened with EU officials maintaining Monday that they are not prepared to reopen negotiations on the withdrawal agreement, which a deeply divided British House of Commons refused to endorse in January.

The transfer by Barclays of assets belonging to 5,000 clients emerged Monday, when the bank won the court approval required. The judge, Richard Snowden, noted that the transfer was “huge” as it represents nearly a quarter of the assets Barclays holds. “The design of the scheme has been based upon an assumption that there will be no favorable outcome of the current political negotiations between the UK and the EU,” he said.

The bank said in a statement, “Barclays will use our existing licensed EU-based bank subsidiary to continue to serve our clients within the EU beyond 29 March 2019, regardless of the outcome of Brexit. Our preparations are well-advanced and we expect to be fully operational by 29 March 2019.”

Without a deal, British banks and international financial service institutions based in London would have no access to the EU market. Some market analysts estimate that London will lose at least a trillion dollars, and possibly much more, to financial rivals in Europe, including Frankfurt, Dublin and Paris by the end of March as banks flee ahead of Brexit.

Spreading operations

At least 30 banks and financial firms are planning to move their EU headquarters to Germany. Other banks are set to spread their operations across different European cities. At least 10,000 banking jobs are likely to move to Frankfurt, Germany’s fifth biggest city, over the next eight years, industry observers say. Paris is angling for business, too, offering tax incentives for banks to relocate to the French capital, a determined rival to London.

Lloyds, Standard Chartered and Credit Suisse are among the banks that are planning to open offices in Frankfurt because of Brexit. While mainstream banks voice their frustration, hedge funds, many of which donated to anti-EU campaigns during the 2016 Brexit referendum, welcome a no-deal departure, hoping it will open the way for the dismantling of a swathe of regulations on financial services.

Aside from banks, other British businesses are becoming increasingly alarmed at what they might face in the event of a no-deal Brexit. On Monday, British officials acknowledged that businesses will face higher trade tariffs and barriers in dozens of countries because there’s not enough time between now and March 29 to replicate 40 EU trade deals with non-EU countries in Asia, Latin America and Africa.

Leading British Brexiters, including International Trade Minister Liam Fox, have been saying for months that trade deal replications would be easy. Fox once vowed that the agreements would be all complete “one second after midnight” on Brexit day.

On Monday, a British official acknowledged to a parliamentary panel that will not be the case and that hundreds of British firms will lose preferential access, reducing the price competitiveness of their goods. The official declined to provide an “absolute figure” on how many trade deals would lapse because of technical, legal or political problems.

As business fears mount, Prime Minister May has announced a change in her negotiating team with her de facto deputy, David Lidington, a former long-serving Europe minister, taking the lead position in British efforts to persuade Brussels to open up the withdrawal agreement, itself the product of ill-tempered haggling between the EU and London.

But EU leaders have firmly shut the door, so far, to amending or changing the agreement, which would see Britain locked in a customs union with the bloc for several years while it negotiates a vaguely defined free trade settlement.

In the temporary customs union, Britain would be unable to influence EU laws, regulations and product standards it would have to observe. 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.

Leading Brexiters say if May can get a sunset clause written into the deal to allow Britain to escape the transition agreement, if it wished later, or if the transition were time limited, they might reverse their opposition and back the deal. But that still might not give May the majority she needs to secure parliamentary approval.

The leaders of the 27 other EU member states made clear Monday that they are not prepared to revisit the deal. “A renegotiation is not on the table,” said Ireland’s prime minister, Leo Varadkar. “There’s no plan to discuss any changes. The withdrawal agreement is not up for renegotiation and is not going to be reopened,” he added. Both the president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, and Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, echoed the Irish leader.

 

Activists in Paris Protest Against Google’s Tax Setup

Activists from an anti-globalization group have staged a protest at Google’s Paris headquarters to criticize the company for paying little tax.

 

Attac members gathered at Google’s offices Thursday and set up a pulley to pass bags of fake money between the firm’s premises and a public finance center across the street.

 

According to Attac, Google’s French subsidiary reported revenue of 325 million euros ($371 million) in 2017 and paid 14 million euros ($16 million) in income tax. The group says Google France shifts more than 85 percent of its French revenue to countries with more favorable tax regimes.

 

So-called profit-shifting is technically legal in the EU, where foreign companies have their regional base in one country where they negotiate favorable tax terms.

 

France’s finance minister, Bruno Le Maire, this month announced plans to tax multinational technology companies, like Google, that have revenues of at least 750 million euros worldwide and 25 million euros in France.

 

 

Venezuela Sanctions, Amnesty Promise Attempt to Break Maduro-Military Bond

U.S.-imposed oil sanctions on Venezuela, announced this week, are part of a larger strategy to both pressure and entice the country’s military to help oust socialist President Nicolas Maduro, according to analysts.

“That is the theory. That it is the gamble. That’s the hope. Whether that happens or not, it’s very hard to tell,” said Michael Shifter, a Latin America analyst and president of the Washington-based research group Inter-American Dialogue.

The U.S. imposed sanctions on Venezuela’s oil industry after recognizing Juan Guaido, the president of Venezuela’s National Assembly, as that country’s interim leader. 

More than 20 nations, including Latin American neighbors Brazil and Colombia, have recognized Guaido as interim president after refusing to accept the results of last year’s disputed election, in which Maduro won after barring most opposition candidates from running. Guaido claimed the role of acting president after Maduro’s first term in office expired in January, and, pending new elections.

China, Russia and Cuba continue to support Maduro, who was recently sworn in for a second term. Maduro refuses to step down but has said he is prepared to negotiate with the opposition to resolve the current crisis.

Venezuela has the world’s largest proven oil reserves, even bigger than Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela’s oil industry accounts for more than 90 percent of the country’s export revenue. In recent years, however, its economy has collapsed with the worldwide drop in oil prices. Oil production in Venezuela also fell because of neglect and lack of investment after the government nationalized the industry.

​Amnesty

The Venezuelan military is seen as key to Maduro’s hold on power. 

The military’s commanding ranks were purged of dissenting officers after an attempted coup against President Hugo Chavez in 2002. Those ranks have remained loyal to Chavez’s successor despite increasing political repression, corruption, hyperinflation, food and medicine shortages, and an exodus of more than 3 million people fleeing upheaval and poverty.

Guaido has not called for a military coup but offered amnesty to soldiers and officers who agree to end their support of Maduro.

“He has approved an amnesty law in order to establish transitional justice for all the military, all the members of the armed forces, [who] will put their strength to re-establish democracy,” said Gustavo Tarre, who was appointed Venezuela’s new permanent representative to the Organization of American States by Guaido’s acting government.

​Midlevel discontent

There are reports of growing discontent among midlevel officers who are also suffering from the food shortages and oppose being used to suppress growing protests by citizens.

“My message to the armed forces is, ‘Don’t mistreat your people. We were given arms to defend the sovereignty of our nation. They never, never trained us to say, ‘This is for you to attack your people, to defend the current government in power,’” said Colonel Jose Silva, Venezuela’s defense attache in Washington, after breaking recently with Maduro to support Guaido.

Generals complicit

The authoritarian governments of Chavez and Maduro had worked to ensure the military’s support by spending generously on arms purchases and providing more than 200 generals with lucrative privileges including subsidized housing and food.

Some senior military officers, along with high-ranking members of the Maduro administration, have also been implicated in illicit drug trafficking in the country. Venezuela has become a key transit point for illegal Colombian cocaine shipments to the United States and Europe.

Maduro in turn has used the military to brutally suppress growing political demonstrations against his rule. The advocacy group Human Rights Watch has accused Venezuelan security forces and armed pro-government groups of “using extreme and at times lethal force, causing dozens of deaths and hundreds of injuries.”

There are concerns that Venezuela’s military leaders have become so entangled in illicit activities and human rights abuses in support of the Maduro government, that neither oil sanctions nor the promise of amnesty will convince them to change sides.

“I think that they don’t have a lot of confidence that if they give up power, give up supporting Maduro, that somehow they are going to escape punishment,” Shifter said.

Maduro maintains that the armed forces remain loyal to him, has called military officers who support the opposition, “deserters” who seek to divide the nation, and accused Guaido of staging a U.S.-directed coup against him.

As Death Toll in Brazil Nears 100, Vale Dam Disaster Relatives Lose Hope

Brazilian rescue teams have recovered the bodies of 99 people buried after the rupture last week of a Vale tailings dam, and with over 250 people still missing, relatives at the disaster site are fast losing hope.

No survivors have been found in the area of the dam burst since Saturday, indicating the death toll could rise to as many as 350 people, which would make it Brazil’s deadliest-ever mining accident.

Some relatives of people unaccounted for are joining rescue teams in the hope of at least finding their loved ones’ bodies, buried after the dam on Friday released a river of slurry – the muddy byproduct of iron ore processing.

“We don’t have strength to even cry any more. We keep coming to try to find the body, so we can have a burial,” said Tereza Ferreira Nascimento, a resident of the nearby town of Brumadinho, who likely lost her brother Paulo Giovanni Santos.

With the help of another of her brothers, Pedro, she was digging through an area in a small field that had been swept by the wave of mining waste.

A worker who narrowly escaped the crushing of the company cafeteria told Reuters he doubted anyone inside had made it out alive.

U.N. human rights experts earlier on Wednesday called for an official investigation into the disaster. Baskut Tuncak, a U.N. expert on the disposal of hazardous substances, urged Brazil to prioritize dam safety evaluations and block new tailing dams until safety could be ensured.

A Minas Gerais state court ordered on Wednesday that no more licenses should be issued to projects using the type of dam similar to that of Brumadinho.

Dam decommissioning

Vale said on Tuesday it would spend 5 billion reais ($1.3 billion) decommissioning dams like the one that collapsed. That announcement sent the miner’s shares higher as analysts said it provided greater clarity on iron ore output going forward.

Vale will cut 10 percent of its output by decommissioning 10 dams, Chief Executive Fabio Schvartsman said.

The plan triggered a 9 percent rally in Vale shares, as well as a broader bounce in Chinese iron ore futures and shares of rival companies.

Vale’s initiative aims to pre-empt tough questions about its safety record in the wake of Friday’s disaster, coming after a similar deadly dam collapse in 2015 at the nearby Samarco mine, which Vale co-owns with BHP Group. The plan involves suspending operations at mines producing about 40 million tonnes of iron ore and 11 million tons of pellets per year, Schvartsman said.

Shares in Vale’s rivals BHP Group, Rio Tinto and Fortescue Metals Group rose, lifting Australia’s metals and mining index.

“In our reports published over the last few days, we highlighted that the two main uncertainties in the area of financial impact were the impact on short and medium-term production and potential legal actions stemming from the event,” XP strategist Karel Luketic said in a research note.

Vale’s announcement “helps ease worries relative to the first uncertainty mentioned, production,” Luketic said.

He said XP was maintaining its forecast for iron ore priced around $65 for the years covered by the production plan, but added the cuts “could support prices above that level.”

A Vale shareholder group has asked Brazil’s securities regulator CVM to investigate the company’s conduct, alleging Vale did not fulfill its obligation to disclose the risks and impact of its activities at the mine.

Vale said it will postpone its planned February earnings and production releases until March as a result of the disaster.

 

Venezuela Oil Sanctions, Amnesty Promise Undermine Military Support for Maduro

The U.S. imposed oil sanctions on Venezuela announced this week are part of a larger strategy to both pressure and entice the country’s military to help oust socialist President Nicolas Maduro. VOA’s Brian Padden reports that discontent among some midlevel officers may be growing, but it is unclear if the generals can be persuaded to change sides.

Venezuela’s Guaido Calls for International Community Support

Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido is calling on the international community to back his efforts to force embattled President Nicolas Maduro from power and restore democracy to the South American nation.

Guaido, the president of the opposition-controlled National Assembly, declared himself interim president last week after the Assembly declared that Maduro’s re-election last May was illegitimate, as most either boycotted the race or were prevented from running. The United States has recognized Guaido as the country’s interim leader.

In an opinion piece for The New York Times Thursday, Guaido said over 50 countries have either recognized him as interim president or the National Assembly as the legitimate authority in Venezuela, and has appealed to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for humanitarian assistance. He says he has begun the process of appointing ambassadors and “locating and recovering national assets tied up abroad.”

Guaido claims he has held “clandestine meetings” with members of the military to convince them to withdraw their support for Maduro, which he says is “crucial to enabling a change in government.”

Venezuelans took to the streets of Caracas Wednesday in response to Guaido’s call for a peaceful, two-hour, midday protest “to demand that the armed forces side with the people.” He is offering amnesty to soldiers who back his movement and reject Maduro’s socialist government.

“Mr. Maduro no longer has the support of the people,” Guaido writes.

During an interview with Russia’s RIA news agency Wednesday, President Maduro says he is ready to hold talks with the country’s opposition forces and hold early legislative elections. But he rejected Guaido’s demands to also hold a new presidential election before 2025.

The White House says President Donald Trump expressed his “strong support” for efforts to restore democracy in Venezuela during a conversation Wednesday with Guaido.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said Trump and Guaido also committed to maintaining “regular communication to support Venezuela’s path back to stability, and to rebuild the bilateral relationship” between the two countries.

Trump issued a tweet earlier Wednesday acknowledging Maduro’s offer to negotiate with Guaido, but warned Americans not to travel to Venezuela “until further notice.”

Five foreign journalists have been detained by Venezuelan authorities covering the deteriorating political situation.

A Spanish reporter and a Colombian television producer working for the Spanish news agency EFE were detained Wednesday, a day after the arrest of two French television journalists were arrested in Caracas. Two Chilean television journalists were detained for several hours Tuesday before they were expelled from the country.

The collapse of world energy prices, corruption and failed socialist policies have created an economic and humanitarian crisis in oil-rich Venezuela.

Food, fuel and medicine are in extremely short supply. Inflation is out of control. Millions of Venezuelans have fled the country, and Maduro has shown little tolerance for opposition-led protests.

Maduro has blamed his country’s woes on the United States, which he accuses of working with the opposition to topple the government. He has called world leaders who want him gone “Trump sycophants.”

The Trump administration has imposed sanctions on PDVSA, Venezuela’s government-owned oil company. The sanctions announced Monday will freeze any assets the state-owned PDVSA has in the United States, and bars U.S. firms and citizens from doing business with it.

PDVSA’s U.S.-based subsidiary, Citgo, which refines Venezuelan oil and sells Citgo brand gasoline in the U.S., will continue to operate as usual. But any money Citgo earns will be placed in a blocked account.

Maduro said the United States is trying to “steal” Citgo from Venezuela.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Venezuela can get relief from the sanctions when control of the oil company is turned over to Guaido.

 

Europe Starts New Finance Mechanism to Bypass US Trade Sanctions on Iran

Britain, France and Germany are launching a mechanism Thursday to ease non-dollar business deals with Iran, an effort aimed at circumventing U.S. trade sanctions against Tehran after President Donald Trump withdrew from the 2015 international pact to curtail Iran’s nuclear weapons program.

The entity is registered in France with German governance and funding from all three countries. It will allow European Union companies to trade with Iran despite Washington’s sanctions.

U.S. officials said they were monitoring the development, but rejected the idea that the special payment mechanism would undercut U.S. efforts to use the sanctions to undermine Tehran’s economy.

A spokesman for the U.S. embassy in Germany said Trump “has made clear entities that continue to engage in sanctionable activity involving Iran risk severe consequences that could include losing access to the U.S. financial system and the ability to do business with the United States or U.S. companies.”

The finance mechanism, called INSTEX – short for Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges – has the support of all 28 EU members.

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said, “This step… the establishment of the special purpose vehicle, is I believe the mechanism that will allow legitimate trade with Iran to continue as foreseen in the nuclear agreement. So full support from our side.”

The European announcement comes as Trump on Wednesday assailed U.S. intelligence chiefs for what he says is their “extremely passive and naive” views of Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

Central Intelligence Agency Director Gina Haspel told a congressional panel this week that Iran was “technically” in compliance with the 2015 deal between it and world powers to curtail its nuclear weapons development and at least a year away from developing such a weapon.

Trump said, “Perhaps Intelligence should go back to school!”

Haspel’s conclusion is in line with the United Nations atomic watchdog agency, which 13 times has certified Iran’s compliance with its obligations.

On Thursday, Trump attacked Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, saying he and other Democrats “are big fans of being weak and passive with Iran. They have no clue as to the danger they would be inflicting on our Country. Iran is in financial chaos now because of the sanctions and Iran Deal termination. Dems put us in a bad place – but now good!”

The effect of the European financing mechanism to bypass U.S. sanctions is uncertain.

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi told state television, “It is a first step taken by the European side … We hope it will cover all goods and items.”

Some diplomats, however, said the trade mechanism might not cover the biggest commercial transactions Tehran wants.

Germany’s BDI industry group said, “Central questions … are still open. The clearing office is still reliant on sanctioned Iranian oil and gas business, so that substantial risks remain for a longer-term trade relations.”

 

Climate Has Become Europe’s Green Revolution

Marie Toussaint has launched a climate petition in France that has attracted skyrocketing support. Ludovic Bayle splits his days between working at a restaurant and moonlighting as a climate activist. And in Sweden, Switzerland and Belgium, students are skipping school, demanding more action against what many Europeans consider one of the biggest threats to their future: climate change.

“Climate is one of the main concerns” in Europe, said Neil Makaroff, European Union policy adviser for the NGO Climate Action Network France. “Citizens are more and more mobilized today. They are taking different actions like marches, petition, litigation.”

Several hundred thousand Europeans took to the streets this past week alone. Students marched in Brussels where the European Union is headquartered, and climate activists briefly occupied the Scottish parliament. At the yearly Davos gathering in Switzerland, Swedish teenage activist Greta Thunberg, who is behind the growing school strikes, told the rich and powerful they were to blame for the climate crisis. And in France, dozens of towns held climate marches last weekend, bringing young and old to the streets in sometimes pounding rain.

Climate change, some analysts believe, is also shaping up to be one of the most important issues in upcoming European parliament elections in May.

“People really, really need to wake up,” said Parisian Veronique Weil, who braved whipping rain to join a climate rally at the city’s iconic Place de la Republic. “The seas are rising, countries are going to disappear. … It’s crazy.”

In some ways, Europe seems an unlikely place for a climate revolt. The region is considered among the world’s green leaders, and the EU says it is on track to meet 2030 emissions reduction targets.

French President Emmanuel Macron has vowed to “make the planet great again,” launching a “One Planet summit” — now heading for its third edition — and urging American scientists to move to France after the U.S. announced it was pulling out of the Paris climate pact.

But climate activists have criticized Macron, saying France and Europe haven’t done enough. It’s a message echoed by popular French environment minister Nicolas Hulot, who quit Macron’s cabinet last year.

“Besides the nice sentences like ‘make our planet great again,’ our government is really not taking climate very seriously,” said Makaroff of Climate Action Network. “Because no climate action has been really strong in France to curb emissions.”

Now, citizens are taking matters into their own hands.

French environmentalist Marie Toussaint quit her government job two years ago to create a green NGO. In December, she launched a petition with three other groups, threatening to sue the French government for climate inaction. So far, the petition has gathered a record 2 million signatures, and counting.

“We really want to save the climate, to save the planet, but also to save solidarity, to save the people — to be part of the solution,” Toussaint said.

The grassroots uprising is being seen in ways big and small. In the Netherlands, activists sponsoring a similar climate petition won a landmark court ruling last year, ordering the Dutch government to accelerate emissions cuts.  And in Germany, the Greens Party is surging, ranked second in polls behind the ruling Christian Democrats.

In Versailles, just outside Paris, 34-year-old Ludovic Bayle spends most waking hours either waiting tables or working at his unpaid job as a member of Citizens for Climate France, one of the grassroots groups that organized last weekend’s French protests. Launched in September, the chapter has nearly 70,000 members on its Facebook page.

“Of course I’m scared” about climate change, Bayle said. “That’s why it’s so important to act. We need to mobilize to put pressure on decision-makers.”

Last weekend’s climate protests intersected with another citizen’s uprising in France — the yellow vest movement, in its third month. Now embracing broader demands for greater social justice, the yellow vest protests began over a fuel tax hike intended partly to fund climate measures.

As a result, some analysts suggest the yellow vests show that people ultimately are not willing to make sacrifices to curb emissions. But climate activists like Toussaint dismiss that view.

“What we see now is people who are polluting the least are being asked to pay the most,” said Toussaint, who said both movements share similar demands for greater social justice.

The European parliament elections may be an early test of whether climate uprisings can translate into political power. Green parties are gaining strength, but not everywhere. In France, a recent poll placed the Greens a distant fifth in voter intentions, behind a fledging yellow vest party.

Meanwhile, the far-right National Rally Party, with a minimalist green agenda, is surging in second place, and hopes to capture votes from yellow vests, who are a highly disparate group.

Still, Makaroff believes politicians have gotten the message from the streets.

“It would be suicide for political parties not to take up climate issues in the European elections,” he said. 

Patriotic War Film Draws 8 Million Russians as Ties With West Fray

A state-funded Russian film that lionizes a Soviet World War II tank and its crew has become the second highest grossing home-grown production since the collapse of the Soviet Union, part of a Kremlin-backed drive to instill patriotism in young people.

The Kremlin has long put the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany at the heart of a patriotic push to accompany what it casts as the country’s return to greatness under Vladimir Putin who has portrayed Russia as a fortress besieged by the West.

The new film, “T-34,” has been praised by the defense ministry which has shown it to its troops. Its release coincides with heightened tensions with the West, with President Putin warning of a new arms race. An opinion poll by Levada published on Wednesday showed more than half of Russians believe their country faces a foreign military threat.

It also comes as Kremlin critics warn of a growing militarization of society in the wake of Russia’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea, its continued backing for pro-Russian separatists in east Ukraine, and deployment in Syria.

“T-34” tells the story of a group of Soviet soldiers who escape a Nazi concentration camp inside a T-34 tank. It is loosely based on real events.

Released on Jan. 1, it has already taken more than 2.1 billion rubles ($31.86 million) at the box office and has been watched by more than 8.3 million people, making it the second most successful domestically produced film in ruble terms since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.

The highest-grossing film, released last year, told the story of a Soviet Cold War sports victory over the United States.

Raising the flag

Vladimir Medinsky, Russia’s culture minister, has suggested people take their children to see “T-34.”

Medinsky, a Putin ally, has angrily likened critics of the film who have questioned its historical accuracy to Soviet wartime traitors.

“It seems to me that here we need to raise and hold the flag,” the TASS news agency cited Medinsky as saying this month, calling for people to feel pride in their country’s wartime achievements.

Some critics have said the film romanticizes war and have likened it to a computer game, suggesting it does too little to bring home the human cost of warfare.

But its director, Alexei Sidorov, said he had tried to make a film that was not too gloomy.

“Yes, it’s war. Yes, it’s death. Every family lost someone.

But we won this war and that’s important,” he said.

Russia estimates that nearly 27 million Soviet citizens – including both soldiers and civilians – perished during World War II. In Russia it has long been known as the Great Patriotic War.

 

Athens Aims to Deliver Goods,Services Free of Forced Labor

Athens is aiming to ensure that all the goods and services the local government provides to its residents are free of forced labor, under a pilot project launched on Wednesday that officials and activists hope will set an example across Greece. 

 

The Athens municipality plans to create a level playing field for its suppliers by working solely with companies that monitor their supply chains and take action to prevent modern slavery, several officials told an anti-trafficking conference. 

 

As the world strives to meet a U.N. goal of ending slavery and forced labor by 2030, major companies face growing scrutiny and consumer pressure to guarantee their goods are slave-free. 

 

Yet governments have unparalleled bargaining power to change the business practices of their suppliers and contractors, not just at home but worldwide because of the increasingly global and complex nature of supply chains, experts said at the conference.

“By using the financial power of a city like Athens … there is pressure and leverage in order to change the situation in the labor market, and make the public procurement process fairer,” said Lefteris Papagiannakis, a vice mayor of Athens. 

 

While public procurement often focuses on environmental issues, the pilot project is an opportunity to bring human trafficking in government supply chains to the fore, he added. 

 

The scheme will first research and map Athens’ supply chains, then look to design due diligence tools and monitoring systems, according to Fiori Zafeiropoulou, who is leading the project. 

Companies in the dark

 

Many Greek companies interviewed by officials recently were unaware of how child or forced labor could be part of their supply chains, and would need help to monitor their operations and act if they were to find such cases, Zafeiropoulou said. 

 

“We want to create a zero-tolerance environment … and a level playing field to ensure all businesses play by the same rules with no unfair advantage for those exploiting victims of trafficking,” Zafeiropoulou said after announcing the plan. 

 

However, Athens has no dedicated funding for the project and will need to raise cash soon to go beyond just research and mapping, she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. 

 

If successful, the plan could be extended to other cities in Greece, government ministries and the private sector, and influence other European governments, said Korina Hatzinikolaou, an expert adviser at the national anti-human trafficking office. 

 

Every year, authorities across the European Union spend about 14 percent of their gross domestic product — at least 1.9 trillion euros ($2.2 trillion) —  on public procurement, according to data from the European Commission. 

 

In Greece, an estimated 89,000 people are modern-day slaves — about one in 125 of its 11 million population — according to the 2018 Global Slavery Index by the Walk Free Foundation. 

 

Greece was a front-line country for refugees fleeing war and poverty in Syria and elsewhere until 2016, and thousands of adult and child migrants are at risk of exploitation by traffickers for sex and labor, experts say.

UN Nuclear Watchdog Warns Against Pressuring It on Inspections

The U.N. nuclear watchdog policing Iran’s deal with major powers said on Wednesday that attempts to pressure it on inspections were “counter-productive and extremely harmful,” though it stopped short of naming those responsible.

Israel, which vehemently opposes the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, has called on the International Atomic Energy Agency to visit what it says is a “secret atomic warehouse” and other locations in Iran. The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump, who has pulled his country out of the deal, has made similar calls.

The IAEA has bristled at such calls but used only guarded language in public, saying it does not take information at face value and assesses it independently, and then only sends inspectors to a specific location when necessary.

In a speech to staff on Wednesday, however, IAEA chief Yukiya Amano was blunt.

“If our credibility is thrown into question and, in particular, if attempts are made to micro-manage or put pressure on the agency in nuclear verification, that is counter-productive and extremely harmful,” he said, according to a text of the speech posted online by the IAEA.

He did not elaborate on the attempts or those behind them.

The IAEA is policing the restrictions placed on Iran’s nuclear activities under the deal, which also lifted international sanctions against Tehran.

Amano reiterated that Iran was continuing to keep its end of the bargain. Trump on Wednesday called top U.S. intelligence chiefs “extremely passive and naive” on Iran, a day after they contradicted his views in congressional testimony.

Amano was also more direct in making the case for his agency to be in charge of inspections in North Korea in the event of any political agreement being reached on that country’s nuclear activities. Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un are due to hold their second summit in late February.

“The IAEA is the only international organization that can verify the nuclear program of the DPRK,” said Amano, using the acronym of the country’s official name — the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Amano, a Japanese diplomat, has previously said his agency is best placed to do that job. It has not been granted access to North Korea since 2009, when Pyongyang threw out its inspectors.

“As far as the nuclear program of the DPRK is concerned, we remain ready to play an essential verification role if a political agreement is reached among countries concerned,” he said.

 

US Says ‘Avalanche of Evidence’ Will Convict Drug Kingpin El Chapo    

Federal prosecutors in New York say there is an “avalanche of evidence” to convict alleged Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.

Guzman is on trial for 10 charges ranging from drug trafficking, money laundering and murder.

U.S. Attorney Andrea Goldbarg displayed some of that apparent evidence to the jury Wednesday, including rifles, a bulletproof vest and a brick of cocaine.

Intercepted phone calls, text messages, and written letters ordering drug deals and killings were the other evidence.

Guzman decided “who lives and who dies,” Goldbarg said. “Over 25 years, the defendant rose to the ranks to become the principal leader of the Sinaloa drug cartel. His goal was to distribute as much drugs as possible to the United States. His goal was to make millions of dollars in profits.”

Guzman has pleaded not guilty. His attorneys say he is the victim of a corrupt Mexican government and a scapegoat for who they say is the cartel’s real leader —wanted fugitive Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada.

But Goldbarg said it doesn’t matter who was in charge and called Guzman “one of the top bosses.”

Guzman was captured and extradited to the United States two years ago after his dramatic escape from Mexican prisons.

The defense will present its case Thursday before it goes to the jury. If convicted, Guzman faces life behind bars.